Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:41 pm
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:58 pm
by KUAN » Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:38 pm
by seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:54 am
by Jeff » Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:35 pm
by dqueue » Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:57 pm
by seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:12 pm
by crikkett » Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:35 pm
by seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:55 pm
Final Verdict is Rendered in First Common Law Court Case against the Vatican and Canada for Genocide
Pope, Queen and Canadian Prime Minister found Guilty of Crimes against Humanity and Sentenced to Twenty Five Year Prison Terms
Court Orders them to Surrender by March 4 or face Citizens' Arrests
Brussels:
Pope Benedict will go to jail for twenty five years for his role in Crimes against Humanity, and Vatican wealth and property is to be seized, according to today's historic verdict of the International Common Law Court of Justice.
The Brussels-based Court handed down a unanimous guilty verdict from its Citizen Jurors and ordered the citizens' arrest of thirty Defendants commencing March 4 in a Court Order issued to them today.
The verdict read in part,
"We the Citizen Jury find that the Defendants in this case are guilty of the two indictments, that is, they are guilty of committing or aiding and abetting Crimes against Humanity, and of being part of an ongoing Criminal Conspiracy"
The Jury ruled that each Defendant receive a mandatory twenty five year prison sentence without parole, and have all their personal assets seized.
The Court went on to declare in its Order No. 022513-001,
"The Defendants are ordered to surrender themselves voluntarily to Peace Officers and Agents authorized by this COURT, having been found Guilty as charged.
"The Defendants have seven days from the issuing of this ORDER, until March 4, 2103, to comply. After March 4, 2013, an International Arrest Warrant will be issued against these Defendants".
The guilty parties include Elizabeth Windsor, Queen of England, Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, and the head officers of the Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada. (A complete copy of the Verdict, the Court Order and a list of the Defendants is enclosed on the accompanying you tube link).
The guilty verdict followed nearly a month of deliberations by more than thirty sworn Citizen Jurors of the 150 case exhibits produced by Court Prosecutors.
These exhibits detailed irrefutable proof of a massive criminal conspiracy by the Defendants' institutions to commit and conceal Genocide on generations of children in so-called Indian residential schools across Canada.
None of the Defendants challenged or disputed a Public Summons issued to them last September; nor did they deny the charges made against them, or offer counter evidence to the Court.
"Their silence told me a lot. Why wouldn't innocent people defend their own reputation when accused of such horrible things?" commented one Juror, based in England.
"These crimes were aimed at children, and were a cold and calculated plan to wipe out Indians who weren't Christians. And the defendants clearly are still covering up this crime. So we felt we had to do more than slap their wrist. The whole reign of terror by state-backed churches that are above the law has to end, because children still suffer from it".
The Court's judgement declares the wealth and property of the churches responsible for the Canadian genocide to be forfeited and placed under public ownership, as reparations for the families of the more than 50,000 children who died in the residential schools.
To enforce its sentence, the Court has empowered citizens in Canada, the United States, England, Italy and a dozen other nations to act as its legal agents armed with warrants, and peacefully occupy and seize properties of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada, which are the main agents in the deaths of these children.
"This sentence gives a legal foundation and legitimacy to the church occupations that have already begun by victims of church torture around the world" commented Kevin Annett, the chief adviser to the Prosecutor's Office, who presented its case to the world. (see http://www.itccs.org, November 6 and January 30 postings)
"The verdict of the Court is clearly that these criminal church bodies are to be legally and practically disestablished, and their stolen wealth reclaimed by the people. Justice has finally begun to be be served. The dead can now rest more easily."
Court officers are delivering the Order to all the Defendants this week, including to the Canadian Prime Minister, the Queen of England and to Joseph Ratzinger, the retiring Pope Benedict who is avoiding arrest within the Vatican after suddenly resigning two weeks ago.
The citizens' arrests of these and other Defendants will commence on March 4 if they do not surrender themselves and their assets, as per the Court Order.
These actions will be filmed and posted at here in the coming week, along with further updates from the Court and its Citizen Agents.
Please see the accompanying you tube video.
Issued by the Central Office,
The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State
25 February, 2013
Brussels
by lupercal » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:09 pm
Headquarters: London, England
Convening Session: Monday, September 12, 2011 in London
http://itccs.org/2011/01/
by NaturalMystik » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:37 pm
by seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:45 pm
About....International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State
Background and Rationale
The abuse, trafficking, torture and murder of children appears endemic to European culture, and continues to be actively practiced, and condoned and protected, by church, state, judicial and police forces around the globe.
These same institutions are equally responsible for the historic genocide of indigenous peoples at the hands of European Christendom: an enormous crime against humanity which has never stopped, and continues to ravage and destroy the innocent and the earth.
Because these crimes have emerged from within the heart and laws of so-called western civilization, they have not faced judgment or accountability. We believe it is time for both.
Two of the main practitioners of this genocide of the innocent – the Vatican and the Crown of England – are effectively immune from prosecution under existing laws and customs. It is therefore incumbent upon all citizens to take action to safeguard their children in the face of the refusal of courts and governments to bring to justice those who threaten public safety and wellbeing.
On this basis, our Tribunal has been established to enforce common law and try and convict the institutions and their officers responsible for such historic and ongoing crimes against humanity. We therefore constitute a de jure Court under common law, with full power of arrest, conviction and enforcement.
We have issued a Public Summons to Joseph Ratzinger (aka “Pope Benedict”) and six senior cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, inc. to appear before our opening session on September 12, 2011 in London. A similar Summons will be delivered to other church and state officials in the coming months.
Common Law peace officers working for our de jure Court and Tribunal will apprehend these persons and bring them to trial, and will enforce the verdicts of our Court, if regular peace officers refuse to do so.
Our Court and its officers will follow the normal Common Law rules of due process in all of its deliberations and decisions, guided by natural law principles of equity, reason and justice, and the maxim Actus nemini facit injuriam: The act of the law does no one wrong.
In addition, our Court will recognize and allow in its proceedings the Land Law tribal jurisdiction of any indigenous nations or persons who bring suit against those parties summoned to our Court.
It is understood by our Court that its decisions, based as they are on Natural and Common Law, supersede and invalidate all statutes and statutory laws which conflict with the decisions of the Court, particularly when those statues uphold crimes or their concealment, or the protection of the guilty. Similarly, our Court does not recognize the jurisdiction or authority of any contending legal systems, such as the so-called “Canon Law”, or any form of personal, diplomatic or legal immunity governing any person or institution, including heads of states, churches and corporations.
As a de jure Court and a popular forum to address grievances, crimes and consequences, our Tribunal is by definition a public process that can only fulfill its mandate with wide participation, especially from survivors of church and state crimes.
Accordingly, in other countries and communities, the Tribunal will seek to hold public forums to coincide with its London sessions, and which will be linked by simultaneous telecast, to allow people to present their affidavits and testimonies which will become part of the official Court transcript and Tribunal record.
The final verdicts and findings of the Court and Tribunal will be made public in the form of a final public Report whose decisions will be enforced by the Common law Peace Officers and their agents, if regular peace officers refuse to do so. These decisions can and will include the imprisonment and community sentencing of the guilty, the issuing of commercial Liens and Orders of Expropriation against church, corporate and state institutions and their property and assets, orders of Reparation and Compensation, and the return of all land, property, unpaid taxes, and revenue obtained through forced labor.
Our Court and tribunal derive their ultimate authority from the self-evident Natural Law which resides within the reason and compassion of every man and woman, and from the Common Law right of the informed citizenry to establish their own Courts, Policing and Laws when normal institutions fail or refuse to uphold the liberty, rights, safety and well being of the community.
Issued by the Legal Advisory Committee of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State – January 3, 2011
Mohawk Elders announced today the opening of graves of children at the oldest Indian residential school in Canada in Brantford, Ontario. They are working with Kevin Annett and the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) to bring this evidence of genocide to international courts of justice, where they hope to to indict the Crown of England, the Anglican Church and the Government of Canada, as well as the Catholic and other churches for crimes against humanity.
by KUAN » Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:14 am
by seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 01, 2013 3:41 pm
He brought the Inquisition back
And this non-hierarchical, this far more horizontal and circular approach to Christianity and to worship was a big threat, of course, to certain people in Rome, but it was even a bigger threat to the CIA. When Reagan was elected, two months later there was a meeting of his National Security Council in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to discuss one thing: How can we destroy liberation theology in Latin America? And they concluded: We can’t destroy it, but we can divide the church. And so they went after the pope. They gave him lots and lots of cash for solidarity in Poland. And in exchange, they got the permission, if you will, the commitment on the part of the papacy, to destroy liberation theology.
Fascism in the Church: Ex-Priest on "The Pope's War," Clergy Abuse and Quelling Liberation Theology
Friday, 01 March 2013 10:50
By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now! |
As Pope Benedict XVI steps down, we turn to a former Catholic priest who was silenced and expelled by the pope, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, in the 1980s. Matthew Fox chronicles his story in the book "The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved." Pope Benedict’s tenure was marked by several scandals, most notably his handling of the widening sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, including allegations that he ignored at least one case of abuse while serving as a cardinal. Documents show that in 1985 he delayed efforts to defrock a priest convicted of molesting children. "I’ll take the pope at his word here when he says he’s tired. I would be tired, too, if I left as much devastation in my wake as he has," Fox says. "I think that the Catholic Church as we know it, the structure of the Vatican, is passé. We’re moving beyond it. And it’s become a viper’s nest. It’s really sick, what’s going on, obviously — the cover-up of the pedophile priests."
TRANSCRIPT:
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As Pope Benedict formally steps down today, speculation mounts over who will become the next pope. On Wednesday, Pope Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience, saying he understood the gravity of his decision to become the first pontiff to resign in nearly 600 years. The 85-year-old pope cited ill health as the reasons for his departure. Addressing an estimated 150,000 supporters in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict said he is resigning for the good of the church.
POPE BENEDICT XVI: [translated] In these past months, I have felt that my strength has decreased, and I have asked God, earnestly in prayer, to enlighten me and, with His light, make me take the right decision, not for my good, but for the good of the church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its gravity and also its rarity; however, with a profound serenity of spirit. Loving the church also means having the courage to take difficult and anguished choices, always having in mind the good of the church and not oneself.
[in English] I was deeply grateful for the understanding, support and prayers of so many of you, not only here in Rome, but also around the world. The decision I have made, after much prayer, is the fruit of a serene trust in God’s will and a deep love of Christ’s church. I will continue to accompany the church with my prayers, and I ask each of you to pray for me and for the new pope.
AMY GOODMAN: Pope Benedict’s tenure was marked by several scandals, perhaps most notably his handling of sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, including allegations he ignored at least one case of abuse while serving as a cardinal. Documents show in 1985, when he was known as Cardinal Ratzinger, he delayed efforts to defrock a priest convicted of molesting children. Meanwhile, last year he oversaw an assessment from the Vatican that found the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States had, quote, "serious doctrinal problems" because it had challenged the church’s teachings on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood, among other things. More recently, Italian news sources say an investigation by three cardinals into leaked Vatican documents show rampant corruption in the Vatican ranks.
For more, we go to San Francisco, where we’re joined by Matthew Fox. He’s the author of over two dozen books, most recently, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved. He’s a former Catholic priest, who was first stopped from teaching liberation theology and creation spirituality by then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Fox was then expelled from the Dominican Order, to which he had belonged for 34 years. He currently serves as an Episcopal priest.
Matthew Fox, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you first respond to the pope stepping down, and the significance?
MATTHEW FOX: Well, thank you, Amy and Juan. I really appreciate your journalism. It means a lot to a lot of us.
Yeah, I think I’ll take the pope at his word here when he says he’s tired. I would be tired, too, if I left as much devastation in my wake as he has, first as inquisitor general under the previous pope. He brought the Inquisition back. And it’s true I was one of the theologians expelled by him, but I list 104 others in my book, and it keeps growing, the list keeps growing. So, that’s how history will remember this man, as bringing the Inquisition back, which is completely contrary to the spirit and the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which was never to reform the church. So I think he’s stepping down because he can’t take it anymore.
It’s become a viper’s nest there, obviously—the Vatican is. I really think that, as a theologian, I see the Holy Spirit at work in all this. I think that the Catholic Church as we know it, the structure of the Vatican, is passé. We’re moving beyond it. And it’s become a viper’s nest. It’s really sick, what’s going on, obviously—the cover-up of the pedophile priests. And you can see it everywhere: Cardinal Mahony in Los Angeles; this cardinal in Scotland; Cardinal Law, who was elevated after he left Boston, given a promotion, running a fourth century basilica in Rome; and this pope himself, the recent documentary that came out a year—a week or two ago from HBO about how the buck stopped with him. We’re hearing these horrible things that went on at a school for the deaf in Milwaukee, where over 200 boys, deaf boys, were abused by a priest, and Ratzinger knew it. There’s Father Maciel, who was so close to the previous pope that he took him on plane rides with him, abused 20 seminarians, and he had two wives on the side and abused four of his own children, and Ratzinger knew about this man for 10 years. That document was on his desk, and he did nothing until the year 2005.
So, history and cheerleading of popes, what I call papolatry, will not cover up the facts. This has been the most sordid 42 years of Catholic history since the Borgias. And as I say, I think it’s really about ending that church as we know it. I think Protestantism, too, needs a reboot. I think all of Christianity can get back more to the teachings of Jesus, a revolutionary around love and justice. That’s what it’s about. And that’s why there’s been such fierce resistance all along from the right wing. The CIA has been involved in, especially with Pope John Paul II, the decimation of liberation theology all over South America, the replacing of these heroic leaders, including bishops and cardinals, with Opus Dei cardinals and bishops, who are—well, frankly, it’s a fascist organization, Opus Dei is. It’s all about obedience. It’s not about ideas or theology. They haven’t produced one theologian in 40 years. They produce canon lawyers and people who infiltrate where the power is, whether it’s the media, the Supreme Court or the FBI, the CIA, and finance, especially in Europe.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I’d like to ask you for—
MATTHEW FOX: So, it’s been a very sordid mess that’s been going on.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In some of your writings, you have raised the point of view that both Pope Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul, were actually leading the schism and that, in fact, that they were attempting to overthrow the decisions of the Second Vatican Council. But for many Americans who are no longer familiar, because they’re young, they don’t know about the impact of the Second Vatican Council and Pope John XXIII, could you give us the broader historical movement that’s occurred here?
MATTHEW FOX: Yes. Pope John XXIII called the council in the early ’60s, and it brought together all the bishops of the world and all the theologians, many of whom had been under fire under the previous papacy, Pope Pius XII. And it definitely was a reform movement, and it gave inspiration to the poor, especially in South America. And after the council, the movement of liberation theology, which had a principle of preferential option for the poor, this really took off, and it created base communities, which was a new way of doing church where everyone had a voice, not just the person at the altar.
And this non-hierarchical, this far more horizontal and circular approach to Christianity and to worship was a big threat, of course, to certain people in Rome, but it was even a bigger threat to the CIA. When Reagan was elected, two months later there was a meeting of his National Security Council in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to discuss one thing: How can we destroy liberation theology in Latin America? And they concluded: We can’t destroy it, but we can divide the church. And so they went after the pope. They gave him lots and lots of cash for solidarity in Poland. And in exchange, they got the permission, if you will, the commitment on the part of the papacy, to destroy liberation theology.
And this is very much documented. It’s actually documented by Carl Bernstein, of all people, in a cover story in Time magazine, where he kind of creates a hagiography of Reagan and the pope together creating so much good. But Bernstein, I think, was very naive about what was really going on in terms of the church itself, because the reform of the church, part of the council was to declare freedom of conscience, and it said every Christian has a right to freedom of conscience. But all that was destroyed by Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger.
So, the reforms of the Vatican Council were stuffed. And the reason this is a schism, therefore, is that in the Catholic tradition a council trumps a pope. Popes do not trump councils. For the last 42 years, these two papacies have been undoing all the values that the council stood for. And this is what the sisters are now undergoing. Just as they attacked the 105 theologians, now they’re accusing the sisters of, what should I say, not participating in the Inquisition. And God bless these sisters, who—the Nuns on the Bus. And so many of us know them because they have been on the front lines carrying out the values of Vatican II, especially values of justice and peace work and working with the marginalized.
AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Fox, why were you defrocked? Why were you forced out of the Catholic Church? You say it’s because of liberation theology. Explain.
MATTHEW FOX: Well, I was—first, I was silenced for 14 months by Ratzinger, and then I was allowed to speak again, and then, three years later, I was expelled. But he drew up a list of complaints.
Number one was that I was a feminist theologian, he said. I didn’t know that was a heresy.
Number two, I called God "Mother." Well, I proved that all kinds of medieval mystics called God "Mother," and so does the Bible, although not often enough.
Number three, I prefer "original blessing" to "original sin." I wrote a book called Original Blessing, in which I prove that original sin—Jesus never heard of it; no Jews ever heard of it. How can you build a church in the name of Jesus on a concept which is fourth century A.D.—that is, orginal sin? You know what else happened in the fourth century besides original sin ideas is the church inheriting the empire. If you’re going to run an empire, original sin is a real fine dogma to promote, because it makes everyone confused about why they’re here, and so they get in line much more efficiently.
And they accused me of not condemning homosexuals, which of course I do not. Obviously, God intends homosexuals, or there wouldn’t be 8 to 10 percent of our population all over the world with this special grace.
They said I work too closely with Native Americans. Well, I do work closely with Native Americans. I’ve learned so much from Native American teachers and rituals, such as sweat lodges, sun dances, vision quests. I don’t know that that’s a heresy to—I don’t know what working too closely means.
So, those were some of the objections. And really, none of them hold water. They’re really Rorschach tests about what really freaks out the Vatican. And, of course, above all, it’s women and sex. And that is the agenda. Whenever there’s fundamentalism and fascism, it’s about control. That’s why the Vatican, the Taliban and Pat Robertson have this in common: They’re all freaked out by the possibility of bringing the divine feminine back, and with it, of course, the equal rights of women.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the current—the scandals that have been rocking the Vatican and the entire church—obviously the pedophile scandals in recent years, but also the corruption scandals within the Vatican itself—there’s this report that has been produced by a group of cardinals investigating some of the corruption, but they’re not going to release it until the new pope is named. Your sense of whether any of this had to do with the pope’s decision to resign?
MATTHEW FOX: I’m sure it did. I was actually told that when he received the report and looked at it, six hours later he announced he was resigning, and he put it in a safe and said the next pope can deal with this. So, I think it’s pretty clear that there is a connection. But again, it was building up. I mean, as you say, there’s been—and there’s a lot more going on there behind the scenes than the press has yet learned, I can assure you. There’s been so much cover-up.
And when Ratzinger made himself pope, I went to Wittenberg and pounded the 95 Theses the door. And a year-and-a-half ago, I was in Rome, so I translated them into Latin—I mean, Italian, and pounded them at Cardinal Law’s basilica on a Sunday morning. And it was so interesting. A 40-year-old Italian man came up to me, a Roman. He said to me—very simply, he said, "I used to call myself a Catholic. Now I just call myself a Christian." I was very struck by that. Right under the pope’s nose there, Italians, too, are beginning to catch the truth of things, that we’re at a great historic moment. An 1,800-year-old institution in the West is melting before our eyes. And it’s painful. It’s ugly. On the other hand, it’s also a moment for breakthrough and for pushing the restart button on Christianity, returning to the really powerful message of Jesus and His followers throughout the centuries, the mystics and the prophets.
And just hearing your broadcast about Dr. King brings it all back, and this French fellow who stood up to fascism. You know, when my book was translated into German, I got a letter from the translator saying, "I cried many times translating your book," she said, "because my generation" — she’s in her forties — "in Germany was promised, 'Never again, no more fascism.' But your book proves that fascism is back, it’s in the church, especially the German and Polish wing of the church." She said, "Every German has to read this book, whether they’re religious or not." And I think it’s true in America, too, that, like this fellow who died at 95 reminds us, fascism is worth fighting, and it’s worth acknowledging it’s there.
Susan Sontag defines "fascism" institutionalized violence. Catholics have been going through institutionalized violence for 42 years. Ask any of these theologians who have had their jobs ripped away from them. Some of them have died of heart attacks. Some have died of poverty in the streets because they couldn’t get work. But, of course, talk to these young people who were abused by priests, and then the cover-up was put into place by people like Ratzinger, who protected the institution at the expense of every one of these children.
And Jesus has something to say about that: Put a millstone around your neck, and throw yourself in the water. I think that’s what Cardinal Ratzinger’s confessor should tell him to do, in symbolic terms, before he meets his maker. I think he has some reparation to do, at least internally, before he leaves the scene.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And Matthew Fox, in terms of the speculation as to who the—who will be the successor to Pope Benedict, obviously there’s a lot of talk about there may be for the first time a pope from the Global South. Do you see any—any possibility for real substantive change in church policy, no matter who the successor is?
MATTHEW FOX: Sadly to say, I do not, because every one of these voters was appointed by Ratzinger or the previous pope with Ratzinger’s approval, so they all think like them. You see, the dumbing down of the church has been what’s really brought about this pedophile crisis, because when you don’t have leaders who are intelligent and with conscience, but only yes men, which is what they’ve been appointing for 42 years, you know, you don’t have intelligent response to crises such as finding a pedophile in your midst. And there’s a North American bishop—I will not name him—archbishop, who 20 years ago wept in the presence of a friend of mine and said to him, "There’s not a single bishop they’ve appointed the last 20 years that I can respect." Well, now we can say the last 42 years.
So, frankly, I think there are a few names that come up. There’s this fellow in Africa, who unfortunately, though, is a complete homophobe, who’s been endorsing all the homophobic violence in African laws lately. So—and he’s head of the peace and justice commission in the Vatican. One would hope it won’t go that far. There is an Austrian cardinal, who is a Dominican, who actually showed a little bit of independence once or twice. There’s this O’Malley from Boston, who’s a Franciscan, and therefore did not—does not want to be pope. And I think that might be a real good criterion, although I don’t know anyone in their mind, at this time in history, who would want to be pope.
AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Fox, we’re going to leave it there.
MATTHEW FOX: But I don’t think he has a chance, being—
by AhabsOtherLeg » Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:57 am
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 165 guests