Sunday 11th of May 2025
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still fighting the invading barbarians.....

I thought it might be third time lucky, but I was wrong again. I backed the wrong horse as pope!

When I awoke on Friday morning to learn that Robert Prevost, a dual US-Peruvian citizen had been elected, I was gobsmacked. But, on reflection, what a shrewd choice the cardinals have made. He is only the second natural-born English speaker elected pope. The first was Nicholas Breakspear, Pope Adrian IV (1154-1159).

 

Paul Collins

The New Pope – Leo XIV

 

Born on the south side of Chicago in September 1955, Prevost’s father was of Italian/French descent and his mother from Creole ancestry. After gaining a bachelor of science degree, he joined the Augustinian Friars in 1977 and was ordained a priest in 1982. He was sent to Peru in 1985 and 16 years later he was elected Superior General of the Augustinians in 2001 serving in that role for 12 years. In 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru.

Francis brought him back to the Vatican in 2023 as Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops (the Vatican department that appoints bishops), replacing French-Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Prevost was also the President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Elected on 8 May, he took the name Leo XIV. The last Leo died in 1903 after a long and significant papacy. Leo XIII was a champion of the rights of workers in the capitalist system. His most famous encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum (1891) upheld private property, but also insisted on just wages, workers rights and trade unions. Leo XIII was very much a pope who looked outward beyond the church.

This, I think, will also be the approach of Leo XIV. As Rob Harris says in the Age and the SMH (9 May), he is “regarded as a unifying figure. His international experience and quiet diplomacy allowed him to navigate the ideological and regional divides among the cardinals. His election may mark a stylistic shift from Francis’s more outspoken leadership, but not necessarily a reversal of his reforms”. That’s correct!

He comes with extraordinary pastoral experience and a considerable background in church administration. Being head of an international religious order for 12 years means he knows at the base level the real issues facing the Church.

Incidentally, the Augustinians have been in Australia since 1838, and are now centred on Sydney’s North Shore at Brookvale, at Coorparoo in Brisbane and with parishes in Balgowlah and St Clair in NSW, South Yarra, Victoria and Mareeba in Queensland.

Pope Leo XIV is also strong on the need for local churches and bishops’ conferences to talk to each other and the understand the cultural differences with which each are dealing. This, to an extent, explains his attitude to LGBTQ+ issues.

Commenting on Pope Francis’ allowance for blessing for gay couples and the African bishops’ strong condemnation of such blessings, the then Cardinal Prevost said: “The bishops in the episcopal conferences of Africa were basically saying, that here in Africa, our whole cultural reality is very different… it wasn’t rejecting the teaching authority of Rome, it was saying that our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work.”

My greatest surprise was that a US-born cardinal was elected. Sure, he is a dual citizen of the US and Peru, but he is still Chicago-born. Perhaps the cardinals thought you need an American to deal with Donald Trump. Francis had already brought a strong bishop into Washington in the person of Cardinal Robert McElroy, a leader in the non-MAGA part of the US Catholic Church, someone who will not tolerate Trump’s narcissism. Significantly, the first Pope Leo (440-461), correctly entitled “the Great”, was the western European leader who personally confronted Attila the Hun at Mantua in 452.

A number of American Catholic commentators have said that it will be interesting to see how the US church reacts to Pope Leo. It is a deeply divided church with a Bishops Conference that could be a branch of the Republican party and estimates of 60% of Catholics voting for Trump. One of Prevost’s first tough jobs in the Bishops Dicastery was sacking Tyler, Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, an extreme MAGA supporter and an outspoken critic of Pope Francis accusing him of “undermining” the faith.

So, what can we expect from Leo XIV? Essentially, a continuation of the Pope Francis agenda, but in a more considered way. He won’t speak “off the cuff” like Francis and will be somewhat more cautious, but he shares Francis’ vision of an open church, involved in the nitty-gritty of the world and people’s lives.

He is clearly deeply committed to world peace. In his first speech from the balcony of Saint Peter’s, he said: “To all people wherever you may be, to all nations, to the whole earth: peace be with you. This is the peace of the Risen Christ: a disarmed peace, a disarming peace, humble and persevering, it comes from God, God who loves us all unconditionally.”

He will also continue the process of opening up Church governance to the whole Catholic community and introducing a genuine form of accountability. He’s actually called a press conference for next Monday (12 May)! The fact that he is a born English speaker means he will communicate in ways that make sense to us. Now that’s good news!

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/05/the-new-pope-leo-xiv/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

 

the huns....

cikal bakal orang Hun sudah migrasi ke asia tengah mengarah ke barat, persia dan eropa sebelum Xiongnu (kuno) dikenal oleh orang china. jadi sebutlah nenek moyang mereka sebagai orang padang rumput berkuda kuno. karena alam, dsb-nya sebagian tinggal di padang sekitaran china utara, china barat dan mongolia. sebagian lain di tarim basin hingga ke lembah ferghana dan sungai oxus.

seiringan dengan perubahan iklim dan pertumbuhan populasi termasuk menipisnya grazing ground karena perkembangan masyarakat kota di era Shang dan Zhou, maka mulai terjadi migarsi ke barat. inilah cikal bakal Hun, tetapi perpindahannya tidaklah masif melainkan sedikit demi sedikit, dan makan waktu ratusan tahun. seiring dengan waktu mereka berasimilasi dengan penduduk nomadic lain di sekitaran persia, dsb-nya seperti Sycthians, Turkic, dsb-nya.

mereka baru dikenal sebagai Hun setelah mencapai eropa dan bersinggungan dengan suku lain dan juga Romawi.

bagi Persia sendiri Hun atau Turkic atau suku nomadic lainnya dihitung sama. sebagian sekutu, sebagian netral, sebagian lagi lawan.

karena itu walaupun Hun memang berasal dari suku penunggang kuda kuno yang sama dengan Xiongnu, tetapi sulit bilang mereka adalah suku nomadic yang sama karena sudah berasmilasi selama ratusan tahun dengan suku-suku lain di kawasan. karena itu ciri dari Hun atau Hunnic people berbeda dengan Xiongnu, mereka sudah memiliki darah Turkic dan juga Persia, dsb-nya.


karena itu Attila walau dikatakan memiliki ciri asianic tetapi memiliki juga ciri orang kaukasia sebagai bukti dari percampuran banyak suku di asia tengah sebelum sampai di eropa.

https://www.kaskus.co.id/post/59fc91efc0d770621b8b456d

 

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the forerunner of the Hun people had migrated to Central Asia towards the west, Persia and Europe before the Xiongnu (ancient) were known to the Chinese. so call their ancestors the ancient horse-riding grassland people. because of nature, etc. some lived in the plains around northern China, western China and Mongolia. others in the Tarim Basin to the Ferghana Valley and the Oxus River.

along with climate change and population growth including the depletion of grazing ground due to the development of urban society in the Shang and Zhou eras, migration to the west began. this is the forerunner of the Hun, but the movement was not massive but rather little by little, and took hundreds of years. over time they assimilated with other nomadic people around Persia, etc. such as the Scythians, Turks, etc.

they were only known as Huns after reaching Europe and coming into contact with other tribes and also the Romans.

for Persia itself the Huns or Turks or other nomadic tribes are counted the same. some allies, some neutral, some opponents.

therefore although the Huns did come from the same ancient horse-riding tribe as the Xiongnu, it is difficult to say that they are the same nomadic tribe because they have assimilated for hundreds of years with other tribes in the region. therefore the characteristics of the Huns or Hunnic people are different from the Xiongnu, they already have Turkic and Persian blood, etc.

therefore Attila, although said to have Asian characteristics, also has Caucasian characteristics as evidence of the mixing of many tribes in Central Asia before arriving in Europe.

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.