A Dependable Ally, Pope Francis Met with Putin for the Third Time

No other head of state has been granted a private meeting with the pope more often. And Putin kept the pope waiting each time – 50 minutes late for their first meeting, more than an hour late for their second and an hour late on Thursday.

Putin’s July 4th visit to the Vatican came “amid signs of closer ties between the Kremlin and the Roman Catholic Church,” reported Bloomberg and “at a time when Russia is playing a more ambitious and divisive role around the world” noted the Washington Post.

Afterwards, Putin thanked Pope Francis for “a very substantive discussion.” The subjects were Venezuela, Ukraine and Syria according to the Vatican.

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Lest We Forget the Victims: The Catholic Church’s Complicity in the Croatian, Argentine and Rwandan Atrocities

On June 2, Pope Francis completed his visit to a third Balkan country this year and the sixth in that region during his pontificate, but not Croatia. Since his election, the pope has also traveled to ten Latin American nations but not Argentina, and three in Africa but not Rwanda.

Nevertheless, the millions who were tortured and killed must not be forgotten.

WikiLeaks Helped Expose A Vatican Scandal

In February 2017, posters appeared around Rome denouncing Pope Francis’ “decapitation” of the Knights of Malta. At the heart of the pope’s sacking of the Grand Master is a multi-million dollar donation. WikiLeaks provided critical information about what Vatican officials knew and when they know it.

William Barr is Opus Dei

William Barr was confirmed as attorney general by the Senate on Feb 14.  “High on his agenda will be what to do with the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe” according to the Washington Post.

Before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in January, Barr had completed a questionnaire. On page 4, he listed positions he’s held as director of the Catholic Information Center  (2014-1017), director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (2004-2009) and director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (1994-2015).

For those who don’t read my blogs, the Opus Dei Catholic Information Center’s “members and leaders continue to have an outsize impact on policy and politics. It is the conservative spiritual and intellectual center … and its influence is felt in all of Washington’s corridors of power,” the Washington Post stated recently.

Resurgence of the Catholic Political Right under Trump

A company has been formed to provide legal and financial expertise for the anticipated start-ups of other right-wing Catholic organizations. Diocesan foundations – capable of moving political “dark money” – have more than doubled their assets since Trump’s election. A British publication, looking for increased revenues, has entered the growing market for right-wing Catholic journalism.

These demonstrate a confidence that Catholics are capable of influencing future elections. They are energized by their 2016 triumph in recapturing the Executive Branch with a trusted and powerful ally.

Pope Plays the Media and Children Pay the Price

A four-day Vatican summit on child sex abuse ended yesterday. Pope Francis gave a half hour address.

He noted the “scourge of sexual abuse of minors” has been “a widespread phenomenon in all cultures and societies … particularly the great number committed within families.” Citing various references, the pope said the “first truth that emerges” is that “those who perpetrate abuse that is acts of physical, sexual, or emotional violence, are primarily parents, relatives, husbands of child brides, coaches, and teachers.”

Pope Francis also blamed “journalistic practices that often exploit, for various interests, the very tragedy experienced by little ones” along with the internet, pornography and sexual tourism.

He made special mention of “other forms of abuse”, such as “child soldiers, child prostitutes, starving children, child victims of war, refugee children, aborted children, and so many others.”

Pope Francis’ Dept. of Communications as Dishonest as He Wants it To Be

“These are difficult times for the new team of pope’s press agents,” Vatican expert, Sandro Magister wrote on Jan. 9. “The first public statement issued by Alessandro Gisotti, the new director of the Press Office of the Holy See after his taking office, concerns the case of an Argentine bishop smashing to smithereens the Franciscan strategy to address the issue of sexual abuse by clerics,” noted Magister.