Obispos de EEUU apoyan al regimen castrista

ni una palabra de los mercaderes de dios sobre los crimenes de toda indole cometidos por los hermanos castros en mas de 54 anos. ni siquiera por guardar las apariencias dentro del tradicional marco equidistante y celestial de la iglesia catolica. desbocados en favor de los

cafefuerte.com

asesinos de siempre. si su dios no da cuenta de ellos, los pueblos y la historia se encargaran de hacerlo.
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Tomado de Café Fuerte

26 de septiembre del 2013

Dr. Susan E. Rice
Consejero de Seguridad Nacional
La Casa Blanca
Washington, DC 20036

Estimado Dr. Rice :

Escribo como Presidente de la Comisión de Justicia y Paz Internacional de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB). El 15 de septiembre del 2013, la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Cuba emitió una importante Carta Pastoral: “La esperanza no defrauda”. Esta declaración visionaria desafía con valentía al Gobierno de Cuba para participar en el diálogo y la reforma, y promover los derechos humanos y la dignidad humana. Nos solidarizamos con nuestros hermanos obispos en Cuba haciéndonos eco de su llamado a un mayor respeto de la persona humana.

La Pastoral también tiene implicaciones para la política de Estados Unidos hacia Cuba. Adjunto el original en español de esta Carta Pastoral para su pronta referencia . El siguiente fragmento es de especial relevancia para Estados Unidos (reproducido del original en español) :

36. Se hace necesario considerar las relaciones de Cuba con los Estados Unidos, que durante largas décadas, de diverso modo y de manera constante y profunda, han afectado la vida de nuestro pueblo. A esto se refirió el beato Juan Pablo II al decir que “el aislamiento provocado repercute de manera indiscriminada en la población, acrecentando las dificultades de los más débiles en aspectos básicos como la alimentación, la sanidad o la educación”. Y concluyó pidiendo se suprimieran “las medidas impuestas desde fuera del país injustas y éticamente inaceptables”.

Urgimos a realizar esfuerzos para levantar el embargo de EEUU contra Cuba a fin de que un mayor apoyo y asistencia pueden fluir hacia el cubano de a pie . También es hora de retirar la designación de Cuba como patrocinador del terrorismo de Estado . Esta obsoleta clasificación impide el acercamiento entre nuestros países y pueblos.El acercamiento hará mucho más que el aislamiento en virtud de promover los derechos humanos y aliviar el sufrimiento humano. También es el momento de reconocer el papel constructivo de Cuba en la mediación de las negociaciones de paz de Colombia y la cooperación con el Servicio Guardacostas de Estados Unidos en actividades de interceptación de drogas .

Es tiempo ya para que  Estados Unidos establezca plenas relaciones diplomáticas con Cuba, levante todas las restricciones a los viajes a Cuba, retire la designación de Cuba como país terrorista, fomente el comercio que beneficiaría a ambas naciones y facilite la cooperación en las áreas como la protección del medio ambiente, la iterceptación de drogas y el intercambio científico. Más acercamiento ayudará al pueblo de Cuba a lograr una mayor libertad, derechos humanos y participación religiosa .

Atentamente,

Mons. Richard E. Pates
Obispo de Des Moines
Presidente, Comisión de Justicia y Paz Internacional

Cuba y Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias llaman a proteger a los terroristas detenidos en Guantanamo

Chief IRS Counsel Got Jeremiah Wright's Church out of IRS Probe Before Joining Agency

breitbart

By Matthew Boyle 

News reports from the time indicate the now-chief counsel of the IRS, William Wilkins, helped a church connected to President Barack Obama’s friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright get out of an IRS probe in 2008 while working as a private attorney.

“Lawyers from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have won the dismissal of an IRS case against United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's denomination,” The American Lawyer’s Zach Lowe wrote on May 22, 2008. 

The IRS initiated an investigation early this year after a speech by Obama at a 50th anniversary celebration of the church last June. It was a reference by Obama to his presidential candidacy in a talk otherwise focused on faith that caught the agency's attention. Tax laws prohibit non-profits--including churches--from engaging in political speech or promoting candidates. The IRS can withdraw an organization's tax-free status if the organization is found to violate the rule.

Lowe noted that Obama had been a “member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago--a UCC congregation--for more than 20 years. The church has been in the headlines for several months now as the congregation lead by the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright.”

William Wilkins, then a WilmerHale law firm partner, said, “We were so interested in the case we offered to do it pro bono."

Lowe wrote that Wilkins and other firm lawyers worked with the church’s national counsel, Donald Clark, and proved they had invited Obama to the event before he announced his candidacy for president. “Evidence presented in a letter sent to the IRS in late March pointed to ground rules the organization had established for Obama's visit; the church even cautioned churchgoers against engaging in any political activity,” Lowe wrote. “Had the IRS pursued the matter, it would have raised serious questions about the First Amendment's application to church activities, Wilkins says.”

When President Obama nominated Wilkins to be the IRS’s chief counsel on April 17, 2009, his White House cited Wilkins’ experience as an attorney on issues relating to tax-exempt status organization. “He has a broad tax practice that includes counseling nonprofit organizations, business entities, and investment funds on tax compliance, business transactions, and government investigations,” according to the White House release announcing Wilkins' nomination. 

Prior to joining WilmerHale, Wilkins was Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. Wilkins joined the Democratic staff of the Committee in 1981 and served as tax counsel before becoming Staff Director and Chief Counsel in 1987.

In the release, which included the announcement of a second Treasury Department nominee, President Obama himself said he was "confident in the abilities of these two fine public servants as we work to turn our economy around and give American families the relief they need during these difficult times. Under the leadership of Secretary Geithner, they will work to serve the American people and bring their unique areas of expertise to the job as we work to put America on the path to prosperity."

Upon the resignation of Steven Miller, several news outlets have pointed out that Wilkins will likely become a public target of congressional investigators digging into the scandal surrounding the IRS’s targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations.

Reuters wrote that GOP lawmakers’ aides said their bosses will soon “focus” on Wilkins as they “seek to determine whether the White House acted improperly.”

“Wilkins' office was made aware of the targeting of conservative groups as early as August 2011, according to the inspector general report,” Reuters wrote. “The report does not make clear whether Wilkins - who reports to the Treasury Department's general counsel - himself knew of the targeting in 2011, or when he first learned of it.”

“Another question is whether Wilkins, whose office employs about 1,600 lawyers, might have taken the matter elsewhere within the Obama administration,” Reuters added. “The IRS issued a statement saying Wilkins did not participate in the August 2011 meeting, which the agency said involved ‘staff attorneys several layers below Wilkins.’”

As Town Hall magazine highlighted recently, White House spokesman Jay Carney has already been pressured by reporters on Wilkins' role in this scandal. 

Canada & US Anglican financed Cuban Church controlled by the government

what is doing a bolivian-born priest in cuba? she is married to who?
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episcopaldigitalnetwork

Episcopal Diocese of Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio and a community worker with prized tomato from a community garden in Itabo, one of the diocese’s projects that promote self-sufficiency. Photo: Ali Symons/General Synod Communications

[Anglican Journal] A proposal to fund an office of integrated development for the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba will be submitted for approval this April to a program review committee of Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF).

The office will launch a three-year “capacity-building” project to train 25 community leaders annually, at the end of which they are expected to create a project proposal for their locality, said Adele Finney, executive director of PWRDF, the Anglican Church of Canada’s relief and development agency. Fourteen projects will eventually be chosen for funding by the diocese.

The U.S.-based Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) agency is expected to also fund the office over a three-year period, said Archdeacon Michael Thompson, the Anglican Church of Canada’s general secretary. “What a wonderful rich network of Anglicans working together to make a new thing happen,” Thompson said in his report to the spring meeting of CoGS March 14-17.

“One of the exciting things about this is that the PWRDF’s strategic plan has a lot about dynamic partnerships” and this is one of them, said Finney in an interview. “There are all sorts of connections that can hopefully not only breathe new life and new work in Cuba, but also connect us in new ways.”

These connections involve the primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, who chairs both the Metropolitan Council of Cuba and the PWRDF board. But other parts of the Canadian church, among them the Diocese of Niagara, also enjoy a long-standing companion relationship with the Cuban diocese, Finney noted. Most recently, the Diocese of Niagara — through PWRDF — sent about $30,000 for Hurricane Sandy relief to Cuba.

Last year, Diocese of Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado Del Carpio attended the Sacred Circle, the triennial meeting of indigenous Anglicans in Canada. Delgado, herself an indigenous person from Bolivia, “was profoundly moved by the circle, as were the people by her ministry,” Finney noted.

Jose Zarate, PWRDF Latin America/Caribbean coordinator, was actively involved in helping the diocese establish its proposal for the office of integrated development, said Finney. He is expected to sit at its advisory council — along with his Episcopal Relief & Development counterpart — if PWRDF participation is approved.

Thompson said the relationship between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Cuban diocese is an example of “faithful partnership in a global communion.” The relationship began when former primate Archbishop Ted Scott “took an interest in how the Cuban church, separated from its province [the U.S.-based Episcopal Church] by the economic blockade and travel restrictions, could sustain a sense of participation in the wider Anglican Communion,” he said.

This relationship involves Canadian leadership in the Metropolitan Council of Cuba, “which offers support and counsel to the bishop and people of the Cuban church,” explained Thompson. Aside from Hiltz, council members also include Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop John Holder, primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. Thompson acts as secretary of the Metropolitan Council, which typically meets a day before the Cuba diocese’s annual synod.

The Diocese of Cuba’s music festival, which some Canadian Anglicans have supported through “Gifts for Mission,” the Anglican Church of Canada’s gift guide to support ministries in Canada and overseas, is having a positive impact, Thompson also reported. Held for a week each summer in the Anglican cathedral in Havana, the festival “has had a dramatic impact on the song of the church, a song that we encountered and that lifted our spirits at the diocesan synod,” he said.

El Papa, el pasado y el cambio

Cuba Encuentro

Con padres y hermanos. Al fondo 2do de izq-der

/ NBC

Alejandro Armengol

Es posible que con la elección del cardenal argentino Jorge Mario Bergoglio se inicie un pontificado con importantes cambios en la Iglesia católica. Pero muchos de estos cambios no serán los que la mayoría de la población —creyente y no creyente— espera, ni los que la prensa ha comenzado a destacar desde la elección del nuevo obispo de Roma.

No se trata solo de falta de información y tampoco se limita a la adopción de una determinada postura ideológica. Es que cuando se topa con la Iglesia, los problemas terminan siempre resumiéndose en una interrogante bastante simple: ¿cómo reformar una institución que cuenta con más de dos siglos para demostrar su capacidad de sobrevivir? Mejor eficiencia, a la hora de conservar el poder, no la ha establecido ningún otro sistema, gobierno e ideología, y la Iglesia es todo ello y mucho más.

Así que al final es mejor simplificar un poco la cosa. Dejar a un lado la palabrería barata de considerarlo un “defensor de los pobres”, aunque sea dicha por el presidente Obama; no darle mayor importancia a la elección del nombre, que la que tiene un golpe publicitario —decidido seguramente desde hace varios años— y considerar que la opción en favor de un latinoamericano no es más que una necesidad impuesta por las leyes del mercado en época de crisis: si el mayor número de clientes proviene de esa región, lo mejor es buscarse a alguien de allí. Además, ya Bergoglio había sido “finalista” con anterioridad. Como en los concursos, en el Cónclave lo que cuenta es que se presente la oportunidad.

elcomercio

Los cambios

El primer cambio importante que el papa Francisco tiene que acometer ya fue iniciado por su predecesor. Antes de su partida, Benedicto XVI nombró presidente del banco del Vaticano al barón Ernst Von Freyberg, caballero de la poderosa Orden de Malta y constructor de buques de guerra. Un nombramiento para que no quedaran dudas: todo el poder de la Edad Media y el capitalismo simbolizado en un aristócrata alemán nacido en Ginebra.

Con eso de los nombres nunca hay que fiarse en el Vaticano. Bajo la piadosa inscripción de Instituto para las Obras de Religión se encuentra una ponderosa institución financiera, que en más de una ocasión ha sido cuestionada por supuestos vínculos con la mafia, crímenes y lavado de dinero.

También se ha dicho que, a través de dicho banco, el Vaticano tiene o ha tenido importantes paquetes de acciones en compañías como General Motors, Shell, Gulf Oil, General Electric, Betlehem Steel, TWA, RCA, así como estrechas relaciones con importantes bancos internacionales: Rothschild en Francia e Inglaterra, Hambro's Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank de Nueva York, el Morgan Bank y la Bakers Trust Company. No poco a la hora de contradecir esa afirmación de la curia, cuando afirma que sus miembros forman parte de una “Iglesia pobre”.

Si embargo, el aspecto fundamental en este sentido es que, al tiempo que ha tratado de reducir su pasado de iglesia imperial, a la existencia de un legado fabuloso de obras de artes en sus museos y catedrales, el trono de San Pedro no se limita a un poder espiritual. El Papa es también un jefe de Estado, desde la concesión otorgada por Mussolini a Pío XI, a cambio de su apoyo al fascismo.

No fue solo la creación de un Estado, ese país minúsculo pero poderoso encerrado en una ciudad que es el Vaticano. Cuando Mussolini dio como indemnización a Pío XII casi 2.000 millones de liras, el Papa nombró como administrador del dinero al banquero Bernardino Nogara, quien al parecer fue un genio que supo multiplicar prodigiosamente esos fondos. Desde entonces, surgió ese fervor casi religioso por una banca propia, más allá de países y banqueros.

No todos los “banqueros de Dios” han sido igualmente geniales. Al igual que ocurre con cualquier institución financiera, se han sucedido épocas de grandes ganancias con épocas de grandes pérdidas, sin olvidar los grandes escándalos. Sin embargo hay una contradicción en proclamarse una iglesia de los pobres y vivir con un boato que no es una herencia —como las obras de arte de los Museos del Vaticano, adquiridas de acuerdo a los métodos de la época— sino un derroche cotidiano de pompa y esplendor.

De esta manera siempre ha existido una tensión potencial —en muchos casos real, como ocurrió durante el último papado— entre el guiar a las almas y el administrar el dinero.

Con su último acto importante de poder —el nombramiento del barón Ernst Von Freyberg—, Benedicto XVI le cerró la llave del dinero a su enemigo, el secretario de Estado monseñor Tarcisio Bertone, pero también impuso una decisión a su sucesor, destinada a prevenir la repetición de viejos errores.

Falta por ver quién será el secretario de Estado del nuevo Papa. Lo que no hay duda es que, en la administración de los bienes de la Iglesia sí se producirá un cambio fundamental.

Desde hace años los jesuitas vienen reclamando una mejor administración y mayor transparencia. Lo hicieron incluso públicamente, en la revista Civilta Cattolica de los jesuitas italianos, durante los años 70 del pasado siglo. Ahora les ha llegado su turno.

No es que se vaya a cumplir el reclamo —hecho en diversos momentos por millones de católicos— de que el Vaticano haga públicos sus balances económicos, que diga a los fieles cuánto dinero posee y cuáles son sus verdaderas riquezas, pero al menos se ganará en control administrativo.

Un papa jesuita

La elección de un papa jesuita, por primera vez en la historia, pude considerarse una victoria frente al sector más reaccionario dentro del catolicismo. En las últimas décadas, entre otros grupos, este sector ha estado representado por el todavía poderoso Opus Dei y el ya menguado Legionarios de Cristo, organizaciones que sirvieron de apoyo al reaccionario Juan Pablo II en su lucha contra la Teología de la Liberación.

Con su política de una de cal y otra de arena —mediante la cual disminuyó el poder de este sector ultraconservador, pero al mismo tiempo lo utilizó— Ratzinger le ha hecho un gran favor a Bergoglio. A partir de ahora el nuevo Sumo Pontífice podrá practicar un conservadurismo moderado, que enfatice la necesidad de una mayor justicia social y dedique declaraciones en contra del hambre y en defensa de los pobres.

El retroceso de este sector reaccionario, en la promoción y decisiones de poder que lleva a cabo el Vaticano, no viene acompañado de un avance progresista, tanto ideológico como en normas religiosas e incluso políticas.

Dentro de la Iglesia, los sacerdotes jesuitas fueron los que más se identificaron con la Teología de la Liberación y una acción más directa de lucha contra la pobreza. Incluso desde posiciones agresivas, más que dinámicas.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, por entonces la figura máxima de su orden en Argentina, no estuvo entre los jesuitas que se destacaran por apoyar esos esfuerzos sino por lo contrario: hizo lo posible por reprimirlos.

Junto a la noticia de la elección del papa Francisco, apareció su historial durante la época de la dictadura argentina, cuando era provincial de los jesuitas.

Es una historia conocida y ha sido investigada a profundidad y publicada por el periodista argentino Horacio Verbitsky. Aparece también en Foreign Policy y en el diario español El País.

Dos curas jesuitas, Orlando Yorio, ya fallecido, y Francisco Jalics, que vive en un monasterio de Alemania y ha hecho voto de silencio, habían decidido vivir en un barrio marginal, para mantener un mayor contacto y compromiso con los pobres, una actitud que no era del agrado de las autoridades de la Iglesia.

“Mucha gente que sostenía convicciones políticas de extrema derecha veía con malos ojos nuestra presencia en las villas miseria”, cuenta Jalics en su libro Ejercicios de meditación, de 1995. “Interpretaban el hecho de que viviéramos allí como un apoyo a la guerrilla y se propusieron denunciarnos como terroristas. Nosotros sabíamos de dónde soplaba el viento y quién era responsable por estas calumnias. De modo que fui a hablar con la persona en cuestión y le expliqué que estaba jugando con nuestras vidas. El hombre me prometió que haría saber a los militares que no éramos terroristas. Por declaraciones posteriores de un oficial y 30 documentos a los que pude acceder más tarde pudimos comprobar sin lugar a dudas que este hombre no había cumplido su promesa sino que, por el contrario, había presentado una falsa denuncia ante los militares”, escribió Jalics, según el diario El País.

Ese hombre era Bergoglio, ahora el papa Francisco, según contó Yorio en una carta de 1977 al asistente general de la Compañía de Jesús, que obtuvo Verbitsky. Años después, tras el fin de la dictadura, Yorio también comentó a otros sacerdotes que Bergoglio no los había “entregado”, pero sí delatado.

Los hechos son los siguientes: el 23 de mayo de 1976, Yorio y Jalics fueron secuestrados por miembros de la dictadura argentina. Durante cinco meses estuvieron encerrados en la Escuela Mecánica de la Armada, uno de los principales centros clandestinos de detención y tortura del régimen. Un interrogador le dijo a Yorio que sabían que no era guerrillero, pero que con su trabajo en la villa unía a los pobres y eso era subversivo, según reconstruyó Verbistky. La Iglesia argentina, cuya jerarquía colaboró con la dictadura, mientras un reducido grupo de sacerdotes se opuso, intercedió para que los liberasen y así fue. Ambos fueron arrojados drogados en un terreno húmedo y cenagoso de una ciudad cercana a Buenos Aires, Cañuelas, un 24 de octubre.

En el libro El jesuita, de 2010, Bergoglio contestó a las acusaciones: “Nunca creí que estuvieran involucrados en actividades subversivas como sostenían sus perseguidores, y realmente no lo estaban. Pero, por su relación con algunos curas de las villas de emergencia, quedaban demasiado expuestos a la paranoia de caza de brujas. Como permanecieron en el barrio, Yorio y Jalics fueron secuestrados durante un rastrillaje. La misma noche en que me enteré de su secuestro, comencé a moverme. Cuando dije que estuve dos veces con [el dictador Jorge] Videla y dos con [el jefe de la Armada, Emilio] Massera fue por el secuestro de ellos”.

Bergoglio también ha dicho que durante aquellos años protegió, escondió y ayudó a exiliarse a perseguidos por el régimen.

Una tradición lamentable

La actuación de Francisco no es un excepción dentro del papado. Más bien la norma. El caso más notable fue el de Pío XII. En la relación de este Papa con el nazismo y sus derivados hay muchos puntos oscuros. Los investigadores han llegado a mencionar 45. Entre ellos están su silencio ante la atrocidad conocida como la “Noche de los cristales rotos”, el 9 de noviembre de 1938, que marcó decisivamente la persecución contra los judíos en Alemania. Se señala igualmente que no condenó las leyes racistas del gobierno colaboracionista francés de Pétain, así como su recibimiento, en 1943, al caudillo fascista croata Ante Pavelic, responsable de campos de exterminio donde murieron cientos de miles de serbios, judíos y gitanos.

Pío XII también permitió que miembros de la Iglesia, e incluso prelados del Vaticano, dieran refugio a judíos y perseguidos por los nazis.

Al igual que durante el pontificado de Pío XII, se ha señalado que una actitud más firme de la Iglesia durante la dictadura argentina hubiera frenado los crímenes. Es difícil que en ambos casos ello hubiera ocurrido. Queda entonces el juicio moral. En este sentido, la Iglesia católica sistemáticamente se ha colocado del lado de la reacción. En ambos casos, se puede decir que si bien la Iglesia no apoyaba los métodos, compartía algunos de los objetivos.

El Papa y la presidenta

ferriz.com.mx

Con el gobierno de la presidenta argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner el nuevo papa ha mantenido dos disputas, una social y otra política. La social tiene que ver con la fuerte condena de Bergoglio al homosexualismo y a los matrimonios entre parejas del mismo sexo, oficializados en Argentina.

La política se refiere a su rechazo al populismo, que cada vez más intensifica la mandataria, que por cierto es heredera de ese peronismo que también ayudó a los nazis, se aprovechó de ese régimen (la famosa leyenda o realidad del tesoro nazi trasladado al país sudamericano) y brindó refugio y apoyo a 90.000 nazis y miles de genocidas croatas, entre ellos Pavelic.

En lo que respecta a Cuba —y aquí se incluye el dato casi como una nota de humor— lo más significativo aparecido en las redes, tras conocer la elección de Bergoglio, ha sido el sacar a relucir que fue el coordinador del libro Diálogos entre Juan Pablo II y Fidel Castro, publicado en 1998. Para los católicos, solo queda rezar, para que los furibundos del exilio de Miami no se enteren del dato.

Francisco tiene por delante una larga tarea, no solo como figura máxima de una ideología desde hace años en decadencia, sino también como jefe de un Estado en problemas. Nada nuevo para una Iglesia que surgió de la cruz y ha predicado con la espada, cuando lo ha creído necesario y posible.

“HABEMUS PAPAM”: Francisco el Pontífice o Pancho el Montonero

CNN iReport

Por Andrés Pascual
Qué el Señor me coja confesado por lo que diré: Si “los eruditos” no hubieran explicado la relación entre los bombardeos de Guernica y lo que refleja el cuadro de Picasso, ¿Algún mortal común y corriente, por cuenta propia, hubiera podido? No, no es juego, quiero que reflexionen sobre lo que dije, como aquellas patas flacas de Lam que denominó La Jungla. Ah, asistí a la Escuela de Letras y Arte de la Universidad de La Habana, Literatura, época de Mirtha, Adelaida… y de alguna que otra conferencia por Carpentier o Portuondo, fueron los años en que Cela dijo en ¿la Casa de Las Américas? Que: “Cuba es para nosotros como esa hija que se nos fue de puta, pero puta y todo…” puedo recordar algo todavía…
Bien, la FUMATA BLANCA confundió a la gente porque no fue blanca, tuvo que salir el encargado y decir las palabras esperadas: “habemus papam”, ¿Presagio de algo con respecto al Aparato? Si así fuera, ¿Malo o bueno?
La elección de un Pontífice argentino es signo “del cambio” y esa palabrita como que asfixia, nada que se relacione con ella resulta positivo no para la Humanidad, sino para el destino de instituciones que han hecho la diferencia entre hombres y animales, como los derechos del individuo.
Verdad que el ex Cardenal Jorge Bergoglio ha sido oponente de los Kirchner porque Cristina le declaró la guerra a la Iglesia, pero no por circunstancias dignas de considerarse a la manera tradicional tal “comunismo” u otro tipo de peligrosas nimiedades de los últimos tiempos.
Según una fuente de Newsmax, figura política norteamericana al que le han mantenido el anonimato, que conoció a Bergoglio durante años y se comunicaba frecuentemente con él, el individuo tomaba el metro hasta sus oficinas y vivía sin lujos en Buenos Aires.
También que, quizás por ser un descendiente de italianos, lo seleccionaron como figura de compromiso entre dos ítalo-argentinos disponibles; el otro, Leonardo Sandri.
Pero hay una conceptualización del hombre que, como el humo que no fue blanco, debe ser explicada y de eso se encargará el tiempo: se le considera más a la izquierda que a cualquier otro, lo que se justifica, en parte, por su simpatía velada por la Teoría de la Liberación.
Un hombre que hablaba mucho de los pobres de la tierra sin llegar, pudiera ser algo muy bueno o lo peor de todo, porque ya se sabe de lo que son capaces quienes mencionan tanto “hombre, pobreza y su entorno” cuando “agarran”.
Sin embargo, hasta tanto no sucedan cosas, como siempre, habrá que ofrecerle el beneficio de la duda, a fin de cuentas, se lo dieron a Obama, a Castro, a Chávez a… verdad que acabaron “con la 5ta y con los mangos”, pero debe dársele, para que ningún apapio salga y se lo quiera comer a uno con el sonsonete “¿Dónde están las pruebas?” o “usted esto o lo otro”, como con todo, hay que esperar para decantar la homilía de los “claros divinos”: SE LOS DIJE, A LLORAR AL PARQUE”
El tiempo dirá si este es Francisco el Pontífice o Pancho el Montonero con la encomienda de liquidar hasta la esperanza y la FE, mientras, HABEMUS PAPAM…
El hombre pidió que rezáramos por él, yo solicito una oración por nosotros mismos, porque no hayan invadido la Viña del Señor los lobos de la oscuridad con corderos envenenados.

The pope’s to-do list: 7 challenges facing Francis as he starts his new job

worldnews

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

Pope Francis has a to-do list as long as his cassock.

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio will lead 1.2 billion Catholics and a church at a crossroads — wrestling with scandal after scandal, changing demographics and calls for liberalization.

Here are seven pressing challenges for the new pope:

1. Cleaning house at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI ordered that a report on church bureaucracy be shown to only two men — himself and his successor. After he gives it a read, Francis will have to address backbiting, corruption and cronyism inside the Vatican and increasing pressure to make its finances more open. Church analysts were watching closely to see whether cardinals would elect a Vatican insider protective of church secrecy. Instead they picked a man from halfway around the world.

2. Leading the church out of the sex abuse scandal. The crisis consumed Benedict’s papacy and threatened to overshadow the conclave, with abuse victims even calling for some cardinals to recuse themselves from the selection process. Victims’ groups still want the Vatican to disclose more about its role in failing to protect children. One such organization, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said it was grateful that Francis was not on its list of the worst choices for pope — but warned that very little about the crisis has been exposed in South America.

3. Getting along with other faiths. Benedict caused a furor when, in 2006, he quoted an emperor who had characterized some teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman.” Benedict is credited with repairing rifts with Jews, however, and the new pope has also been praised for cultivating a strong relationship with Judaism. After Francis' election, the head of the World Jewish Congress praised him as someone “known for his open-mindedness.”

4. Winning the West. Benedict couldn’t stop the decline of the church in its traditional stronghold of Europe. Meanwhile in the United States, a Pew study released Wednesday found that only 27 percent of the church’s members defined themselves as “strong” Catholics — a four-decade low. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who was considered a papal contender, expressed hope that Francis would fight rising secularism: “We pledge our faithful support for the Holy Father as he leads the Church in proclaiming the New Evangelization, inviting all people to a develop a closer relationship with Christ and to share that gift with others.”

5. Should women be priests? And should priests marry? Francis will have to address growing debate within the church about the celibacy requirement for priests. A priest in Australia admitted last year that he had been married for a year and said “there are more like me.” Benedict also delivered a veiled rebuke to an Austrian priests’ group that wants the church to allow women to be ordained and to get rid of the celibacy requirement.

6. Modernization. Majorities of Catholics in the United States have said in surveys that they want the pope to lead the church in a more liberal direction. A New York Times/CBS News poll of Catholics last week found that six in 10 support gay marriage, and seven in 10 want the church to allow birth control. Three-quarters supported abortion in at least some circumstances. In Argentina, then-Cardinal Bergoglio clashed with the president over a 2010 law allowing gay marriage. “It is a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God,” he said.

7. Persecution. Open Doors, a group that documents Christian persecution, reported earlier this year that 100 million Christians are oppressed around the worldwide, with countries in Asia and the Middle East by far the worst offenders. Benedict claimed that Christians are the most oppressed religious group in the world, facing discrimination and often violence. As pope, Francis must also be the church’s most prominent diplomat. “This situation is intolerable,” Benedict said in 2010, “since it represents an insult to God and to human dignity.”

Slideshow: Pope Francis: His life before the papacy >>

Pope Francis I: Humble leader who takes the bus to work

 

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Pope Francis I: Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is new Catholic leader

World News

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was named leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics on Wednesday after being elected pope. He will be known as Pope Francis I.

The 76-year-old, who has been a cardinal since 2001, was introduced to the world – in Latin - from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in front of tens of thousands gathered in the square below.

Minutes earlier, white smoke rose above the Sistine Chapel and bells rang out across Rome, prompting cheers and wild applause.

The archbishop of Buenos Aires is the Argentine-born son of an Italian railway worker. Seen as a compassionate conservative, he reportedly came in second during the 2005 balloting that ultimately elected Benedict XVI.

The Jesuit prizes simplicity and humility and would encourage priests to do shoe-leather evangelization, according to his biographer.

Smoke billowed from the chimney at 7:07 p.m. (2:07 p.m. ET) on the second day of behind-closed-doors voting and marked the beginning to a new era for a church combating scandal and internal strife.

LIVE VIDEO — NBC News Special Report: Live coverage from Vatican City as white smoke pours from the Sistine Chapel, signaling a pope has been chosen.

The cardinals are thought to have taken five ballots to reach the two-third majority necessary for a decision.

Natacha Pisarenko / AP

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as pope Wednesday.

Before being introduced from the balcony, the Argentine cardinal was taken from the Sistine Chapel into a side room called the “Room of Tears” to be dressed in the papal clothes.

His appearance was heralded by a Latin announcement beginning with the phrase "Habemus Papam!" meaning, "We have a pope!"

Speaking before the announcement, Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, said he was confident that the new pope would “give us the kind of guidance and support that we are looking for.”

Egan said the new pope needed five qualities. He should be “a man of prayer, who loves leading public prayer and privately prays with joy and fulfillment;” “a man who repeats the gospel message in an uncomplicated manner;” and “a leader who will lead on the great questions of the day,” which he said were “justice, compassion and peace.”

He should also “know how to govern” and had to be “a person who can handle criticism with calm and with total trust in God,” Egan said.

Andrew Medichini / AP

White billows from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel indicating that a new pope has been elected in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday.

The papal election follows the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 28.

Now known as Pope Emeritus, he was watching Wednesday's events from a temporary lakeside residence at Castel Gandolfo while his permanent living quarters inside Vatican City are refurbished.

The behind-the-scenes ballot process that has taken place in the Sistine Chapel should still remain a secret. Both the cardinals and staff working alongside them swore an oath of secrecy as the conclave got under way, with the threat of ex-communication for anyone breaking the church's ancient code.

Such is the importance of secrecy that Vatican officials have installed jamming devices to prevent the use of cellphones by cardinals or hidden microphones by anyone wanting to hear their deliberations.

NBC News' Peter Jeary contributed to this report.

Are cardinals electing the last pope? If you believe Nostradamus...

Alessandro Di Meo / EPA file

Lighting strikes the basilica of St.Peter's dome in Vatican City during a storm
 on Feb.11, 2013, the same day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation.

worldnews
Slideshow: Pope Benedict XVI's departure

By Carol Grisanti, Producer, NBC News

ROME— Church bells are sounding the alarm for doomsayers and conspiracy theorists here as cardinals convene to elect a new leader for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

According to an ancient prediction, this next pope will be the last.

That theory dates back more than 900 years to when Malachy O’Morgair, the 12th century Archbishop of Ireland, had a vision.

Legend has it that St. Malachy, as he is now known, had a strange dream while on a visit to Rome. He “saw” all the names of the future popes – complete with identifying characteristics – who would rule the church until the end of time. 

Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” as his vision is called, named Benedict XVI as the 111th – and penultimate – pope. The vision ended with the 112th pope.

Clairvoyant or crazy? In his book, “Life of St. Malachy,” St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote that Malachy was respected as a clairvoyant who predicted the exact day and hour of his own death.  At least one 20th century pope, Pius X, was convinced Malachy’s vision was divine, according to Rafael Merry del Val, his biographer.

But theologians and clerics argue there was never an authentic written manuscript. Malachy’s list was curiously discovered in 1590 in the Vatican archives, hundreds of years later.

“There is no historical foundation at all to St. Malachy’s list,” said Roberto Rusconi, professor of the History of Christianity at Rome’s University. “Malachy’s gift was to make other people believe in his predictions.”

Others have taken hold of Malachy’s list and compared it with history.

The first pope, according to the list, would be “from a castle on the Tiber” – for believers, that was clearly Pope Celestine II who was born on the shores of the Tiber River.

Pope Benedict was apparently described as “glory of the olives” and doomsayers point to his choice of the name Benedict, since the founder of the Benedictine Order was also known as Olivetans.

And in Malachy’s vision, the last pope – who will soon be elected – is described this way: “in extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman…”

While none of the Italian Cardinals are called Peter, one favorite to become Pope is Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana.

If that was not enough to send shivers down a few spines, Nostradamus, the 16th century French astrologer and seer, predicted much the same as Malachy. 

Nostradamus, a mild-mannered healer, was content to mix potions until the Italian-born French queen, Catherine de Medici, raised his profile from physician to prophet. 

Nostradamus warned that the next-to-last pope would “flee Rome in December when the great comet is seen in the daytime.” 

Taking into account the calendar months were different hundreds of years ago, Nostradamus wasn’t so far off. The Comet ISON, with its 40,000 mile-long tail, has been visible the past couple months as Benedict prepared to abdicate and leave Rome for his temporary home in Castel Gandolfo.

And for those well-versed in the language of brimstone and fire, the signs could not have been more transparent when just hours after Benedict announced he would abdicate, a bolt of lightning struck St. Peter’s Basilica, the very heart of Christianity. A few days later a shower of meteorites fell and devastated a village in Russia.

Cynics shrugged all this off as natural phenomena, while the doomsayers suffered from one more dose of existential angst. 

In St. Paul Outside the Walls, another major cathedral in Rome, medallions line the walls with the names of every pope and the dates of his papacy.  Legend says that when all the medallions are full, the world will finally end.  On the walls of St. Paul’s, there are still some empty spaces.

Perhaps the end isn’t so near.

Sistine mysteries revealed: How the next pope will be chosen

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Inside Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict’s spectacular temporary retirement home

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Boston’s sandal-wearing Cardinal O’Malley getting papal buzz

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By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley is generating buzz in Rome as a possible contender to be the next pope, even though Vatican watchers have long said an American pontiff is a longshot.

John L. Allen, a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, took note this week of the growing number of Italian newspapers and commentators who have mentioned O'Malley as a candidate or written favorably about his cleanup of the archdiocese's sex-abuse scandal.

"Right now, it's tough for an American journalist to walk into the Vatican Press Office without fielding questions from colleagues about him," Allen wrote.

O'Malley -- a distinctive figure in the monkish brown cassock of the Capuchin religious order -- isn't entertaining questions about his chances of succeeding Pope Benedict XVI when the College of Cardinals convenes.

"As the Cardinal said last week at his press conference, he has a round trip ticket to return home and will rely on the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit as the College of Cardinals enter the conclave in March," spokeswoman Kellyanne Dignan said.

O'Malley, 68, was named archbishop of Boston in 2003, after Cardinal Bernard Law stepped down amid allegations he covered up sex abuse by priests. He was elevated to cardinal three years later. 

Thomas Groome, a theology professor at Boston College, said that of all the American bishops who've had to deal with the abuse crisis, O'Malley "has come closest to satisfying the victims." He sold the archdiocese's palatial headquarters and used the money for victim settlements.

A low-key personality who prizes simplicity and "isn't a hardened idealogue," O'Malley would bring a starkly different style to the papacy, Groome said.

"We'd go from Prada booties to sandals and no socks," he said. "He wouldn't be a blustering public personality like John Paul. You'd have to go back to John XXIII to find someone analogous."

Groome said that when O'Malley's name surfaced he initially laughed it off but now thinks he could emerge as the next pope from a brokered conclave where the cardinals from the northern and southern hemispheres square off.

Franco Origlia / Getty Images file

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, attends a concistory held by 
Pope Benedict at Saint Peter's Basilica on November 24, 2012, in Vatican City, Vatican.

"There are 117 cardinals and probably 116 of them would love to be pope," he said. "The one who wouldn't is O'Malley and that could be why he gets it."

Rocco Palmo, who writes the popular Whispers in the Loggia blog, noted that O'Malley heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' high-profile pro-life committee, giving him exposure outside his Boston archdiocese.

But he said it's way too soon to say he's on a short-list.

"It's a wide open field, and anything is possible," Palmo said. "But there are 117 voting cardinals and in the next 25 days, I expect to hear every one of those cardinals' names mentioned."

O'Malley is no Vatican insider and some will question whether he has the managerial mettle to accomplish a much-needed overhaul of its sprawling bureaucracy. And there's never been a pope from the Capuchin order of friars, who are noted for their service to the poor. 

It's been conventional wisdom that American cardinals have little chance of being the pope because of a global phobia of a U.S.-dominated Vatican. Allen says that may have changed because the country's superpower status has dimmed over the decades.

"The Americans have the second-largest voting bloc -- 11 -- after the Italians," Palmo said. "It's only natural an American name is going to appear at some point."

Previously, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was mentioned by many as America's top papal possibility. He says those predictions are off-base.

“Those are only from people smoking marijuana,” Dolan said Sunday at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

'Final pope' already running Vatican?

WND/ By Jerome R. Corsi

Did Pope Benedict XVI line up his successor and then resign to fulfill a 900-year-old prophecy that the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church would be history’s “final pope?”

The idea was posed by Tom Horn, co-author of the book “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here.”

As WND reported, Horn and his co-author, Cris Putnam, accurately predicted Benedict would become the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign.

Horn believes the last pope, called “Petrus Romanus” in the prophecy by Irish Archbishop St. Malachy, could be the man who is set to take over interim leadership the moment Benedict resigns Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. local time, becoming the acting Vatican head of state.

The claim centers on Cardinal Tarcisio Pietro (Peter in English) Evasio Bertone, born in Romano Canavese, Piedmont, the current secretary of state for the Vatican, who Pope Benedict XVI appointed Camerlengo, or Chamberlain, of the Holy Roman Church April 4, 2007.

In the period known as “sede vacante,” when there is no sitting pope, Bertone will be called upon as Camerlengo to serve as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Get “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here” at the WND Superstore

He will be in charge until the College of Cardinals attending the upcoming Papal Conclave in the Sistine Chapel select a new pope.

Did Benedict choose his successor?

Benedict XVI has made decisions that indicate Bertone could be, or at least once was, his choice for successor, Horn told WND.

Working alongside Bertone, Benedict appeared to be “stacking the deck” in Bertone’s favor Jan. 6, 2012, when he named 22 new cardinals. Most are Europeans, primarily Italians, already holding key Vatican positions.

As a result, Europeans currently number over half of all cardinal-electors, 67 out of 125. Nearly a quarter of all voters in the conclave will be Italian.

“When he appointed these new cardinals,” Horn said, “Benedict seemed to put his definitive stamp on an Italian successor, stacking the College of Cardinals, those who could be called upon to give Bertone the so-called apostolic chair of St. Peter.”

Horn said the idea was not Benedict’s alone.

Most Vatican experts attribute the large number of Italian appointments to the influence of Bertone, he said.

WND sources in Rome close to the Vatican previously suggested Benedict may have resigned in part because he wanted to have a hand, even if indirect, in influencing the selection of his successor.

The sources further argue that by selecting “Benedict” as his papal name, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, though not a priest of the Benedictine Order, sought to identify his papacy with Malachy’s prohecy that the next-to-last pope would be identified by the epithet Gloria olivae, translated as “Glory of the Olive,” knowing the Benedictine Order is associated by tradition with olives.

By setting up the College of Cardinals to elevate an Italian cardinal to the papacy, Pope Benedict XVI could help fulfill the Malachy prophecy, making Cardinal Bertone – “Peter of Romano” by virtue of one of his given names and his place of birth – the “final pope.”

On Tuesday, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters at a Vatican briefing that Pope Benedict XVI would have no say in the selection of his successor, telling reporters the pope “will surely say absolutely nothing about the process of the election” for his successor.

Benedict “will not interfere in any way,” Lombardi insisted.

The Third Secret of Fatima

Horn suspects Cardinal Bertone is at the center of a Vatican cover-up to prevent the release of the complete version of what is known as the highly controversial “Third Secret of Fatima,” allegedly given by the Virgin Mary in an appearance to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, July 13, 1917.

Bertone, who turned 78 in December, had a long history with Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI.

From 1995 to 2002, Ratzinger worked with Bertone as his No. 2 at the influential Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.

A few months after he was elected pope, Benedict asked Bertone to take up the position of Vatican secretary of state, the position Bertone holds to this day.

In January 2010, when Bertone reached 75, the age of retirement for Curia cardinals, he presented a letter of resignation to the pope. Benedict was adamant he needed Bertone to stay on as Vatican head of state, because he wanted to maintain “their precious collaboration,” as reported by Andrea Tornielli in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Benedict has steadfastly supported Bertone through a series of crises that have called into question Bertone’s integrity and honesty, including a money-laundering scandal involving the Vatican Bank, formerly known as the Institute for Works of Religion, or IOR. The scandal resulted in the sacking of the bank’s head, Gotti Tedeschi, a highly respected Italian economist and banker, as well as Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, who was criminally prosecuted for confiscating and photocopying more than 1,000 pages of sensitive Vatican documents over six years that he released to an Italian journalist for publication.

In their role of directing the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinals Ratzinger and Bertone released for the fist time to the public “The Third Secret of Fatima” at a press conference June 26, 2000.

In 2007, Bertone published a book, “The Last Secret of Fatima,” with a foreword authored by Benedict XVI, defending the publicly released text of “Third Secret” as the entire secret, arguing that in publishing the text, the Catholic Church had withheld nothing.

“The Third Secret of Fatima” involves a highly controversial End Times vision of an assassination attempt on a future pope that is occasioned by moral corruption and lack of faith among the clergy.

Pope John Paul II believed Our Lady of Fatima intervened to save his life in the assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square at Vatican City on May 13, 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to the three children of Fatima.

The current controversy began when Italian journalist and television personality Antonio Socci and American attorney Christopher Ferrara began publishing the claim the Vatican had refused to publish a second part of “Third Secret” that contained the words of the Virgin as revealed to the children of Fatima.

Socci and Ferrara contend the hidden text predicts catastrophes for the Catholic Church and the world that involve End Days punishment by God, leading to Jesus Christ returning to earth for Judgment Day.

Did Benedict XVI plan to resign in 2009?

Celestine V was the last pope to resign, in 1294, after only five months in office. He was a hermit who was greatly revered for his sanctity and his miracles.

On April 28, 2009, in a visit to view Celestine’s remains in the badly damaged Santa Maria di Collemaggio after the disastrous 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, Pope Benedict XVI left the woolen pallium he wore during his papal inauguration in April 2005 on Clement’s glass casket as a gift.

To mark the 800th anniversary of Celestine’s birth, Benedict proclaimed the Celestine Year from Aug. 28, 2009, to Aug. 29, 2010.

Benedict was the only pope to visit Pope Celestine V’s tomb, a sign many have taken that he had contemplated resignation for some time before he made the announcement earlier this week.

On Dec. 13, 1294, on the Feast of Saint Lucy, Celestine V read the following statement to the cardinals who assembled to hear his news: “I, Celestine V, moved by valid reasons, that is, by humility, by desire for a better life, by a troubled conscience, troubles of body, a lack of knowledge, personal shortcomings, and so that I may then proceed to a life of greater humility, voluntarily and without compunction give up the papacy and renounce its position and dignity, burdens, and honors, with full freedom. I now instruct the Sacred College of cardinals to elect and provide, according to the cannons, a shepherd for the universal church.”

As recounted by John Sweeney in a 2012 book, “The Pope Who Quit,” Celestine V declared himself “useless,” stepped down from the papal throne and removed his ring, tiara and mantle, handing them to the cardinals who had elected him; he then sat down on the floor.

He put on the dress of the simplest of friars – the gray habit of a Celestine hermit – and secreted away from the crowd outside to return to the mountains.

What will be next for Pope Benedict XVI? Is there a spiritual connection between the hermit pope and the scholar?

Malachy’s predictions

St. Malachy, an Irish saint and the archbishop of Armagh, who lived from 1094 to 1l48, is attributed with a vision of the last 112 popes from which he created a prophetic list. He named with a descriptive epithet each pope in succession from Celestine II, who was pope from 1143-1144, to the present day.

Malachy described the last pope as “Petrus Romanus,” or “Peter the Roman,” writing: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.”

In 1880, M. J. O’Brien, a Catholic priest, published in Dublin a book providing a “historical and critical account” of the prophecy of St. Malachy regarding the succession of the popes.

O’Brien understood that Malachy’s prophecy was declaring that in the reign of the pope identified as Petrus Romanus the end of the world would come, culminating in Jesus Christ descending to earth for Judgment Day.

O’Brien said Malachy’s vision occurred while he was in Rome for a month, visiting and praying at the Eternal City’s many historical and holy sites.

“The sight of the ruins of Pagan Rome, the tombs of the Apostles, the thought of so many thousands of martyrs, the presence of [Pope] Innocent II, who had been obligated to wander so many years in France and elsewhere on account of the anti-pope Anaclete – all this, I say, filled the mind of St. Malachy with deep and sad reflections and he was forced to cry out in the words of the old prophets: ‘Usquequo, Domine non misereberis Sion?’ – ‘How long, O Lord! wilt Thou not have mercy on Sion?’”

O’Brien continued:

And God Answered: “Until the end of the world the Church will be both militant and triumphant. Until the end of time the sufferings of my passion and the mysteries of my cross must be continued on earth, and I shall be with you until the end of the world.” And then was unfolded before the gaze of the holy bishop of Armagh the long line of illustrious pilots who were to guide the storm-tossed bark of Peter until the end.

Malachy gave his manuscript to Innocent II, born Gregorio Papareschi, who was pope from 1130 to 1143. Innocent placed the manuscript in the Vatican archives, where the document remained unknown until its discovery in 1590.

Through the past 900 years, various critics have questioned the authenticity and the accuracy of St. Malachy’s prophecy, often arguing the methods employed by some of Malachy’s interpreters in applying his epithets to certain popes have been tortuous.

In a modern 1969 version of Malachy’s prophecies, Archbishop H. E. Cardinale, the apostolic nuncio to Belgium and Luxembourg, wrote “it is fair to say the vast majority of Malachy’s predictions about successive Popes is amazingly accurate – always remembering that he gives only a minimum of information.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/final-pope-already-running-vatican/#b36VDllMVQkLAQUc.99

Pope’s brother: Pontiff was troubled by butler’s revelations

 

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Video-Lightning strikes St Peter's Basilica in Rome after Pope's

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'Cardinals are pretty shrewd': Secretive process to choose next pope to move quickly

nbcnews

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano,
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, center, talks
to other cardinals after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation
 Monday at the Vatican.

By Duncan Golestani, Correspondent, NBC News

The process of electing a new pope is clear, but few know what exactly goes on behind the Vatican’s closed doors. Pope Benedict XVI's announcement on Monday morning that he will leave office at the end of February may have taken everyone by surprise, but with the Vatican promising a new pope by Easter, events are likely to move quickly, experts say.
The new pope will be elected by the College of Cardinals, a body of around 120 men. They will vote at a special meeting, called a Papal Conclave, after Benedict’s resignation on Feb. 28. Those under the age of 80 will be eligible to vote in ballots at the Sistine Chapel. The vote is secret and conducted amid tight security.

Little is known about how cardinals reach their decision. Campaigning is not allowed, but a subtle form of electioneering still happens. Prior to the Papal Conclave, the cardinals meet in congregations to discuss the succession among themselves. Quite often they divide according to what languages they speak.

The question they are certain to ask: What type of pope does the Catholic Church need? The answers will vary according to whether they come from conservative or more liberal wings of the church. At this point groups will form around candidates, but in a subtle way. 

John Wilkins, former editor of international Catholic newspaper The Tablet, says candidates emerge without personal preferences being stated aloud.

“Cardinals are pretty shrewd,” he said. “They keep their cards close to their chest. They will make up their own minds.”

So what factors will the cardinals consider? Nationality may be important. There has never been a non-European leader of the church despite the continent being home to just a quarter of the world’s Catholics. In contrast, just over half of all Catholics live in Latin America.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was a serious contender when Joseph Ratzinger was chosen in 2005.

But nationality may not be such a pressing issue for the voting cardinals as it is for outsiders -- half of the cardinals are from Europe.

Instead, Vatican watchers think the cardinals will be looking for a strong leader. One criticism repeatedly leveled at Benedict is that he failed to get to grips with the papal bureaucracy, the Roman Curia.

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Now that Pope Benedict has stepped down, it's unclear who will replace him or even how Pope Benedict will be addressed in the wake of his departure. New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan is the only American so far being considered to possibly replace Benedict. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

Catholic scholar Michael Walsh says the cardinals will be looking for a leader who can govern the church.

“They need someone to sort it out. The only person who will work is a Curia official.” In other words: a Vatican insider.

A power base in the Vatican is certainly important. Ratzinger was one of the most influential men in the Roman Curia before becoming pope and was seen as Pope John Paul II’s right-hand man.

Although he will not be voting for his successor, there is little doubt Benedict’s influence will endure: He has filled the College of Cardinals with elderly, conservative European men -- just like himself.