“Right word at the right time”

adminonDecember 7, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Armin Laschet © Guido Kirchner

Pope Francis' new encyclical continues to generate many reactions in politics and society. NRW Minister President Armin Laschet praised the Pope's encyclical letter. The Catholic Women's Federation also criticized.

The Catholic German Women's Federation (KDFB) spoke of an "important call to reflect on a world that is drifting apart and characterized by egoism". Topics such as solidarity, willingness to engage in dialogue and the search for consensual solutions have also occupied the association for years, said KDFB President Maria Flachsbarth in Cologne on Monday.

The women's federation misses however a criticism of church structures in the doctrinal letter "Fratelli tutti", which the pope had published on Sunday. This concerns topics such as the sexual and spiritual abuse of women in the church, the opening of ordination offices for women or the lack of dialogue between some Vatican circles and the local churches. "A church is only credible if it lives within what it demands of others," Flachsbarth admonished.

Laschet praises encyclical

NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) praised the encyclical shortly after his general audience with Pope Francis. The letter was "the right word at the right time", he told the "Rheinische Post". Francis, he said, brings the environment, climate, economy, development and migration into context, as well as peace and human rights – at a time when society is becoming increasingly selfish and aggressive. He says this shows the holistic approach of this pope.

"The fact that he explicitly refers to inspiration from exchanges with other religions and cultures underscores Francis' great willingness to engage in dialogue," the CDU politician continued.
Laschet called the encyclical "an urgent reminder against nationalism and a groundbreaking plea for more multilateralism".

Ifo boss Fuest shows disappointment

The president of the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Clemens Fuest, was disappointed. "Ranting against markets and alleged neoliberalism is the greatest weakness of the paper," he told the Catholic News Agency (KNA). According to Fuest, virtually no one still believes that the market can solve all problems. Francis is railing against a system that does not exist at all.

Francis' statement that globalization has not benefited the weak and has only led them into dependencies is also "a simple untruth. Here prejudices are presented, the actual development of the world is ignored. Such errors are regrettable because they take away some of the credibility of the entire text."

Praise from SPD and FDP factions in Bundestag

Meanwhile, further approval came from the Bundestag: the spokesman for religious policy of the SPD parliamentary group, Lars Castellucci welcomed the desire to strengthen international cooperation.
"To phenomena such as global migratory movements, we can also only ever respond globally and together," he said in response to a question. "The church, also in association with others, could provide a platform on which we can come together anew."

The spokesman on religious policy for the FDP parliamentary group, Benjamin Strasser, said the encyclical should "become compulsory reading in all the capitals of the world". It was "a flaming appeal to
Multilateralism and against populist nationalism" and strengthens all those who stand up for democracy, international cooperation and the protection of human rights.

Things are getting lonelier around the 'gladiator school' at the trisulti monastery

The ultraconservative "Dignitatis Humanae Institute" is seeing its most prominent Catholic advocate go off the shelf. The battle over the cadre of populists is increasingly becoming a personal drama for its leader.

Now Cardinal Burke is also gone. For the second time in just a few months, the association supporting Steve Bannon's populist academy in the former Italian monastery Trisulti has lost its honorary chairman. To be sure, Leo Raymond Burke no longer plays a role in the Vatican since his outspoken criticism of Pope Francis maneuvered him into obscurity. But the 80-year-old U.S. American is still seen as a figurehead of those who are uncomfortable with the reform ideas of the incumbent pope – that is, also for the "Dignitatis Humanae Institute" (DHI) and its Academy for the Defense of the Christian West.

What broke the camel's back for Burke was that he found himself close to a project that former Trump adviser Bannon and French author Frederic Martel were discussing in Paris in May. The ie there was Bannon's possible acquisition of film rights to "Sodoma"; a book in which Martel portrays homosexuality and double lives in the Vatican as the rule rather than the exception.

The latest in a series of bad tidings

The head of the DHI, the Briton Benjamin Harnwell, explained that he had privately arranged the meeting. Also, he said, views of Bannon were incorrectly presented in an online post that has since been deleted. Cardinal Burke, however, is generally unhappy that the institute, which set out to support conservative Catholic politicians, is becoming "more and more identified with Bannon's political program".

For Harnwell, Burke's departure is the latest in a series of bad news: an unexpected property tax of 82.000 euros; a forged bank appraisal; investigations by the Roman prosecutor's office and the Lazio region. Italy's Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli (Five Star) wants to revoke the DHI's 2018 concession for the Trisulti state cultural monument. He flatly calls Harnwell a "fraud".

Benjamin Harnwell a silent man

Before the "gladiator school for culture warriors" announced by Bannon has even opened, it is struggling to survive. Yet Benjamin Harnwell is a quiet man. The 46-year-old chemist speaks softly, deliberately; sometimes even a single consonant forms a small hurdle. He found Catholicism late, at the age of 30. He describes his motto of faith with the words of the apostle Paul: "Strive with fear and trembling for your salvation".

Harnwell could have become a monk – if he possessed "the grace to obey instructions in a hierarchy". That he does not have it, he learned – "painfully," as he says – since 1996, first as a staff member of a British MP, then in Brussels. The over-regulation of the EU, the bureaucratism of Italy make him "boil". About the modern state, he expresses "100 percent disappointment" – nothing but a system that secures power, privilege and wealth for elites.

Main donor and media protagonist

From this system Harnwell fled in 2010. A stay of several months in a Cistercian monastery in Rome, then building the DHI. Making contacts, creating networks – what he had learned in er politics; only now with his own agenda. In 2014, Bannon came along. He became the main donor and protagonist in the media.

Since April, the Roman headquarters of the DHI has been dissolved. Moving boxes still stand unpacked in Trisulti. Little progress is being made on rehabilitation of 800-year-old abbey. Future course participants must be prepared for metal cots and coarse woolen blankets. Meanwhile, Harnwell's mother handles secretarial duties. The 64-year-old left her husband in Leicester, central England, to help support her son. It came because of him, Harnwell says, not because of the DHI.

Harnwell is convinced he is taking part in "the most important political battle of our time". He admits that his personal spiritual life is currently suffering more than ever before in the Brussels treadmill. But it is about the "Judeo-Christian West," about moral values, about the freedom of the individual against restrictions, whether they come from the state or from the pope. Ultimately, it is about Benjamin Harnwell. If he had more time, he says, he would simply study the New Testament.

Rocket Internet: Actions Voices Borsenrucking

The start-up investor Rocket Internet is allowed to go from the Borse. At the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, a majority of 81 percent of the share capital for the step has tuned, the early MDAX Group shared with. The Group plans to buy the sharehere shares directly to their share certificates of € 18.57 each.

Capital market as funding "dignified"

The shareholders also approved a purchase program of up to 10 percent of the share capital. Following the Annual General Meeting Kerne Rocket Internet, to apply this decision and to buy 8.84 percent for up to 18.57 per share over the Borse. As a result, the shareholders should open the possibility to enchant their shares to society before completion of the delisting jerky advertising offering, striking it. The program should still start on Thursday and spat at the latest on the 15th. End of November.

Rocket was announced at the beginning of September, one wanted to go back after a good six years from the borse. The capital market has lost importance as funding for the company. Round half of the Sagwer Brother, Coarent Parts Over the Vehicle Global Founders GmbH. These shares should not be stated. The Group holds enough cash with 1.9 billion euros to stop the back purchase of the insufficient own papers.

Rocket Internet Grundet or invests in Internet and technology companies. Many of his current and earlier investments are now listed on the Borse, such as the cooking box sender Hellofresh and the food delivery service Delivery Hero.

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