Gaslighting and lies anyone/?

 Manipulating people by gaslighting and by ridicule.

a lesson on how good, loyal folk can be manipulated by sociopaths and narcissists. 

Right now, when the Pope is spreading confusion by contradictory statements,manipulations, lies, gaslighting,  and by saying both A and B at different times: so that if you quote A YOU are the problem because he also said B... if you object, you are accused of of disloyalty by his minions. 

There is a lot of similar gaslighting and lies are going on in the latest shennanigans of the so called Synodal meeting in Rome.

 The assumption is that meetings let all have a say. But anyone who has been at some such meetings know this is nonsense: They are to manipulate you into group think.

We had done to us in the 1960s and 1970s... a meeting supposed to represent everyone stressing that everyone should give their honest opinion... but the meeting is run by those with an agenda and includes extras who are known to agree with the predetrmined agenda. So even if you suspect many in the group agree with you, they keep quiet in the face of criticism... Don't disagree with them, or you are called disloyal or rigid or a hundred variations of stupid... easier to keep quiet.

Am I being cynical? Yup. 

The dirty little secret about all this synodality stuff is that these meetings have the conclusion predecided by those running it: they are a sham meetings. 

We saw Pope Francis pull this trick a couple of years ago in a meeting about the family, where the plan was to have the bishops approve of allowing divorced and remarried outside the church to receive the sacraments although living in sin. 

Some bishops notieced the already prewritten report (italics mine) on the meeting included this, so they made it known and that part was removed: But someone snuck it in in a small footnote, and voila soon the Pope was telling bishops on the phone it was okay, pointing to the footnote to support his opinion. 

Yup. The footnote trick of sleezy crooked lawyers, and no one said: Wait a second. Because loyalty to the Pope. (italics and sarcasm mine).

Ah, but is he pope when the election was irregular and manipulated by a powerful group who wanted to change the church? Not my area of expertise, but a lot of people are questioning it because it was politically manipulated by the StGallen group.

what about now? Is unity and niceness is more important than calling out a liar? That is what we see in the Trad community: Respect above all else.

 Mr Matt, call your office

Censoring Viganò? Michael Matt responds. pic.twitter.com/nlHzNNmXeh

— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) October 2, 2023

Sigh.

the latest atrocity?

when asked point blank by four important bishops if he supported blessing of gay couples, a ceremony that the press and the woke are insisting is the church's stealth way to approve of gay marriage, the Pope, after saying marriage is sacred, went on to ignore common sense and reality when he said no this is charity and individuals could discern by themselves whether or not to do it. LINK

Excuse me, I am a physician.

I often treat people whose behavior is literally killing themselves. 

I am charitable and try to help them, but I would not be a good physician if I said: OK go ahead and pig out on junk food to someone who is obese, or it's okay to have a double chocolate shake to a diabetic, or don't tell a person with COPD to stop smoking, or say hey, one or two drinks are okay to a known alcoholic, or tell a person or a couple joints on a weekend won't hurt you, when you suspect that the person is into all sorts of drug use because his grandmother keeps losing her pain pills from her purse.

this might work for ordinary folk, but we docs know that there are some who will twist what we said to justify their dangerous behavior.

Ditto with sexual practices that endager one's health.

So do you follow common sense and recognize reality, or do you pretend everything is sweetness and light and evil does not exist.

So the Pope pretends what he is doing is charity, but what he is actually doing is sending a message that wink wink it's okay to have sex outside of marriage, and in today's world that means people will think the Pope said that there is nothing is wrong with promiscuity... 

because it might hurt their feelings if you say: do this you are endangering your health (STDs, MPox), your family, your children's welfare, or in this case endangering your soul

Look Squirrel: Is the Trump scandal there to distract us?

with all the trouble in the world, most of the headlines is about Trumpiboy's payment to stop a porn star who brought a frivilous lawsuit against him (something that is routine, since court costs are more expensive than just paying off frivilous lawsuits).

So wtf is going on? From CSAN

 

.....this doesn't really say anything. 

Question: why is the labor market lacking people wanting to work when hundreds of thousands are coming across the border? A lot of these, if not most, are coming to find jobs to support their family back home, and later if they get amnesty, bring the entire family with them to become patriotic Americans.

And how much is corruption due to people taking drugs? How many of these banks are involved in laundering drug money?

So was fraud/corruption one of the reasons behind the bank collapses, or was it just that they moved their money to banks that gave higher interest rates?

and did the large loans given out to friends of the bank, money spent to implement social policies, and money given to PC groups that interfere with politics have anything to do with the banks imploding? 

What about the bitcoin fraud that caused bitcoin banks to implode? Did this have anything to do with the banks instability? And while we're at it: How did the son of professors find someone to put up his bail? Why were his parents so rich?

The economy is bad. So, did shutting down the petroleum/fracking/pipeline policies have anything to do with the imploding economy?

What about the money being spent on the War in the Ukraine? I remember an Alex Jones video a couple years ago discussing the money that disappeared there after the CIA overthrew their pro Russian president and installed people more friendly to US politicians who shall be nameless. But now, is the money being spent on weapons etc or being diverted? And why are the Yanks doing this, when Europe is nearby?

it's not just the Ukraine: The corruption in Iraq and the weapons left behind in Afghanistan amounted to a lot of money too.

And what will the US do when people start starving from bad policies

Why are the greens trying to destroy farms by raising the price of petroleum, meaning cost to run farm machinery and increasing the price of fertilizer? And what about the Middle east, when Egypt etc. loses their ability to eat with the grain from the Crimea etc. not being sent thanks to the Ukraine war?

And why the F are all those Catholic bishops and the Pope pushing "no investment in petroleum" when anyone with a lick of sense knows this means that this will make the price of food soar for the poor in the third world, not to mention that it means China and Russia and Iran etc. will benefit, since they won't pay attention to the corrupt Vatican.

Speaking of the Vatican: Now I read they will add pagan rites to make a Mayan mass. But this will mean that believing Christians will be so scandalized they will become Good Protestants. And the Catholics who miss the reverence of the mass will turn Orthodox or join the schismatic sects because they just don't find holiness in go-go masses where sermons tell them they need to obey Saint Greta, not Jesus christ.

Rant over.

Heh. A bishop with a backbone?

Father Z reported that the Archbishop of SanFrancisco held a reparation service and exorcism at the site where demonstrators destroyed the statue of a local saint.

If the statue was blessed, then this is a desecration of a holy object, hence the religious service. But exorcism? Maybe because there have been many attacks (mostly unreported) on churches, synagogues, and mosques.... including attempted arson in the church where only Trumpieboy protested the desecration of a holy site (and made everyone get their knickers in a knot because how dare he hold a bible).

So it's good to see that an actual bishop has the guts to push back.

Alas, the video is fuzzy, so never mind:



So why exoricism? Because it went beyond removal, but desecration and abuse showing hatred of the person the statue represented, and hatred of the idea that Christianity was preached in the past to unbelievers.

for some reason, the rioters see Christianity as a "western" religion, which ignores the history of the Eastern Churches and Ethiopian Christianity, or the fact that Christianity is a religion of non Europeans.

In addition, the Antifa and BLM support the pan sexual agenda that undermines the idea of family life, and supports a pro abortion agenda, both of which goes against the traditional ethos of Catholicism (and Islam for that matter) which of course have nothing to do with racial justice, but hey, if you criticize them you are racist.

and as I have said in several previous posts: it's fun to protest and feel superior to ordinary folks, but how many of the (mainly white upper middle class protesters) will actually help rebuild the shops or dare to protect the innocent from feral drug gangs that terrorize their kids?

Anti religion is in: pushed by the neoatheists see religion as the source of all wars and strife, as if the 100 million victims of communism and Nazism during the 20th century suddenly have been written out of the history books.

So when Trumpieboy prayed at the Shrine of JP2 that commemorates the victims of communism, the usual suspects were horrified and ignored what this long scheduled visit was about: that religious persecution of believers by communists. (Uighar lives matter?) Hell, even the PC bishop of washington DC joined the protests instead of explaining this.

the sexual agenda goes way beyond the gay issue: it is morphing into a denial of biology.

Biology of sexuality is behind the family and social cohesiveness, which is why Confucius, when he decided to reform Chinese society, started with reforming the family. And it was why Mao, in the collective farms and later in the Red Guard revolution, tried to destroy family ties: Because the family obligations stood in the way of his hive idea of the perfect worker who had no other obligations but to the state.

China has survived this attack, and the family is still strong here in Asia, but who in the west dares to oppose the political correct intellectual assault on biology and family?

Pope Francis speaks against it, but when he supports and appoints to high office those pushing the agenda, one does wonder what he really believes.

Speaking of sexual agenda: This Anglican reform site has an interview with an organization working with those with SSA.

 I am a bit leery, since the grace of God will help bisexuals (and heterosexuals who struggle with promiscuity) to stay faithful, but ignores the difficulty of the struggle with chronic sin, be it substance abuse, greed, or promiscuity.: For them, the answer is found in the Cross: something few churches preach anymore for some reason.

in old fashioned Catholicism "take up your cross and follow me" recognizes the struggles of life. And if you fall, hey, Jesus fell under the weight of the cross too... just get up, and try again. (which is why Catholics used to have confession, but hey, the happy church of Vatican II pretends no one sins so we don't need it. I should talk: I haven't gone for years because there is no one there).

Alcoholics anonymous still preaches this idea to surrender your weaknesses to a higher power, and keep trying despite relapse...they do it in a generic way: but I wonder how long until they are forced to "reform" their message?

but here in the Philippines, the idea that our suffering has ultimate meaning, and that God understands since he too suffered, is still believed: hence the huge "Black Nazarene" devotion here, where people see their own suffering and identify with the sufferings of Christ.

sigh.

the Joker: Evil in film vs reality

AICN has EKM's essay on the way various actors portrayed the Joker. and another review of the movie HERE.

it sounds like the movie is trying to explain why the Joker turned crazy, due to being abused etc. and then there is the fact he is mentally ill.

I'm not into superheros, and even less into the Batman series, but for those of you who are, it sounds like an interesting albeit noir movie. 

the reason I am not into superheroes or movies with fake bad guys is that evil itself is bad enough, and the real fight against evil is the "jihad" against the evil inside our own hearts. 

Where does God come into this? By providing the courage to fight evil. And by being at our side (or inside our head) when we get discouraged.

like the 1970's, all the young have decided to fix the world: Instead of being "anti war" (which led to the Cambodian holocaust and the hundreds of thousands of boat people, which these same types never took responsibility for), the modern SJW are pushing global warming, without being aware that to Asia, it means letting your people stay in poverty. I mean, here when the price of petroleum products goes up or down one peso, it is headlines: Because it affects people at many levels of their lives, (from transportation to one's job, to the cost of food since growing food and transporting it to Manila relies on gasoline/diesel powered equipment, to not being able to afford LPG gas to cook the food)

demonstrating against "evil" is so ego gratifying, and lets you project your inner conflicts to someone else.

But only Jordan Peterson bothers to tell young people that they have to start with "cleaning their room" before they decide to become social activists to change the world.

the review actually mentions this in the movie the Joker: he mentions the garbage on the streets: is this about the 1970s, when NYcity was a dirty hellhole, or about 2019 San Francisco?

Does anyone remember that  NYCity, was pretty well cleaned up by Mayor Giuliani, who was accused back then for being a Nazi for enforcing the laws under the "broken window" theory that chaos/broken windows encourage larger crimes? 

which is why I am so annoyed at "social Justice warriors": they tweet viciously but don't take out the garbage. 

Well, some do: but they aren't members of the "in" group so just ignore them.

Ignoring the needs of ordinary folk to live in a clean and safe environment under the guise of "compassion" is actually a false compassion (sort of like the SJW here who hate Duterte and blame him for every murder, but who ignore the murders by criminal druggies and crooked politicians and kidnap gangs before he took over because it was ordinary folks, not criminals, who lost their lives.)

at the end of the movie Magnificent Seven, the lesson is that the farmers are forever: The heroes come and go like the wind, but the reality is the ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Old Man:
Only the farmers have won. They remain forever. They are like the land itself. You helped rid them of Calvera the way a strong wind helps rid them of locusts. You are like the wind, blowing across the land and... passing on. Vaya con Dios.

both are needed, but if you emphasize only the superheroes, you forget the heroism of ordinary people.

I was talking to my granddaughter last night and again warned her not to go into social work or psychology (she is a mothering type person and thinks this career would be similar to her motherly help of other students); 

I have worked among the poor of the world, both materially poor and (what is worse) the spiritually poor who descend into self destruction and destroying those around them. (think child abuse, substance abuse with child neglect, sexual abuse of children, and the psychic manipulation of children by their narcissistic parents). 

I managed to do this because (as I have been told many times) I lack "sensitivity". But a sensitive person like her would be destroyed by the horrors out there (one reason for the high suicide rate among psychiatrists... and in cops and soldiers is the helplessness in the face of evil).

Many argue they chose atheism not because they don't believe in God but because they are angry at an absent God in the presence of the suffering of children.

EKM has another essay about the lack of the presence of God in modern horror films, mainly discussing the Exorcist  and the Omen.

If the message of THE EXORCIST is that there's Good in the world to counter Evil, it's a rather uneven statement. The Good, it seems, exists in the hearts of those who are willing to die for another, and yet that quality seems strikingly terrestrial. By the end of the film, we see a splintered family that goes their separate ways, unable to face one another after the horrors that have occurred. Two priests are dead. A dear friend of Chris MacNeil is murdered by the latter's own daughter... Anything positive that has transpired has occurred through the direct action of Man rather than Deity.

ah, but that is precisely the point: the Deity sort of works via people who are willing to let him work thru them, so that they are his hands. 

and we pre Vatican II Catholics (and traditional Buddhists, and Jordan Peterson's lectures) are aware that the world is suffering, and it is one's personal quest on what one does when confronted with this fact.

But alas, the Pope is more worried about the rain forest and vague do-goodism than the suffering of children, so it is Jordan Peterson who preaches life is suffering (quoting the Buddha), not the Pope, which says a lot about why there is an impending revolt of the lay folks against the Pope.

as the reviewer noted: this is seen albeit vaguely in the Exorcist, but one wonders if that film is remade if this hint would survive the remake, or be trivialized similar to how the good vs evil in Harry Potter (a nice guy but where does his power come from?) contrasts with the deeper portrayal of ordinary folks fighting evil in Lord of the Rings.

again, as I said, I am not a big fan of superheros or horror film, but it make me wonder how the idea of a deity who cares about good and evil is disappearing from modern horror films. 

Or as EKM wrote:

Both films (i.e. the Exorcist and The Omen) are meant to frighten, and both succeed in doing so. One can't delve too deeply for Faith-affirming (or even Faith-negating) messages in works of popular entertainment.

Nevertheless, our society moves further and further from God as time passes, and it's a fact that becomes apparent while watching movies of this sort. Perhaps the absence of God in these films reflects our absence in Him.

Uh, "the absence of God... reflects our absence in Him": to which all I can say is:
Who do you mean "we" Kemosabe.

This says more about Hollywood and the cultural elite than it does about God, or even about ordinary folks, who know the voice of God is not in the earthquake or fire, but in the small quiet voice of their heart that helps them to notice the small hints that the Lord is there in the midst of their struggles.

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King 

Sigh.

Corruption unveiled

Joe Biden's unqualified son got a lot of money to work at a Ukrainian oil company: he even bragged about how he got the investigation of corruption about this dismissed....and how dare you imply it might suggest he was trying to shut down a corruption investigation that would implicate his son...it was for the good of the USA.

But how many more congressional people have families getting rich by their connections?

Yet this article on "corruption" in congress mainly posts about minor stuff (asking staff to help in the reelection campaign) not about deals that helped the families of those in Congress to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

is this why Pelosi jumped into suggesting impeachment, after hearing there was a "hearsay" complaint about trying to get Biden by Trump?

Because maybe the key to the Russian faux collusion charge had lots of ties with the corruption in the Ukraine? Or maybe because this is only one aspect of a full court press about how the CIA/FBI was weaponized to destroy a political candidate for political reason?

I'm old enough to remember the 1975 Church committee report on CIA abuse, one aspect that was uncovered was that military intelligence was spying on Americans.

from Wikipedia:

According to recently declassified documents by the National Security Archive, the Church Committee also helped to uncover the NSA's Watch List. The information for the list was compiled into the so-called "Rhyming Dictionary" of biographical information, which at its peak held millions of names - thousands of which were US citizens. Some prominent members of this list were Joanne Woodward, Thomas Watson, Walter Mondale, Art Buchwald, Arthur F. Burns, Gregory Peck, Otis G. Pike, Tom Wicker, Whitney Young, Howard Baker, Frank Church, David Dellinger, Ralph Abernathy, and others.^[11]

I'm old enough to remember when it was the left who got upset about the government spying on ordinary Americans.

And I'm old enough to remember when it was the left who condemned the corruption of congress by big business.  

Now it's ignored: because the corruption is deep and on both sides of the Congressional aisle.

here is John Bachelor discussing impeachment on his radio show:



,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


notice, the Ukraine phone call was not about getting Biden out of the 2020 race, but about investigating corruption in the Ukraine that had an impact on the USA: including the connection of Ukraine with Crowdstrike and the now known to be false Russian collusion investigation (Crowdstrike said the leak of the DNC was Russian; the fast download speeds and wikileak hints suggest an insider did it. Yet the FBI etc. took Crowdstrike's word for it, and used this to invent the Russian collusion narrative).

But of course, bribery is not limited to Biden, nor limited to the Ukraine. Can you say "China" anyone?

This article says who cares: After all Trumpie boy's business also had connections with China.

But this overlooks that Trump was a businessman at the time, not a president. Unlike Biden's son, who essentially got a lot of business deals despite the fact he was not qualified for them, Trump and family had a track record in doing deals.

all of this brings to mind the question: Where did Jeffrey Epstein get all of his money, and why did the story disappear after he committed suicide? Would an open trial mean that a lot of this skulduggery in government officials would have been made public?

I don't know: I'm just a lowly retired physician, but it sounds like stories about the corrupt oligarchy here in the Philippines.

this is why I don't know if Feinstein's husband's deals with China are bribery, or are they legitimate.

but the connection between the spy in Feinstein's office and Hillary's unsecure server (which was hacked by China) is another story that is rarely noted in the MSM.

and where did all those emails about national security that were found on Anthony Weiner's computer go? Just wondering....

but of course, corruption goes much deeper, and we mere peons are never sure how much is "business as usual" and how much is "bribery is business as usual" when things go wrong.

John Bachelor has a couple of podcasts about a book discussing all the fraud of the Banking industry in 2008



link2 link3 link4

An insider of both the Bush and Obama administrations offers an irrefutable indictment of the mishandling of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program bailouts and the extreme degree to which our government officials-from both parties-served the interests of Wall Street at the expense of the public.

there is a lot of money out there and the average person knows little of what is going on.

But it does look like the Pope is finally trying to get the Vatican Bank scandal under control (this was the real reason Pope Benedict resigned: He saw the coverups etc and didn't feel he was up to the clean up).

and if Trumpieboy is going after corruption, maybe it's because he knows how bribery and corruption works,  because he was deep into the system: From NR (nevertrump republican site):

“I was a businessman,” Trump smarmed at a debate earlier this year. He was being pressed about the piles of dough he has deposited in Democratic coffers through the years — for his pals the Clintons (including the Clinton Ca-ching Foundation), Schumer, Reid, Pelosi, Cuomo, Rahm, and the rest of the gang. “I give to everybody. When they call, I give.” Yup, although more to the progressives, to implement the very policies he now complains are destroying the country. And why? Trump’s allocution continued: “You know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them, and they are there for me. . . . And that’s a broken system.”

the NR article suggests it was Trumpieboy who broke the system, but like the "grab the pussie" comment, he was only observing how things work:

When I worked on the Indian Reservation in Minnesota, a tribal representative said they gave money to both parties or else they knew they would not get their benefits. 

a few years later, I was told the Mescalero IHS hospital was so inferior, because the tribe spent their money building a casino etc. for local jobs instead of using it to pressure Washington to upgrade the facility (i.e. pay lobbyists with connections).

so yes, even we apolitical docs know the system is rotten, and that includes my experience in how we were pressured to play the game of being loyal to the bureaucratic establishment instead of the patients. That gives me insight on why so few FBI agents etc. became whistle blowers on the plot to use the FBI etc. for political reasons against Trump. But that's another story for another time.

Trump is not exactly a pristine guy when it comes to business, but then: what is that saying: Set a thief to catch a thief?

the best person to recognize bribery and corruption is a businessman who had to swim through the sharks to run a business, and knows all the tricks.

Let an expert (fast forward to minute 2) explain it for you.

Come to Jesus stuff in the news

I just roll up my eyes when the present Pope lectures "catholics" about his green religion: not because protecting the environment is should be seen as part of a holistic Christian view of the world, but because he seems to aim all his preaching at rich yuppies living in urban areas who follow modern trends of non theological modern religions.

The rest of us? ignored. 

If you are a SJW who has nothing else to do and is willing to push the socialist agenda, fine, but who is helping people find meaning in the struggles of everyday life? Anyone?

an example of my frustration can be found in the fake news of the Amazon, which is being used to push an agenda over reality.

For example, the Amazon fires are being hyped to prove global warming, but they actually are less this year than in the past. Forbes via Instapundit:

Forget The Amazon Hype, Fires Globally Have Declined 25% Since 2003 Thanks To Economic Growth. “Any reader of the New York Times and other mainstream media outlet would be forgiven for believing that fires globally are on the rise, but they aren’t. In reality, there was a whopping 25 percent decrease in the area burned from 2003 to 2019, according to NASA. . . . And against the picture painted by celebrities and the mainstream media that fires around the world are caused by economic growth, the truth is the opposite: the amount of land being burned is declining thanks to development, including urbanization. That’s because the amount of land being converted into ranches and farms has been going down, not up, and because more of it is being done with machines than with fire.

I'll take their word for it. I know that deforestation is a major problem here, but the solution is not stopping all development in the area, which means keeping locals poor, but getting rid of corruption that allows deforestation, and the poverty that makes locals help cut down trees because they need to support their families.

so if a priest, activist, or even a rival politician points a finger at those taking bribes that allow the destruction of the environment, he is in danger of getting hurt by a hit man. 

So where is the theology about not taking bribes, and the theology about the dignity and vocation of being a Christian businessman (e.g. our family, whose organic rice program helps support local farmers). Indeed, one reason the "prosperity gospel" types are popular here is that they stress that hard work and honesty allows you to become wealthy.

Yet in South America (and to a lesser extent, in the Philippines), the elitist "liberation theology" (and it's twin, the religion of ecology) is the gospel of too many in charge of the church.

Heaven knows helping the poor in the slums is important, but is the answer to make the environment friendly to business (e.g. by condemning corruption and bribery) or by only pushing socialism and liberation theology? and is the answer to deforestation and environmental degredation the "green" gospel that pushes the poor to stay in dire poverty their poor carbon friendly lifestyle?

In other words, there is a gap between the trends popular in the Catholic establishment (who tend to be educated upper middle class types) and the average Filipino... and one result is that this is actually pushing ordinary pious folk to alternatives, i.e. Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

So it excuse my cynical suspicion that the Pope doesn't give a F... about poor people in the Amazon: I suspect he is using the Amazon region as his "camel's nose" to push his new agey modernist agenda of the German church on the entire church.

 Most of the publicity is about how he is using this as a stalking horse for his predetermined conclusion, i.e. for married (and poorly educated) priests and eventually  womenpriests.( the ultimate agenda pushed by feminist nuns)

But the real danger of what is being pushed here is a new church that includes respect for a demonic form of gnostic mysticism that has little or nothing to do with God or Jesus.

I am not alone with this suspicion: at lifesite news, two bishops who actually worked in the area point out the real problems are being ignored.

Last week, Bishop José Luis Azcona, missionary bishop emeritus of Marajó, Brazil stated in an interview given to ACI Digital that the Amazon missionary region was hemorrhaging its once-Catholic identity.

“The Amazon, at least the Brazilian Amazon, is no longer Catholic,” he said. He noted that “any nostalgia for an Amazon that no longer exists is fatal to its integral evangelization,” pointing out that in some areas of the Amazon the “Pentecostal majority reaches 80%.”

...Brad Fassbender (stated) “I served in the Nicaraguan rainforest, Honduran, Haiti, Guatemala. But it's all the same, Latin America is the evidence that much of the Church is in eclipse—even nearing the state of complete apostasy.” ...   

When asked if it was his experience that the people of the regions he served had no desire for conversion or even the Eucharist, as Bishop Nann attested, he responded. “There is a lack of faith in the Curia, not in the poor! The poor believe strongly, they listen with hearts and ears wide open. They are easy converts. That's why we see many of them converting to Protestant churches....

actually, becoming a Pentecostal is not a bad alternative, since the other alternative is a descent back into an anarchy (where traditional pagan beliefs, which have also suffered from being weakened by the modern world, are distorted by sociopaths to exploit those under them), or a fall into drugs, alcoholism, violence, and promiscuity, leading to the destruction of the family (something one also sees in the USA).

“Unfortunately, the synod doesn't know, or knowing doesn't understand, the significance, for the present and the future of the Amazon, of the faces of anguished, re-victimized and denigrated children, [i.e. abandoned and neglected children who are often abused and end up living as street children] subjected to a slavery that forms an essential part of the abandoned and destroyed face of Jesus in the Amazon,” he said...

Azcona noted that “in no part of the Instrumenum laboris (working document) is the presence of demons spoken of, or their influence, their malice in persons, peoples and cultures, as well as the victory of Christ, his deliverance and the destruction of the power of the Evil One.” 

it's not PC to talk about the "evil one" in the modern world, but one need not listen to Jordan Peterson or explore Jungian psychology to recognize that "nice people" can do terrible things and then insist they are good at heart.

Yes, and this includes those who justify killing the unborn and elderly in the US, or infanticide of the imperfect in the Amazon which is ironically defended by elitists in academia.

so who is discussing good and evil to the Amazon tribes who are facing the challenge to adjust to the modern world and seeing their traditions being destroyed with no one giving them an alternative god to replace the one they no longer have?

Yes, there are Catholic missionaries there, and as my quotes point out, many are trying to help in many different ways.

But they are not the only ones there.

getreligion discusses a GQ article on that Asian missionary killed by an isolated tribe, and about the missionaries of the Pentecostal outreach to the Amazon who were inspired by the martyrdom of Jim Eliott.

no I haven't read it: because I am not big on reading "inspirational" or "religious" literature.

Been there, done that: I actually knew priests/ ministers/ sisters/ lay missionaries who were doctors or nurses (both outsiders and local folk) who were martyred (by communists, or by rogue hitmen from both the government and local crime gangs trying to rob them). Their crime? Staying in a dangerous area to help people.

my point: they were neither the plaster saints of the "religious literature" or the crazies usually portrayed in modern film or novels. They were ordinary folk with an immense depth of loving kindness.

A fictional novel about the type of person who goes to the missions to help (and a satire on Catholic fads) can be found in Andrew Greeley's book "Virgin and Martyr".

and another easy to read (and in some parts very funny) book about another such person can be found in John Grisham's book, the Testament.

both books can be found for free registration at internet archives.

more academic studies of this transformation of Christianity in non European countries:

To the Ends of the Earth: Pentecostalism and the transformation of Christianity. (amazon link).

and Philip Jenkins book: The New Faces of Christianity. (archive link).

no, I will stay Catholic. Because the Eucharist. Because Mary. and because it preaches the God and the way to serve him is found at many levels: where a scientist exploring the wonders of the world in the stars, an author "co creating" a world in his mythology, a mystic who seeks God in quiet withdrawal, the mother who serves God in the "little way" where even a cup of water given to a little child crying for mama in the middle of the night, if done with love, is a prayer.

and when I read the gospels, I see my patients and my family in those stories: for Jesus is not some vague idea but one who suffered as we did and is with us in our sufferings "and he will wipe their tears away"...

Joey Veslasco: Last supper with street children.
Story behind the painting HERE.

The Vatican Coup still in progress however

Father Z rants against the propaganda, and notes:

it's not about clearing up abuse but to push an agenda, sigh.

And he is critical about a book that just happened to be released in time for the summit that exaggerates the number of gays in the Vatican (a problem but not that bad), (and I have read elsewhere that the book deliberately tries to paint all the bishops trying to stop the Pope's minions push into heresy are all closet homosexuals.)

As I pointed out in a previous post, Andrew Greeley, a trained sociologist, noted the huge numbers were pushed by those with an agenda.the number of gay priests is exaggerated by those with an agenda, and not only are the numbers lower than often claimed, but most priests keep their vows.

(i.e. 70 percent were heterosexual, and only 16percent were homosexuals) and that most of them keep their vows of celibacy. (72% of priests are celibate heterosexuals and 10 percent are celibate homosexuals, and 18 percent admit they don't keep their vows, but only 3% are actively pushing to get rid of celibacy).

presumably the NYTimes propaganda piece didn't bother to check with any of the priests that keep their vows;

and it doesn't bode well that the up coming summit has Manila's Cardinal Tagle as one of the leaders: It's long been rumored he is running for Pope. Everyone here laughs when Duterte says he should stop putting his nose into politics and instead clean up the corruption in the church.

my point: Corruption happens, and one is happy to clean it up, and if it takes the MSM, some aggressive D.A.'s. and the Catholic blogosphere, good.

but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater: There are still a lot of good priests and bishops out there.

And stop using the sins of the church as an excuse to "reform" or rather deform the church into Anglican lite, a church of mush and feel good social work that has little to do with Jesus Christ, traditional morality or how ordinary people serve God in the duties of their daily life

------------------------
Professor Leon Podles, who wrote a book about the abuse crisis, notes that the problem with Pope Francis is that he is inconsistant.

Because Francis is erratic, he has not established a clear policy to deal with sexual abuse; he has lessened the penalties that abusers received under Pope Benedict. Since there is not clear policy, one cannot even object to it. One day he lets an abuser function as a priest; the next day he defrocks McCarrick. It all depends the whim and mood of the day. I have little or no hope that any clear and consistent policy about sexual abuse will be established as long as Francis is pope.

True, alas, true.

Is he ADHD and simply forgets what he said yesterday, or is he "gaslighting"?

from Psychology Today:

When the gaslighting starts, you might even feel guilty for doubting a person you’ve come to trust. .... You get temporary reassurance, but you increasingly doubt your own senses, ignore your gut, and become more confused.

The person gaslighting you might act hurt and indignant or play the victim when challenged or questioned. Covert manipulation can easily turn into overt abuse, with accusations that you’re distrustful, ungrateful, unkind, overly sensitive, dishonest, stupid, insecure, crazy, or abusive. Abuse might escalate to anger and intimidation with punishment, threats, or bullying if you don’t accept the false version of reality.

Deep state conspiracy theories on the Vatican

I don't know how to make head nor tails about this, but the remark by the DNC chairman complaining that people listen to what they hear in church sermons made me wonder.

was Benedict XVI's resignation orchestrated by the deep state, including their minions in the Vatican, and the Obama administration, by manipulating the Vatican bank?

You see, the Democrats and their backers fund "catholic" groups to counteract the Catholic right (i.e. Catholic blue dog democrats who changed parties, since a generation ago few Catholics were Republicans).

more links here. I won't summarize them because I know nothing about economics or finance.

FT The scandal of the Vatican Bank (2013).

cut to conspiracy theory: Was Benedict Swifted? (original article in an Italian source HERE)

all of this is, of course, "coast to coast am" territory, and can easily descend into paranoia. But as I noted before: A lot of conspiracy theories are based on facts that are covered up, and then these facts are enlarged into explaining the entire problem (as opposed to being part of the problem that was covered up to protect someone's tush or to manipulate the public to gain power).

the problem? There have been so many doctrinal distortions that a lot of Catholics on the conservative blogosphere are wondering if schism is about to happen. (mainly about sexual sin but also on the essence of the Eucharist, and most recently, did Jesus get the Our Father wrong?)

One problem? the press hates anyone who questions the PC take on Francis. WaPost sees this as extreme right wing politics, although they do, in paragraph 10, note the questioning of "doctrinal ambiguities".

Uh, are they agreeing the Pope is a heretic?

the "catholic" press are smoothly backing the Pope, and the right wing blogosphere is full of ubertrads.

The problem is now things are so bad that Catholic blogs and sites that follow the faith instead of the memes are worrying.

And if you dare to report the controversies on faith and morals, you will have not only the press but the Pope's minions attack you, as EWTN news found out.

Milo, of all people, brings it up again: if you are part of the left wing cabal, all is forgiven.

(as opposed to those of us who support many of the left's issues, but not all of them, and prefer nuances to talking points).

the pope blames "clericalism", the right blames the homosexual lobby. But it comes down to saying "who am I to judge" when they see seeing something terrible done by someone they know and often like, or who is pushing their agenda.

it comes down to the same psychological mechanism that is seen in doctors who protect marginal or incompetent or addicted doctors, or cops protect bad cops who take bribes, drink on the job, or maybe overdo it when they arrest people : When people try to do their best, often against all odds, are attacked, the group tends to protect their own....

and it is worse when the sin is deeply embedded in the culture of the organization, be it bribery in the Philippines or pederasty and homosexual activity in the priesthood.

=========

update: I haven't listened to the whole thing, but here is one investigative reporter about the subject, from a 2011 talk. He discusses Ratzinger at minute 28.

Stories that go against the memes

Dilbert podcast echoes Sherlock and notes the dog that barked in the night:

The “blank space” in Woodward’s book

• He looked really hard…and found no Russian collusion

• What the left feels is obvious, Woodward saw nothing

one of his podcast themes is that people watch different "movies" in their heads, and interpret reality based on what movie they are watching...

--------------------------
which brings us to this essay:

SciFi author Sarah Hoyt, who grew up in Socialist Portugal, writes in pjmedia: Those who walked away from sanity.

The problem is this: the deals with the devil people make — the real ones, which apply whether one believes in the devil or not — are not the kind made at twilight at a crossroads with a being of distinctly evil shape, and imbued with a suspicious smell.

Instead, they’re made in nice rooms, in meeting rooms, at conferences, with well-dressed people who are so benign, so kind, so full of wish to help us. And also, inevitably, powerful and full of the aroma of success. They stand in our way and without quite saying anything political (some of them do. One of them was stupid enough to at least hint at politics to me when I was in the political closet, but most don’t) make it clear that if you want to advance, succeed, or even “just” remain employed, you must say the right words, believe the right things, hang out in the right circles.

(for background of this for sci fi authors, see Sad puppies controversy).

But the title echoes the title of the story: The Ones who walk away from Omelas. 

the PC wikipedia page is the socialist interpretation, of course, but essentially the utopia only exists because it allows a child to be tortured. But a few walk away...

So who would torture a child?

well, what about the Democrats mantra rah rah rah abortion is good because it lets women to be successful.

as in this British ad:

View image on Twitter

David Quinn@DavQuinn

This NHS ad for the morning-after pill is crass beyond belief.

4:56 PM - Sep 14, 2018

• 260
• 203 people are talking about this

oh, but if you study to be a doctor or nurse, you will be pressured into agreeing with the abortion agenda.

Nor is this new:
I saw this compromise with evil in medical school fifty years ago, where most of the students were anti abortion, but then RoeVWade and our powerful professors reeducated us to approve of the procedure, and even forced us to do them. (I didn't, and one professor tried to get me thrown out of medical school, but that's another long story).

Yet even then, most of the students were so horrified at what they saw, few continued to do abortions after they graduated. So the reeducation didn't quite succeed.

But the propaganda is now pushing killing senile grandmom, because she wants to be dead. What might stop it is that when this happens to minorities, because Blacks remember Tuskeegee and object... which is why the rate of living wills in minority communities tends to be lower than in suburban ones.

Indeed, few of our Objibwe patients would sign living wills...(they remembered the Red Lake Streptococcus experiment... long story)

---------------------

speaking of walking away from sin: The photo shows a happy Pope talking about the abuse crisis in the USA with happy happy bishops.

vatican media photo

no, not a good PR photo, guys.

maybe you should try tearing your shirt in horror and lamenting in sackcloth and ashes.

Father Z links to two articles: The weekly standard and at Virtueonline (an Anglican site) that discuss the possible consequences.

so which of the bishops will walk away from Omelas?

only a few have so far, alas.

and pray for the good priests who do their job and have to bow their heads in shame for their brothers.

the good news: Maybe they will purge sin from their midst, and repent and the church will be renewed.

The bad news: It might just let secular prosecutors destroy the church. It usually isn't good news to let the government have power over churches, but Pope francis is clueless about this: he is even allowing the Chinese gov't to take over the Catholic churches there.

this whole thing is turning into a witch hunt, reminding me of the Mc Martin preschool hysteria and the demonic abuse hysteria of the 1980s.

from Wikipedia:

In The Devil in The Nursery, Margaret Talbot for The New York Times summarized the case: When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80's – the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities.[6]

hmm... sounds like the "pizzagate" hysteria we see on fake news sites.

on the other hand, our resident "gay" tells me of subtle signs in films etc. that have meaning for gays who were cruising around for sex.

I don't notice such things: I have worked with a lot of abuse cases, but most of the incest/child abuse/child sexual abuse cases I cared for as a physician were girls, and their abusers were just plain straightforward sociopaths who liked to abuse and have power over children in the neighborhood or family, but not into kinky stuff or child trafficking... but the cops who work with these things can tell you horrific stories which they rarely publicize for fear of inspiring copy cat cases.

so where do you draw the line at believing accusations?

the problem with the anonymous "me too" accusations, as we now see in the Senate hearings, means that any mentally ill woman can sue your or destoy your life while remaining anonymous. NeoNeocon writes:

as I wrote yesterday, that’s probably not her intent. Her intent was to delay the hearings if possible (that doesn’t seem to be happening), or at the very least to taint Kavanaugh’s reputation forever and to rally Democrats to even greater fury for the 2018 elections. But there’s even more behind it. It’s a warning to any future appointee of Trump’s, just as the Manafort and Cohen and Flynn prosecutions are warnings to anyone who might associate with him in business or government: beware!! It’s scorched earth, and we will use every method we can think of to destroy you.

something to remember: the flip side of exposing harassment is the dirty little secret that false accusations are easy to make but hard to disprove.

which is why Freud said children's stories of incest were "projection" of their imagination, (as we were taught in medical school 50 years ago, by the way). and why for years psychiatrists didn't believe actual victims.

and then you have "false memory syndrome", and of course, people who make up stories for publicity or revenge (some are sociopaths and know it, but some are mentally ill and end up believing their fantasies).

on the other hand, this comprehensive health survey on teenagers that surveyed everything down to the percentage of students drinking milk or not having a good night sleep has this fact hidden deep inside their report:

Analyses based on the question ascertaining sexual identity indicated that nationwide, 3.0% of heterosexual students; 6.1% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students; and 4.1% of not sure students had had sexual intercourse before age 13 years (Supplementary Table 135). The prevalence of having had sexual intercourse before age 13 years was higher among gay, lesbian, and bisexual (6.1%) than heterosexual (3.0%) students. Among female students, the prevalence was higher among lesbian and bisexual (5.2%) than heterosexual (1.3%) students. The prevalence also was higher among heterosexual male (4.6%) than heterosexual female (1.3%) students....

The prevalence of having had sexual intercourse before age 13 years did not change significantly from 2015 (3.9%) to 2017 (3.4%).

so yes, evil exists, and it needs to be exposed and fought.

But one reason that people are told not to concentrate only on evil is that witchhunts can destroy the innocent too, and be manipulated by evil ones who will benefit from these accusations.
===============

addition: All the press is saying that a lot of Catholics are shocked, shocked at what went on: but a lot of us are just happy someone is finally noticing what happened, and might actually reform things.

And of course, the "new" cases are way down, thanks to the 2002 guidelines: the problem? The bishops (like Wuerl) who looked the other way at abuse never were punished, and in some (but not all) diocese, there were bishops who might have punished priests accused of abuse of children, but ignored openly cruising gay priests... as if the lay people didn't know about these things.

if the bishops were serious about such things, Bishop Adamec of Altoona would have been thrown out in 2003 and Wuerl, who presumably knew what was going on there, should have been quietly retired to a monastery to ponder his failures of not reporting the corruption in the nearby diocese.

to make things worse (conspiracy theory) if you believe the Weekly standard, are joined with the liberal "reformers" in essentially a coup d'etat in trying to take over the church to remake it according to their specifications.

End story. I have to get ready to go to church.

Ironically, the sacraments and grace from attending mass don't depend on the moral status of the priest, any more than the action of antibiotics depends on the moral status of the physician giving the medicine.

which is why in some way I am more upset at the Pope's denial of  the holiness of the Eucharist (give it to anyone, who cares what Paul said) than I am with his moral agnosia.