Massive treasure from 1600s revealed inside German church statue

 

St Andrews-church in Eisleben, Germany.© (photo credit: Harald Lueder. Via Shutterstock)

Story by JERUSALEM POST STAFF

 • 2d • 3 min read

Restorers at St. Andrew's Church in Eisleben, Germany, announced the discovery of a hoard of 17th-century coins hidden within a statue during restoration work. The treasure, 2,584 coins, was found two years ago but was only disclosed after detailed examinations and documentation were completed.

During the restoration of a sandstone statue in the Gothic church, workers uncovered the coins concealed in a cavity within the leg of the figure. The hoard includes gold and silver coins from the 17th century, along with approximately 800 pennies.

"This is an incredible story," said Ulf Dräger, curator of the State Coin Cabinet of Saxony-Anhalt. "It is hard to believe that the treasure was not discovered earlier," he remarked, according to CafeF.

The treasure consists of four bags containing 816 coins, among them gold coins known as golden angels, ducal gold coins, double gold coins, silver coins such as thalers, half thalers, quarter thalers, and hundreds of pennies. The most valuable gold pieces were wrapped in paper and labeled in a way that indicates the money belongs to the church's treasury.

Dräger explained that the person who hid the treasure placed "the four bags" in a cavity in the leg of the sandstone statue, which is part of a lamentation of a countess and count, according to Newsbomb.

Read the rest: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/massive-treasure-from-1600s-revealed-inside-german-church-statue/ar-BB1rn7Z4?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=bebf701a505d45889a364119b10e3e5e&ei=44

Archaeologists Stumble on 400-Year-Old Burial Vault Under a Famous Church ...

 ... Skeletons Were Pressed to Make Space for More Bodies

Archaeologists involved in the restoration of the famous Church of Saint Philibert in France were surprised by the findings they unearthed by following a forgotten staircase. Experts after arriving on the site started to look into the foundations of several structures in the establishment, stated Popular Mechanics. During their exploration, the team stumbled upon a forgotten staircase and decided to look into it. Experts on the other side of the staircase found a 400-year-old burial vault and several sixth-century sarcophagi.

Image of Dijon Église Saint-Philibert (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons| Photo by François de Dijon)© Front Page Detectives

The church dates back to around the second half of the 12th century, stated Fox News. The vault was possibly made somewhere between the 15th and 16th centuries. The coffins inside the vault contained the dead remains of children and adults. Researchers noted that the bones of each individual were pushed to the side to make room for the next one inside the coffin. Along with the bodies, researchers also found rare coins and two rosaries in the vault. Experts noted that the vault's foundation measured about nine feet in depth. Archaeologists also uncovered slab tombs in the location which were built from the 11th through 13th centuries.

Read the rest: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/archaeologists-stumble-on-400-year-old-burial-vault-under-a-famous-church-skeletons-were-pressed-to-make-space-for-more-bodies/ar-AA1xfnhe?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=70caa9ce72e64691acd72f220d4efd4d&ei=30

Pope Francis becomes first ever sitting pontiff to publish autobiography

Story by Jonny Walfisz

 • 21h • 3 min read

Pope Francis has made history by becoming the first pontiff to publish his life story while his office. Francis wrote "Hope" over a six-year period and originally intended for it to be published after his death.

Francis, however, changed his mind about posthumously publishing it due to his belief that the needs of our times require he make his thoughts on his legacy and the state of the world available now.

It coincides with the beginning of a papal jubilee. A jubilee is held every 25 years in the Vatican and Francis has declared that this quarter century’s jubilee theme is “Pilgrims of Hope”, tying into the title of the book.

"Hope" covers the major events of Francis’ life. It starts with his heritage, how his Italian ancestors moved to South America to escape Mussolini’s fascist rule. Through this, the book covers not just the circumstances of his birth in Argentina, but the roots of his empathy towards those struggling under tyranny and forced into migration and forging a new life.

Born as Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 1936, Francis is the first ever South American to become Pope of the Catholic Church. After covering his provenance, he moves into the providence that brought him to become a Jesuit priest.

Read the rest: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-becomes-first-ever-sitting-pontiff-to-publish-autobiography/ar-BB1rrBoa?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=70caa9ce72e64691acd72f220d4efd4d&ei=41

“ US bishops stand to lose lots of money from mass deportations”

 US Bishops Denounce Trump’s Immigration Plans

The Catholic Church has clear teachings on immigration, but US bishops stand to lose lots of money from mass deportations. 

by S.A. MCCARTHY

January 11, 2025, 10:20 PM 

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago opposes Trump plan for deportations (Complicit Clergy/Youtube

As President-elect Donald Trump is just days away from returning to the White House, American Catholic leaders are denouncing his immigration agenda. Chicago’s powerful Cardinal Blase Cupich warned in a recent interview that U.S. bishops “are going to have to be prophetic and denounce any abuse of human dignity that may occur” as Trump rolls out his mass deportation program. “We are going to be vigilant and we are going to defend the human dignity of immigrants,” Cupich said. The cardinal called deportation plans “intolerable, especially in a country where we are all immigrants. I am a product of immigration!”

Over the past decade, the USCCB and groups like Catholic Charities have collected over $2 billion from the U.S. government for migrant and refugee “services.”

Cupich’s comments follow those of Cardinal Robert McElroy, the newly-appointed archbishop of Washington, D.C. In a press conference last week, McElroy anticipatedconflict with the incoming Trump administration on the issue of immigration and deportations. “In terms of what issue would I see coming forth in the life of the church that might be in contrast with some of the priorities the president-elect has been talking about, a large one, of course, is immigration,” the cardinal said. He claimed that “plans” for “wider, indiscriminate, massive deportation across the country would be something that would be incompatible with Catholic doctrine.”

A far more Catholic understanding of and approach to immigration is evinced by Trump’s incoming “border czar,” former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan. In an interview with Tucker Carlson last month, Homan described why he came out of retirement for a second time to join Trump’s administration. “When you lose the border, trafficking and sex trafficking’s gonna skyrocket, child deaths will skyrocket, migrant deaths will skyrocket, American deaths will skyrocket,” the immigration official said. He continued, “I love this country. I want to save some lives. Secure borders save lives. So I’m gonna come back, do what I can.”

Homan lamented the more-than-300,000 migrant children who have gone missing at the border since President Joe Biden took office four years ago. “We gotta save these women and children,” he said. “We gotta save these kids, a lot of them are living a life of hell every day.… We’re gonna find some of them living with pedophiles, living in sex-slavery, some are gonna be dead, but we gotta find these children.”

Read the rest: https://spectator.org/us-bishops-denounce-trumps-immigration-plans/

Reuters Shows Its Anti-Catholic Bias

Bill Donohue

January 8, 2025

With one notable exception, news stories on the death of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, did not fail to mention that he was a convicted sex offender. Only Reuters, the British news wire, failed to mention it. Initially, the American news wire, the Associated Press, failed to mention it as well, but it corrected itself in later editions. Reuters did not.

The media outlets that did the best job on reporting Yarrow’s abuse of a minor were Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. 

Now some might say that it could be that Reuters has little interest in reporting on sexual abuse. But that is not the case. From May 2021 to December 2024, the British news agency ran nearly 300 stories on the Catholic Church and abuse, even though it was given very little to report on: most offending priests are either dead or have been kicked out of ministry.

Reuters is so anxious to report on priestly misconduct that it can’t even get its facts straight. We had to correct the U.K. journalists in 2018 when it ran a piece on Father Kevin Lonergan of the Diocese of Allentown (PA) who groped a 17-year-old girl and sent nude photos of himself to her. Reuters wrote that “The Allentown Diocese removed Lonergan from his duties after prosecutors alerted them to the case.”

This is false. It was Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert who notified the authorities, right after he learned about it.

What exactly did Yarrow do that Reuters is covering up?

In 1970, a 14-year-old and her 17-year-old sister went to his hotel room after his concert to get his autograph. He came to the door naked and then sexually abused the younger girl in front of her sister. He was sentenced to a one-to-three-year prison sentence, but only served three months.

Yarrow later gave himself a pass, blaming it on the sexual revolution. “In that time, it was common practice, unfortunately—the whole groupie thing.” He also said, “It was an era of real indiscretion and mistakes by categorically male performers.” So child abuse is a “mistake.”

If this isn’t sick enough, consider that the child molester was pardoned in 1981 by none other than President Jimmy Carter, just as he was going out the door. Yarrow was not at all contrite. Indeed, he took the occasion to blast those who nailed him. “With the mean-spiritedness of our time,” he said, “it gets hauled out as if it’s [the sexual abuse of the 14-year-old girl] relevant.” That it might be relevant to his victims does not matter.

After I read that in 2014, I said, “It just makes me want to reach for the vomit bag.”

There’s a lot to chew on with this story, but don’t look for Reuters to educate its readers.

Contact the president and CEO of Thomson Reuters: steve.hasker@thomsonreuters.com

Trump and the Vatican: Here’s what to expect in 2025

 On this episode of Faith and Reason, John Henry-Westen and Father Charles Murr discuss their predictions and hopes for 2025 in the Church and the world with Trump returning to the White House and the lingering possibility of a papal conclave.

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to a Q&A at the National Faith Advisory Summit on October 28, 2024, in Powder Springs, GeorgiaPhoto by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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LifeSiteNews staff

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Mon Jan 6, 2025 - 4:05 pm EST

(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, John Henry-Westen and Father Charles Murr discuss their predictions and hopes for 2025 in both the Church and the world with Donald Trump returning to the White House, the lingering possibility of a papal conclave as Pope Francis’ health continues to deteriorate, and more.

The panel began the episode by discussing President-elect Trump’s upcoming inauguration after a decisive election victorylast year. Westen predicted that there would be chaos leading up to the inauguration.

Murr disagreed, predicting that there will be a peaceful transfer of power, and emphasized that he hopes Trump’s second term will finally bring an end to the civil unrest we’ve seen from the “left” for the last several years.

“You know what I’ve seen that I just would not have believed it possible not so many years ago in my country, in the United States of America – the civil unrest … from the left. I had seen that in Europe, and I’d seen it in Latin America, but I always considered, maybe incorrectly, obviously, that they were not so stable in their political mind as the United States and as Canada and parts of Europe also … until I saw what was happening on the streets of the United States in 2016. And then the burning of our cities and downing of monuments (in 2020), that didn’t seem to me like it was the United States of America,” Murr said.

Still, the priest added that what gives him hope is that the civil unrest lost much of its momentum in 2024.

“I think it’s lost a lot of its wind; I think it’s lost a lot of its power because this last election happened relatively peacefully. And it happened that the majority won (a) clean and clear majority, that’s obvious to anyone. So anyone who really believes in democracy can’t rebuff that,” he said.

A bit later, Westen predicted Vice President-elect J.D. Vance would attend this year’s March for Life in person, and Trump would likely call in to the event.

Murr agreed and addressed Trump’s apparent changing stances on pro-life issues, highlighting that leaders can change once they come into power.

“Politics is politics, and you have to do and say quite a number of things to get elected. Once you’re elected, I’ve seen people change. I really have seen people change and get more in tune with what the truth is, (and) I have that hope. I hold out that hope for Trump also in 2025,” the priest said.

Later in the episode, the panel turned to the Vatican, where speculation of a conclave taking place this year is mounting as Pope Francis’ health continues to worsen. Murr predicted that there will indeed be a conclave this year.

Read the rest: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trump-and-the-vatican-heres-what-to-expect-in-2025/

Italian bishops’ newspaper ran a story against Mary’s virginity

 CV NEWS FEED // Catholic philosopher and analyst Luisella Scrosati strongly criticized the decision of the official Catholic daily newspaper owned by the Italian Bishops’ Conference to run an interview with a biblical scholar questioning the virginity of Our Lady as well as the relevance of the Holy Family.

Scrosati, the author of several articles on chastity in the Catholic tradition, took to the digital Catholic outlet La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana (also published in English as The New Daily Compass) to criticize both the timing and content of L’Avvenire, which on December 29, the Solemnity of the Holy Family, published an interview titled “A Contemporary Holy Family: Mary and Joseph, subversives of love.” In the article, self-professed Italian “feminist theologian” Simona Segoloni Ruta dismissed the importance of the virginity of Mary and the Holy Family as a whole.

Read the rest: https://catholicvote.org/italian-bishops-newspaper-ran-a-story-against-marys-virginity/