Pope Francis tells Italian mafia to repent

Pontiff warns mafioso they risk going to hell unless they renounce their 'blood-stained' money and power. .... 

The pope prayed alongside Luigi Ciotti, who founded the anti-mafia group that organises the vigil [AFP]

Pope Francis has told Italy's mafia they risk going to hell unless they repent and renounce their "blood-stained money and blood-stained power". He gave the warning on Friday, during a prayer vigil in memory of mafia victims. At the vigil, which was held at the church of San Gregorio VII in Rome, the names of 842 victims were read aloud. The pope said: "This life that you live now won't give you pleasure. It won't give you joy or happiness...blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can't bring it with you to your next life. "Repent. There's still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path.'' 'Stop doing evil' The pope has previously urged mafia members to change their ways. In January he spoke of three-year-old Nicolo Campolongo, whose burnt body was found alongside that of his grandfather's in a car in the southern Italian town of Cassano allo Ionio. Investigators believed they were killed after a drug debt between rival families went unpaid. The pope said: "My thoughts go to Coco Campolongo. The anger taken out on this tiny boy seems unprecedented in the history of criminality. Let us pray with Coco for these people who have committed this crime, that they repent and be converted." Friday's vigil was attended by about 1,000 people, with the pope meeting relatives of victims to demonstrate the church's solidarity with them and its opposition to organised crime, according to AFP news agency. "Men and women of the mafia... change your way of life. Stop doing evil, convert," the pope said. It was the first time a pope had attended the vigil, now in its 19th year, which is organised by the anti-mafia group Libera. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies .... Taken from: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/03/pope-francis-tells-italian-mafia-repent-2014321183123402149.html 289

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Has political Islam failed?

Last updated: 21 Mar 2014 20:03

For video, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cpmsqABAmCo

Islamic intellectual Tariq Ramadan discusses Islamism and the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Has the Arab Spring turned into an Islamist winter?

Mehdi Hasan challenges Islamic intellectual Tariq Ramadan on the principles and practice of political Islam.

Together they dissect the Arab revolts, focusing on Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise and demise, and the subsequent military coup.

So, has political Islam failed in Egypt? Did the Muslim Brotherhood miss its chance? And should the West be wary of Islamism?

Joining the discussion are: Anas Altikriti, a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and president and founder of the Cordoba Foundation; Yasmin Alibhai Brown, a journalist and the founder of British Muslims for Secular Democracy; and Professor Alan Johnson, from the pro-Israeli lobby group, BICOM.

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Taken from:
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/headtohead/2014/03/political-islam-failed-20143814278619177.html

Father Stanley Jaki Reduces Fatima’s Miracle of Sun to a “Meterological Miracle”.



Fatima 2, October 1917
By Donal Anthony Foley

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Fatima 2, October 1917, by Donal Anthony Foley
 

Despite the fact that the Fatima miracle of the sun on 13 October 1917 shows every sign of being a genuinely supernatural event, that hasn’t stopped critics objecting to it. But before considering their arguments, we ought to focus on the fact that some rational explanation needs to be found for the remarkable changes that took place in Portugal following the miracle.

Following the assassination of the Portuguese King and his son in 1908, a Republic was proclaimed in 1910, and a period of vicious persecution for the Church ensued. One politician, Afonso Costa, openly boasted that “in two generations Catholicism will be completely eliminated from Portugal.”

So something profound must have happened on 13 October 1917, given that on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the first apparition, in May 1942, the Bishops of Portugal could declare: “If someone had shut his eyes twenty-five years ago and were to open them again today, he would no longer recognize Portugal, so profound and vast is the transformation …”

Members of the anti-clerical elite of the country had gone to the Cova da Iria on 13 October 1917 to mock the peasantry, but had come away chastened by what they had seen. The miracle of the sun was the cause of this, and was the catalyst for the subsequent great changes in the country.

But some writers have adopted a critical attitude to the idea that there really was a miracle proper at Fatima involving the sun. For example, Fr Stanley Jaki prefers to speak of a “meteorological miracle,” although he acknowledged that something clearly “miraculous” did take place, especially given that it was predicted three months in advance. Fr Jaki’s thesis seems to be that ice-particles in the clouds in the region of the sun may well have refracted its rays and broken them up into the colors of the rainbow—hence the different colors seen by the crowd. It is clear, though, that a truly supernatural “apparition” of the sun could have descended towards the people at Fatima, without resorting to explanations involving meteorology.

One problem with Fr. Jaki’s approach is that he calls into question some well known biblical miracles, such as the Old Testament miracle of the sun involving Joshua, when he commanded sun and moon to stand still (Josh 10:12-15). For him, this was not a true miracle, and he argues rather that the biblical account indicated a “metaphorical phrase to convey a purely psychological sense of the lengthening of one afternoon.”

He advances a complicated but unconvincing explanation for how the Fatima miracle might have been caused, involving cloud vapor, ice crystals, “lens-like condensations of the air,” and finally “sudden temperature inversions” as a reason for why the sun apparently moved towards the earth. But he could not explain the drying of the ground and clothes experienced by many witnesses, and concluded that his ideas “constitute a hypothesis and nothing more.”

Contrast the above with what was said by the local Bishop in his 1930 pastoral letter ratifying the apparitions: “The phenomenon of the Sun on October 13, 1917, described in newspapers of the time, was simply marvelous and caused the greatest impression on those who had the happiness to witness it. ... This phenomenon, which went unnoticed by astronomers, and hence was something unnatural, was witnessed by people of all sorts and social classes—believers and unbelievers, journalists of the principal Portuguese daily newspapers, and even by individuals who were miles away; which destroys all explanations of collective illusion.”

Everything about the miracle of the sun points to the supernatural and the miraculous, and perhaps the most likely explanation is that it was a type of “apparition,” although one on a huge scale. Since it was only seen in the general locality of Fatima, and the sun was observed as being normal elsewhere, this indicates that it was a relatively local phenomenon.

Another critic of the miracle was Hilda Graef, an influential writer, and author of Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion. Her objections, though, are more serious than those of Fr Jaki, in that she sought to deny its validity altogether. Her arguments revolve around the following points: firstly, that if a person stares at the sun they will see all sorts of colors; secondly, that diverse phenomena can occur in the atmosphere after heavy rain; and finally, that Lucia’s cry of “Look at the sun!” induced a bout of “mass suggestion” in the crowd, who were in expectation of something happening. She considers this last point the most likely explanation for many of the phenomena given in the various accounts.

These arguments, though, are a good example of how superficial many of the criticisms of Fatima have been. The first point about staring into the sun and seeing colors is very weak, as is the second one about the state of the atmosphere after rain. Similarly, her third point, about mass suggestion inducing the crowd to believe they had seen a miracle, is totally implausible.

Since the miracle of the sun was seen by 70,000 people, it’s very difficult to see how the vast majority of such a huge crowd could have reported a miracle unless they really saw something. Although the crowd were expecting a miracle, they had no idea that it would involve the sun. And this is ignore those who were far from the Cova, and thus not susceptible to “mass suggestion.”

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, is a more recent critic, a self –proclaimed atheist, who has made it his mission in life to argue that God, and the miraculous, do not exist. He sees the miracle of the sun as a mass hallucination, but grants that it is “not easy to explain how seventy thousand people could share the same hallucination.” He evades the obvious implications of this by saying that the sun could not have moved without this having had a devastating impact on the solar system as a whole. What he forgets, or chooses to ignore, is that God created the sun, and just as in the case of the miracle involving Joshua, he is quite capable of either stopping the sun or making it apparently move, in a vast apparition, without any harmful side effects: he is all powerful and can do anything. Dawkins starts with the presupposition that miracles can’t happen, and therefore the miracle of the sun could not possibly have taken place, regardless of what 70,000 witnesses say. And the fatal flaw with that position is that he is not being genuinely open to reality and truth.

These critics then, to varying degrees, deny the miracle of the sun, but it is clear that their arguments do not really stand up to critical investigation, and so we can be reassured that the miracle of the sun at Fatima, arguably the greatest miracle in 2,000 years of Church history, is something we can safely believe in.

This article appeared initially in the Wanderer.

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Taken from: http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/articles/fatima2october.html

“Marriage of the Lamb” in Greek Myth

John R. Salverda writes to Robert 'Bowie' Johnson Jr.:
 

Here's one for Bob about "Eden in Greek Myths"

Dear Bob,

I have been critical, and then a bit conciliatory, but now I will take a more commendatory stance toward your work. Your recognition of the association between the symbols of the Hesperides and the symbolisms that appear in the archetypal marriage of Adam and Eve shows remarkable insight on your part. However, I would like to suggest, that the scene portrayed in the myth of the marriage of Zeus and Hera, is less a recollection of the cosmogonic episode in the Book of Genesis, and more in anticipation of the apocalyptic "Marriage of the Lamb" that we see in the Book of Revelation.

In as much as the Lamb's marriage is the ultimate redress to the original sin, it too has it's associations with the symbolisms of the Hesperides. Receiving the "golden apples" as did Zeus and Hera at their wedding, is usually predicated upon destroying the dragon; "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth" (Revelations 12:9). Zeus, in his original form was a kind of sacrilegious "messianic" figure, the promised "son" who would reverse the original rebellion committed by his father (Kronos) against the god of Heaven (Ouranos): "he was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was, through the contriving of great Zeus." (Hesiod, Theogony 453) "There was delivered to Kronos an oracle regarding the birth of Zeus which stated that the son who would be born to him would wrest the kingship from him by force" (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 70. 1). "Saturnus received this oracle: ‘Best of kings, you shall be knocked from power by a son.’" (Ovid, Fasti 4. 197 ff.). "Gaea and Ouranos had given him prophetic warning that his rule would be overthrown by a son of his own, he took to swallowing his children at birth." (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 4 - 5). Take note of this last quote from Apollodorus for comparison with the Scriptural description of the Messianic birth at Revelations 12:4, where the evil plan was to "devour her child as soon as it was born." Zeus, in his role at the celestial wedding and in obtaining the the often sought, heroic quest, of the golden fruit, is probably a blasphemous representation of the Messiah.

This being said, as Christ is a kind of Adam in his "Marriage of the Lamb," so Zeus is depicted at his wedding; "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45 KJV). Whenever a god is elevated to the primary position of Greek theology, he becomes a kind of "Adam." This is probably because Adam serves as the prototype of all deified humans; "God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us" (Genesis 3:22 KJV).

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For full discussion, see: http://genesisflood-amaic.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/re-our-post-prophet-elijah-as-greek.html

Pope Urges End to 'Incomprehension' in Ukraine



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Pope Francis on Sunday called on all sides in Ukraine to overcome "incomprehension" and appealed to the international community to promote dialogue.

"I ask you again to pray for Ukraine, which is experiencing a delicate situation," Francis said in his weekly Angelus blessing from a window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter's Square.
"I hope that all sides in the country work on overcoming incomprehension and build the future of the nation together," Francis said.           
Pope Francis on Sunday called on all sides in Ukraine to overcome "incomprehension" and appealed to the international community to promote dialogue.

"I ask you again to pray for Ukraine, which is experiencing a delicate situation," Francis said in his weekly Angelus blessing from a window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter's Square.
"I hope that all sides in the country work on overcoming incomprehension and build the future of the nation together," Francis said.
 
Francis: Who Is Pope Francis? Book Reveals the Man

"I make a heartfelt appeal to the international community to support any initiative in favor of dialogue and harmony."
Ukraine said Sunday it would call up all military reservists after President Vladimir Putin's threat to invade Russia's neighbor drew a blunt response from US President Barack Obama.
The stark escalation in what threatens to become the worst crisis in relations since the Cold War came as pro-Russian forces seized control of key government buildings and airports in the strategic Crimean peninsula.

© AFP 2014

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