Saturday, May 06, 2017
Pope Francis in Egypt: 'Re-knitting the ties with Islam'
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
"Islam is the second largest religion in the world, with more than 1.5 billion Muslims present in almost every country of the world. We cannot ignore it."
Father Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit priest and noted specialist in Islam, teaches at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome. He spoke with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) on the eve of the visit of Pope Francis to Egypt (April 28-29, 2017).
By Mario Bard
What would you say to Pope Francis in regard to his approaching visit to Egypt? Would you tell him to stay in Rome or to go ahead with his visit?
Being the man he is, I think he must go. He is not someone who is afraid. At the same time, considering the possibility of an assassination attempt, I believe that Egypt will do the impossible to protect him and ensure that there are no dangerous elements around – if only for their own sense of honor. Looking at it this way, I think that everything should go ahead normally.
Moreover, for a long time now he has wanted to re-knit the ties between the Vatican and Islam. This is what he told me personally when I had a conversation with him a few months ago. He told me, “Why is it that I insist on the fact that Islam is a religion of peace? Because we need first of all to rekindle our friendship with the Muslims and with Al Azhar [University].”
Why is it necessary to “re-knit ties?”
Let me recall the context: there was the attack in Alexandria on the Coptic Church at Christmas, six years ago. Someone blew himself up and there were dozens of deaths. A few days later Pope Benedict XVI, in a meeting with the ambassadors at the Holy See, said: “I call on the president of the Egyptian Republic to protect the Christians.” In response, Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, the rector of Al Azhar, declared that it was unacceptable for the Pope to interfere in Egyptian politics and broke off relations with Rome.
Today, after a number of fruitless attempts, relations have resumed. And it was the principal aim of Pope Francis to re-establish relations with Islam and with the Al Azhar University in particular, which represents the majority of Muslims in the world, Sunnis–who account for 80 percent of all Muslims. The institution represents an unassailable moral and intellectual authority for them.
Why is it important to maintain an interreligious dialogue with Islam?
Ready Or Not?
Like so many of you, I’ve been watching the recent prophetic developments including the rapidly increasing influence and in-roads of the Papacy – truly one of the more impressive historic and prophetic developments of our time.
And yet, this should not come as a surprise to Seventh-day Adventists, who have long held that the Bible teaches a resurgence of this power, and that the world will “wonder after the beast…” (Revelation 13:3).
These developments have also provided striking reminders of the accuracy of what we’ve read about in the Spirit of Prophecy regarding end time events. It reminds me of hearing someone say a few years ago that the book Great Controversy, which has embarrassed some SDA’s, would prove to be so accurate that in the end, those same people would be embarrassed by their once lack of faith in it.
Well with the things we’re witnessing, we certainly see prophecy being fulfilled with striking accuracy.
But amidst all the discussion, the many comments from my fellow believers about the rising of the beast power and the reminders of her sins, I feel something is not being emphasized enough.
Lately, I find myself thinking more and more about the importance of practical godliness. I’m talking about real depth of character. In fact, let me be more honest – not just talking, but rather I find myself asking: “do I have it?” – The character of Christ?
Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.
We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.
The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.
The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails.
The enemy has succeeded in perverting justice and in filling men's hearts with the desire for selfish gain.
“Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” Isaiah 59:14. In the great cities there are multitudes living in poverty and wretchedness, well-nigh destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; while in the same cities are those who have more than heart could wish, who live luxuriously, spending their money on richly furnished houses, on personal adornment, or worse still, upon the gratification of sensual appetites, upon liquor, tobacco, and other things that destroy the powers of the brain, unbalance the mind, and debase the soul. The cries of starving humanity are coming up before God, while by every species of oppression and extortion men are piling up colossal fortunes.
Trump to meet pope May 24 in potentially awkward encounter
World News | Thu May 4, 2017 | 12:46pm EDT
Pope Francis arrives to lead his Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
FILE PHOTO A combination of file photos shows Donald Trump (L) speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., July 26, 2016, and Pope Francis looking on during his Wednesday general audience at Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican March 19, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/Stefano Rellandini/File Photos
By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY
VATICAN CITY U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Pope Francis on May 24, the Vatican said on Thursday, a potentially awkward encounter given their diametrically opposing positions on immigration, refugees and climate change.
Trump will be coming from the Middle East and stop in Rome before going to Brussels for a NATO summit and then to Sicily for a meeting of the Group of Seven rich countries.
The Vatican said the meeting would take place at 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on a Wednesday in the Apostolic Palace, an unusual day and an unusually early time for a head of state to meet the pope.
Francis holds his weekly general audience on Wednesday mornings, and senior Vatican sources said the meeting with the president had to be squeezed in before that.
Our Lady of Fatima Statue Will Visit UN
(Ricardo Perna/Shutterstock via CNA)
Nation | May. 2, 2017
May 12 will mark the second time this particular statue has been to the United Nations. Johnnette Benkovic of EWTN will be one of the presenters.
Maggie Maslak/ EWTN News
NEW YORK CITY — One day before the May 13 celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be visiting the United Nations.
May 12 will mark the second time this particular statue has been to the United Nations, the first being in 1952.
Among the presenters at the May 12 United Nations event is Johnnette Benkovic, founder and president of EWTN’s Women of Grace apostolate and TV show.
“As she [Our Lady] came to the world through her apparitions to the shepherd children, the 100th anniversary of which will be celebrated the following day, she ‘comes again’ to remind the people of the world that the message is the same: that peace and hope and solidarity are possible through heaven’s plan,” Benkovic told CNA.
On May 13, 1917, three shepherd children named Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco saw a vision of Our Lady of Fatima, who was dressed in white and holding a rosary. These apparitions lasted through October of the same year and brought messages of prayer, repentance and reparation.
The apparitions were declared of “supernatural character” by the Catholic Church in 1930, and a shrine was erected near the original apparition site in Fatima. Since then, thousands of pilgrims have made their prayerful journeys to Fatima, including three popes: Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Friday, May 05, 2017
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Tom McLaughlin: Gospels aren’t gospel anymore?
May 3, 2017
Published in Columns
It was worse than I thought. The Roman Catholic Church was being undermined by Marxists further back than I ever imagined. I knew there were Jesuits and other priests holding official positions in the Marxist Sandinista government of Nicaragua during the 1970s, but I thought they were anomalous. Now I’m learning that a majority of Jesuits believe Marxism and Christianity have more commonalities than differences.
For decades, Marxist Catholic priests and bishops stayed in the closet, just as Marxist Democrats in the U.S. government did, but Marxists in the Catholic Church came out first — during the 1970s near as I can tell. They were led by Jesuits who had for centuries been the most conservative of priestly orders. By the ’70s they’d become the furthest left.
Marxists in the Democratic Party are mostly closeted, though Bernie Sanders opened the door by declaring himself socialist. The support he received last year indicates like-minded Democrats are in the majority.
Sanders came close to the presidency in 2016. Had he won, he’d have replaced the deeply-closeted Barack Obama. He lost the nomination, however, to Hillary Clinton, who chose as her running mate Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. He was nearly elected vice-president — a heartbeat away from the presidency. Kaine was educated by Jesuits. He’s also a true believer in Marxist “Liberation Theology” under which Jesuits justify making revolution alongside Marxist guerrillas in the jungles of Central America and elsewhere.
One Jesuit, James Francis Carney, SJ was born and raised in Chicago and was killed while fighting with Marxist revolutionaries in Honduras.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
The Unholy Alliance Between George Soros and Pope Francis
Special Report
George Neumayr
May 3, 2017, 9:34 am
An excerpt from George Neumayr’s new book, “The Political Pope.”
The election of a liberal Jesuit to the papacy thrilled Democrats in the United States, whose unholy alliance with the Catholic left goes back many decades. Barack Obama, one of the pope’s most prominent supporters, has long been a beneficiary of that alliance. The faculty at Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., ranked as one of the top donors to his campaign.
In a grim irony, Obama, whose presidency substantially eroded religious freedom in America, rose to power not in spite of the Catholic Church but because of it. The archdiocese of Chicago helped bankroll his radicalism in the 1980s. As he recounts in his memoirs, he began his work as a community organizer in the rectory rooms of Holy Rosary parish on Chicago’s South Side. The Alinskyite organization for which he worked — the Developing Communities Project — received tens of thousands of dollars from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Obama was close to the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. A proponent of the “Seamless Garment” movement within the Catholic Church in the 1980s, a movement that downplayed abortion and emphasized political liberalism, Bernardin was drawn to the socialism and relativism of the liberal elite. He was so “gay-friendly” that he requested that the “Windy City Gay Chorus” perform at his funeral. He embodied Obama’s conception of a “good” bishop and one can see in his admixture of left-wing politics and relativistic nonjudgmental theology a foreshadowing of the rise of Pope Francis.
Cardinal Bernardin put pressure on his priests to work with Obama and even paid for Obama’s plane fare out to a 1980 training session in Los Angeles organized by Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation. The conference was held at a Catholic college in Southern California, Mount St. Mary’s, which has long been associated with Alinsky’s group.
Trump Is Expected to Relax Tax Rules on Churches Taking Part in Politics
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, LAURIE GOODSTEIN and MAGGIE HABERMAN
MAY 3, 2017
President Trump speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to mark National Day of Prayer on Thursday by issuing an executive order that makes it easier for churches and other religious groups to actively participate in politics without risking their tax-exempt status, several administration officials said.
Taking action as he hosts conservative religious leaders Thursday morning, Mr. Trump’s executive order would attempt to overcome a provision in the federal tax code that prohibits religious organizations like churches from directly opposing or supporting political candidates.
The move is likely to be hailed by some faith leaders, who have long complained that the law stifles their freedom of expression. But the order falls short of a more sweeping effort to protect religious liberties that has been pushed by conservative religious leaders since Mr. Trump’s election.
Many clergy members say they do not want to endorse political candidates from the pulpit because it could split their congregations and distract from their religious messages. This appears to be the case even among evangelicals, although it is Mr. Trump’s conservative evangelical advisers who encouraged him to address the issue.
It was unclear Wednesday whether Mr. Trump also planned to issue a separate order that would exempt some religious organizations like churches from Obama-era regulations requiring protections for gay men, lesbians and others.
A coalition of evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Mormons and Orthodox Jews has been eagerly awaiting a so-called religious liberty order, which they also hope will exempt religious entities from providing their employees with coverage for contraception in their health care plans.
The biggest megachurch on Earth and South Korea's ‘crisis of evangelism’
Lifestyle & Belief
PRI's The World
May 01, 2017 · 3:30 PM EDT
By Matthew Bell
Yoido Full Gospel Church began in 1958 and grew by serving poor and working class South Koreans who moved to the capital city of Seoul. Today, it's largest megachurch in the world.
Credit:
Steve Smith
If the building didn’t have a giant cross out front, it could easily be mistaken for a sports arena.
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But this is Yoido Full Gospel Church, a Pentecostal congregation belonging to the Korean Assemblies of God — a household name in South Korea. The institution is also known as the largest megachurch in the world, with a congregation approaching 800,000 people, according to church officials.
The congregation at Full Gospel Church on Yoido Island grew along with the city of Seoul. The capital city and its outskirts is now home to more than 20 million people.
Credit:
Steve Smith
Protestant megachurches, defined as those with at least 2,000 people in attendance every week, don't just operate all across the United States. This is a global phenomenon.
Successful megachurches are operating in South America, Africa and Asia as well. And yet, no city has more of them than Seoul. The South Korean capital has 17 megachurches in all.
Still, Protestant evangelical leaders in South Korea are facing a new challenge. Their public image has taken a hit in recent years due to a series of scandals, and the era of boundless growth for their congregations appears to have come to an end.
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Edward Bernays, the Father of American Propaganda
Posted on December 1, 2016Big Pharma
By Gary G. Kohls, MD, special guest to Natural Blaze
“Tell a Lot of the Truth, but Never Tell the Whole Truth.”
Propaganda: “a message designed to persuade its intended audience to think and behave in a certain manner. Thus advertising is commercial propaganda. Or institutionalized and systematic spreading of information and/or disinformation, usually to promote a narrow political or religious (or commercial) viewpoint.” – from Business Dictionary
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic (AKA “capitalist”) society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.” – Edward L. Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, from his seminal book Propaganda (1928). Bernays was the founder of the public relations industry in the US
How the CIA Plants News Stories in the Media
Corbett Report Extras
Published on Mar 22, 2017
TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=22238
[NOTE: This video was produced for BoilingFrogsPost.com on September 30, 2011. It is being made available in its entirety here for the first time.]
It is no longer disputed that the CIA has maintained an extensive and ongoing relationship with news organizations and journalists, and multiple, specific acts of media manipulation have now been documented. But as long as the public continues to ignore the influence of intelligence agencies in shaping or even fabricating news stories, the agency will continue to be able to set the policy that drives the American war machine at will.
Monday, May 01, 2017
Recruiting Non-Adventist Students Already the Norm in Adventist Higher Education
Last week I wrote about proposed solutions to the enrollment problem that faces institutions of higher education in the North American Division. Loma Linda University President Richard Hart stated in his April, 2017 newsletter “Being Distinctive or Being Inclusive?” that leaders in North American higher ed are increasingly looking outside the Adventist denomination to recruit students. Hart wrote, “Has the time come when we should openly invite students of other faiths to join our campuses as we look to share our message and strengthen our academic offerings?”
For many Adventist institutions outside North America, recruiting non-Adventist students is already the norm. Sahmyook University in metro Seoul, South Korea, provides the most obvious example: of Sahmyook’s 5,787 students enrolled in 2016, only 809 (14%) were members of the Adventist Church, according to data from the General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research. Over half of South Korea’s population claimed no religious affiliation in a 2015 census while 27.6% identified as Christians. Another 15.5% claimed Buddhism. Of South Korea’s estimated population of 50.8 million, there were 245,621 Seventh-day Adventists in 2015 (0.5% of the population).
South Korea’s demographics make looking outside the Adventist denomination for Sahmyook’s enrollment seem an obvious choice. Sahmyook is not alone either. The University of Arusha in Tanzania has 610 Adventist students out of 3,155 (19.3%).
Conference Ends Funding for Atlantic Union College
April 26, 2017: Efforts to reestablish Atlantic Union College after financial woes forced its closure in 2011 have been dealt a severe setback.
The school re-opened in 2015 but is set to lose one of its main funders. On April 9, the Southern New England Conference voted to stop sending approximately $800,000 that it gives to the institution annually. Conference president David M. Dennis explained the decision to his workers in this letter
AUC will receive no funding from the conference after July 31.
AUC President Avis Hendrickson framed the news optimistically. Worcester, Massachusetts-based news outlet telegram.com reported that the president saw the development as part of the process of bringing “reconciliation and unity” with the institution’s backers.
Hendrickson said she believed that the funding had not yet officially been rescinded.
She also said that she was unable to say what the implications of the Southern New England Conference withdrawing its funding would be should it actually take place.
According to the telegram.com report, Hendrickson said that the conference’s funding amounted to tuition support for 44 students.
However, she would not comment on how much of the school’s total operating budget came from these funds.
The president said that bigger picture considerations about the continuing viability of the school were a matter for the school’s board of trustees.
She said that the school would continue to operate until instructed to do otherwise.
Despite Hendrickson’s positive tone, many observers feel that this move marks the end of the effort to reestablish AUC, and wonder whether other Atlantic Union conferences, discouraged with the poor results of trying to restart AUC as an unaccredited school, may follow in withdrawing their subsidies.
The institution only offers two bachelor degrees (Religion and Theology) and a handful of professional certificates, making it difficult to recruit students.
Low enrollment is not helped by the school’s unaccredited status which means that students are unable to access financial aid to study at AUC.
In her official president’s welcome on the school’s homepage, Hendrickson stressed that financial stability is “important in the accreditation process.” She also added that AUC is “sustained by subsidies provided by the Atlantic Union Conference’s six local Conferences.”
Her message has not been updated to reflect the financial decision of the Southern New England Conference.
AUC is not alone in its troubles. The North American Division of the Adventist denomination has 13 colleges and universities which compete for funding and attendance from a limited pool of eligible students.
The question of what AUC’s eroding funding means for Adventist higher education in the region remains to be answered.
Currently, Adventist conferences in North America are still required to send funds to Oakwood University, Loma Linda University and the Andrews University-based Adventist Theological Seminary.
“This may be the sentinel event that marks the beginning of a division-wide reassessment of Adventist higher-education” said Winona Winkler Wendth, an AUC alumna and former faculty member whose family has been connected to the school since the 1930s. “We may need to ask whether keeping a college in every union is helping our mission.”
The Wars And Conflicts Of This Modern Age!
Volume XXXVI Issue V May 2017
Last Trumpet Ministries, PO Box 806, Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:35-39
"Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah. I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle."
Psalm 140:1-7
"But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by."
Luke 21:9
In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will examine a world that is very much at risk of being engulfed in conflict and a global war. Without a doubt, we live in perilous times, and this is a reality that the news headlines bring forth over and over again each and every day. Over the course of the last month, there have been missile attacks in Syria ordered by American President Donald Trump as well as the launching of a 21,000 pound non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan. (1) Russia and Iran are both furious with Trump's decision to attack Syria, and North Korea is growing increasingly belligerent against the United States. Even the Asian island country known as the Philippines has sought to assert itself and announced plans to occupy previously uninhabited islands in the South China Sea, which is a maneuver that will certainly displease China. "The unoccupied, which are ours, let's live on it," said President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. He further went on to say, "It looks like everyone is making a grab for the islands there. So we better live on those islands that are still unoccupied. What's ours now, we claim it and make a strong point from there." (2) Further reports indicate that China frequently encroaches on Japanese territory by both air and sea in what is likely an effort to antagonize Japan. "They've routinized their intrusions into our territorial sea space. We send our fighters, and that makes the situation possibly very dangerous, when fighters and fighters come close," said Eisuke Tanabe, a senior policy coordinator at the Japanese Ministry of Defense. (3) There is a potential for war on many fronts, and by extension, a possibility that World War III could break out in the not so distant future.
There is a certain word that I have seen used repeatedly in news reports these days. The word is "nuclear," and there seems to be a growing fear around the world that a nuclear war is now more possible than ever. In a report published by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, or UNIDR, we find the following warning: "The threat of a nuclear weapon detonation event in 2017 is arguably at its highest in the 26 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. While the size of the global stockpile has decreased significantly from the peaks of the Cold War, the pace of reductions has slowed, and nine States together still possess over 15,000 nuclear weapons. Global investment on nuclear forces continues to rise, and extended deterrence remains the centerpiece of many states' strategic doctrines. Meanwhile, terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant have expressed their desire to acquire nuclear weapons and materials. The world appears 'full of potential for catastrophe.'" (4)
More than seven decades have passed since the United States used atomic bombs to attack the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Thankfully, no other nuclear weapons have been used since that time. However, in the aftermath of the attacks in Japan, which were credited with ending World War II, the man who led the team of scientists responsible for developing the atomic bomb was filled with regret. "If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the name of Los Alamos and of Hiroshima," said J. Robert Oppenheimer, referencing his research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in a speech given on October 16, 1945. (5)
Problems faced by Egypt’s Coptic Christians run far deeper than Isis attacks
Voices
As a minority, Christians naturally need the regime to protect them. Their fear has drawn them closer and closer to Sisi. They have become associated with the regime itself
The Pope this week condemned Isis attacks on Coptic Churches in Cairo AP
Just as Pope Francis was holding a mass for 25,000 Coptic Christians in a Cairo stadium this weekend, around 30 Muslim schoolgirls arrived at the Coptic Museum in the old centre of the capital. They took photographs of each other and selfies against the facade of the museum. For the front wall of this magnificent building was constructed by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910 to resemble the facade of a mosque. This was a quite deliberate decision by Simaika: his idea was to illustrate in stone how intertwined are Egypt’s Christians and Muslims, not only in religion but in culture.
But that was then. It was, of course, the Pope’s message this weekend, along with that of the Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. Their message of peace was broadcast around the world. Their far more striking remarks – in almost identical words – about the evils of arms manufacturers who sell their products to the Middle East, was predictably ignored. Journalists understandably went for the most obvious story: both Muslim and Christian leaders condemned (no name mentioned, of course) the Isis ‘Caliphate’ – which Pope Francis excoriated in the memorable phrase “the incendiary logic of evil” – and the attacks on Christian churches by the Egyptian variety of the Isis cult. Yet the problems of Egypt’s Christians go rather deeper than this.
Just as Pope Francis was holding a mass for 25,000 Coptic Christians in a Cairo stadium this weekend, around 30 Muslim schoolgirls arrived at the Coptic Museum in the old centre of the capital. They took photographs of each other and selfies against the facade of the museum. For the front wall of this magnificent building was constructed by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910 to resemble the facade of a mosque. This was a quite deliberate decision by Simaika: his idea was to illustrate in stone how intertwined are Egypt’s Christians and Muslims, not only in religion but in culture.
But that was then. It was, of course, the Pope’s message this weekend, along with that of the Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. Their message of peace was broadcast around the world. Their far more striking remarks – in almost identical words – about the evils of arms manufacturers who sell their products to the Middle East, was predictably ignored. Journalists understandably went for the most obvious story: both Muslim and Christian leaders condemned (no name mentioned, of course) the Isis ‘Caliphate’ – which Pope Francis excoriated in the memorable phrase “the incendiary logic of evil” – and the attacks on Christian churches by the Egyptian variety of the Isis cult. Yet the problems of Egypt’s Christians go rather deeper than this.
UC President Napolitano Hid $175 Million While Raising Tuition
May 1, 2017
By Chriss W. Street
The California State Auditor issued a scathing report last week alleging that University of California President and former Obama Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano raised tuitions while her office hid $175 million.
The cover page for State Auditor Elaine Howle’s 167-page audit report states bluntly that the UC president’s office “Failed to Disclose Tens of Millions in Surplus Funds, and Its Budget Practices Are Misleading.”
The audit found that the UC spent $32.5 billion on expenses during the 2015-16 school year to fund 10 campuses, five medical centers, and its Office of the President headquarters. Although the UC states that its “fundamental missions are teaching, research and public service,” the UC only spent “$6.7 billion (21 percent) on teaching, “$4.6 billion (14 percent) on research” and “$630 million (2 percent) on public service.” The other $20.6 billion (63 percent) was spent on non-fundamental activities.
The audit highlighted criticism in January from students and lawmakers after the UC regents approved President Napolitano’s 2.7 percent tuition increase for the 2017-18 year, given that UC tuition nearly doubled from $6,141 in 2006–07 to the current $12,192 this school year.
In addition, State Auditor Howle’s audit found the “Office of the President has amassed substantial reserve funds, used misleading budgeting practices, provided its employees with generous salaries and atypical benefits, and failed to satisfactorily justify its spending on systemwide initiatives.”
Howle ominously added that the “Office of the President intentionally interfered with our audit process. Auditing standards require that we disclose this interference and prohibit us from drawing valid conclusions from this portion of our work.” Specific concerns, outlined in a cover letter to Governor Jerry Brown, include:
The California State Auditor issued a scathing report last week alleging that University of California President and former Obama Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano raised tuitions while her office hid $175 million.
The cover page for State Auditor Elaine Howle’s 167-page audit report states bluntly that the UC president’s office “Failed to Disclose Tens of Millions in Surplus Funds, and Its Budget Practices Are Misleading.”
The audit found that the UC spent $32.5 billion on expenses during the 2015-16 school year to fund 10 campuses, five medical centers, and its Office of the President headquarters. Although the UC states that its “fundamental missions are teaching, research and public service,” the UC only spent “$6.7 billion (21 percent) on teaching, “$4.6 billion (14 percent) on research” and “$630 million (2 percent) on public service.” The other $20.6 billion (63 percent) was spent on non-fundamental activities.
The audit highlighted criticism in January from students and lawmakers after the UC regents approved President Napolitano’s 2.7 percent tuition increase for the 2017-18 year, given that UC tuition nearly doubled from $6,141 in 2006–07 to the current $12,192 this school year.
In addition, State Auditor Howle’s audit found the “Office of the President has amassed substantial reserve funds, used misleading budgeting practices, provided its employees with generous salaries and atypical benefits, and failed to satisfactorily justify its spending on systemwide initiatives.”
Howle ominously added that the “Office of the President intentionally interfered with our audit process. Auditing standards require that we disclose this interference and prohibit us from drawing valid conclusions from this portion of our work.” Specific concerns, outlined in a cover letter to Governor Jerry Brown, include:
The Office of the President has accumulated more than $175 million in undisclosed restricted and discretionary reserves; as of fiscal year 2015–16, it had $83 million in its restricted reserve and $92 million in its discretionary reserve.
More than one-third of its discretionary reserve, or $32 million, came from unspent funds from the campus assessment— an annual charge that the Office of the President levies on campuses to fund the majority of its discretionary operations.
In certain years, the Office of the President requested and received approval from the Board of Regents (regents) to increase the campus assessment even though it had not spent all of the funds it received from campuses in prior years.
The Office of the President did not disclose the reserves it had accumulated, nor did it inform the regents of the annual undisclosed budget that it created to spend some of those funds. The undisclosed budget ranged from $77 million to $114 million during the four years we reviewed.
The Office of the President was unable to provide a complete listing of the systemwide initiatives, their costs, or an assessment of their continued benefit to the university.
While it appears that the Office of the President’s administrative spending increased by 28 percent, or $80 million, from fiscal years 2012–13 through 2015–16, the Office of the President continues to lack consistent definitions of and methods for tracking the university’s administrative expenses.
Breitbart called the University of California’s Office of the President and left a message requesting a comment regarding the audit. No response was received.
This piece was originally published by Breitbart.com/California
Sunday, April 30, 2017
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