LIKUD MP SAYS NETANYAHU WILL COMPROMISE AND DIVIDE JERUSALEM

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

JOEL 3:2 (WW3 OCCURS WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED)
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people (ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(JERUSALEM)(WW3 STARTS BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AND ISRAELIS UPROOTED FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND BRINGS 3 DEAD BILLION IN WW3)

PSALS 137:5-6
5  If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6  If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

ISAIAH 31:5
5 As birds flying,(PLANES) so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem;(WITH PLANES) defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.(NUKE OR BOMB ISRAELS ENEMIES)

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)

Likud MK implies Netanyahu will compromise on Jerusalem

Palestinian right of return is the the only major issue preventing a peace deal, Tzachi Hanegbi tells J Street Conference

By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil September 30, 2013, 2:23 am 3-The Times of Israel

WASHINGTON — In a rare dovish statement for a member of the right-wing Likud party, MK Tzachi Hanegbi on Sunday defended Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution, implying that the prime minister was prepared to compromise on Jerusalem and uproot settlements if PA negotiators ceded their demand for a right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendents“I think we will be able to give a good answer, a win-win answer, to almost every issue, including Jerusalem, the settlements – every issue has a compromise that can be relevant to both sides,” said Hanegbi during a panel with other Israeli parliamentarians at the annual J Street Conference. “The issue of the refugees cannot be compromised. It’s either here or there.”Asked by the moderator whether Netanyahu was indeed committed to achieving a two-state solution, Hanegbi, who is considered a longtime confidant of the prime minister, spoke to the transformations and shifts in perspective undergone by anyone elected to the Israeli premiership.Netanyahu, he said, “has shifted through the years like every leader… that comes to sit in office in Israel… [and] understands the limitations of the original ideology that brought him there. [Yitzhak] Rabin faced it when he was prime minister, [Ehud] Barak faced it, [Shimon] Peres – they didn’t get out of Judea and Samaria; they didn’t uproot the settlements; they understood it’s a gradual process and they have to go toward their goal.”

“I think that Netanyahu is not the Netanyahu that you and I knew 20 years ago,” he added.“What is preventing the two state solution is not Netanyahu,” Hanegbi continued, asserting that his meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA’s former president, Salam Fayyad, had infused him with the assurance that the Palestinians “are genuine partners, they mean what they say, and they want peace.The trouble, Hanegbi told the crowd of over 2,000 attendees, arose when he asked the Palestinian leaders about their demand for a right of return for members of their people’s diaspora.The two state solution will be possible, he said, “If they will disassociate from the… dream that the refugees will flow back into Israel…. If they will understand that they have to make a historic compromise like we did, agreeing to the idea that we will not be sovereign in the places where our people were born, in the places where Jewish kings and prophets used to live centuries ago… they will have their sovereignty eventually.“If the Palestinian leadership understand that their big historic compromise is to give up this idea of the right of return, we will be able, in a short while, to reach an agreement,” Hanegbi asserted.Hanegbi served in a string of government positions over a decade in the cabinet as a Likud minister before joining then prime minister Ariel Sharon when Sharon left Likud to form Kadima in 2006. He later helmed the influential Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before rejoining Likud ahead of the January 2013 Knesset elections.At the United Nations General Assembly last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has worked intensively this year on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, said the two sides had agreed to an intensified schedule of talks, with more direct US involvement, in an effort to reach a final agreement.“All of the issues are on the table: territory, security, refugees, Jerusalem – all of the final status issues are on the table,” Kerry said, adding that “we are not seeking an interim agreement; we are seeking a final status agreement.”Earlier Monday, in a keynote speech to attendees of the J Street Cconference, opposition leader MK Shelly Yachimovich (Labor Party) also talked up the basis for her belief in the two-state solution, to tepid applause.“As you know it is becoming increasingly popular for critics of the peace process to talk about a binational state. But those who support a binational state are promoting a bleak scenario that contradicts the basis of Zionism,” she warned.

“The two state solution is the only viable solution for us. It is the only solution that can allow us to fulfill the Zionist dream of a Jewish and democratic state,” Yachimovich added.She told the crowd that Labor would support Netanyahu “if he is serious about reaching a peace agreement.”“If we witness meaningful steps in the peace process and some of the government’s right wing elements threaten to leave, we will act as a political safety net,” Yachimovich asserted to one of the rare bursts of applause during her discussion of the peace process. “We would even consider the possibility of joining the government.”On Saturday night, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians, assured the conference that Israel was committed to a two-state solution and argued that a peace deal would effect fundamental change throughout the Middle East. ”Yes, we can love Israel and at the same time fight for peace,” she said.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL) will be a wild man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)

ISAIAH 14:12-14
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)

Saudi cleric says women who drive risk damaging their ovaries

8 hours ago-sept 29,13-yahoonews

RIYADH (Reuters) - A conservative Saudi Arabian cleric has said women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems, countering activists who are trying to end the Islamic kingdom's male-only driving rules.A campaign calling for women to defy the ban in a protest drive on October 26 has spread rapidly online over the past week and gained support from some prominent women activists. On Sunday, the campaign's website was blocked inside the kingdom.In an interview published on Friday on the website sabq.org, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan said women aiming to overturn the ban on driving should put "reason ahead of their hearts, emotions and passions".Reuters earlier wrongly identified him as Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Lohaidan, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, one of the top religious bodies in the birthplace of Islam.By contrast, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, the person quoted in the sabq.org report, is a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists.His comments reflect the extent of opposition to women driving among some conservatives in Saudi Arabia."If a woman drives a car, not out of pure necessity, that could have negative physiological impacts as functional and physiological medical studies show that it automatically affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upwards," he told Sabq."That is why we find those who regularly drive have children with clinical problems of varying degrees," he said.He did not cite specific medical studies to support his arguments.The ban on women driving is not backed by a specific law, but only men are granted driving licenses. Women can be fined for driving without a license but have also been detained and put on trial in the past on charges of political protest.Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh, the head of the morality police, told Reuters a week ago that there was no text in the documents making up sharia, or Islamic law, that barred women from driving.King Abdullah has pushed some cautious reforms aimed at expanding women's freedoms in Saudi Arabia, including opening more employment opportunities for them, but he has not addressed the issue of driving.
(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by William Maclean and Kevin Liffey)

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

AMOS 1:5
5  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Inspectors set to destroy Syria chemical warfare capacity

Unprecedented campaign to disable Assad’s WMD production sites may require sledgehammers, explosives and tanks, official says

By Toby Sterling September 30, 2013, 12:38 am 0-The Times of Israel

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Inspectors who will oversee Syria’s destruction of its chemical weapons said Sunday their first priority is to help the country scrap its ability to manufacture such arms by a Nov. 1 deadline — using every means possible.The chemical weapons inspectors said that may include smashing mixing equipment with sledgehammers, blowing up delivery missiles, driving tanks over empty shells or filling them with concrete, and running machines without lubricant so they seize up and become inoperable.

On Friday, the UN Security Council ordered the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to help Syria destroy its chemical weapons by mid-2014.On Sunday, inspectors met with media in The Hague to explain their current plan of action, which is to include an initial group of 20 leaving for Syria on Monday.

The organization allowed two inspectors to speak on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety amid Syria’s civil war; both are veteran members of the OPCW. Spokesman Michael Luhan said the men “are going to be deeply involved in Syria.”“This isn’t just extraordinary for the OPCW. This hasn’t been done before: an international mission to go into a country which is involved in a state of conflict and amid that conflict oversee the destruction of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction which it possesses,” Luhan said. “This is definitely a historical first.”Syria acknowledged for the first time it has chemical weapons after an Aug. 21 poison gas attack killed hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb and President Barack Obama threatened a military strike in retaliation. A UN investigation found that nerve gas was used in the attack but stopped short of blaming it on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.After a flurry of diplomatic negotiations involving the US, Syria, and Syrian ally Russia, Syria made an initial voluntary disclosure of its program to the Hague-based OPCW. Under organization’s rules, the amounts and types of weapons in Syria’s stockpiles, and the number and location of the sites, will not be publicly disclosed.The US and Russia agree that Syria has roughly 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons agents and precursors, including blister agents such as sulfur and mustard gas, and nerve agents like sarin. External experts say they are distributed over 50 to70 sites.One of the OPCW experts with a military background said the “open source” information about the Syrian program is “reasonable.”Timothee Germain, a researcher at the Center for International Security and Arms Control in Paris, who is not involved with the OPCW project, said that in the early phases of Syria’s civil war, chemical weapons were consolidated into a small number of sites in order to keep them from falling into the hands of rebels. But when the prospect of a US military strike emerged, the weapons may have been redistributed over a larger number of sites to preserve them.He added that he is skeptical the current timeline can be achieved. “From a technical standpoint, it’s really a long-shot,” he said.

The investigators said members of the initial group of 20 will meet with counterparts from Syria’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday and begin planning. A week later, the OPCW mission will be expanded to a larger number of investigators who will arrive in waves and begin visiting sites and disabling equipment. At the same time, they will be examining sites for their suitability as places to eventually destroy chemicals and ready-to-fire weapons, which is usually done by incineration.“At this stage we’re looking at tens of inspectors” for the mission, the OPCW military expert said. The teams will include chemists, military experts and medical personnel trained to deal with the hazards posed by chemical waste.Protection for OPCW staff will be provided primarily by the Syrian government, with support from the U.N., which has a longstanding working relationship with the OPCW and lines of communication open with rebel groups.The OPCW expert said access to weapons sites in or near rebel-held territory would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, with the UN possibly helping negotiate safe passage. “It may be that we are not in a position to go to some of these places,” he said. “Our inspectors are all volunteers. This is not a mission that will be carried out come what may.”After the initial phase of destroying Syria’s ability to manufacture weapons, the actual destruction phase will take far longer and be more expensive, the second expert said. He added that “at this stage there is no reason to doubt Syria’s commitment” to destroying its weapons, adding that its disclosure was voluntary and credible.

FALSE POPE FROM THE VATICAN

REVELATION 13:11-13
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

REVELATION 17:1-5,9,15-18
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

09/28/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

Eco: “Francis is the Pope of the world of globalization”

Umberto Eco

The famous Italian semiotician, philosopher and writer, Umberto Eco, shares his views on Pope Francis in an exclusive interview with Argentina’s daily newspaper, La Nacion

Gerard O'Connell Rome


In terms of communication, Pope Francis “is better than Ratzinger, he is a modern man, he is the Pope of the Internet, he is the Pope of the world of globalization”.  That is the verdict of Umberto Eco, the world famous Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher and author of the best-selling novel, “The Name of the Rose”.“I am convinced that Pope Francis is representing something absolutely new in the history of the Church, and perhaps in the history of the world”, the Italian writer told La Nacion, one of the main Argentinean dailies in an interview published today in Buenos Aires.He reacted with some discomfort, however, when asked by La Nacion for his opinion of Pope Francis:  “I am extremely annoyed when the whole world asks me what I think of Pope Francis.  It would be interesting to know what Pope Francis thinks of me, but I do not know…” “When some rather ingeniously ask me whether he (Francis) represents a revolution, I reply that revolutions are only evaluated after a hundred years”, Eco added.Asked what he thought of the fact that the Pope had written a letter to the founder of the Italian daily, La Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, ‘a non-believer, in response to two editorials written by him in that paper, Eco, clearly not enthusiastic, remarked,  “Well, it was an incentive for stamps”, in other words it helped sales.Pushed for what he really thought about this, Eco responded, “I would not permit myself to judge Pope Francis, who probably wrote this letter because it seemed useful and interesting for him to do so, and that is very good.”  He recalled how ten-years ago he had corresponded with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, and this resulted in four long letters that were subsequently published as a book.Responding to a question as to whether he was surprised that the papacy has gone out of Europe for the first time in more than a millennium, Eco recalled that “it went out of Italy” with the election of Karol Wojtyla in 1978, and prior to that the last non-Italian pope was Hadrian V from Utrecht in 1552.  “When it happened with Wojtyla it was something new that showed that the Church was no longer an Italian power against the Germanic empire as it had been in the previous centuries, it was something universal.  And so it seems to me that it was quite normal that there would be another foreign pope after Joseph Ratzinger”. Surprisingly, the 82-year old Eco did not rate the fact that the papacy had crossed the Atlantic for the first time in history as “something exceptional” because of the airlines we have today.He did concede, however, that the choice of the first Latin American pope in history marked the end of ‘euro-centrism” in the Church.  “This no longer exists.  If the cardinal chose this Pope, it means that we are in a globalized world.  Therefore, because globalization exists, it is normal that they chose Argentinean Pope.  They could have chosen a Pope from Ghana, but the chose one from Argentina.  That’s globalization, and I don’t see how the Church could escape from this phenomenon”, he said.Questioned how he, as a world-famous semiotician, rated the way Pope Francis communicates with the world, Eco said “he is better than Ratzinger, he is a modern man, he is the Pope of the Internet”.  It does not matter that Francis does not use the computer, he said, “He is the Pope of the world of globalization.  I find him highly interesting, but he doesn’t surprise me. It seems to me that he is in tune with the evolution of the global culture.  What surprises me, however, is the curiosity of journalists or of the public at the fact that Pope Francis exists.  I am not surprised.”Umberto Eco admitted that he was “surprised” by “the fact that he (Francis) said ‘Buonsera’ (‘Good evening’)” when he greeted the world on the night of his election. “This was a rupture of a centuries old liturgy. They are small gestures that can signify a lot”, he stated.
Original interview: www.lanacion.com.ar/1624017-umberto-eco-francisco-es-el-papa-del-mundo-de-la-globalizacion

09/29/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

Pope Francis and Rabbi Skorka make history in the Vatican

Photo by Elisabetta Pique: Rabbi Skorka in front of Santa Marta

Argentina’s Rabbi Abraham Skorka, in this interview, tells how Pope Francis and he are making history by their friendship, and reveals that they dream of travelling together to the Holy Land soon

Gerard O’Connell Rome

 
 
Never before in the history of Christian-Jewish relations have a Pope and a Rabbi celebrated their friendship by living in the Vatican together for several days, sharing all meals, including on two Jewish festivals and the Sabbath at which the Rabbi said prayers in Hebrew, and discussing what more  they can do together to promote dialogue and peace in the world.That is what actually happened over the past four days at the Vatican guesthouse (Santa Marta) where Pope Francis lives and where his friend from Buenos Aires, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, has been his guest from September 25 to this day. “I eat with him at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.  He cares for me, and controls everything regarding my food to makes sure it is all kosher, and according to my religious tradition.  These are festive days, and I have to say certain prayers at meals and, I expand the last prayer and translate it. He accompanies me together with the others at table -his secretaries and a bishop, and they all say ‘Amen’ at the end”, the Rabbi said.By acting in this way, the Pope and Rabbi are sending an extraordinary message of friendship, dialogue and peace not only to their respective religious communities but also to the whole world.  And they plan to do even more together, Rabbi Skorka revealed when we talked together at Santa Marta, on September 27.He and the Pope are planning to travel together to the Holy Land next year. The Israeli and Palestinian authorities have invited Pope Francis, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew1, wants him to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the historic meeting of his predecessor, Athenagoras, with Paul VI in the Holy City.“We are dreaming of traveling together to Israel soon, and the Pope is working on this subject”, the Rabbi said. “I dream of embracing him at the Kotel, or Wailing Wall, and I will accompany him to Bethlehem, in the Palestinian territories.  His presence can help a lot at this moment when the peace talks are starting again”, he added.Skorka sees a deep spiritual significance for both of them in being together at the sites that are sacred to their respective religions. “I do not cease to be a Jew for him, and he goes on keeping his own faith. But the two spiritualities have to have a point of encounter.  We cannot live in a world where we reject each other, we must build bridges.”He believes his friend “has become a spiritual reference point for the whole world, not just for the Catholic Church” as was evidenced recently when he called for a day of prayer and fast for peace in Syria“Ours is a spiritual journey”, he said of their friendship which dates back to 1997 when Bergoglio became coadjutor bishop of Buenos Aires archdiocese. “Like him I don’t much like the protocol, and like him I too go for the essentials”, he added. Since then, they have done many things together, including producing an interview book – Sobre el cielo y la tierra (‘On heaven and earth’) that has been translated into several languages and will soon be in Hebrew too.“We hold to different traditions, but we are creating a dialogue that has not existed for centuries. Both of us believe that God has something to do with our friendship and with what we are doing.  There are too many coincidences for it all to be mere chance”, said Skorka, 63, who is Rector of the Latin American Rabbinic Seminary.“We come together without burying our identities.  I spoke to him about evangelization, and he stated emphatically that the Catholic Church cannot engage in proselytism”, he said.“We are not looking for a photo opportunity, but we want what we are doing to trigger a re-thinking about things. Ours is not a relation of ‘tea and sympathy’; that is not my way, and it is not Bergoglio’s way. We want to move ahead by actions, we must advance by building bridges, through a living dialogue; not a dialogue of words, but a dialogue of actions that reflect our commitment”, he stated. 
Rabbi Skorka believes that “many Christians and Jews in Europe and the United States do not understand our friendship, for them it comes as a shock,”, but he is convinced that “history is made more by action than by political reasoning”.Last June the Rabbi met his friend, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, in the Vatican for the first time after his election, when Skorka came at the invitation of the Focolare movement. He returned this time at the invitation of the Sant Egidio community which is holding its annual international inter-religious meeting in Rome in these days. It was his second meeting with Pope Francis, and he found him “full of energy and very much focused on his work” He believes the honeymoon period is over and the Pope is now “in the phase of hard work”. He was particularly struck by the fact that his relation with the Pope “is the same as before, and even deeper”, and he concluded that even though his friend has moved to a higher status in the world’s scale, “his humility has increased even more!” 

09/28/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

Francis' “G8” on Curia reform to join Pope on his trip to Assisi

Assisi

The Pope’s visit to the city of the patron saint of Italy is gaining in importance

Giacomo Galeazzi vatican city “We will be joining the Pope in Assisi and praying with him at St. Francis’ tomb,” Vatican City Governor, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello said, confirming his attendance on the papal trip. Bertello is the only Curia member among the group of eight cardinals the Pope appointed to advise him on Curia reform and church government. The group will be holding their first meeting in the Vatican at the beginning of October and Francis had also wanted him to join him on the papal trip to the “Poverello’s” city.

The group will go to the “city of peace” on 4 October, as Vatican Insider reported on 26 April. Some of the members of the “council of peace” are currently in Rome for the plenary sessions being held by their respective congregations. The group of eight cardinals who will meet in the Vatican on 1, 2 and 3 October was set up to advise the Pope and not to take decisions, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi stressed. He added that other meetings would follow after this initial meeting and that participants were expected to respect the confidentiality of the consultations.At 1pm on Monday, the director of the Holy See Press Office will give a briefing on the Pope’s meeting with the group of eight cardinals, with information regarding the nature of the meeting, the preparation work around it and the time frame. The “G8’s” members are: Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello of Italy, President of the Government of the Vatican City State; Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa of Chile, the retired archbishop of Santiago; Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India, archbishop of Bombay and President of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences; Reinhard Marx, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising (Germany); Laurent Monswengo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo); Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston (U.S.); George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney (Australia) and Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa and coordinator of Fransis’ advisory council. There is a great deal of suspense ahead of the council’s work so the Curia has warned the public to hold their horses: “This is the first of a series of meetings. Don’t expect everything all at once.” “Is it unthinkable to supplement their work with a secular agency that is completely outside the church orbit?” Jesuit historian of Christianity John O’Malley asks in an article published in Italian news magazine Il Regno. According to O’Malley, “such an agency is much more likely to ask questions that do not even occur to church members.” O’Malley pointed out two issues that should be born in mind regarding “the reform of the Curia towards greater collegiality” (one of the issues that has aroused many expectations in the first months of Francis’ pontificate): First is the fact that men and women today do not easily accept the idea that what they perceive to be a distant and faceless elite body can claim the right to tell them what to think and how to behave. Second, there is the difficulty today of finding a theological justification for the Curia—or, put more concretely, there is the difficulty of finding a theologically credible connection between Peter the simple fisherman of Galilee and Peter, prince of the apostles, heading a large bureaucratic central office.”Some of the areas that need to be remedied according to the American Jesuit and Professor at Georgetown University, Washington, include: the “lack of communication among the congregations, tribunals, secretariats and other offices within the Curia”; “the process of recruiting the personnel of the Curia, which sometimes seems to function more as a system of patronage than a system based on merit—a long-standing problem in the Curia.”; “a mechanism needs to be devised to ensure that the heads of the different bureaus are held accountable for fulfilling their duties.” O’Malley recalled that the doctrine on collegiality became the lightening rod of the Council. No other doctrine met more unrelenting opposition,” seeing as though “its enemies grasped its radical character and implications.” In the end, the ratified the doctrine, but only after “a higher authority” attached a “preliminary note” (nota praevia) to the “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” (1964).” Collegiality, O’Malley pointed out “holds immense implications for the Curia” because it “means the Curia should operate not as a set of agencies in charge of the church but as agencies that serve lower agencies by helping them do what they are supposed to do.” The Secretary is the Bishop of Albano, Mgr. Marcello Semeraro, who was Special Secretary at the 2001 Synod. First and foremost, the group must advise the Pope on the “government of the universal Church”; second, it must “study a project of revision of the Apostolic Constitution “Pastor Bonus” on the Roman Curia”. This was promulgated by John Paul II on 28 June 1988 and split the Curia into five main sections: the Secretariat of State, whose central and pre-eminent role has given other Vatican circles many a bellyache; the Congregations; the ecclesiastical Tribunals; the Pontifical Councils and offices and bodies. There have been 3 major reforms in the Roman Curia over the past 110 years: Pius X’s “Sapienti Consilio” (1908) which adjusted the structures of the Curia to the disappearance of the Pontifical State in 1870; Paul VI’s “Regimini Ecclesiae Universae” (1967) which adjusted it to the Second Vatican Council and John Paul II’s “Pastor Bonus” (1988) which adjusted the Curia according to the Code f Canon Law of 1984.