Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Vatican seeks to temper expectations of big reform - 4/30/13
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A top Vatican official is seeking to temper expectations of an imminent reform of the Holy See’s dysfunctional bureaucracy, even though Pope Francis has made clear it’s a key priority...
...Despite tempering expectations, Becciu acknowledged in an interview with the Vatican newspaper that Francis’ decision to appoint eight cardinals to advise him on the reform was enormously significant.
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..."We learn poverty from the humble, the poor, the sick," he added,...shun the "idols of materialism" that cloud the true meaning of life. Photo
"We have no use for theoretical poverty," ...
...Francis has made it clear through his words and example that he wants clergy to live simpler lives, to serve the poor and shun temptations of power.
He has decided not to live in the spacious, luxurious papal apartments in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, opting instead for a small suite in a guest house, where he shares meals with other residents.
In his address, Francis appeared to be sending a message...also to bureaucrats in the Vatican itself.
Francis has inherited a Vatican rocked by a scandal in which documents leaked to the media spoke of alleged corruption in its administration and depicted prelates as fighting among themselves to advance their careers...
Read more:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/us-pope-poverty-idUKBRE9470IG20130508
Hans Küng - 11 May 2013
When Jorge Bergoglio took the name Francis as Pope, he did something no pontiff has done before: placed himself in the tradition of the Poverello. It is, says this leading theologian, a challenge to the Roman system, in terms of both spiritual and institutional reform
Who could have imagined what has happened in the last weeks? When I decided, some months ago, to resign all of my official duties on the occasion of my eighty-fifth birthday, I assumed that in my lifetime I would never see fulfilled my decades-long dream that – after all the setbacks following the Second Vatican Council – the Catholic Church would once again experience the kind of rejuvenation that it did under Pope John XXIII...
...Has Jorge Mario Bergoglio considered why no Pope has dared to choose the name of Francis until now? At any rate, the Argentinian was aware that with the name Francis he was connecting himself with Francis of Assisi – the thirteenth-century downshifter who had been the fun-loving, worldly son of a rich textile merchant in Assisi until the age of 24, when he gave up his family, wealth and career, even giving his splendid clothes back to his father. Photo
...Has Jorge Mario Bergoglio considered why no Pope has dared to choose the name of Francis until now? At any rate, the Argentinian was aware that with the name Francis he was connecting himself with Francis of Assisi – the thirteenth-century downshifter who had been the fun-loving, worldly son of a rich textile merchant in Assisi until the age of 24, when he gave up his family, wealth and career, even giving his splendid clothes back to his father. Photo
It is astonishing how, from the first minute of his inauguration, Pope Francis chose a new style: unlike his predecessor, he wears no mitre with gold and jewels, no ermine-trimmed cape, no made-to-measure red shoes or headgear, uses no magnificent throne. It is astonishing, too, that the new Pope deliberately abstains from solemn gestures and high-flown rhetoric and speaks in the language of the people, as lay preachers can...
Read more:
Pope Francis includes women and Muslims for first time in Holy Thursday service - LGBT hope? --- The Courage to Come Out – Gay Marriage Acceptance - 3/29/13
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2013/04/vatican-accused-of-sex-scandal-cover-up.html
Pope Francis - DON’T CALL IT LOVE! – Unless - Acts decisively on - SYSTEMIC COVERUPS - by Vatican’s CURIA & CARDINALS & BISHOPS – “LOVE does not rejoice in WRONGDOING, but rejoices in the TRUTH” - 4/5/13
Children Growing-up Gay & Vatican's Impact Harmful - GROUPTHINK - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - 2008
Krista Tippett - Speaking of Faith
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio Photo
Picking the pope: Holy Spirit or 'groupthink'? - 3/9/13
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/picking-pope-holy-spirit-or-groupthink
“Not Making Waves”
Roman Catholic hierarchy child sexual abuse “cover-ups” ordered by Benedict XVI to avoid public outrage & criminal charges falsely accused gay priests, WATERGATE? - 12/17/09,
reprinted 1/2/10 - revised 1/15/10
Excerpt:
A major problem with the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church is that there are no “checks and balances.” When the necessary “checks and balances” are not in place to protect any organization, it leaves “Not Making Waves” the rule that governs the hierarchy and opens the way to many devastating mistakes harmful to everyone and allows corruption to grow. Photo & more The following statements are harsh statement, but unfortunately they are heavily documented. (1) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy failed to protect children from child sexual abuse for decades. (2) They mistreated and intimidated the victims and their families who came to report the child sexual abuse, in order to cover up publicity of any child sexual abuse. (3) They failed to protect children by repeatedly reassigning the child sexual abusers to assignments where children would be present. (4) When the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children became public, globally, in 2002 they shifted the blame wrongfully onto gay priests. (5) By falsely, against known research to the contrary, blaming gay priests they implicated the entire LGBT community and how they are fighting against Marriage Equality. When the scientific facts known for decades about human sexuality have been discounted with no substantiated facts given to explain why, it causes many questions whether Benedict XVI and his hierarchy’s fight against Marriage Equality is more a fight to maintained the cover-up of the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children? Benedict XVI and his hierarchy need to clearly offer substantiated reasons why they are against Marriage Equality. This statement needs to be spelled out in great detail and follow Pope John Paul II’s test of truth of not separating science and religion. (6) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy’s continuous public propaganda against homosexuality encourages public intolerance towards LGBTQI adults and children. They continue to do this even though this summer 2 major Christian denominations approved LGBT singled and partnered people for all forms of ordained ministries. (7) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy’s continuous promulgation of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings that are harmful to children in their early childhood psychological developmental years, harm that is crippling throughout their lives. They continue this even after the beginning of 2009, the Family Acceptance Project research studies had shown the negative effects caused to youths, when their sexual orientation is not accepted, having health problems, suicidal ideation, etc. They ignore all the major medical, psychiatric, psychological and social workers national and international professional associations regarding their findings regarding human sexuality and sexual orientation. WHEN DO WE START PROTECTING CHILDREN?!?!
Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Read more:
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - Charged by the Vatican for “Coming Out” March 1997 - For the Protection of Children – 15 years later &
President Obama’s letter of appreciation - 2012
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2013/05/gay-catholic-priest-fr-marty-kurylowicz.html
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-perspective-on-lgbt-rights-begins.html
Do I reject my gay brother? Bishop Gumbleton - Homophobia - "Always Our Children" PBS 1999
Nothing in life is more precious than the intimate relationships we have with love ones. Healthy love relationships delight us give us confidence to take on challenges and support us in difficult times.
3 PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTS ABOUT GROWING UP GAYhttp://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2012/08/3-psychological-facts-about-growing-up.html
AUSCHWITZ -- CHRISTMAS 2008 -- A flashback far more severe than in --- BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
December 26, 2008 – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
2012 - GAY MARRIAGE
Truth, openness, wins election vs. Deceit, secrecy, resigns papacy
Related news media & research links:
Ratzinger, Reagan, Hunthausen and Gay Rights - 4/19/05
...Ratzinger's moves to undermine American bishops who sought to find a place in the church for gays and lesbians such as Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, who was also a leading critic of the Reagan administration's support for military juntas and death squads in Latin America...
Sexual Repression and Pornography
STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE
Introduction
by Deborah Du Nann Winter and Dana C. Leighton
Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st century
Direct violence is horrific, but its brutality usually gets our attention: we notice it, and often respond to it. Structural violence, however, is almost always invisible, embedded in ubiquitous social structures, normalized by stable institutions and regular experience. Structural violence occurs whenever people are disadvantaged by political, legal, economic, or cultural traditions. Because they are longstanding, structural inequities usually seem ordinary—the way things are and always have been. But structural violence produces suffering and death as often as direct violence does, though the damage is slower, more subtle, more common, and more difficult to repair. The chapters in this section teach us about some important but invisible forms of structural violence, and alert us to the powerful cultural mechanisms that create and maintain them over generations. Photo
Johan Galtung originally framed the term “structural violence” to mean any constraint on human potential caused by economic and political structures (1969). Unequal access to resources, to political power, to education, to health care, or to legal standing, are forms of structural violence. When inner-city children have inadequate schools while others do not, when gays and lesbians are fired for their sexual orientation, when laborers toil in inhumane conditions, when people of color endure environmental toxins in their neighborhoods, structural violence exists. Unfortunately, even those who are victims of structural violence often do not see the systematic ways in which their plight is choreographed by unequal and unfair distribution of society’s resources. Such is the insidiousness of structural violence…
Recognizing the operation of structural violence forces us to ask questions about how and why we tolerate it, questions that often have painful answers. The first chapter in this section, “Social Injustice,” by Susan Opotow, argues that our normal perceptual/cognitive processes lead us to care about people inside our scope of justice, but rarely care about those people outside. Injustice that would be instantaneously confronted if it occurred to someone we love or know is barely noticed if it occurs to strangers or those who are invisible or irrelevant to us. We do not seem to be able to open our minds and our hearts to everyone; moral exclusion is a product of our normal cognitive processes. But Opotow argues convincingly that we can reduce its nefarious effects by becoming aware of our distorted perceptions. Inclusionary thinking can be fostered by relationships, communication, and appreciation of diversity.
One outcome of exclusionary thinking is the belief that victims of violence must in some way deserve their plight. But certainly it is easy to see that young children do not deserve to be victims…
Read complete - Section II:
Winter, D. D., & Leighton, D. C. (2001). Structural violence. In D. J. Christie, R. V. Wagner, & D. D. Winter (Eds.), Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st century. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Peace Psychology Book
Psychologists For Social Responsibility
Milton Schwebel and Daniel J. Christie
Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century.
The reduction of direct violence requires not only interventions aimed at individuals, but also structural changes aimed at how societies operate, as Kostelny and Garbarino have outlined in their chapter. In this chapter, we examine the effects of structural violence on children. Structural violence is the unequal distribution of power and wealth within and between societies, and it has insidious effects on the health, intellectual development, education, and general welfare of millions of children. The cruelties of structural violence on children are often subtle, unspoken, unrecognized, and even normalized, regarded by many people as natural or “just the way things are.” This chapter focuses on how children suffer the cruel effects of structural violence, and why it has long-lasting consequences on their intellectual, social, and emotional development…
Read complete Chapter 10:
Christie, D. J., Wagner, R. V., & Winter, D. A. (Eds.). (2001). Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Peace Psychology Book
Psychologists For Social Responsibility
The case against Vatican power
by Geoffrey Robertson – September 8, 2010 – New Statesman
The Catholic Church claims the privileges of statehood, which gives it huge advantages over other religious institutions…
…The Catholic Church is the only religion that is permitted - under international law as interpreted by the Foreign Office, and at the United Nations - to claim the privileges of sovereignty and statehood. These are considerable: both the Vatican and its leader have immunity from civil or criminal actions for the damage that they do to others - whether by trafficking paedophile priests or by condoning fraud at the Vatican Bank (suspects can avoid European arrest warrants by staying within the "inviolable" walls of the Holy City).
At the UN, which has wrongly allowed the Holy See to do everything a nation state may do except vote in the General Assembly (where it is nonetheless accorded six seats from which to speak and lobby), the Church's advantages over other faith groups are enormous…
...At meetings to settle agendas relating to UN conferences on social or economic issues, Holy See diplomats have been exploiting their "statehood" to oppose the inclusion of any language that sends a shudder up their spiritual spine - "gender" and "gender equality", "sexual orientation", "unwanted pregnancy", "unsafe abortion", "sex education", "reproductive health", "reproductive rights", "contraception", "sexual health", "couples and individuals" and even "lifestyle". Sovereign statehood brings huge advantages over other faith groups and non-governmental organisations, which the Church uses to oppose the sexual and health rights of everyone and the rights of women in particular.
…But this is not the only illegitimate consequence of regarding Vatican City - or its government, the Holy See - as a state. As part of its "sovereignty", the Vatican claims the right, in all states where its Church operates, to deal with its priests and other "religious" under canon law - the set of ecclesiastical rules that includes disciplinary provisions for offences ranging from ordaining women and promoting heresy to having sex with children…
Excerpt below from:
Children Growing-up Gay & Vatican's Impact Harmful - GROUPTHINK - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - 2008
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2013/05/children-growing-up-gay-vaticans.html
Krista Tippett - Speaking of Faith
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio
Children Growing-up Gay & Vatican's Impact Harmful - GROUPTHINK - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - 2008
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2013/05/children-growing-up-gay-vaticans.html
Krista Tippett - Speaking of Faith
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio
...The reactions of those in the Vatican are in part similar to the symptoms known as “groupthink” a concept from social psychology. (Irving Janis) “Groupthink” identifies a mode of thinking that develops in highly cohesive groups, where members tend to strive to be unified, agreeable and cooperative with each other. It is difficult to imagine how such benign qualities in groups, like the Vatican, which has the most honorable intentions and dedication to strenuously labor for achieving the best decisions that will be the most beneficial for people to experience the fullness of God’s love and blessings, however, in reality the outcome can unintentionally be quite the opposite. Making decisions that become problematic, causing unintentional violence, even murder to millions of innocent children and adults. What happens in groups to cause such devastating results? It is this effort among members to be in unity and conformity, which can be easily be mistaken as group consensus. However, this kind conformity unintentionally suppresses critical thinking and motivates members to avoid conflicts, or being too harsh in judgments or criticisms. “Groupthink” can happen in many groups, families, communities, organizations, etc. However, in groups similar to the Vatican, this type of “groupthink” conformity is much harder to identify. Because it can easily be confused, when it is under the disguise of the most sincerest efforts to faithfully be obedient to Christ‘s central command to love, which is that we are to live as one, in love and peace with one another. However, in scripture Christ provides many qualifications to the type of love, he commands of us. In the gospels, Christ is portrayed in a considerable number of challenging confrontations, dealing with love, from calling Peter satin, to fierce physical anger shown in the temple that of using a whip and kicking over tables, to making the statement that he did not come to bring peace, to this world, etc. Christ provides a number of remedies for “groupthink, “ which are also supposed by Irving Janis, as remedies i.e. to name a few, critical evaluators (warnings about false pride, and all forms of greed, helping the least among you, etc.), checking warning signs (when all think well of you, security in possessions, if your light is darkness how deep that darkness will be), challenging insulation of an in-group (the blind leading the blind, do not invite people who will repay you, invite people who cannot repay you). Photo
“Groupthink” is a situation that occurs in groups vulnerable to making unintentional faulty decisions. Photo These groups are described as highly cohesive groups, members having similar background, insulated from opposing views from outside of the group, lack tradition of impartial leadership, responsible for making quality decisions, however, the rules for making decisions are not clearly defined. The symptoms of “groupthink” are not deliberately or intentionally done on purpose that is what makes them so difficult to detect. Some of the symptoms of “groupthink” are (a) the group overestimates their abilities, i.e. as in knowing all aspects of a excessively complex situations, subjects or topics (b) members feel pressured not to challenge established assumed group consensus, (c) among all members there is an unquestionable belief in the inherent morality of their in-group, that they willfully would not try to harm anyone (d) collectively the members construct rationalizations to avoid any questioning of the reasons for recommitting to past decision, (e) they form stereotypes of names and views of the “enemy groups” and their leaders i.e., as evil, stupid, weak, (f) the group discourages: individual critical thinking, reality testing, presenting negative feedback, (g) mindguards, group protect members from adverse information disturbing group shared complacency about morality of past decisions...
Excerpt from:
Children Growing-up Gay & Vatican's Impact Harmful - GROUPTHINK - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - 2008
Krista Tippett - Speaking of Faith
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio
GROUPTHINK
Symptoms
Groupthink is a psychological terminology used to describe the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive ingroup that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. It refers to a deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgments as a result of group pressures. Photo
The symptoms of groupthink arise when the members of decision-making groups become motivated to avoid being too harsh in their judgments of their leaders' or their colleagues' ideas. People would adopt a soft line of criticism and avoid conflict, even in their own thinking. At meetings, all members are amiable and seek complete concurrence, which is likely to be recognized erroneously as consensus, on every important issue.
The groupthink type of conformity tends to increase as group cohesiveness increases. Groupthink involves nondeliberate suppression of critical thoughts as a result of internalization of the group's norms. The more cohesive the group, the greater the inner compulsion on each individual to avoid creating disunity, which inclines him/her to believe in the soundness of whatever proposals are promoted by the leader or by a majority of the group's members. However, this is not to say that all cohesive groups necessarily suffer from groupthink. All ingroups may have a mild tendency toward groupthink, displaying from time to time one or another of eight interrelated symptoms. But it need not be so dominant as to influence the quality of the group's final decision. The eight groupthink symptoms are: Photo
Pressure: Victims of groupthink also apply direct pressure to any individual who momentarily expresses doubts about any of the group's shared illusions, or who questions the validity of the arguments supporting a policy alternative favored by the majority.
Self-censorship: Victims of groupthink avoid deviating from what appears to be group consensus. They keep silent about their misgivings and even minimize to themselves the importance of their doubts.
Unanimity: Victims of groupthink share an illusion of unanimity within the group concerning almost all judgments expressed by members who speak in favor of the majority view. When a group of persons who respect each other's opinions arrives at a unanimous view, each member is likely to feel that the belief must be true. This reliance on consensual validation within the group tends to replace individual critical thinking and reality testing.
Invulnerability: Most or all of the members of the ingroup share an illusion of invulnerability that provides for them some degree of reassurance about obvious dangers and leads them to become over-optimistic and willing to take extraordinary risks.
Rationale: No only do victims of groupthink ignore warnings, but they collectively construct rationalizations in order to discount warnings and other forms of negative feedback that, taken seriously, might lead the group to reconsider their assumptions each time they recommit themselves to past decisions.
Morality: Victims of groupthink believe unquestioningly in the inherent morality of their ingroup. To the extreme end, this belief could incline the members to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.
Stereotypes: Victims of groupthink hold stereotyped views of the leaders of "enemy groups," that "They are so evil that genuine attempts at negotiating differences with them are unwarranted," or that "They are too weak to too stupid to deal effectively with what ever attempts we makes to defeat their purposes." Organizations where competing groups co-exist should be cautious about this symptom because the damage of inter-group attack and/or mis-communications can counteract the totality of productivity of all groups.
Mindguards: Lastly, victims of groupthink sometimes appoint themselves as mindguards to protect the leader and fellow members from adverse information that might break the complacency they shared about the effectiveness and morality of past decisions.
Read more:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scie/Career/Wisdom/groupthink2.htm
Groupthink, by Irving L. Janis
Published in Psychology Today, Nov. 1971
Group Think Cartoons and Comics
'And we are firmly opposed to any form of group think.'
GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS
Decision Making in Groups
When It Comes to Decision Making, Are Two Heads Better Than One?
Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition
Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New International Version)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again.
1 Chronicles 16:30 (New International Version)
30 Tremble before him, all the earth!
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
1 Chronicles 16:30 (New American Standard Bible)
30 Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.
Psalm 93:1 (New International Version)
1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
Psalm 93:1 (New American Standard Bible)
1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Photo
Psalm 96:10 (New International Version)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
Psalm 96:10 (New American Standard Bible)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity." Photo
Psalm 104:5 (New International Version)
5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Psalm 104:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever.
Being Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development
By Richard Isay, M.D., 1989, 2009
Chapter 2, Childhood and Early Homosexual Identity
My “coming out” story
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
May 21, 2009
Injustice anywhere is a
threat to
Justice everywhere
Martin Luther King
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964
Martin Luther King Jr.
What you cannot do is accept injustice.
From Hitler – or anyone.
You must make the injustice visible
– be prepared to die like a
soldier to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed,
well considered and yet fervent public conviction that
the most deadly of all
possible sins
is the mutilation of
a child’s spirit.”
…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6
Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.
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