Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
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Catholic Cardinal welcomes 'LGBT Pilgrimage' to his Cathedral
May 27, 2017
This was a historic move for the Catholic church
On 21 May, Cardinal Joseph Tobin personally welcomed LGBTI people to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey as part of what he called the ‘LGBT Pilgrimage.’
A collaboration with a gay parish ministry group, this welcoming of LGBTI people in a Catholic setting is historic. In the past, marchers at the New York Pride parade were barred from entering St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue.
Cardinal Tobin, appointed by Pope Francis, worked with Redemptorist Father Francis Gargan to host this event. Featuring mass, a tour of the Cathedral, and an optional dinner, Tobin was happy to welcome any LGBTI person who chose to attend…
In God's Image to host LGBT pilgrimage to Sacred Heart Cathedral
May 5, 2017
N.J. cardinal offers historic welcome to LGBT community | Faith Matters
May 7, 2017
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
David Harvie was at a regional meeting in Brooklyn of the Interparish Collaborative, a group of about 15 Catholic parishes in the tri-state area that minister to the LGBT community. He was seated next to Redemptorist Father Francis Gargani and talked about how there are so many beautiful church edifices that deserve to be seen.
"I am a church architecture geek," Harvie said, mentioning, for example, the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
Gargani, who resides at the Redemptorist Provincial House in Brooklyn, said he would bring it up to the new Archbishop of Newark, Joseph Cardinal Tobin, also a Redemptorist, who was coming to dinner the next evening.
Soon after, Harvie would get the green light to have an LGBT pilgrimage to the cathedral on Sunday, May 21, with a Mass that Gargani will say in Our Lady Chapel, followed by a tour of the cathedral…
Read more: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2017/05/cardinals_historic_outreach_to_lgbt_community_fait.html
U.S. church wrestles with changing attitudes, pastoral practice toward L.G.B.T. Catholics
May 18, 2017
Last month, the bishop of Lexington, Ky., addressed hundreds of L.G.B.T. Catholics and their supporters who were meeting in Chicago at a New Ways Ministry national symposium, telling them, “Your presence and your persistence in the church is an inspiration for me and for many.”
Bishop John Stowe, O.F.M.Conv., told America that he accepted the group’s invitation because of a desire to engage in dialogue with Catholics who do not always feel welcome in the church. “Pope Francis talks about a culture of encounter, and that requires a lot of listening,” he said. “What I’ve seen among gay Catholics in my own diocese is a real desire to live their faith and the challenge to do so within a church that is not always accepting or labels them as disordered.”
Bishop Stowe is certainly not the first bishop to address a gathering of gay and lesbian Catholics, but his insights are emblematic of recent shifts in the relationship between the church and the L.G.B.T. community. Support for pro-L.G.B.T. causes, including same-sex marriage, has risen sharply among lay Catholics in recent years…
Read more:
LGBT Catholics & the Francis Papacy
A Complex Conversation
By John Gehring
May 22, 2017
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been in Chicago and San Francisco talking to LGBT Catholics and hearing from theologians, Catholic school leaders, parents, and others about how the church can do a better job reaching out to and learning from gay Catholics. One of the most hopeful messages I heard came from a Catholic bishop appointed by Pope Francis.
“In a church that has not always valued or welcomed your presence, we need to hear your voices and take seriously your experiences,” Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, told several hundred participants at the New Ways Ministry gathering in Chicago last month, “LGBT Catholics in the Age of Pope Francis.”
New Ways Ministry, founded in 1977 by Fr. Robert Nugent and Sr. Jeannine Gramick, faced sanction in 1999 when Cardinal Ratzinger—then the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later Pope Benedict XVI—issued a directive that prohibited them from “any pastoral work involving homosexual persons.” The two continued their pastoral ministry anyway. Nugent died in 2014, but Gramick is still active with the organization. Given this history, Bishop Stowe’s presence at the conference is a sign of the times.
Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has strongly defended the traditional church teaching against same-sex marriage. He also has been critical of what he calls the “ideological colonization” of some contemporary ways of understanding gender. Still, Francis has taken a dramatically different approach to speaking about gay and lesbian people than previous popes, who emphasized homosexuality as an “intrinsic moral evil,” as well as those American church leaders who have put opposition to LGBT rights at the top of their lobbying efforts. While most U.S. bishops still have not caught up to the pope, Cardinal Joe Tobin, appointed by Francis to lead the Newark archdiocese last November, recently welcomed a pilgrimage of LGBT Catholics to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. "I am delighted that you and the LGBTQ brothers and sisters plan to visit our beautiful cathedral," Tobin wrote in an e-mail to the group's leader. "You will be very welcome.”…
Read more:
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin lifting weights - Archdiocese of Newark
Coming to Newark Archdiocese: A Different Kind of Cardinal
December 22, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS — For about a year, the guys at the gym just called him Joe. He lifted weights in the early mornings wearing a skull-printed do-rag. He worked out on the elliptical, wiping it down when he was done.
Then one day Shaun Yeary, a salesman at a landscape supply company, asked him in the locker room what he did for a living. “I used to be a priest,” Joe recalled telling him. “And now,” he said, his voice growing quieter so as not to scare anyone in earshot, “I’m the archbishop of Indianapolis.”
“I was like, for real?” Mr. Yeary recalled. “This guy is benching two and a quarter!” — gymspeak for 225 pounds.
Joe, also known as Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, recently became one of the 120 men in the world who will choose the next pope. But he wants to be judged by his actions, not his lofty position in the Roman Catholic Church…
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Apple CEO Tim Cook's Private Meeting With Pope Francis
January 22, 2016
Pope Francis, who has famously said he doesn't know how to use a computer, met today with one of the most prominent techies in the world: Apple CEO Tim Cook.
While it's unknown what was on the agenda, a photo shows the two men exchanging gifts today during a private audience at the Vatican that took place around 11:30 a.m. local time.
The meeting comes a week after the pontiff met with Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt. Alphabet is the recently formed parent company of Google.
A lack of technological expertise hasn't stopped Francis from becoming the most high-tech pope ever. A Google+ hangout last year put the pope in front of a webcam and allowed him to answer questions from children around the world…
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Pope: 'Vatican media reform must embrace the challenge of change'
04/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged members of Vatican media platforms not to be afraid of reform, and to embrace the challenge of change that will enable them to bring the message of the Gospel to all.
Addressing representatives of the Secretariat for Communications (SPC) gathered for its first Plenary Assembly, the Pope said that to “reform is not just to whitewash things; it’s to give them a different form and organization”.
“It’s something, he said to those charged with overhauling the Vatican’s different news and media outlets, to be done with intelligence and what he called a good kind of ‘violence’.”…
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Top Vatican and U.S. church officials back new gay-friendly book
April 9, 2017
Father James Martin's new book, "Building a Bridge," includes several blurbs from top figures in the Catholic Church's hierarchy which is a surprising break from the past. This seems to indicate a sea change during the papacy of Pope Francis.
The Vatican’s point man on family issues and a U.S. cardinal who is close to Pope Francis have both blurbed a new book by a Jesuit priest and popular author that calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people.
They called it “brave, prophetic, and inspiring” and a “much-needed book.”
Such positive language from senior church leaders is extraordinary and another sign of how Francis is reorienting the church toward a more pastoral focus.
Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, by Fr. James Martin of America magazine, does not advocate for any changes in doctrine nor does it touch third-rail topics like same-sex marriage; nor do the churchmen who praise the book, to be published by HarperOne on June 13.
But simply using terms like LGBT to describe people is highly controversial for many in the church who insist that gay people be described as “homosexual” or “same-sex attracted” rather than by words that seem to affirm their orientation.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican office on laity, family, and life issues, praises Martin’s writing in his blurb: “A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.
“It will also help LGBT Catholics feel more at home in what is, after all, their church,” said Farrell, the former bishop of Dallas.
“In too many parts of our church LGBT people have been made to feel unwelcome, excluded, and even shamed,” Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who Francis personally picked for the New Jersey archdiocese, adds in a blurb.
“Father Martin’s brave, prophetic, and inspiring new book marks an essential step in inviting church leaders to minister with more compassion, and in reminding LGBT Catholics that they are as much a part of our church as any other Catholic.”
“The Gospel demands that LGBT Catholics must be genuinely loved and treasured in the life of the church. They are not,” writes Bishop Robert McElory of San Diego, also a rising star in the U.S. hierarchy, in another endorsement.
McElroy says Martin “provides us with the language, perspective, and sense of urgency to replace a culture of alienation with a culture of merciful inclusion.”…
Read more:
Father James Martin appointed by Pope Francis to Vatican department for communications
April 12, 2017
On April 12, Pope Francis appointed James Martin, S.J., America's editor at large, as a consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications.
The pope created the new secretariat on June 27, 2015, which consolidated all existing Vatican communications offices and operations under one department. Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, formerly the director of the Vatican Television Center, was made its first director.
"I'm very happy to serve the church in this new way," Father Martin said upon learning of the appointment.
"I learned of the news early this morning, when Josh McElwee of The National Catholic Reporter and Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service contacted me via Twitter to congratulate me. And given the importance of social media in the church today, that's a good way to find out good news.”
The secretariat is responsible for Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Centre as well as the Holy See's website and the pope's Twitter handle, @Pontifex.
In an interview with America earlier this year, Msgr. Viganò spoke about the principles guiding reforms to the Vatican's communications system under Pope Francis. “Christianity is not an idea,” he said. “It is an experience within a people in a given land and must relate to the cultural, social and communicative context in which it finds itself. And since today the system of communication is strongly digital, it must connect to that.”…
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Vatican Appointee: Some Catholic Saints Were 'Probably Gay’
May 10, 2017
Fr. James Martin responded to an antigay Facebook comment with an open-minded history lesson.
Fr. James Martin said some Catholic saints were "probably gay."
The Jesuit priest — who was appointed in April by Pope Francis as a consultant to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications — gave this history lesson in tolerance on May 5 to an antigay Facebook commenter.
Martin had posted a link to an article about a prayer led by Bishop John Stowe at an LGBT Catholic gathering coordinated by New Ways Ministry. An offended social-media follow responded, "Any canonized Saints would not be impressed." To which Martin replied, "Some of them were probably gay."
"A certain percentage of humanity is gay, and so were most likely some of the saints," Martin added. "You may be surprised when you get to heaven to be greeted by LGBT men and women.”…
Read more:
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SATURDAY, MAY 13, 2017
Update: - POPE FRANCIS - The phrase, “IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE LIKE THIS” shuts and resists the Holy Spirit, and this KILLS freedom, KILLS joy, KILLS fidelity to the Holy Spirit who always acts in advance and carries the Church forward. - May 8, 2017
“IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE LIKE THIS”
shuts and resists the Holy Spirit, and this KILLS freedom, KILLS joy, KILLS fidelity to the Holy Spirit who always acts in advance and carries the Church forward. - May 8, 2017 - POPE FRANCIS
Update: - In Surprise TED Talk -
Pope Francis -
Asks The Powerful For
“REVOLUTION of TENDERNESS” - “A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you.” - TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) 2017 Conference - Vancouver, BC
Asks The Powerful For
“REVOLUTION of TENDERNESS” - “A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you.” - TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) 2017 Conference - Vancouver, BC
Meryl Streep -
“The Responsibility of the
ACT of EMPATHY” - Golden Globe Awards 2017
“The Responsibility of the
ACT of EMPATHY” - Golden Globe Awards 2017
Frank Capra -
“A TIDAL WAVE of GOOD WILL" - “Meet John Doe” - 1941
“A TIDAL WAVE of GOOD WILL" - “Meet John Doe” - 1941
Read more:
Hidden Figures:
The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures
The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures
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POPE FRANCIS
"There's a phrase that should never be used: 'It's always been done that way.' That phrase, let me tell you, is bad. We must always be changing because time changes. The only thing that does not change is what's essential. What doesn't change is the announcement of Jesus Christ, missionary attitude, prayer, the need to pray, the need to be formed, and the need to sacrifice. That does not change. You have to find the way, how to do it, but it does not change. But the 'always done this way' phrase did so much damage in the Church, and continues to do so much damage to the Church.” 2017-04-27 http://www.romereports.com/2017/04/27/pope-says-phrase-it-s-always-done-that-way-damages-the-church
DISCORSO DEL SANTO PADRE FRANCESCO
AI PARTECIPANTI AL CONGRESSO DEL
FORUM INTERNAZIONALE DELL'AZIONE CATTOLICA (FIAC)
AI PARTECIPANTI AL CONGRESSO DEL
FORUM INTERNAZIONALE DELL'AZIONE CATTOLICA (FIAC)
Aula del Sinodo
Giovedì, 27 aprile 2017
DISCURSO DEL SANTO PADRE FRANCISCO
A LOS PARTICIPANTES EN EL CONGRESO DEL
FORO INTERNACIONAL DE ACCIÓN CATÓLICA (FIAC)
A LOS PARTICIPANTES EN EL CONGRESO DEL
FORO INTERNACIONAL DE ACCIÓN CATÓLICA (FIAC)
Aula del Sínodo
Jueves 27 de abril de 2017
As Earth Warms,
NASA Targets 'Other Half' of Carbon, Climate Equation
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Pope Francis invites scientists to the Vatican after Catholic Church realises the Big Bang is real - May 9, 2017
The Vatican has invited the world's leading scientists and cosmologists to try and understand the Big Bang.
Astrophysicists and other experts will attend the Vatican Observatory to discuss black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities as it honors the late Jesuit cosmologist considered one of the fathers of the idea that the universe began with a gigantic explosion.
The conference – which runs through the week – is part of an increasing admission by the church that scientific theories were real and not necessarily in contradiction with theological doctrine.
Pope Francis declared in 2014 for instance that God is not "a magician with a magic wand" and that evolution and Big Bang theory are real…
Read more:
Press Conference to present the Scientific Congress “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities”, 08.05.2017
Pope Francis greets Vatican Observatory conference participants - 12/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday morning greeted participants taking part in a conference organised by the Vatican Observatory entitled "Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities. The conference is taking place from 9-12 May at the Observatory at Castelgandolfo in the Roman Hills…
“…Before the immensity of space-time, we humans can experience awe and a sense of our own insignificance, as the Psalmist reminds us: “What is man that you should keep him in mind, the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:5). As Albert Einstein loved to say: “One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility”. The existence and intelligibility of the universe are not a result of chaos or mere chance, but of God’s Wisdom, present “at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old”. (Prov 8:22).
I am deeply appreciative of your work, and I encourage you to persevere in your search for truth. For we ought never to fear truth, nor become trapped in our own preconceived ideas, but welcome new scientific discoveries with an attitude of humility. As we journey towards the frontiers of human knowledge, it is indeed possible to have an authentic experience of the Lord, one which is capable of filling our hearts…”
Read more:
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Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
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“R E V O L U T I O N o f T E N D E R N E S S”
Pope Francis gives TED talk: 'We build future together’ - 26/04/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has broken new ground in the way he communicates his message when the first-ever papal TED Talk went on line.
TED is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading ideas in the form of short talks. What began in 1984 as a conference covering Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), today provides talks from a wide range of different speakers – except popes. Until today.
Those of us following TED’s annual Conference in Vancouver had been promised a surprise “world figure” who would deliver his 18-minute message on the conference theme, “The Future You”, alongside tennis superstar, Serena Williams, entrepreneur, Elon Musk, and chess champion, Garry Kasparov.
But no one expected to see the Pope’s face appear on the screen.
“I very much like this title – ‘The Future You’”, began Pope Francis, “because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a ‘you’…The future is made of you’s…because life flows through our relations with others”…
Read more:
In Surprise TED Talk, Pope Francis Asks The Powerful For 'Revolution Of Tenderness’ - NPR - April 26, 2017
The annual TED conference is known for featuring impressive speakers. Attendees at this year's event in Vancouver have seen Serena Williams and Jorge Ramos, futurists and artificial intelligence experts, health activists and the ACLU's executive director.
But on Tuesday evening, one unannounced speaker took the audience by surprise: Pope Francis.
The pope was on a big screen rather than onstage, and his address had been recorded and edited earlier in April, but still: even for non-Catholics, the bishop of Rome has a certain gravitas.
"Buonasera," he began, speaking in Italian throughout his 17-minute address from his desk at the Vatican. "Or good morning, I am not sure what time it is there."
At first, the pope's subject matter seemed familiar: "As I meet, or lend an ear to those who are sick, to the migrants who face terrible hardships in search of a brighter future, to prison inmates who carry a hell of pain inside their hearts, and to those, many of them young, who cannot find a job, I often find myself wondering: 'Why them and not me?' "
But his message quickly moved to the conference's core subject matter (technology and innovation), and seemed to be directed at the audience in the room: the founders of some of the world's biggest tech companies, as well as politicians, artists, entertainers, venture capitalists and leaders of major cultural institutions and foundations.
"How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion," Francis said. "How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us. How wonderful would it be if solidarity — this beautiful and, at times, inconvenient word — were not simply reduced to social work and became, instead, the default attitude in political, economic and scientific choices, as well as in the relationships among individuals, peoples and countries.”
The pope spoke during the session in which the 2017 TED Prize winner announced what he'll do with his $1 million prize. The audience watched in silence, says NPR's Nina Gregory, who watched from a simulcast viewing area near the packed theater.
"There were people around me who cried, others who watched, rapt, and still others who watched while writing email," she says. "He got a standing ovation in the theater."
Nearly 400,000 people around the world have already watched the pope's video and seen him tell the tale of the Good Samaritan, which he called "the story of today's humanity."
"People's paths are riddled with suffering, as everything is centered around money and things, instead of people," he said. "And often there is this habit, by people who call themselves 'respectable,' of not taking care of the others, thus leaving behind thousands of human beings, or entire populations, on the side of the road…
Read more:
What This Doctor Is Going To Do With His $1 Million TED Prize - NPR - April 25, 2017
It sounds like a fairy tale. A benefactor gives you a million dollars to make a wish come true.
Only it can't be a selfish wish. The TED annual award goes each year to an "exceptional individual with a creative and bold vision to solve a timely, pressing problem." (TED is a nonprofit dedicated to "ideas worth spreading" and sponsors the TED talks aired on NPR's TED Radio Hour.)
Last December, the 2017 prize winner was announced: Dr. Raj Panjabi. This Tuesday night, he shared the details of his "wish to change the world."
Panjabi, who's a physician at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, will use the money to help community health workers. They're non-medical personnel who've been trained to help with health care in remote or underserved places. They keep records, they remind people to get their kids vaccinated, they may test for diseases and provide some kinds of therapeutic treatment.
They're an underappreciated group. Some are volunteers, some are paid. They're usually not college graduates. And they're a group Panjabi knows well. He's the founder of Last Mile Health, whose 300 community health workers work with people in rural Liberia…
These health workers get some training. But they're not a gang of "cowboy workers," says Panjabi. In Liberia, for example, they're part of a team with a "nurse supervisor" to mentor them and connect patients to clinics when necessary.
Panjabi wants community health workers to learn more and do more, so he'll use his TED money to start the Community Health Academy. It'll be based in Liberia, where he lived until he was 9, with the goal of going global…
Read more:
His Holiness Pope Francis
Why the only future worth building includes everyone
TED2017 · 17:52 · Filmed Apr 2017
A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you, says His Holiness Pope Francis in this searing TED Talk delivered directly from Vatican City. In a hopeful message to people of all faiths, to those who have power as well as those who don't, the spiritual leader provides illuminating commentary on the world as we currently find it and calls for equality, solidarity and tenderness to prevail. "Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the 'other' is not a statistic, or a number," he says. "We all need each other.”
Read more:
Interactive transcript
[His Holiness Pope Francis Filmed in Vatican City First shown at TED2017]
Good evening – or, good morning, I am not sure what time it is there. Regardless of the hour, I am thrilled to be participating in your conference. I very much like its title – "The Future You" – because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a "you." "The Future You:" the future is made of yous, it is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others. Quite a few years of life have strengthened my conviction that each and everyone's existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions…
Read complete transcript:
The biggest takeaways from Pope Francis’ groundbreaking TED talk - April 27, 2017
Pope Francis became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to deliver a TED talk Tuesday. In the talk, part of TED’s annual conference, the Holy Father wove science, wisdom from Mother Teresa and the parable of the Good Samaritan to stress the importance of human solidarity…
Read more:
Pope Francis Urges TED Audience to Nurture Ties With Others - APRIL 26, 2017
Pope Francis urged an audience of technophiles and entrepreneurs on Tuesday to use their powers of curiosity and inquiry to explore and nurture the relationships that bond human beings to one another.
“How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion,” Francis said in a recorded video talk that was shown at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. “How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.”…
Read more:
Pope Francis' TED Talk Shows His Social-Media Skills - APRIL 26, 2017
Four years into his papacy, Pope Francis continues to be social media's hottest commodity.
Pope Francis gave a surprise TED talk via recorded message on Tuesday night. It was the first time a Pope has ever gave a TED Talk, and the latest development in a growing partnership between Francis’ Vatican and social technology companies. His message? “Why the only future worth building includes everyone.”…
Read more:
Pope Francis gives a surprise TED Talk, calls for a ‘revolution of tenderness’ - APRIL 25, 2017
VANCOUVER — Pope Francis used an international forum dedicated to promoting cutting-edge ideas to spread his own revolutionary message: “We all need each other.”
“When there is an ‘us,’ there begins a revolution,” the world’s most powerful religious leader told the room of scientists, academics, tech innovators, investors and cultural elites in a surprise videotaped message at the international TED conference Tuesday evening.
Keeping with the intent of the week-long conference to share strategies to make the world better, Francis’s contribution to that conversation was to urge the people gathered here to use their influence and power to care for others…
Read more:
POPE FRANCIS WARNS WORLD LEADERS NOT TO GET DRUNK ON POWER IN SURPRISE TED TALK - APRIL 25, 2017
Pope Francis called for a “revolution of tenderness” and asked world leaders to be humble in exercising their power in a TED talk broadcast at the organization’s conference in Vancouver on Tuesday.
The 80-year-old Francis delivered the 18-minute talk —which was pre-recorded in Vatican City and aired at the annual TED Conference—in Italian, with subtitles in 22 languages.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and the short talks, which are delivered by famous and nonfamous speakers alike, are published online and often reach huge audiences…
Read more:
W e c a n o n l y b u i l d t h e f u t u r e
b y s t a n d i n g t o g e t h e r,
i n c l u d i n g e v e r y o n e
Pope Francis
Disrespect invites disrespect.
Violence incites violence.
When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.
Meryl Streep
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An actor's only job
is to enter the lives of people
who are different from us
and
let you feel
what that feels like.
THE VIDEO & THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF
MERYL STREEP'S POWERFUL GOLDEN GLOBES SPEECH
Jan 8, 2017
Jan 8, 2017
Excerpt:
…Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. If you kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts. They gave me three seconds to say this. An actor's only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that, breathtaking, passionate work.
There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life.
And this instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose…
Read more:
Watch Meryl Streep Get a Totally Undeserving Round of Applause During Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars Monologue - Vogue - February 27, 2017
At the end of Jimmy Kimmel’s hilarious opening monologue during the Academy Awards, the Oscars host decided to take a moment to pay tribute to the night’s most mediocre honoree, Meryl Streep. Kimmel, of course, was making fun of President Trump’s recent Twitter rant, in which he called the 20-time Oscar-nominated actress “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood” after Streep delivered a scathing speech against him at last month’s Golden Globe Awards.
“Of all the great actors here in Hollywood, one in particular has stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances,” Kimmel said. “From her mediocre early work in The Deer Hunter and Out of Africa to her underwhelming performances in Kramer vs Kramer and Sophie’s Choice, Meryl Streep has phoned it in in over 50 films.” A mortified Streep tried to hide her face behind her husband in the audience. “Let’s give Meryl Streep a totally underserved round of applause,” he added. Instead, she got a standing ovation…
Read more & view video: http://www.vogue.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-oscars-2017-opening-monologue-meryl-streep-donald-trump-undeserving
St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
C A I R O, E G Y P T
Pope Francis heads to Egypt on Friday
with a peace and mercy
message for Muslims and Christians - April 27, 2017
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Pope Francis: English summary of General Audience - 03/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, during which he spoke of his recently concluded visit to Egypt.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters: My recent Apostolic Journey to Egypt took place at the invitation of the President of the Republic, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and the Catholic Coptic Patriarch. I thank all those who helped in its planning and organization. My meeting with the Gran Imam, and my message to the International Conference for Peace, recalled that peace is the fruit of an education to wisdom and a humanism that respects the religious dimension of our existence. Our covenant with God, grounded in the commandment of love of God and neighbour, inspires our efforts to build a just and peaceful civil order in which all have a part to play. Egypt’s great cultural and religious heritage gives the nation a special role in this work of peacemaking. In my meeting with the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, Pope Tawadros II, we reaffirmed our mutual commitment to unity and prayed together for the victims of the recent attacks. At Mass with the Catholic community, and in my meeting with priests, religious and seminarians, I saw the beauty of the Church in Egypt and I encouraged everyone to persevere in the hope of the Gospel. May the Holy Family, who once found refuge in Egypt, bless and protect its people with prosperity, fraternity and peace.
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The Lord softens those with hard hearts says Pope - 02/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) “The Lord softens those with hard hearts, those who condemn all who are outside the law.” This was the message of Pope Francis homily, during Tuesday’s Mass in the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence. He said that those who are hard hearted do not know the tenderness of God and his ability to remove hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh…
Read more:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/05/02/the_lord_softens_those_with_hard_hearts_says_pope/1309489
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Pope denounces rigid Christians, calls for meekness in the Church 05/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Even now there are people in the Church who use rigidity to cover-up their own sins. That was the warning of Pope Francis at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. Commenting on the first Reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, the Pope focused on the figure of Saint Paul who, from being a rigid persecutor, became a meek and patient proclaimer of the Gospel.
“The first time the name ‘Saul’ appears,” he said, “is at the stoning of Stephen.” Saul, he observed, was a “young man, rigid, idealistic,” and he was “convinced” of the rigidity of the law.
No to rigid people living a double life in the Church
He was rigid, the Pope insisted, but he was “sincere.” Jesus, on the other hand, condemned those who were rigid but “insincere”:
“They are rigid people living a double life: They make themselves look good, sincere, but when no one sees them, they do ugly things. On the other hand, this young man was honest. He believed that. I think, when I say this, of the many young people in the Church today who have fallen into the temptation of rigidity. Some are sincere, they are good. We have to pray that the Lord might help them to grow along the path of meekness.”
Others, he said, “use rigidity in order to cover over weakness, sin, personality problems; and they use rigidity” to build themselves up at the expense of others. Pope Francis said that in this way, Saul grew even more rigid, to the point where he couldn’t tolerate what he saw as a heresy; and so he began to persecute the Christians. But, the Pope said, parenthetically, at least Saul allowed children to live – nowadays, those who persecute Christians don’t even spare children…
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Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
P e a c e P r a y e r o f S a i n t F r a n c i s
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us,
with the Blood of Christ: all of us,
not just Catholics.
EVERYONE!
Pope Francis - 2013
An actor's only job
is to enter the lives of people
who are different from us
and
let you feel
what that feels like.
Meryl Streep - 2017
Disrespect invites disrespect.
Violence incites violence.
When the powerful use their position to bully others,
we all lose.
Meryl Streep - 2017
Margot Shetterly, is the author of “Hidden Figures.”
Margot Lee Shetterly (born 1969) is an American nonfiction writer who has also worked in investment banking and media startups. Her first book, Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016) is about African-American women mathematicians working at NASA who were instrumental to the success of the United States space program…
Read more:
Margot Shetterly, is the bestselling author who brought attention to the perviously untold story of some of NASA's most brilliant minds.
…The book “Hidden Figures” tells the true story of African-American mathematicians such as Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, Kathryn Peddrew, Sue Wilder, Eunice Smith and Barbara Holley, a cohort of women working at NASA during an era where their work environment had separated “colored” computers and restrooms. Despite the prejudice and discrimination of the 1940s through the 1960s, these women overcame the obstacles thrown at them and provided NASA with the calculations necessary to launch the first American astronaut into orbit…
Langley Research Center - is the oldest of NASA's field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States...
Museum Exhibit Reveals the NASA Langley Human Computers from "Hidden Figures” January 20, 2017
A new display at the Hampton History Museum offers another view of African-American women whose mathematical skills helped the nation’s early space program soar.
“When the Computer Wore a Skirt: NASA’s Human Computers” opens to the public Saturday, Jan. 21, and focuses on three women — Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson — who were illuminated in Margot Lee Shetterly’s book “Hidden Figures” and the major motion picture of the same name. Located in the museum's 20th century gallery, it was created with support from the Hampton Convention and Visitor Bureau and assistance from NASA's Langley Research Center.
“Langley’s West Computers were helping America dominate aeronautics, space research, and computer technology, carving out a place for themselves as female mathematicians who were also black, black mathematicians who were also female,” Shetterly wrote…
Read more:
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Karl Zielinski: Mary, a person with an engineer's mind should be an engineer. You can't be a computer the rest of your life.
Mary Jackson: Mr. Zielinski, I'm a negro woman. I'm not gonna entertain the impossible.
Karl Zielinski: And I'm a Polish Jew who spent the night in a nazi prison camp. Now I'm standing beneath a spaceship, that's going to carry an astronaut to the stars. I think we can say, we are living the impossible. Let me ask you, if you were a white male, would you wish to be an engineer?
Mary Jackson: I wouldn't have to. I'd already be one.
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Vivian Mitchell: Despite what you may think, I have nothing against y'all.
Dorothy Vaughan: I know you probably believe that.
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Katherine Johnson: There are no colored bathrooms in this building, or any building outside the West Campus, which is half a mile away. Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself! And I can't use one of the handy bikes. Picture that, Mr. Harrisson. My uniform, skirt below the knees and my heels. And simple necklace pearls. Well, I don't own pearls. Lord knows you don't pay the colored enough to afford pearls! And I work like a dog day and night, living on coffee from a pot none of you want to touch! So, excuse me if I have to go to the restroom a few times a day.
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Al Harrison: Here at NASA we all pee the same color.
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Al Harrison: So, er, do you think we'll get to the moon?
Katherine Johnson: We're already there, sir.
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“R E V O L U T I O N o f T E N D E R N E S S”
Pope Francis - 2017
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The Responsibility of the
A C T o f E M P A T H Y
Meryl Streep - 2017
Meryl Streep - 2017
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A T I D A L W A V E o f G O O D W I L L
Frank Capra - 1941
MEET JOHN DOE
Movie 1941
&
screenplay
by Robert Riskin
based on a story by
Richard Connell and Robert Presnell
Excerpts: - John Doe’s radio speech
…Now, you can't be a stranger to
any guy that's on your own team.
So tear down the fence that
separates you, tear down the fence
and you'll tear down a lot of hates
and prejudices! Tear down all the
fences in the country and you'll
really have teamwork!
I know a lot of you are saying to
yourselves: "He's asking for a
miracle to happen. He's expecting
people to change all of a sudden."
Well, you're wrong. It's no miracle.
It's no miracle because I see it
happen once every year. And so do
you. At Christmas time! There's
something swell about the spirit
of Christmas, to see what it does
to people, all kinds of people . .
Now, why can't that spirit, that
same warm Christmas spirit last
the whole year round? Gosh, if it
ever did, if each and every John
Doe would make that spirit last
three hundred and sixty-five days
out of the year, we'd develop such
a strength, we'd create such a
tidal wave of good will, that no
human force could stand against
it.
Yes, sir, my friends, the meek can
only inherit the earth when the
John Does start loving their
neighbors. You'd better start right
now. Don't wait till the game is
called on account of darkness!
Wake up, John Doe! You're the hope
of the world!…
INT. BROADCASTING BOOTH—BALL PARK — NIGHT
MED. SHOT: The place is a bee-hive of activity. Announcers walk about with "mikes" in their hands—all speaking at once—as they describe the scene below…
CAMERA PANS over to JOHN B. HUGHES.
JOHN B. HUGHES
And in these days of wars and
bombings, it's a hopeful sign that
a simple idea like this can sweep
the country, an idea based on
friendliness, on giving and not
taking, on helping your neighbor
and asking nothing in return. And
if a thing like this can happen,
don't let any of our grumbling
friends tell you that humanity is
falling apart. This is John B.
Hughes, signing off now and
returning you to our main studio
until nine o'clock when the
convention will officially open…
CONNELL
(sincerely)
It's a beautiful miracle. A miracle
that could only happen right here
in the good old U.S.A. And I think
it's terrific! What do you think
of that! Me! Hard-boiled Connell!
I think it's plenty terrific!
All right! Now, supposing a certain
unmentionable worm, whose initials
are D. B., was trying to use that
to shove his way into the White
House. So he could put the screws
on, so he could turn out the lights
in those lighthouses. What would
you say about that? Huh?
JOHN
Nobody's gonna do that, Mr. Connell.
They can't use the John Doe Clubs
for politics. That's the main idea.
CONNELL
Is that so? Then what's a big
political boss like Hammett doing
in town? And a labor leader like
Bennett? And a lot of other big
shots who are up at D. B.'s house
right now? Wolves, John, wolves
waiting to cut up the John Does!
Wait till you get a gander at that
speech you're gonna make tonight!
JOHN
You're all wet. Miss Mitchell writes
those speeches and nobody can make
her write that kind of stuff.
CONNELL
They can't, huh?
(then barking)
Who do you think writes 'em? My
Aunt Emma? I know she writes them.
CLOSE-UP: Of JOHN. His jaw stiffens, angrily.
CONNELL'S VOICE
And get a big bonus for doing them,
too. A mink coat and a diamond
bracelet.
JOHN glares at him, his rage mounting…
INT. DINING ROOM
FULL SHOT: JOHN enters and looks the men over appraisingly
as he goes toward D. B. They all stare at him.
D. B.
John—
(concerned)
Why aren't you at the convention?
JOHN doesn't answer.
D. B.
Is there anything wrong?
JOHN
(after a pause)
Oh, no. Nothing's wrong.
Everything's fine! So there's
gonna be a new order of things,
huh? Everybody's gonna cut himself
a nice, fat slice of the John Does,
eh?
(turns toward D. B.)
You forgot one detail, Mr. Big
Shot—you forgot me, the prize stooge
of the world. Why, if you or anybody
else thinks he's gonna use the
John Doe clubs for his own rotten
purpose, he's gonna have to do it
over my dead body!
D. B.
Now, hold on a minute, young man!
Hold on! That's rather big talk! I
started the John Doe clubs with my
money and I'll decide whether or
not they're being properly used!
JOHN
No you won't! You're through
deciding anything!
D. B. cannot believe his ears.
JOHN
And what's more, I'm going down to
that convention and I'm gonna tell
those people exactly what you and
all your fine-feathered friends
here are trying to cook up for
them!
He looks up at ANN—and starts tearing the speech in his
hand.
JOHN
(strongly)
And I'll say it in my own words
this time.
He flings the torn paper toward ANN—and starts out.
HAMMETT AND OTHERS
Stop him, somebody! He'll ruin us,
D. B.!
MED. SHOT: At Door. As JOHN reaches it, TED steps up in
front of him.
TED
(menacingly)
Wait a minute, young feller—my
uncle wants to talk to you.
D. B. walks up to JOHN.
D. B.
Listen to me, my son! Before you
lose your head completely, may I
remind you that I picked you up
out of the gutter and I can throw
you right back there again! You've
got a nerve accusing people of
things! These gentlemen and I know
what's the best for the John Does
of America, regardless of what
tramps like you think! Get off
that righteous horse of yours and
come to your senses. You're the
fake! We believe in what we're
doing! You're the one that was
paid the thirty pieces of silver!
Have you forgotten that? Well, I
haven't! You're a fake, John Doe,
and I can prove it! You're the big
hero that's supposed to jump off
tall buildings and things! Do you
remember? What do you suppose your
precious John Does will say when
they find out that you never had
any intention of doing it? That
you were being paid to say so?
You're lucky if they don't run you
out of the country! Why, with the
newspapers and the radio stations
that these gentlemen control, we
can kill the John Doe movement
deader than a doornail, and we'll
do it, too, the moment you step
out of line! Now, if you still
want to go to that convention and
shoot your trap off, you go ahead
and do it!
FULL SHOT: D. B. leaves JOHN and returns to his chair.
JOHN stares at him, unbelievingly.
JOHN
(after a pause)
Do you mean to tell me you'd try
to kill the John Doe movement if
you can't use it to get what you
want?
D. B.'S VOICE
You bet your bottom dollar we would!
JOHN
(cynically)
Well, that certainly is a new low.
I guess I've seen everything now.
WIDER SHOT: As JOHN's lips curl up contemptuously and he
steps up to the table.
JOHN
(throwing his hat
on the table)
You sit there back of your big
cigars and think of deliberately
killing an idea that's made millions
of people a little bit happier! An
idea that's brought thousands of
them here from all over the country,
by bus and by freight, in jallopies
and on foot—so they could pass on
to each other their own simple
little experiences.
CLOSE-UP: Of ANN. Her eyes light up happily.
JOHN'S VOICE
Why, look, I'm just a mug and I
know it. But I'm beginning to
understand a lot of things. Why,
your type's old as history. If you
can't lay your dirty fingers on a
decent idea and twist it and squeeze
it and stuff it into your own
pocket, you slap it down! Like
dogs, if you can't eat something,
you bury it!
CLOSE-UP: Of JOHN. His voice is pleading.
JOHN
Why, this is the one worthwhile
thing that's come along. People
are finally finding out that the
guy next door isn't a bad egg.
That's simple, isn't it? And yet
a thing like that's got a chance
of spreading till it touches every
last doggone human being in the
world—and you talk about killing
it!
FULL SHOT: They listen to him—unmoved.
JOHN
Why, when this fire dies down,
what's going to be left? More
misery, more hunger and more hate.
And what's to prevent that from
starting all over again? Nobody
knows the answer to that one, and
certainly not you, with those slimy,
bolloxed-up theories you've got!
The John Doe idea may be the answer,
though! It may be the one thing
capable of saving this cockeyed
world! Yet you sit back there on
your fat hulks and tell me you'll
kill it if you can't use it! Well,
you go ahead and try! You couldn't
do it in a million years, with all
your radio stations and all your
power! Because it's bigger than
whether I'm a fake! It's bigger
than your ambitions! And it's bigger
than all the bracelets and fur
coats in the world!
WIDER SHOT: ANN runs to JOHN.
ANN
(sincerely)
You bet it is, John!
JOHN starts to exit.
MED. SHOT: Shooting toward door.
JOHN
(turning to them)
And that's exactly what I'm going
down there to tell those people!..
EXT. CITY HALL ROOF
ANN
(crying)
John!
ANN
(muffled sobs)
Oh, John, darling. No! No!
CLOSE SHOT: JOHN and ANN. He stares down at her, blankly.
ANN clutches him, her head buried in his shoulder.
ANN
(muffled sobs)
I won't let you. I love you,
darling.
ANN
(in a desperate
plea)
John. Please, John, listen to me.
We'll start all over again, just
you and I. It isn't too late. The
John Doe movement isn't dead yet.
ANN
(excitedly)
See, John! It isn't dead, or they
wouldn't be here! It's alive in
them . They kept it alive. By being
afraid of it. That's why they came
up here.
CLOSE SHOT: ANN and JOHN. He continues to stand with his hands at his sides, looking at her, while she clings to him desperately. While she speaks, he turns his face from her and stares at the men.
ANN
Oh, darling. Sure, it should have
been killed before. It was
dishonest.
ANN'S VOICE
But we can start clean now. Just
you and I. It'll grow again, John.
It'll grow big. And it'll be strong,
because it'll be honest!
CLOSE-UP: Of ANN. Her strength is fast ebbing away. She
clings to JOHN more tenaciously.
ANN
(last bit of effort)
Oh, darling, if it's worth dying
for, it's worth living for. Oh,
please, John . . .
She looks up at his face, seeking some sign of his relenting-
but she finds none.
CLOSE-UP: Of ANN, who still clinging to him, lays her cheek
on his chest—and lifts her eyes heavenward.
ANN
(a murmured prayer)
Oh, please, God—help me!
ANN
(tensely)
John!
She takes his face in her two hands and turns it to her.
ANN
John, look at me. You want to be
honest, don't you? Well, you don't
have to die to keep the John Doe
idea alive! Someone already died
for that once! The first John Doe.
And He's kept that idea alive for
nearly two thousand years.
ANN'S VOICE
(with sincere
conviction)
It was He who kept it alive in
them —and He'll go on keeping it
alive for ever and always! For
every John Doe movement these men
kill, a new one will be born!
ANN
(ecstatically)
That's why those bells are ringing,
John! They're calling to us—not to
give up—but to keep on fighting!
To keep on pitching! Oh, don't you
see, darling? This is no time to
give up!
ANN
You and I, John, we can—
(suddenly)
No, John, if you die, I want to
die, too!
(weakly)
Oh, I love you so—
Read more:
Movie video:
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Pope warns against the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit
8 May, 2017
(Vatican Radio) Watch out against the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit and always be open to the surprises of God. This was the exhortation of Pope Francis in his homily at Mass, Monday morning, in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He was commenting on the episode of the Acts of the Apostles where St. Peter confronts the first Christian community regarding being open to pagans who joined the Church. Reflecting on the Acts of the Apostles episode, the Pope stressed that Holy Spirit always moves the Church and the Christian community.
God always surprises us as He is a loving God who accompanies us
The Pope said the Holy Spirit works miracles and creates new things and “obviously some feared these novelties of the Church.”
“The Spirit is the gift of God, of this God, our Father who always surprises us. The God of surprises… Why? Because He is a living God, who dwells in us, a God who moves our hearts, a God who is in the Church and walks with us and in this journey He surprises us. It is he He who has the creativity to create the world, the creativity to create new thing every day. He is the God who surprises us.”
This, the Pope explained, can create “difficulties” like Peter faced when he was challenged by other disciples because they knew that “even pagans had welcomed the Word of God”. For them, Peter had gone too far and they reprimanded him because according to them he was “a scandal” even to the point of saying, “You, Peter, the rock of the Church! Where are you leading us to?”
Don’t resist the Holy Spirit, saying “it’s always done this way”
Peter, the Pope recalled, narrated his vision, “as sign of God” that helped him “take a courageous decision.” Peter “was able to welcome God’s surprise.” Hence, faced with the many surprises of God, “the apostles came together, discussed and came to an agreement” in order “to take a step ahead that the Lord wanted.”
“From the times of the prophets until now, the sin to resist the Holy Spirit had always been there: this resistance to the Spirit. This is the sin with which Stephen accuses the members of the Sanhedrin: “You and your fathers have always resisted the Holy Spirit.” No, it has always been done this way, and must be done so. They tell Peter not to bring these newness, to remain calm… take a tranquilizer and calm the nerves… be calm … so the voce of God is shut. In the psalm the Lord speaks to the people: “Do not harden your hearts like your fathers.”
Ask for the grace of discernment to distinguish between good and evil
Commenting to Monday’s Gospel that speaks of the Good Shepherd, the Pope said that the Lord always asks us not to harden our hearts. “What the Lord wants,” he said, “is that there are others” other flocks “that do not belong to Him, but that there will be only one fold and one shepherd.” The Holy Father said that these pagans were condemned; even when they became believers they were regarded as “second-class believers - no one said it but it was a fact.”
The phrase, “It is has always been done like this” shuts and resists the Holy Spirit, and this kills freedom, kills joy, kills fidelity to the Holy Spirit who always acts in advance and carries the Church forward. But then the question - how can I know if it is from the Holy Spirit or from worldliness, the spirit of the world or spirit of the devil? For this, one needs to ask for the grace of discernment - the tool that the very Sprit has granted us. “How should one discern in every occasion? The answer, the Pope said, is the way the apostles did it: they came together, talked and saw the path of the Holy Spirit. Instead, those without this grace or those who did not pray for it remained closed and still.”
The truths of the Church forge ahead and develop with time
Pope Francis said that among the many innovations Christians must “learn how to discern, discern one thing from another, discern newness, the new wine that comes from God and the newness that comes from the spirit of the world and the devil.” “Faith,” he stressed, “never changes. It’s always the same. But it broadens and grows into a movement.” Here the Pope recalled St. Vincent of Lerins, a monk of the early centuries, who said, “The truths of the Church forge ahead: they are strengthened with years, develop with time, become profound with age, and because they grow stronger with time and years and broaden with time and become more prominent with the age of the Church.” The Pope concluded urging those present to ask for the grace of discernment in order not to mistake the path and be trapped in immobility, rigidity and closing of the heart.”
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Pope Francis: A priest who hasn't learned to carry the cross is “useless" - May 8, 2017
A priest who does not willingly embrace Christ's cross and who does not try to lighten the burdens of his people is not worthy of the name, Pope Francis told 10 men he was about to ordain.
"A priest who perhaps has studied a lot of theology and has one, two or three degrees, but has not learned to carry the cross of Christ is useless," the pope said on May 7. "He might be a good academic, a good professor, but not a priest."
During Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis ordained six priests for the Diocese of Rome and one each for the Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy, the Peru-based Family of Disciples, the Apostolic Prefecture of Azerbaijan and the Diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno, Italy. The men were between the ages of 26 and 38.
Pope Francis used the prescribed homily for the ordination although, as usual, he added comments.
To the admonition that priests nourish their people with sound doctrine, Pope Francis added a request that they speak simply and clearly.
"Don't give homilies that are too intellectual and elaborate," he said. "Speak simply, speak to people's hearts, and this preaching will be true nourishment."
Pope Francis asked the new priests to be particularly merciful with penitents in the confessional. "Don't lay on the shoulders of the faithful burdens that they cannot carry and that you couldn't either. That is the reason Jesus rebuked the doctors of the law and called them hypocrites."
"You were chosen by the Lord not to advance your career, but to carry out this service," the pope told the men. "Please, don't be 'lords,'" but pastors who model their service on Jesus, the good shepherd…
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2017
The KISS of LIFE - - - Cultural Differences - - Social-Environmental Norms - Influence on - Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years - - and - - SOCIETAL ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMOSEXUALITY -
- Argentina - vs - curia and hierarchy (Hitler & Nazi Regime and US Sen. Joseph McCarthy) - - from - TANGO & GAY PRIESTS (2013) - to - ROOFTOPS & ORLANDO MASS SHOOTING (2016)
K i s s o f L i f e
by Rocco Morabito, 1968 Pulitzer Prize
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I c o n i c W a r M e m o r i e s
Generational
V-Day and T h e K i s s
New York City's Times Square - August 14, 1945
G a y M a r i n e’ s K i s s
Returned from Afghanistan
Kaneohe, Hawaii - February 27, 2012
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Social-Environmental Norms
Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years
Societal Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
Short Film - La Furca Milonga Queer
A n A r g e n t i n e T a n g o
T H E T A N G O
B u e n o s A i r e s, A r g e n t i n a
A brief Tango History
by Murray Pfeffer
by Murray Pfeffer
The Tango, often called 'The Argentine Tango', is Argentina's contribution to the world of dance. The Tango came from the brothels and low cafes of Buenos Aires at the turn of the century. However, at it's very beginning, it was a ballet-like dance between two men, which, just a little later, became the obscene dance of the brothels where both men and women had the opportunity to rub their bodies together. Over the years, the Tango has changed becoming an elegant and stylish dance evoking a picture of high society, with women in sleek glittering evening gowns and men in tuxedos and tails…
Read more: http://www.triogarufa.com/tango-history.html
Tango Macho - “Los Hermanos Macana”
Tango: Theme of Class and Nation
Julie M. Taylor
Ethnomusicology, Vol. 20, No. 2. (May, 1976), pp. 273-291.
A favorite Argentine national pastime consists of debate over the supposed demise or latest claim to revival of the national dance. Is the tango already dead? Or are the dance and its music not only alive but one of the most complete expressions of Argentine character? Endless discussions of these conflicting opinions and the deep concern expressed on all sides over the death of the tango constitute the most important evidence that the dance, or at least its accompanying complex of music, song, and tradition, lives on in the minds of the Argentines. Other indications of this fact abound in a first glance at everyday life in the nation's cities and towns: the presence in every bookshop of current popularized analyses of the dance; the superabundance of recordings of each tango and each tango artist; the proportion of broadcasting hours dedicated solely to tango; the re-runs of old tango movies; and the use of the dance complex as the subject of new theater productions, art exhibits, and lectures.
An examination of the continuing role of the tango in Argentina today entails a definition of the interrelated elements of tango as folklore, song, and dance. The following investigation deals with three groups of themes: those consisting of the characteristics of the environment which produced the tango, those forming the moral or emotional base of the tango and explicitly stated in its lyrics, and those found in the choreography of the dance itself.
…Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the groups of tango enthusiasts is the fact that the membership is exclusively male. Not only that, but none of the female friends or relatives of the members show the slightest evidence of interest in the tango. Active interest in the dance complex appears to be entirely male; women develop an interest in tango only if they develop interest in an hombre tanguero. This seems to be a pattern which has not changed much over the years from the days when men danced together to the organitos and in the brothels through the era of the cafe-bar to the present. Fifty years ago Felix Weingartner wrote, "The majority of the women who dance tango do so quite badly, while the men are almost all excellent dancers" (quoted in de Lara 1961:99). In 1966 a porteno told me that he as a boy in the 1940s had learned tango when he and a group of boys became interested in the subject together. They all learned to dance by practicing with each other. "It was difficult to find women who danced well. I practiced with my sisters and my cousins but the girls did it badly. I did not have a good partner until I married and taught my wife.”…
“La Biela” - Buenos Aires
L G B T R i g h t s i n A r g e n t i n a
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Argentina are among the most advanced in its region. Upon legalising same-sex marriage on July 15, 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the tenth in the world to do so. The country also "has one of the world's most comprehensive transgender rights laws": its Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012, made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as hormone therapy, surgery or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". In 2015, the World Health Organization cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. The country also allows bisexual and gay men to donate blood and, in 2016, agreed to join the Global Equality Fund.
In Pew Research Center's 2013 Global Attitudes Survey, Argentina was the Latin American country with the most positive societal attitudes towards homosexuality, with about three-quarters (74%) of those surveyed saying it should be accepted. The country's capital and largest city, Buenos Aires, has become an important recipient of LGBT tourism and has been described as "Latin America's gay capital".
Law regarding same-sex sexual activity
Same-sex sexual activity in Argentina has been legal since 1887.:88 The age of consent is 15 for all sexual orientations…
A Media Luz E. Donato (Tango) Dancing
T a n g o
Julie Taylor
Department of Anthropology - Princeton University
Ethos of Melancholy
Para lafamilia Dickinson, que siempro estuvo.
What the tango says about Argentina, the nation that created it, illuminates aspects of Argentine behavior that have long puzzled outsiders. In many foreign minds, the Argentine tourist, the Argentine military, or Argentine politicians and their followers conjure up images that at first glance seem to convey arrogant aggressiveness often carried to extremes outsiders find inconceivable. What foreigners do not realize is that both public posture and private introspection constantly confront Argentines with excruciating questions about their own identity. Are they civilized or barbarian? European or Latin American? a respected nation or a banana republic? an independent agent or a pawn?
Answers to these questions would not seem to be forthcoming from a dance defined as the tango is by the world outside of Latin America. In the popular image of the tango, Valentino or a counterpart, dramatically dashing in bolero, frilled shirt, and cummerbund, flings a partner backward over the ruffled train of her flamenco costume. One or another holds a rose. Out of this Andalucian vignette of total surrender to music and passion emerges the idea that tango lyrics express similar exuberance. Even when the words tell of lost love, treacherous fate, and an unjust world, a romantic hero supposedly sings them, gesturing flamboyantly to broadcast his sensitivity.
In dramatic contrast, in the classic Argentine tango, closed-faced men practiced the dance with each other and then, fedoras pulled down like masks, gripped women against rigid torsos sheathed in sober double-breasted jackets. Their feet, though subject to the same grim control, executed intricate figures all .but independent from the rest of their bodies. Far from flamenco ruffles and roses, Argentines had invented the tango in the brothels on the edges of Buenos Aires as it thrust its slums ever further into the pampas at the turn of the century. The dancers demonstrated their skill by being able to perform like somber automatons, providing them with psychic space to contemplate a bitter destiny that had driven them into themselves.
The tango reflects this Argentine ambivalence. Although a major symbol of the Argentines' national identity, its themes emphasize a painful uncertainty as to the precise nature of that identity. For Argentines, this dance is deadly serious. In the tango, as in their personal lives and their politics, they tend to dwell on real or imagined affronts…
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D a n c i n g T a n g o i n B u e n o s A i r e s
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B u e n o s A i r e s T a n g o F e s t i v a l
July 2, 2013
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Above excepts from:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2017
The KISS of LIFE - - - Cultural Differences - - Social-Environmental Norms - Influence on - Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years - - and - - SOCIETAL ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMOSEXUALITY -
- Argentina - vs - curia and hierarchy (Hitler & Nazi Regime and US Sen. Joseph McCarthy) - - from - TANGO & GAY PRIESTS (2013) - to - ROOFTOPS & ORLANDO MASS SHOOTING (2016)
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Essentials of Buenos Aires:
Evita, tango and pope's hometown
Mar 28, 2017
Hundreds Tango Dance for Pope's Birthday
December 17, 2014
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C u l t u r a l D i f f e r e n c e s
Social-Environmental Norms
Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years
Societal Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
The Global Divide on Homosexuality
Pew Research Center - June 4, 2013
Overview
As the United States and other countries grapple with the issue of same-sex marriage, a new Pew Research Center survey finds huge variance by region on the broader question of whether homosexuality should be accepted or rejected by society…
…In Argentina, the first country in the region to legalize gay marriage in 2010, about three-quarters (74%) say homosexuality should be accepted, as do clear majorities in Chile (68%), Mexico (61%) and Brazil (60%); about half of Venezuelans (51%) also express acceptance…
Where Homosexuality Is Rejected
Publics in Africa and in predominantly Muslim countries remain among the least accepting of homosexuality. In sub-Saharan Africa, at least nine-in-ten in Nigeria (98%), Senegal (96%), Ghana (96%), Uganda (96%) and Kenya (90%) believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society. Even in South Africa where, unlike in many other African countries, homosexual acts are legal and discrimination based on sexual orientation is unconstitutional, 61% say homosexuality should not be accepted by society, while just 32% say it should be accepted.
Overwhelming majorities in the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed also say homosexuality should be rejected, including 97% in Jordan, 95% in Egypt, 94% in Tunisia, 93% in the Palestinian territories, 93% in Indonesia, 87% in Pakistan, 86% in Malaysia, 80% in Lebanon and 78% in Turkey…
Read more:
On Gay Priests, Pope Francis Asks, ‘Who Am I to Judge?’
July 29, 2013
ROME — For generations, homosexuality has largely been a taboo topic for the Vatican, ignored altogether or treated as “an intrinsic moral evil,” in the words of the previous pope.
In that context, brief remarks by Pope Francis suggesting that he would not judge priests for their sexual orientation, made aboard the papal airplane on the way back from his first foreign trip, to Brazil, resonated through the church. Never veering from church doctrine opposing homosexuality, Francis did strike a more compassionate tone than that of his predecessors, some of whom had largely avoided even saying the more colloquial “gay.”
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.”…
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Pope [Francis] Welcomes Gay Luxembourg Prime Minister And His Husband, At Vatican
April 6, 2017
April 6, 2017
This is extraordinary!
The Pope recently welcomed the world's only openly gay leader, and his husband at the Vatican.
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his partner Gauthier Destenay were invited by Catholic officials to the Holy See.
http://instinctmagazine.com/post/pope-welcomes-gay-luxembourg-prime-minister-and-his-husband-vatican
Pope Francis's Welcome To World's Only Openly Gay Prime Minister Rekindles Vatican Controversy
April 9, 2017 The photos of Bettel and husband, who entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourg's legislators approved gay marriage, being greeted by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Pontifical House and Personal Secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, have been applauded by gay rights organizations and with equal fervor criticized by their conservative Catholic counterparts…
EU leaders converge on Rome to rekindle sense of unity
March 24, 2017
March 24, 2017
ROME (AP) — Posing with Pope Francis before Michelangelo’s masterpiece “The Last Judgment” at the Vatican, European Union leaders started their weekend pilgrimage in Rome hoping that a visit to the cradle of their unity project could somehow rekindle the vigor of the bloc’s youth.
More and more, it looks like the EU’s future will have less unanimity and more areas where groups of EU nations advance on their own when faced with resistance from others on specific issues, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of founding EU nation Luxembourg told The Associated Press…
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T h e K i s s
“It’s a celebration of love–it’s just that simple”
“It’s a celebration of love–it’s just that simple”
S e e i n g T w o M e n K i s s i n g
Omar Mateen - Got
'V e r y A n g r y'
Orlando, FL - Worst Mass Shooting In US History
June 13, 2016
Pulse Nightclub Shooting Victims Sue Gunman’s Employer, Wife
June 14, 2016
Orlando gay club shooting: World pays tribute to victims with vigils and rainbow flags
June 20, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016 photo shows a makeshift memorial outside the Pulse nightclub,
a month after the mass shooting in
Orlando, Fla.
H o m o s e x u a l
S E L E C T I V E I N A T T E N T I O N
D i s s o c i a t i o n
Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was gay, former classmate says
June 14, 2016
June 14, 2016
The FBI is investigating reports that Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen used gay dating apps and regularly visited Pulse before he shot more than 100 people inside, killing 49.
At least five people have come forward saying they saw Mateen at gay clubs, painting a complicated portrait of the American-born Muslim whom the FBI believes was radicalized by terrorist groups.
One former classmate of Omar Mateen’s 2006 police academy class told The Palm Beach Post that he believed Mateen was gay, saying Mateen once tried to pick him up at a bar.
The classmate said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out, sometimes going to gay nightclubs, after classes at Indian River Community College police academy. One night, he said Mateen asked him if he was gay. He said no, because he wasn’t telling people he was gay at the time…
…“He said, ‘Well if you were gay, you would be my type.’ I said OK and just went on with the night,” he said. “It was not anything too crazy, but I take that as a pick-up line.”
He believed Mateen was gay, but not open about it. Mateen was awkward, and for a while the classmate and the rest in the group of friends felt sorry for him…
Jim Van Horn, 71, told The Associated Press that Mateen was a regular at the club. “He was trying to pick up people. Men,” he said.
While acknowledging he didn’t know Mateen well, Van Horn said: “I think it’s possible that he was trying to deal with his inner demons, of trying to get rid of his anger of homosexuality.”…
...The Los Angeles Times reported that Mateen attended the Pulse nightclub possibly as many as a dozen times before the rampage. Kevin West said he had messaged Mateen back and forth over a year’s time on the gay dating app Jack’d but never met him until he saw Mateen crossing the street about 1 a.m. Sunday...
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D i s s o c i a t i o n
S e l e c t i v e I n a t t e n t i o n
Jack Drescher, MD, 2004
What psychological mechanisms facilitate separating one's sexual identity from the rest of one's persona? Sullivan's (1956) concept of dissociation may be illuminating, particularly its most common aspect: selective inattention. A ubiquitous, nonpathological process, selective inattention makes life more manageable, like tuning out the background noise on a busy street. However, through dissociation of anxiety-provoking knowledge about the self, a whole double life can be lived and yet, in some ways, not be known. Clinical presentations of closeted gay people may lie somewhere in severity between selective inattention--most commonly seen in the case of homosexually self-aware patients thinking about "the possibility" that they might be gay--to more severe dissociation--in which any hint of same-sex feelings resides totally out of conscious awareness. More severe forms of dissociation are commonly observed in married men who are homosexually self-aware but cannot permit the thought of themselves as gay (Roughton, 2002)…
Read more:
17 Antigay Leaders Exposed as Gay or Bi
- January 27, 2016
- January 27, 2016
The internet was buzzing in January when an editor at a gay website in Virginia wrote that he'd encountered an antigay Republican lawmaker while on Grindr, without naming the person. Not every antigay crackpot is actually gay, but there's no shortage of those who actually are. Here are some hypocrites who just couldn't practice what they preached…
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Given Uganda's homophobia, why does it lead the way in Googling gay porn?
10 January 2014
Is there a connection, then, between homophobia and suppressed homosexuality, along the lines of "me thinks he protesteth too much"? Is it that homosexual desires, when shut out because of some sense of shame, can easily express themselves as a form of homophobia? When the US conservative evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, well known for his anti-gay preaching, was discovered to have been paying a masseur for gay sex, he explained that "I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war". Freud coined the description "reaction-formation", in which anxiety-generating feelings are masked by an exaggerated reaction in the opposite direction. There is some experimental evidence to back this up, with one study showing that 20% of those who self-described as "highly straight" indicated some level of same-sex attraction. This discrepancy is often put down to highly controlling parents who do not allow their children room to explore their sexual identity.
Yes, of course, there are many people who do not experience same-sex attraction who are anti-gay. But one of the features of reaction-formation is its paranoia and lack of proportion. And this is precisely what the scaremongering nonsense about gay people being out to get our children – a common line in the Ugandan debate – clearly demonstrates. In conservative religious environments where God is depicted as a powerful all-controlling parent, it makes sense to me that this reaction-formation will be particularly strong…
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/jan/10/uganda-homophobic-googling-gay-porn
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ISIS, many of their enemies share a homicidal hatred of gays - CBS/AP - June 13, 2016
REYHANLI, Turkey - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has frequently used the Islamic holy month of Ramadan - which is supposed to be for fasting and prayer - as an excuse to step up its slaughter of people it considers heretics.
Last year, ISIS supporters bombed a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and attacked tourists at a Tunisian beach resort, among other atrocities, during the holy month.
Last month, an ISIS leader put out a call for "a month of hurt" in the United States as well as Europe during Ramadan.
On Monday, the group called the Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen "one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America," and Mateen pledged allegiance to the group in a 911 call during the shooting. However there has been no evidence uncovered so far of a direct link between the shooter and the group's Mideast leaders.
Still, the Orlando nightclub massacre would fall in line with ISIS' goals, as the group has a history of targeting gays with brutal public killings…
The most recent, self-reported execution the terrorists undertook happened around May 7 of this year, according to OutRight. A "blindfolded young boy" can be seen in photos getting tossed off a roof and then pelted with stonesafter landing, with an audience of men and children taking part.
ISIS frequently reserves one of its most gruesome methods of killing for suspected gays -- throwing them to their death from building rooftops…
…Videos ISIS has released show masked militants dangling men over the precipices of buildings by their legs to drop them head-first or tossing them over the edge. At least 36 men in Syria and Iraq have been killed by ISIS militants on charges of sodomy, according to OutRight Action International, though its Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Hossein Alizadeh, said it was not possible to confirm the sexual orientation of the victims…
Read more:
ISIS stone 'gay' man to death after he survived being thrown off a roof
May 5, 2015
May 5, 2015
ISIS militants have released harrowing photographs of a gay man being stoned to death after he survived their first attempt at killing him.
Eleven men, one of them holding an Islamic State flag, held the blindfolded man at the top of a tall building, taking pictures on mobile phones before throwing their victim off the roof.
The killing, which supposedly took place in Raqqua, Syria – although other sources say it happened somewhere in Iraq – was watched by a large crowd.
A picture showing the man half way to earth circulated on Twitter over the weekend, with images of the injured man lying on the ground following soon.
The victim survived the fall but, badly injured and unable to defend himself, was killed by men, some of them armed, from the crowd who were queueing up to throw rocks’, according to the Daily Mail.
Read more:
ISIS throw 4 more gay men to their deaths - 5 October 2015
Executions were carried out in two Iraqi cities over the weekend
Islamic State (ISIS) militants executed four more gay men in Iraq over the weekend.
Two young men were thrown off the roof a building in Mosul under the pretext they were a gay couple.
‘On Sunday afternoon, Daesh called on the people of Mosul to gather in the square of Bab al-Toub in order to witness the execution of the two allegedly men,’ an eyewitness told ARA News.
‘The victims were taken to the top of a building and were brutally thrown off the roof.’
Also on Sunday, the Terror Monitor group tweeted photos of a separate execution of two ‘gay’ men, who were thrown from a building in Ninevah into a pile of cement blocks.
The photos show an imam reading out their sentence and large crowd of spectators:
Read more:
Islamic State group targets gays with brutal public killings - June 13, 2016
The Associated Press is reproducing an article on IS treatment of gays that initially ran on Dec. 2 and was part of a 2015 AP series of stories, “Inside the Caliphate,” which explored life under Islamic State rule…
Read more: http://wtop.com/middle-east/2016/06/islamic-state-group-targets-gays-with-brutal-public-killings-2/
In this picture posted on a social media account affiliated with the Islamic State group on June 14, 2015, IS militants stone a man accused of violating the extremists' ban on homosexuality after they threw him from a roof in the city of Homs, Syria. One witness of such a killing in Syria described to The Associated Press how the victim pleaded with militants to shoot him in the head rather than drop him from a nearby four-story building. (militant photo via AP) Photo
Islamic State group publicly killing gays in Syria and Iraq to show its 'ideological purity’ - December 2, 2015
REYHANLI, Turkey (AP) — Before a crowd of men on a street in the Syrian city of Palmyra, the masked Islamic State group judge read out the sentence against the two men convicted of homosexuality: They would be thrown to their deaths from the roof of the nearby Wael Hotel.
He asked one of the men if he was satisfied with the sentence. Death, the judge told him, would help cleanse him of his sin.
"I'd prefer it if you shoot me in the head," 32-year-old Hawas Mallah replied helplessly. The second man, 21-year-old Mohammed Salameh, pleaded for a chance to repent, promising never to have sex with a man again, according to a witness among the onlookers that sunny July morning who gave The Associated Press a rare first-hand account.
"Take them and throw them off," the judge ordered. Other masked extremists tied the men's hands behind their backs and blindfolded them. They led them to the roof of the four-story hotel, according to the witness, who spoke in the Turkish city of Reyhanli on condition he be identified only by his first name, Omar, for fear of reprisals.
Notorious for their gruesome methods of killing, the Islamic State group reserves one of its most brutal for suspected homosexuals. Videos it has released show masked militants dangling men over the precipices of buildings by their legs to drop them head-first or tossing them over the edge. At least 36 men in Syria and Iraq have been killed by IS militants on charges of sodomy, according to the New York-based OutRight Action International, though its Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Hossein Alizadeh, said it was not possible to confirm the sexual orientation of the victims.
The fear of a horrific death among gay men under Islamic State rule is further compounded by their isolation in a deeply conservative society that largely shuns them…
Read more:
Blindfolded, bound and thrown off buildings … inside the ISIS Sharia court’s treatment of homosexuals - 2nd December 2015
…“They are violating God’s laws and doing something that is forbidden in Islam, so this is a legitimate punishment,” said Hajji Mohammed, a resident of the
IS-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul. There the group has thrown men suspected of being gay off the Insurance Building, a landmark about 10 stories high.
…By employing the grisly method of execution, the Islamic State group aims to show to radicals that it is unflinchingly carrying out the most extreme strains in Islam — a sort of “ideological purity” which the group boasts distinguishes it even from other militants. The punishment “will protect the Muslims from treading the same rotten course that the West has chosen to pursue,” IS proclaimed in its online English-language magazine Dabiq…
Read more:
Isis has killed at least 25 men in Syria suspected of being gay, group claims - Tuesday 5 January 2016
Figures revealed as reports emerged of a teenager in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor was thrown to his death
At least 25 people have been murdered in Syria by the so-called Islamic State for being gay, a UK-based monitoring group has told the Independent.
Amid reports of a 15-year-old boy being thrown from the rooftop of a high-rise building in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor - seemingly the latest victim of the Islamist group's brutal crackdown - the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Independent that dozens of men had been killed by Isis jihadists.
Six have been stoned to death, three killed from direct shooting to the head and 16 thrown from high-rise buildings. Those that survived the fall, the group added, were then stoned on the streets below by scores of bystanders. Two of those killed were under 18.
It is alleged that the man who raped the 15-year-old, a senior Isis officer called Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi, was spared execution.
Instead, he faced a demotion and was forced to leave Syria and join the fighting fronts in north-western Iraq.
“The horrific execution took place in front of large crowd,” said Sarai al-Din, a local media activist who witnessed the murder, told Syrian news agency ARA.
Speaking to the news agency, civil rights activist Rawd Ahmed, said: “Daesh (another name for Isis) accuses people of being gay only on the basis of some superficial information without any investigation. Although the Islamic law bans homosexuality, the brutal punishment by Daesh has never been witnessed throughout history.”
Footage of terrified men in blindfolds being escorted to the rooftops of high-rise buildings and then being thrown to their death has become commonplace. It has led human rights groups to become increasingly concerned that this extreme violence is inspiring other militias in the war-torn region to attack men they suspect of being gay…
Read more:
Study: Islamic fundamentalism is not a marginal phenomenon in Europe - January 16, 2015
Last week's attacks in Paris, committed in the name of a god, reopen a badly-healed scar in Europe. The world once again turns towards religious fundamentalism. A new study shows that hostility towards other out-groups is not an isolated phenomenon among Muslims living in Europe; but nor is it a synonym of violence. According to the author of the study, Ruud Koopmans, director of the WZB Berlín Social Science Centre (Germany), "Islam is not the problem”…
…Although violence does not necessarily form part of this ideology, hostility towards other out-groups including homosexuals, Jews, and Westerners (in the case of Muslims) or Muslims (in the case of Christians) is evident. As a whole, Muslims are shown to be more hostile towards the three out-groups mentioned above, with between 25% and 30% rejecting these groups. Christian hostility is not as much as 5%.
However, independently, Christian fundamentalists show greater hostility towards Muslims (more than 50%) and towards Jews (between 30 and 35% of Christian fundamentalists were revealed to be hostile). In the case of Islamic fundamentalists, more than 70% of followers feel hostility towards homosexuals, Jews and Westerners.
Religious fundamentalism is closely linked to hostility towards other out-groups," says Koopmans. But social and economic levels also have a bearing. Individuals with a high social and economic status are more tolerant and less xenophobic…
Read more:
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IPA /ˈaɪsᵻl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria[note 1] (ISIS, /ˈaɪsᵻs/),[31] and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh (داعش dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕiʃ]), is a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows an Islamic fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam…
Read more:
ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and is an extremist militant group that rules by Wahhabi/Salafi law. In Arabic, the group is also known as Daesh. An example of ISIS is the terrorist group that is known for kidnapping western journalists and aid workers as part of their tactics.
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THE ORLANDO MASSACRE:
WHERE DOES THE HATE COME FROM?
June 13, 2016
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POPE FRANCIS - The phrase, “IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE LIKE THIS” shuts and resists the Holy Spirit, and this KILLS freedom, KILLS joy, KILLS fidelity to the Holy Spirit who always acts in advance and carries the Church forward. - May 8, 2017
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Legal Battle Over Gay Marriage Hits The Supreme Court Tuesday - April 27, 2015
…”It’s really not possible to say that the marriage definition Michigan has had since 1805, when it was still a territory before statehood, has all this time been irrational," Bursch says.
Bonauto replies that it doesn't really matter what people thought at the time the Constitution was written because the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, guarantees "equal protection of the laws."
"And this is a court that has recognized time and again that we have to look at current conditions in deciding what equality means," Bonauto adds.
Indeed, the Supreme Court has repeatedly said that marriage is a fundamental right that the state cannot abridge without some real justification. It has said that prisoners have the right to marry, and so do people too poor to make child support payments…
Read more:
Supreme Court Changes Face Of Marriage In Historic Ruling - June 26, 2015
In a historic ruling Friday, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court declared marriage a fundamental constitutional right not just for opposite-sex couples, but for same-sex couples too…
…In his first oral dissent from the bench since becoming chief justice ten years ago, John Roberts castigated the majority for short circuiting the democratic process.
From the dawn of history, he said, marriage was defined as between a man and a woman — but he said that on Friday, five lawyers had redefined marriage.
"Just who do we think we are?" he asked, adding that he and his colleagues were judges, not legislators. "Judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be.”…
Alito seemed to doubt the majority's assurance that people who still believe same-sex marriage to be wrong would be able voice those opinions robustly.
"Those who cling to the old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes — but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots," he said…
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, said the court is ignoring reality and plunging itself back into a Roe v. Wade quagmire.
"Just as we saw in 1973 on the abortion issue, the court said they were going to solve this issue once and for all; 42 years later they have not solved that issue," Perkins said. "It's an issue in every election from president on down, and this will be too."
Perkins said that, for evangelicals, marriage between a man and a woman is non-negotiable…
Read more:
Supreme Court's Same-Sex Marriage Ruling: A Reaction - June 26, 2015
TOTENBERG: Well, the chief justice said that - he spoke for the four in the minority. And he said, from the dawn of human history, marriage was defined as between a man and a woman. But today, five lawyers have redefined marriage. Just who do we think we are? I have no choice but to dissent…
…In contrast, Justice Kennedy said that - he acknowledged that the - from the dawn of human history, marriage had been defined as between a man and a woman. But he said in recent decades, that has begun to change and that largely, marriage was between a man and woman because homosexuality had been condemned, criminalized, deemed an illness. And people who - of the same sex who shared intimacy could not reveal what was in their hearts. And so today he said - and then he said that hundreds of thousands of children were living with same-sex couples, being raised by same-sex couples. They were stigmatized, humiliated, and he said - he went on to say that many opposed to same-sex marriage hold sincere beliefs, but when sincere beliefs become law, they cannot deny the liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. The court now holds that same-sex couples may marry in all states…
Read more:
In Same-Sex Marriage Decision, Supreme Court Bitterly Divided - June 27, 2015
TOTENBERG: Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion for the Court majority would tell Obergefell's story and the story of two other couples. Rights guaranteed by the Constitution are not stagnant, said Justice Kennedy. Marriage used to be arranged. Women were deemed to be without rights and totally subservient to their husbands. And until 1967, interracial marriages were a crime in many states. The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own time, and the writers of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution knew that, he said. So they entrusted to future generations the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.
In the modern world, Kennedy concluded, marriage is a fundamental constitutional right, not just for straight couples but for same-sex couples, too. No union is more profound than marriage, he said, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. And just as same-sex couples are entitled to the happiness and benefits of marriage, he said, so too are the hundreds of thousands of children being raised by these couples, children who suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in his first oral dissent during his 10 years on the Court, blasted the decision as a naked power grab that short-circuited the principle of democratic self-governance. Today, five lawyers have redefined marriage, he said. Just who do they think they are? This is a court, not a legislature. We have the power to say what the law is, not what it should be.
Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito each wrote separate dissents as well. But it was the usually conservative Kennedy who swung the outcome of the case in the other direction, as he has in every other gay-rights decision of the past two decades. In practical terms, the high court decision means that within days or weeks, same-sex marriage should be legal in every state in the nation…
…The Supreme Court's decision follows a revolution in public attitudes more rapid and dramatic than at any time in memory. In 1996, on average, public opinion polls showed only 27 percent of the public favoring legalization. This year, although people in some states still adamantly resisted gay marriage, polls put the approval number nationally at well over 50 percent.
What's more, young people of all political stripes favored gay marriage, and the trend in every demographic and religious group was towards approval.
Still, yesterday's decision was stunning in the context of history. Prior to 2003, no state had legalized same-sex marriage, and before 2000, no country had done it. Now 21 countries have legalized same-sex marriage and the United States isn't even the first this month. Two weeks ago, the Mexican Supreme Court reached a similar decision. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
Read more:
http://www.npr.org/2015/06/27/418011737/in-same-sex-marriage-decision-supreme-court-bitterly-divided
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UPDATE: 5/15/17
The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, 1930
Pope: Christians are always on the go in their journey to meet the Lord
11/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said the life of every Christian is a journey and a process during which to deepen the faith…
During the course of history, Pope Francis said, many of our conceptions have changed. Slavery, for example, was a practice that was accepted; in time we have come to understand that it is a mortal sin…
This journey undertaken "to understand, to deepen our understanding of Jesus and to deepen our faith” serves also, Francis explained, “to understand moral teaching, the Commandments.”
He pointed out that some things that “once seemed normal and not sinful, are today conceived as mortal sins:
"Think of slavery: at school they told us what they did with the slaves taking them from one place and selling them in another…. That is a mortal sin” he said.
But that, he said, is what we believe today. Back then it was deemed acceptable because people believed that some did not have a soul.
It was necessary, the Pope said, to move on to better understand the faith and to better understand morality.
And reflecting bitterly on the fact that today “there are no slaves”, Pope Francis pointed out there are in fact many more of them…. but at least, he said, we know that to enslave someone is to commit a mortal sin.
The same goes for the death penalty: “once it was considered normality; today we say that it is inadmissible” he said…
Read more:
Pope Francis greets Vatican Observatory conference participants
12/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday morning greeted participants taking part in a conference organised by the Vatican Observatory entitled "Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities. The conference is taking place from 9-12 May at the Observatory at Castelgandolfo in the Roman Hills.
Greeting of His Holiness Pope Francis to participants at the Conference organized by the Vatican Observatory
12 maggio 2017
Dear friends,
I extend a heartfelt welcome to you all, and I thank Brother Guy Consolmagno for his kind words.
The issues you have been addressing during these days at Castel Gandolfo are of particular interest to the Church, because they have to do with questions that concern us deeply, such as the beginning of the universe and its evolution, and the profound structure of space and time, to name but a few. It is clear that these questions have a particular relevance for science, philosophy, theology and for the spiritual life. They represent an arena in which these different disciplines meet and sometimes clash.
As both a Catholic priest and a cosmologist, Mgr Georges Lemaître knew well the creative tension between faith and science, and always defended the clear methodological distinction between the fields of science and theology. While integrating them in his own life, he viewed them as distinct areas of competence. That distinction, already present in Saint Thomas Aquinas, avoids a short-circuiting that is as harmful to science as it is to faith.
Before the immensity of space-time, we humans can experience awe and a sense of our own insignificance, as the Psalmist reminds us: “What is man that you should keep him in mind, the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:5). As Albert Einstein loved to say: “One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility”. The existence and intelligibility of the universe are not a result of chaos or mere chance, but of God’s Wisdom, present “at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old”. (Prov 8:22).
I am deeply appreciative of your work, and I encourage you to persevere in your search for truth. For we ought never to fear truth, nor become trapped in our own preconceived ideas, but welcome new scientific discoveries with an attitude of humility. As we journey towards the frontiers of human knowledge, it is indeed possible to have an authentic experience of the Lord, one which is capable of filling our hearts.
Read more:
Newly Discovered Galaxy Is 4 Billion Light Years From Earth
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Science +
+ Religion = Truth = L O V E
On Gay Priests “Who am I to Judge?”
July 29, 2013
Pope Francis
We have to find a new balance; otherwise
even the moral edifice of the church is likely to
FALL LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS,
losing the freshness and fragrance
of the Gospel.
Pope Francis
SCIENCE can purify religion from error and superstition;
RELIGION can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
Each can draw the other into a wider world,
a world in which both can flourish.
For the truth of the matter is that the Church and the scientific community will inevitably interact; their options
DO NOT include ISOLATION.
Pope John Paul II - 1988
…TRUTH is the light that gives meaning and value to CHARITY. That light is both the light of REASON and the light of FAITH, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as GIFT, acceptance, and communion. WITHOUT truth, charity degenerates into SENTIMENTALITY. Love becomes an EMPTY SHELL, to be filled in an ARBITRARY way. In a CULTURE without truth, this is the FATAL risk facing love. It FALLS prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted,to the point where it comes to MEAN the opposite. Truth FREES charity from the constraints of an EMOTIONALISM that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a FIDEISM that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word…
REASON always stands in need of being purified by faith: this also holds true for political reason, which must not consider itself OMNIPOTENT. For its part, RELIGION always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentically human face. Any breach in this dialogue comes only at an enormous price to human development…
Pope Benedict XVI 2007 2009
Who Overdosed On Stupid Pills?!? - - Congregation for Clergy - Some Gift!!! Given Just Before Christmas - Lonely Dissociated Repressed Homosexual Old Men - Missing and Fighting Off Thoughts of A Loving Same-Sex Relationship
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Congregation for Clergy
The Gift of the Priestly Vocation
dated Thursday, December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception
Vatican reiterates that homosexuals shouldn’t be priests - Dec 7, 2016
…has reiterated that men with “deeply rooted homosexual tendencies” shouldn’t be admitted into Catholic seminaries and, therefore, shouldn’t become Catholic priests…
In fairness - this statement should be stated - that men with “deeply rooted heterosexual tendencies” shouldn’t be admitted into Catholic seminaries and, therefore, shouldn’t become Catholic priests.
However, the statement made in Dec. 2016 - not only speaks to the hypocrisy of the members of the curia and hierarchy of the Congregation for the Clergy who authored this baloney, but to all for allowing it to be published without public protest. The statement is not only indirectly an action of voluntary ignorance (resulting from negligence regarding something one should have known) of the science on sexual orientation researched and authoritatively accepted - over the 60 past years but it blatantly reaffirms the entrenched corruption of dissociated homosexual culture existing among the majority of the members of the curia and hierarchy.
In addition - this statement made by the curia and hierarchy - publicly defies the ENCYCLICAL LETTERS - of both Saint Pope John Paul II, FIDES ET RATIO, 1998 and Benedict XVI, CARITAS IN VERITATE, 2007 (curial delayed publication till 2009), including John Paul II letter 1988 to the Reverend George V. Coyne SJ, Director of the Vatican Observatory: - all emphatically stating that science and religion must never be separated - an open and ongoing dialogue must be maintained. Benedict XVI explained that truth shines forth from both the light of faith and the light of reason and that without truth there is no love. Benedict XVI makes the stern warning, as if speaking from experiences of growing up in Nazi Germany, stating “Any breach in this dialogue comes only at an enormous price to human development…”
It is a wonder that lightning didn’t come down and once again - strike the top of Saint Peter’s Basilica, as it did twice just hours after Benedict XVI resigned on February 11, 2013. It is just like - Hitler and the Nazi regime - how they built their edifice of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 based on Hitler’s arbitrary and irrational formulation of the pseudoscience of racial purity and presented it in pseudo-religious terminology. It was this false dehumanizing edifice of Nazism that led them to starting WWII and that ended falling, destroying them and much of Germany. By the end of World War II more than 70 million people died, equivalent to “wiping-out” the entire populations of both (a) the state of Michigan with 10 million people and (b) the country of Italy with 60 million people. It is “considered the single most destructive event in human history (Less Than Human - by David Livingstone Smith - The Psychology Of Cruelty - http://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134956180/criminals-see-their-victims-as-less-than-human).” The Second World War from 1939-to 1945 was a global war. It was the most widespread war in history that involved over 100 million people, activated the total resources (economic, industrial, scientific capabilities) of 30 countries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II)..
Hitler's Place in History
Professor of Modern History at Sheffield University
Wednesday 27th April 2005
…How, then, should we look upon Hitler’s place in history? Primarily, as the inspiration of the most lethal and destructive war in history, and of the most terrible genocide the world has ever seen. He left behind him not just physical, but also moral, ruination such as history has never previously experienced. He represented an extreme pathology of modern society. He showed us the most radical face of modern inhumanity – how an advanced society can undergo a breathtaking descent into modern barbarity that’s quite without precedent. That’s what, with the passage of time, we can see was historically defining about Hitler. Never before Hitler’s time had we seen so clearly what human beings are capable of…
…we shouldn’t mystify Hitler’s personality. The uniqueness of Nazism can’t be reduced to that strange personality. Another time, another place, and Hitler would have had no impact at all. He couldn’t have derailed a modern society without that society itself making a major contribution to its own fate… We shouldn’t be complacent about the future. New forms of fascism and racial intolerance rightly appal and worry us…
…what we can do is to remind ourselves of the essential point about Hitler: he represented the most fundamental and frontal assault ever launched on all that we associate with humanity and civilisation.
Hitler and the Uniqueness of Nazism
Ian Kershaw Journal of Contemporary History 2004
Excerpts below:
Nazi Concentration Camps
NAZI CAMPS
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Update: January 13, 2017
Hitler - Nazis Exploit Social Homosexual Prejudices
1. Woo Conservative Support - Becomes Dictator
2. Silence, Remove, Destroy - Anti-nazism Catholic Priests
Hitler and the Nazi Party exploited the ignorance of the social homosexual prejudices of Germany: first, to woo the political support of the conservative elites to gain dictatorship power through the passing of the Enabling Act, March 1933, and second, to silence, remove and destroy the anti-nazi opposition of the Catholic clergy.
Hitler and the Nazi Party rise to power
Unrecognized Potential:
Media Framing of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1930-1933
Katherine Blunt - 2015
[Hitler]…upon moving to Vienna in 1908…Hitler was poor and unsuccessful by most standards, but his time there was nonetheless of critical importance to his political success. While there, he studied closely the successes and failures of Austria's three major political parties and learned to inculcate the masses using propaganda and what he called "spiritual and physical terror," a tactic meant to coerce a populace into mental and physical submission by exploiting human weakness…
Read more:
Blind optimism, 14 November 2007
As Hitler shouted his way up the political ranks in Germany, the Guardian and Observer misjudged the extent of his early influence, writes Sir Ian Kershaw
By the time the Nazi party came to prominence by winning 107 seats (18.3% of the votes) in the Reichstag election of September 14 1930, British newspapers could not ignore Hitler and his movement. But, as Brigitte Granzow showed long ago in her book, A mirror of Nazism, the reportage was replete with distortions and misinterpretation.
In an article on September 21 that year, the Observer echoed the widely held belief on the left that Hitler was the creature of big capital. It saw the real dangerman not as Hitler, but as the media tycoon and leader of the German National People's party, Alfred Hugenberg. The "Hugenberg manoeuvres", it stated, had aimed to promote both Communists and Nazis as a vehicle to weaken the organised working classes. "Hugenberg, and not Hitler, will ultimately call the Nazi tune."
A week later, the newspaper dismissed Hitler as "dramatic, violent and shallow", and "a lightweight", seeing him as "not a man, but a megaphone" of the prevailing discontent, fronting a militarist reaction, which would mean the destruction of peace. The newspaper went on to claim, remarkably, that Hitler was "definitely Christian in his ideals", and, even more strangely, that these matched the ideals of German Catholics…
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Germany's Conservative Elites
The German National People's Party…was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic [1919 to 1933]. Before the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) [Nazi Party] it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Weimar Germany. It was an alliance of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and supported by the Pan-German League.
It was formed in late 1918 after Germany's defeat in the First World War and the November Revolution that toppled the German monarchy. It combined remnants of the German Conservative Party, Free Conservative Party, German Fatherland Party and right-wing elements of the National Liberal Party. The party strongly rejected the republican Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles which it viewed as a national disgrace, signed by traitors. Instead it aimed at a restoration of monarchy, a repeal of the dictated peace treaty and reacquisition of all lost territories and colonies…
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Hitler, after he was appointed Chancellor of Germany, January 30, 1933, to gain the support of the conservative elites he appealed to their intense prejudices against homosexuals, by ordering the police closures of several gay and lesbian bars in Berlin to take place the day before the German federal elections were held on March 5, 1933.
…In its issue of 4 March 1933, the Berliner Tageblatt carried an article announcing the police closure of fifteen gay and lesbian bars in Berlin. That was the day before the national elections that led to Hitler’s passing of the Enabling Act, and was one of many measures designed to woo conservatives…
Why Bother About Homosexuals?
Homophobia and Sexual Politics in Nazi Germany
Geoffrey J. Giles - 2004
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
1933 Election Campaign: Hitler’s Election Posters
Cover the Front of "Eldorado," a Berlin Transvestite Bar
Closed by the Police (Early March 1933)
Though no single party gained the majority of the people’s votes, Hitler, however, did gain the needed support of the conservatives in the Reichstag to vote in favor of passing the Enabling Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933). Hitler achieved opening the last door to becoming the dictator of Germany and his aggressive implementation of the Nazi ideology of racial purity, the irrational goals of racial cleansing as means of the true German people reaching “national salvation” in the future.
Hitler and the Uniqueness of Nazism - Ian Kershaw 2004
…This was no ‘banality of evil’. This was the working of an ideologically-motivated élite coldly prepared to plan for the eradication of 11 million Jews (the figure laid down at the Wannsee Conference of January 1942), and for the ‘resettlement’ to the Siberian wastes, plainly genocidal in intent, of over 30 million, mainly Slavs, over the following 25 years. That, in such a system, they would find countless ‘willing executioners’ prepared to do their bit, whatever the individual motivation of those involved, goes without saying. This was, however, not on account of national character, or some long-existent, specifically German desire to eliminate the Jews. Rather, it was that the idea of racial cleansing, the core of the notion of national salvation, had become, via Hitler’s leadership position, institutionalized in all aspects of organized life in the nazi state. That was decisive.
Read more:
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
Chancellor to Dictator
…Following the Reichstag fire, the Nazis began to suspend civil liberties and eliminate political opposition. The Communists were excluded from the Reichstag. At the March 1933 elections, again no single party secured a majority. Hitler required the vote of the Centre Party and Conservatives in the Reichstag to obtain the powers he desired. He called on Reichstag members to vote for the Enabling Act on 24 March 1933. Hitler was granted plenary powers "temporarily" by the passage of the Act. The law gave him the freedom to act without parliamentary consent and even without constitutional limitations…
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Your collective voluntary ignorance and fierce adamant refusal to enter any form of open ongoing dialogue (as publicly displayed endlessly - at both sessions 2014 and 2015 of the Synod on Family) regarding the wealth of authoritative science produced on homosexual sexual orientation over the past 60 years, dispelling all the social prejudices against homosexuals that began first with Dr. Evelyn Hooker’s empirical groundbreaking research of 1957, proving that homosexuality is not a mental illness - because of your high positions in the Church - your negligence perpetuates globally the atrocities this inhuman, dehumanizing violence. Hitler demonstrated how the exploration of the social homosexual prejudices that were unsubstantiated then as they are now - can be used to lure the support of conservatives even to become the dictator of Germany.
Have you even noticed the harm that your mindless and endless fanatical obsessive antigay crusade, though completely unsubstantiated - not based on one piece of truth or love - for the past 30 years, has been exploited as a political wedge, in the USA that has ushered an enormous number of self-serving people into elected office? Do you even care about the global destruction you have helped to caused - the valuing of profits more than the dignity of human beings? All these human atrocities you allow to happen over the past more than 30 years all - because you insist on remaining stupid!!! You - we do not have the luxury of remaining wedded to our voluntary ignorance and fears of societal prejudices against homosexual sexual orientation.
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Pope Francis: address to Global Foundation roundtable
The Global Foundation
Together, we strive for the global common good.
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