Thursday, May 21, 2020

Viganò and his band of conspiracy theorists

From the current issue of The Tablet

It's worth noting that Viganò and his band of followers have large numbers waiting in the wings. And they are so devious and persistent, secretive too.

This nonsense has been going on in the Catholic Church for a long time now. Seldom has a bishop or 'religious superior' spoken, said a word in public.

It's alive and well today across priesthood and still not a word being said and no one willing or able to take action.

And then the secret warfare, the division that exists within the hierarchical church must be reaching a critical moment.
                   ___________________

GERMANY’S Catholic bishops have dissociated themselves from a letter signed by a group of high-ranking churchmen, including retired papal diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, published on 8 May, which warned Catholics that “certain forces” are using the coronavirus pandemic “to create panic”.

“The German bishops’ conference does not, on principle, comment on individual appeals by bishops from outside Germany,” conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing said in a statement to the Catholic news agency, KNA, last week. “I must, however, add that the German bishops’ conference’s evaluation of the corona pandemic differs fundamentally from that pub- lished yesterday.”

Other signatories to the letter, entitled “An appeal for the Church and the World to all Catholics and people of Good Will”, include the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, and the Archbishop Emeritus of Riga, Cardinal Janis Pujats. It maintains that the Covid-19 pandemic is being exploited to restrict people’s basic rights “unjustifiably and disproportionately”.

The vicar-general of Essen, Fr Klaus Pfeffer. “I am simply speechless as to what is being spread here about the Church and Christianity: crude conspiracy theories without facts or proof together with a right-wing populist militant rhetoric which sounds very frightening.”

Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart tweeted: “Whosoever reinterprets the efforts of politicians to save human lives from the pandemic into a dubious world conspiracy, is playing with fire.”

However, Cardinal Müller has rejected the criticism. The appeal had been “deliberately misunderstood”, he said when interviewed in the Vatican on Sunday, and he had not wanted to evaluate the text of the appeal strictly as a scientific analysis.

4 comments:

Andreas said...

I have written a little mantra for those who suffer from chronic critical thinking and conspiracy theories which must be spoken several times a day to be effective!


I believe,
That only the International Immunization Alliance can save us from the horror of the evil virus

I believe,
That politicians and appointed medical experts
completely selflessly and only out of love for humanity

I believe,
That people who criticize in this crisis are the embodiment of evil and must be fought

I believe very strongly,
that the economic and social consequences were taken into account in the measures taken so that I can continue to sleep comfortably.


By the way, greetings from Mr. George Orwell, i met him in 1984!

Michael Commane said...

Andreas, I am not an epidemiologist, nor have I any expertise in any area of medicine. But I do take advice from experts.
When it comes to people such as Viganò I have some experience/knowledge of their backgrounds, aspects of their belief and behaviour.
For over 40 years I have observed the behaviour of some 'churchmen'. Often I have been anything but impressed. I certainly would not in a million years want to take advice from Viganò or any of the people who are associated with him. Nor would I want to take any theological advice from Viganò or from any of those like-minded people.
As to what Viganò might know about the current pandemic intrigues me.
Democracy has many faults but can you come up with a better system?
Viganò reminds me of many of the dark men I have met and experienced within Catholic priesthood. Andreas, they scare me. Pathetic people, in search of the crumbs of power.

Póló said...

Where are Burke, Dolan & Sarah?

Andreas said...

Michael, i give you one last example showing why you should be critical and then I will shut up!

Since you like German history something from 1923 here:

The hyperinflation crisis 1923

The Weimar government's main crisis occurred in 1923 after the Germans missed a reparations payment late in 1922. This set off a chain of events that included occupation, hyperinflation and rebellions.

French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr
In November 1922 Germany defaulted on its reparations payment as scheduled. The first reparations payment had taken all she could afford to pay. The French believed Germany could make the repayment but were choosing not to, however the German government argued they could not afford to pay.
In response, France and Belgium sent troops into Germany’s main industrial area, the Ruhr Valley. Their aim was to confiscate industrial goods as reparations payments as they didn’t believe Germany was unable to pay the second instalment. They occupied coal mines, railways, steel works and factories – all things that were important to Germany’s economy.
The German government ordered workers to follow a policy of ‘passive resistance’ – refusing to work or co-operate with the foreign troops and in return the government continued to pay their wages.
The French responded firmly – in the Krupp steel works, workers refusing to take orders were shot at. Other people were expelled from the Ruhr region altogether. Overall, 132 were killed and approximately 150,000 expelled from the area.
The immediate consequences of the occupation were not good for the Weimar government – they decided to print more money to pay the workers in the region, contributing to hyperinflation. A general strike (when all the workers in the country stopped work) was called, and political instability was rife.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9y64j6/revision/5

Where are the similarities to nowadays? People are asked to stay at home and get the unemployment money or Covid-19 money to survive the day. Where is all that money coming from in Europe(or the world even)? Is there a harvest if you don't put out the seeds?

How many people can't pay their mortgage at the moment. How many companies have very little savings and can't keep on going like that much longer without going bankrupt? What are people going to do when groceries lets say double in price?

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