Select Page
Posted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | Latest News Releases, News |
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump: Over the weekend, on January 9th, the ACLU’s board of directors met to discuss the impeachment of Preside…
Read More
Rome Newsroom, Jan 12, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- For Catholic judge Rosario Livatino, to “render justice” was an act of prayerful self-dedication to God.
“To render justice is a fulfillment of oneself, it is a prayer, it is a dedication of oneself to God,” Livatino said in a lecture on faith and law on the southern Italian island of Sicily in 1986.
Livatino, whose first name means “rosary” in Italian, worked as a prosecutor in Agrigento dealing with the criminal activity of the mafia in the 1980s. He was murdered on his commute to work on Sept. 21, 1990, when he was 37 years old and serving as a magistrate. He was recently declared a martyr by Pope Francis and is expected to be beatified in Sicily this year.
In an interview published Jan. 12, Fr. Giuseppe Livatino, postulator of the cause for Livatino’s beatification, said that the young Catholic judge provided a “credible witness” of coherence in his life of faith and his daily work.
“More than just ‘holy cards,’ Christians today urgently need credible witnesses. And that [is what] Rosario is,” his postulator said in an interview with ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner.
“Rosario knew well, thanks to his formative experience in Catholic Action, that the Christian is called to be ‘light of the world and salt of the earth,’ who must sanctify the world through one’s family and daily work,” Fr. Livatino said.
As postulator and cousin of the martyred judge, Fr. Livatino has spent years collecting testimonies, examining witnesses, and reading the judge’s personal writings to promote his cause for beatification and potentially canonization.
He said: “Among the testimonies collected, I was positively struck by the episode [recalled] by his former teacher, a priest, who asked him for a ‘small recommendation.’ Rosario felt deep respect and replied firmly: ‘When you offer confession, do you accept recommendations?’”
“Livatino drew directly from the experience of the saints, and in every dimension of his life he rejected any mediocrity … What he has to do, Rosario likes to do it right. He pursues that ‘perfection’ indicated by Jesus in the Gospel, to build the Kingdom of God.”
“Rosario had drawn his profound wisdom from the Gospel and the Magisterium of the Church. He knows and lives the Gospel, knows and applies the reflections of the [Second Vatican] Council Fathers on the role of the lay faithful in today’s world,” he said.
While promoting Livatino’s cause, his cousin has received thousands of emails from all over Italy, other European countries, Latin America, and the Philippines.
“Many asked for the text of the prayer to ask for the glorification on earth of the Servant of God. Many others asked for information on his life,” he said. “But all showed great interest in this splendid figure of ‘credible witness.’ Many said that they had received spiritual graces through Rosario’s intercession.”
“This man, unknown to most when he was alive, has spoken and continues to speak effectively since Sept. 21, 1990.”
Vatican City, Jan 12, 2021 / 11:57 am (CNA).- A letter by Cardinal Pietro Parolin leaked to an Italian outlet shows that the Secretariat of State was aware, and approved at its highest ranks, of the disgraced purchase of a luxury real estate in London now at the center of a Vatican investigation.
The Italian newspaper Domani published on Jan. 10 a “confidential and urgent” letter addressed by Cardinal Parolin, Vatican secretary of State, to Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, President of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) also known as “the Vatican bank.”
In the letter, Cardinal Parolin asked the IOR to loan 150 million € (approximately $182.3 million) to the Vatican Secretariat of State. The Secretariat of State needed the money to pay off the loan contracted with Cheney Capital four months before. The Secretariat of State took the loan to buy out the shares of the real estate in London.
Cardinal Parolin described the investment as “a valid one,” said that the investment had to be safeguarded, and asked the IOR for the loan. He also wrote that the loan was needed because the financial situation at that moment suggested the Secretariat of State not to use its reserve to “carry out operations for hedge investments,” but instead to “acquire additional liquidity.”
The Secretary of State also detailed that the loan would have a “two-year maturity” and that the IOR would be remunerated “in line with the international market” for the loan.
According to Domani, the IOR immediately move to fulfill the request and informed the Financial Intelligence Authority. The Financial Intelligence Authority has oversight power over the IOR, but not over the Secretariat of State.
In April, the Vatican FIA labeled the operation as “feasible,” considering that the IOR had enough money to carry it out. At the same time, the FIA asked for adequate due diligence to comply with existing anti-money laundering laws.
In May, Mr. Gianfranco Mammì, IOR general director, asked Archbishop Edgar Peña, Sostituto of the Secretariat of State, to write down the request in a letter signed by him. According to Mammì, the Sostituto has “executive power,” and for this reason, Cardinal Parolin’s letter was not enough for the IOR to carry out the operation as requested.
Archbishop Peña Parra met the Mammì requests and signed a letter on June 4 and another one on June 19 to explain the request for the loan.
On June 27, the IOR experts gave their green light to the financial operation. On June 29, the IOR presented the economic plan for the loan to the officials of the Secretariat of State.
But on July 2, Mammì changed his mind and reported to the Vatican prosecutor that Archbishop Peña Parra was not clear and would not disclose who would be the real beneficiary of the requested loan.
One Vatican source confirmed with CNA that Cardinal Parolin’s letter is authentic and that the story penned by the newspaper Domani is accurate.
After Mammì’s report to the public prosecutor, the Vatican police searched and seized the FIA and Secretariat of State’s office on Oct. 1, 2019.
Two days later, the news broke that the Vatican had suspended five officials: Msgr. Maurizio Carlino, Mr. Fabrizio Tirabassi, Mr. Vincenzo Mauriello and Mrs. Caterina Sansone of the Secretariat of State; and Mr. Tommaso Di Ruzza, FIA director.
Later on, the Vatican also suspended Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, who led the Secretariat of State’s administrative office from 2009 to 2019.
Despite no criminal charges were filed against any of them, all of these officials, except for Caterina Sansone, no longer work at the Vatican. Di Ruzza was not renewed as the FIA’s director, Tirabassi and Mauriello agreed on an early retirement and both Carlino and Perlasca were sent to their dioceses of origin.
Although Cardinal Parolin’s leaked letter has no relevance for the investigation, it does provide important context.
One of them is that the Secretariat of State was aware that there were financial and ethical concerns regarding the 2011-2012 investment in the luxury real estate property at 60 Sloane Avenue in London, managed by 60 SA Company.
The Vatican Secretariat of State signed its purchase for $160 million with the Luxembourg-based Athena fund, owned and managed by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, who acted as an intermediary.
When the Athena fund was liquidated, the investment was not returned to the Holy See. The Holy See risked losing all the money if it did not buy the building.
The Vatican FIA examined the deal and then proposed restructuring the investment, excluding intermediaries and thus making the Holy See save some money.
At that time, the Secretariat of State asked the IOR for resources sufficient to close the old mortgage and allow a new one to conclude the purchase.
Since the investment was initially considered “good” by the IOR, it is still a mystery what led Mammì to change his mind and report the financial operation to the public prosecutor; especially when in September 2020, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) reportedly paid out the loan with Cheney Capital and contracted a new loan to safeguard the investment. This was the same operation suggested by Cardinal Parolin’s letter.
So, why did the IOR not carry out the operation, as initially planned?
As more details of the operation come to light, the reason seems to be a power struggle in the inner circle of Pope Francis, with no clear winner. Currently, one year and three months after the search and seizures in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican investigation led to no indictments but also to no decisions not to prosecute. As long as the investigation leads to no clear conclusions, the scenario will continue to be confusing regarding the direction to which the Vatican finances are going.
The bishops and their clerical underlings have failed to guide America’s Catholics to be a discerning, peaceful, loving community shaped by the Gospel
Read MoreMartha is a flight attendant and often gets unwanted attention. In the last few days, though, some of the attentions were not caddish, but nasty ones from people who know she is conservative. She shared with me some of what had happened, and asked what we do next.
The post Too Many Self-Righteous Bubbles appeared first on Catholic Herald.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | ash wednesday, COVID-19, News, Repent and believe in the Gospel, Sprinkling ashes, The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, To dust you shall return, U.S. & World News |
The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, including sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.
Read MoreFor the first time since 1967, Christians celebrated Mass at a war-damaged church in the West Bank, near one of the presumed sites of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Arkansas Legislature, Down syndrome, News, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Supreme Court, U.S. & World News |
A federal appeals court reaffirmed a hold on an Arkansas law that bans abortions 18 weeks into pregnancy and another banning an abortion from being performed when a fetus is detected to have Down syndrome.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | Avignon, Catholic Church, Catholic News Service, Church in Europe, Financial mismanagement, financial scandal, France, News |
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Jean-Pierre Cattenoz of Avignon, a month after the archbishop celebrated his 75th birthday, amid ongoing questions about his management style and handling of archdiocesan finances.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | In the News, News |
Bill In The News (Breitbart): Catholic League president Bill Donohue said Monday that Big Tech’s censoring of Parler is “the most serious assault on freedom of speech we have ever seen by private companies in American history.” READ MORE HERE
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | ash wednesday, Catholic Church, Catholic News Service, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 pandemic, News, Vatican |
The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, including sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | Associated Press, Catholic Church, Church in the US, clerical sexual abuse, Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, News |
A Catholic priest who delivered the homily at U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s funeral in 2009 has pleaded not guilty to child sexual abuse.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | Catholic Church, Catholic News Service, News, Pope Francis, Vatican, World Day of the Sick |
Praising those who help the sick and praying for those who are sick, Pope Francis called on Christians to practice what they preach, including by guaranteeing equal access to health care for all people.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | Catholic Church, Catholic Health Association, Catholic healthcare, Catholic News Service, Church in the US, News, President Joe Biden |
The Catholic Health Association issued an extensive list of priorities it would like President-elect Joe Biden’s administration to pursue.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Jan 12, 2021 | Associated Press, Catholic Church, criminal justice, News, Pope Francis, Vatican, Vatican City State, Vatican criminal court, Vatican criminal justice, Vatican Gendarmes |
A criminal investigation into a Vatican real estate investment is exposing weaknesses in the city state’s judicial system and a lack of some basic protections for those accused — highlighting the incompatibility of the Holy See’s procedures with European norms.
Read More
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 12, 2021 / 09:47 am (CNA).- A district court judge has stayed the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on the eve of her execution.
“Ms. Montgomery’s motion to stay execution, is granted to allow the Court to conduct a hearing to determine Ms. Montgomery’s competence to be executed,” said an order from Judge James Patrick Hanlon of the Southern District of Indiana.
“The Court will set a time and date for the hearing in a separate order in due course,” he said.
According to Montgomery’s attorneys, her mental state has deteriorated since the date of her execution was announced. She has reportedly begun hearing voices, and at one point said that “God spoke with her through connect-the-dot puzzles.”
“Based on reported observations, review of past materials, review of BOP medical records, and, in Dr. Kempke’s case, her past observation of Ms. Montgomery experiencing psychosis, all three experts opine that Ms. Montgomery is presently unable to rationally understand the government’s rationale for her execution,” said Hanlon.
Montgomery was diagnosed with various mental illnesses and experienced brain damage due to physical and sexual abuse she endured as a child.
Hanlon noted that while there are often “frivolous” filings prior to a condemned prisoner’s scheduled execution, “counsel’s filing is not frivolous.”
“As discussed elsewhere in this order, Ms. Montgomery has been diagnosed with physical brain impairments and multiple mental illnesses, and three experts are of the opinion that, based on conduct and symptoms reported to them by counsel, Ms. Montgomery’s perception of reality is currently distorted and impaired,” he said.
Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007 for the 2004 murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a 23-year-old woman who was 8 months pregnant. Montgomery cut Stinnett’s unborn daughter out of her womb, and kidnapped her across state lines. The girl survived and is now a teenager.
Multiple Catholic figures have spoken out against Montgomery’s planned execution, arguing that she is mentally unwell and that the death penalty itself is unjust.
In 2019, the Trump administration announced that federal executions would resume after a nearly two-decade moratorium.
Recent Comments