On june 22, Saint Thomas More

Winner of 6 Academy awards

Saint Joseph

Jesus is preaching the Good News

the crowd is attentive to the Master’s words.

Far away was heard the sound of a hammer,

suddenly, a tear falls from the Sacred Face of the God-Man.

A ray from the sun makes the tear drop glow.

Mary, His Mother, notices it.
Her eyes are filled with good memories.

She remembers the only love of her life,

the gardener who cared for the rose,
purest,

simplest,
most beautiful of all humanity.

She feels thoughts of most tender love,

for Joseph, the carpenter,
who knew how to be the tool of God,

in order to carve out the most beautiful love story
of all time.

                                                                                Fr. Cássio

David against Goliath

In recent months, the Catholic Church has been the target of severe criticism by the Media. In some European countries, cases of sexual abuse by priests have been reported. The New York Times publishes daily news attacking the pope. They present him as responsible for cases of pedophilia and say he was a cardinal when he hid cases of sexual abuse. The New York Times created this misinterpretation of the situation.

Furthermore, the control and comparison of information carried by many blogs have shown that this interpretation is not true. What exists is a large and well-orchestrated campaign against the pope.

I read the news about these cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in five blogs in four languages Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and English . The information complements each other and reveals the other side of the news, showing the context and giving information about the people involved. Moreover, the statistics show the cases of abuse in the Church in comparison to other segments of society. For example, in the last fifteen years in Germany there were 210,000 reported cases of sexual abuse in the general population. In the Catholic Church, the number of cases involving priests was 94, half of one percent.

The New York Times published on the first page a story about Fr. Lawrence C. Murphy. The source was Archbishop Rembrant G. Weakland, of Milwaukee who provided the documents, but the paper didn’t present the story of the Bishop’s life. The archbishop paid $450,000 to a man not to disclose their homosexual relationship .

In this same case, the journalist cites as a source, text in Italian that was translated from Italian into English with some mistakes in the translation.

“In March, The NYTimes supplied readers with an 86-page dossier of documents about the crimes of Father Lawrence C. Murphy from 1950 to 1974. The key document in supporting its controversial claims was the minutes of a 1998 meeting at the Vatican with Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland and then-Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, who was at the time Cardinal Ratzinger’s deputy, and their staffers.

The meeting covered a number of sensitive and complex issues. These were summarized in two pages of minutes written in Italian. One of the American priests at the meeting later ran these through a “computer translator” which he described as pretty “rough”. So rough, in fact, that it left words out　and gave the opposite sense in several key places. As the Italian proverb goes, traduttore, traditore – more or less, translation betrays the meaning. But this was the document which the Times used.”

The blog, mercatornet.com/justb16, published an article by David Rosen defending the pope and questioning the reason why the NY Times has published cases of sexual abuse in other institutions, but with more emphasis on cases involving Catholic priests.

“In March 2010, “Rabbi” Baruch Lebovits, a Brooklyn Hasidic Jew, was found guilty on eight of 10 counts of sexually molesting Jewish teens in 2004 and 2005. Lebovits, was the owner of a Borough Park travel agency and faces up to seven years in prison. This story was reported by the New York Daily News, but not by the New York Times.” 　

The Media aids society when it reports the cases of sexual abuse. In the case of the Catholic Church, it helps the Church in their process of purification. However, it is the responsibility of the Media to publish all of the information about all cases of pedophilia, factually and truthfully, whether it occurs in the Church or in the general population. The media must report the facts objectively and without distortion. They must thoroughly check the accuracy of their source information.

I think you can continue to confront and control the information with the help of blogs, but it will always be a battle of  David against Goliath, as many people do not read or have access to blogs.

733 Christians killed in Iraq

Unfortunately, scandals, violence, death, and catastrophes make up most of the news.  However, sometimes the Media provides us with good news. Whether good or bad, the people have the right to truthful and complete information.

It is apparent that there is a spiral of silence about the stories on the Roman Catholic Church. For example, last year 733 Christians were killed in Iraq and 51 churches were destroyed.  In the Media, silence. This is an injustice.  The people have the right to know all of the stories and their context, but the Media doesn't provide this information. Why?

On March 13, 2008 Archbishop Paul Ranhho, leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church in northern Iraq, was found dead a fortnight after being kidnapped.  He had previously stated, “We Christians of Mesopotamia are used to religious persecution and pressure by those in power. After Constantine, persecution ended only for Western Christians, whereas in the East threats continued. Even today, we continue to be a Church of martyrs.”

The most efficient drug rehabilitation systems in the world

Benedict XVI  visited some 2,000 former drug addicts gathered at the uniquely successful Catholic drug addiction rehabilitation project called the Fazenda da Esperanca or "Farms of Hope" close to Guaratingueta, Brazil. The project is considered one of the most efficient drug rehabilitation systems in the world, with 82% of the addicts who finish the one-year internship free of their drug addiction after five years.

The other face  of  Roman Catholic Chuch!

The Scarlet and the Black

                                      The Golfing Monsignor        

The Media has published many stories about the sexual abuse scandal in Ireland. In Catholic history, there are many Irish saints; a very famous one in the United States of America is St. Patrick.

The film, The Scarlet and the Black, is based on the life of an Irish priest, Msgr. Hugh O'Flaherty, who lived in the Vatican when Adolph Hitler's forces occupied Rome in 1943. O` Flaherty saved more than 6,500 allied soldiers and Jews from the death. When he went outside of Vatican City, he wore various disguises, which enabled him to avoid detection as he set his plans in motion.

Msgr. O` Flaherty received a number of awards, including the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and the US Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. October, 1963 he sadly passed away. His death was mourned throughout the world, including a front page tribute in the New York Times, “Msgr. Hugh O'Flaherty Is Dead; Helped Allied P.O.W.'s in Rome; 'Devotion to Freedom Cause'”.

Eight million watched him in 1963 on BBC's This Is Your Life. He represents the other face of Irish priests.

Thousand young people in St. Peter`s Square

"It was a joyful celebration of faith. More than 70 thousand young people gathered on March 25th in St. Peter’s Square to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first World Youth Day, which took place in 1985 in Rome".