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The Doctrine Of Discovery: Repudiate Is Not Revoke

This morning, I had to call my cousin and tell her to stop doing the Snoopy Happy Dance. She was dancing because we had heard the Pope had revoked the Doctrines of Discovery. That was not true. He only ‘repudiated’ the Doctrines of Discovery, not “revoked” them. Then another cousin called and I had to tell him the same thing. There is a difference between ‘repudiate’ and ‘revoke’. The word “repudiate” according to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary means “to cast off” or “to refuse to have anything to do with” or “to refuse to acknowledge.” We can all do that to those atrocious, horrible, abominable, appalling, and revolting Doctrines that were established by the Catholic Church.

Pope Calls Out Climate Deniers In Wake Of Hurricanes

By Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News - With the lives of Texans and Floridians upended by back-to-back superstorms, one thing hasn't been shaken: climate change denial. Hurricane Harvey, which broke the continental U.S. rainfall record with its deluge of southeast Texas, and Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, epitomize the consensus science warnings of heightened risks in a warming world. The last peer-reviewed National Climate Assessment, in 2014, highlighted extreme precipitation and the increasing intensity of Atlantic hurricanes as looming perils for the United States. In the wake of the storms, Pope Francis and other leaders urged officials who deny the reality of climate change to open their eyes. "You can see the effects of climate change with your own eyes, and scientists tell us clearly the way forward," Pope Francis said Monday, stressing that leaders have a "moral responsiblity" to act. But "when you don't want to see, you don't see," he said. "History will judge those decisions." Miami's Republican mayor also called on President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to acknowledge the role of climate change, saying "If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is.

Street Signs Changed After Pope Canonizes Torturer, Killer

By Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. San Francisco, CA - After midnight on September 23, the day that Pope Francis canonized Junipero Serra during mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC., unknown activists - reported to be five elder white women - spent the night changing the signs all along Junipero Serra Blvd to "Toypurina" in honor of the Indigenous Shaman,known as the Native American 'Joan of Arc,' who led the revolt against Serra. Activists in San Francisco plan to lobby their City Councils to officially rename Junipero Serra streets and parks for Toypurina. Toypurina, who was the daughter of a shaman and a shaman herself, was young when Spanish missionaries and soldiers stole land from her village to build the San Gabriel Mission.

Fasting, Fracking, Medicare, Money In Politics & The Pope

By Eleanor Goldfield for Occupy - This week, from med students to female priests, fasters to the monopoly man, we've got a helluva lineup. First up, let's talk Medicare and why it shouldn't be so ageist. Next, how could we not mention the Pope? And since I'm such a contrarian, let's talk about the good AND the bad. Then, we've got a fracking low life scum award, money in politics and get ready to get cozy and design some graphics! But first, this is plastic. I bleed.

Newsletter: The Revolution Of Values

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Pope Francis built his speech to Congress around three activists and President Lincoln. The three activists were the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. This shows the pope recognizes where change comes from. While the pope is imperfect in his call for justice, he has certainly moved conversations on a range of issues forward unlike previous popes. There is a moral imperative to our activism as we must act in the face of injustice. Values are not defined only by religious leaders but by each of us. José Mujica, the Former President Of Uruguay began his political life as a guerilla fighter against dictatorship. In an interview he describes what makes us human. He talks about understanding the suffering of others, responding to their injustice and living humbly so all can live decently.

A Reactionary Congress Applauds The Pope

By Patrick Martin for World Socialist Web Site. United States - The address by Pope Francis to a joint session of Congress Thursday morning was another milestone in the decay of democratic principles in the United States. Never has the separation of church and state, laid down in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, been so flagrantly trampled upon. (See “The Pope in America”) The event was carried out with all the pomp and circumstance of a presidential State of the Union address, complete with Supreme Court justices in their robes and Pentagon brass in their uniforms, as well as the Obama cabinet, with House Speaker John Boehner and Vice President Joseph Biden seated on the platform behind the Pope side by side.

The Pope ‘A Poor Church For The Poor’

By Jon Rappoport. In his first statement to the press after his election as Pope, Francis said: “This is what I want, a poor church for the poor.” And a jet and an entourage and massive security, as he wings his way to bring that message of poverty to the masses. I wonder how the message would be received in America’s inner cities. The Pope’s recipe for change, if there is to be any change at all, seems to fall under the category of “income redistribution.” Apparently, carbon taxes and cap and trade would fit the redistribution agenda. Forget the fact that a carbon monarchy would drastically reduce available energy in the Third World. But don’t worry, poverty is good. Embrace it.

Pope Francis At The United Nations

By Staff of Russia Today. New York, NY - Saving the planet is part of helping the poor and the excluded, Pope Francis told a UN summit. The pontiff called for a ban on nuclear weapons and chastised international finance and ‘ideological colonization’ for making the world worse. Addressing the UN Sustainable Development Summit on Friday, the head of the Roman Catholic Church made a nod to the importance of the UN, now that technology has enabled humanity to overcome distance and frontiers and “all natural limits to the exercise of power.” “Technological power, in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies, is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities,” the Pope said, praising the achievements of the UN in containing that potential as “lights which help to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by unrestrained ambitions and collective forms of selfishness.”

Indigenous Leaders To Pope: Rescind Doctrine Of Discovery

By Julian Brave Noisecat in Huffington Post. Ahead of Pope Francis’ arrival in Philadelphia, indigenous leaders from across the Americas -- from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in upstate New York to the Qom Nation in Argentina and many places in between -- have gathered in the city to urge the pontiff to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, a series of papal bulls from the 15th century that justified European colonization of newly "discovered" lands. One particular papal bull, issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1455, authorized Christian nations "to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all ... enemies of Christ," take their land and "reduce their persons to perpetual slavery." The doctrine played a central role in centuries of colonization the world over and resulted in immense loss of land and life by indigenous peoples across the Americas.

The Iconic Photo Of The Pope With ‘Free Palestine’ Slogan

In an effort to resist the Bethlehem Municipality’s efforts to beautify a section of the Apartheid Wall where Pope Francis was scheduled to pass, Local activists from Aida Refugee Camp gathered to paint slogans both against Israeli occupation and welcoming His Holiness, on the eve of his arrival, on May 24th 2014. “Why do we have to make it beautiful? It’s not,” said 23-year-old Mohammed Abu Srour, one of activists involved. The group successfully maneuvered past a few PA security personnel to reach the wall and defame a newly painted military gate, a sliver of the wall and the paint-bombed sniper tower near Rachel’s Tomb. Israeli soldiers opened the gate after several minutes and activists backed off before soldiers retreated and closed the gate. One activist started again tagging, “Welcome Pope,” but was chased down the street by several Israeli soldiers who emerged from a re-opened gate. Palestinian Authority officials then addressed the Israeli soldiers at the gate, proceeding to talk for several minutes. When asked why they were present, they responded by saying they were only there to secure the visit of an Orthodox leader that day, who would eventually pass in a six car caravan through the gate around 1:10 PM.

Pope Will ‘Recognize Palestine, Call to End Occupation’

Palestinian Authority (PA) and Arab Christian sources are already celebrating Pope Francis's visit to Israel starting next Sunday, saying his choice to begin the trip directly in PA-held Bethlehem is meant to "recognize Palestine" and "oppose the occupation." "He is taking a helicopter directly from Jordan to Palestine - to Bethlehem. It's a kind of sign of recognizing Palestine," Father Jamal Khader of the Latin patriarchate in Jerusalem told AFP. The claims that his trip will begin in a "recognition of Palestine" comes amid reports from February by Rabbi Sergio Bergman, a member of the Argentinian parliament and close friend of Pope Francis, who said that the pope intends to define himself as the "Che Guevera of the Palestinians" and support their "struggle and rights" during his visit. In Bethlehem the pope is to travel in an open-top car and meet with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, holding "mass" prayer services there instead of in Jerusalem in what has been called a show of support for the PA. It has been noted that the pope has been remarkably tight-lipped over the violent persecution of Christians in Bethlehem, instead choosing to condemn alleged Jewish "price tag" vandalism.

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