MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Malvinas war veteran plans to visit Falklands cemeteries with a message from Francis
Pope Francis blessed crucifixes and rosaries which will be taken to the Argentine and British cemeteries in the Falkland Islands by an Argentine war veteran. The Pope during the blessings called for peace “among the peoples” of the world. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rules“The Pope called for peace among all peoples of the world”
Jan 16th, 2014 - 09:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Good for him. Does this mean he recognises the Falkland Islanders as a “people”, or are mere “populations” excluded?
If only... most Argentines thought this way ,buried their aggression and started acting like grown ups! As an institution Popery is misleading and evil, but Francis has many good points (sorry to Catholics and other believers but I have a non supersticious naturalistic worldview ).
Jan 16th, 2014 - 09:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0if he was that good,
Jan 16th, 2014 - 10:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0then he could in theory ask CFK to stop her bullying , threats , intimidation , arrogance,
could he not,
yet one suspects if the shoe was on the other foot, ???????????????? .
Donated the rights if his book to one if the richest institutions on the planet?
Jan 16th, 2014 - 11:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0Wow, I bet that will make a difference to the poor.......
If he had donated the books royalties to a homeless family in BA, then I would have had a gram of respect for him.
There is no doubt about it that this Pope has a pro-malvinas agenda, he has been very clear about in the past. His current office precludes him from voicing his true opinions on the matter, much to CFK's annoyance. Not that anyone is safe to be trusted in the catholic church for may reasons, but this one definitely isn't to be trusted.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 11:06 am - Link - Report abuse 04
Jan 16th, 2014 - 11:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0clearly you dont know too much about caritas or the work of the priests in the villas miseria.
get informed before posting
Old turkeyneck must be gnashing her teeth because he doesn't fill every sermon with a hate-filled nationalistic rant about “la uthupathion de nuethtrath Malvinath” and excommunicate the entire British pirate population, as she'd no doubt hoped. I'm guessing that for once an Argie is taking a mature, diplomatic line rather than the toddler tantrum/gollum line.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 11:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0@6
Jan 16th, 2014 - 11:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0What? You mean the paedophiles?
Yes you heard me. Too many paedophiles in the Catholic Church.
Get informed, or at the very least admit this before you post.
I'm no papist but there is a world of difference between what goes on in the Vatican and the service of many front-line priests. Paedophiles-aside, inner city priests (and ministers of other denominations) generally do a lot for little reward plus they get little respect for it nowadays (not least because of the paedophiles). That a guy abandoned the country he feels let him down and now runs a kids charity is commendable IMHO. His only flaw is not to have felt as let down by the Vatican as he was by his country.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 01:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's about time the argentine dead were returned to argentina where they belong and reburied with full military honours.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 01:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@1 Definitely beat me on the same thought. Still, isn't argieland supposed to be Christian? But then, argieland lies a lot, doesn't it?
Jan 16th, 2014 - 01:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@6 Yep, we all know about the “work” of catholic priests in deprived areas. And elsewhere. 21st century “eucharist”. Take this on your tongue and suck. It's almost tasteless.
Wonder if this “war veteran” has any concepts? Protestants don't have a lot of time for papist idolatry. So much for crucifixes and rosaries.
How about a request from argieland to permit 10,000 argie veterans“ to visit the Falklands and dance across the minefields?”
This gentleman sounds a lot more sensible than most Argentinians. He's a combat veteran and felt betrayed when he returned home. And now he wants to make peace within himself and deliver these small tokens of peace to honor the dead on both sides. And so he had the Pope bless them. So ley him. Hardly aggressive or political. So why people on here want to attack him, the Pope, and Catholicism in general is beyond me. If you don't like Catholics that's your business. But learn a little tolerance please. Making sweeping generalizations about other people's faiths and motives is childish and ignorant I'm a Catholic and a combat veteran myself. I think it's touching what he wants to do. Save your hatred for yourself.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 01:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“The Malvinas war veteran lives in the Canary islands where he arrived 28 years ago”
Jan 16th, 2014 - 02:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Another do gooder who found his homeland an unsuitable place to live.
“Yes you heard me. Too many paedophiles in the Catholic Church.”
Jan 16th, 2014 - 02:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0there are more cases of sexual abuse in protestant churches.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2007/06/18/80877.htm
and most of the cases of paedophilia were committed in anglo saxon countries.
not a surprise.
The Pope called for peace among all peoples of the world,
Jan 16th, 2014 - 02:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Should he start from arge land first and stop their country from bullying the Falkland people.
This is just another stunt from Arge land,
@14, what Paul said IS correct. And let's not pretend that being the go-between to the mere mortal and the all powerful-invisible-friend-in-the-sky gives any predator a catbird seat in ANY religious group be it mainstream or whackadoodle. But the problem that makes the RCC stand out is the perception and reality of being centralized and global. With the exception of a few denominations like the mainstream LDS, the RCC centralized at the global scale. Other protestant denominations are... “contained” geographically including the Anglican Communion (speaking as an ex-HighEpiscopalian) therein so the “spread” of any protestant scandal typically ends at a national boarder. Therefore accountability percolating up to one central person is a heluvalot easier to make and heluvalot more plausible and it doesn't help that he still really hasn't directed people below him to provide all documents on past pedophiles and other lay and collared predators in the RCC to local law enforcement.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 03:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As for a message of peace. Fine. But, the burden of follow-through really lies with the Argentine government. They are the ones that refuse to meet with the Islanders. They are the ones that ran after all was arranged in February. They are the ones that tore up the earlier conciliatory post-82 agreements. They are the ones treat the islanders as dehumanized nonentities in violation of the resolutions they lie about...
14 Paul
Jan 16th, 2014 - 04:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“and most of the cases of paedophilia were committed in anglo saxon countries.”
Paul, what's those 'whataboutery'???
Do you think perhaps, that it's just that fewer were reported in Catholic countries????
It would be an “affront to the Church” for you to accuse your priests.
We don't stand for it - we report it.
@12 jwolf
Jan 16th, 2014 - 06:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In case it slipped your attention, you'll find MP comment threads rarely get past 10 comments without some troll posts that that are flat out attacks with unbelievably narrow minded generalisations. Then Conq chips in...
It's the reason there is very little good discourse here, and good posters generally leave the site.
CFK wants her cake and eat it,
Jan 16th, 2014 - 07:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0the only problem is
she don't even own the bloody cake..lol
“and most of the cases of paedophilia were committed in anglo saxon countries.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 08:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0not a surprise.” Where have I heard that before? Hmmm. TTT said that.
paulcedron
Jan 16th, 2014 - 08:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“most of the cases of paedophilia were committed in anglo saxon countries” - so the inference is that in non Anglo Saxon countries, they are not bothered about investigating paedophilia - surely human nature being what it is, it happens,regretfully, in all societies.
The guy in the article seems to be a nice guy, let him do whatever he like with his blessed trinkets. As for peace, all the president of Argentina has to do is stand up in public and say “The Falkland Islanders exist, they are human and have human rights.” This is essentially the difference between our 2 countries. Peace achieved.
Jan 16th, 2014 - 08:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As for the stats on peadophilia you are not comparing like with like
The Catholic Church has had 13,000 credible reports of peadophile priests since the 1950s. 216 per year. It doesn't say if this is the USA or worldwide.
Insurance companies have had 260 reports per year of child sex abuse US Protestant churches over the last 10-20 years. But these reports do not just include priests and ministers these are all claims including laity, choirmasters, musicians, volunteers, Sunday school teachers, caretakers on top of that the Protestant churches in America are much larger than the Catholic Church so, all things other being equal, you would expect more cases.
Your point that a lot of the cases are in Anglo Saxon countries is not exactly relevant. A large proportion of the offences were in the USA where the majority of Catholic priest are Latin, Latino, Hispanic, Irish and Eastern European decent. Some of the offences were in Ireland where the majority of priests are Irish, some of the offences may have happened in the UK where a significant proportion of the priests are of Irish, Italian and other ethnic descents.
Also the Catholic peadophile priests were more prolific particularly in the past where the policy was to move them around to new unsuspecting congregations. Staff moving between Protestant congregations usually need references from where they come from. As the governing bodies are the church members or parish council who will often be parents or grandparents of the children the references are not going to be in line with the glowing references given to Paedo Catholic priests by their Bishops
@18
Jan 16th, 2014 - 09:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No you're absolutely right. Seems every story's comments quickly degenerate into the same conversation and name calling. You could almost cut and paste the comment threads for every story and you wouldn't even know which article was being commented on. Still holding out hope that occasionally some on here will stay on topic and discuss with at least a modicum of respect......
As a Catholic I am very suspicious of the popes intentions re our British islands in the South Atlantic - after all he is a Jesuit and they are renowned for their scheming ways!
Jan 16th, 2014 - 09:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Gordo1
Jan 16th, 2014 - 09:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”our British islands' - sorry, belong to the Falkland Islanders.
Is it a British Overseas Territory?
Jan 16th, 2014 - 10:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 04 Escoses Doido
Jan 17th, 2014 - 04:14 am - Link - Report abuse 06 paulcedron
I was watching a film on British television yesterday “White Elephant” by the Argentine director Pablo Trapero. It was about the work of Catholic priests in the slums of Buenos Aires. One can only stand up in admiration for such people who dedicate their lives to the service of others. It was truly shocking to see the level of poverty and degradation found within the worse of Argentina’s Villa miseries. Nothing in the UK, not even in the poorest parts of East London, Liverpool or Glasgow comes even remotely close to this.
It is clear, even from the comments of this silly little blog that catholic paedophiles, however small a minority they be, have besmirched the reputation of those who deserve our highest regard. Such are the dark threads within the rich tapestry of life.
A simple, honourable gesture that has little to do with Catholicism but everything to with spirituality and coming to terms with the past.
Jan 17th, 2014 - 04:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0In this context the sexual, and other, abuse of children by Catholic clergy is utterly irrelevant.
10 Eddieposted “It's about time the argentine dead were returned to argentina where they belong and reburied with full military honours”
Jan 17th, 2014 - 04:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0They are buried in Argentina and if we should follow your stupid criteria the world will start sending your dead back to Britain including the ones buried in Argentina mainland.
24 Gordo“As a Catholic I am very suspicious of the popes intentions”
As a Catholic I am very suspicious of banksters intentions like yourself.
20 ElaineB
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0““and most of the cases of paedophilia were committed in anglo saxon countries.
not a surprise.” Where have I heard that before? Hmmm. TTT said that.”
Hmm, interesting, Elaine.
Nostrils is also not in agreement that the Falklands should be taken by Argentina.
And... he did make a big fuss about being “away”.
Perhaps you were correct afterall. The timing of Oayls appearance was correct.
@29
Jan 17th, 2014 - 12:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“They are buried in Argentina”
In your dreams.
@29
Jan 17th, 2014 - 01:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Buried in Argentina”?
Tell me how in real, practical, administrive and governance terms that the Falklands are a part of Argentina and not just a belief you have. Your'e deluded.
@12 I do admire your beliefs in this instance. However, since you're a Catholic, could you explain how “argies” set out to steal British territory in 1832? What about “Thou shalt not steal”? And “Thou shalt not covet”?
Jan 17th, 2014 - 01:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Could you then explain how “argies” have lied ever since 1833, at least? What about “Thou shalt not bear false witness”? 1982 and we're back to “Thou shalt not covet” and “Thou shalt not steal”! And, since 1982, “Thou shalt not covet” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness” all the way. Actually, you might want to remind the spanish about “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not kill”.
“Tolerance” is a good one. I like that. Do you think that 181 years, one invasion, one occupation, one war and one defeat is enough to get argies to learn some tolerance?
So don't tell US about sweeping generalisations, faiths and motives. It wasn't US out dancing in the streets as they STOLE someone else's property, imprisoned people, including children, in unprotected accommodation, used the Red Cross to “disguise” military installations and transport and placed artillery between civilian homes!
@14 “in anglo-saxon countries”. If you say so. By roman catholic priests. Check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_by_country
I count 26 countries. And only 6 of them could be defined as “anglo-saxon”.
How do you like them apples?
@18 The COMMON raven. Really must learn not to be COMMON.
@23 Obviously not been here long. Take a look at “Think”. Virtually every “comment” includes an insult. Most of the argie bloggers insult all the time. And other latams. It's they that divert. They would insult the intelligence of a 5-year old. There are other dummies, of course. There's one @18. But you mention “respect”. Respect has to be earned. Simon68 has earned respect. Marcos Alejandro couldn't command respect from a hyena with fleas.
@26 Self-governing. Therefore, by definition, sovereign.
@29 You're brain-dead. Go bury yourself.
@33
Jan 17th, 2014 - 03:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You haven't read the other sporadic posts I've put on here evidently. I'm 110% convinced the Falkands belong to Britain. I have never advocated for Argentina about anything. I make fun of their misguided stupidity like most everyone else on here.
Malvinas war veteran plans to visit Falklands cemeteries with a message from Francis
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0From merco press,
PEACE,
He should come on here…lol
.
@29 Marcos Alejandro
Jan 17th, 2014 - 08:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Twice you have referred to me as “Gordo” whereas l am “Gordo1” - you must be confusing me with someone else!
The veteran sounds like a good fellow.
Jan 17th, 2014 - 10:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A very positive story.
Good for him.
It is unfortunate and in poor taste that some of you have chosen this forum for Papist bashing. Schools and churches are a magnetic attraction for paedophiles, the Church of Rome due to its celibacy could have more than its fair share, but the CoE is not exactly exempt from this plague.
Jan 18th, 2014 - 02:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0As for Pope Francis, I have had the honour of meeting him; he is highly intelligent, has a good sense of humour and is a freethinker which will probably mark some of the changes he is trying to bring about in the church. For those of you who aren't aware of it, the Vatican has challenged Lambeth Palace to a cricket match to be held at Lords, and hopefully this will be a step towards bringing our two churches closer together. See link
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/uk-cricket-vatican-idUKBRE9BJ16B20131220
All depends on what trinkets he brings - the Argentine Veterans Families Association itself expressly forbids the placing of anything that is in the form of a political object or wording - they are simply removed and periodically shipped back to Argentina. Those of a personal and non-political nature are permitted of course.
Jan 18th, 2014 - 09:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0Those lads have lain there at peace now for over 30years and we Islanders are sickened by the continual farce of Argentina trying to play politics with the dead.
Nothing other than small personal adornments(flowers/small pictures etc) laid by family members themselves are permitted in the British war cemetery so he will be out of luck there I think.
I think im willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt but i think rosaries are not such a good idea for fallen british soldiers a poppy would be more appropriate. Im not going to do the catholic bashing although the popes message of peace between all peoples is nice until the catholic church publicly apologises for the persecution of the pagan communities around the world Ive got no time for them at all they are the ones who kick started the persecution after all and before anybody starts on about how the protestants burnt our lot to I remember a member of the monarchy advocating that the crown should be defenders of the faiths not just the faith and as HRH is head of the church that makes me think they've started down the path already plus we arnt persecuted any more so alls good :)
Jan 18th, 2014 - 12:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 027 rupertbrooks0
Jan 18th, 2014 - 02:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0spot on
27 rupertbrooks0 what channel was it on? I might want to take a look at it
Jan 18th, 2014 - 05:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Indeed, it was a huge historical mistake not to have expelled from the Falklands
Jan 20th, 2014 - 05:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0in 1982, ALL foreign invaders- dead and alive.
Philippe
@43 The foreign invaders WERE expelled. The embittered fascists in Buenos Aires refused their war dead in a grievous act of dishonor and then insisted and continue to insist that the British care for their dead in a cruel move against their families so they could play political football with their emotions over their lost family members. No doubt the cynical bastards in charge still hold them partially responsible for loosing their glorious war for them.
Jan 21st, 2014 - 01:26 am - Link - Report abuse 042 ShadowWalker
Jan 21st, 2014 - 06:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0BBC Channel 4. Unfortunately its already fropped off BBCi player.
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