Posts tagged Pope Benedict
First Pope In 600 Years To Step Down
Feb 11th
“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.” Revelation 13:1
He will be the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to resign in almost 600 years, with his departure expected to leave the post vacant for around three weeks.
The 85-year-old German’s resignation letter said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.
“I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.
“However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.”
He will step down after almost eight years in the post, having been elected in April 2005. source – Sky
Merging With Islam? Pope Prays In Arabic For First Time Ever
Oct 10th
The Coming One World Religion
“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.” Revelation 17:7
AFP - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday pronounced a blessing in Arabic at his weekly audience in front of 20,000 pilgrims on St Peter’s Square – the first time the language has been used at such an event.
Students of bible prophecy have long suspected that in the last days before the start of the Great Tribulation, that there would be a merger of the Vatican with Islam. Looks like we are well on our way to seeing that becoming a reality.
“The pope prays for all Arabic speakers. May God bless you all!” the pope said in Arabic at the audience, after a bishop read out an Arabic translation of the pope’s comments praising the results of the Second Vatican Council.
The landmark Council, which began 50 years ago this week, is a “compass” for the Catholic Church “in the middle of the storms”, the pope said.
As a young reformer, the then Joseph Ratzinger took part in the Council, better known as Vatican II, which revolutionised Catholic rituals.
The Council brought together 2,250 bishops and lasted from 1962 until 1965.
The pope has always defended the 15 “constitutions” adopted by the Council despite complaints from traditionalists in the Church over several reforms.
Benedict will celebrate mass on St Peter’s Square on Thursday to launch a “Year of Faith” on the exact anniversary of the start of Vatican II. source – France 24
Vatican Representative In Israel Declares That ‘Jews No Longer The Chosen People’
Mar 20th
Vatican says Israel’s existence as Jewish state has nothing to do with the Bible.
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
DISCLAIMER: When the Vatican uses phrases such as “we Christians”, NTEB goes on record as saying that we are not part of whatever group it is they are referring to. The bible says that real Christians are to love the Jewish people and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. NTEB whole-heartedly supports the Jewish people and the literal, visible, physical, modern-day nation of Israel.
From YNET NEWS: In a special interview with Die Tagespost last week, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, named by Pope Benedict to represent the Vatican in the Jewish State, declared that “Israel’s existence as such has nothing to do with the Bible.” He then compared Christians’ condition in today’s Jerusalem with Jesus’ Passion: “We Christians never forget that even our Lord himself suffered and was mocked in Jerusalem.”
“We Christians cannot speak about the Promised Land for the Jewish people”, the synod’s document said. “There is no longer a chosen people. The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians.”
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, named by Pope Benedict to represent the Vatican in the Jewish State, declared that “Israel’s existence as such has nothing to do with the Bible.”
Twal’s position on Israel and the Bible has been embraced at the highest levels in the Catholic Church. The Vatican synod in 2010 declared that Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people.
A few days ago, Patriarch Twal responded enthusiastically to the agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah. He also denounced “the Judaization of Jerusalem” and attacked Israel for “trying to transform it into an only Hebrew-Jewish city, excluding the other faiths.” Elsewhere, Iraq’s Archbishop, Louis Sako, asked to “separate between Judaism and Zionism.” Indeed, in the most influential quarters of Christianity, Jews are still regarded as an apostate group not entitled to a sovereign state of its own.
Jesus, the Palestinian prince of hope and peace?
Backed by the Catholic clergy, for the first time in history the Palestinians asked the United Nations’ cultural body to register Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity under the name of “Palestine.” According to Omar Awadallah, who heads the UN department in the PA Foreign Ministry,
“Jesus is the Palestinian prince of hope and peace and Christians all over the world want that church to be a World Heritage site.”
In a period when the Vatican’s anguish at the catastrophic decline of Arab Christianity should be palpable, the Catholic Church chooses to demonize Israel and to increase its collaboration with the PLO.
The confirmation comes from the intensity of high profile meetings in recent weeks and the participation of bishops not only from Arab countries, but from Europe and the United States as well.
Elimination of Jewish state has become a priority
Last January, eight Catholic bishops from Europe and North America, including UK Archbishop Patrick Kelly and French Archbishop Michel Dubost, visited Gaza. “I asked prisoners in the largest prison in Europe (in Evry) to pray for you,” Dubost told Gazans. The inference was clear: Palestinians are living in a big prison terrified by Israel. In the same period, Father Manuel Musalam, head of Gaza’s Catholics, met with Hamas leader, Mahmoud al Zahar, and declared that “Christians are not threatened by Muslims” but that everyone faces the same problem, that of Israel’s “humiliation.”
The Vatican’s criminalization of Zionism, which Arab Churches made a basic condition for Muslim-Christian rapprochement, grants the elimination of the Jewish State priority over defending the rights of their own beleaguered communities. After Arab nationalism failed to eliminate Israel, Arab Christianity and the Vatican are now building a Palestinian identity hostile to Israel and the Jews. source – YNET News
‘The Pope Will Die Within A Year’ Says Vatican Official Document
Feb 10th
The sensational prediction was allegedly made by Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo in Sicily, on a recent visit to China.
Cardinal Romeo reportedly made the startling prediction of the Pope’s death during a trip to China in November 2011.
He seemed so sure of the fact that the people he spoke with, including Italian businessmen and Chinese representatives of the Catholic Church, were convinced that he was talking about an assassination attempt.
They were so alarmed by his remarks that they reported them back to the Vatican.
The extraordinary comments were written up in a top-secret report, dated Dec 30, 2011, and delivered to the Pope by a senior cardinal, Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a Colombian, in January.
The Vatican has reportedly opened an investigation into the claims.
The report was written in German, apparently to limit the number of people within the Vatican who would understand it if it was inadvertently leaked.
It warns of a “Mordkomplott” – death plot – against Benedict.
The story was broken on Friday by an Italian daily, Il Fatto Quotidiano, with the headline “Plot against the Pope – he will die within 12 months”. The newspaper, which has a reputation for scoops, published a page from the confidential report.
“During his talks in China, Cardinal Romeo predicted the death of Benedict XVI within 12 months. His remarks were expressed with such certainty and resolution that the people he was speaking to thought, with a sense of alarm, that an attack on the Pope’s life was being planned,” the paper reported.
“Cardinal Romeo could never have imagined that the indiscreet remarks he made on the trip to China would be communicated back to the Vatican by third parties.”
Asked about the reported comments on Friday, however, Romeo said that the words attributed to him were “absolutely without basis.”
“It is so outside of reality that it should not be given any consideration,” Romeo was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA as saying.
The Vatican’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said the report was “so incredible that we cannot comment on it”.
“It seems to me something that is so far from reality that I don’t even want to address it,” Father Lombardi said. “It seems an incredible story and I don’t want to comment.”
He did not deny the existence of the document to AFP, but added that it was “devoid of reality”.
Cardinal Romeo also named Benedict’s XVI likely successor as Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan – meaning the papacy would return to an Italian after the German Benedict and his Polish predecessor, John Paul II.
He allegedly told his contacts in China that Pope Benedict could not stand Tarcisio Bertone, his Secretary of State and the Vatican’s second most senior figure, amid reports of bitter power struggles going on within the Holy See.
Experts said the release of the document could be part of a power struggle within the Vatican administration to try and force Bertone to leave.
Cardinal Romeo said Benedict viewed Cardinal Scola as his ideal successor because they had similar personalities and theological outlooks. Cardinal Scola was previously the Patriarch of Venice, but was promoted to the archbishopric of Milan by Benedict in June last year.
The most recent attempt on a pope’s life was in 1981 when John Paul II was shot and critically wounded in St Peter’s Square by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman with links to a shadowy militant group called the Grey Wolves.
It has been claimed that the assassination attempt was backed by the KGB and Bulgarian secret service, in retaliation for the pope’s support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in his native Poland and his opposition to Communism. source – Telegraph UK
