The pope's mother had an abortion and he's alive and well and living in the Vatican.George W Bush's mother Barbara had an abortion - he's alive and well and living in the White House.......
Nazi Pope Benedict XVI,Sarah Palin's UnWed Pregnant Teenager,Nancy Pelosi's Papal Smear
The pope's mother had an abortion and he's alive and well and living in the Vatican.George W Bush's mother Barbara had an abortion - he's alive and well and living in the White House.......
Background:
Note I use mainly right leaning 'news' sources on the Nancy Pelosi,Catholic Church,Abortion 'controversy' as they were the ones most interested in sensationalising or skewing this story to try to make their Republi-con candidates look good by comparison.Note that the newsmax website is run by far right pals of Rupert Murdoch,Steve Forbes and Fox News.Fox sometimes puts their stories on their newswire
to give publicity to that scam site. Its founder James Dale Davidson is also founder of the National Taxpayers Union and the Agora Inc. penny stock 'holding company'.I post a promotion immediately below the newsmax.con's Pelosi, Church, abortion aritcle of a fraudulent penny stock called Pluristem that newsmax's founder Davidson has been promoting(pumping)over the last few years in cooperation with some Israel mafia that claims to use stem cells from placentas as medicine - but really justy steals investor money and launders it through Israeli and other offshore accounts ! And while I'm no fan of Pelosi I despise Davidson who ripped me off in a similar scam called Endovasc.
Also I met and personally shook hands with Papal Pro Nunciate Pio Laghi in the early 1980's when he was in California at a time when the church was promoting the idea of making mission founder Junipero Serra a 'saint'.I personally handed him an article I wrote on 'The Pope's Misconceptions about Conception and Science History' that will be added here below on this article post for the record.Pio Laghi assured me he would deliver it to the Pope John Paul II but somehow I feel he was lieing .I only in the last few days posted a spanish version whose title is 'Papa Benedicto's Erroneas Concepciones En Quanto A La Concepcion Y La Historia De La Ciencia'.Here is an Argentina Indymedia link :
Papa Benedicto,Erroneas Concepciones En Cuanto A La Concepcion Y La Historia De La Ciencia
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2008/09/623966.php
I had no idea at the time I shook hands with Pio Laghi who had just become U.S. Pro Nunciate to the U.S. and Reagan-Bush regime and was thus the first Pro Nunciate to the U.S. government which had just sent the first U.S. ambassador to the Vatican,that he had just arrived from Argentina where mothers of the disappeared would later accuse him of
all sorts of collusion with the murderers and baby stealers of the Argentine military regime of the 1970's.
- Tony Ryals
http://www.newsmax.com/politics/pelosi_bishop_abortion/2008/09/07/128545...
Bishop Summons Pelosi
Sunday, September 7, 2008 5:34 PM
By: Phil Brennan Article Font Size
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's bishop wants to meet with her to discuss
her recent comments on Catholic Church history concerning abortion.
In his column in Catholic San Francisco, the diocesan newspaper,
Archbishop George Niederauer revealed that he had asked the speaker,
an avowed Roman Catholic, to meet with him, according to the Catholic
League.
Pelosi stirred a storm of protests from bishops across the nation
after she said on "Meet the Press" on Aug. 24 that the Catholic Church
was not always opposed to abortion, and that many Catholics today take
a different position on this issue. Three days later, the league
recalled, Pelosi's office issued a statement that essentially restated
her remarks, though it acknowledged that the church was today opposed
to abortion.
After Tom Brokaw said that the Catholic Church feels strongly that
life begins at conception, Pelosi replied, "I understand. And this is,
like, maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the
history of the church, this is an issue of controversy."
Claiming she had carefully researched church history, she said, "I
don't think anybody can tell you when life begins," adding that "over
the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make
that definition."
In the wake of her controversial statement, many Catholics, including
Niederauer and Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York,
chided Pelosi for her blatant misrepresentation of Catholic teaching
on abortion.
In addition, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Sept.
2 not only issued a news release criticizing Pelosi for her comments,
it also released a two-page document outlining the Catholic Church's
historical opposition to abortion since the first century.
After mentioning the fact that scientists are certain that "a new
human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at
fertilization," the bishops wrote, "In keeping with this modern
understanding, the church teaches that from the time of conception
(fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the
full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the
fundamental right to life."
In a statement Friday, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said
"San Francisco Archbishop Niederauer did not force this issue on Nancy
Pelosi -- she forced it on him. His article [in the diocesan
newspaper] is a cogent account of what the bishops expect from
Catholics in public life, spelling out in great detail how the process
works when dissidents like Pelosi continue in their obstinacy. The
church regards abortion to be 'intrinsically evil.'
"Four years ago, another Catholic dissident on this subject, New
Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, did the right thing by announcing that he
would abide by the church's strictures and no longer present himself
for Communion.
"That is exactly what Pelosi should have done. Instead, she chose to
defy the teachings of the Catholic Church, misrepresent them in public
and continue to insist that she is right. Thus has she beckoned her
bishop to act. The ball is in her court. Practicing Catholics, of
course, strongly support Archbishop Niederauer."
Catholic University President David M. O'Connell told the Washington
Post: "We're seeing more … very prominent individuals in the public
square who are eager to identify themselves as Catholics . . . The
bishops want to make sure that the people understand that
'celebrities' don't get a pass when it comes to the teachings or the
practices of the church."
In a statement, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, the chairman
of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops said: "Since the first
century the church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured
abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.
Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a
means, is gravely contrary to the moral law."
In rebuking Pelosi, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl said that
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of
the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion."
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver said the idea that a woman has
the "right to choose" to end her baby's life goes against Catholic
teaching.
He added that none of the early church leaders "diminished the unique
evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early church
closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the
beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was
always, gravely wrong.
"Catholics who make excuses for it -- whether they're famous or not --
fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do
sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith," he
added.
It was not only bishops and other church leaders who corrected the
Speaker. Ten House members sent Pelosi a letter asking her to publicly
rectify her misrepresentation of Catholic teachings.
"As fellow Catholics and legislators, we wish you (Pelosi) would have
made a more honest effort to lay out the authentic position of the
church on this core moral issue before attempting to address it with
authority," said the congressmen.
"Your subsequent remarks mangle Catholic Church doctrine regarding the
inherent sanctity and dignity of human life; therefore, we are
compelled to refute your error."
"To reduce the scandal and consternation caused amongst the faithful by your remarks, we necessarily write you to correct the public record and affirm the church's actual and historical teaching that defends the sanctity of human life," concluded their letter, which contained the following signatures.
Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (MI)
Hon. Steve Chabot (OH)
Hon. Virginia Foxx (NC)
Hon. Phil Gingrey (GA)
Hon. Peter King (NY)
Hon. Steve King (IA)
Hon. Daniel Lungren (CA)
Hon. Devin Nunes (CA)
Hon. John Sullivan (OK)
Hon. Patrick Tiberi (OH)
(c) 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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.............
http://www.testcompany.com/archive/May2007-18/3687.html
From: NewsMax.com
Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 13:17:27 GMT
To: "test(*)testcompany.com"
Dear NewsMax Reader:
Please find below a special message from our sponsor, James Davidson, Editor of Outside the Box. He has some important information to share with you.
Thank you.
NewsMax.com
How You Can Profit From:
“An Oilfield in the Placenta”
May 2007
New Discovery Lets You Make A Fortune Without Ethical Controversy With Stem Cells From Umbilical Cord Blood
Why you could pocket 30 times more profit from an obscure Israeli biotech discovery than from a 40 billion barrel oil find at Prudhoe Bay…
By James Dale Davidson
If you have shied away from profiting from the immense promise of stem cells to treat disease because of moral concern over extracting stem cells from fetal tissue, pay close attention. You can now invest with a clear conscience. An Israeli entrepreneur, Zami Aberman, has discovered, "an oilfield in the placenta." His little company, Pluristem Life Systems (OTCBB: PLRS) has made a discovery which is potentially more valuable than Prudhoe Bay.
Sounds crazy, right? Not really. The exciting news is that you may be able to make more money from Pluristem’s "placental blood" stem cell discovery than you could have made four decades ago from ARCO’s discovery of a vast, untapped oil basin in Alaska’s remote Prudhoe Bay..........
Take a close look at the potential upside from an investment of $10,000 in Pluristem today. At the recent price of 12 cents per share, you could get about 83,000 shares of PLRS with a $10,000 investment. If Pluristem's promising treatments for blood cancer are validated in forthcoming FDA trials, (expected to begin late this year) that would open the door to an immediate market of $2 billion annually for Pluristem's patented PLX-1 process for growing and expanding Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC) from the placenta.
MSCs are potent cells that differentiate into many different body tissues, such as muscle, nerve, cartilage, and even bone marrow.
In pre-clinical studies, the PLX-1 process has been proven to increase umbilical cord (UBC) stem cell effectiveness by up to 500%.
This could be important as a "gusher" of the biotech revolution, a source of profit for you, and a way to alleviate a lot of human misery.
Here's why. Umbilical cord (UBC) stem cells have been used as a non-standard treatment in place of traditional bone marrow transplants to treat deadly disease, like leukemia. The problem has been that it has taken much longer (40 days) for UBC stem cells to engraft as compared to a traditional bone marrow transplant (15 days).
Patients with compromised (or totally destroyed) immune systems don't always have an extra several weeks to lie around waiting for UBC stem cells to work. PLX-1 changes the equation, increasing the number of UBC stem cells; improving the effectiveness of grafts, and shortening recovery times.
Pluristem's PLX-1 solution targets an unmet need in more than 100,000 blood cancer patients annually. With the improved speed and effectiveness of grafting promised by PLX-1, UBC stem cells have many other advantages over bone marrow transplants. .......
Related Links:
Rid your body of damaging toxins in 5 easy steps.
Your Tiny Thyroid Causes Heart, Cancer, Obesity Woes
Get the USS Reagan Fleece, Get Ready for Fall!
.......................
http://newsblaze.com/story/20080906140726lill.nb/topstory.html
Aborting Speaker Pelosi's Unholy Communion
By John Lillpop
She essentially said that the church fathers, such as St. Augustine,
had not defined over the centuries when life begins nor did they have
a solid position on abortion....
She also sent some Catholics into comatose shock upon learning of her
confusion on an issue so critical to the teachings of the Catholic
Church.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4445279.stm
Profile: Pope Benedict XVI
As a cardinal, Pope Benedict took an uncompromising stance
Pope Benedict XVI was elected in April 2005, after the death of his
predecessor Pope John Paul II.
As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - once known
as the Holy Office of the Inquisition - from 1981 until his election,
the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had developed a reputation as a
tough theologian.
He campaigned against liberation theology, which had gained ground
among priests in Latin America and elsewhere as a means of involving
the Church in social activism and human rights issues.
He also described homosexuality as a "tendency" towards an "intrinsic
moral evil" and has previously called for pro-choice politicians to be
denied Communion.
........................
http://www.atheists.net/tcas/canat10.html
DID I SAY THAT?
"The Roman Catholic Church is the greatest criminal organization
outside the mafia." So said Michael Enright, host-in-waiting of CBC
radio's bore-athon, Morningside. Wow! Suddenly the fan is spraying it
out in all directions! But, just when we thought it would be safe to
listen to Mourningside without nodding off, damned if he didn't go and
apologize.
Despite his credentials of having been bathed and raised in Catholicism, combined with having been called "simply the best broadcast journalist in the country", Enright's apology in the Globe & Mail offered the possibility that his remarks may have been "ill-informed". He really didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings.
We guess this means that even though he is said to be "positively
obsessive about the importance of human and civil rights", Enright
won't be interviewing people on Morningside such as the Mothers of
Plaza De Mayo. This leading Argentinian civil rights group is charging that the Pope's envoy to Argentina from 1974-80, Cardinal Pio Laghi, had "initmate knowledge of the torture, extermination and
disappearance of political opponents of the repressive military
junta......and gave advice on the most Christian and compassonate way
to execute people..... allowing the deportation or execution of
liberal nuns or priests." Cardinal Laghi, a buddy of ex-pres. George
Bush and said to be in the running for the popeship, is currently
enjoying his exalted position as the Vatican's Prefect of the
Congregation of Catholic Education, in charge of Catholic schools and
universities world wide. (Van. Sun. May 22/97)......
....................
Nazi Pope Benedict,Sarah Palin's UnWed Pregnant Teenager,Nancy
Pelosi's Papal Smear
Maybe Pope Benedict XVII,the ex Nazi soldier and ex head of the
Catholic Church's office of the Inquisition,(that should have been
closed down in shame and for crimes against humanity centuries
ago),should meditate upon all those babies taken away from their
murdered mothers in Argentina in the 1980's to be given to families
of far right wing fascist military families that he and Pope John Paul
II and the Pope's Pro Nunciate to both Argentina and later to George
Herbert Walker Bush,father of the monster and killer madman W Bush.
Pio Laghi should take some responsibility for rather than always
pointing his self righteous finger some place else.......
In truth this writing has little or nothing to do with the daughter of Sarah Palin,John NcCain's Republican VP candidate,except for the hypocrisy of her mother to brag about her daughter's sexual abstinence and the fact that they proved the point that talk is cheap when hormones are running wild at her young age as well as the age of her boyfriend who will also become a father before finishing
high school in Alaska.And they can both be thankful I suppose that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin(who will not provide funding for unwed mothers in Alaska except for her daughter) is there benefactor and that they were not born middle class suspects of the paranoid and fascist U.S. government influenced Argentine military government of Pio Laghi's time as Pro Nunciate there are they might have found after their child's birth that they would be murdered and have their bodies disappeared off the coast of Argentina and their baby put up for adoption by and to military families of their murderers.......
In truth all they Democrat and Republican candidates feigning to be more Christian,Catolic or otherwise, than the next are hypocrites.John McCain thought nothing of bombing men women and children from the air in Viet Nam he would never see.Democrat VP Candidate Joe Biden calls himself a
Catholic 'Zionist' which shows he is a complete religious moron as well as a fascist and the Catholic Church should excommunicate him for that statement alone.Barrack Hussein Obama just wants to be president so bad he'll jump through any hoop that might get him an extra vote and ignores Biden's role in and responsibility for 1/11.And the aging bimbo Nancy Pelosi should be replaced FOR ALLOWING SO MUCH FRAUD AND CORRUPTION TO GO ON ALL AROUND HER WHILE SHE PLAYS DUMB.This includes her good relatons with Methodist Church right wing money launderer,Democrat Tim Mahoney,(who replaced Republican male intern hustler Mark Foley of the 16th District),whose vFinance of Florida has aided U.S. and CIA penny stock fraud and money laundering operations from Bermuda to Kuala Lumpur to Dubai post 911 !
- Tony Ryals
.......
What is a Pap smear?
A Pap smear (also known as the Pap test) is a medical procedure in
which a sample of cells from a woman's cervix (the end of the uterus
that extends into the vagina) is collected and spread (smeared) on a
microscope slide. The cells are examined under a microscope in order
to look for pre-malignant (before-cancer) or malignant (cancer)
changes.
..............
A 'Papal Smear' is a catholic verbal discharge issuing from the mouth
of the pope or one of his priestly flunkies.It is a proceedure dating
or predating times of the first inquisition and is either performed
directly by the pope or one of his priestly underlings on catholics
suspected of being too uppity.
Thoughts are minutely examined for any devience from papal and
catholic dogmas and in modern times a smear campaign will be launched
if the catholic penitent does not tow the political party line of the
pope
even if said said was a nazi youth himself in his past.....The papal
smear is usually performed on and against members with high social or
political ranking in the various countries the pope chooses to butt
his political nose in in the hopes that the person with high social
visibility being made an example of
through receiving his papal smear will be an example to and hopefully
cause fear and guilt to those members of his church with less social
visibility .
Note during all the time Argentine military was knidnapping,torturing
and killing young couples in the 1970's you didn't hear a peep from
Cardinal
..............
http://indymedia.nl/nl/2005/10/31377.shtml
Pope's Misconceptions about conception and science history
Tony Ryals - 29.10.2005 08:05
The pope's apparent ignorance of science history and modern agricultural technology obscures from his vision the disastrous effects of his policy of unchecked population growth on future generations who will find "no food on the table" nor the resources with which to grow it. This ignorance also shows that the pope has no more expertise in the fields of agricultural science, population planning, or resoure management than the pope in Galileo's time did in the area of astronomy.
Pope John Paul II may be gone but Pope Benedict XVI maintains a tradition of ignorance and human materialism that has no justification even in a literal interpretation of the Bible and only insures perpetual human ignorance and misery.
And this statement goes double for the fundamentalist protestants such as America's Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and their ilk, who have promoted human ignorance, hatred, and greed everyday of their worthless lives.
Pope's Stances Lack Scientific Basis
by Tony Ryals
The Daily Californian September 22, 1987
On Nov. 10, 1979, a meeting was held in Rome by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in honor of the 100th year anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein. The meeting marked the first time in the history of the church, since the formation of its own science academy, that any pope had presided over such a session.
This meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences may well be more memorable for Pope John Paul II's statements regarding science, Galileo, and the church than for the honoring of the centenary of the birth of Einstein himself.
In discussing the case of Galileo and the church, Pope John Paul II addressed the academy as follows:
"Mr.President, you said very rightly that Galileo and Einstein each characterized an era. The greatness of Galileo is recognized by all, as is that of Einstein, but while today we honor the latter before the College of Cardinals in the apostolic palace, the former had to suffer much - we cannot deny it - from men and orgainzations within the church. The Vatican Council has recognized and deplored unwarranted interferences..."
Approximately one year after his Pontifical Academy of Science speech on Galileo, the pope, in criticizing what he termed "artificial" methods birth control, made a notable statement on modern agriculture, simultaneously. The pope stated:
"There are attacks on fecundity itself with means that human and Christian ethics must consider illicit... Instead of increasing the amount of bread on the table of a hungry humanity as a modern means of production can do today, there are thoughts of diminishing the number of those at the table through methods that are contrary to honesty. This is not worthy of civilization."
Now that the pope has pardoned Galileo for telling the church that the earth is in orbit around the sun, it is time to tell the pope that the other half of Aristotle's church-approved cosmology has also come unglued. The "Four Element" concept (earth, air, fire and water) was the other half of the Aristotelian Earth-centered universe adopted by St.Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century.
Although the Renaissance astronomers successfully challenged Aristotle's and the church's geocentric universe several centuries later, atoms still had not been discovered. For this reason the Four Elements remained intact and unchallenged long after the death of Galileo in 1642.
The discovery of atoms in the last couple of centuries has totally transformed our concept of elements. The former "elements", earth and air, are both composed of a variety of elements. We now know that even the ancient element "water" can be further divided into the elements of hydrogen and oxygen. And the element "fire" is now understood to be a form of radiation.
Justus Von Liebig, the 19th century father of agricultural chemistry, and other pioneering chemists did to Aristotle's Four Elements what the Renaissance astronomers did to Aristotle's concept of the Earth as the center of the universe - they overturned it!
Liebig first pointed out the for plants to utilize carbon dioxide in the air for growth, they must have adequate amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in their soil. Unfortunately, in popularizing the N,P,K concept of modern chemical agriculture, Liebig paved the way for overreliance upon energy-intensive fossil fuel consumption in the mining of phosphorus and potassium as well as in industrial production of nitrogen fertilizers.
We now know that for every orbit of the Earth around the sun - one year - the pope, each member of the Catholic Church, and everyone else on the planet consumes in their food and excretes from their bodies approximately two pounds of phosphorus and various quantities of nitrogen, calcium, potassium, iron, and other trace elements. All these elements generally go unrecycled, often into rivers and oceans or even municipal dumps, further enriching fertilizer industries (who will sell the farmers more for a price) at the expense of the Earth's non-renewable mineral nutrient resources.
When the remaining fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, are exhausted, only bacteria and blue-green algae utilizing phosphorus, potassium, and trace elements in "soil-culture" and "aqua-culture" will be likely candidates to fix atmospheric nitrogen for agricultural fertilization.
Both the trade of grains and the direct trade of phosphates speed the depletion of our limited reserves of phosphate rock in the United States, which comes mainly from mining operations in Florida. Deposits in Idaho are also being mined, at present, and Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum has eyed public land near Ojai, Calif. to strip-mine for phosphates.
We should realize the need to conserve our dwindling reserves of phosphates for future generations. The United States not long ago was a net exporter of petroleum, but now we are importers. The same situation could occur with phosphates if we refuse to learn from the past. Some researchers have suggested that we may become dependent upon yet a new OPEC (or Organization of Phosphate Exporting Countries), such as Morocco, with its relatively large rock phosphate reserves.
The U.S. General Accounting Office estimates that our reserves of phosphorus will be depleted some time in the next century. This will inevitably lead to a food and population crisis that will make our oil crisis seem minor by comparison.
The pope's apparent ignorance of science history and modern agricultural technology obscures from his vision the disastrous effects of his policy of unchecked population growth on future generations who will find "no food on the table" nor the resources with which to grow it. This ignorance also shows that the pope has no more expertise in the fields of agricultural science, population planning, or resoure management than the pope in Galileo's time did in the area of astronomy.
The nutrients that subsidize the life of the pope, and everyone on the planet, are a finite resource. Unless the pope realizes the seriousness of the linear flow of elements through himself and the rest of humanity, he shall be partly responsible for contributing to the collapse of modern agriculture.
To sum up, Pope John Paul II is as confused about the movement of atoms as the pope of Galileo's time was about the movement of the Earth and celestial bodies. Based upon the rate of depletion of chemical fertilizers, the present pope does not have 300 years to re-evaluate his view on modern agriculture and birth control. The question still remains as to why the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has not made this disastrous movement of atoms clear to the pope.
..............
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://academic.regis.edu/jroth/CCS400OfficialStory.htm
THE OFFICIAL STORY
Argentina, 1985
9.The role of the Catholic Church.
2)Priests have been implicated in the transfer or sale of babies.
3)Cardinal Pio Laghi, the Papal Pro-Nuncio in Buenos Aires during the
Dirty War,has admitted that the Church kept lists of the disappeared
with a notation of which
ones were confirmed dead.
Laghi says he knew of 6,000 such cases.
He says he intervened on behalf of a few people from wealthy families.
The Church has not released its lists to this day.(Laghi is now a
cardinal at the Vatican.)
..................
.....................
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/obama-my-answer.html
Obama: My Answer on Abortion at Saddleback Church was Too Flip
September 07, 2008 11:33 AM
On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,
expressed regret at his answer on abortion at Rick Warren's Saddleback
Church a couple weekends ago.
"At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?" Warren asked.
"I think that, whether you're looking at it from the theological
perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with
specificity, you know, is above my pay grade," Obama said -- an answer
that offended some people.
"Was that phrase too flip?" Stephanopoulos asked Obama today.
"Probably," Obama said. "Yes. I mean, what I intended to say is that,
as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does
the soul enter into…"
"It goes back to Augustine," Stephanopoulos interjected.
"It does," Obama said. "It's a pretty tough question. And so, all I
meant to communicate was that I don't presume to be able to answer
these kinds of theological questions. What I do know is that abortion
is a moral issue, that it's one that families struggle with all the
time, and that in wrestling with those issues, I don't think that the
government criminalizing the choices that families make is the best
answer for reducing abortions.".............
Pelosi said the "Catholic Church, for centuries, has been discussing this."
Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, begged to differ.
"The Catholic Church, from its first days, condemned the aborting of
unborn children as gravely sinful," George wrote in a statement. "Not
only Scripture's teaching about God's protection of life in the womb
(consider the prophets and the psalms and the Gospel stories about
John the Baptist and Jesus himself in Mary's womb) but also the first
century catechism (the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)
said: 'You shall not slay the child by abortions. You shall not kill
what is generated.' The teaching of the Church was clear in a Roman
Empire that permitted abortion. This same teaching has been constantly
reiterated in every place and time up to Vatican II, which condemned
abortion as a 'heinous crime.' This is true today and will be so
tomorrow. Any other comments, by politicians, professors, pundits or
the occasional priest, are erroneous and cannot be proposed in good
faith."
- jpt
........................
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/hqsep95.html
The U.S. press, which has recently publicized the confessions of
Argentine military leaders who reported the dropping from planes into
the ocean of hundreds of the "disappeared," has largely covered up the
role of the pope, the Argentine bishops, and the papal nuncio, Pio
Laghi. The March-April 1989 Human Quest carried this writer's
full-length review of a book by a Catholic layman, Emilio F. Mignone,
Witness to the Truth: The Complicity of Church and Dictatorship.
In it the author quotes Argentine bishops who endorsed and supported
the actions of the armed forces. He also reported that Pio Laghi
"spoke with the commanders and officers in the army post at Tucman and
gave them a papal blessing."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/hqsep95.html
From ............HUMAN QUEST
Sept-Oct, 1995
page 7
The culture of violence is supported by prominent public figures such
as former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick who defended dictators in
Argentina's "dirty war" where those killed and "disappeared" were well
over 13,000. She referred to them and other right wing dictators as
"authoritarian regimes" in contrast to left wing "totalitarian" ones.
She excused the raping and killing of American nuns in El Salvador
because they were "not just nuns" but "were political activists."
Similarly Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes of The New Republic
played along with the Reagan administration's anti-communist
intervention in Central America and covered up or whitewashed
atrocities.
The U.S. press, which has recently publicized the confessions of
Argentine military leaders who reported the dropping from planes into
the ocean of hundreds of the "disappeared," has largely covered up the
role of the pope, the Argentine bishops, and the papal nuncio, Pio
Laghi.
The March-April 1989 Human Quest carried this writer's full-length
review of a book by a Catholic layman, Emilio F. Mignone, Witness to
the Truth: The Complicity of Church and Dictatorship.
In it the author quotes Argentine bishops who endorsed and supported
the actions of the armed forces. He also reported that Pio Laghi
"spoke with the commanders and officers in the army post at Tucman and
gave them a papal blessing." The pope, who visited Argentina during
this period, made no public statement against the atrocities, in
marked contrast to his public disapproval of less brutal events in
other countries such as Poland and Nicaragua.
The culture of violence is not simply an immediate phenomenon. It was
nourished by the Cold War and anti-communism, supported by many
newspapers and media commentators, and even now by numerous members of
Congress who do not oppose right-wing paramilitary movements or the
promotion of gun ownership by the N.R.A.
It is the culture of violence evident not only in the availability of
guns and official killing and injuries, but in the violence of
poverty, unemployment and hopelessness that leads so many to
intimidate, threaten, rob and kill, or simply take vengeance on those
who stand in their way. Although they are few in number, those who are
committed to non-violent action and conflict resolution play an
essential role, along with those advocating gun control, in providing
both an alternative movement and hope for a better future. However,
they must act, teach, preach, and organize against violence. Silent
opposition is of little use.
-END QUOTE-
...........................
http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/news/arc/lasnet/1995/0470.html
Previous message: David Sangurima: "BRASIL: Y LOS ASESINOS DE CHICO MENDES?"
/* Written 6:15 PM May 24, 1995 by rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu in
igc:misc.activism. */
/* ---------- "Argentina: Catholic Church's Role i" ---------- */
/** pacnews.sample: 307.0 **/
** Topic: Church's Role in Argentinean Deaths **
** Written 11:45 AM May 24, 1995 by pacificnews in cdp:pacnews.sample **
From: Pacific News Service
/* Written 1:55 PM Apr 25, 1995 by pacificnews in igc:pacnews.storie */
/* ---------- "Church's Role in Argentinean Deaths" ---------- */
COPYRIGHT PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
450 Mission Street, Room 204
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-243-4364
NEWS ANALYSIS-785 WORDS
THE SILENCE OF THE BISHOPS -- PRIEST SCORES CHURCH'S ROLE IN ARGENTINA'S
DIRTY WARS
EDITOR'S NOTE: As Argentina grapples with the confessions of ex-military
members about their involvement in its dirty wars, revelations by a
Catholic priest are focusing new attention on the Church's role. PNS
correspondent Uki Goni is a freelance journalist based in Buenos Aires.
BY UKI GONI, PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
BUENOS AIRES -- The Vatican Embassy here kept a secret list of thousands
of people who "disappeared" during Argentina's dirty wars of the late
1970s which it failed to make public at the time and may have since
destroyed, according to Church sources. The revelations have stirred
heated debate about the Church's role in the kidnap, torture and murder
of some 15,000 people even as the nation grapples with the confessions of
ex-military members about their involvement in the killings.
Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi, who was Papal Pro-Nuncio in Buenos Aires
during the military dictatorship and later served as Pro-Nuncio in the
United States, confirmed last week that he knew of some 6,000 cases of
people who "disappeared."
Now based in Rome, the Cardinal made his admission in an interview with
an Argentinean magazine following claims by Father Federico Richards, a
Catholic priest at the Church of the Holy Cross, that Pio Laghi kept one
list at his office while a second was kept at the office of the Military
Vicarate. Richards, a 73-year-old third generation Argentinian of Irish
descent who speaks English with a thick Irish brogue, wants the church to
explain why it never made the lists public and what has happened to them.
In the 1970s Father Richards was the editor of "The Southern Cross," an
English-language newspaper serving the 500,000-member Irish community in
Argentina. The paper published reports of the "disappearances" as they
happened while the local Spanish-language press in Argentina maintained
total silence.
As a member of the Passionists Order, Father Richards says he had pledged
to keep alive the memory of Christ's suffering. Outside his church a sign
reads: "Solidarity with the crucified of today."
Father Richards clearly recalls the two occasions when he consulted the
"lists" of the Pope's ambassador and of the Argentine Catholic Church. "A
niece of mine, Gloria Keogh, was kidnapped on the night of June 15, 1978,
in her apartment and disappeared. She was 21 years old and a writer who a
few days before had published her first book of short stories. I went
with her father to seek the help of the office of Papal Nuncio Pio Laghi."
Richards discovered a macabre system at the Vatican Embassy by which
Argentina's military rulers constantly updated a list of the dead and
missing kept by Pio Laghi. "The Nuncio's secretary was an Irish priest,
Kevin Mullen. He told us that the Vatican Embassy used to periodically
send a list up to the Ministry of the Interior of people whom they knew
had disappeared, requesting news or information about them." Mullen told
Father Richards that according to the wording of the replies, Pio Laghi's
office knew who was dead or alive.
Pio Lagahi claims his silence about the list enabled him to save the
lives of several influential Argentines. But even the relatives of some
of those he tried to save now condemn him for withholding information
that could have prevented the disappearance of thousands of others.
..................
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pio_Laghi
On March 1, 2003, Laghi, as special papal envoy to the United States,
met with President George W. Bush and conveyed the Pope's request that
the United States reconsider the decision to go to war against Iraq.
Bush was photographed with Laghi and commented that he was "an old
family friend". During the presidency of Bush's father, George H.W.
Bush, Laghi, as Nuncio to the United States, was a frequent guest of
the first President Bush and his family.
................
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_10_28/ai_n13455702
VATICAN CITY -- According to ZENIT;, a newsgatheiing source in Rome,
John Paul II will ask U.S. President George Bush to stop basing his
policies in Iraq and the Holy Land on recourse to force, when they
meet June 4.
"We are at the edge of a precipice and we must stop, said Cardinal Pio
Laghi, a one-time papal nuncio in the United States, in statements to
the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
"We are told this by the horror unleashed by the tortures of Iraqi
prisoners, the beheading of the American hostage, and the scoffing at
the bodies of American soldiers," he said. Cardinal Laghi, who was
nuncio in the United States from 1980 to 1990 and who helped establish
diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Washington, visited Bush
in March 2003 on behalf of the pope to ask the president not to engage
in a "preventive war."
Most Popular
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3 Questions No Job Seeker Ever Wants To Be Asked? "'Stop' is the cry
expressed by the church in the name of abused humanity," the
81-year-old cardinal told the newspaper, which published his comments
on May 13." The United States must also stop and I think it has the
strength to do so. It must re-establish respect for human beings and
return to the family of nations, overcoming the temptation to act on
its own," he said.
"If it does not stop, the whirlwind of horror will involve other
peoples and will lead us ever more to the abyss," said the cardinal.
Cardinal Laghi said he is certain that the Holy Father will repeat to
Bush "the advice I gave him, which he decided not to heed. Now we see
how wise (that advice) was." The pope Will again express the more
ample appeal he made in the message for the 2004 World Day of Peace,
the Italian cardinal continued. "In it, he called for a higher level
of international order and warned that the struggle against terrorism
cannot only be 'repressive,' but must start with the 'elimination of
the causes' of the injustice." In that message, "it is stated that
respect for life must always be honored and that the struggle against
terrorism does not justify giving up the principles of the state of
law, as the end never justifies the means," Cardinal Laghi said.
He added that he had not expected the news on the tortures in Iraq. "I
was. afraid that the
.................
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/20/uselections2008.cath...
Tough choice for US CatholicsChurchgoing Americans normally vote
Republican because of a single issue: abortion. But the Iraq war may
change their minds
Before one nation goes to war with another, it must have a clear and
legitimate cause. Absent the threat of imminent attack, it must first
seek to resolve the conflict in a way that avoids bloodshed. America
took great pains to observe just war principles in Afghanistan and
then inexplicably threw them out some state department window in Iraq.
The Pope and his predecessor warned against this. John Paul II sent
Cardinal Pio Laghi as an emissary to the White House who explained
that the US invasion of Iraq would be "illegal" and "unjust". Benedict
XVI, then head of the teaching office of the Church, said that the
"concept of a 'preventive war' does not appear in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church", with good reason.
Moreover, the presidential primaries produced candidates that make
this election difficult for chagrined churchgoers, because they only
amplify the worst tendencies of their respective parties.
Senator Barack Obama has voted against affording protections even to
premature babies that are accidentally delivered during abortions, for
fear that it might set a precedent that could prevent even one
partial-birth abortion at some point.
Senator John McCain championed an unjust war in Iraq during his first
run for president, was its biggest cheerleader in Congress, sings
songs about bombing other countries and has adopted a belligerent
posture toward much of the rest of the world. More unjust wars would
be almost guaranteed on his watch.
With apologies to The Simpsons, that makes this an election of
abortions for some, small unjust wars for others. For Catholics who
take Church teaching seriously, that's no choice at all.
....................................
9/11,Dem VP Joe Biden,Hunter Biden's Paradigm and Israeli Delaware Corp ICTS International
https://israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9534/index.php
Swissair 111 Crash,Israeli PM Ehud Olmert,Morris Talansky and AIPAC
Attorney Neal Sher Cover Up
http://phillyimc.org/en/node/72866
Gremach Infrastructure's Google India Attack,Mozambique Coal Baron Squalor
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407213.html
Campbell White's Jonathan Heimberg - Pseudo Christian ?, Judeo Fascist ?,CIA ?
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2008/08/219406.php
India Bombing,Ken Haywood,Campbell White,Door Ministries,Christian
Fellowship Ministries
http://www.londonontario.indymedia.org/
Yahoo!,India Bombing: Campbell White Computer and Strange Fox
News-Frank Luntz Connection
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2008/07/219163.php
Yahoo!'s China,U.S. Government Agents Jerry Yang,Carl Icahn,Missing
White House E-Mail,Adnan Khashoggi, GenesisIntermedia Stock Fraud,
Terrorism
http://www.manila.indymedia.org/en/2008/07/782.html
Fox News: Greg Gutfeld,Adolf Hitler's Jewish Relative,Defends New
Yorker Barack Obama Hit Piece
http://www.rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/display/21580/index.php
Israeli Foreign Agent Sharon Tzur, Media Watch International,PM Ehud
Olmert,Rudy Giuliani,Morris Talansky Bribery,Fraud
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/node/71228
CNN,Wolf Blitzer Cover Up Helped Ehud Olmert To Israeli PM Office
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2008/07/218752.php
9/11:While Boston Slept,Logan Airport,ICTS International,Israeli PM
Ehud Olmert's Money Launderer Menachem Atzmon Looked On......
9/11:Bush,Kuwaiti,Israeli Involvement Documented In Securities
Exchange Commission Filings
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/218648.php
W Bush,Chabad-Lubavitch,Rubashkin's Agriprocessors: Kosher Guns,Drugs,
Ilegal Rabbis,Guatemala Wage Slaves
http://www.stlimc.org/newswire2008/w-bushchabadlubavitc...9s-ag
WeCu,9/11:U.S.Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Promotes
Israeli 'Security' Fraud
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/75525/index.php
Israel PM Ehud Olmert,Menachem Atzmon,ICTS International,Morris
Talansky Global Technologies, U.S.Stock Money Launderers, WTC,
9/11/01,SwissAir 111,9/2/98
http://www.indymedia.us/en/2008/05/31513.shtml
UK Robert Wishart London Money Laundering,SEC's,Georgetown
University's, John Polise,U.S.Penny Stock Fraud
http://www.londonontario.indymedia.org/
SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz:Peace Corp'S Dayton Daily News
Critic,,Friend To Fraud
http://www.houston.indymedia.org/news/2008/04/63476.php
California Attorney Francis Pizzulli,Robert F Kennedy
Assassination,Afghhan Torture and Penny Stock Fraud,Money Laundering
http://www.londonontario.indymedia.org/
University of California Berkeley Grads James Angel,Joshua Ridless
Join SEC Chris Cox's 'Fraud Speech Movement'
http://www.milwaukee.indymedia.org/en/2008/03/209350.shtml
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Air Water Corp stock fraud
promotes pedophilia
http://www.columbus.indymedia.org/node/13382 Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert,'Orthodox Jews',Stock Fraud,Gay Prostitutes and Death
Threats
http://www.londonontario.indymedia.org/
Community Bank Northern Virginia's David P. Summers Also Texas
Endovasc Penny Stock Fraudster
http://www.richmond.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1432...x.php
Titan Corp's Makram Chams Suspends U.S. Constitution
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390122.htmlForbes on
Wikipedia:Gary Weiss 'Edits' James Dale Davidson's and His Own
Biography
http://www.stlimc.org/newswire/display/4040/index.php
Mitt Romney,CIA James Woolsey:Fox News' Islamofascist Ijaz Mansoor's
Advice Killed WSJ Reporter Daniel Pearl
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/386838.html
Northern Rock, GB:Republican 'Libertarian' Ron Paul Lies About 'Naked
Short Selling'
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/21/18462713.php
EU,Mexico,CIA,Guantanamo Rendition Plane, Cocaine, Homeland 'Security'
http://www.phillyimc.org/or/2007/11/43320.shtml
Ambassador Marc Ginsberg,Fox News,Xybernaut Israeli U.S. Penny Stock Fraud
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384481.htmlCalif...ornia
Scheming:Rudy Giuliani,Paul Singer, Vulture Funds Africa,Adnan
Khashoggi,W Bush
http://www.houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/10/61645.php
9/11,WTC,Tanya Head,Rudy Giuliani,Adnan Khashoggi,Bernie Kerik, Naked
Securities Fraud
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2007/09/207929.php
9/11:CIA,Daily Kos,Jerome Arnstrong,Markos Moulitsas Zúniga,ICTS
Israel, Securacom Kuwait,ragingbull Fraud
http://www.houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/09/61381.php
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.,Securities Fraud,Stormy Simon
Striptease and Bloody Murder
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2007/09/206849.php
Samaritan Pharmaceuticals,a Georgetown University Penny Stock Fraud
http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/363198.shtml
Pluristem Placentas,James Dale Davidson,Leumi Bank Israel Holocaust
Victims,U.S.Penny Stock Fraud
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7200/i...x.php
WTC,9/11,Logan Airport, Boston:Israeli ICTS 'Security':
Barney Frank,Ted Kennedy, John F. Kerry Face Psych Crisis
http://www.arkansas.indymedia.org/newswire/display/2104...x.php
Reuters on Security Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox's
Terrorist List
http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/07/361996.shtml
Boston Logan Airport,9/11,WTC,Barney Frank,SEC,Israeli Penny Stock
Scam and Bloody Murder
http://www.austin.indymedia.org/newswire/display/35916/...x.php
Max Keiser ,Al Jazeera,Qatar promote Naked U.S. Penny Stock Fraud
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/373856.htmlSEC'S
Christopher'WMDS'Cox:Georgetown University James Angel Pimps Pink
Sheet Penny Stock
http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/05/360325.shtml
Ex U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow,Michael Moore, Cerberus,Bawag
Austria and Cuba
http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/05/359319.shtml
Charles Schwab,Mantas 'AML':Did The CIA's SRA International Eat George
W Bush's E-mail ?
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/28/18406278.php
U.S. Ambassador Sam Fox:From Swift Boat War Fraud to Brussels,Belgium
SWIFT Finance Fraud
http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/357306.shtml
Israeli pResident Moshe Katsav's Penny Stock Partner Michael Zwebner
loses in U.S. Court
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/142021.php
Cryptometrics:New Zealand Passport Office Used By U.S. Penny Stock Criminals ?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/362828.html
David Grin,Tel Aviv
University,Laurus Capital Management and Union Bank of Israel
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/6079/i...x.php
FOIA,Alberto Gonzales and SEC'S Chris Cox Enron,Merrill Lych,Latham &
Watkins conflict
http://www.cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/24225.php
Tim Mahoney,vFinance,Venus Methodist Church,Florida,Sayed Mustafa and
Islamic Usury
http://www.maritimes.indymedia.org/news/2006/12/15025.php
Charles Schwab:vFinance's Charles Patrick Garcia receives Henry B.
Gonzalez award !?
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/12/24/18340307.php
Democrats William Jefferson,Tim Mahoney, iGate,vFinance,DOBI, Endovasc
penny stock frauds
http://www.ntimc.org/newswire.php
James Dale Davidson,Charles Schwab,Tim Mahoney,VFIN, LOM and penny
stock share money laundering
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2006/12/34919.shtml
Ireland Indymedia bans criticism of Lord Rees Mogg,James Dale Davidson
http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/11701.php
Post to Lord Rees-Mogg's Weblog re NASDAQ,London Stock Exchange
http://www.posting.beirut.indymedia.org/ar/2006/11/5982...shtml
Virginia:Marvin Bush,Securacom,9/11,U.S. Senator George Allen,Bawag
Austria,offshores...
http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/11458.php
U.S. Republican George Allen More Corrupt Than Utah Senators Bob
Bennett,Orrin Hatch ?
http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/11391.php
Asa Hutchinson,Charlie Crist,Jeb Bush,Republican stock fraud and drug
trafficking,etc....
http://www.houston.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/52801.php
Why did Osama bin Laden choose Jeb Bush's Huffman Aviation terrorist
flight school ?
http://www.austin.indymedia.org/newswire/display/34636/...x.php
Senator Bennett :Is Patrick Byrne's NCANS a Fraud ?
http://www.utah.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/11883_commen...t.php
Utah Gov Jon Huntsman,Senator Bennett, Hatch call Republican Senator
Shelby 'a gangster'
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2006/09/179748.php
Does NY Times censor 9/11 Venice,Florida connection ?
http://www.utah.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/14058.php
NY Rep.Peter King,CIA,Swift,NY Times,Republican stock fraud
http://www.utah.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/15693_commen...t.php
NY WTC 'protected' by Kuwaiti company and Marvin Bush on 9/11
http://www.dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/132705/ind...x.php
Asa Hutchinson,Richard Rainwater,George W Bush,Tom DeLay & 5.6 Ton
cocaine bust in Mexico
http://www.arkansas.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1987...x.php
SEC,Schwab,Chris Cox,Hillary Clinton & Barbara Boxer Aid CIA'S
In-Q-Tel penny stock fraud
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/05/22/18246601.php
Senator Bennett :Is Patrick Byrne's NCANS a Fraud ?
http://www.utah.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/11883_commen...t.php
Cocaina,Ciudad Del Carmen,Campeche, Abril 10,CIA,Republicanos Y PAN
http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/167389.php
Did Israel President Moshe Katsav aid Muslim Terrorism or only fraud ?
http://www.sbindymedia.org/newswire/display/3226/index.php
Israel: Gal Lusky's 'IFA' Caught Up in Moshe Katsav,Mohamed Hadid,
Zwebner 'UCSY' scam ?
http://www.chapelhill.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/19255.php
Israel President Moshe Katsav aids massive penny stock fraud
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/4195/index.php
Did Israel President Moshe Katzav aid Muslim Terrorism or only fraud ?
http://www.ntimc.org/newswire.php
SEC,Schwab,Chris Cox,Hillary Clinton & Barbara Boxer Aid CIA'S
In-Q-Tel penny stock fraud
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1824660.php
Chris Cox,SEC,Makram Majid Chams,Titan Corp,9/11,Abhu Ghraib,etc.
http://www.maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/3952/index.php
SEC Covers Up UAE Money Laundering with U.S. Stocks
http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/112399/index.php
Time Magazine, Daniel Kadlec duped by Houston attorneys Wes Christian
and John O'Quinn
http://www.cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/17786.phpJohn Reed Stark
UAE,SEC,Georgetown University Stock fraud Academic
fraud Cyber fraud
http://www.maritimes.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/12190.phpDoes NSA Serve SRA
International's 'Cookies' ?
http://www.india.indymedia.org/en/2005/12/211284.shtml
Porter Goss: CIA Cyber and stock fraud ops damaged by leaks ?
http://www.news.com.com/5208-1028-0.html;
D.C.Terrorbaggers:James Dale Davidson,Don Nickles, ex-CIA Chief
Woolsey,Asa Hutchinson,Tom McMillen
http://www.okimc.org/newswire.php
Asa Hutchinson,ex Congressman Tom McMillen, Fortress America,offshore
money laundering
http://www.cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/19034.phpTo
CIA,In-Q-Tel,Amit Yoran re SRA International, Mantas Inc stock fraud
money laundering
http://www.maritimes.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/11841.php
Mantas Inc,Herndon,Va,Pro-Money Laundering Arm of International
Bankers,Brokers...
http://www.ftaaimc.org/en/2005/12 /7186.shtml
CIA and Gilman Louie are
less than honest
http://www.news.com.com/5208-1082-0.html
Charles Schwab and Share-Money Laundering
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/06/12/17471071.ph
Bill Clinton,Catholic Pedophiles,UnWed Sex,Fraud - and no birth
Bill Clinton,Catholic Pedophiles,UnWed Sex,Fraud - and no birth control ?
So the pope and his nazi brethren oppose birth control but allow U.S. Catholic Church property to be pimped by scum with Catholic Church and international underworld connections such as ex President Bill Clinton and his hedge fund and money laundering and petroleum trafficking and supermarket mogul pal Burkle.And the harlot I mean starlet Hathaway not only has unwed sex and gets exotic expensive gifts at the expense of this Italian mafia that the nazi pope benedict xvi sends to the U.S. to pimp itsd property to pay off its lingering pedophilia cases for the scumbag anti birth control priests it allows to buggar babies - but it is rumored porno photos or videos of her were made by her vatican lover boy and 'business' partner of bill clinton and burkle and his mafiosi father does indeed have connects to the hioghest level of the low life who run the vatican in 'god's' name.....i sure wish the mother of that nazi pope had practiced birth control....
What should we expect from an ex nazi as titular head of the catholic church and the one who preseded him at best surviving and thriving in WW II Poland by doing nothing if not aiding and abetting the nazis himself and their sleezebag Papal Nuncio Pio Laghi who sat backj at best while his friends in the Argentine military murdered their own people and stole their babies for right wing abduction and adoption in the 1970s.....
http://www.newsweek.com/id/143769
What Should Have Tipped Anne Hathaway That Her Ex-Boyfriend Was Big Trouble?
A - Crooked dad. B - Bad checks, C - Alleged pope scam, D - All of the above
By Tony Dokoupil | NEWSWEEK
July 7-14, 2008 issue
The downfall of Italian playboy Raffaello Follieri was as dramatic as his climb. Before his arrest in June on multiple counts of fraud, the handsome 29-year-old seemed to have the grail of success firmly in hand: a big-bucks real estatebusiness, a New York penthouse and a glamorous girlfriend, "Get Smart" movie star Anne Hathaway. Now it has all slipped his grasp—and the picture emerging is that of a striver-at-all-costs, the son of an auto mechanic who charmed and tricked his way into the most exclusive pockets of American society.
Follieri's early life was littered with false starts. Born in southern Italy, he studied the "manufacture of cosmetics" at Rome's University of La Sapienza but dropped out before graduating. At about the same time, Raffaello's father, Pasquale, lost his auto shop and started passing bad checks and practicing law without a degree, according to the Italian press. Together they founded the Rome-based makeup company Beauty Planet, but it never turned a profit and bounced more than $50,000 in bad checks before going bankrupt in 2002, according to Italian court documents obtained by NEWSWEEK.
Despite the failure, Follieri sold himself in New York in 2003, setting up a real-estate company called the Follieri Group LLC and using his aristocratic swagger to gain a foothold in society. There, he met Hathaway in 2004, and together they became an American "it" couple, the girl-next-door and the international financier. But while her career was built on leading roles in successful films such as "The Devil Wears Prada," his real-estate business was built on air, according to federal prosecutors. He allegedly bilked investors—including Bill Clinton's close friend, supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle—out of millions of dollars by posing as the Vatican's "chief financial officer," blessed with the right to flip church properties in the United States. Like all scams, the one described by prosecutors seemed to rely on mutual greed, with investors lured by fire-sale prices for property that the Roman Catholic Church was supposedly unloading to settle pedophilia cases.................
......................
Joint Venture to Purchase
Catholic Properties Sours
by John R. Emshwiller
From The Wall Street Journal Online
June 15, 2007
In early 2005, Los Angeles billionaire Ronald Burkle met a young Italian businessman named Raffaello Follieri and quickly committed up to $105 million to a joint venture to buy surplus properties from the Catholic Church and redevelop them.
Instead of a marriage made in heaven, the Burkle-Follieri alliance has degenerated into a nasty, name-calling fight that has dragged in not only the high-profile California investor and his handsome young Italian partner, but Mr. Follieri's actress girlfriend as well. It has even touched a former president.
In late April, an investment fund that's part of Mr. Burkle's closely held Yucaipa Cos. filed suit in Delaware state court accusing Mr. Follieri and his firm, the Follieri Group, with "willfully and systematically misappropriating" at least $1.3 million of the over $55 million Yucaipa had up to that time sunk into the joint venture, Follieri/Yucaipa Investments LLC....
The Yucaipa lawsuit says the Follieri Group "touted itself as having substantial and valuable contacts with the Vatican."
Andrea Sodano, identified in the suit as a Follieri Group vice president and consultant, is the nephew of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a former Vatican secretary of state. The suit said some of the joint venture's money was paid to a firm run by Andrea Sodano for "engineering studies." The suit said Yucaipa officials hadn't been able to get access to those engineering studies.
Mr. Sodano, who isn't a defendant in the suit, couldn't be reached for comment. Last year, the Vatican said it didn't have a relationship with the Follieri Group.
....................
http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20080629/Inside+Story+Raffaello+...
Still, Raffaello gave the impression of having a papal imprimatur, even hiring Andrea Sodano as a vice president of his company. The Sodano name carries great power to church insiders. From 1991 to 2006, Angelo Sodano, Andrea’s uncle, was cardinal secretary of state in the Roman Curia, the central governing body of the Roman Catholic Church, making him one of the most important men in the Vatican at that time. At the end of Pope John Paul II’s papacy and just before his death in April 2005, Angelo served as his right-hand man. By appointing Angelo’s nephew Andrea vice president, Raffaello was shrewdly attempting to demonstrate his connections. Catholic real estate insiders affirm that Raffaello leveraged the Sodano name to gain access to church offices and gain favor among religious officials. But although Angelo, according to a source, “must have been aware that his nephew was using his name,” Andrea wasn’t a Vatican insider.
.................................
The Clinton Mafia cannot be too pleased by today’s piece in the Wall Street Journal, which follows the money from Bill Clinton to his aide Doug Band to Raffaello Follieri, who is a Vatican hanger-on and the man-squire to Anne Hathaway.
Introduced to the Clintons through Band, pretty Follieri seems to have somehow convinced them he could deliver Catholic votes in 2008, based on his long-standing connections to the Vatic—whoops. No. Oh, okay, maybe it was family’s upstanding business reputation in Italy—never mind, we don’t know how he pulled it off either.
President Clinton got suckered to the tune of $100 million, though, which he and his galpal Ron Burkle invested in Follieri’s scheme to redevelop Catholic properties so the Church could take care of some minor financial issues. All in the hopes that next year, all those compensated Catholic voters would turn out in droves for Hillary.
Unfortunately, Follieri decided to spend the cash on $40,000-a-month penthouses for himself and Hathaway.
More...
http://gawker.com/news/making-connections/the-clintons-the-italian-the-b...
..................
...........................
Burkle Bond’s Hard To Break
SO much for reports that Bill and Hillary Clinton were trying to distance themselves from Ron Burkle. The Beverly Hills billionaire has been named one of the five national finance chairs for Hillary’s presidential campaign, sources say. Earlier this month, it was reported Bill Clinton was severing his partnerships in Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies and walking away with $20 million. The thinking was that Burkle’s wheeling and dealing, with interests in Dubai and in real estate divested by the Vatican, could result in conflicts of interest and hand ammunition to Hillary’s political opponents. Plus, there was concern over the bachelor Burkle’s fondness for young women. “Maybe it’s harder to get away from Burkle than they thought,” laughed one Democrat. The other four Clinton finance chairs are said to be Alan Patricof, Maureen White, Hassan Nemazee and Chris Korge.
(January 29, 2008)
............
Bill Clinton,Burkle offshore frauds aid Nazi Pope's Church property
mafia pedophiles
google Pasquale Follieri catholic church
Web Results 1 - 10 of about 159 for Pasquale Follieri catholic church.
(0.13 seconds)
Search ResultsBreaking News"Because of the Follieri family's deep
commitment to the Catholic Church," the letter ... Seated at Pasquale
Follieri's table were Jean-Pierre Mazery, ...
www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn022206b.htm - 34k - Cached -
Similar pages - Note this
Cover story: Catholic real estate bonanza3 Mar 2006 ... The Follieri
Group's business is significant because it is focused solely on
Catholic church property in the United States and because the ...
ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006a/030306/030306a.php - 20k -
Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Vatican ties go just so far for Follieri Group2 Aug 2006 ... Still,
doing business with the Catholic Church in the U.S. is turning out be
a struggle. Follieri Group has tried to purchase at least 20 ...
www.post-gazette.com/pg/06214/710488-28.stm - 26k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this
Paul Wilczynski's Observations: Buying Catholic Church Property
...Buying Catholic Church Property: Conflict of Interest? ... "The
site says: "The members of The Follieri Group's management team are
Pasquale Follieri, ...
www.paulwilczynski.com/2005/01/buying-catholic-church-property.html -
15k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Burkle v. Follieri Offers A Window on Ugly Breakup - WSJ.comMr.
Follieri and his father, Pasquale, an Italian businessman, formed the
Follieri Group in 2003. It aims to "provide assistance to the Catholic
Church" by ...
online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB118178401183834708-xVLF9tbNZbOsx6g8dKfL5sStWOo_20070714.html
- Similar pages - Note this
Multiple Choice: What Should Have Tipped Anne Hathaway That Her Ex
...From Penthouse to Jailhouse: Follieri (with Hathaway) at a New York
fashion ... Roman Catholic Church was supposedly unloading to settle
pedophilia cases. ...
www.newsweek.com/id/143769 - 67k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
The Associated Press: Italian businessman Follieri arrested in NYC
...24 Jun 2008 ... Anne Hathaway's Boyfriend Uses Catholic Church in
Scam ... Raffaello's father, Pasquale Follieri, was a swindler too!
...
showhype.com/story/the_associated_press_italian_businessman_follieri/
- 51k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Raffaello Follieri: The Follieri Crime Family24 Jun 2008 ... His
father was Pasquale Follieri, an Italian businessman and his son's ...
big returns from real estate dealings with the Catholic Church. ...
gawker.com/396969/the-follieri-crime-family - Similar pages - Note this
Revisiting the Follieri Group * Bettnet.com27 Feb 2006 ... How well
wired is the Follieri Group? In early 2005, Catholic blogger ...
Seated at Pasquale Follieri's table were Jean-Pierre Mazery, ...
www.bettnet.com/blog/index.php/weblog/comments/revisiting_the_follieri_g...
- 30k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Vatican Ties Go Just So Far For Italian Real-Estate CompanySo far,
though, the 28-year-old Mr. Follieri has had an easier time
maneuvering around Manhattan society than in acquiring and developing
Catholic church ...
www.toprealtynews.com/realestatenews/commercial_property/id_25218/ -
17k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
http://gawker.com/tag/raffaello-follieri/
Crime
Anne Hathaway's Tainted Jewelry
The Smoking Gun got hold of the FBI's list of jewelry that pixieish
actress Anne Hathaway (referred to only as a "girlfriend" or
"individual") had to surrender because her ex-boyfriend, holy swindler
Raffaello Follieri, bought it for her with his fraudulent proceeds. He
was very generous with other people's money! There are a dozen items
on the list, which must be worth tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Money is no object when investors are paying unknowingly! The
full list, Rolexes and all: More »
Poor thing
How Long Before Anne Hathaway's Nude Photos Leak?
Hasn't Anne Hathaway been through enough, you fiends? The pixie-ish
actress is just getting a break from the nonstop tabloid coverage of
her breakup with her ex, Italian playboy and scam artist Raffaello
Follieri, and his subsequent arrest for fraud. But even though
Follieri's in jail, the relationship is still haunting Hathaway: the
rumor is that he had a stash of nude photos of the actress, which are
now in the hands of the FBI and...maybe somewhere else? More »
http://gawker.com/tag/raffaello-follieri/?i=396969&t=the-follieri-crime-...
His father was Pasquale Follieri, an Italian businessman and his
son's partner in the Follieri Group, an shady concern that promised
investors big returns from real estate dealings with the Catholic
Church. But that's not all that Pasquale was; just two years after he
helped establish his son in New York, he would be a convicted
financial criminal, in an eerie foreshadowing of Raffaello's own fate:
A rough translation from an Italian news story from last September:
The father Pasquale is already under trial, accused of having
illegally appropriated almost a half a billion lire when he was the
judicial administrator of a private company in a tourist development.
The trial finished in April 2005 with the Pasquale being sentenced to
three years in prison and blocked forever from serving in public
office.
The father and son team of Catholic property sharks caught the
attention of the media, and the younger Follieri's world began to
unravel. Today's charges may be the first step towards following his
father into prison.
The main beneficiary of this whole mess: former Gawker writer Josh
Stein, who has a big story coming up in Page Six Magazine about
Follieri. He's been working on it for a while, and he couldn't have
timed it better.
The Raffaello Follieri Indictment: The Best Bits
6/24/08 at 4:45 PMComment 11Comment 11Comments
• He chartered a flight to the Dominican Republic for a vacation with
Anne Hathaway and his father (oh yeah, and according to the Journal
article from the fall, Mr. Follieri's father was some years ago
convicted in Italy of misappropriating more than $300,000 from a
failed resort company whose assets he had been charged with
overseeing. AHEM.)
May the Lord be with ya, Follieri.
Businessman Follieri Faces Charges Tied to Real-Estate Investment [WSJ]
http://jezebel.com/5020333/how-in-the-name-of-jesus-did-raffaello-follie...
Raffaello Follieri is an Italian ex-convict's son who came to the
United States a few years back and met, through a lawyer friend, a
sleazy billionaire supermarket magnate named Ron Burkle. The year was
2005. The Orange County Archdiocese had just agreed to pay a record
$100 million pedophile settlement and all across the country Catholic
churches were trying to sell off their rectories and lyceums and
school properties and whatnot. So Raffaello comes in and tells Burkle
he has first dibs on all of it. Why? Because he's the CFO of the
Vatican. At 26 years old. Does the Vatican even have a CFO? Who knows,
right, maybe that sort of thing would be public information if it
weren't the Vatican we were talking about.
Anyway, so…Burkle agrees to give him $100 million. On what basis?
Well, Follieri tells him he's got the "right of first refusal" to buy
the property and he's tight with this Monsignor named John E. Kozar.
Sometimes Follieri would dress up Kozar in nicer robes that he kept in
his office so as to pass him off as more than a monsignor.
Now, the Vatican's finances don't have anything to do with the
American Catholic Church's. No one knows this better than fucking
Monsignor Kozar, who just issued a batch of radio addresses on May 29
with this explanation:
This year was chosen for this project, Monsignor Kozar observed,
because of its missionary significance for the Church in the United
States. On June 29, 1908, a decree of Pope Pius X removed the
designation "mission territory" from the Church in the United States,
meaning that we were no longer dependent upon the sacrifices of the
Catholics of Europe - through the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies - to support our
pastoral and evangelizing needs.
Moreover, the whole point selling off all that property was that the
Vatican wasn't footing the bill. If the Vatican had been footing the
bill, maybe some pretty art would be in the hands of some
post-traumatic altarboys right now, but it's not. Anyway, so yeah,
Monsignor Kozar totally knew that Follieri was full of shit, but
pretty much every thinking person should have known, particularly Ron
Burkle and, like, hello, the people in charge of selling Catholic
church properties. But no! Because those people are fucking stupid, as
a National Catholic Reporter story revealed in 2006:
"When Raffaello wants to meet with the bishop, they put the touch on
from the Vatican and they get the meeting," said one East Coast
diocesan real estate professional. "They're about as connected as it
gets."
Or here:
How well wired is the Follieri Group? In early 2005, Catholic blogger
Domenico Bettinelli, editor of the Catholic World Report, summed it
up: "Unless [Andrea Sodano's] name was Wojtyla, you couldn't get a
better connection."
Oh look, a Catholic blogger. That guy sure must feel stupid now!
I wonder if it was really a private eye or if it was the FBI. If it
was really a private eye, maybe they were representing "supermarket
billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos." who sued Follieri after
accusing him of misappropriating more than $1 million.
Uh, ya think? By the way, Burkle actually sued him for $55 million and
according to the Journal the indictment reads reeeeally similarly to
his lawsuit, and also, just incidentally, if you were an FBI agent,
interviewing you, why would you bother misrepresenting yourself? As a
private investigator of all genius covers? Isn't that sort of like me
calling up the DA's media relations department for a statement so I
could post an update on my Tumblr?
Wow, it's funny to be caught up in the middle of all this, especially
since I really don't know anything about it.
JESUS MARY AND ALL THE APOSTLES BETTINELLI ARE YOU THE DUMBEST PERSON
FUCKING EVER?
So much for us Catholics and our dogged prosecutory persistence in
seeking/missionary zeal for finding the truth, right! I guess that's
what I would say, if Ron Burkle and Bill Clinton weren't the biggest
suckers in this whole fucking scam. A billionaire and a Rhodes scholar
ex-president. Neither of whom ever had to believe in
trans-substantiation.
Follieri Charged With Fraud; Claimed Special Vatican Connection
[National Catholic Reporter]
Dear Anne Hathaway, If You Don't Read Your Ex-Boyfriend's Indictment
You Are Going To Hell
Anne Hathaway's Ex Gets 21 Million Bail With Home Detention
Italy's Man From God [NYT]
Give Anne Hathaway's Ex Credit (Cards) [Fox News]
Vatican Ties Go Just So Far For Follieri Group [Post-Gazette]
Vatican Asks Condoleezza Rice To Help Stop A Sex Abuse Lawsuit
[National Catholic Reporter]
Catholic Real Estate Bonanza [National Catholic Reporter]
http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:iLzQULUp9ocJ:www.nationalcatholicrep...
Posted Wednesday February 22, 2006 at 6:45 p.m. CST
Real estate developer with ties to 'Vatican
hierarchy' in pursuit of U.S. church property
Dear Reader of NCRonline.org,
We need your help. We are pleased to make available NCR reporting and
analysis. But we cannot do all we need to do without your financial
assistance.
By JOE FEUERHERD
An Italian-owned Manhattan real estate development company with ties
to high-ranking Vatican officials is bidding on properties owned by
dozens of U.S. dioceses and religious orders. Some church real estate
professionals have questioned the company's tactics, while others
praise the firm for its promise to revitalize vacant church property.
The Park Avenue-based Follieri Group, founded nearly three years ago
by Raffaello Follieri and his father, Pasquale Follieri, has "entered
into contracts for the acquisition of over $100 million of church
property in three U.S. cities" and is "actively bidding on an
additional quarter billion dollars of church assets," according to the
company's Web site.
The business opportunity exploited by the Park Avenue-based Follieri
Group is evident: A cash-hungry, land-rich institution (the American
church) experiencing a demographic shift among its clientele
(parishioners abandoning the inner city) and huge and ongoing
liabilities (more than $1 billion has already been paid victims of
clergy sex abuse) needs to divest itself of long-held but increasingly
unproductive holdings (inner-city parishes and other excess real
estate holdings). It's a big business. In Boston alone, an extreme
example given the impact of the clergy sex abuse crisis in that
archdiocese, the church has sold nearly $200 million in property since
Aug. 2003, according to The Boston Globe.
There were two initial factors motivating the company's interest in
U.S. church real estate, Raffaello Follieri told NCR. First, he said,
"the [sex abuse] scandal in America [where] dioceses were paying a lot
of money to pay[off] the lawsuits" would necessitate the sale of
church property. Next, he said, the changing demographics of the
church -- from North and East to West and South and from city to
suburb -- mean that "a lot of the schools and churches that were full
of people in the beginning" are now largely unused.
The Follieri Group's business is significant because it is focused
solely on Catholic church property in the United States and because
the firm openly claims sensitivity to church "imperatives" and
connections with "senior members of the Vatican hierarchy."
The business itself is doubly shrouded in secrecy. For competitive
reasons the real estate industry is hyper-discreet. Only when a deal
is consummated -- a process that can take months as prospective
purchasers arrange financing and conduct environmental and other land
and structural analysis -- do sales records become public. Even then,
in some jurisdictions, religious institutions are exempt from some
disclosure requirements. Dioceses and religious orders, meanwhile, are
notoriously reluctant to discuss their business dealings, especially
when senior Vatican officials are involved. As a result, most of the
more than a dozen real estate and finance officials familiar with the
Follieri Group interviewed by NCR agreed to talk only if guaranteed
anonymity.
Still, there is little secretive or subtle about the Follieri Group's
business plan.
"Our intention is to purchase properties from Dioceses and Religious
Organizations, to renovate them, and if necessary, convert them to new
uses, such as housing (lower, middle and upper income, depending on
the area) and commercial use," the Group's then-director of business
development, Joseph Iallonardo, said in an early 2005 letter to a
religious order. "Because of the Follieri family's deep commitment to
the Catholic Church," the letter continued, "and its long standing
relationships with senior members of the Vatican hierarchy, the
Follieri Group understands very well the imperatives of the Church and
is sensitive to its needs."
The firm's literature mentions no specific Vatican figures, but the
Follieri group clearly has ties to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican
Secretary of State since 1991. Andrea Sodano, the cardinal's nephew,
is a Follieri Group vice president, a fact widely-known in U.S. church
real estate circles.
Raffaello Follieri, the Group's charismatic 27-year-old chief
executive officer, said the company does not use its Vatican ties to
gain access to church officials. Andrea Sodano, Follieri told NCR, is
a renowned engineer in Italy with longstanding ties to the Follieri
family's development business there and extensive experience in
converting church property to other uses. Sodano is a "technical
person" who "does not do [marketing] relations for us," said Follieri.
In an e-mail response to an NCR inquiry Andrea Sodano said: "I have
worked with the Follieri family for the past fifteen years as an
engineering consultant. My involvement long predates The Follieri
Group's interest in the States. The Follieri Group's long and
successful track record in real estate speaks for itself."
But others familiar with the Group's marketing strategy paint a
different picture. The Sodano name, and the implicit Vatican
endorsement that the Group has promoted along with it, has opened
doors that might otherwise be closed to a firm headed by Italian
nationals with no real estate development track record in the United
States, according to those who have had business dealings with the
Follieri Group. "When Raffaello wants to meet with the bishop, they
put the touch on from the Vatican and they get the meeting," said one
East Coast diocesan real estate professional. "They're about as
connected as it gets."
In fact, say church real estate professionals who have met with the
group, rather than acting solely in a behind-the-scenes technical
capacity, Andrea Sodano frequently accompanies Raffaelo Follieri to
meetings with church officials. "They certainly make it clear they
have relatives in the Vatican," said one such official who has met
with the Group's representatives.
Some of the church real estate professionals interviewed by NCR are
bemused and annoyed by the group's tactics, though they don't feel
particularly pressured by them. "I wouldn't be surprised if it got
them in a door or two," said a high-ranking diocesan lay person
familiar with the Follieri Group. Still, continued the diocesan
official, "I didn't get the impression that we were being instructed
to do business with them."
Said another church real estate professional, "They used the Vatican
connection and they found out that it got them polite teas with the
bishop, but no further. It's a European approach to an American
business relationship."
Others take a dimmer view of the company's tactics.
"This thing smells in my opinion," said the finance officer of a
religious order that has been frequently solicited by the Follieri
Group. "I wouldn't get close to these people," said the official.
"They don't want to compete," said a real estate professional who
dealt with the firm on a multiple-property offering in a Midwestern
archdiocese. In this case, said the professional, the Follieri Group
attempted to short-circuit the established procedures by ignoring the
brokers hired by the diocese and making its offer directly to the
church for the multiple properties. Church officials rejected the
Follieri Group offer and were subsequently convinced that the
archdiocese had received a higher price by selling its closed parishes
on a one-by-one basis.
Last September, Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla declined to meet with
Follieri Group representatives. Pilla, on vacation, did not respond to
NCR's request for comment by deadline.
NCR's attempts to reach a Vatican spokesman for comment were unsuccessful.
A well-wired firm
If events of recent months are any measure, access to Vatican
officials doesn't come cheaply.
On Nov. 9 at the Met Life Building's Sky Club restaurant in Manhattan,
more than 200 prominent Catholics gathered for an evening fundraiser
to support the Path to Peace Foundation, the charitable arm of the
Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations. The
night's honoree, winner of the Foundation's Path to Peace Award, was
Fra' Andrew Bertie, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military
Order of Malta. Previous winners of the award include former U.N.
Secretary General Boutros Boutros Gali and his successor, Kofi Annan,
former Phillipine President Corazon Aquino, and former Polish
President Lech Walesa.
The Follieri Group was one of two "benefactors" of the event, the
highest level of giving noted in the event's program. Seated at
Pasquale Follieri's table were Jean-Pierre Mazery, Grand Chancellor of
the Knights of Malta, who accepted the award for Bertie; Archbishops
Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer at the UN, and
Gabriel Montalvo, then the Vatican's ambassador to the United States;
and Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace.
The following week, Raffaello Follieri and Andrea Sodano visited the
Capitol Hill Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington, site of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops annual meeting. An escalator ride up
from the general assembly meeting room, the Follieri Group maintained
a hospitality suite for bishops. At that meeting, by a vote of 222-2,
the bishops agreed to seek Vatican approval for an amendment to church
policy that would allow large dioceses (those with more than 500,000
Catholics) to sell or mortgage properties for up to $10.3 million
without Rome's prior consent. The previous $5.1 million limit, said
those supporting the change, was increasingly cumbersome in the go-go
real estate market affecting U.S. dioceses nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Follieri Group is among the groups that sponsor the
annual conference for Catholic facility managers. The company hosts
exhibits at events that attract church real estate professionals,
including meetings of the National Association of Treasurers of
Religious Institutions and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.
How well wired is the Follieri Group? In early 2005, Catholic blogger
Domenico Bettinelli, editor of the Catholic World Report, summed it
up: "Unless [Andrea Sodano's] name was Wojtyla, you couldn't get a
better connection."
The Opportunity
Thanks to his relationship with burgeoning Hollywood star Anne
Hathaway (the princess of "The Princess Diaries" and most recently
Lureen in "Brokeback Mountain") Raffaello Follieri is more likely to
be featured in New York's tabloid newspaper gossip pages or
paparazzi-like Web sites than on the financial pages. He's an
entrepreneur who aims to do well. But, he says, he also means to do
good -- by transforming underutilized church properties into
income-generating condominiums and apartments that feature amenities
(cultural centers, day care facilities, affordable apartments) that
enhance their communities and further the church's mission long after
parishioners have moved on. From its profits, said Follieri, the
company will fund a foundation that will carry out charitable
activities both in the United States and abroad.
In an early December interview with NCR, Follieri talked generally
about the company's activities, declining to specify where -- beyond
two closed inner-city parishes in Philadelphia -- the company has
purchased real estate.
The company, says Follieri, is focused exclusively on church
properties in the United States, a niche that he hopes will redound to
the company's credit. Further, says Follieri, "We are a profitable
organization, but we are interested in the social good for the
community." The group is committed to developing properties that are
compatible with the church's social mission, he said.
Yet, he said, that commitment to good social outcomes does not give
them an advantage in the bidding process for church property. "We sit
down when [a bishop or diocesan official] receives us and we explain
what we do. Some of the bishops embrace the projects, some are not
interested. It is like any other venture. Some people are interested,
some are not."
Said Follieri: "We have to pay market price …we pay like every other
developer."
Some of the deals
During the past year, the Follieri Group and its affiliated limited
liability corporations have:
Purchased two closed parish facilities (church, school, rectory and
convent) in North Philadelphia. The Group paid over $1 million for
Transfiguration Parish, while local land records do not indicate what
it paid for St. Clement's.
In the Philadelphia archdiocese, according to spokesperson Donna
Farrell, "The broker markets the property based on two independent
appraisals … [and] all qualified bids are reviewed and the highest
responsible bid with respect to the appraisals of the property is
accepted. In addition, we must ensure that the intended use of the
property is not in conflict with values and teachings of the church."
Plans for development of the two sites -- the Follieri Group hopes to
preserve Transfiguration's church as a neighborhood art and cultural
center -- are in their early stages, but will likely involve
affordable housing.
Bought a vacant lot in the upscale suburb of Orland Park, a property
owned by the Chicago archdiocese. An archdiocesan spokesman refused to
tell NCR what the Group paid for the property. The archdiocese lists
its properties with real estate brokers and no favoritism exists in
its procedures, said the spokesman. The Follieri Group is currently
bidding on another Chicago archdiocese owned property, according to a
church source.
Purchased a run-down parish and school complex that has been abandoned
for more than two decades in the Camden, N.J., diocese. The Atlantic
City pastor who welcomed the Follieri's Group's involvement, Msgr.
William Hodge, said he is "absolutely thrilled" at the prospect that
the Follieri Group will develop affordable housing for casino
employees and senior citizens on the site.
Raffaello Follieri said the company is successful in 60 to 70 percent
of its bids, though they have, according to those familiar with some
of the Group's transactions, been unsuccessful bidders for church
property in Boston, Brooklyn, N.Y., and St. Louis.
Last year, the Follieri Group partnered with the Yucaipa Companies, a
Los Angeles private equity fund headed by Forbes Magazine-ranked
billionaire Ron Burkle. Yucaipa, whose advisory board includes former
president Bill Clinton (who counts Burkle among his closest friends)
and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has extensive investments in profitable
inner-city commercial enterprises, particularly grocery stores.
[Joe Feuerherd is NCR Washington correspondent. His e-mail address is
jfeuerherd@ncronline.org.]
February 22, 2006, National Catholic Reporter
Pope Benedict uses Fascist Law against critic,persecutes Arawak
Pope Benedict uses Fascist Law against critic,persecutes Arawak
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-8973.html
comedian faces "Fascist" prosecution for mocking the Pope Italian comedian faces "Fascist" prosecution for mocking the Pope
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • September 11, 2008 - 16:03
( Her explicit comments were widely published by Italian media and posted on the Internet at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEoxYUooV6o )
Pope Benedict said marriage should only be between a man and a woman
No Comments Yet on Italian comedian faces "Fascist" prosecution for mocking the Pope
The Minister of Justice in Italy has given