The Forces of Evil have been unleashed against the Church, says Bishop Bertoldo

[Zoe_Brain]

Namely, the powerful American Freemasons, and the Jews.

Bishop Emeritus of Foligno, Bishop Arduino Bertoldo.:
"The Church in its millennial history, has experienced systematic persecution and this is part of the rules of the game, especially when a serious and strong a man as Pope Benedict XVI defends non-negotiable values such as life and family. Faced with these things, the truth, the rejection of relativism unleashed unrestrained forces of evil, demons that never sleep and are always lurking, ready to strike.
Pontifex Roma:
“Who are these demons today?”
Bishop Bertoldo
In this campaign of hate I see without a doubt the hand of American Freemasonry , which is much stronger, aggressive and violent than the Italian variety, and as always happens is consistent even in its persecution. There are always Jewish forces hostile to the Catholic Church.
Pontifex Roma:
“The Jews?”
Bishop Bertoldo
I’m not anti-Semitic and I have little resentment of them. But certain things must be spoken clearly and frankly.

Source (in Italian) Pontifex Roma
Google Translation to English here

Note that the Bishop is retired.

According to another retired Bishop, Bishop Bomarito, it’s the Freemasons and the Pharmaceutical industry, rather than (just) the Jews.

Pontifex Roma
Now about the Jews…"
Bishop Bomarito
They have been waiting for the right opportunity to attack the Church and is not a new thing. Rather, I understand that Father Cantalamessa has said certain things in good faith, he is a great preacher and straight are his intentions. But speaking of the Jews these days always hits a nerve. He was right to apologize.

From Press TV of Iran:

Meanwhile, The Vatican has blamed the media — and going as far as to single out The New York Times — in a letter, for biased coverage of the scandal. Another row erupted Monday when a retired Italian bishop denied remarks he made in an interview blaming “a Zionist attack” for a smear campaign against the pope.

Italian Roman Catholic website Pontifex, which carried the remarks of Monsignor Babini, Bishop Emeritus of Grossetto, has threatened to release interview tapes.

Yes, that’s 3 different retired Bishops.

 

[Zoe_Brain]

From the Jerusalem Post:

An Italian Catholic Web site is claiming that a retired bishop has blamed the Jews for the current backlash against the church over sex abuse claims.

Giacomo Babini, 81, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, allegedly said in an article on the Pontifex Web site that he believed a “Zionist attack” was behind the criticism of the church, considering how “powerful and refined” the criticism was.

“They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers,” he was quoted as saying.

…

One of the highest representatives of the CEI (Italian Conference of Catholic Bishops) told the AJC that Babini’s comments were contrary to Catholic thinking.

“These remarks are entirely contrary to the official line and mainstream thought of the Catholic Church,” Bishop Vincenzo Paglia told the AJC.

In a statement, CEI denied that Babini had given the interview.

“Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me,” Babini said on Monday.

In a response posted on its Web site, Pontifex said it stood by its story and that Babini has previously made anti-Semitic comments.

Pontifex claimed that in an interview on January 27, Babini said: “The Jews use the Holocaust as a club” and on January 25 said: “The Jews are no longer our brothers, they overslept at the coming of Christ, they have chosen not to be our brothers.”

Summary:
The retired Bishop is 81.
The Italian Conference of Catholic Bishops have distanced themselves from any such ideas.
The Bishop himself has denied the reports.
The source has not yet released the tapes - but threatens to.
The source - Pontifex Roma - has been known to exaggerate, but also has been known to expose such unfortunate interviews too.
The good Bishop is not the only retired Bishop who has been reported to claim that he’s not anti-Semitic, it’s all the fault of the Jews.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

That’s funny. I thought it was the New York Times.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

Great, this is just what the Church needs…

 

[markeverett49]

This is beneath contempt. We have the Bible and know from reading it (-those of us who do read it, anyway) that CORRUPT PRIESTS were often targets of God’s prophets. Even Jesus had harsh words for the religous leaders of his day. There is nothing “Catholic” about reflexively defending priests and bishops when we know from the Scriptures that religious leaders can be cesspools of corruption. Jeremiah didn’t cut the priests of his day any slack because the Evil One sought to corrupt them.

.

 

[puzzleannie]

we have a policy of not criticizing clergy here so I won’t say anything about the good bishop needing his meds, but we have plenty of enemies within the Church, those of whom Christ spoke so severely when he condemned those who mislead the innocent little ones, to worry about outside enemies. Pedophiles belong in jail not in the priesthood. Any bishop who could not figure that out on his own deserves what comes, in civil law and canon law, but most of all from God’s judgment. It is not however the only area where many bishops have failed in their pastoral duties, just the most publicized. Lay Catholics will pay the monetary cost of their failure, but their souls will pay the eternal price.

 

[wisdomseeker]

This is a case in which the more you talk the more things get worse.

i want to see the Pope and the bishops act more like Jesus. be silent and stop trying to defend themselves. it is just going to get worse if they keep talking.

it is the case of “whatever you say can be used against you.”

whe know the Church is under attack so the more we talk the more the enemies will get power over us and the attacks is just going to continue. just keep cleaning the House of God and things will get better. we just need to get right with God.

 

[anode]

I have often thought that the worst enemies of the RCC were within–its abuser priests, specifically Fr. Maciel, but including *all *of the others; Cardinal Lodano and other members of the curia; Catholics who use their religion to promote their far-right political views, such as Bill Donohue; and anti-Semites such as those retired Italian priests and the SSPX priest(s) Rome was so assiduously courting until recently (I don’t know where things stand now).

With ‘friends’ like these, who needs enemies?

 

[markeverett49]

we have a policy of not criticizing clergy here .

Really? What about the member of the clergy who asked for the Pope to step down? What about clergy who have committed / condoned liturgical abuses? Or suggested the Church revisit its discipline of celibacy for priests and religious? Or priests such as the two in the Diocese of Palm Beach who sit in jail for stealing money from a Delray Beach parish? (The Diocese certainly criticized them.)

If there is such a policy, it should be abandoned. Priests are not above criticism. Further, one of the reasons Catholic priests are the worst preachers on Earth is that they so rarely receive honest criticism from those forced to endure their homilies.

 

[silentstar]

Stories like this make me sick. I can’t say any more, I just feel sick.

 

[Zoe_Brain]

Be of good heart. People are fallible, even priests. Even popes, except when speaking ex cathedra.

If the Church is the Way and the Light, such human fallibility cannot affect that. I’m no Catholic, I’m not even Christian, but even I know that.

I think the organisation needs reform from within. These events are not an integral and essential part of Catholicism, so the reform will not be major. Just practicing what is being preached for a change.

Far more serious are things like this - forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=447359

That really is sick-making. The problem is ongoing, not “in the past”. There is no contrition - yet.

 

[mlund]

Eh, to some extent Religions are in competition with one another.

The history of Christendom is replete with shameful instances of persecution, slander, and worse against those who did not share the Catholic faith. Likewise there are plenty of instances of persecution, slander, and worse against people for their Catholic Church.

If you don’t think there are groups of Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Atheists and the like out there who want to harm the Catholic Church as part of religious competition you’re fooling yourself. We’re got people murdered in the streets by prominent Muslims for being Chaldean Catholics. We’ve got people slaughtered in India by Hindus for being Catholic. The Maoists still jail and torture outspoken Catholics. I’m sure there are a few hard-line groups in Israel that hate Pope Benedict’s guts and just about everyone else in the Church.

If you think those groups represent the majority of normal members of those religions, though, you are likewise fooling yourself.

But let’s not pretend that the Church has not received and will not continue to receive abuse from many quarters due to being one of the “wrong” religions from the point of view of a group from another faith. We’ve got Catholic that do the same thing too, sadly.

They will, like the poor, always be with us.

• Marty Lund

 

[anode]

The Jews have good reason to hate the Catholic church. . It was mainly the Catholic church, also the Orthodox churches, who persecuted Jews for centuries. However, there were quite a few Catholics who sheltered Jews during the Holocaust, but many were in the lower ranks, such as laypeople or sisters. The upper ranks of clergy were quiet, maybe to avoid Catholic persecutions for statements that wouldn’t help the Jews, either.

The one big exception was the chief priest of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. He told teh president of that country that if he didn’t do all in his power to help the Jews, that he, the reigning cleric, would excommunicate him.

Quote from American Jewish Committee website:

“Bishop Stephan, head of the Sofian Church and the highest ranking Bulgarian Church official during the Holocaust, and Bishop Kiril, church head in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, both vigorously opposed Bulgarian anti-Jewish policies and the deportation of Jews to death camps. Bishop Stephan passed away in 1957 and Bishop Kiril in 1971.”

ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=849241&ct=1496381

Jews usually don’t try to convert Christians, btw. There are some ‘spontaneous’ conversions, but many conversions are half of a married pair.

The worst enemies of the Catholic church are within the church itself. *If *the church were united, then attacks from without would only strengthen it. Unfortunately, that’s not what is happening now.

 

[Soutane]

Senior members of my family have been known to have rather odd opinions and say strange,strange things,but when they start to embarrass themselves and other members of my family and “act out” it’s off to the Home they go.
Bishops and other clergy like these need to be locked away in the Vatican attic,never to be heard from again.It’s clerical morons like these who reveal their own sinful prejudices for which they shall be judged.The fire is raging out of contol nicely now and throwing more gasoline onto it is entirely superfluous.Can’t someone LIKE THE POPE gag these cretins?

 

[Soutane]

Boy Howdy,I’ll tell you one thing,these neverending scandals and missteps and cretinous sinful(in my opinion) statements have done one positive thing for me -they have completely cured ANY vestige of scrupulosity that I had left.My confessor must feel he’s being stoned to death by popcorn compared to some of these “shepherds”

 

[Teelynn]

Well, here you go again…WHO DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE?? The good Bishop has denied the reports. Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see. How can anyone know what the truth really is??? Whatever the truth is, one thing is perfectly clear, the forces of EVIL have indeed been unleashed against the Church of Christ…but I think this is common knowledge by now. The battle has become unbelievably intense.