COMET LANDING ON FRIDAY: On Friday, Sept. 30th, Europe's Rosetta spacecraft will deliberately crash land on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, ending the probe's two year mission in orbit around the comet's nucleus. With cameras and other instruments taking data until the last moment, Rosetta will descend into a mysterious region known as Ma'at home to several "active pits," which are spewing jets of gas and dust into space. Rosetta's death plunge could be exciting, indeed. NASA TV will cover the event live starting at 3:15 a.m.PDT. Tune in!

http://spaceweather.com/

Francis Effect: “Why join a church whose priests are little monsters and whose members like to throw stones?”

29 Sep 2016

Has Pope Francis Failed?

By MATTHEW SCHMITZ at the NY TimesSEPT. 28, 2016

When Pope Francis ascended to the chair of St. Peter in March 2013, the world looked on in wonder. Here at last was a pope in line with the times, a man who preferred spontaneous gestures to ritual forms. Francis paid his own hotel bill and eschewed the red shoes. Rather than move into the grand papal apartments, he settled in the cozy guesthouse for visitors to the Vatican. He also set a new nondogmatic tone with statements like “Who am I to judge?”

Observers predicted that the new pope’s warmth, humility and charisma would prompt a “Francis effect” — bringing disaffected Catholics back to a church that would no longer seem so forbidding and cold. Three years into his papacy, the predictions continue. Last winter, Austen Ivereigh, the author of an excellent biography of Pope Francis, wrote that the pope’s softer stance on communion for the divorced and remarried “could trigger a return to parishes on a large scale.” In its early days, Francis’ Jesuit order labored to bring Protestants back into the fold of the church. Could Francis do the same for Catholics tired of headlines about child abuse and culture wars?

In a certain sense, things have changed. Perceptions of the papacy, or at least of the pope, have improved. Francis is far more popular than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Sixty-three percent of American Catholicsapprove of him, while only 43 percent approved of Benedict at the height of his popularity, according to a 2015 New York Times and CBS News poll. Francis has also placed a great emphasis on reaching out to disaffected Catholics.

But are Catholics actually coming back? In the United States, at least, it hasn’t happened. New survey findings from Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate suggest that there has been no Francis effect — at least, no positive one. In 2008, 23 percent of American Catholics attended Mass each week. Eight years later, weekly Mass attendance has held steady or marginally declined, at 22 percent.

Of course, the United States is only one part of a global church. But the researchers at Georgetown found that certain types of religious observance are weaker now among young Catholics than they were under Benedict. In 2008, 50 percent of millennials reported receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, and 46 percent said they made some sacrifice beyond abstaining from meat on Fridays. This year, only 41 percent reported receiving ashes and only 36 percent said they made an extra sacrifice, according to CARA. In spite of Francis’ personal popularity, young people seem to be drifting away from the faith.

Why hasn’t the pope’s popularity reinvigorated the church? Perhaps it is too soon to judge. We probably won’t have a full measure of any Francis effect until the church is run by bishops appointed by Francis and priests who adopt his pastoral approach. This will take years or decades.

Yet something more fundamental may stand in the way of a Francis effect. Francis is a Jesuit, and like many members of Catholic religious orders, he tends to view the institutional church, with its parishes and dioceses and settled ways, as an obstacle to reform. He describes parish priests as “little monsters” who “throw stones” at poor sinners. He has given curial officials a diagnosis of “spiritual Alzheimer’s.” He scolds pro-life activists for their “obsession” with abortion. He has said that Catholics who place an emphasis on attending Mass, frequenting confession, and saying traditional prayers are “Pelagians” — people who believe, heretically, that they can be saved by their own works.

Such denunciations demoralize faithful Catholics without giving the disaffected any reason to return. Why join a church whose priests are little monsters and whose members like to throw stones? When the pope himself stresses internal spiritual states over ritual observance, there is little reason to line up for confession or wake up for Mass.

Even Francis’ most ardent fans worry that his agenda is overdue. When he was elected, Francis promised a cleanup of the Vatican’s corrupt finances. Three years on, he has started to retreat in the face of opposition, giving up an outside audit and taking powers away from his handpicked point man. Francis has also shied away from big changes on doctrinal matters. Instead of explicitly endorsing communion for the divorced and remarried couples, he has quietly urged them on with a wink and a nod.

Francis has built his popularity at the expense of the church he leads. Those who wish to see a stronger church may have to wait for a different kind of pope. Instead of trying to soften the church’s teaching, such a man would need to speak of the way hard disciplines can lead to freedom. Confronting a hostile age with the strange claims of Catholic faith may not be popular, but over time it may prove more effective. Even Christ was met with the jeers of the crowd.

Correction: September 29, 2016
An Op-Ed article on Wednesday about Pope Francis misstated the name of a center at Georgetown University. It is the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, not the Center for the Applied Research for the Apostolate.

 

http://biblefalseprophet.com/2016/09/29/francis-effect-why-join-a-church-whose-priests-are-little-monsters-and-whose-members-like-to-throw-stones/

India launches strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan

By AT Editor on September 29, 2016 in India, South Asia, Top News

By Sanjeev Miglani and Asad Hashim

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters): India said on Thursday it had conducted “surgical strikes” on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, making its first direct military response to an attack on an army base it blames on Pakistan.

Indian army’s director general of military operations Lt General Ranbir Singh speaks during a media briefing in New Delhi, September 29. REUTERS/Stringer

Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed in exchanges of fire and in repulsing an Indian “raid”, but denied that India had made any targeted strikes across the de facto frontier that runs through the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
Read: US and China won’t take sides in India-Pakistan fracas
The cross-border action inflicted significant casualties, the Indian army’s head of operations told reporters in New Delhi, while a senior government official said Indian soldiers had crossed the border to target militant camps.
The Indian announcement followed through on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning that those Delhi held responsible “would not go unpunished” for a Sept. 18 attack on an Indian army base at Uri, near the Line of Control, that killed 18 soldiers.
The strikes also raised the possibility of a military escalation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan that would wreck a 2003 Kashmir ceasefire.
Lt General Ranbir Singh, the Indian army’s director general of military operations (DGMO), said the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on “very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves … with an aim to carry out infiltration and terrorist strikes”.
Singh said he had called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him of the operation.
India’s disclosure of such strikes was unprecedented, said Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, and sent a message not only to his own people but to the international community.
“India expects global support to launch more focused action against Pakistan,” Sahni told Reuters. “There was tremendous pressure on the Indian prime minister to prove that he is ready to take serious action.”

http://atimes.com/2016/09/india-says-firing-continues-across-frontier-with-pakistan/

Shimon Peres: The architect of Israel's nuclear program

 

 

Perhaps his greatest achievement was the ability to make Israel's enemies believe that Israel had the ultimate strategic deterrence and a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East.

(Israel and the world bid farewell to Shimon Peres)

Shimon Peres marked his greatest achievement in a long, and impressive life, full of ups and downs, at the age of 33. If he was a copywriter, he could have summed it up proudly in one spot-on sentence, paraphrased from Herzl: In Sèvres, I established Dimona and ensured the future of the State of Israel.

Dimona, beginning in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, saw the building of the "textile factory" - the nuclear reactor in which, according to foreign reports, Israel produces fissile materials - uranium and plutonium - for its arsenal of nuclear weapons. According to these reports, these weapons were, and remain, the central factor deterring Arab states and Iran from fulfilling their fantasies of eliminating Israel on the battlefield.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Shimon-Peres-The-architect-of-Israels-nuclear-program-468893

Il Libro della Verità

Il Libro della Verità

Il doppio messaggio di Ruini al Papa

Il rischio di “mettere in difficoltà le coscienze delle pecore fedeli”

23 Settembre 2016 ore 06:15

Il cardinale Camillo Ruini (foto LaPresse)

E’ alla fine della lunga intervista concessa ieri al Corriere della Sera sull’Aldilà per il lancio del suo libro (“C’è un dopo? La morte e la speranza”, Mondadori) che il cardinale Camillo Ruini sfodera la frase che mette in risalto l’interrogativo che tanto ha fatto scrivere e meditare sul pontificato corrente: “Prego il Signore perché l’indispensabile ricerca delle pecore smarrite non metta in difficoltà le coscienze delle pecore fedeli”. Si tratta sì d’un auspicio affinché i gesti e le parole di Francesco (comprese quelle a braccio sul terrorismo che sarebbe nulla a confronto della guerra o sui battezzati che ammazzano le suocere e quindi non sono troppo diversi dagli sgozzatori di preti sull’altare) non vengano fraintesi, diventando oggetto di dispute più o meno alte che mettano la sordina ai propositi giusti e meritori di ridare vigore a un cristianesimo in occidente sempre più apatico.

ARTICOLI CORRELATI Guerra e terrorismo, cosa non dice Papa Francesco Oh santa pace! Papa Francesco e la cultura del dialogo da insegnare a scuola (fino a un certo punto) Le parole di Ruini valgono però anche come constatazione che attorno alla rivoluzione quotidiana innescata dal vescovo di Roma preso quasi alla fine del mondo – sempre più disponibile a entrare in dialogo con il mondo non cattolico e assai propenso a richiamare i cattolici con toni non sempre improntati alla paterna dolcezza – c’è un disagio che non coinvolge solo editorialisti da salotto o cosiddetti tradizionalisti nostalgici, ma anche tanti cattolici che pure non tengono sul comodino la Summa Theologiae di Tommaso. La chiosa ruiniana è l’indizio d’un disorientamento che serpeggia, ovattato, nella gerarchia episcopale italiana, che Ruini conosce bene anche ora che è stata innestata di forze fresche più vicine al nuovo corso improntato alla ricerca di pastori con l’odore delle pecore.

http://www.ilfoglio.it/chiesa/2016/09/23/ruini-doppio-messaggio-al-papa___1-v-147953-rubriche_c424.htm

Peres' funeral

World leaders mourn loss of Shimon Peres

President Barack Obama pays tribute to Peres’s ability to ‘change the course of human history'; other prominent leaders from the world over pay their respects to the last of Israel's founding fathers.

Orly Azoulay, AFP and Associated Press|Published:  28.09.16 , 08:26

Dozens of statements of condolences were issued Wednesday following the death of Israel’s ninth President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who passed away overnight Tuesday after a two-battle having suffered a stroke.

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US President Barack Obama released a statement in which he praised Peres for his visions of peace, decribed him as the very essene of Israel and referred to him as a friend.

“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people,” Obama’s statement began.

President Barack Obama and Shimon Peres (Photo: AFP)

A large delegation of American officials are expected to arrive in Israel to attend Peres’s funeral with President Obama, including former US President Bill Clinton.
“Tonight, Michelle and I join people across Israel, the United States and around the world in honoring the extraordinary life of our dear friend Shimon Peres—a Founding Father of the State of Israel and a statesman whose commitment to Israel's security and pursuit of peace was rooted in his own unshakeable moral foundation and unflagging optimism. I will always be grateful that I was able to call Shimon my friend,” the statement continued.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4860743,00.html