JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
CARDINAL MATEO TERESCO COULD HE BE THE NEXT POPE. WAR DRUMS POUND AROUND THE WORLD.
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a
witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have
heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10
Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that
great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment
come.(IN 1 HR THE STOCK MARKETS WORLDWIDE WILL CRASH)
17 For in one
hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all
the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood
afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping
and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich
all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one
hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast
their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be
removed:(CONFISCATED) their silver and their gold shall not be able to
deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy
their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the
stumblingblock of their iniquity.
MARK OF THE BEAST (engraved microchip in your hand or forehead)
REVELATION 13:16-18
16
And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, (SLAVE) to receive a mark in their right hand, or in
their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
REVELATION 16:1-2
1
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels,
Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the
earth.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth;
and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the
mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
I
KNOW THIS MARK WILL BE A MICROCHIP IMPLANT UNDER THE SKIN. LETS LOOK UP
WHAT THE WORD MARK SAYS IN REVELATION 13:16-18, 14:9,11, 15:2, 16:2,
19:20, 20:4-ALL THESE VERSES FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION SPEAK OF THIS
DICTATORS MARK. NOW LETS SEE WHAT IT MEANS FROM STRONGS EXAUSTIVE
CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE. UNDER MARK PAGE 684.MARK UNDER MARK. THE OLD
TESTAMENT IS UNDER HEBREW AND THE NEW TESTAMENT IS UNDER GREEK. SO WHEN
WE LOOK UNDER REVELATION 13:16-17 WE SEE IT IS UNDER GREEK, SO WE GO TO
GREEK IN THE BACK SECTION AND GO TO 5480 TO SEE WHAT IT SAYS THIS MARK
WOULD BE. SO LETS GET TO IT.MARK IN STRONGS GREEK 5480 XAPAYUA CHARAGMA,
KHAR-AG-MAH: FROM THE SAME AS 5482: A SCRATCH OR ETCHING, I.E STAMP (AS
A BADGE OF SERVITUDE), OR SCULPTURED FIGURE-(STATUE):-GRAVEN, MARK FROM
5482 XAPAE CHARAX, KHAR-AX; FROM XAPAOOW CHARASSO (TO SHARPEN TO A
POINT; AKIN TO 1125 THROUGH THE IDEA OF SCRATCHING); A STAKE, I.E
(BYIMPL.) A PALISADE OR RAMPART (MILITARY MOUND FOR CIRCUMVALLATION IN A
SIEGE): - TRENCH FROM 1125 YPAPOE GRAPHO, GRAF-0; A PRIM. VERB; TO
"GRAVE", ESPEC. TO WRITE; FIG. TO DESCRIBE:-DESCRIBE, WRITE (-ING,
-TEN).G5516-GO TO G4742-666 - STRONGS NT 4742: στίγμα - στίγμα,
στιγματος, τό (from στίζω to prick; (cf. Latinstimulus, etc.; German
stechen, English stick, sting, etc.; Curtius, § 226)), a mark pricked in
or branded upon the body. According to ancient oriental usage, slaves
and soldiers bore the name or stamp of their master or commander branded
or pricked (cut) into their bodies to indicate what master or general
they belonged to, and there were even some devotees who stamped
themselves in this way with the token of their gods (cf. Deyling,
Observations, iii., p. 423ff); hence, τά στίγματα τοῦ (κυρίου so Rec.)
Ἰησοῦ, the marks of (the Lord) Jesus, which Paul in Galatians 6:17 says
he bears branded on his body, are the traces left there by the perils,
hardships, imprisonments, scourgings, endured by him for the cause of
Christ, and which mark him as Christ's faithful and approved votary,
servant, soldier (see Lightfoots Commentary on Galatians, the passage
cited). (Herodotus 7, 233; Aristotle, Aelian, Plutarch, Lcian, others.)
THE INVENTOR OF THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT-CARL SANDERS MICROCHIP ENGINEER LEADER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgH9D6n4ZWo
THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT IN YOUR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD.
LEVETICUS 19.28
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16
When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be
for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will
increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say,
Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him
had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the
midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three
measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the
wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and
there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines
and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11
And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and
pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from
heaven.
DEUTORONOMY 28:24
24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
Jeremiah 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Isaiah 57:21
21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
1 Thessalonians 5:3
3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not
escape.
Ephesians 2:2
2 Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air,(LIBERAL GODLESS AIR WAVES) the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience:
EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3-7
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not
escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:3-4
3
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed,(EU WORLD DICTATOR)the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is
God.
REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which
thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but
receive power as kings one hour with the beast.(SOCIALISM)
13 These have one mind,(SOCIALISM) and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
REVELATION 6:1-2
1
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it
were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2
And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a
bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU)
and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)
2 THESSALONIANS 2:9-12
9 Even him,(EU WORLD DICTATOR) whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,(THE
FALSE RESURRECTION BY THE WORLD DICTATOR) that they should believe a
lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
GENESIS 49:16-17-POSSIBLY A JEW FROM DAN KILLS THE DICTATOR AT MIDPOINT OF TRIB
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
REVELATION 13:1-10
1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of
the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten
crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS
DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the
mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and
great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw
one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly
wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after
the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4
And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the
beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is
like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE
RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto
him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to
blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in
heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and
to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the
earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth
with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and
the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH
AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON
EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD
(JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the
people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end
thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations
are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm
the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the
week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS)
and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate,
even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon
the desolate.
We shall have World Government, whether or not we
like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved
by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on
7th February 1950
Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry
Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What
we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people
in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into
which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil,
we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a
man.
No one will enter the New World Order... unless he or she
will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age
unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation.- David Spangler Director of
Planetary Initiative United Nations.
THE WORLD DICTATOR
REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it
were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2
And I saw, and behold a white horse:(EU WORLD DICTATOR) and he that sat
on him had a bow;(PEACE) and a crown was given unto him:(WORLD LEADER)
and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of
the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten
crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH
WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT
ON 7 HILLS. 10 HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES
ON THE SCENE BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR,
COMES FROM 1 OF THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3
COUNTRIES RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT
STARTED THE EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR
PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A
LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like
unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth
as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat,
and great authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM
SATAN,HE COMES FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it
were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the
world wondered after the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION.
JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED
AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS
IS HOW HE CAN CLAIM TO BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE
EARTH.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and
to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall
worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16
And he (FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great,
rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or
in their foreheads:
DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do
according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and
magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things
against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be
accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither
shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN
JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify
himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of
forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall
he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant
things.
39 Thus shall he (THE EU DICTATOR) do in the most strong
holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god,
whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause
them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for
gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the
south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and
the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind,
with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall
enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
We
shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only
question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or
consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February
1950
Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in
1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a
man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection
to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten
to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept
him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.
No
one will enter the New World Order... unless he or she will make a
pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will
take a Luciferian Initiation.- David Spangler Director of Planetary
Initiative United Nations.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI5_pMvLZd8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded
DANIEL 7:23-25
23
Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth
kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all
kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and
break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this
kingdom are ten kings(10 DIVSION REGION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall
arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be
diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3
NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the
most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to
change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a
time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23
And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are
come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and
understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT-NEW AGE MOVEMENT) shall
stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own
power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall
prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his
hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall
destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of
princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36
And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall
exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak
marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the
indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS
JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall
magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate
shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew
not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and
pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a
strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and
increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY
LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19
And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their
armies,(UNITED NATIONS TROOPS) gathered together to make war against him
that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED
CHRISTIANS)
REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1 And I saw when
the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of
thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw,
and behold a white horse:(EU WORLD DICTATOR) and he that sat on him had a
bow;(PEACE) and a crown was given unto him:(WORLD LEADER) and he went
forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1 And I
stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and
upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH WORLD EMPIRE
IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS. 10
HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES ON THE SCENE
BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR, COMES FROM 1 OF
THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3 COUNTRIES
RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT STARTED THE
EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR PRESIDENT OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE
7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,
and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a
lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great
authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM SATAN,HE COMES
FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to
death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after
the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION. JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A
LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK
OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS IS HOW HE CAN CLAIM TO
BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH.
7 And it
was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:
and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are
not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16 And he
(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in
their foreheads:
DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do
according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and
magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things
against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be
accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither
shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN
JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify
himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of
forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall
he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant
things.
39 Thus shall he (THE EU DICTATOR) do in the most strong
holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god,
whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause
them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for
gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the
south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and
the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind,
with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall
enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
We
shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only
question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or
consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February
1950
Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in
1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a
man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection
to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten
to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept
him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.
No
one will enter the New World Order... unless he or she will make a
pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will
take a Luciferian Initiation.- David Spangler Director of Planetary
Initiative United Nations.
PORT OF IRAN GIGANTIC EXPLOSION.CLAIMES CHEMICALS CAUSED THE EXPLOSION.40 KILLED, 1000+ INJURED.
FEARFUL SIGHTS AND GREAT SIGNS FROM HEAVEN
LUKE 21:11,25-26
11
And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and
pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from
heaven.so was not yet deemed a threat to land.
25 And there shall be
signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON
MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) and upon the earth
distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the
waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for
fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and
there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers
places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be
earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:
these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great
earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME)
and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall
there be from heaven.
REV 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and
there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon
the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green
grass was burnt up.
JAMES 1:11
11 For the sun is no sooner
risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower
thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also
shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
The Hebrew noun
accurately translated “oven” refers to a “baking oven” as distinct from a
kiln or smelting furnace—both of which burn much hotter. (The Hebrew
nouns for “kiln” or for “smelting furnace” are more likely to appear in
contexts of God's wrath or judgment.)
21 They have roused me to
jealousy with a non-god, they have exasperated me with their idols. In
my turn I shall rouse them to jealousy with a non-people, I shall
exasperate them with a stupid nation.
22 Yes, a fire has blazed from
my anger, it will burn right down to the depths of Sheol; it will devour
the earth and all its produce, it will set fire to the footings of the
mountains.
23 I shall hurl disasters on them, on them I shall use up all my arrows.
Ephesians 2:2
2
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,(LIBERAL GODLESS AIR
WAVES) the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience:(GODLESS)
Biometric credentials upgrading government service delivery around the world-May 3, 2025, 12:44 pm EDT | Chris Burt
The
trend of biometrics backing the government-issued credentials and
online service platforms that provide access to digital pubic services
is expanding around the world, as seen in the top articles of the week
on Biometric Update. New Zealand is seeking information as it builds its
national system, Idemia is partnering up to support projects from
Armenia to Saudi Arabia and new cards made with Veridos technology are
coming to Guyana in 2026.Meanwhile, Persona is the latest biometrics
provider to pick up a multi hundred-million dollar funding round.Top
biometrics news of the week-An RFI from New Zealand’s government seeks
information on the suppliers and technologies that can help build the
country’s national digital identity infrastructure. New Zealand is
setting up a Trust Register for accredited providers and a centralized
issuance platform shared by multiple government agencies to issue
credentials in line with the country’s Digital Identity Services Trust
Framework, meaning W3C Verifiable Credentials or ISO 18013-compliant
mobile driver’s licenses.A pilot of the Mesob platform for digital
government service delivery has launched in Ethiopia. Services from 12
government ministries and agencies are included in the trial, including
registration for driver’s licenses and the national digital ID, Fayda,
and for tax, education and financial services. The government will take
the opportunity to evaluate the platform’s performance and user
experience before a full production rollout.The U.S. Social Security
Administration is introducing a way to store your Social Security Number
in an online account accessible from personal devices through a “my
Social Security” account. The feature does not replace the SSN card for
identity verification, however, and user comments reflect SSN’s dubious
usefulness for IDV and the government’s dubious reputation on data
privacy.As biometrics provide the identity assurance backing ever more
government projects around the world, Idemia’s partnerships grow in
number and scale. An MoU in Saudi Arabia, 23 new offices for it’s
consortium in Armenia, and a biometrics research facility at West
Virginia University launched by Idemia NSS are the latest
examples.Guyana is planning to introduce a new version of its national
ID card, which Veridos holds a biometrics contract for, next year to
ease access to online public and private-sector services. The cards are
also intended to help distinguish citizens of the country from foreign
residents.Mexico’s government is moving ahead with the introduction of a
new ID document, the Llave MX, updates the CURP ID number system with
biometrics to gain efficiency and cut fraud. But Mexico’s judiciary has
declared the creation of a centralized biometric system
unconstitutional before, and could again amid continuing tensions
between the governing party and judiciary.Sri Lanka is preparing to
tender contracts for implementing the MOSIP digital ID platform, the
country’s digital economy minister says. The country has already
successfully completed a pilot project and expects to call the tenders
some time in the next three months.Papua New Guinea is planning to
integrate data across civil registration, bank, telecom and
superannuation systems, with user consent following a successful digital
identity pilot last year. The process will start with finding out which
entities hold what personal data, and involve aligning data with
forthcoming Digital ID Trust Framework.The World Economic Forum has
launched what it calls the Connected Future Initiative to help DPI
projects keep up with emerging technologies like AI. And the WEF
estimates “GovTech” could deliver $10 trillion in value over the next
decade, pointing to initiatives in Brazil and Caribbean nations.Persona
has reported one of the year’s biggest biometrics funding rounds of
2025, with a $200 million series D. The company’s valuation reached $2
billion, rewarding its achievements in doubling its customer base and
delivering capabilities for navigating a complex ecosystem of real
people, good and bad bots, and fragmented privacy regulations.G+D
Ventures reviews lessons from its successful investment in IDnow, from
recognizing the value of its remote video identification in 2018 to its
acquisition by Corsair Capital in March, one of the few deals so far
this year bigger than Persona’s. The Medium post highlights the
importance of agility and experience in early stages, the tailwind that
regulation can provide, and why establishing a winning product in a
single market is the best way to start.Google Wallet continues to spread
its wings across the market, with support for UK digital ID passes and
some out-loud pondering about DIATF certification. Support for IDs from
more American states is coming soon, and ZKPs have been integrated to
support age assurance use cases.An RFI from U.S. Customs and Border
Protection seeks information on technologies that can capture face
biometrics from all the occupants of private vehicles at land border
crossings. The system under consideration would act as a backup to
biometrics capture in the “Pre-Primary Zone.”Ondato CMO Vytautas Urbonas
breaks down the latest tariff reversals by U.S. President Trump and
predicts compliance costs will rise in a guest post for Biometric
Update.Please tell us if you come across any articles, podcasts or other
content we should share with the people in biometrics and the broader
digital identity community, either in the comments below or through
social media.
Papua New Guinea launches integration exercise for national digital identity-May 1, 2025, 3:19 pm EDT | Joel R. McConvey
Papua
New Guinea is forging ahead with its national digital ID. A release
says the nation is launching a “data integration exercise” for key
partners, including the Civil Registry Office, banks, telecommunication
companies and superannuation funds.In 2024, PNG successfully ran a pilot
of the SevisPass digital identity, which aims to help citizens access
public and private sector services more easily and securely.Now,
according to Secretary for the Department of Information and
Communications Technology (DICT) Steven Matainaho, the national
integration process will involve mapping out sources of personal data,
establishing secure and consent-based data sharing protocols, technical
onboarding various agencies and connecting them through secure systems,
ensuring data structures and formats align with the anticipated Digital
ID Trust Framework, and testing for compliance, security and
interoperability.Finally, it will include accrediting digital identity
providers to issue SevisPass credentials.During the digital ID rollout
in May and June, national workshops and information sessions will be
held to help all data holders and stakeholders understand the system.The
government’s stated goals are to enable secure, consent-based eKYC
verification for both public and private sector services, streamline
access to banking and SIM registration, enable single sign-on (SSO)
across government services – and support biometric identity verification
for the 2027 National General Elections.Officials in charge of
elections recently said otherwise, stating publicly that the country is
not ready to use biometrics for voting.Nonetheless, as Matainaho says,
PNG is “moving decisively toward a trusted and digitally inclusive
future.”
Sri Lanka conducting user and security testing for
biometric identity card project-Plan to integrate the Sri Lanka Unique
Digital ID project with the e-NIC-May 1, 2025, 3:18 pm EDT | Duruthu
Edirimuni Chandrasekera
The user and security testing for Sri
Lanka’s Electronic National Identity Card (e-NIC) project is now
ongoing, M.S.P. Suriyapperuma, director general of the Department of
Registration of Persons, told Biometric Update on Wednesday in
Colombo.“Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) is
conducting this testing.” This testing is being conducted to check the
strength of the software, etc, she added.The Department of Registration
of Persons in Sri Lanka has procured 700,000 polycarbonate cards from
Thales for its Electronic National Identity Card (e-NIC) project, which
includes biometric features such as fingerprint, iris, and face
recognition details for enhanced security and efficiency in
identification confirmation.The plan is to integrate the Sri Lanka
Unique Digital ID project with the e-NIC, assigning unique ID numbers,
centralizing various types of IDS, and capturing data like birth
certificates and tax identification, Suriyapperuma said.The project has
improved citizens’ access to National ID cards by establishing 335
departmental ID card units in all Divisional Secretariats,
decentralizing services to provincial levels, and establishing a
Department for Registration of Persons in Battaramulla, Suriyapperuma
said. VPN technology has connected regional and provincial offices, and
2341 studios have been registered to receive personal photographs
online. Starting October 27, 2017, a polycarbonate smart card with ICAO
photo laser-printed in Sinhala, Tamil, and English trilingual was
issued, Suriyapperuma noted. “The Galle provincial office also offers
one-day service facilities to the public. These efforts aim to
streamline the process of obtaining National ID cards.”An awareness
program was held at the Information and Communication Technology Agency
of Sri Lanka (ICTA) to discuss the e-NIC process and operational aspects
recently, she said, noting that The Registrar Generals Department plans
to complete the e-population registry in Colombo this month, aiming to
create an efficient life events registration system, increase
information sharing with government institutions, and ensure data
accuracy.
Should police AI have discretion? May 3, 2025, 12:33 pm
EDT | By Professor Fraser Sampson, former UK Biometrics &
Surveillance Camera Commissioner
“Discretion is the art of
suiting action to circumstance – it is the police officer’s daily task”.
So said Lord Scarman in his totemic report to the UK parliament
following the Brixton Disorders of April,1981.The discretion Scarman was
referring to was in the context of street searches, what others call
stop and frisk (with the racially disproportionate focus being more on
the stopping than the frisking). The most intrusive and consequential
police powers are discretionary – how could they be anything else? – and
the definition applies equally to the exercise of any of them.When
suiting action to circumstance, the variables are almost infinite and
one of the great advantages that Artificial Intelligence (AI) gives us
is the capability to compute them at a speed and scale unimaginable in
1981. Revealing patterns, positing options and inferring outcomes is one
of the phenomenal contributions that AI can bring to policing but how
will that affect the use of discretionary powers? If they’re using AI to
carry out ‘neutral’ or administrative tasks, like buying vehicles or
modelling staffing ratios, the police are no different from any other
public body, but their use of operational powers is a distinct exercise
of force by the state. Using AI in this context would raise new issues,
perhaps unique to law enforcement. As I have noted before, there’s a big
difference between ordering provisions off the shelf and ordering
people off the street.At one level, basic computer-aided decision making
is suiting action to circumstance – allocation of response resources to
incidents is an example – but that does not involve a discretionary use
of power. The key AI question “is this a decision-making tool or a
decision support tool?” never arose when the software was only capable
of the latter. Now AI is involved, there are some fundamental
differences from what has gone before. Artificial Intelligence systems
are capable of taking the decision itself, offering solutions beyond
their training and improving their performance for the next time.Given
this capability, how much discretionary power should police AI systems
be permitted? For those saying ‘none’, consider this: once the police
have invested public money in an AI system, aren’t they duty bound to
maximise its efficacy, find efficiencies and free up as much resource as
budgets will allow for tackling priorities? What if the AI’s decisions
could uniquely reduce online harm to children or prevent sexual
exploitation? For those who say ‘of course’, how will the parameters of
discretion be constrained? Addressing the limitations of AI discretion
will be more a question of jurisdiction than function.In the film
Demolition Man, the police lose their discretion and rely on
computer-generated options as they approach a situation. When faced with
old school villain Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) who has been deep
frozen but returns thawed and threatening, this AI solution proves to be
useless. Thankfully, this is Hollywood AI and Sly Stallone appears in
the nick of time as misunderstood cop John Spartan – also frozen for
perpetuity. He returns to his beat defrosted, with all his discretionary
instinct intact and the day is saved once again.We can’t yet rely on
cryogenics (or wonderfully apt names), to preserve police discretion in
the world of policing AI so we’re going to need a more realistic
strategy.One way AI could help with discretionary police powers is by
advising on projected impact and viable alternatives. It could provide
an objective assessment for the decision maker to check the
proportionality and reasonableness of proposed action with circumstance –
things that were central to the Scarman Inquiry.Another is bias. While
there is much anguish about AI bias in policing, AI could reduce human
bias, flagging the risk at organisational (if not individual) level
before it becomes policy or hardens into culture. Scarman again.A
downside is the potential for deskilling police officers (send for
Spartan!). A CENTRIC survey of citizens’ concerns about the police use
of AI is showing some interesting early responses here.Then there’s
accountability. How does an aggrieved citizen complain about their
treatment when discretionary police power is used (another key Scarman
consideration)? If AI is partly responsible for a decision, should it
shoulder part of the blame? How? The same survey is currently asking
thousands of citizens about concerns that the police might pass the
blame to AI if something went wrong. A strong response might be a proxy
for public attitudes to the police generally as much as a measure of
misgivings about their technology, but it will be relevant either
way.The Scarman Report concerned the organisation and role of the police
in society, particularly in relation to racial disadvantage, and there
is not room here to do it justice. After the report’s publication, the
UK parliament debated how policing must strike the right balance between
consent, independence and accountability, a task which it recognised
required ‘great discretion on the part of each individual police officer
in the diverse society of today’. Balancing and discretion still apply
today.Even if not yet using AI to take active tactical decisions,
policing will benefit enormously from the new capabilities it offers.
Artificial Intelligence brings substantial benefits to areas such as
forensics and biometrics (fingerprint and DNA analysis), surveillance
(facial recognition) and crime mapping (geospatial prediction); its
discretionary use will have a profound impact on public trust and
confidence.The proper role for AI in discretionary policing must look
both ways. Responding to the Scarman Report, one member of the House of
Lords said:“It is a tribute to the police that they can exercise the
discretion needed to do their duty…and, let us make no mistake, it is
the responsibility of the community to assist the police in their
task”.How will police AI help the citizen suit action to that
circumstance
Idex Biometrics: quarterlies, annuals, regulatory
actions-Idex hanging on after closing US, China subsidiaries in 2024-May
3, 2025, 11:45 am EDT | Chris Burt
May 3, 2025 – Idex
Biometrics is hanging on with balance sheet solvency of negative $0.4
million as of the close of 2024, compared to $0.9 million a year
earlier.The company raised $2.9 million in debt which it converted to
equity this month.Revenue fell to $0.8 million, from $4.1 million in
fiscal 2023, and the company attributes the change to its transition
from selling components for the payments market to operating as an
end-to-end solution provider for its Idex Pay and Idex Access lines. As
it makes this transition, Idex says it retains relatively high levels of
inventory from previous supply chain disruptions and
lower-than-forecasted sales volumes.The group closed down its
subsidiaries in the United States and China in 2024, the annual report
states.Idex raises NOK 30M in debt and converts it to equity-April 29,
2025 – Idex Biometrics has secured a 30 million Norwegian kroner
(approximately US$2.9 million) loan and converted the debt to equity
with the issuance of 3 billion new shares.The share capital increase
brings Idex’ total to NOK 38,315,942.32 ($3.7 million) in shares with a
nominal value of NOK 0.01.The company resolved to carry out the debt
conversion at an April 11 Extraordinary General Meeting, having
considered a proposal to reduce its share capital.Idex has been
navigating “a fundamental shift” in its biometrics business towards
access control, spurred by a “lack of revenues” that also led the
company to change CEOs.Idex Biometrics’ revenue woes force CEO ouster,
strategic shift to access products-March 11, 2025 – A canceled deal with
Zwipe and subsequent financial trouble at Idex Biometrics have
materialized into a leadership change .. (read more)Weak biometric
payments sales push Idex to the brink-Feb 27, 2025 – Idex Biometrics has
closed out a tough fiscal 2024 year with negligible income in the
fourth quarter, as sensor shipments for the biometric payments market
stalled .. (read more)-Idex insiders subscribe but repair issue falls
short-Dec 2, 2024 – Idex Biometrics closed a repair issue following its
September private placement on Friday, raising 3.9 million Norwegian
kroner (approximately US$350,000) from subscriptions for just under 26.2
million offer shares, according to the final results announcement.The
company initially offered 140 million shares at NOK0.15 (roughly
US$0.014) per share, for a gross total of NOK21 million ($1.9
million).CEO Catharina Eklof bought 380,880 subscription rights at
NOK0.15 per share, Chair Morten Opstad subscribed to a million shares at
the same price and CFO Kristian Flaten purchased 1 million shares at an
average price of NOK0.118 ($0.011) per share. Since the latter are not
at the “offer price,” they are not included in the total above.The
initial private placement grossed NOK 70 million ($6.3 million), with
just over 101.6 million shares allocated to the first tranche, and just
over 365 thousand allocated to the second. That gave Idex NOK 66 million
in share capital, divided between roughly 440 million shares.Costs
down, biometric card revenues imminent,Idex hopes-October 30 – 2024 –
Idex Biometrics reports $60,000 in revenue in the third quarter of 2024,
as it struggles to commercialize biometric smart cards.Financial income
and changes in liabilities added up to a net income of $1.36 million,
and an adjusted net loss of $4.8 million.Idex received approval for
Visa’s biometric payment application during the quarter, and Kona I
received Mastercard approval for metal cards based on Idex Pay. The
company also notes a successful test in India, a card launching with
TaluCard in the UK for visually impaired people and a deal for a school
ID solution in Kenya signed during Q3.“Transitioning into the CEO role
this quarter, my focus has been on executing our transformation program
and implementing key initiatives to achieve the targeted cash quarterly
operating expense run rate of $2.5 million,” says Catharina Eklof, CEO
of Idex Biometrics.Idex reorganized to reduce operating expenses,
consolidated its administration in the UK and Europe and shifted its
workforce to capture opportunities in the APAC region. Manufacturing
partners and solution integrators were added during the quarter, Eklof
says, as the company focusses on bringing its partners “from
certification to industrialized production.”Mastercard’s approval of
cards from Kona is an example. The initial commercial program for that
card in Asia is now being planned.Eklof discussed Idex’ plans to ride
biometric smart card growth to improved financial results in an
interview with Biometric Update earlier this month.Idex plans private
placement to raise over $5M-September 17, 2024 – Idex Biometrics is
working towards a private placement of stock intended to raise between
55 and 65 million Norwegian kroner (roughly US$5.2 million to $6.1
million) to fund its continued commercialization efforts.Arctic
Securities AS is on board as sole manager and bookrunner for the private
placement, which is divided into two tranches.The subscription price
per offer share is set at NOK 0.15 ($0.014), with a minimum allocation
amount equivalent to 100,000 euros ($111,195), though the company can
offer discretionary exemptions.The company has received a pre-indication
of interest in investing $1 million from Robert Keith.Idex also
registered an increase in share capital, settling a term payment on a
convertible loan by issuing 9,123,333 shares. The shares were issued on
August 30 at NOK 0.60 ($0.057) each.The company appointed Catherina
Eklof as CEO just weeks earlier.Idex slashes costs amid shift to
biometric cards-August 15, 2024 – Idex Biometrics emphasizes the
progress it made towards the commercialization of biometric cards in its
interim report for the first half of the company’s fiscal 2024.Idex
reports revenue of $385,000 in the second quarter, roughly flat from Q1
but well down from nearly $1.5 million in Q2 of 2023. Net loss was $6.7
million, a reduction from $7.4 million a year ago.The company’s costs
included $1.1 million in restructuring costs. Like Fingerprint Cards,
Idex is reducing headcount, laying off 25 employees in March. Idex plans
to reduce its operating expenses from $6.1 million (excluding
materials) this past quarter to $2.5 million per quarter or less with
its changes, which the company expects to complete by the end of next
quarter.The report makes much of the LoA from Mastercard Idex’ biometric
payment card partner BCC received in June.Idex issues private placement
after revenue drop in Q1-May 16, 2024 – Idex Biometrics earned $372,000
in revenue in the first quarter of 2024 from sales of its biometric
access control and payment technologies, slightly down from the fourth
quarter last year, but dramatically lower than the same quarter a year
ago.Despite the decrease in revenue, the company reports a lower net
loss of $5.4 million in Q1, compared to $7.2 million a year earlier.Idex
has also completed a private placement of 33.3 million shares at NOK
1.65 per share, slightly below the closing price of NOK 1.75 per share.
Gross proceeds from the placement are NOK 55 million ($5.1 million). The
board is also considering a subsequent repair issue rights offering of 8
million more shares on the same terms.Strategic corporate change is
scary but so are the weeks that follow-Feb 29, 2024 – The
fingerprint-scanning company has just released a fiscal 2023 report that
has more moving parts than a busload of kindergartners. Read more
here.Adding debt and cutting costs, Idex says it’s good to 2025-Nov 16,
2023 – Idex Biometrics has raised NOK 35 million (US$3.22 million) in a
private placement of 78.6 million new shares priced at NOK 0.445
($0.041) each. Read more here.Brighter quarter as firm preps to issue
debt-November 10, 2023 – Idex is reporting an improving environment,
having cut its third-quarter and nine-month losses compared to the same
period last year.The fingerprint biometrics company says it posed a loss
of $7 million, or $0.01 per basic and diluted share, on revenue of
$950,000 for the quarter ended September 30. This compares with a loss
of $9 million, $0.01, on revenue of $928,000 a year ago.For the first
three quarters, it reported loss of $21.7 million, $0.02, on revenue
$3.6 million. This compares with a loss of $26.3 million, $0.03, on
revenue of $3 million a year ago.Idex also is preparing to issue senior
convertible debt for as much as NOK 100 million (US$8.95 million), to be
amortized over 3.5 years. It will be priced at 92 percent of the
principal. The funding will pay for “commercial ramp-up.”The company
will have the option of paying with equity or cash with every two-month
installments.Approval of the plan is expected November 30.First-half
numbers moving in the right direction-Aug 11, 2023 – Idex Biometrics
reported interim first-half figures showing a loss of $14.7 million, or
$0.01 per basic and diluted shares, on revenue of $2.7 million. During
the same period last year, the company reported a $17.4 million, or
$0.02 per share, on revenue of $2.1 million.For the quarter, Idex
reported a loss of $7.4 million on revenue of $1.5 million (a quarterly
record) for the three months ended June 30. This compares with a loss of
$8.3 million on revenue of $1.1 million for the same period last
year.According to the company’s interim data, gross margins grew 22
percent over the first quarter of fiscal 2023.Service revenue collapsed
in the first half. It was nonexistent in both Q1 and Q2, and had fallen
unsteadily since the second quarter. At that point, service sales were
$100,000, $84,000 in the third quarter of 2022 and $16,000 in the final
quarter of the fiscal year.Chooses to leave the Nasdaq-July 21, 2023 –
Being listed on the Nasdaq exchange in the U.S. and the Oslo Bors in
Norway is too expensive for fingerprint biometrics firm Idex, according
to the company, which has decided to leave the Nasdaq. Idex’ American
depository shares, each of which represent 75 ordinary shares, should be
a thing of the past as of August 10.Raises $11M for
commercialization-May 26, 2023 – Idex Biometrics has raised NOK 125
million ($11 million) via the sale of 147 million new shares at NOK 0.85
($.077) per share. Read more here.Q1 revenue rises-May 25, 2023 –
Biometric sensor maker Idex saw its year-over-year loss narrow slightly
during the first quarter, ended March 31. But its revenue rose by a
third.Idex, which makes sensors for cards and embedded devices, reported
a loss of $7.2 million, or $.01 per basic and diluted share, on revenue
of $1.2 million. This compares to a loss of $8.1 million, or $.01, on
revenue of $989,000 for the first quarter of fiscal 2022.Executives were
able to reduce operating expenses on a quarter-to-quarter comparison.
In the most recent period, the company reported $8.6 million and $8.9
million a year ago.The market inflection point claimed in 2022, when
nine biometric payment card programs using Idex sensors were launched,
could be continuing this year. The company says seven Turkish and
Bangladeshi banks have committed to its sensors so far this year. Europe
and the Middle East are showing “particularly strong”
interest.Mastercard signed off on Idex’ fingerprint test assessment,
which is essential to winning real estate on the finance company’s
cards. Complete certification, according to the company, is expected in
the second quarter this year.Fiscal ’22 tricky but not impossible-Feb
22, 2023 – Idex reported a fiscal 2022 loss of $32.6 million on revenue
of $4 million compared to a loss of $32.5 million on revenue of $2.8
million in fiscal 2021. Read more here.Tough third quarter-Nov 22, 2022 –
Idex reported a net loss of $8.12 million on revenue of $928,000 in the
third quarter this year. Read more here.Idex sells 150M shares-Nov 17,
2022 – Idex has signed a two-tranche private placement raising a total
$15 million by selling 150 million shares at 10 cents each. Read more
here.More financial and industry news about Idex Biometrics here.
INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.
2 PETER 3:10-11
10
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
(NUKES) shall melt with fervent heat,(BLAST) the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up.(BUT ITS NO END OF THE WORLD
HOGWASH)
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,(BY
NUKES INCLUDING 3 BILLION PEOPLE) what manner of persons ought ye to be
in all holy conversation and godliness,
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
JESUS
SHED HIS BLOOD FOR US THAT WE CAN BE SAVED FOREVER.AND DURING WW3
PEOPLES BLOOD WILL BE SHED AS A JUDGEMENT FOR HATING HIM AND ISRAEL.GOD
IS NOT MOCKED.
ZEPHANIAH 1:2-3
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
3
I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven,
and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I
will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
EZEKIEL 5:15-17
15
So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an
astonishment unto the (ARAB/MUSLIM) nations that are round about
thee,(ISRAEL) when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in
fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.
16 When I
shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their
destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase
the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
17 So will I
send upon you famine and evil beasts,(WHEN RUSSIA/MUSLIMS GET DEFEATED
THIER BODIES GET EATEN BY BIRDS,ANIMALS IN ISRAEL MIGRATION SEASON) and
they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through
thee;(NUKES) and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have
spoken it.
REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out
from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to
him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and
gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully
ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and
gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of
the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the
city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the
horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200
MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)
ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold,
the LORD will come with fire,(NUKES) and with his chariots like a
whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of
fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17
They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens
behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination,
and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I
know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather
all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
ISAIAH 26:21
21
For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants
of the earth for their iniquity:(GOD/ISRAEL HATE AND BRAKING OF HIS
COMMANDMENTS) the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more
cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die - 3 BILLION).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed
one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of
the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land
desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For
the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their
light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall
not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for
their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the
arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of
her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his
fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18
And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the
fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of
the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are
open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed
like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it;
and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass
in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that
are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they
shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and
shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be
visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed,
when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and
before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:3,30
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume
away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and
their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM
ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD
PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that
day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they
shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand
shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN
WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say
to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour
every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall
not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be
burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor
their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath;
but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for
he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC
BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
REVELATION 8:7
7
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with
blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees
was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18
By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the
fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their
mouths.(ATOMIC BOMBS)(RUSSIA CHINA DESTROYED BY ISRAELS ATOMIC BOMBS)
REVELATION 16:12-16
12
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river
Euphrates;(WERE WW3 STARTS IN IRAQ OR SYRIA OR TURKEY) and the water
thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of
the mouth of the dragon,(SATAN) and out of the mouth of the beast,(WORLD
DICTATOR) and out of the mouth of the false prophet.(FALSE POPE)
14
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth
unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to
the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(WERE 2 BILLION DIE FROM
NUKE WAR)
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a
great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is
done.
JOEL 3:2 (YOU WANNA DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF (HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION KILLED AS A RESULT)
02-I
will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley
of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my
heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted
my land.
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8
And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that
sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given
unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with
sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE
DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18
By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the
fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their
mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE
17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS
KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE
BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND
DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in
that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN
WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4
billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto
them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered
together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against
Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten
by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE
SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE
CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH
IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
NAHUM 3:13
13
Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are
wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.
DR DOCTORION-ANGEL OF THE MIDEAST
"The
angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces
because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United
Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.
FIRST ANGEL: ASIA
But
the angel said: "Millions will die in China and in India. Nation will
be against nation, brother against brother. Asians will fight each
other. Nuclear weapons shall be used, killing millions."Twice I heard
the words, "Catastrophic! Catastrophic!"Then the angel said, "Financial
crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world."I was trembling while
the angel was speaking.
SECOND ANGEL: MIDDLE EAST
Then I saw that
the second angel had a sickle in his hand, such as is used in
harvesting.The second angel said: "Harvest time has come in Israel and
the countries all the way to Iran."I saw those countries in a few split
seconds."All of Turkey and those [inaudible] countries that have refused
me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one
another."I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the
Middle East countries. I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of
Georgia - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor - full
of blood. I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; Nuclear
weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere.
Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these
words:"Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come."
Pakistan tests missile weapons system amid India standoff-by AFP Staff Writers.
Islamabad
(AFP) May 3, 2025-Pakistan's military said it carried out a "training
launch" of a surface-to-surface missile weapons system on Saturday,
further heightening tensions with India after last month's deadly attack
in disputed Kashmir.New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing an
attack on tourists last month in Indian-administered Kashmir, sparking a
fresh stand-off between the nuclear-armed neighbours.Pakistan's
military said Saturday it conducted a "successful training launch of the
Abdali Weapon System", a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450
kilometres (279 miles)."The launch was aimed at ensuring the
operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters,
including the missile's advanced navigation system and enhanced
manoeuvrability features," Pakistan's military said in a statement.It
did not say where the test took place.The missile training launch comes
after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has given his military
"full operational freedom" to respond to the attack in Pahalgam in
Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 people, mostly Hindu
tourists.Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack and called
for an independent probe.This week Islamabad warned of an imminent air
strike from its neighbour, and has repeatedly made clear it will respond
with force to any aggression by India.International pressure has been
piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad -- who have fought several wars
over the disputed Kashmir region -- to de-escalate.Neighbouring China
has urged "restraint", with the European Union warning Friday that the
situation was "alarming.In an interview with Fox News, US Vice President
JD Vance called on India to respond to the attack in a way "that
doesn't lead to a broader regional conflict".He also urged Pakistan to
"make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory
are hunted down and dealt with".- 'Message to the world' -Analysts in
Pakistan told AFP the missile launch was a warning shot."It clearly
indicates that we have resources to counter India. This is not a message
only for India but the rest of the world that we are well-prepared,"
said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military analyst.On Friday, Pakistan's Chief
of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir presided over a meeting of his top
commanders about the "current Pakistan-India standoff", a military
statement said.Munir "underscored the critical importance of heightened
vigilance and proactive readiness across all fronts".Since the attack --
the deadliest in Kashmir on civilians in years -- India and Pakistan
have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic barbs and expulsions, and shut
border crossings.The two sides have exchanged gunfire for nine
consecutive nights along the militarised Line of Control, the de facto
border, according to Indian defence sources.Muslim-majority Kashmir, a
region of around 15 million people, is divided but claimed in full
between Pakistan and India.Rebels on the Indian side have waged an
insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with
Pakistan.India regularly blames its neighbour for backing gunmen behind
the insurgency.Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports
Kashmir's struggle for self-determination and regularly denounces rights
abuses in the regio
India-Pakistan gunfire triggers terror of past conflict.
Balkote,
India, May 4 (AFP) May 04, 2025-For 10 nights straight, gunfire between
Indian and Pakistani soldiers has echoed from the mountains and deep
valleys that form the heavily defended de facto border between the
nuclear-armed rivals.And, each night, it brings back afresh the horror
for 50-year-old maize farmer Bashir Dar -- the last time the bitter
enemies battled across the Line of Control in contested Kashmir, his
wife was killed."The mortar shell landed right next to my wife -- she
died instantly", said Dar, describing fighting in 2020 near his mountain
village of Balkote, on the Indian side of the dividing line.His home
lies less than a mile from Pakistani-controlled territory."These days,
that moment flashes in my head all the time," the widower said, holding
up a picture of his late wife."Every night, I sit huddled with my four
children in one room -- with an ear to the sounds of gunfire coming from
the border."Relations between the neighbours have plummeted after India
accused Pakistan of backing the worst attack on civilians in
Indian-administered Kashmir in years, in which a gang of gunmen shot
dead 26 men, mostly Hindus.Islamabad has rejected the accusations.Indian
police have issued wanted posters for three men -- two Pakistanis and
an Indian -- accused of carrying out the April 22 attack at
Pahalgam.They say they are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba
group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.- Cleaning bunkers
-India's army said Sunday that its troops had exchanged gunfire with
Pakistani soldiers overnight across the Line of Control in multiple
sites, which it says has taken place every night since April 24.The army
said "unprovoked small arms fire" from Pakistan, to which Indian
soldiers "responded promptly and proportionately".There was no immediate
confirmation from Pakistan, but Islamabad -- whose military on Saturday
said it carried out a "training launch" of a missile weapons system --
has accused India of a "ceasefire violation".Muslim-majority Kashmir has
been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from
British rule in 1947, with both governing part of the disputed territory
separately and claiming it in its entirety.Rebel groups opposed to
Indian rule have waged an insurgency since 1989. Tens of thousands have
been killed.Government employee Mansoor Ahmed, 38, took two days off to
prepare his bunker he had built in the village, at a cost of some
200,000 rupees ($2,300)."I cleaned up my bunker and stocked it up for
the first time since 2021," Ahmed said, referring to the year India and
Pakistan agreed to a renewed border ceasefire.Many of those without
bunkers have already left for safer places like Baramulla, further from
the dividing line."Six families in my neighbourhood left their homes for
safety during the last few days," said truck driver Mohammad Ibrahim,
who has stayed with his wife and children."They requested us to look
after their homes and cattle."- 'No protection' -In the villages of
Churunda and Tilawari, fearful residents said officials had visited,
telling them to check the condition of a few government-constructed
community bunkers."There are only six bunkers, and each bunker can
accommodate a maximum of 15 people," a young villager told AFP,
declining to be named.In Churunda village, there are some 120
families."No proper facilities exist in the bunkers, and when it rains,
water enters inside. The bunkers have not been built properly," said the
man."If war happens, these bunkers will be useless."AFP reporters saw a
community bunker in the village with thick concrete walls and a slab on
top.But the floor was covered in runny mud.Residents are fearful, and
watch news on their mobile phones constantly."We live in constant fear
of becoming victims of the conflict," said a young woman in Tilawari,
who declined to be named."We want peace," she said. "We want to send our
children to school and live our lives without fear."
Israel says area of airport hit after Yemen missile launch-By Jay Deshmukh.
Tel
Aviv (AFP) May 4, 2025-A missile launched from Yemen struck near
Israel's main international airport on Sunday, authorities said, an
attack that briefly halted air traffic and triggered threats of
retaliation.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the
missile fire, which follows a series of attacks by Yemen's Huthi
rebels.Police reported a "missile impact" near Ben Gurion International
Airport outside Tel Aviv after the military said that "several attempts
were made to intercept" it.It was not immediately clear whether the
impact was caused by the Yemeni missile or by an interceptor.Yair
Hezroni, the police's central district chief, said at the scene in a
video released by the force that "you can see the area just behind us: a
crater was formed here, several dozen metres (yards) wide and several
dozen metres deep".The police footage showed officers standing at the
edge of a crater in an orchard, with the airport's control tower visible
in the distance.AFP journalists said they had heard explosions in the
area of Jerusalem and the airport, after air raid sirens sounded in
several parts of the country.Israel's airport authority said that
"departures and arrivals have resumed" at Ben Gurion, a short while
after they had been interrupted due to the missile fire.The airport "is
open and operational", the aviation authority said in a statement.- Vow
to hit back -Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened a forceful
response, saying: "Anyone who hits us, we will hit them seven times
stronger."The Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who control swathes of Yemen,
have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping
throughout the Gaza war, saying they are acting in solidarity with
Palestinians.On Saturday, the Huthis claimed a third missile attack on
Israel in two days.The vast majority of missiles fired by the Huthis
since the start of the Gaza war in 2023 have been intercepted by Israeli
air defences.The Yemeni rebels had paused their attacks during a recent
two-month ceasefire in the Gaza war.But in March, they threatened to
resume attacks on international shipping over Israel's aid blockade on
the Gaza Strip.The move triggered a response from the US military, which
began hammering the rebels with near-daily air strikes starting March
15 in a bid to keep them from threatening shipping in the Red Sea and
Gulf of Aden.US strikes on the rebels began under former president Joe
Biden, but intensified under his successor Donald Trump.Since March, the
United States says it has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen.
Iran says 'has every right' to enrich uranium, dismissing US concerns-by AFP Staff Writers.
Tehran
(AFP) May 3, 2025-Iran defended on Saturday its "right" to enrich
uranium despite growing Western concern that Tehran may be seeking
nuclear weapons and as talks with the United States were delayed.Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that "Iran has every right
to possess the full nuclear fuel cycle," citing Tehran's long-standing
membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."There are
several NPT members which enrich uranium while wholly rejecting nuclear
weapons," Araghchi said.Under the NPT, signatory states are obliged to
declare their nuclear stockpiles and place them under the supervision of
the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA).The United States and other Western countries have long accused
Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons -- a claim Tehran denies, insisting
that its atomic programme is solely for civilian purposes.Iran and the
United States have engaged in nuclear talks since April 12, their
highest-level contact since Washington withdrew from a landmark deal
with Tehran in 2018, during Donald Trump's first term as US president.A
fourth round of talks initially scheduled for Saturday has been
postponed, mediator Oman said earlier this week, citing "logistical
reasons".In a Thursday interview with Fox News, US Secretary of State
Marco Rubio called on Iran to "walk away" from enrichment, saying that
"the only countries in the world that enrich uranium are the ones that
have nuclear weapons."Iran currently enriches uranium to 60-percent
purity -- far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal with the
United States and other world powers, but below the 90 percent needed
for weapons-grade material.The stockpile remains a concern for Western
powers.On Monday French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Iran was
"on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons" and said UN sanctions could
be reimposed if Tehran's actions threatened European security.Iran
rejected the comments from France -- a signatory to the 2015 nuclear
deal -- as "simply absurd".Araghchi has previously called Iran's right
to enrich uranium "non-negotiable".IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on
Wednesday that the enriched material "can be easily dissolved" or
"shipped out" of Iran.Last month, Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh
Mohajerani described the transfer of enriched material as a "red
line".Rubio said Iran should allow inspections of its nuclear
facilities, including by US experts.He also called on Tehran to cease
its support for Yemen's Huthi rebels, whose attacks targeting
Washington's ally Israel and Red Sea shipping have prompted retaliatory
US strikes.Tehran has insisted that the talks with Washington be solely
focused on the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions, ruling out
negotiations on its regional influence and military capabilities.Last
week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a credible
deal must "remove Iran's capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons"
and prevent the development of ballistic missiles.Araghchi responded by
accusingNetanyahu of "dictating" US policy.
UN envoy urges Israel to halt Syria attacks 'at once.
'Damascus,
May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2025-United Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen
urged Israel Saturday to halt its attacks on Syria "at once", after it
carried out multiple air strikes targeting the Islamist-led authorities
following sectarian violence this week.Fresh Israeli raids were reported
overnight, after Israel said repeatedly that its forces stood ready to
protect the Druze minority after sectarian clashes killed 119 people,
mostly Druze fighters, according to a Britain-based war monitor.Since
ousting longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria's new
authorities -- who have roots in Al-Qaeda -- have vowed inclusive rule
in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but they must also
contend with pressure from radical Islamists in their ranks."I strongly
condemn Israel's continued and escalating violations of Syria's
sovereignty, including multiple air strikes in Damascus and other
cities," Pedersen said in a post on X, calling "for these attacks to
cease at once".The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 20
strikes hit military targets across Syria late Friday, in the
"heaviest" assault carried out by Israel on its neighbour this
year.Syria's state news agency SANA reported strikes near Damascus and
in the country's centre, west and south, saying one civilian was
killed.An Israeli military statement said its forces "struck a military
site, anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air missile infrastructure in
Syria". It did not give further details.Firas Aabdeen, 32, a member of
the security forces in Harasta near Damascus where one of the attacks
hit, said he heard several "very loud" strikes and that a largely
disused Assad-era military barracks was targeted.The barrage followed an
Israeli attack near the presidential palace in Damascus early on
Friday, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence
Minister Israel Katz called a "clear message" to Syria's new rulers."We
will not allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the
Druze community," they said.Israeli foe Iran, which propped up the now
ousted Assad government, condemned the strikes, accusing Israel of
seeking to "destroy and annihilate the defence, economic and
infrastructure capabilities of Syria as an independent
country".Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, also an Assad ally, said
that the attacks were "a clear attempt to undermine" and weaken Syria.-
Israel army 'deployed' in south -The Israeli military said it was
"deployed in southern Syria" and "prepared to prevent the entry of
hostile forces into the area of Druze villages".Since the collapse of
the Assad government late last year, Israeli troops have entered the
UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights and have carried out
incursions deeper into southern Syria.It was not immediately clear
whether the Israeli army was speaking of a new deployment or how many
troops were involved.A Druze official in the community's heartland in
Sweida province, said there had been "no deployment of Israeli soldiers"
there.This week, Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their
loyalty to a united Syria, following clashes between Druze fighters and
loyalists of the new government.The unrest in Sweida and the southern
suburbs of the capital was sparked by the circulation of an audio
recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous. AFP was
unable to confirm its authenticity.- 'Directly interfering' -The
Observatory and Druze residents said forces affiliated with the new
government attacked the towns of Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus and
clashed with Druze gunmen.The government blamed "outlaw groups" for the
violence.A de-escalation deal saw government troop deploy in Sahnaya and
tighter security around Jaramana.Israel's military said "five Syrian
Druze citizens were evacuated to receive medical treatment in Israel
overnight" after sustaining injuries in Syria.The Druze official in
Sweida said they were wounded "in clashes in Sahnaya" and feared being
detained if they sought treatment in Damascus.Middle East analyst
Andreas Krieg said Israel was "directly interfering in the transition
process in Syria".Israel is using the Druze issue "as some sort of
pretext to justify their military occupation" of parts of Syria, he told
AFP.burs-lar/lg/kir
Japan, China accuse each other of airspace 'violation' near disputed islands-by AFP Staff Writers.
Beijing
(AFP) May 4, 2025-Tokyo and Beijing exchanged diplomatic protests, each
accusing the other of "violating" national airspace, after a Chinese
helicopter and coast guard vessels faced off with a Japanese aircraft
around disputed islands.The islands in the East China Sea -- known as
the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan -- are administered by Tokyo
but claimed by Beijing and are a frequent hotspot in bilateral
tensions.China's foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday it had
lodged "solemn representations" with the Japanese embassy's chief
minister after "a civilian aircraft intruded into the airspace of the
Diaoyu Islands", calling it an "illegal infringement activity".A day
earlier, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement that its vice
minister lodged "a strong protest" with the Chinese ambassador to Japan
"over the intrusion of four China Coast Guard vessels into Japan's
territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands".The vice minister also
protested "the violation of Japan's territorial airspace by a helicopter
launched from one of the China Coast Guard vessels, strongly urging
(China) to ensure that similar acts do not recur".Japan's defence
ministry said the helicopter flew within Japanese airspace for about 15
minutes on Saturday near the Senkaku islands."The Self-Defence Forces
responded by scrambling fighter jets," the ministry said.Public
broadcaster NHK and other local media reported that this is the first
time a Chinese government helicopter violated the Japanese airspace off
the disputed islands.China's coast guard on Saturday announced it had
used a helicopter to "expel" a Japanese aeroplane from airspace around
the disputed islands.Liu Dejun, a spokesperson for China's coast guard,
said a Japanese civilian aircraft "illegally entered" the airspace of
the islands at 11:19 am (0219 GMT) and left five minutes later.Beijing
frequently announces it has driven Japanese vessels and aircraft away
from the islands, but Japanese officials have told AFP that Chinese
authorities sometimes announce expulsions when none have
occurred.Unnamed Japanese officials told local media that Beijing was
possibly reacting to a small Japanese civilian aircraft flying near the
islands.Chinese and Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea have
routinely staged dangerous face-offs around disputed islands.Tensions
between China and other claimants to parts of the East and South China
Seas have driven Japan to deepen ties with the Philippines and the
United States.
Vietnam protests China, Philippines claims on South China Sea reef.
Hanoi
(AFP) May 3, 2025 - Vietnam on Saturday protested claims by China and
the Philippines over a disputed reef in the South China Sea which it
considers its own territory.Manila and Beijing traded barbs last week
over Sandy Cay, a group of small sandbanks in the waterway's Spratly
Islands, after a Chinese state media report suggested the area had been
seized.The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of
confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in
its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no
legal basis.On Saturday Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeperson Pham Thu
Hang said in a statement posted on the government's official website
that Hanoi had "issued protest notes to the countries involved regarding
violations of its sovereignty over Sandy Cay".Vietnam considers the
resource-rich Spratly Islands -- which lie some 500 kilometres (310
miles) off its east coast -- as part of its territory.Pham Thu Hang said
that Vietnam demands "relevant parties" respect its sovereignty over
the archipelago, urging them to "refrain from actions that further
complicate the situation".Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said last week
that the country's coast guard had "implemented maritime control" over
Tiexian Reef, part of Sandy Cay, in mid-April.Days later the Philippine
Coast Guard released its own photo showing Filipino sailors holding the
country's flag over the same disputed reef during an early morning
mission the day before.The Sandy Cay reef lies near Thitu Island, or
Pag-asa, where the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast
guard monitoring base.The South China Sea is home to valuable oil and
gas deposits and crucial shipping lanes, and several of China's
neighbours have voiced concern that Beijing is seeking to expand its
reach.Vietnam, along with several other countries in the region, also
claims parts of the strategic waterway.
Hegseth revises U.S. Army blueprint to 'ensure peace through strength'by Mike Heuer.
Washington
DC (UPI) May 3, 2025-Changing military technologies, tactics and
challenges require the U.S. Army to eliminate waste and modernize its
capabilities to ensure "peace through strength," Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth announced."To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must
transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant and
inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and
acquisition systems," Hegseth said Wednesday in a memo to senior
Pentagon leadership..The goal is to strategically realign forces to
"optimize deterrence and rapid deployment ... to defend the American
homeland and deter China in the Indo-Pacific," he explained.To do that,
Hegseth directed Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll to "implement a
comprehensive transformation strategy, streamline its force structure,
eliminate wasteful spending, reform the acquisition process[and]
modernize inefficient defense contracts."Doing so will "restore the
warrior ethos and re-establish deterrence," Hegseth said.Improving
operational capabilities-The Army must prioritize current resources to
improve its long-range precision capabilities and establish an effective
"golden dome" air and missile defense over the United States.Hegseth
also wants the Army to improve its cyber, electronic warfare and
counter-space defensive capabilities.He ordered Driscoll to accelerate
the delivery of arms that can strike moving land and maritime targets,
achieve electromagnetic and "air-littoral dominance," and enable
AI-driven command and control systems by 2027.The Army also is to extend
advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing and additive
manufacturing, to Army units by the end of the year.Hegseth also wants
the Army to modernize production of munitions to sustain national
defense during wartime and increase its forward presence in the
Indo-Pacific region.Driscoll must expand munitions stockpiles, troop
deployments and joint exercises with Indo-Pacific allies and partners to
maximize strategic capabilities within the region.Modernizing the Army
requires ending the procurement of obsolete systems and scaling back the
use of redundant programs, including manned aircraft, Humvees and
outdated unmanned aerial vehicles, Hegseth said.He also wants Driscoll
to lower the Army's spending on obsolete weapons systems and
"unnecessary climate-related initiatives" and eliminate wasteful
contracts and excess travel funding.Optimizing force structure and
workforce-Driscoll must merge various headquarters to better enable the
Army to effectively generate combat power and synchronize "kinetic and
non-kinetic fires, space-based capabilities and unmanned systems,"
Hegseth said.Attack helicopter formations are to be reduced and
restructured to make way for inexpensive drone swarms that can overwhelm
targets, and outdated armor and aviation units are to be eliminated.He
wants Driscoll to downsize, consolidate or close redundant headquarters
and review and consolidate operations across depots, arsenals and
installations.Skills and merit are to be prioritized to optimize force
structure and achieve maximum military readiness, and general officer
positions are to be reduced to streamline command structures.Hegseth
also ordered Driscoll to consolidate budgets and shift spending to
ensure the rapid adaptation of new technology and include
right-to-repair provisions in contracts that involve intellectual
property constraints.Contracts are to support faster adoption of
critical technologies, including software and software-defined
hardware.Performance-based contracts are encouraged to reduce waste, and
cost-effective multi-year procurement agreements are preferred."As the
Army prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, our nation requires her
Army to move further, faster and fight harder than any other force on
Earth," Hegseth said."President [Donald] Trump and I will not let this
nation down," he concluded.
US approves $3.5 bn missile sale to Saudis by AFP Staff Writers.
Washington
(AFP) May 2, 2025-The United States on Friday approved a $3.5 billion
sale of missiles to Saudi Arabia, ahead of a visit to the kingdom by
President Donald Trump.The State Department said it notified Congress of
the deal that will include Saudi Arabia's purchase of 1,000
medium-range air-to-air missiles.The AIM-120 missiles, whose principal
contractor is RTX Corp. in Arizona, are a mainstay of a number of
militaries around the world.The missiles are guided by active radar
after fired by pilots.Trump will visit Saudi Arabia followed by Qatar
and the United Arab Emirates on May 13 to 16 on the first foreign trip
of his second term -- other than a brief trip to Rome for the funeral of
Pope Francis.Trump has boasted of securing major commercial deals from
oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which has also been a key go-between for the US
diplomacy on Russia and Ukraine.
16 EU states seek budget concessions to lift defence spending by AFP Staff Writers.
Brussels,
Belgium (AFP) April 30, 2025-Sixteen European Union countries will seek
exemptions from the bloc's public debt rules so they can ramp up
defence spending, the EU said Wednesday.With the continent looking to
rearm following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald
Trump's stance on European security, the European Commission last month
said it would give member states more wiggle room on spending.In an
easing of its once strict rule on budget deficits, Brussels will now let
states splash out up to 1.5 percent of national output on defence for
four years without fear of breaching its strict public debt
limits.Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia,
Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Portugal,
Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland have decided to trigger the budget
exemption clause, an EU statement said.EU countries had until the end of
April to inform the bloc of their decision to opt in to the
suspension.Twelve countries had already formally requested exemption and
four more had committed to do so, according to the European Commission
and European Council.In March, the EU forecast that the suspension could
unlock defence spending worth up to 650 billion euros ($736 billion),
while acknowledging that figure was an estimate.France, Spain and Italy
have been among countries to stay away from the exemption, even though
they have pledged to increase their defence spending."We remain open for
more requests" for exemptions, European Economic Affairs Commissioner
Valdis Dombrovskis said on Wednesday, quoted in a press release.Since
2021 military spending by the 27 EU members has risen by more than 31
percent, reaching 326 billion euros in 2024.
Lebanon warns Hamas against using its territories to attack Israel-by Dalal Saoud.
Washington
DC (UPI) May 2, 2025-Lebanon's Higher Defence Council on Friday warned
the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, against launching
attacks or firing rockets into Israel from Lebanese territory, stating
that strict measures will be taken to end any actions that violate the
country's sovereignty.The warning by the country's top military body
came after the Lebanese Army arrested a number of Lebanese and
Palestinians suspected of firing rockets into northern Israel on March
22 and March 28. The rocket attacks provoked additional Israeli
retaliatory strikes.While no group claimed responsibility for the rocket
firing and Hezbollah denied any link, security reports indicated that
three Hamas members were among those detained by the Army.Major General
Mohamad al Mustafa, the Secretary-General of the Higher Defense Council,
said after a meeting attended by President Joseph Aoun and Prime
Minister Nawaf Salam that Hamas was "warned against using Lebanese
territories to carry out any action that harms Lebanon's national
security.""Maximum necessary measures will be taken to put a definitive
end to any action that violates Lebanese sovereignty," al Mustafa said,
reading a statement.He said that legal proceedings will commence early
next week against all those detained and anyone who would be proven
involved with last month's rocket attacks will be prosecuted.Aoun said
during the meeting any attempt to "destabilize" the country, "involve it
in wars" or "expose it to danger" will not be tolerated.Salam
emphasized the need for handing over "all illegal weapons" and
preventing Hamas or any other factions to "destabilize security and
national stability."Both leaders, who came to power last January, have
remained firm on their pledges to disarm all militias and impose the
state monopoly on weapons.Hamas has carried out several attacks from
southern Lebanon against Israel during the Gaza war that broke out in
October 2023. Israel on its part killed a number of Hamas leaders based
in Lebanon, including the deputy head of the group's political bureau,
Saleh al Arouri.Lebanon has been trying to consolidate its authority and
regain its long-lost sovereignty following Israel's recent war that
greatly weakened the once-powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah.Mainly, 85% of
Hezbollah's positions and military facilities south of the Litani River
in south Lebanon already are being taken by the Lebanese Army and its
weapons confiscated in line with the Nov. 27 cease-fire agreement that
was brokered by the United States and France to end the war with
Israel.The Army has also begun gradually taking control of some
Palestinian positions outside the country's 12 overcrowded refugee camps
located in various regions.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is
scheduled to visit Beirut on May 21 for talks with his Lebanese
counterpart to discuss a mechanism for disarming Palestinian factions
inside the camps and expanding Lebanon's authority.UN envoy urges Israel
to halt Syria attacks 'at once'Damascus (AFP) May 3, 2025 - United
Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen urged Israel Saturday to halt its
attacks on Syria "at once", after it carried out multiple air strikes
targeting the Islamist-led authorities following sectarian violence this
week.Fresh Israeli raids were reported overnight, after Israel said
repeatedly that its forces stood ready to protect the Druze minority
after sectarian clashes killed 119 people, mostly Druze fighters,
according to a Britain-based war monitor.Since ousting longtime ruler
Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria's new authorities -- who have roots
in Al-Qaeda -- have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional,
multi-ethnic country, but they must also contend with pressure from
radical Islamists in their ranks."I strongly condemn Israel's continued
and escalating violations of Syria's sovereignty, including multiple air
strikes in Damascus and other cities," Pedersen said in a post on X,
calling "for these attacks to cease at once".The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said more than 20 strikes hit military targets across Syria
late Friday, in the "heaviest" assault carried out by Israel on its
neighbour this year.Syria's state news agency SANA reported strikes near
Damascus and in the country's centre, west and south, saying one
civilian was killed.An Israeli military statement said its forces
"struck a military site, anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air
missile infrastructure in Syria". It did not give further details.Firas
Aabdeen, 32, a member of the security forces in Harasta near Damascus
where one of the attacks hit, said he heard several "very loud" strikes
and that a largely disused Assad-era military barracks was targeted.The
barrage followed an Israeli attack near the presidential palace in
Damascus early on Friday, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz called a "clear message" to
Syria's new rulers."We will not allow forces to be sent south of
Damascus or any threat to the Druze community," they said.Israeli foe
Iran, which propped up the now ousted Assad government, condemned the
strikes, accusing Israel of seeking to "destroy and annihilate the
defence, economic and infrastructure capabilities of Syria as an
independent country".Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, also an
Assad ally, said that the attacks were "a clear attempt to undermine"
and weaken Syria.- Israel army 'deployed' in south -The Israeli military
said it was "deployed in southern Syria" and "prepared to prevent the
entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages".Since the
collapse of the Assad government late last year, Israeli troops have
entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights and have
carried out incursions deeper into southern Syria.It was not immediately
clear whether the Israeli army was speaking of a new deployment or how
many troops were involved.A Druze official in the community's heartland
in Sweida province, said there had been "no deployment of Israeli
soldiers" there.This week, Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed
their loyalty to a united Syria, following clashes between Druze
fighters and loyalists of the new government.The unrest in Sweida and
the southern suburbs of the capital was sparked by the circulation of an
audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.
AFP was unable to confirm its authenticity.- 'Directly interfering' -The
Observatory and Druze residents said forces affiliated with the new
government attacked the towns of Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus and
clashed with Druze gunmen.The government blamed "outlaw groups" for the
violence.A de-escalation deal saw government troop deploy in Sahnaya and
tighter security around Jaramana.Israel's military said "five Syrian
Druze citizens were evacuated to receive medical treatment in Israel
overnight" after sustaining injuries in Syria.The Druze official in
Sweida said they were wounded "in clashes in Sahnaya" and feared being
detained if they sought treatment in Damascus.Middle East analyst
Andreas Krieg said Israel was "directly interfering in the transition
process in Syria".Israel is using the Druze issue "as some sort of
pretext to justify their military occupation" of parts of Syria, he told
AFP.
US Space Force strengthens missile warning network with acceptance of next generation SBIRS S2E2 system-by Clarence Oxford.
Los
Angeles CA (SPX) May 02, 2025-The Strategic Missile Warning Ground and
Integration Acquisition Delta, part of Space Systems Command (SSC), in
coordination with Space Operations Command's Mission Delta 4, has
officially accepted the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Survivable
Endurable Evolution (S2E2) system for operational use. This critical
milestone, achieved on April 25, 2025, enhances the resilience of the
U.S. missile warning architecture in increasingly contested and degraded
operational environments.The S2E2 system replaces the outdated Mobile
Ground System (MGS), which dates back to the 1960s and was originally
used for Defense Support Program (DSP) operations. The new system
includes modern, mobile ground terminals designed to handle data from
both SBIRS and nuclear detonation (NUDET) detection systems. By
combining SBIRS Mobile Ground Terminals with Universal Ground Nuclear
Detection Terminals, S2E2 delivers significant improvements in
capability, survivability, and deployment agility."The S2E2 Operational
Acceptance marks a significant leap forward in our ability to provide
resilient, uninterrupted missile warning and nuclear detection in the
most challenging environments," said Lt. Col. Jonathan Wilson, SSC
materiel leader. "This achievement strengthens the backbone of our
national defense and maintains the U.S. strategic advantage in an
ever-evolving threat environment."Operational Acceptance signifies the
system's readiness to fulfill its operational role. It authorizes the
system to begin full operational service under the oversight of Mission
Delta 4."S2E2 is the first survivable and endurable system with built-in
command and control capabilities designed to function through contested
and degraded conditions," noted Capt. Connor Dejac, SSC fielding
program manager for the Infrastructure Branch. "This ensures our
warfighters continue receiving timely, accurate information to make
rapid, informed decisions when it matters most."The system is engineered
to perform through every phase of conflict, reinforcing the Space
Force's mission to provide enduring and resilient missile warning for
the United States and its allies.Capt. Morgan Records, SSC deputy
program manager for the Infrastructure Branch, added, "S2E2 will deliver
the first-ever high data rate missile warning messages, enabling faster
and more detailed transmission of critical data. This means national
command authorities will receive high-fidelity missile warning and NUDET
information with greater speed and accuracy than ever before."Through
integrated processing of satellite sensor data on the ground, S2E2
provides real-time threat detection capabilities that are vital for
immediate national security decisions during missile or nuclear
incidents. The system supports broader national defense operations by
maintaining rapid-response readiness in a dynamic threat
landscape."Space and Cyber operators across the service responsible for
fielding S2E2 are distinctly capable, well-trained, and combat-ready in
five discrete mission areas; committed to providing lethal, real-world
effects to combatant commands in support of critical national defense
priorities," stated 1st Lt. Nathaniel Hatfield, mission officer in
charge at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado.S2E2 also enhances
situational awareness within the U.S. Nuclear Command and Control (NC2)
framework. It provides early missile warning to U.S. and allied forces
and incorporates GPS-based NUDET detection for attack attribution and
re-strike coordination.The system integrates into several high-level
national security frameworks, including the Integrated Tactical Warning
and Attack Assessment System, critical nodes designated by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and the broader Nuclear Command and Control System.
A FALSE PROPHET COMES FROM THE VATICAN ALSO AT THIS TIME.
ISAIAH 23:15-17
15
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten
seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of
seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go
about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody,
sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall
come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit
Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with
all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.(COULD THIS BE
70 YEARS AFTER ISRAEL BECAME A NATION IN 1948)(IF SO THIS SATANIC ONE
WORLD WHORE CHURCH WILL MINGLE TOGETHER BY 2018)(AND NOW ISLAM AND
CHRISTIANITY AND ALL RELIGIONS ARE MINGLING AS ONE PEACE-LOVE-JOY-GET
ALONG RELIGION LEAD BY THE VATICAN RIGHT NOW 4 YEARS FROM THE 70 YEAR
TIME WHEN ISRAEL BECAME A NATION).AND IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM.
REVELATION 13:11-18
11
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN
POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he
spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR
FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast
before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE
WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE
NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the
beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had
power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth
all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
REVELATION 17:1-18
1
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:(VATICAN)
2
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN
POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with
the wine of her fornication.(THATS PEDOPHELIA-FORNICATION IS SINGLES
HAVING SEX OUT SIDE OF MARRIAGE)(AND SINCE PREISTS CAN NOT MARRY IN THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THIS FALSE CHURCH GOES AGAINST THE
BIBLE.THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BECOMES A HOMOSEXUAL HAVEN OF PEDOPHILIAS
FACTORY).
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the
wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of
names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the
woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN
COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN)
and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup
in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:(THE
VATICAN GOES AGAINST A PRIEST MARRING A WOMAN-LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS-AND
WHATS AN ABOMINATION AGAINST GOD-HOMOSEXUALITY AND PEDOPHILIA JUST LIKE
THIS SCRIPTURE SAYS-FORNICATION IS THE SINGLE HOMOSEXUAL PRIESTS IN THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH HAVING UNMARRIED FORNICATION OR SEX WITH SINGLES-IN THIS
CASE ITS SEX WITH CHILDREN OR PEDOPHILIA)
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great
admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou
marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that
carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast
that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall
wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is
not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven
heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS
BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are
fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one
is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet
come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED
ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-THE
EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL
HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR
TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE
EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION
TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE
THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD
OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE
EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS
CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received
no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them:
for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him
are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he saith unto me, The
waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE
WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the
beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her
desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.(GOD
HIMSELF GIVES THE OK TO NUKE THE VATICAN)
17 For God hath put in
their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom
unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.(VATICAN)
HOW THE FALSE POPE IS ELECTED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj3Qnr_30Z4
POPE FRANCIS SISTER (PEDOPHILIA WAY WORSE THEN THOUGHT) (CARDINAL MATEO TERESCO-THE NEXT COVERUP POPE OF PEDOPHILIA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usFshfmBPmY
Macron
gets into the Conclave-The president meets with the French cardinals
and plots for the progressive archbishop of Marseilles. Objective:
regaining weight on the international scene-by Andrea MorigiTuesday 29
April 2025
Sgomita, elbow, sooner or later Emmanuel Macron hopes
to find a chair somewhere. Perhaps in the Vatican, thanks to the
metropolitan archbishop of Marseilles, Cardinal Jean-Marc Noel Aveline,
who wanted to award the prestigious Légion d’honneur in 2022. He has
also already found a name to him as Pietro’s successor: John XXIV. If he
could raise his favorite cardinal to the papal throne, the head of the
French state in one fell swoop would regain an international weight and
sew up tensions with the Holy See. The distance to be recovered is
considerable. During twelve years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made
three apostolic journeys to France, to Strasbourg in 2014, to Marseilles
in 2023 and to Ajaccio in 2024, without ever visiting the capital.
Indeed, he had even rejected Macron’s invitation to the reopening of
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Of course, Bergoglio had not gone even to
Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, privileging the South of the
world.But the problem with Paris is a little more substance. It is a
matter of life and death. Macron had inimified the Holy Father by
plotting to insert the “right” to abortion in the European Constitution,
after having succeeded in imposing it, with a resolution adopted by
Parliament meeting in plenary at the Congress of Versailles on 4 March
2024, in the French one. And then, outrageting a few billion faithful
and the tradition beyond the Alps, had favored the revolting staging of
the Last Suscordant Dinner in drag queen version at the inaugural
ceremony of the Olympics in 2024, seasoned with the celebration of the
royal beheadings carried out during the French Revolution. From the
reaction of an important exponent of the community of Sant’Egidio,
Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life,
according to whom it was “a blasphemous derision of one of the holiest
moments of Christianity”, it seemed very clear that the tenant of the
Elysée was trying to distance himself from Rome and Catholicism. Then,
all of a sudden, Macron dusts off the title of proto-honoon of St. John
Lateran. In fact, the office is only honorary and is transmitted to
French presidents because they are considered the successors of the
kings of the (former) eldest daughter of the Church.But Paris is well
worth a mass. Indeed, Rome is well worth a dinner, like the one that was
offered to Villa Bonaparte, and in which the cardinal electors Philippe
Barbarin, Christophe Pierre, Francois-Xavier Bustillo and, of course,
Aveline, president of the French Episcopal Conference, participated. In
short, after being rejected unceremoniously by the talks between Donald
Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in St. Peter’s Basilica, the French
president aspires to enter at least from the window of the Sistine
Chapel. It has been forgotten that the veto in the Conclave was
abolished by St. Pius X. He thought to follow in the footsteps of his
most august predecessor Charles De Gaulle, who summoned the cardinals
from the other side of the Alps after the death of Pius XII to recommend
to them the appointment of Angelo Roncalli, already apostolic nuncio to
Paris and considered who knows why he was organic to the French
interests. The fact is that the Bergamo candidate of the Elysée was
elected, took the name of John XXIII and inaugurated the Second Vatican
Council that transformed the Catholic Church. Despite the unsolicited
support – by the secular Republic, he is now also holy. This time, the
company seems more difficult. To support the progressive compatriot and
promigrants Aveline, who does not know the Italian language and could
collect votes in opposition to the election of Vatican Secretary of
State Pietro Parolin, Macron concocted a plan. He would like to spend
his alleged influence on the community of Sant’Egidio, which in reality
is already pushing for other candidates, first of all the Portuguese
José Tolentino de Mendon?a and, in a second place not to “burn” him, the
president of the CEI and archbishop of Bologna Matteo Maria Zuppi. A
hypothesis that, however, would propose again a new Italian Pontiff,
exactly the scenario that Macron would like to avoid because of his
personal antagonism with Giorgia Meloni. The French president, at this
point, could arise the doubt that he did not do the math. Recent
experience indicates that the more he tries to take center stage, the
further he is removed. It would be wiser if, secularly, they did not
look for places in the sacristy.
Emmanuel Macron? After failing
in the Vatican, he tries the path of Freemasonry-After the bad figure in
front of the whole world, the French cock tries to make up playing
(dirty) the houses-by Andrea Morigi-Sunday 4 May 2025
Since in
the Vatican he stumbled and made a bad impression in front of the whole
world, now Emmanuel Macron wants to do it again by playing at home to
see if he is most successful with Freemasonry.Annoled by the lack of
acceptance of his interventionism in the balance of the Conclave, the
tenant of the Elysée will be at the Grand Grand Lodge of France to
celebrate the anniversary of the law of separation between State and
Church of 9 December 1905. It sounds like a threat, since 120 years ago
those rules were used to proceed with the confiscation of ecclesiastical
property and authorize the government to prevent any religious
manifestation in public. The communist totalitarianisms, which had not
yet been established at the time, also mindful of the guillotine and the
civil constitution of the clergy, took up the baton from the
revolutionary predecessors of Paris to unleash the worst anti-Christian
persecutions.It was enough to copy the first article of the text on
“secularism” and the secularist terror was automatically triggered,
declining it also with deportations to the Soviet Gulags: “The Republic
ensures freedom of conscience. It guarantees the free exercise of
religion, with the restrictions prescribed by the interest of public
order.But they know they can do worse, the cousins of the Alps. From
2021 to today, the law against “separatism”, approved to fight Islamic
fundamentalism, has become the tool to prevent even the blessing of
meals in the canteens of Catholic elementary schools. A liberticidal
measure perfectly in line with the history of the country, but not with
its tradition as the first-born daughter of the Church. Corruptio optim
me very bad.To repress believers have instituted for a couple of decades
the infamous Miviludes, Interministerial Mission of vigilance and
struggle against sectarian drifts. They failed to stop the expansion of
radical Islam, but they ghettoized other religions, expelling them from
the public sphere.So, if faith is relegated to a private matter, what
has the French president gone to do in the Sacred Palaces of Rome? It is
the question that the brothers could put him with the apron. They
supported it in the election campaign, because they are allowed to
control the political dynamics, and now they find themselves forced to
witness Macron’s attempt to ingratiate themselves with the priests as if
it were the worst clerical.It will end that all obediences will ask him
for the account of the ambiguity shown, after having shown him the way
in September 2023 with a declaration by the Grand Master of the Grand
Orient Guillaume Trichard on the “right to abortion” as “the fundamental
right of women”, against “religious and political obscurantisms that
oppose this freedom”.But for Catholics, membership in Freemasonry “is
forbidden, because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine
and Freemasonry,” the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed
in November, responding to a letter from a Filipino bishop with a
statement signed by Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez,
referring to the most recent documents of the Magisterium of the
Church.It is decided, the head of the French state, because to keep his
foot in two shoes risks being excommunicated from one and abandoned by
the others.
How Pope Francis shaped the College of Cardinals-By Hannah Brockhaus.
Vatican
City, May 4, 2025 / 09:00 am-On May 7, an expected 133 cardinal
electors will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect the new Roman pontiff,
the successor to Pope Francis, who shied away from giving red hats to
the traditional archdioceses but opted to give the honor to far-flung
places, many of which had never had a cardinal before.Of the 133
cardinals with the right to vote in this conclave, 108 were created by
Pope Francis and therefore will be participating in the election of a
pontiff for the first time.Compared with the 2013 conclave that chose
Pope Francis, none of the major sees typically headed by a cardinal will
be represented this time around, including the archdioceses of Sydney,
Vienna, Genoa, Paris, Milan, Palermo, Armagh, and Krakow.Pope Francis’
choice of cardinals from nontraditional countries and sees has
dramatically shifted what used to be large and powerful representations
within the college, such as the cardinals from Italy.Now, only 52
Europeans will enter the Sistine Chapel, less than half of the entire
electoral body. Of these 52, just 17 are Italians, including curial
cardinals — those who work inside the Vatican — and those who live in
Rome. The Italian presence is significantly reduced compared with the
2013 conclave, which had 28 cardinals of Italian origin.By contrast, the
continent of Africa has grown by seven cardinal electors since the last
conclave for a total of 18 red hats, and Asia’s representation has
increased to 20 from 10 in 2013. Countries represented by a cardinal
elector for the first time include Haiti, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma),
Malaysia, Tonga, Cape Verde, East Timor, Sweden, Iran, Luxembourg,
Singapore, South Sudan, Ghana, Rwanda, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Central
African Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Serbia. Another change to the
College of Cardinals made by Pope Francis was the decision to surpass
the limit of 120 voting cardinals set by Paul VI and confirmed by John
Paul II. This limit was exceeded in June 2017, when Francis designated
five new cardinals, bringing the total to 121. The total number of
cardinal electors currently stands at 135.In the apostolic constitution
governing a “sede vacante,” Universi Dominici Gregis, it says that a
cardinal who has been “created and published before the College of
Cardinals thereby has the right to elect the pope” if he has not reached
the age of 80.Under Pope Francis, there was also an increase in
cardinal electors representing the Eastern Catholic Churches “sui
iuris”: Cardinal Mykola Bycok (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church);
Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad (Syro-Malabar Church); Cardinal Baselios
Cleemis Thottunkal (Syro-Malankar Church); Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew
Souraphiel (Ethiopian Metropolitan Church “sui iuris”); and Cardinal
Louis Raphaël Sako (Chaldean Church).Other geographical areas instead
have not seen large changes in the number of voting cardinals.The United
States will have 10 voting cardinals (one less than in the 2005 and
2013 conclaves). Canada will have four and Mexico will have two
representatives inside the Sistine Chapel.From Europe, there will be
five cardinal electors from France, four from Spain, four from Portugal
and Poland, three from Germany and the United Kingdom, two from
Switzerland, and one each from Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Holland, Serbia, and Sweden.Central
America will bring to the Sistine Chapel one cardinal each from Cuba,
Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Haiti. South America will see the presence of
seven cardinals from Brazil, four from Argentina (there were two in 2013
and one in 2005), and one each from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay,
Peru, and Uruguay.The 18 African cardinals include two from the Ivory
Coast and one each from Algeria (although Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco is
French by birth), Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya,
Madagascar, Morocco (Cardinal Cristóbal Lopez Romero is Spanish by
birth), Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, and Tanzania.There
are 20 cardinals who will participate in the conclave from Asia: four
from India, three from the Philippines, two from Japan, and one each
from China, East Timor, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia
(Cardinal Giorgio Marengo is Italian by birth), Myanmar, Pakistan,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.The Middle East will be represented
by three cardinals, one each from the Holy Land (Cardinal Pierbattista
Pizzaballa is Italian by birth), Iran (Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu
is Belgian by birth), and Iraq.From Oceania, four cardinals will be
eligible to vote: one each from Australia (Bycok is Ukrainian by birth),
New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga.Marco Mancini of ACI Stampa,
CNA’s Italian-language news partner, contributed to this report.
Why
I Want the Next Pope to Be Wrapped in Mary’s Mantle-The Church stands
at a cultural crossroads. The next pope must lead with courage and
clarity — and entrust his mission to Mary, Mother of the Church.Grady
Connolly Commentaries-May 2, 2025
The next pope will take on one
of the most critical and delicate responsibilities of our time: to unify
the Church in truth while extending the love of Christ to those who
have yet to encounter him. In a world where social media shapes both
culture and conscience, the Church is more visible than ever — but also
more exposed. Amid the digital noise marked by confusion, fear, and
increasing hostility toward the faith, many believe the right response
is to fight back with aggression. But this instinct is ultimately
ineffective.Aggression may energize the already-convinced, but it tends
to drive away those still searching. It can create an us-versus-them
mentality that rallies believers to militancy while erasing the human
longing for encounter. The Gospel is not a battle cry shouted from
behind a wall — it is an invitation, spoken face-to-face,
heart-to-heart.Social media has, in many ways, fractured the Church’s
witness. Many online communities claiming to defend orthodoxy often end
up sowing division and confusion, forming echo chambers that lead many
to abandon the authority they claim to honor. The next Holy Father must
see through this fog of confusion and guide the Church back toward unity
— not by compromise, but by communion rooted in the teachings of Jesus
Christ.One of the most admirable aspects of Pope Francis’ papacy was his
unwavering commitment to bringing hope and the light of God’s love to
all people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. His witness reminded the
world that evangelization isn’t about winning arguments; it’s about
winning souls. The Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ, carries the mission
to remind every human person to whom they belong and to reveal to them
the “Church’s heartbeat” — the outpouring of love Christ has empowered
his Church with through the sacraments. We are living in the era of the
Holy Spirit — a time when Christians must fervently pray for his gifts:
wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of
the Lord. When the Holy Spirit comes upon a fervent soul, that person
radiates Christ. But precisely because this is the Spirit’s hour, the
enemy works tirelessly to distort his gifts — especially in this age of
deep confusion about what it even means to be human.The next pope will
inherit a Church standing at a precipice. Relativism is no longer an
abstract threat — it is shaping minds, redefining morality, and leading
entire generations into despair, spiritual numbness, and even paganism.
We must pray that the next successor of Peter recognizes the devastation
of relativism and, with love, leads the Church not only to proclaim the
truth but to live it with joy and zeal.Given Our Blessed Mother’s
intimate union with the Holy Spirit as his spouse, it would be wise —
actually, essential — for the next pope to fully embrace the grace of
Our Lady. Her perfect blend of tenderness and strength is the antidote
for a world addicted to comfort and compromise. With Mary’s guidance,
the Church can bolster its mission: to lead souls to eternal life and
awaken in the world a holy fear of sin and a longing for the things of
heaven.I pray that the pope’s mission will be to inspire baptized
Christians to boldly share the Gospel — not just through words or
debate, but through the lived witness of compassion, truth and
redemption. The world is starving for clarity and aching to know what is
real. The next pope must be a shepherd who leads with both courage and
tenderness. The global spotlight will be on Rome when the new pope is
elected. This is not just a political moment — it’s a generational
opportunity to save souls. The world will be watching, wondering if the
Church remains unwavering in its message. The answer must be Yes —
through the voice of the next pope.Above all, I pray that he sees the
lost souls not as enemies but as dignified children of God longing for
purpose. I pray that he reminds the world that compassion, love and
unity are not in opposition to objective truth — they are its deepest
fulfillment, as Mary reminds us.
Conclave 2025: Why the ‘Liberal vs. Conservative’ Lens Blurs the Church’s Reality-Larry Chapp Commentaries-May 2, 2025
As
with every conclave to elect a new pope, this one is surrounded by all
kinds of speculation.Will the conclave that begins May 7 elect a new
pope in the mold of Pope Francis, or someone more traditional in
doctrine and liturgy? Or perhaps he will be what the badly uninformed
mainstream media might label a “moderate” — neither conservative nor
liberal, but a term overly simplified nevertheless — who seeks to
reconcile the various factions within the Catholic Church. The problem
with all of these analyses is that they assume the Church is a largely
“political” entity that mirrors the demographic dynamics of secular
society in the West. What this means is that a term like “reform” gets
tossed around in superficial ways, with secular media often treating
“reform” as synonymous with “liberalization.”We see this frequently in
the standard description of Pope St. John XXIII, who is often called a
“reforming” pope since, as the narrative goes, he sought to bring the
Church into harmony with modern secular liberalism. This is, of course, a
false narrative, since the aggiornamento that he sought was not a
project of liberalization but was instead a push for the Church to
engage the modern world in new and creative ways, with an eye toward a
more effective evangelization of that world.This was made clear by Pope
John in his opening speech to the Council Fathers, in which he
envisioned the coming Second Vatican Council as an attempt to put the
Church’s doctrines into a newer and more evangelical language, all the
while remaining faithful to the truths therein.Seen in this light, true
“reform” is not liberalization but rather a recentering of the Church in
her deepest and fullest traditions, and with a renewed focus on Christ
the Lord as the linchpin that holds it all together. This is completely
consonant with the history of all of the various reforms undertaken by
the Church throughout time. When the Church became corrupted by the
allure of worldly power and wealth, various reforming popes and councils
sought to right the ship by reemphasizing Christ and renewing the call
for the entire Church to live out more fully the evangelical counsels of
poverty, chastity and obedience. We also saw this in the various reform
movements undertaken by religious orders whose internal life had become
lax and worldly. Various “discalced” movements arose within these
orders, seeking to reinvigorate religious life through a more rigorous
living out of the evangelical counsels — which is to say, a more
Christocentric form of life centered in prayer, truth, love, and the
corporal and spiritual works of mercy. But the modern media narrative
cares little for such distinctions — or for the history of what true
reform actually is — largely owing to their ignorance of all things
Catholic. Today, we see the same simplistic analysis being applied to
the “politics” of the coming conclave, as well as to the pontificate of
Pope Francis. Francis is portrayed as a “reforming” pope because he
seemingly desired a Church that was more liberal, especially in matters
of sexuality — in contrast to the previous two popes, who are wrongly
described as “conservative” and thus presumed to have resisted reform.
Likewise, Vatican II is often described as a council that sought reform
in this same liberal direction — a vision of a more “inclusive” Church
said to have been short-circuited for a time by John Paul and Benedict,
who allegedly sought to “roll back” the reforms made in the ’60s and
’70s.No attempt is made at a true understanding of the conciliar texts,
and the Christocentric conciliar project as the overarching narrative of
reform as liberalization became the standard boilerplate for most media
depictions of the Council. This fact was noted by Pope Benedict, who
lamented that this “council of the media” had replaced the true Council.
The essential distortion of this false narrative is especially apparent
in the description of the papacy of Francis as one characterized by a
desire for a more inclusive Church. It is a distortion because the
Church is now, as it has always been, inclusive of everyone. No person
who truly seeks Christ in his Church is turned away as if the Church
were a nightclub with bouncers at the door, allowing only the morally
perfect. All sinners are welcome — so long as they seek conversion and
repentance, no matter how many times they might fail. That is why the
Church has confessionals. The kind of “inclusion” the Church preaches is
the inclusion that comes through a liberating conversion of soul.
Sadly, even many influential prelates seem to buy into the false
narrative where reform is caricatured as liberalization. Once again,
matters of human sexuality loom large in their calculations. A truly
wicked notion has crept in that says that the Church cannot be
inclusive, and thus the Church remains “unreformed,” until the
distinction between sin and the sinner is set aside. This traditional
distinction is ridiculed as “exclusive,” “harsh” and “judgmental.” This
is especially the case, they say, with “LGBTQ” people, whose very
“identity” is at stake; and they say that the Church’s traditional moral
teaching — which calls for sexual continence — runs contrary to “how
they were made by God.”Therefore, in this narrative, reform is
synonymous with an erasure of the distinction between sin and sinner —
with the word “inclusion” being used as a cipher for this project. But
this is a false sense of true reform, one that threatens the entirety of
the Catholic moral tradition. It is an erasure that can be applied to
any number of deeply ingrained sins. The very nature of habitual sins,
no matter the kind, is that they have a way of becoming “natural” to us,
and therefore the Church’s call to overcome them is viewed as harsh and
judgmental to “who I really am.” Narratives matter, as we learned in
the aftermath of the Council, and there is now an urgent need to resist
the narrative of true reform as synonymous with liberalization and
“inclusion.” There is much at stake, therefore, in the coming conclave,
especially in the domain of moral theology. Very few are calling for a
reform of the Church’s traditional Christology, Trinitarian doctrine or
the basic tenets of the creed. Rather, the goal of the false reformers
is to alter ecclesiology in ways that will open the door to radical
changes in moral teaching. This should be on the minds of every cardinal
at the conclave who does not embrace the false narrative of reform. The
next pope does not have to be conservative, liberal or moderate, in the
political sense of those terms. But he must be a man with a shrewd
understanding of the dangers that lurk in that false narrative — and the
strength of faith, will and intellect to resist them.
THE
STUPID PITS OF HELL BELIEF IN PURGATORY (ITS BULLDUNG). THEY CAN PRAY
AND THEY CAN RUB THEM USELESS BEADS TILL THEIR BLUE AND PURPLE AND RED
IN THE HAND AND FACE. BUT THE PERSON WHO DIED WILL STILL BE IN HEAVEN OR
HELL. WERE THEY WENT THE SECOND THEY CLOSED THEIR EYES IN DEATH.
Praying
for the Dead, Cardinal Says During Homily for Papal Novendiales Mass,
Is ‘the Greatest Work of Charity’Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime
celebrated the eighth Novendiales Mass for Pope Francis on Saturday.
Francis urged ‘heart and spirit’ for ‘the poorest’ among us, the
cardinal said.May 3, 2025
Pope Francis desired that consecrated
Catholic men and women possess “a heart and a spirit pure and free
enough” to love and serve the least among us, Cardinal Ángel Fernández
Artime said at the eighth Novendiales Mass on Saturday.The prelate, the
former prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and
Societies of Apostolic Life, celebrated, and delivered the homily at,
the second-to-last Mass held in mourning for the Holy Father, who died
on April 21. Praying for the dead, the cardinal said during the homily
at St. Peter’s Basilica, is “the greatest work of charity.” Cardinal
Ángel Fernández Artime speaks at the eighth Novendiale.“When we help our
neighbors materially, we share ephemeral goods, but when we pray for
them we do so with eternal goods,” Cardinal Artime said. “To pray for
the dead means, therefore, to love those who have died,” he continued,
“and that is what we are doing now for Pope Francis, gathered as the
People of God, together with the pastors and especially this evening
with a very significant presence of consecrated men and women.”Francis
“felt very well liked by the People of God,” Artime said, “and [he] knew
that those belonging to the different expressions of consecrated life
also loved him; they prayed for his ministry, for the person of the
Pope, for the Church, for the world.”The whole Church, he said, is
“called to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again.” But
consecrated men and women are signaled out for particular service, he
said. “[We] have received this vocation, this call to discipleship that
asks us to witness to the primacy of God with our whole lives,” he said.
“This mission is especially important when, as in many parts of the
world today, we experience God’s absence or forget his centrality too
easily.”The presence of the Risen Christ, the cardinal said, “transforms
everything.”“Darkness is overcome by light; useless work becomes
fruitful and promising again; the sense of weariness and abandonment
gives way to a new momentum and the certainty that He is with us,” he
said. Cardinal Artime recalled the words of Pope Francis during the Year
of Consecrated Life, when the Holy Father said he expected consecrated
Catholics “to wake up the world, because the note that characterizes
consecrated life is prophecy.” Francis at the time asked for the
consecrated “to be witnesses of the Lord like Peter and the Apostles,”
Cardinal Artime said. “He was asking us to have a heart and a spirit
pure and free enough to recognize the women and men of today, our
brothers and sisters, especially the poorest, the last, the discarded,”
the cardinal said.“Because in them is the Lord, and so that with our
passion for God, for the Kingdom and for humanity, we will be able, like
Peter, to respond to the Lord, ‘Lord, you know everything! You know
that I love you.’”
Conclave, British pressures: here's who they
want PopeCommonwealth cardinals gather to locate their candidate and
converge on the archbishop of Johannesburg-by Andrea MorigiSaturday 3
May 2025
To the French maneuvers to influence the Conclave are
added, while the countdown has started to elect the successor of
Francis, with the college of cardinals now complete in Rome, new
opportunities for meetings, never completely disinterested. Among
appointments, meetings, receptions, dinners near the various houses of
the clergy, where you can have the opportunity to get to know each other
better, socialize, test the candidacies already emerged and probe those
that can still rise in the approval of the voters, the reception
offered yesterday by Cardinal Vincent Nichols for the cardinals of the
British Commonwealth is noted.The guests are four English cardinals,
Nichols, archbishop of Westminster and Catholic primate of the Kingdom;
the Dominican Timothy Radcliffe, academic and preacher at Oxford, former
general of the Order of Preachers; Arthur Roche, former bishop of Leeds
transferred to the Curia for a dozen years and prefect of the
Congregation for Divine Worship from 2021; as well as-out of the
conclave - Michael Fitzgerald, 88 years old in August, former diplomat
of the Pope. But among the guests are also the South African (of
Scottish and Irish origins), metropolitan archbishop of Johannesburg,
Stephen Brislin, the cardinal of the Tonga Islands, Soane Patita Paini
Mafi, to which English speakers like Joseph Coutts and others from India
could be added.In his diocese, in South Africa, although the Catholic
Church does not allow the ordination of women, Cardinal Brislin,
spokesman for the Episcopal Conference of Southern Africa, allowed a
dissident group to be installed, which supports the female priesthood
and married priests. Moreover, under his supervision, in 2022 the
Archdiocese of Cape Town published a summary report as part of his
contribution to the Synod on Synod, in which he stated: “In the world of
the twenty-first century today, it is important to maintain tradition,
to know its origins, but also to welcome change”.He added: “The strong
traditions of the Church are also her weaknesses. The main restrictions
that may hinder the progress of the Church are many and varied and
include issues such as the priestly cellibate and the prohibition of the
female priesthood. However, the Holy Spirit of Hope will be with us all
as we move forward in faith.However, when he found himself in front of
the response document of the African bishops on the Confiferia
supplicans, in which the blessing of homosexual couples was rejected, so
as not to create ambiguity and confusion with the sacrament of
marriage, thus helping to calm the disoriented Christians in Africa and
to maintaining communion with the Pope, on January 30 last Brislin not
only took off, but he put himself in the way: “It is up to the local
bishop to see it. This is sufficiently clear because it is a pastoral
and non-doctrinal issue,” he said at a press conference in
Pretoria.Moreover, he believes that the author of the current prefect of
the dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Victor Manuel Fernandez,
is to be considered a “true giant with great intellect and experience”.
But the other African bishops have full power to do what seems right to
them in consideration of their particular situations and pastoral
concerns. Goodness of his. But their vote in the Conclave is certain
that it will not have it.
FRANCIS LOVED THE LIBERAL LUKEWARM NUTCASE BISHOPS AND CARDINALS.BUT HATED TRUE CHRISTIAN BISHOPS AND CARDINALS.
Conclave, Cardinal Sarah: nightmare of progressives snubbed by Bergoglio-by Andrea Morigi-Sunday 4 May 2025
A
video is circulating on the net, dating back to the last Sunday of the
Palms, in which we see Pope Bergoglio, recently resigned from the
Gemelli Hospital, who in St. Peter’s Square receives the greeting of
some cardinals. He thanks them all, shakes their hand and smiles, but
when his eminence Robert Sarah arrives, he makes a sign of a
disgrace.That Guinean cardinal, born in 1945 and chosen as archbishop at
the age of 34 by St. John Paul II, had become the black man more for
the rumors circulating about him than for his positions. But even
yesterday the French news agency AFP headlined him as “leader of
Francis’ critical conservatives.” It had been of little use trying to
clarify the misunderstandings, in 2020, in an interview with the Sheet,
in which speaking of the book written together with and then just out of
Cantagalli, From the bottom of our hearts, the former Prefect of the
Congregation of Divine Worship and the discipline of the sacraments,
affirmed: “We, without animosity, without attacking anyone, we have
offered our reflections with clarity, rigor and fidelity to the truth on
an essential question: Why say that I would have opposed Pope Francis?
Why?” Is there a single sentence in the text, a single word, an attitude
that expresses such opposition? Why am I constantly covered up by
slander and humiliation?”He had also tried the year before, speaking
with the Corriere della Sera in 2019, on the occasion of the release,
also by Cantagalli, of his book Yes evening and the day now turns to
decline, “many people write not to witness the truth, but to oppose each
other, to damage human relationships. They don’t care about the truth.
The truth is that those who oppose me to the Holy Father cannot present a
single word of mine, a single sentence of mine or one of my attitudes
in support of their absurd statements, I would say diabolical. The Devil
divides, opposes people, one against the others. The truth is that the
Church is represented on earth by the Vicar of Christ, that is, the
Pope. And who is against the Pope is ipso facto outside the Church.Of
course, he had not failed to denounce the internal crisis of the
Catholic Church, without hiding that “the problem is that there are
priests, bishops and even unfaithful cardinals who are missing, and this
is just as grave as other sins, to bring the truth of Christ! “It is
clear that now those take revenge. They did not even want to recognize
that they had kept many traditionalist sheep within the fold of the
Church who, in the face of doctrinal disorientation, would have come out
by provoking a schism on the right in order to continue to celebrate
the “ancient” Mass, that is, with the extraordinary rite, instead of
being forced to endure liturgical abuses. The temptation of the faithful
is to create communities of perfect as Rod Dreher suggests in his book
The Benedict Option.A strategy for Christians in a post-Christian world.
It is a pity that the author has become Orthodox. To the sirens of the
Moscow Patriarchate, Cardinal Sarah has always opposed it. Yet, the
accusation of being the candidate for the papal throne of French tycoon
Vincent Bolloré fell on him. For this reason, C-News and other media in
his galaxy would name it more than 40 times a day, the left-wing
newspapers and websites underline it after Francis’ death. It was tacit,
put on the index, in short. And it would have been entrusted with it by
no less than the highest office of the state. To block his way, he
would gather the French cardinals at Villa Napoleone, in Rome.
The Next Pope: Where Candidates Stand on Scale From Liberal to Conservative-Published Apr 22, 2025 at 5:20 PM EDT-By Jesus Mesa
As
the Catholic Church prepares to elect a new pope following the death of
Pope Francis on April 21, attention is turning to the 138 cardinals
eligible to vote—and the ideological tensions that will define the
selection.With Francis having appointed 110 of the 138 electors, many
expect the next pontiff to carry forward elements of his progressive
legacy. Yet, sharp divisions remain over doctrine, tradition and the
church's global direction.Why It Matters-The conclave—expected to begin
within the next two weeks—comes at a time of shifting power dynamics
within the Catholic Church. Christianity is in decline in Europe, while
the faith is growing in Africa and Asia and regaining support in Latin
America. As such, regional perspectives are influencing ideological
camps, with European cardinals tending more liberal, while many from
Africa and Asia lean conservative.Who Are the Leading Candidates? The
College of Cardinals, responsible for electing the next pope, has been
significantly reshaped by Pope Francis. However, Ulrich L. Lehner,
professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, cautions that
this does not guarantee the selection of a progressive
successor."Conclaves are impossible to predict," he told Newsweek. "The
challenges facing the Church are serious, and the cardinals understand
the need to choose someone who is diplomatically skilled, theologically
grounded, and fluent in multiple languages."Lehner added that Francis'
style of leadership—often marked by unilateral decisions and limited
consultation with the college—has made it difficult for cardinals to
build relationships with one another. "They were rarely convened during
his pontificate," he said, "which makes it harder to assess each voter's
suitability for the highest office."As speculation grows, several
high-ranking cardinals have emerged as leading contenders. According to
Vatican analysts and bookmakers, the following candidates currently have
the strongest odds. Here's a closer look at each of them, along with
their ideological views.Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (Soft Liberal)-From
the Philippines, Tagle is aligned with Pope Francis' reformist and
inclusive vision. He supports a compassionate approach to marginalized
groups and has been dubbed the "Asian Francis." He is currently the
betting favorite at 3:1 odds.Cardinal Pietro Parolin (Liberal)-The
Vatican's secretary of state, Parolin is seen as a diplomatic liberal
who played a key role in Francis' Vatican. Despite some conservative
stances, he is generally classified as liberal due to his institutional
alignment and global outlook. His odds to become the next pope range
from 4/1 to 6/1.Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich (Liberal)-From
Luxembourg, Hollerich supports ordaining women, relaxing celibacy rules
and blessing same-sex unions, making him one of the most progressive
figures among the electors. His odds to become the next pope are
currently around 12/1.Conservative CandidatesCardinal Peter Erdő (Soft
Conservative)-A Hungarian canon law scholar, Erdő advocates for a return
to traditional theology and stricter liturgical norms, like support for
the old Latin Mass. He is considered a leading conservative candidate,
with betting odds at 6/1. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa (Soft
Conservative)-The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Pizzaballa has gained
prominence due to his role amid the Israel-Gaza conflict. He is part of
the conservative wing and seen as a younger potential pope. His current
odds stand at 20/1.Cardinal Robert Sarah (Conservative)-From Guinea,
Sarah has a long-standing reputation as an archconservative. He defends
clerical celibacy and has been critical of the Catholic Church's
engagement with modern social movements. He is considered a conservative
favorite, with odds around 12/1.A Divided Electorate-The ideological
breakdown among papabili—the cardinals most frequently mentioned as
potential successors—highlights the internal divisions shaped by Pope
Francis' tenure. According to The Times, the College of Cardinals can be
categorized into five ideological camps: liberals, soft liberals,
moderates, soft conservatives and conservatives.The largest bloc
consists of liberal and soft liberal cardinals, but no single faction
holds a clear majority—indicating that behind-the-scenes
consensus-building will be essential in this conclave."Overall, I think
the fact that, by my count, over 100 of the eligible papal electors were
appointed by Francis could have a profound effect on the outcome,"
Cristina Traina, professor at Fordham University, told Newsweek. "That
is, we may not see a pendulum swing away from Francis'
priorities."Flourish logoA Flourish election chart-Francis'
decentralized leadership and emphasis on inclusion have transformed the
Roman Curia, elevating lay professionals to top Vatican positions.
However, these reforms have also sparked discontent among more
traditionalist factions within the church."Since his election, Francis
has consistently worked to bring greater transparency and
professionalism to the Curia and various Vatican offices," said Michele
Dillon, Ph.D., dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of
New Hampshire. "Undoubtedly, these organizational reforms have not
pleased everyone—and some of that personal discontent may influence how
certain cardinals approach the selection of the next pope."What Happens
Next-The Vatican outlined plans for Pope Francis' body on Monday,
announcing that he will be moved to St. Peter's Basilica as early as
Wednesday to allow worshippers to pay their respects over a three-day
period. The funeral is expected to take place in St. Peter's Square,
weather permitting, with a two-hour service conducted primarily in
Latin. It will largely follow the format of a traditional Catholic
funeral, with additional papal rites.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Parolin,
70, of Italy, has been Francis’ secretary of state since 2014 and is
considered one of the main contenders to be pope, given his prominence
in the Catholic hierarchy. The veteran diplomat oversaw the Holy See’s
controversial deal with China over bishop nominations and was involved —
but not charged — in the Vatican’s botched investment in a London real
estate venture that led to a 2021 trial of another cardinal and nine
others. A former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin knows the Latin
American church well. He would be seen as someone who would continue in
Francis’ tradition but as a more sober and timid diplomatic insider,
returning an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St.
John Paul II (Poland); Benedict (Germany) and Francis (Argentina). But
while Parolin has managed the Vatican bureaucracy, he has no real
pastoral experience. His ties to the London scandal, in which his office
lost of tens of millions of dollars to bad deals and shady businessmen,
could count against him.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi
Zuppi, 69,
the archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian bishops
conference, elected in 2022, is closely affiliated with the Sant’Egidio
Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under
Francis, particularly in interfaith dialogue. Zuppi was part of
Sant’Egidio’s team that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique’s civil
war in the 1990s and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s war in
Ukraine. Francis made him a cardinal in 2019 and later made clear he
wanted him in charge of Italy’s bishops, a sign of his admiration for
the prelate who, like Francis, is known as a “street priest.” In another
sign of his progressive leanings and closeness to Francis, Zuppi wrote
the introduction to the Italian edition of “Building a Bridge,” by the
Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church’s need to
improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. Zuppi would be a candidate
in Francis’ tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although
his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short
papacy. His family had strong institutional ties: Zuppi’s father worked
for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mother was the
niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals
in the 1960s and 1970s.
Top Italian prelate tells new government church will not be silent-By Elise Ann Allen-Sep 28, 2022-|Senior Correspondent
ROME
– Italy’s leading Catholic prelate has urged the country’s new
leadership, seen as hostile to much of the pope’s social agenda, to
stand up for the poor and vulnerable, saying the church itself will
continue to advocate for the common good with “severity.”In a statement
published Sept. 27, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and
president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, said the church in Italy
“will continue to indicate, with severity, if necessary, the common good
and not personal interests; the defense of the inviolable rights of the
person and the community.”“In respect of the democratic dynamics and in
the distinction of roles, it will not miss its contribution for the
promotion of a more just and inclusive society,” he said.On Sunday,
Italy held national elections that saw the overwhelming victory of
post-fascist politician Giorgia Meloni, who will be Italy’s first female
prime minister, and her conservative “Brothers of Italy” party.Meloni’s
success marked the latest instance in Europe’s broader sweep towards
nationalist right-wing populism, but also noteworthy were the number of
abstentions from the vote.Just 63.95 percent of those eligible to vote
went to the polls, marking an all-time low that has many political
analysts furrowing their brow over an increasingly concerning aspect of
the country’s changing political landscape.This election cycle marks the
70th government Italy has had since the end of the second world war,
with the average lasting around 13 months.In his statement, Zuppi,
widely considered by Vatican observers as papabile, meaning eligible to
become the next pope given his close association with much of Francis’s
agenda, lamented the high number of abstentions.“Italy needs everyone’s
commitment, responsibility, and participation,” he said.For this reason,
he said, the bishops “renew with even greater conviction the invitation
to be protagonists of the future, in the awareness that it is necessary
to rebuild a fabric of human relations that even politics cannot do
without.”Zuppi also asked elected officials to “carry out their mandate
as a high responsibility, at the service of all, starting with the
weakest and least guaranteed.”He pointed to various national problems
such as continually rising poverty rates; Italy’s low birth rate; care
and protection of the elderly; the sharp disparity between different
sectors of the country, mostly north versus south; environmental
challenges and an ongoing energy crisis; high levels of unemployment,
especially among youth; bureaucratic backlogs; and much-needed reforms
to the “democratic expression of the state and of the electoral
law.”Also of concern is “the welcome, protection, promotion, and
integration of migrants,” which remains an urgent issue for Italy given
the high number of arrivals, mostly from North Africa, and which is also
an area on which the new government is expected to spar with the
Catholic Church.While supportive of the church’s position on classic
cultural issues such as gender theory and euthanasia, Meloni and her
Fratelli d’Italia party are seen as hardliners on immigration.Throughout
the election campaign, she has opposed “irregular” and “illegal”
immigration and has promoted naval blockades to prevent the arrival of
more migrants from Africa and the Middle East on Italian shores.In
previous media remarks, Meloni voiced her conviction that “the only way
to stop illegal immigration” and to “put an end to illegal departures to
Italy and the tragedy of deaths in the sea” is a “European mission in
agreement with North African authorities” to stop ships from docking at
Italian ports.In a social media post over the summer, Meloni referenced
this “European mission,” arguing that “a serious state controls and
defends its borders” and “the time has come to turn the page.”A similar
agreement could be made with Turkish authorities, she said, saying a
joint military action by the European Union and Libyan authorities would
not only prevent migrant-laden ships from departing in the first place,
but it would also establish “hotspots to identify immigrants,
distinguishing real refugees from illegal immigrants and allowing
reception of the first into the EU states.”Matteo Salvini, a
conservative populist Italian politician with Italy’s Northern League
party who formerly served as the country’s deputy prime minister and
minister of the interior, was frequently criticized by Italian church
officials for his similar stance on migration.Salvini was poised to
potentially assume a top government post again given his party’s
alliance with Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, however, his Lega party
massively underperformed in the elections, prompting calls for his
resignation.Known for his frequent refusal to allow migrant ships to
dock during his stint as Minister of the Interior on grounds that other
European countries had to take in their fair share, Salivni has been
indicted by a Sicilian court on kidnapping charges for one instance of
refusing to allow migrants to disembark.Should Meloni maintain her
hardline anti-migrant policies, including naval blockades, she is likely
to meet similar resistance from Italian church officials.In comments to
Italian media, Godwin Chukwu, president of the Federation of African
Diasporas in Italy, voiced hope that Meloni’s new role makes her “more
responsible towards ‘others,’ non-Italians, even if I remember a Latin
proverb: Quod natura non dat, Salamantica non praestat, no one can give
what nature denies.”Chukwu recalled a social media post Meloni made in
2019, after a policeman was brutally stabbed to death by two foreigners,
the nationality of whom wasn’t immediately clear.“She took it out on
two North African ‘animals,’ only to discover that in reality the
killers were two North Americans; that I know of, she never apologized
for this episode,” Chukwu said.“The word immigration is a taboo for the
whole Italian political class.”In his statement, Zuppi also pointed to
the challenges related to the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying the “heavy
consequences” of the conflict “require a commitment from all and in full
harmony with Europe.”His statement comes on the heels of an appeal
released by the Italian bishops on the eve of the election, in which
they jointly urged elected officials to “never forget the high
responsibility they are invested with” and to remember that their
service “is for everyone, especially the most fragile and those who have
no way of making their voice heard.”“It is time for courageous and
organic choices. Not opportunism, but visions,” they said, and invited
elected officials to carry out their political responsibility “as the
highest form of charity.”They stressed the importance of
co-responsibility and dialogue, calling them “essential ingredients” for
building up society, and urged faithful to “rediscover and re-propose
the principles of the church’s social doctrine: the dignity of persons,
the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity.”
NO
MENTION ABOUT PEDOPHILIA BY MATTEO-FRANCIS SISTER SAID MATTEO WILL GET
RID OR DISAPPEAR ALL THE CASES AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.THE COVER UP
OF ALL COVER UPS.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi-Archbishop
of Bologna, Italy-Gaudium Domini Fortitudo Vestra (IF THIS GUY IS
CARDINAL MATEO TERESCO - HE FITS RIGHT INTO THE FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER
OF VATICAN AND LIBERAL VIEWS BLEND RIGHT IN)
Birthdate:11 October 1955 (69 years old)
Birthplace:Rome, Italy
Nation:Italy
Consistory:5 October 2019 by Francis
Voting Status:Voting
Position:Diocesan-Type:Cardinal-Priest-Titular Church:Sant'Egidio
Summary-Cardinal
Matteo Maria Zuppi has been a rapidly rising star in the Italian
episcopate, an Italian prelate very much on the leftist political wing
of the Church who would likely continue Pope Francis’ legacy, albeit
with plenty of control from the Sant’Egidio lay community to which he
has close ties.Born and raised in Rome, he has close family connections
to the Vatican. His father, Enrico, was a journalist and a photographer
whom the then–deputy secretary of state, Giovanni Battista Montini (the
future Paul VI), appointed editor of L’Osservatore della Domenica, a
weekly illustrated edition of L’Osservatore Romano. Matteo’s mother,
Carla Fumagalli, was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, who
served as secretary to Pope Pius XI, then as prefect of the Congregation
for Bishops and as dean of the College of Cardinals at the funerals of
Popes Paul VI and John Paul I.1The fifth of six children, young Matteo
went to secondary school in Rome’s historic center and there met Andrea
Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio movement.2 He soon became involved
with the nascent community, which he regarded as “another Gospel and
another Church.” In 1977, aged twenty-two, he completed a degree in
literature and philosophy at La Sapienza University in Rome, with a
thesis on the life of Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster.3 He then
entered a seminary in the suburban-Rome Diocese of Palestrina and
studied for the priesthood at the Pontifical Lateran University, where
he obtained a bachelor’s degree in theology. Ordained a priest for the
Diocese of Palestrina in 1981, he was first assigned as an assistant
parish priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere under Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia.
While there, he held a number of additional positions, including rector
of a nearby church and head of a diocesan priestly council. In 1992, Fr.
Zuppi played a key role in the Sant’Egidio-brokered peace accords with
Mozambique, leading him to be made an honorary citizen of the country.In
2000, when Vincenzo Paglia was made bishop of Terni, Zuppi replaced him
as parish priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere and as ecclesiastical
assistant to Sant’Egidio. In 2006, Benedict XVI granted him the honorary
title of Chaplain to His Holiness.4 In 2010, he was transferred to
serve in one of Rome’s largest parishes on the city’s periphery, and in
2012, Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop of Rome. Archbishop
Paglia was one of his co-consecrators. Pope Francis appointed Zuppi
archbishop of Bologna in 2015, succeeding Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, and
elevated him to cardinal in 2019.Apart from his native Italian, Cardinal
Zuppi has some knowledge of English but is not listed as being
proficient in speaking any other languages.Matteo Zuppi is a personable
prelate with friends across the political spectrum in his native Rome.
As someone with a lifelong concern for the poor and marginalized, forged
through his close connections with the Sant’Egidio community, the
Italian prelate reveals himself to be a true son of the spirit of
Vatican II, someone who seeks to engage constantly with the modern world
and implement the “profound change” that he believes the Council wanted
for the Church.That means helping the Church to “listen again to the
many questions of the world,” beginning with a concept of mercy, which,
he says, “represents the attitude of the post-conciliar Church.” His
approach is about “rejecting hate,” engendering “authentic solidarity,”
embracing religious pluralism and “fraternity,” and going out to the
peripheries to help the poor and the marginalized — whether they be
destitute drug addicts, impoverished gypsy children, or elderly persons
who have been abandoned — earning him the moniker “street priest.” He
also strives to include same-sex-attracted people and the divorced and
civilly “remarried,” and engage Muslims, Jews, and the concerns of
migrants.Appointed archbishop and created cardinal by Pope Francis,
Matteo Zuppi shows himself to be fully committed to adhering to the
vision of this pontificate and seeing it to fruition, beginning with
Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium and including the
pontificate’s seminal and controversial interreligious document on human
fraternity, signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019. He has taken part in several
Vatican synods; he sees synodality as fundamental for renewing the
Church and helping ecclesial communities overcome entrenched
isolation.For Zuppi, individualism is anathema and community, activism,
and mission must come first. He has a devotion to Our Lady and values
prayer, on which he places considerable importance, but his emphasis on
social justice and equality has inevitably brought him into alliances
with Italian leftist politics. So much so, that when Francis announced
that he was elevating Zuppi to the College of Cardinals, the Italian
media joked that the “chaplain” of Italy’s leading socialist party was
to become a cardinal. Zuppi has also had connections with a movement
opposed to Matteo Salvini, the populist leader of Italy’s Lega Party;
eulogized two far-left, pro-abortion Italian radicals at their funerals;
and even incardinated into the Bologna Archdiocese a communist priest
who ran for a seat in the European Parliament.Cardinal Zuppi is closely
connected with a prominent Italian Freemason. Gioele Magaldi, a Rome
native who founded the distinctively progressive Grande Oriente
Democratico masonic obedience in 2010, said in an October 2020 interview
that he knew “the Vatican world well” and that, “among the cardinals,
the one I esteem the most is Matteo Zuppi, who, among other things,
married me.” Magaldi added: “He would make an excellent Pope.”He has
been especially fervent in welcoming homosexuals and homosexual “love,”
usually without any injunctions to amendment of life.But despite his
distinctly “progressive” leanings and connections with Freemasonry, he
also tries to dialogue with those on the right and keep channels open
with those who favor Church tradition. He has celebrated the old Mass on
at least two occasions and in 2022 celebrated solemn Vespers in the
Pantheon.Contrasting with his humble “street priest” persona is the fact
that he heads one of the world’s wealthiest dioceses, thanks to an
astonishingly generous endowment of $1.8 billion to the Archdiocese of
Bologna made just a few years prior to his appointment.It is not always
easy to know exactly where Zuppi, an intelligent prelate with a sharp
mind, stands on doctrine and other issues, as he has shown himself able
to tailor his message to his audience or his pope. Invariably his views
will lean clearly in a heterodox direction, such as on the
indissolubility of marriage, homosexuality, gender ideology, and
hell.His supporters would say this makes him able to tackle the
complexities of the modern world; his critics might describe him as a
clever, archetypal modernist.
Where He Stands-Compare to Other
Cardinals-Ordaining Female Deacons-See evidence-Blessing Same-Sex
Couples-See evidence-Making Priestly Celibacy Optional-See
evidence-Restricting the Vetus Ordo (Old Latin Mass)-See
evidence-Vatican-China Secret Accords-See evidence-Promoting a “Synodal
Church”See evidence-load more issues.
Full Profile-SANCTIFYING
OFFICE-Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi is known as a “street priest” and
missionary to the peripheries and the marginalized.Since his promotion
to the Archdiocese of Bologna, the sanctifying office of Cardinal Zuppi
could perhaps best be summed up as a commitment to implementing Pope
Francis’ call to “missionary conversion” in his 2013 Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (no. 30).Eucharistic Congress-Archbishop
Zuppi began to implement the Pope’s programmatic document within the
first year of arriving in Bologna. In 2016, he announced that the
forthcoming diocesan Eucharistic Congress would be themed “The Eucharist
and the City of Men” and would be based on a reflection of Evangelii
Gaudium. The archbishop said the preparatory year for the diocesan
congress would be “a year of adoration to understand [Christ’s] presence
in the Eucharist and in the sacrament of our brother and the poor; a
year of contemplation of the city of men, to look upon it with the eyes
of the Lord, those of mercy; a year of a synodal search to respond to
the crowd that surrounds us and which Jesus asks us, today, to give
something to eat.” The four steps in the year of preparation for the
2017 diocesan Eucharistic Congress invited clergy and the faithful to
reflect on several key passages from Evangelii Gaudium. (This will be
discussed in greater detail later on.)-Liturgical Guidelines-In November
2019, new archdiocesan liturgical guidelines were issued that
underlined a “synodal” approach to the liturgy and greater participation
of the laity, drawing on Sacrosanctum Concilium interpreted in light of
Evangelii Gaudium.5-Cardinal Zuppi has expressed his views on the
nature of the Mass, and the role the laity have in the liturgy, on other
occasions. During the coronavirus pandemic, the cardinal likened the
absence of the faithful to a kind of Lenten fast. “In reality,” he said,
“it is not right because the Mass is for the people. It is a fast
because the community is fundamental in the Eucharistic
celebration.”Critics said the cardinal’s view was at odds with that of
Paul VI in his encyclical on the Eucharist, Mysterium Fidei, in which
the Pope said there was “no reason to criticize” when a priest
celebrates a Mass privately, without lay participants.6-Liturgy and
Sacraments during the Covid Crisis-Each evening from March 8 to 16
during the pandemic, via livestreaming, the cardinal led a special
novena in the cathedral. On March 17, he concluded the novena with a
pilgrimage to the local Shrine of Our Lady of St. Luke. He told the
faithful that the novena was meant to implore the Blessed Virgin to
protect Bologna from evil.7-He also stressed the importance of attending
to the vulnerable, particularly the elderly. On the feast of the
Annunciation, he sent a letter to the elderly of the diocese, saying: “I
would like to tell you that we love you, that no one is forgotten and
that we are praying for you.”Following the recommendations of the
Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Zuppi also suspended funerals
during the pandemic. Speaking to the Italian press, he recalled the
suffering of those who die alone. He also issued particular restrictions
for Holy Week but encouraged confession to continue.8-During Holy Week,
Cardinal Zuppi issued directives indicating that “the solemn liturgical
celebrations foreseen by the Roman Missal for Palm Sunday and the
Easter Triduum must take place in the churches, behind closed doors,
with the minimum number of people present necessary for a worthy
celebration.” Churches would remain open for private prayer.Regarding
sacramental Confession, Cardinal Zuppi — who authored a pastoral work
titled Confession to help people approach the sacrament — noted in his
directives that “as far as possible, with the prescribed precautions
(open space, distance of at least one meter, use of the mask) it will be
good and commendable for those who can approach sacramental
confession.”9-Vocations-From 2015 until 2022, the number of priests in
the archdiocese of Bologna declined from 577 to 511. The number of male
religious slightly increased from 263 to 265, while female religious
fell from 787 to 514. The figures are marginally better than those of
his predecessor, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, when vocations declined across
the board.Popular Devotions-In an interview in 2018, then-Archbishop
Zuppi, reflecting on an initial encounter with the Community of
Sant’Egidio, said that “Sant’Egidio made me discover another Gospel and
another Church, the Church of my friends and not of the priests, of
spontaneous prayer instead of the Rosary.”In the same interview,
reflecting back on his early days as a new priest in the early ’80s,
assigned to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Archbishop Zuppi
said he initially found the “popular devotions” of the locals “not easy”
to take, as he regarded them as “leftovers of the past.” But he said he
discovered their “spiritual depth” in their ability to respond to the
laity’s need for an “affective bond with the Church.” By the time he
arrived in Bologna, he appeared to have warmed to popular devotions, as
his response to the coronavirus pandemic showed.Traditional Latin
Mass-Cardinal Zuppi daily celebrates the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite
in the Bologna cathedral but in 2014, he won the appreciation of
traditionalists for being the first auxiliary bishop of Rome to
celebrate the vetus ordo since the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum.
It was also the first time that an auxiliary of Rome, while in office,
had celebrated the old Mass in a Roman parish since the post-conciliar
liturgical reforms began. In October 2015, the new archbishop of Bologna
said he would celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in the archdiocese
if he were asked. Recalling past requests in Rome, he called it a
“gesture of communion” and said he is “in favor of leaving behind every
form of being closed.” There is no record of Cardinal Zuppi’s ever
having celebrated the old Mass after these remarks. He has, however,
visited the headquarters of the traditional Institute of Christ the King
Sovereign Priest outside Florence where he expressed admiration for
their number of priests and vocations.Post-Traditionis Custodes, in
October 2022 Cardinal Zuppi celebrated Solemn Vespers in the old rite in
the Pantheon in Rome. He told the National Catholic Register afterward
that he had decided to preside at the liturgy because the organizers had
asked him. “They invited me before I became president of the Italian
bishops’ conference, and I thought it was all right,” he said. Asked if
he thought Traditionis Custodes posed a problem, Cardinal Zuppi said:
“No, I think it was a directive that the Pope thought was useful, and it
is to be applied with great awareness and with great responsibility.”
His decision was well received by traditional Catholics; less so by
radical liturgists such as Andrea Grillo, thought to be one of the chief
lay architects of Traditionis Custodes.Interreligious Prayer-Zuppi has
also led interreligious prayer services with the Muslim community in
Bologna. On February 2, 2020 — the Catholic feast of Candlemas and the
close of the Christmas Season — the youth branch of the archdiocesan
Catholic Action organized a day of prayer for peace. In the morning, the
children and young adults were invited to attend Mass. In the
afternoon, the group traveled to the Islamic Center to spend time with
the Muslim community. The afternoon ended with an interreligious prayer
service for Catholic and Muslim children, young adults, and their
parents, led by Cardinal Zuppi and the president of the Islamic Center
of Bologna.In August 2024, Cardinal Zuppi gave his blessing to a House
of Dialogue and Meeting in Bologna, a project begun in 2021 to educate
and inform about interreligious dialogue and which is set to open in
2025. Critics warned it is part of the UN’s Agenda 2030, that it would
serve to promote syncretism and a watering down of religions, and
instill guilt about borders. Zuppi, however, was undeterred: “Dialogue
is not a loss of identity,” he said. “Anyone who thinks so is adolescent
or decrepit; dialogue strengthens identities.” (For more on Cardinal
Zuppi’s teaching through interreligious dialogue, see the “Teaching
Office” section below).GOVERNING OFFICE-President of Italy’s Bishops-As
expected given his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Italian
episcopacy, in May 2022 Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi was elected
president of the Italian Episcopal Conference.His leadership has been
one of intense engagement, marked by controversy and a progressive
stance on social issues such as poverty, migration, rights for same-sex
attracted people, peace issues, and interreligious dialogue.Taking his
lead from Pope Francis, he has aimed to promote a more open and
inclusive approach. This has included greater lay involvement and a
focus on the peripheries. He has become seen as an authoritative voice
in the public debate, speaking on issues of national and international
importance, and occasionally a voice of constructive opposition to the
current government.Running One of the World’s Wealthiest
DiocesesCardinal Zuppi may be known as a “street priest,” but he governs
one of the wealthiest dioceses in the world.In 2012, Michelangelo
Manini, the owner of FAAC, a leading international automatic-gate
manufacturer, died, having bequeathed his estate, worth an estimated 1.7
billion euro ($1.85 billion), including the majority of FAAC shares (66
percent), to the Archdiocese of Bologna.After two years of legal
proceedings and negotiations, the archdiocese acquired complete
ownership of the company. Zuppi’s predecessor, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra,
established a trust and appointed three professionals to manage the
company, directing a percentage of its annual earnings to the
archdiocese. In 2014, the company had a thousand employees and 284
million euro ($309 million) in sales.One of Cardinal Caffarra’s final
acts as archbishop of Bologna, in late 2015, was to allocate 5 million
euro ($5.4 million) to the local Caritas for families who were in
difficulty or unemployed.10When Matteo Zuppi took possession of the
Archdiocese of Bologna in 2015, he confirmed the trust’s administrators
in their position. He also credited Cardinal Caffarra with the decision
to reserve the profits for the poor. “This has made it possible to
distribute millions in charity, not for worship, culture and as a means
of support [for the archdiocese],” he said.By 2017, FAAC had grown to
2,500 employees on five continents and in twenty-four countries, and
closed 2017 with 428 million euro ($465 million) in sales, zero debt,
and a net profit of 43 million euro ($47 million). In 2015, 5 million
euro ($6 million) was given to the Archdiocese of Bologna. By 2019, that
figure doubled to 10 million euro ($11 million). From the latter
amount, 6.5 million euro was allocated to several entities:
approximately 1.5 million euro went to the diocesan Caritas to help
families with rent, bills, and health care; 1.3 million euro was
allocated for schooling and educational grants; 1 million euro went to
“Together for Work,” a collaborative project launched by the Archdiocese
of Bologna and the local government; and a commission chaired by
Archbishop Zuppi distributed the remaining 2.7 million to a variety of
causes, including projects to help migrants, the homeless, and the
reintegration of released prisoners. The remaining millions were placed
in an emergency fund.In April 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic and
following Cardinal Carlo Caffarra’s example during the 2008 economic
crisis, Cardinal Zuppi donated one million euro in FAAC dividends to
establish the San Petronio Fund to provide financial assistance to
families and individuals who were out of work due to the pandemic.In
2022, the FAAC continued to make profits (71.3 million euros) assuring
that the poor of Bologna would not have food shortages. Cardinal Zuppi
recently warned FAAC’s board of directors to “beware of firing people”
and to “try to do everything possible” to avoid it.Influence of
Sant’Egidio“If I am here today,” then-Archbishop Zuppi said on the
Community of Sant’Egidio’s fiftieth anniversary in 2018, “I owe it to
Sant’Egidio.”And on October 5, 2019, when Pope Francis elevated
Archbishop Zuppi to the cardinalate in St. Peter’s Basilica, he assigned
him the presbyteral titular church of Sant’Egidio, created specifically
for the occasion. This detail speaks volumes about the Pope’s
appreciation for the Community. The Church of Sant’Egidio in Rome is the
principal seat of the Community.To understand better Cardinal Matteo
Zuppi’s priorities in governing, it is important to assess the influence
of Sant’Egidio in his life.A worldwide Catholic lay movement founded in
Rome in 1968 by Andrea Riccardi, Sant’Egidio is a fruit of the Second
Vatican Council and focuses on care of the needy and on mediating
conflicts.11 It is respected for its work for the poor and the elderly
as well as its pioneering DREAM program for treating HIV and AIDS
sufferers, especially in Africa. It cares for gypsies, runs soup
kitchens for the homeless, and has for many years opened up the nave of
the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere to serve Christmas lunch to
the dispossessed. It has led long-running campaigns to end the death
penalty and more recently to push for a debt moratorium for Africa. The
community was also responsible for the famous Assisi meeting of
interreligious leaders in 1986 and regularly organizes a “Spirit of
Assisi” conference in different parts of the world. Its emphasis on
social justice has given it a distinctly political rather than spiritual
focus, and it has become closely allied with Italy’s political left
while maintaining great adaptability to the papacy.12-Shortly before
taking possession of the Archdiocese of Bologna, Matteo Zuppi explained
that his vocation was “born inside the Community of Sant’Egidio, to
which I have belonged from the age of 15.” Three years later, in an
interview commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Sant’Egidio, he said
he came from a “very religious family that my father had wanted to
build around the Gospel, but those were the years after the Council and,
as happened to many, this [was] overwhelmed by all the aspirations,
naïveté and even the contradictions that ran through the student world.”
He said the education he had received “seemed to me obsolete and
moralistic,” whereas Sant’Egidio made him “discover another Gospel and
another Church” that attracted him “much more than a faith, however
deep, like that of my parents.”Due to Sant’Egidio’s influence, he said
his vocation “was born as a service to the Church and the Community.”
Growing in a lay community, Zuppi said, “helped me greatly to live out a
priestly role that isn’t too clerical and, as the Pope says,
clericalism is a sickness of the Church.” He said he “learned to live
[his] ministry together with lay brothers and sisters, discovering the
enormous richness of the Church and the different charisms” that are all
necessary in communion. “That said,” he added, “it’s clear that I will
not be the Bishop of Sant’Egidio but the Bishop of Bologna.”In 1992,
Father Zuppi, who was responsible for Sant’Egidio’s peace efforts in
Africa, worked with Andrea Riccardi on conflict-resolution talks that
would lead to the Rome General Peace Accords, ending a fifteen-year
civil war in Mozambique. The community’s role in brokering the accord,
signed at the Sant’Egidio headquarters in Rome, earned the community the
name “the UN of Trastevere.”13Yet as Sant’Egidio gained a worldwide
reputation as peacemakers in warzones and as bridge builders between
religions, by 1998, when Vincenzo Paglia was the community’s
ecclesiastical assistant, reports of serious moral, liturgical, and
sacramental problems within the community began to emerge.14 In 2003, an
important member of Sant’Egidio, who had been with the community for
twenty-five years, reportedly lifted the veil on aspects of its inner
life, testifying that leaders had used coercion to arrange marriages
between lay members and were wielding their authority to dictate if and
when married couples in the community could have children.In 2011,
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago warned the Vatican about the
community’s willingness to compromise on the nonnegotiable values of
life and marriage.15-One year later, the Community of Sant’Egidio came
under fire from Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who accused the community
of taking a submissive stance toward Communist China — a position that
does not appear to have changed.16Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick
also had a long relationship with the Community of Sant’Egidio and was a
featured speaker at their conferences, particularly from 2008 to 2010.
Criticism has also been leveled against the community for their
involvement in politics in Italy and abroad, and they have entertained
controversial figures at their “Spirit of Assisi” annual meetings,
including speakers such as population-control advocate Jeffrey
Sachs.170Peace Missions-Largely due to his peace-making history with
Sant’Egidio, Pope Francis chose Cardinal Zuppi rather than his Secretary
of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to be his special envoy to Russia
and Ukraine. His mission has included visits to Kyiv, Moscow,
Washington, D.C., the West Bank and Beijing to engage in dialogue with
political and ecclesial leaders, emphasizing humanitarian efforts and
the reunification of children with their families.Zuppi’s shuttle
diplomacy received a mixed response, sparking debates and discussions on
its effectiveness and the role of the Catholic Church in geopolitical
issues. By the end of 2024, the warring sides in each of the conflicts
were no closer to a peace agreement, and were arguably further away from
reaching one. His contacts with Beijing are likely to be leading to a
further renewal of the controversial Vatican-Sino peace agreement on the
appointment of bishops.In October 2024, Cardinal Zuppi returned to
Russia, within the framework of the mission entrusted to him by the Pope
in 2023. The Vatican said the trip aimed to evaluate further efforts to
promote reuniting Ukrainian children with their families and the
exchange of prisoners, in view of achieving a long-awaited peace.Ties to
the Political Left-Archbishop Zuppi is the first non-Northern Italian
to be appointed to the Metropolitan See of Bologna since 1894. Italy’s
political left enthusiastically welcomed his elevation to the
cardinalate in 2019, with socialist politicians lauding the choice on
social media and headlines reading “The Chaplain of the Pd Has Become a
Cardinal” — the Pd (Partito democratico) being Italy’s largest
center-left social-democratic party.In view of these allegiances,
Cardinal Zuppi inevitably clashed with Matteo Salvini, leader of the
right-wing Lega Party and Italy’s deputy prime minister (2018-2019),
particularly on immigration.Speaking at a book launch in Rome in
February 2019, Zuppi argued that “populism and sovereignty are
intolerant toward [certain] groups that are, instead, the guarantee
against totalitarianism: saying us first and then them, first our own
and then the others, sends everyone backward, while if you say the
others first, then everyone comes.” For him, the Church is tasked with
proposing as an antidote to populism “humanism and humanitarianism,
which is not synonymous with do-goodery or naïveté” but “is behaving
like the Good Samaritan in the parable, i.e., looking at politics as a
response to suffering.”Cardinal Zuppi has spoken at numerous Pd
conferences and events, and he wrote the foreword to a book by the
former communist, ex–Rome mayor, and founding leader of the Pd, Walter
Veltroni.18In December 2019, at a dinner held in the nave of one of the
archdiocesan churches (a tradition pioneered by the Sant’Egidio
community as a service to the poor), Archbishop Zuppi was photographed
warmly greeting Mattia Santori, the thirty-two-year-old Bologna native
and founder of the Sardines movement, a grassroots anti-Salvini group.
Santori has become a symbol of the left’s anti-populist movement.A
proponent of dialogue, Zuppi is known also to attend right-leaning
meetings if invited.At the death of politician and activist Giacinto
(Marco) Pannella, founder of Italy’s Radical Party, who fought for
legalized divorce and abortion and who, together with Emma Bonino,
pushed for the 2016 law legalizing same-sex civil unions, Archbishop
Zuppi called him “an honest and generous man, even if he wasn’t always
right.” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, whom Zuppi has known almost all his
life through Sant’Egidio, praised Panella as a friend.Archbishop Zuppi
said that he and Pannella shared some common battles, such as the
abolition of the death penalty — a key Sant’Egidio cause — and
prisoners’ rights. Asked by a reporter which of Pannella’s battles he
found unacceptable, the archbishop responded: “All those that led to the
paradox that freedom can surpass the rights of the human person.”
Puzzled, the reporter said he expected a bishop to name abortion or
divorce. Archbishop Zuppi replied: “Taking the life of a person who has
yet to be born is part of this paradox. I would add that my knowledge of
Pannella leads me to say that he would not have asked his companion to
have an abortion; he was interested in the fact that she could do so,
because he considered it an inalienable right.”In September 2019,
Cardinal Zuppi, with the permission of the Congregation for the Clergy,
incardinated into the Archdiocese of Bologna Eugenio Melandri, the “red
priest” whom John Paul II suspended a divinis (a suspension that lasted
twenty-eight years) after he ran in the 1989 European elections as a
member of the Proletarian Democracy Party, a far-left Italian political
party.In 1992, Melandri was elected to the Italian Parliament for the
Communist Reform Party. He was also the cofounder of Senza Confini
(Without Borders), an association that works to promote the rights of
immigrants and refugees and integrate them into Italian society. On
October 20, 2019, Melandri celebrated Mass for the first time since his
suspension, but he died one week later, at the age of seventy-one, after
a long illness. One year earlier, he was received in Casa Santa Marta
by Pope Francis, who had him serve his Mass. There are no reports of his
renouncing his communist affiliations before he died.In 2014, as
auxiliary bishop of Rome, Zuppi was a featured speaker at a launch of
the autobiography of another dissident Catholic priest, Dom Giovanni
Franzoni. In 1964, as a young Benedictine abbot, Franzoni took part in
Vatican II. In 1976, he was reduced to the lay state for his support of
divorce legislation, and openly supporting the Italian Communist Party
(Pdi). Franzoni, who died in 2017 at the age of eighty-eight, was in
favor of abortion and euthanasia, saw artificial birth control as
consistent with the Gospel, and supported the abolition of both the
priesthood and the papal Magisterium.Pro-Europeanism-Tied to his
political leanings are his views on the European Union which is
something of a sacred cow for Zuppi, and part of his desire to see a
world without borders fully open to migrants. He shared such views ahead
of the 2024 European Parliament elections, writing a joint letter with
Bishop Mariano Crociata. Addressed to “the European Union,” they called
for a renewed sense of participation in shaping the EU’s future,
emphasizing the importance of unity and shared ideals amidst challenges
such as nationalism and populism. Like many European prelates, Zuppi
views the European Union as synonymous with Europe and crucial to the
continent’s identity. Despite the EU’s distinctly secular approach to
many issues, especially reproductive rights and gender issues, they
urged the EU to adopt a more assertive foreign policy and to address
issues like migration and economic disparities.In March 2025, Zuppi
reiterated his pro-Europeanism, confirming what he sees as a strong bond
between the Italian Church and a united European Union, and opposition
to European nationalism. “Only a united Europe can preserve European
humanism,” he said. “Today the evil of nationalism wears new clothes”
and is “in contradiction with the Gospel.” He also called for a “Europe
of peace.”Bologna’s Eucharistic Congress-Cardinal Zuppi’s exercise of
his governing office in the Archdiocese of Bologna is also closely
connected to Evangelii Gaudium.Within a year of taking possession of the
Archdiocese of Bologna, Archbishop Zuppi was tasked with organizing
Bologna’s tenth diocesan Eucharistic Congress.19 The congress, held
every ten years, with a year of preparation culminating in a weeklong
conference, took place from November 2016 to October 2017. Its theme was
“Give them something to eat (Mt 14:16): The Eucharist and the City of
Men.” The Scripture passage is taken up in paragraph 49 of Evangelii
Gaudium.Cardinal Carlo Caffarra had always given the congress an
emphasis on the poor but kept the main focus on the Blessed Sacrament.
In his letter to the diocese on the congress, Archbishop Zuppi placed
far more emphasis on poverty and social justice.20To this end, he
announced that the 2016-2017 year of preparation would comprise four
steps centered on a “synodal” reflection on Evangelii Gaudium that would
set in motion a plan of diocesan and “even structural” renewal.The
first step was to be a time for lectio divina on Matthew 14:13-21 and
reflection on paragraph 49 of Evangelii Gaudium, which speaks against
being confined to structures and rules that “make us harsh judges.”21 It
featured two meetings: the formal announcement of the Eucharistic
Congress and the closing of the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis,
with which it coincided.The second step, from Advent to Lent, was
dedicated to “analyzing the local situation” and reflection on paragraph
27 of Evangelii Gaudium — Francis’ dream of a missionary option suited
to today’s world.22 The faithful were invited to ask themselves: “If I
put myself in the perspective of those on the ‘peripheries’ of the
Christian community, what must we change and what missionary choices can
we think about to initiate renewal?” That stage included participation
in two meetings: a “national march for peace” in December, and the “Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity in the Fifth Centenary of the Lutheran
Reformation.”The third step, during Lent, was centered on “rediscovering
the center of everything: the quality of our Eucharistic celebrations”
and focused on paragraph 24 of Evangelii Gaudium — the joy of
evangelization and the importance of the beauty of the liturgy.23 The
faithful were invited to ask themselves: “In the perspective of a
missionary conversion, what are the elements of joy and fatigue at our
Sunday Masses?”The fourth step, from Easter to Corpus Christi, focused
on the “missionary subject.”24 The faithful were invited to consider:
“Who are the disciples to whom Jesus says, ‘You give them something to
eat’? How do we involve everyone and the whole Christian community?”
Common meetings included a May celebration in honor of Our Lady of San
Luca, patroness of Bologna; Pentecost; and Corpus Christi.A month before
the congress, on September 6, 2017, Cardinal Carlo Maria Caffarra died.
Archbishop Zuppi celebrated his funeral Mass in Bologna’s Cathedral of
St. Peter.Closing celebrations for the 2017 diocesan Eucharistic
Congress included a visit from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople
and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of Caritas Internationalis, and a
one-day pastoral visit from Pope Francis.Papal Visit-On October 1, 2017,
at the culmination of preparations for the Eucharistic Congress,
Archbishop Zuppi welcomed Pope Francis to Bologna for an apostolic
visit. The Pope’s first scheduled meeting was with migrants and care
workers at the “Regional Hub” migrant reception center. He next met with
representatives of the world of work, the unemployed, and members of
trade unions. Archbishop Zuppi then invited the Holy Father to join a
Sant’Egidio-style “solidarity lunch with poor people, refugees and
prisoners” in the nave of Bologna’s patronal basilica. An estimated one
thousand people were in attendance. After lunch, the pope made a
customary visit to priests, religious, and seminarians, then met with
students and representatives of the academic world, and concluded the
day with Holy Mass.First Pastoral Letter-At the close of the Eucharistic
Congress, and following Pope Francis’ pastoral visit to Bologna,
Archbishop Zuppi issued his first pastoral letter, titled Were Not Our
Hearts Burning within Us? The seventy-nine-page missive, based on the
Gospel account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, focused on the
importance of traveling along a “synodal path” in communion and
mission.25 It also stressed the importance of the Eucharist, Word, and
charity — hearkening to Pope Francis’ exhortation to the faithful of
Bologna to remember the “three Ps”: in Italian, Pane, Parola,
Poveri.Reorganizing the Archdiocese-Pope Francis’ “dream of a missionary
option” also inspired Cardinal Zuppi’s restructuring of the Archdiocese
of Bologna. In July 2018, the cardinal issued a pastoral note,
reorganizing the diocese into fifty “pastoral regions” consisting not
only of parishes but also of monasteries, convents, religious houses,
and headquarters of ecclesial associations and movements. The
reorganization was based on the work and counsel of Cardinal Zuppi’s
“vicar for synodality” and input from archdiocesan priests. A moderator
was appointed to each pastoral zone for a three-year term and was tasked
with convening a “regional assembly.” Cardinal Zuppi said these
regional assemblies were “inspired” by Pope Francis’ “dream” in
Evangelii Gaudium, paragraph 27.In his pastoral note to the archdiocese,
Cardinal Zuppi urged the faithful of Bologna to move away from
“self-sufficient” parishes that make the faithful feel at home to “a
communion of parishes.” “We become saints in community because
sanctification is a community journey, to be undertaken two by two,” he
wrote. He also said the year would be dedicated to “continuing the
synodal journey” indicated in Evangelii Gaudium.Pastoral Visit-In
keeping with canon law, on the solemnity of Pentecost in 2019, Cardinal
Zuppi announced his plan to visit the various regions of the diocese
over a five-year period.26 The theme of the visit — “Now you are the
body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27) — was
inspired by Pope Francis’ apostolic visit to Bologna in October 2017,
particularly his stress on actively belonging to the diocese and his
calls for an outgoing, missionary Church in Evangelii Gaudium. In his
letter to the archdiocese, Cardinal Zuppi said “the aim of this pastoral
visit will be to grow in communion and live out missionary conversion.”
He added: “The Church does not want to live for herself, and her
vocation is to serve man and labor in the harvest of the world, without
boundaries, as the Lord Jesus asked.”27-Amoris Laetitia Guidelines and
the Synod of Bishops-Cardinal Zuppi served as president of the Bishops’
Conference of Emilia- Romagna, during which he took a leading role in
formulating and promulgating episcopal guidelines for the controversial
chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia (the guidelines, issued in 2018, are
discussed in the next section). The bishops’ document, under Cardinal
Zuppi’s leadership, referred to sexual relations in a second, unmarried
union not as adultery, as the Church has traditionally taught, but as
“conjugal acts” that are sometimes needed to preserve the “new union”
and therefore the “good of the children.”Zuppi continues to be a member
of the Council of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops at the
Vatican, a position giving him some influence on the organization of
synods. He was elected to the council at the conclusion of the Synod on
Youth in October 2018 and has been part of the Ordinary Council that has
overseen the running of the Synod on Synodality which concluded in
October 2024.Coronavirus-As mentioned above, Cardinal Zuppi never closed
the churches in Bologna during the Covid crisis but suspended all
public celebrations of the Mass, including funerals, following the
provisions of the bishops’ conference. He did not prohibit sacramental
Confession, the Anointing of the Sick, and Baptisms but ordered that
priests observe precautions.28-Communications-Cardinal Zuppi, who won
the affection of many Romans, has become well known to Italians through
his many appearances on national television and public comments to the
press. Perhaps influenced by Sant’Egidio’s effective employment of
public relations, Zuppi also makes maximum use of the media.He uses the
diocesan television program 12 Porte (Twelve Doors) to broadcast video
messages to the faithful of Bologna or special events, such as the
diocesan train ride to Rome when he was created a cardinal.Cardinal
Zuppi has also had a “docufilm” made about him, called The Gospel
according to Matteo Z. Produced by Italian journalist Emilio Marrese and
described as a “rock documentary,” it aims at telling the story of the
bicycle-riding “street bishop” who is “changing Bologna, dialoguing with
everyone and incarnating the open and reforming vision of Pope
Francis.” The docufilm was released on December 17, 2019.29An effective
communicator, Cardinal Zuppi also regularly appears on TV2000, the
official television station of the Italian bishops, as well as on
popular talk shows.30-TEACHING OFFICE-Attitude toward the Second Vatican
Council-Cardinal Zuppi was born on October 11, 1955, the traditional
liturgical feast of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Seven
years later to the day would mark the solemn opening of the Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council.Shortly before taking possession of the
Archdiocese of Bologna in December 2018, Archbishop Zuppi was asked what
he would be “carrying in his bag” to help him fulfill his episcopal
responsibilities. He replied: “Other than the Gospel, which we must
never forget there is my story, the Council, and the Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which is the program of Pope Francis.”For
Cardinal Zuppi, the Council “brought about a profound change in the
Church which has begun to listen again to the many questions of the
world.” Beginning again with mercy, he said, means “implementing Vatican
II, because mercy represents the attitude of the post-conciliar Church”
It means “putting into practice exactly what the Council wanted” and
“looking sympathetically at the world and its inhabitants, and then
answering the many questions that the world itself poses to the
Church.”Zuppi has another natural connection to Vatican II — namely,
through his father, who knew and worked for Giovanni Battista Montini
(the future Paul VI).Cardinal Zuppi often cites Paul VI. In a TedxYouth
talk titled “What Unites Heaven and Earth,” delivered in Bologna in
2018, he said that what unites them is “the horizon.” He said he
believes that “for each of us, looking at the horizon also means
understanding what unites us, what unites earth and heaven (sky), and we
can’t understand what we are doing here on earth without measuring
ourselves against the greatness of heaven (the sky) itself.”“We are born
in one place but have to learn to be anywhere,” he said, adding that
Paul VI had a beautiful expression: La stanza del mondo (the room of the
world). “It’s one room,” the cardinal told young people, and “many
times we believe more in division and can’t see the room anymore, and
it’s terrible because we don’t understand anymore who we are.” He noted
that Pope Francis “uses a similar expression, ‘common home,’ and invites
us all to remember that the house is one and that we are all called to
be citizens of the world, an expression that was very fashionable in the
1960s, when people saw the terrible effects of nationalism” We need to
learn to live with others, to see others, or else we become enclosed in
our own little world, he said. Addressing the inequality of resources in
the world, Zuppi told young people that “we need to adjust the room”
and said this begins with each of us, through solidarity.In his
TedxYouth talk, Cardinal Zuppi mentioned neither God nor Jesus, nor
heaven in any supernatural sense.31On Hell-During an in-studio
appearance on an Italian television program in October 2019, Cardinal
Zuppi was asked by the presenter: “Do you believe in hell, or does the
mercy of God exclude it?” Cardinal Zuppi answered: “Hell is something we
have to contend with seriously.” He added: “I believe that hell is, for
example, when you are so distrustful that you no longer believe in
love, or you construct a completely autonomous world where mercy can no
longer enter in, because you do everything alone. Individualism leads to
this. You also think you can judge everything yourself, and so you
remain alone with your judgment, surrounded by mirrors but you’re alone.
I think this is what hell is” Cardinal Zuppi said with a smile,
adding: “And when mercy can’t enter in, then I believe mercy is able to
do the impossible.”On the Death Penalty-Consistent with his close
association with the Community of Sant’Egidio, Cardinal Zuppi has long
favored a universal ban on the death penalty. Speaking in Bologna, at
the 2016 launch of a book by center-left journalist and politician Mario
Marazziti, titled Life—From Cain to Caliphate: Towards a World without
the Death Penalty, Cardinal Zuppi asserted that the death penalty is
“born out of the feelings of revenge that underlie punitive justice.”
This concept, he said, is the “the exact opposite of what justice must
really be” Supporting Pope Francis’ statements on the subject, Cardinal
Zuppi said that “to speak of the death penalty is actually to speak of
imprisonment, because, for example, life imprisonment is in fact a kind
of masked death penalty. The penalty, instead, must be a path of
rehabilitation.”The cardinal praised the United Nations for seeking
(with Sant’Egidio) a moratorium on capital punishment, saying to fight
for a world without the death penalty “is a duty of our generation.” It
is a commitment, he believes, “to the culture of life,” whereas “the
death penalty turns us from victims into executioners without realizing
it.”Euthanasia and Abortion-The cardinal’s views on both issues have
been ambiguous. Interviewed by Vanity Fair in August 2022, Cardinal
Zuppi, who had just two months earlier had been elected president of the
Italian Bishops’ Conference, declared that he would celebrate the
funeral of Piergiorgio Welby, an Italian poet and assisted suicide
campaigner. Welby suffered from muscular dystrophy and campaigned to
have his life support removed, which eventually occurred in December
2006. This case sparked a significant debate in Italy about euthanasia
and end-of-life issues. Church officials at the time rejected the
family’s request for a funeral, stating that Welby had gone against
Catholic teaching by expressing a desire to end his life. In the same
year, Zuppi said that although the Church rejects assisted suicide,
Italy’s Constitutional Court “cannot fail to be a point of reference”
and that he would see where the “political discussion will lead us
to.”However, a 74-year-old woman, who had decided to travel to a clinic
in Switzerland to be euthanized, credited Cardinal Zuppi with changing
her mind after the cardinal spoke to the woman on the phone on the
initiative of a friend who was a priest.In comments to a chat show host
on Italian television in April 2023, Cardinal Zuppi said Italy’s
abortion law, no. 194, was “painful” but “guarantees an important
secular interpretation” and that “no one thinks of questioning it.” His
imprecise remarks led to criticisms that he appeared to be approving the
law, something he denied.32-He has not been reticent in praising
pro-abortion figures, as shown elsewhere in this profile. In 2023, he
sent a message to be read at the funeral of Michela Murgia, an author
and pro-abortion figure whose last work was entitled God Save the Queer:
A Feminist Catechism. Zuppi, who was described as a “longtime friend,”
said Murgia’s life is not finished, and its pages will continue to be
written with letters of love, in that universal language of the spirit
that reveals the greatness of every person and the eternity that’s
hidden in all of us.”Amoris Laetitia-As mentioned above, as president of
the Bishops’ Conference of Emilia-Romagna, Cardinal Zuppi played a key
role in developing pastoral guidelines for chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia.
Issued in 2018, the guidelines appear to depart from traditional Church
teaching on admission of the divorced and “remarried” to Holy
Communion. The document argues that chastity is not the only possible
option for “remarried” divorcees, “since the new union and therefore
also the good of the children could be put at risk in the absence of
conjugal acts.” The document adds that it is a “delicate matter” of that
discernment in the “internal forum.”Regarding possible readmission to
the sacraments, the guidelines state “it will be opportune to establish
the modalities, in order to avoid, on the one hand, situations of
conflict and scandal and, on the other, the feeling that readmission
represents a private matter and a sort of ‘exception’ granted to
some.”Humanae Vitae-Cardinal Zuppi has expressed support for Pope Paul
VI’s Encyclical Humanae Vitae but has not explicitly endorsed its
teaching against the use of contraception. In October 2018, Zuppi was a
featured speaker at a conference to mark the fiftieth anniversary of
Humanae Vitae.33 During his talk, titled “What Are the Ways to Welcome
Pope Francis’ Invitation to Rediscover Humanae Vitae?,” Cardinal Zuppi,
who is one of six children, praised a pro–Humanae Vitae talk and
stressed that the “beauty” of marriage set forth in the encyclical needs
to be rediscovered today, in a world where so many people grow up in
unstable families and relationships. Cardinal Zuppi, who prefers not to
take sides and seeks conciliatory positions as much as possible,
cautioned against polemics in the Church. He said he believed Pope
Francis had sought to relaunch the teaching of Humanae Vitae in Amoris
Laetitia.In 2023, Zuppi indicated he supported a renewal of perspectives
regarding the Church’s teaching on contraception, and encouraged
theologians to “go further” with “creative fidelity.” He also warned
against “proceeding in small and homogeneous circles” so that all sides
could be heard and avoid becoming entrenched in their positions, even if
— as one critic pointed out — one of those sides proposes the truth and
fights error. His comments, observers said, mirrored those of
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for
Life, who, like Zuppi, has long and deep ties to the Sant’Egidio lay
community.Homosexuality-Shortly after Zuppi’s promotion to Bologna in
2015, Famiglia Cristiana published an article noting that, as auxiliary
bishop in Rome, Cardinal Zuppi was “sensitive to the paths of welcoming
‘marginalized’ people into the community.” It added that, with his
support, the Jesuits of San Saba, Rome, had organized a group called
“Church: A Home for All,” whose meetings were “attended mainly by
remarried divorcees and homosexuals.”34 In 2016, in Bologna, Cardinal
Zuppi said that “the fight against homophobia will find us
close.”Cardinal Zuppi’s views on homosexuality can appear ambiguous; he
has shown support for divergent stances in writing the prefaces to two
books with opposing perspectives on the pastoral care of persons who
experience same-sex attraction. The first was written for the Italian
edition of Same-Sex Attraction: Catholic Teaching and Pastoral Practice,
originally published by the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council in
2007.Cardinal Zuppi, who has firsthand experience of the AIDS epidemic
through his work in Africa with Sant’Egidio, wrote that being a pastor
to homosexuals means risking going to the peripheries, to those “who
feel rejected by family or society; it implies a presence in areas at
risk, where — as in a ‘field hospital’ of a ‘throw-away society’ — there
are deaths and injuries to be healed.” And he says that this is not
meant figuratively but relates to those homosexuals who have died of HIV
or AIDS.He wrote that “no obvious pastoral solutions” exist in this
area, adding that the Church “does not build walls” or create
“categories of people according to sexual orientation, because, before
having a particular sexual attraction, they are people.” He added that
it was “pleasing” to see people with homosexual tendencies help each
other to live a “full Christian life” and acquire “a deep sense of
mercy, close to the sacraments,” where “God’s abundant grace will help, I
am sure,” to direct “so many souls towards the happiness of love.”But
Cardinal Zuppi also wrote the preface for Building a Bridge, the
controversial book by Father James Martin, S.J., praised by those
pushing for greater LGBT acceptance in the Church, but criticized for
its failure to stress the importance of celibacy and chastity and to
acknowledge Catholics who experience same-sex attraction and seek to
live in obedience to Church teaching.Drawing on Pope Francis’ writings,
he urged “a true and patient accompaniment (‘To accompany, To discern;
To integrate’), one that favors the comprehension and vital engagement
of the Gospel message on the part of every person, but without reducing
it” He supported “a wise pedagogy of gradualism,” taking the particular
circumstances of each person into account, but not taking “anything away
from the integrity of faith and doctrine” He said Father Martin’s book
was “useful for encouraging dialogue, as well as reciprocal knowledge
and understanding, in view of a new pastoral attitude that we must seek
together with our LGBT brothers and sisters.” And he supported Cardinal
Kevin Farrell’s endorsement of the book: that it was “much-needed” and
would be of help to Church leaders to “compassionately minister to the
LGBT community” and make them “feel more at home” in the Church.35-In
May 2020, Cardinal Zuppi wrote a third preface to a book on the same
topic, this one called Church and Homosexuality: An Inquiry in Light of
Pope Francis’ Magisterium. Written by Luciano Moia, editor-in-chief of
Avvenire’s monthly magazine, the book aims to “define better” the
boundaries of a new pastoral approach to homosexuality. Zuppi’s
endorsement amounted to a “new offensive for the legitimization of
homosexuality in the Church” under the “guise of welcoming people,”
wrote Riccardo Cascioli, editor of the Italian Catholic daily La Nuova
Bussola Quotidiana.Regarding Fiducia Supplicans, Cardinal Zuppi firmly
defended Pope Francis’ line on the document, saying Italy’s bishops
accepted the new teaching on non-liturgical blessings of same-sex
couples. The text, Zuppi said, shows “the loving gaze of the Church for
all of God’s children without undermining the teachings of the
magisterium.” God wants “everyone to be saved,” he said, adding it is
therefore the task of the Church to stand up for everyone and
everything. “We cannot forget that all the baptised have the full
dignity of children of God and as such are our brothers and sisters,” he
asserted. Zuppi’s comments were criticized by an Argentine bishop who
said they amounted to approval of homosexual unions.In June 2022, before
Fiducia Supplicans was published, Cardinal Zuppi allowed the “blessing”
in his diocese of a same-sex couple, in a diocesan church in the
presence of six priests. The ceremony was billed as a “Mass of
Thanksgiving” in order not to violate a 2021 Vatican instruction
forbidding same-sex blessings. However, observers said the ceremony had
all the trappings of a blessings and Cardinal Zuppi was evidently made
aware of the ceremony beforehand. The Italian Catholic newspaper La
Nuova Bussola Quotidiana accused Zuppi and his diocese of lying by
issuing a statement that denied evidence of a blessing when it had all
the appearances of such a ceremony, and that it was merely a form of
accompaniment when in reality it aimed, according to LNBQ, to “bring
into the heart of the Church the LGBT agenda, the legitimacy of any
sexual orientation, the practical application of gender ideology,
including acceptance of civil unions.”Three years later, Cardinal Zuppi
again caused controversy over the issue of homosexuality. At a 2024
Italian film festival, he reportedly praised “queer” families,
emphasizing the importance of love within such relationships. Echoing
Pope Francis’ stance on the issue, he said “everyone must be in the
Church” and described the term “queer” as representing a bond that can
exist within a legal framework. La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, a frequent
critic of Zuppi, suggested his comments represented a “systematic
deconstruction” of traditional family relationships. It added that his
comments contradicted Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate
which taught that love must always be considered within the truth.The
LGBT movement rejoiced at his appointment as president of the Italian
bishops, describing him as “one of the closest ever cardinals to the
LGBTQ+ community.” They recalled comments he gave in 2016 in which he
said that “the fight against homophobia will bring us together,” and
comments he made in Father Martin’s book including that he believes
sexual orientation is something “no one chooses” and is “not separable
from the identity of the person.”Response to Church Crisis-In a January
2024 speech to the permanent council of Italy’s bishops’ conference,
Zuppi acknowledged “a sense of decline” in the Church, one that is
spreading among priests and the faithful. Zuppi said that in response,
the Church should become aware of its mission anew, to “be itself, with
an open mind, a courageous heart and a far-sighted understanding,” and
has a vocation from God in the face of the widespread disorientation and
isolation people experience.Therefore, Zuppi continued, this is not
only a time of secularisation, but also the era of the Church, a time
not of decline but of calling to be the Church of God. “Let us not be
intimidated by a culture for which faith is in decline,” he stressed,
adding that the Church had survived many crises over the past 50 years
“because its pastors were not afraid to preach the Gospel and were aware
that they had a mission.” Back then, too, people wrote that
Christianity was doomed, he said. “Let’s not be frightened by fragility
and smallness! They are not just indicators of a problem, but the
everyday reality in which the Church has always lived.”Civil Unions-In
January 2016, just months before Italy legally recognized same-sex civil
unions, Archbishop Zuppi said he agreed with Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco,
then president of Italy’s bishops’ conference, that “there are other
priorities that must be faced.” Zuppi added, “There are different
sensibilities. We hope we can find solutions that bring these
sensitivities together without upsetting the fundamental lines of the
family that we all want.”Speaking in August 2016, three months after the
approval of the Cirinnà law, which legalized civil unions between
same-sex couples, Archbishop Zuppi stated that, for him, these couples
“represent human closeness. Once the aspects that most concerned the
Church have been clarified—namely, the confusion with marriage and the
family—these are brothers and sisters whom we will love. And with them
we will try to live and walk together.”Regarding the possibility of
homosexual couples’ adopting children, he said the real concern of the
Italian bishops is that “there aren’t adequate defenses for the family,”
and the “contradiction” that those who have more children pay more. “We
are far behind on this front,” he said, adding: “I believe that the
task of the Church will be more for than against something — to give the
family back the indispensable role it actually has, otherwise with the
economic crisis there will be further consequences of
impoverishment.”Interreligious Dialogue-As a long-serving member of the
Community of Sant’Egidio — which for decades has promoted the spirit of
the 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi through its own
international Meetings of Prayer for Peace — Cardinal Zuppi is
unsurprisingly a keen promoter of interreligious dialogue. The 1986
Assisi meeting gathered 160 religious leaders who spent the day together
in prayer to God or their gods. While supporters see the meetings as
vital for ensuring peace among men, critics believe the Assisi meeting
and other similar initiatives relativize the uniqueness of Christ and
His Church for the salvation of souls.36-Cardinal Zuppi has been a
regular participant at the annual “Spirit of Assisi” meetings, which are
held in a different city each year and seek to continue the essence of
the 1986 meeting. The 2018 meeting was organized by the Community of
Sant’Egidio in Bologna. Speaking to representatives of the great world
religions, Zuppi said Bologna’s “magnificent towers” symbolized man’s
“desire for heaven” but that people cannot live “enclosed in towers” and
be a “collection of isolated individuals.”37-The meetings often draw
controversial guests and speakers advocating a more globalist world.
Among those attending that year were three Chinese bishops, two of whom
were vice presidents of the communist-run Chinese church, the Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Association (underlining Sant’Egidio’s close ties
with China and its state-run church), and UN adviser and
population-control proponent Jeffrey Sachs, who spoke at the 2013, 2014,
2017, and 2019 gatherings.38-In an interview at the 2019 meeting, held
in Madrid and themed “Peace with No Borders,” Cardinal Zuppi said that
more than three decades after their inception, the international
meetings are still very “forward” in their vision. “It is an event that
helps us to glimpse the future that awaits us.” This future, he said,
“will not be the ‘supermarket of religions’; the future will not be a
‘super-religion’!”Instead, he said “individual religions will point
their faithful to the future reality of our entire planet, that is,
living together and thinking of each other in this unique, extraordinary
home that is earth. Each religion has the duty to teach its faithful
how to live together with others”Cardinal Zuppi acknowledged that “a
kind of UN of religions might frighten some, since it would mean that
then there is also a ‘super-religion’ above all others” Better, he said,
is “a meeting between a friend who invites his friend, rather than a
cold institution” At the international Meetings of Prayer for Peace, he
said “there is a lot of friendship. Everyone knows who has invited them,
who else comes . . . everyone feels at home.”Islam-For Cardinal Zuppi,
one of the good fruits of the 1986 Assisi meeting is the controversial
“Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,”
signed by Pope Francis and the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb,
on February 4, 2019 in Abu Dhabi.39-Speaking to Catholic and Muslim
university students at a summer school in early September 2019, he said
we are “indebted” to the first Assisi meeting for the Abu Dhabi
document.40 During the weekend event, Catholic students were invited to
participate in Muslim Friday prayers, and Muslim students were invited
to participate in Catholic Sunday Mass. Cardinal Zuppi told the young
people: “If there is no dialogue, there is division. If there is no
fraternity, there is indifference. When one does not understand the
other, there is prejudice. Dialogue is often seen as dangerous, in the
sense that it discolors identities, but this is a contradiction. Faith
helps us to understand, makes us rejoice in diversity and expresses
fraternity.”41. No distinction between supernatural Christian faith and
natural faith appeared to have been made.Cardinal Zuppi’s embrace of the
Abu Dhabi document is consistent with his approach to the growing
Islamic presence in Bologna. In March 2016, at a conference on the local
Muslim community, sponsored by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation,
Cardinal Zuppi called for a mosque to be built in Bologna. “Rome has had
a mosque since the 1970s, and I believe it is an important place. Some
people think otherwise, but they are wrong,” he said. The fact that
Islamic countries forbid the construction of Catholic churches, he
added, “commits us even more to enabling believers to pray, and I am
convinced that among believers one finds that unique belonging, that one
God, whose name is peace.”At the meeting, Cardinal Zuppi also expressed
his hope that “some Islamic feasts will be welcomed in schools.” Citing
Pope Francis, he said “we need to build bridges between different
cultures.” The one-day conference, titled “For a Politics of Inclusion
of Islam and Muslims in Bologna,” was based on the findings of a report
by the same title, also funded by the Open Society Foundation.One month
later, in April 2016, Cardinal Zuppi visited one of the many small
mosques in Bologna and reminded the media and all those present of Pope
Francis’ call to “build bridges” and not “walls.” He insisted that
“Violence has nothing to do with Islam; terrorism has nothing to do with
Islam.” And noting the upcoming feast of the Blessed Virgin of San
Luca, the cardinal invited the imam to “contemplate the profound faith
of the city, which is not a faith against the others and without the
others” but “helps us see in the other our brother.” Recalling the
thirtieth anniversary of the 1986 Assisi meeting, Cardinal Zuppi also
said he hoped a similar meeting could be organized in Bologna.In May
2019, Cardinal Zuppi visited the Islamic Center of Bologna (established
to unite the majority of smaller mosques in the city) for the first
Friday of Ramadan. He told reporters that “when you don’t know one
another or [when you] look at one another only from afar, you often
think there is an enemy.” Getting to know one another, he said, will
“help us commit to living in the reality” of Bologna and Italy. “This is
what all Muslims want — to integrate, to live fully in the culture and
rights and duties of our countrys,” he said. “It’s clear that we are
experiencing something new. It’s the first time that there is such a
constant presence of Islamic communities in [Italy] — in wider Europe
it’s already been this way for some time — but above all, we need to be
more ourselves and talk and dialogue so that this presence may be a sign
of respect and humanism that we live.”Also in the spirit of the Abu
Dhabi document, Cardinal Zuppi has attended and encouraged participation
in a public celebration of iftar, the evening meal with which Muslims
break their fast during Ramadan.42. In May 2019, he supported the
celebration of iftars in front of the Catholic church in Marzabotto
(Diocese of Bologna), even though the parish priest had suggested the
square in front of the town hall was a more suitable and less
controversial location. A letter from the archdiocesan office of
ecumenism and interreligious dialogue said the decision was in harmony
with the Abu Dhabi document.43-On February 2, 2020, the Catholic feast
of Candlemas, Cardinal Zuppi together with the president of the local
Islamic community, led an interreligious prayer service for peace with
Catholic and Muslim children and young people at the Islamic Cultural
Center of Bologna. Cardinal Zuppi told local media: “This is a right and
important method for living together, without confusion and without
syncretism, without yielding. This is important as we look to the
future.”During the coronavirus pandemic, Cardinal Zuppi sent a message
to the Muslim community in Bologna for Ramadan, telling them: “This
emergency can strengthen the bonds of solidarity between us.”In March
2024, Zuppi wrote a wide-ranging message to his Islamic “brothers and
sisters” for Ramadan, making a parallel between Islamic fasting and
Lenten fasting but without mentioning Christ and the difference he makes
between the two.Immigration-Cardinal Zuppi is a staunch supporter of
the need to welcome and integrate into Italian society migrants and
refugees fleeing war, violence, and poverty. His positions on migration
led to sharp clashes with the Salvini populist movement.In November
2019, shortly after it was announced that Pope Francis had chosen to
elevate him to the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Zuppi published a book
exploring what he believed are the root causes of the opposition to the
mass migration Europe has been experiencing in recent years: fear,
individualism, and an unwillingness to see the “other” as one’s brother.
The summary of the book, titled You Shall Hate Your Brother: Why We
Have Forgotten Fraternity, says that Matteo Zuppi considers it “urgent
to address the issue of hatred, a feeling that dehumanizes us and
condemns us to loneliness.” He criticizes “unbridled individualism” that
makes people “impervious to the suffering of others, but also more
fragile and incapable of thinking about themselves in relation to
others.” Hate, he wrote, must be rejected, and the antidote is love and
fraternity. The book says Zuppi calls for the rediscovery of “authentic
solidarity,” to see religious pluralism “as an opportunity to rediscover
the reasons for one’s faith” and to be open to love and so be capable
of “great things.”More recently, in his apparent eagerness for open
borders, Zuppi further blurred the distinction between refugees and
migrants. At a Sant’Egidio meeting in June 2023, the cardinal, now
president of the Italian bishops’ conference, drew attention to the
3,170 refugees who in just a year had lost their lives in the
Mediterranean trying to reach Europe. But he then called for a “legal
system that guarantees protection and welcome for all.” Critics said
those legal systems already exist, 300 million people currently live and
work in foreign countries, and refugees already have international
protection. The problem, they say, is that the vast majority of those
arriving in Europe illegally are not refugees.1-In 2010, a selection of
his father’s professional and personal correspondence, which included
eight letters from Giovanni Battista Montini (whom Enrico had met during
his university years while serving in the Catholic apostolate on the
peripheries of Rome) and eighty letters to Carla during their engagement
and marriage, was published in a book titled You Have Filled the Abyss
of My Heart. With a foreword by Cardinal Achille Silvestrini (an
occasional collaborator of L’Osservatore della Domenica during the
Enrico Zuppi years), the book was presented in Rome in November 2010.
Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio community, and Giovanni
Maria Vian, then editor-in-chief of L’Osservatore Romano, were featured
speakers at the launch. 2-Virgilio High School, located on the
well-known via Giulia in historic Rome. 3-Archbishop of Milan from 1929
to 1954. Regarding his thesis, Archbishop Zuppi has said that “getting
to know him has greatly helped me to understand the complexity of the
Church. I saw him as an exponent of a Church that was weak against
fascism. In reality, I discovered exactly the opposite, that is, a very
beloved father of his diocese, who was anything but subservient to
power. It was Fr. David Maria Turoldo, who when he was very young
preached in Milan at the request of the cardinal, who helped me to
discover this aspect of Schuster. They were extremely different, they
had ways and sensibilities that were almost opposite, and yet Turoldo
loved Schuster and felt understood by him. This taught me that the
Church is a much more complex reality than our ideas and some of our
ideological readings of it.” 4-Granting him the title of Monsignor. In
2014, Pope Francis abolished this title for diocesan priests under the
age of sixty-five.5-Diocese of Bologna Office for Liturgy, La liturgia
della “Chiesa in uscita,” 18 November 2019. The guidelines, entitled The
Liturgy of the “Church That Goes Forth”: Considerations on the
Celebrative Style of the Church in Her “Missionary Conversion” (EG, 30),
assert: “In our need to understand liturgical celebration ever better,
it is necessary to keep as the horizon of our thinking the indications
of Sacrosanctum Concilium, according to the understanding, revival and
perspective that Evangelii Gaudium offers the Church today.” Issued by
the archdiocesan Office for Liturgy, the guidelines point to four
characteristics of evangelization found in Evangelii Gaudium: the
kerygmatic, mystagogical, synodal, popular.Regarding the “synodal” way
of celebration, the document asserts that the “tendency” in liturgy “to
delegate the carrying out of the celebration to experts, to others who
have to perform the rites, is an evil that has assailed us for centuries
and from which we can be healed with difficulty.” The document recalled
Sacrosanctum Concilium’s reminder to the Church that all of the
baptized have the “right and duty” to participate in the liturgy, not
just “the clergy and some other ‘altar boy.’”According to the
guidelines, a “synodal” way of celebrating the liturgy would mean the
laity’s being involved “not only in the preparation of the prayers of
the faithful,” but also “in the preparation of the Sunday readings, in
the choice of the various options that the rite provides, and in some
services, so that it appears that the entire assembly that God has
gathered is made up of the whole People of God.” The document asserts
that when liturgies are prepared in such a “synodal manner” and “a large
part of the People of God [feel] represented in the celebration,” the
rite more truly “manifests and expresses the real nature of the true
Church.”6-”[While] active participation by many faithful is of its very
nature particularly fitting when Mass is celebrated,” there is “no
reason to criticize but rather only to approve a Mass that a priest
celebrates privately,” Paul VI wrote. It brings “a rich and abundant
treasure of special graces” to the priest, the faithful, the Church, and
the whole world. “It is also only fitting for us to recall the
conclusion that can be drawn from this about ‘the public and social
nature of each and every Mass.’ For each and every Mass is not something
private, even if a priest celebrates it privately; instead, it is an
act of Christ and of the Church. In offering this sacrifice, the Church
learns to offer herself as a sacrifice for all and she applies the
unique and infinite redemptive power of the sacrifice of the Cross to
the salvation of the whole world. For every Mass that is celebrated is
being offered not just for the salvation of certain people, but also for
the salvation of the whole world. The conclusion from this is that even
though active participation by many faithful is of its very nature
particularly fitting when Mass is celebrated, still there is no reason
to criticize but rather only to approve a Mass that a priest celebrates
privately for a good reason in accordance with the regulations and
legitimate traditions of the Church, even when only a server to make the
responses is present. For such a Mass brings a rich and abundant
treasure of special graces to help the priest himself, the faithful, the
whole Church and the whole world toward salvation — and this same
abundance of graces is not gained through mere reception of Holy
Communion.”7-“For nine days,” he said, “I invite you to pray the Holy
Rosary wherever you are, united spiritually to her and among ourselves,
one in prayer like the Apostles with Mary on the day of Pentecost.” In a
video message, he told the faithful of Bologna that only with
“insistence more insistent than evil” is it possible to “fight evil and
feel Mary’s protection, feel the strength of the Lord who loves the
lives of men.” Cardinal Zuppi continued to pray (and livestream) the
Rosary each evening throughout the coronavirus pandemic, from the
diocesan cathedral or the archbishop’s residence or a monastery of nuns.
During the coronavirus crisis, although Cardinal Zuppi suspended all
public Masses, he opposed closing churches.8-“It’s the greatest regret I
have, and it’s been a cause of great suffering,” he said, adding,
“Let’s not overlook the absence of funerals: the communities were unable
to say goodbye to their friends who have passed. Even the absence of
funerals reminds us that we cannot but be a community.” He repeated the
concern in a joint video message with the mayor of Bologna, referring to
the lack of last rites for many of those who died. The cardinal
announced that church bells around the city would be rung “to remember
all those we carry in our hearts and who have gone to heaven. It will be
a moment of recollection and suffering for them, and also of
consolation for those who remain.” 9-Matteo Zuppi, La confessione. Il
perdono per cambiare (Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo Edizioni, 2016). The
cardinal continued: “If the sick cannot confess their sins individually,
but ask for sacramental absolution, priests may absolve them, after
having invited them, as far as possible, to express repentance and the
request for forgiveness.” He gave provision for limited general
absolution for the sick, health-care workers, and families, but reminded
them of the need “once the emergency is over, to confess serious sins
that have been absolved without being able to make individual
confession.” He also stipulated that “priests who have recourse to
general absolution should inform the Archbishop.”Asked during the
coronavirus pandemic if he could envision a “diaconate” being given to
Catholic hospital workers, he replied: “Rather than the diaconate, one
could confer a ministry of the Eucharist.” He cited the example of a
nurse in his diocese who was given “the faculty to bring Communion” to
people in the COVID wards of the hospital where she works. “In reality I
believe that many patients also asked her for blessings and prayers and
at that point she became almost an established minister,” Cardinal
Zuppi said. “This is part of that enormous heritage of generosity,
solidarity, closeness, attention to others, compassion, piety and
sensitivity that these weeks of fighting the virus have shown.”10-“I am
not doing it for the money,” Cardinal Caffarra said on accepting the
FAAC inheritance. “I am doing it for the 300 families of the Bologna
company who represent the heart and mind of FAAC. If we let it go they
will all be absorbed by the new owners who may transfer the headquarters
elsewhere. I cannot allow it. I stand with the families.” 11-Today the
Community of Sant’Egidio is present in more than seventy countries, in
Europe (twenty-three), Africa (twenty-nine), Asia (seven), North America
(eight), and South America (five).12-Andrea Riccardi served as minister
for international cooperation in the cabinet of Italian prime minister
Mario Monti (2010-2013), and in 2013 Riccardi was president of Scelta
Civica (Civic Choice), a centrist political party. In March 2015,
Riccardi was elected president of the Dante Alighieri Society, receiving
“best wishes for fruitful work” from the Grand Orient of Italy Palazzo
Giustiniani Masons. Historically, the leadership of the Dante Alighieri
Society is given only to Freemasons. “Società Dante Alighieri, Riccardi
presidente. Con tanti auguri dalla massoneria,” Corrispondenza Romana,
26 March 2015-13-He visited the country in 2022 to mark the 30th
anniversary of the peace agreement.14-Sant’Egidio has organized the
annual interreligious meetings in Assisi since the first famous
interreligious meeting in 1986.15-Cardinal George took issue with the
community’s granting Illinois governor Pat Quinn an award for abolishing
the death penalty, even though he had signed into law same-sex
“marriage” and supported legalized abortion. The cardinal’s concerns
were raised in an encrypted cable from the apostolic nunciature in
Washington, D.C., to the Vatican, later revealed in
Vatileaks.16-Cardinal Zen criticized the community for inviting to their
2011 interreligious meeting in Munich a Chinese bishop in grave
disobedience to the pope for his participation in the ordination of a
bishop imposed by the Chinese authorities. In September 2019, Andrea
Riccardi and Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Community of
Sant’Egidio, together with former Italian MP from Emilia-Romagna, Romano
Prodi, along with Cardinal Claudio Maria Celli and Fr. Federico
Lombardi, were featured speakers at the launch of a new book lauding the
Holy See’s secret agreement with the Chinese communist government. The
foreword to the book was written by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal
Pietro Parolin.17-Jeffrey Sachs has had an increasingly influential role
at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Bishop
Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo. In his talk to Sant’Egidio in 2019, Sachs spoke
of Jesus Christ as a historical figure on a par with Immanuel Kant,
saying: “We are the heirs of Plato and Aristotle, who championed the
gift of reason; of Jesus, who proclaimed that peacemakers are the
children of God; of Immanuel Kant, who envisioned a union of republics
to secure perpetual peace; of Franklin Roosevelt, who launched the
United Nations after World War II to put Kant’s vision into effect; of
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, who signed the Partial Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty at the height of the Cold War, and thereby showed the
path to peace; and of Martin Luther King, Jr., who reminded us that ‘the
arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’”
“‘Pace senza confini’: Comunità di Sant’Egidio, da domenica a Madrid
l’incontro internazionale nello ‘spirito di Assisi,’” SIR, 11 September
2019, 18-Veltroni, the former mayor of Rome, is perhaps more famous for
having married George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin in a civil ceremony in
Venice.19-The Archdiocese of Bologna has held a Eucharistic Congress
every ten years since 1947. The previous Eucharistic Congress was held
in 2007 and was organized by Cardinal Carlo Maria Caffarra.20-He wrote:
“Jesus (Mt 14:13-21) involves us in his emotion for the crowd and
teaches everyone to respond to the hunger of so many. To do this, we
must not look for particular abilities or extraordinary possibilities,
which we will never have, but only offer the little we have and share
it, offer it to his love so that all may be satisfied, we and our
neighbor.” The archbishop continued: “We ourselves can give to eat if,
like Jesus, we do not remain distant from the condition of others. This
is the goal that we want to achieve in the year of the Eucharistic
Congress, through a synodal journey that involves all the Christian
communities that are gathered around the Lord, always looking toward the
horizon of the crowd that Jesus wants to feed.”21-“More than by fear of
going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining
shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security,
within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us
feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire
of saying to us: ‘Give them something to eat’ (Mark 6:37).”22-“I dream
of a ‘missionary option,’ that is, a missionary impulse capable of
transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing
things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably
channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her
self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral
conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to
make them more mission-oriented.”23-“Finally an evangelizing community
is filled with joy; it knows how to rejoice always. It celebrates every
small victory, every step forward in the work of evangelization.
Evangelization with joy becomes beauty in the liturgy, as part of our
daily concern to spread goodness. The Church evangelizes and is herself
evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which is both a
celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed
self-giving.”24-“Evangelization is the task of the Church. The Church,
as the agent of evangelization, is more than an organic and hierarchical
institution; she is first and foremost a people advancing on its
pilgrim way towards God. She is certainly a mystery rooted in the
Trinity, yet she exists concretely in history as a people of pilgrims
and evangelizers, transcending any institutional expression, however
necessary. I would like to dwell briefly on this way of understanding
the Church, whose ultimate foundation is in the free and gracious
initiative of God.”25-In March 2020, Pope Francis chose as the theme of
the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, “Towards a
Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission.”26-CIC/83 can. 396
§ 1.27-By “making us all feel part of a body, all important and full of
the same Spirit of love,” the cardinal said the pastoral visit would be
the “exact opposite” of the archdiocese’s worst enemy, “what Pope
Francis calls ‘postmodern and globalized individualism (EG 67).’” Each
visit, beginning on Thursday and ending on Sunday, would include the
celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, a moment of prayer and
fraternity with the priests, group lectio divina, a
vocational-missionary prayer vigil, initiatives specific to each region,
and the Sunday Eucharistic liturgy. 28-In an interview with La
Repubblica in early April, the cardinal intimated that he would have
liked to have celebrated the Holy Week and Easter liturgies but that the
risks were too “dangerous” and the “rules must be respected.” He
continued to livestream liturgies during Holy Week and Easter. The
cardinal said that when, at the beginning of the crisis, he saw
restaurants open but Masses banned, he initially found it “very hard to
understand the government’s decision and asked [himself] many
questions.” “We need God as well as scientists and doctors,” he said,
adding that even under lockdown it is important to “strengthen communion
between people and the awareness that the community needs the Eucharist
and vice-versa.” Cardinal Zuppi also stressed that the elderly “are not
objects” but “indispensable people” who face a double burden of
isolation. “It is not acceptable that age should become a discriminating
factor to save or condemn a life,” he said. The cardinal said it is a
regrettable reality that too little is done to care for parents and
grandparents and to support them at home. If more of the elderly had
been able to “stay at home,” they would have been better protected, he
said. This crisis, he noted, is teaching a lesson on how to treat the
weakest. “If it’s true that nothing will be like before, we too must be
better,” he said. 29-The film synopsis reads: “Don Matteo (as he prefers
to be called) is one who rides a bike and lives in a retirement home
for priests, one who quotes Alda Merini and Saint Francis, the Gospel
and the Constitution, John XXIII and Guccini. He was the first bishop of
Bologna to speak on the May Day stage, to enter a social center, to
dialogue with the LGBTI community and to let refugees dance in the
Basilica of San Petronio during the Mass for their Patron Saint.”30-He
is also regularly featured on a program broadcast by the Italian public
broadcasting system (RAI) called A Sua immagine (In His Image) to
comment on the Gospel and highlight how it is being lived out in the
Archdiocese of Bologna. 31-Yet when Paul VI used the expression stanza
del mondo (room of the world), he used it entirely in reference to
Christ, the true Light, who shines into “the room,” illumining nations,
and giving beauty and brightness, meaning and the splendor of
supernatural life, to every soul who welcomes Him. The original text of
Paul VI is: “There resound in Our spirit the words of the Gospel that
yesterday, on the feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the
Temple, and the Purification of Mary Most Holy, the liturgy offered to
Our meditation, proclaiming Jesus the Messiah of the Lord ‘Christum
Domini,’ the salvation of all peoples, ‘salutare omnium populorum,’ the
light to illumine the nations ‘lumen ad revelationem gentium’ (Lk.
2:30-32). . . . Jesus is at the summit of human aspirations, He is the
end of our hopes and prayers, He is the focal point of the desires of
history and civilization, He is the Messiah, the center of humanity, He
who gives meaning to human events, He who gives value to human actions,
He who forms the joy and fullness of the desires of all hearts, the true
man, the type of perfection, beauty, and holiness, placed by God to
embody the true model, the true concept of man, the brother of all, the
irreplaceable friend, the only one worthy of all trust and all love: He
is the Christ-man And at the same time Jesus is at the source of all our
true good fortune, He is the light through which the room of the world
takes proportions, form; beauty and shadow; He is the word that defines
everything, explains everything, classifies everything, redeems
everything; He is the principle of our spiritual and moral life; He says
what must be done and gives the strength and grace to do it; His image,
indeed His presence, reverberates in every soul that becomes a mirror
to welcome His ray of truth and life, that is, who believes in Him and
welcomes His sacramental contact; He is the Christ-God, the Master, the
Savior, the Life.” 32-Explaining his words, Zuppi told the journalist
Edward Pentin that he was “not defending” law 194, but rather
“reiterating that no one in the Catholic world (except for a few
‘gladiators’) wants to open a discussion on the law. What is needed is
an application of the whole law, especially the part about deterrence.
To do this we need to get away from an ‘Orazi and Curiazi’ [Horatii and
Curiatii] logic, whereby we do not cooperate on the matter. Regarding
pain, I reiterated that the Church favours palliative care, taking away
pain, and that this is sacrosanct. The problem is taking away pain, not
life! That was all.” 33-The one-day conference, sponsored by numerous
pro-life, pro-family organizations, was titled “Humanae Vitae: Natural
Methods: A Road to Happiness.” It also featured a talk by wife, mother,
and journalist Costanza Miriano on “How Humanae Vitae Saved My
Life.”34-“‘Chiesa casa per tutti’ (Church: home for all) aims at being
an opportunity to experience an inclusive way of being ‘Church’ that is
open to all; an ecclesial space where one can get to know, tell, and
share one’s spiritual experience with others starting from the condition
that each one lives: lay or religious, old or young, homosexual or
straight, single or married, living together or divorced.”35-Some argue
that by merely using the acronym LGBT, a politically loaded term, Zuppi
was signaling his support for their agenda. Certainly, this was how
Father Martin saw it, tweeting on the day he was announced a new
cardinal that Zuppi is a “great supporter of #LGBT Catholics.”36-In
2011, Benedict XVI eliminated common prayer so as not to give the
impression that theological differences have been reduced or are
inconsequential. 37-Participants in the Bologna meeting included the
founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, Andrea Riccardi; the grand imam
of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb; the Syrian Orthodox patriarch, Ignatius
Aphrem II; the chief rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia; the president of the
European Parliament, Antonio Tajani; and the former president of the
European Commission, Romano Prodi. Also participating were three bishops
from the People’s Republic of China: Joseph Shen Bin, bishop of Haimen;
Anthony Dang Mingyan, bishop of Xi’an; and Joseph Yang Yongqiang,
bishop of Zhoucun. Among the other important personalities were Bernice
King, daughter of Martin Luther King and guardian of his “dream” of a
world without discrimination; Fr. Solalinde, who in Mexico defends
migrants and takes young people away from the network of drug
traffickers; and the Beninese Grégoire Ahongbonon, who fights for the
dignity and care of the mentally ill in West Africa.38-Sachs, Jeffrey
D.,” Sant’Egidio, September 2019: Sachs has gained increasing influence
in the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences and drew attention in
2020 for his tirade against U.S. President Donald Trump at an academy
meeting, to the applause of many attending, including academy chancellor
Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo.39-The Abu Dhabi document sparked
controversy for stating: “The pluralism and the diversity of religions,
color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through
which He created human beings.”40-Dialogo interreligioso: mons. Zuppi,
(Bologna), ‘la fratellanza abbatte l’indifferenza che spesso è al limite
dell’intolleranza,’” SIR, 5 September 2019. The summer school, held in
the Archdiocese of Bologna, was an initiative promoted by the National
Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue (UNEDI) of the Italian
Episcopal Conference (CEI) in collaboration with the Italian Islamic
Religious Community (COREIS), the Union of Islamic Communities and
Organizations in Italy (UCOII), and the Italian Islamic Confederation
(CII). 41-Dialogo interreligioso: Mons. Zuppi, (Bologia), ‘la
fratellanza abbatte l’indifferenza che spesso è al limite
dell’intolleranza,’” SIR, 5 September 2019-42-“Diocesi: Bologna, a fine
Ramadan momenti di scambio e incontro come Iftar pubblici nella zona
Barca, in via Torleone e piazza Marzabotto,” SIR, 28 May
2019-43-Controversy erupted in October 2019 when reports emerged that
Cardinal Zuppi had ordered a chicken-variation of the traditionally
pork-filled tortellini customarily eaten at Bologna’s patronal feast to
be provided for the sake of Muslim guests. In a statement, the
archdiocese called the reports “fake news,” saying that Cardinal Zuppi
learned of the news from the media. However, the archdiocese did confirm
that non-pork tortellini would be provided, saying the decision was
made so that “everyone can participate in the feast, even those who have
problems or other dietary needs or religious reasons.”Service to the
Church-Ordination to the Priesthood: 9 May 1981-Incardinated in Rome: 15
November 1988-Ordination to the Episcopate: 31 January 2012-Elevation
to the College of Cardinals: 5 October 2019-Education-Virgilio Lyceum,
Rome-1977: University of Rome “La Sapienza”; License in letters and
philosophy-Palestrina Seminary-Pontifical Lateran University; Theology
(B.A.)-Assignments-1981-2000: Vicar to Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, Basilica
of Santa Maria in Trastevere-1983-2012: Rector, Church of Santa Croce
alla Lungara-2000-2012: General ecclesiastical assistant, Sant’Egidio
community-2000-2010: Parish priest, Basilica of Santa Maria in
Trastevere-2005-2010: Prefect of the third prefecture of Rome-2010-2012:
Parish priest of Santi Simone e Giuda Taddeo a Torre Angela,
Rome-2011-2012: Prefect of the seventeenth prefecture of Rome-2012-2015:
Auxiliary bishop of Rome, titular bishop of Villanova-2015-present:
Archbishop of Bologna-2015-present: President of Emilia-Romagna Bishops’
Conference-2022-present: President, Italy’s Bishops’
Conference-Memberships-1990s-present: Member of Sant’Egidio
community-1995-2012: Member of diocesan presbyteral council-Memberships
(Roman Curia)-Member of Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human
Development-Member of Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic
See.
