SOMETHING'S GOOD IN DENMARK, BUT NONETHELESS THIS STORY STINKS AND SHOWS HOW POLARIZED THE BISHOPS HAVE BECOME IN THE LAST 5 YEARS, STUNNINGLY SO

Anonymous said...

Sorry that this is not related to your above post.

My youngest brother is a doctor, and a traditional Latin mass Catholic, and he recently spent 12 months working in the Congo.

In the past 20 years almost 6 million have died in the Congo, a nation the size of western Europe and a population of c. 80 million, an African "First World War" fought there, almost totally ignored by western media, as has the tragedy and suffering that has gone on there since then. Congo is "blessed" with mineral resources, including approx. 80% of world's COLTAN, a mineral essential for all our cell phones and computers etc in the west. If Congo had a strong central government and if law and order could be enforced billions could be made selling Coltan etc to the USA and western Europe etc at fair prices. Instead several hundred politicians and military generals in surrounding nations and 7 or 8 major western IT multi national companies make multi millions buying cheap COLTAN etc from rival militia, rebel groups and generals of foreign troops as they fight it out (with atrocities as bad and on a larger scale than the Balkan Wars or that by Mexican drug cartels etc) to see who can terrorize millions of Congolese the most and most effectively exploit child labor in suffering slave conditions mining minerals.

Please pray for these millions in the Congo, the most suffering people on the earth in our generation.

Please remember Congo week each October and "Cell Out Day" each October 21st when people around the world are asked to turn off cell phones for one hour to reflect on the millions of people in the Congo who have and are suffering and dying in large part as a result of an ultra violent scramble for Coltan and other key minerals key to all the functioning of our modern technology in the wealthy west.

Please maybe spend 10 minutes in reading after googling:

Congo tragedy ignored.

Congo hell on earth ignored.

Thank you.

February 3, 2018 at 8:14 AM

TJM said...

Oh My God, the Vatican committed an Act of Faith. How horrible!!! Knowing the ethos of the current regime in the Vatican, this was definitely an error! What's next, barring pro abortion, fake catholics from participating?

February 3, 2018 at 10:29 AM

Anonymous said...

Poor suffering Congo!

From late 19th to early 20th century they were then too probably the most suffering people on the planet. A cruel, violent scramble to make money from their rubber and ivory etc back then with the worst human rights abuses on the face of the earth. But back then, missionaries spoke out enough, many journalists listened, major writers like Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad etc wrote about the suffering and the worst kind of exploitation of human beings on earth and politicians like Theodore Roosevelt were compassionate and decent enough to use their influence and then from about 1920 to 1960 the worst abuses were reduced. But the suffering there in recent decades with the cruellest atrocities and the scale of it all! Almost totally ignored in the rest of the world by politicians and media organizations to all those big actors and musicians, who can often speak out about matters so trivial in comparison to the tragedy in Congo. The best brief summary I found was written by John le Carre found by a google search of: Congo Hell on earth.

KPK.

February 3, 2018 at 1:29 PM

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Anonymous said...

"Life is nasty, brutish and short" is the most famous line in English philosophy.

The full Hobbes quote and the context is:

Life can be nasty, brutish, short, solitary and poor and will inevitably be so when there is not a strong functioning and effective government and with no rule of law, and law and order not properly enforced.

There are nations and areas of Africa which have the best, fertile soil and important mineral resources in abundance but without stable, efficient government and internal peace and laws enforced........billions of $$ can be made from their resources while millions of its citizens can experience poverty and violence.

the life expectancy in Congo has gone down by 15 years in recent decades compared to c.1915 to 1960 when it was poorly ruled and greatly exploited by Belgium.

Chinese investments in Africa have increased 700% in a decade.

If a large number of economists are right and by 2050 to 2080 China becomes the worlds leading economic power and then increasing world wide political influence follow economic dominance then tens of millions of Africans may be better off....

By the way in my whole life I have only had dinner and a lengthy conversation with a Catholic bishop once. Talking of such books and films as "When China rules the World" and "When China met Africa" etc Bishop X said if in a 100 years China rules the world that may be a good thing as we may then have a Chinese Pope and my God! A Chinese bishop or cardinal ending up pope could easily be the sort of pope needed to restore discipline and law and order within the Catholic Church!!

February 5, 2018 at 7:45 AM