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NEWS: June 8, 2004
Bird’s Eye View of the News
Atila Sinke Guimarães
HINDU CEREMONY IN FATIMA – The May 22 issue of Portugal’s National Weekend Newspaper gave a written account of a news report recently broadcast by SIC Portuguese television. A Hindu religious service was held in the Chapel of the Apparitions at the Fatima Sanctuary. According to Portugal’s National Newspaper, 60 Hindus led by a high priest traveled to Fatima to pay homage to the goddess Devi, their divinity of nature. Standing behind the altar of the Chapel of the Apparitions, a Hindu priest led the prayer sessions. As the scene was broadcasted, the TV reporter commented on this “unprecedented unique moment in the history of the shrine.”
Msgr. Luciano Guerra, the rector of the Sanctuary, also appeared in the newscast and stated: “These meetings give us the opportunity to remind ourselves that we live in community.” Which is, I comment, a hypocritically vague statement meant to legitimate the blasphemous event he permitted.
After worshipping their gods in the Chapel, the Hindus were shown visiting a miniature-model of the new Basilica already under construction. Subsequent to that, each Hindu was greeted by the Bishop of Leiria, Serafim Ferreira e Silva, who bowed deferentially to the Hindu priest. The Hindu priest was then shown vesting both Bishop Ferreira e Silva and Msgr. Guerra with Hindu prayer shawls. The reporter explained to the viewers: “On the shoulders of the highest representatives of the Church in Fatima, the Hindu priest places shawls with inscriptions from the Bhagayad Gita, one of the sacred books of Hinduism.”
The newscast ended with scenes of the Hindu priest lighting a candle at the present day Sanctuary, while his followers danced outside the Chapel of the Apparitions and chanted praises to their gods.
Indisputably this event represents, by the way of facts, the beginning of pan-religious ceremonies in Fatima, taking place even while the syncretistic shrine is being built. It is a confirmation of what has been said: the plan is going ahead led by the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities in Fatima and approved by Rome.
RATZINGER SOFT ON ABORTIONISTS – Given the intensity of the present day polemic in the United States on whether or not a clearly pro-abortion Catholic politician should be allowed to receive Communion, a word from a Vatican official on the subject has special interest. Particularly when that word comes from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who recently sent a message to the American Bishops, according to a news report of the Associated Press (June 4, 2004).
Taking advantage of the visit of a group of American Bishop with the Pope, Ratzinger gave his opinion on the matter to Bishop Donald Pellote of Gallup, NM, who reported it to the press. The Cardinal said top American Bishops should proceed cautiously on this issue, and that he wanted to meet with an American committee that is studying how the Bishops should interact with Catholics in public life (The New York Times, June 6, 2004).
In ecclesiastical language this verbiage means: “Stop denying Communion to politicians because they are pro-abortionists. If you have any doubts, come to me in private and I will explain our policy.”
The Vatican lifts the ban against Kerry and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians -America, May 17, 2004 |
No doubt this message was intended to have an effect on the discussions planned for the national meeting the American Bishops will have in Denver, starting June 14. It is the Vatican’s way to intervene and try to halt the very good reaction of a handful of American Prelates, who have supported traditional Catholic teaching on the matter. They indirectly condemned the abortionist candidate John Kerry and other pro-abortion elected officials by announcing they would deny communion to Roman Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
This laudable position of the Bishops, generated by the indignation of a conservative Catholic public opinion, placed the progressivist Prelates who are complacent with abortionists in a bad situation. It also threatened many progressivist Catholic politicians, who feared not only a loss of public prestige, but a possible backlash from Catholics in the voting booths.
For this reason, 48 Catholic Democratic members of Congress wrote to Cardinal McCarrick of Washington requesting that such condemnations stop. One can guess that more influential circles pressured the Vatican as well, asking for a directive that would stop this good reaction of Bishops. And so the Vatican entered the scene with an attempt to silence the Bishops faithful to Church teaching.
The irony is that the message came from the “conservative” Ratzinger… It is sad to say, but there is nothing new in the picture. For the last 40 years, the same invariable treason against the traditional Catholic teachings has been witnessed by whoever has the eyes to see.
PROTESTANT ZIONISM – Evangelicals of the United States, Lutherans of Scandinavia, and Calvinists of Switzerland and South Africa are some of the main Protestant sects that openly support the dream of a messianic State of Israel that would dominate the whole world. According to these Protestants, there is no need for the Jews to convert. Instead, Judaism, as is, would be the glorious fulfillment of the divine plan. They hold that the Protestants should be the ones to adapt their beliefs to the Jewish religion.
JPII at the Rome synagogue in 1986. A pontifical homage to Judaism, as it is |
Some points of the religious-political platform of these Protestants are to support the building of more Jewish settlements on the West Bank, the deporting of Palestinians to Jordan, and even the razing of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques to make way for the building of the Jewish “Third Temple.” That is to say, in the political spectrum such Protestants would be situated to the right of the Likud and alongside the so-called “orthodox” rabbis. The movement is not small; Protestant Zionism numbers 50 million persons worldwide (The Tablet, April 10, 2004, p. 20).
It is interesting to see how the Jews have deftly handled these false religions, making them their mounts to ride to pursue their own interests. Are they doing something similar with the Catholic Church? If you consider the progressivist agenda, it has innumerable points that coincide with the Jewish ideals. One can see that progressivists are promoting Judaism in many ways: as a model for interpretation of the Scriptures, as the eldest brother of Catholicism, as still being the chosen people, as having a legitimate aspiration for a future messiah, etc. (please, check my Animus Delendi II, TIA: Los Angeles, 2002, pp. 325-331).
Also, John Paul II visit to the Roman synagogue and his many concessions to the Jewish religion speak strongly in favor of the hypothesis that Progressivism is heading to a similar position of Protestant Zionism.
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