This only affirms my faith further in true religion - Science, Knowledge & Self-Introspection

These type of news further confirms my faith in knowledge "God" or even more importantly, it confirms my faith about "God is their in every one.. you just need to ask your own God right set of questions" or "there is no better or bigger God than one in yourself"

All these so called "Men of God" are pure agent of money making machinery.. which sadly is fueled by lack of thinking and self introspection by ourselves.. If we think and introspect our self properly, we will be able to find all answers.. there is no better judge than yourself about your own actions.. just need to use it properly..

Unfortunately, due to our ignorance or even more importantly, our "Fear" and "Greed" drives these type of institutions in every part of the world.. every corner of religion.. every corner of every nation.. amazing.. isn't it??  We all know that this is purely a fraud.. still we keep on fueling this fraud!!!

Don't know if it will ever stop.. I hope that people will realize some day that this all !@#$%^

don't know the complete story or saga behind the scenes.. but in my view the poor butler was actually better person than any of these figure heads.. he was serving humanity better than most of his other bosses..


Pope’s butler arrested in breach

Man detained after leak of confidential Va t ic a n d o c u m e n t s

By Rachel Donadio

New York Times

ROME — A mysterious source named Maria. A room furnished with a single chair, where sensitive Vatican documents are turned over to an investigative journalist at regular meetings. The arrest of the pope’s butler. Perhaps the greatest breach in centuries in the wall of secrecy that surrounds the Vatican.

An on-again, off-again scandal that the Italian press has called VatiLeaks burst into the open Friday with the arrest by Vatican gendarmes of a man, identified in news reports as Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, who the Vatican said was in possession of confidential documents and was suspected of leaking private letters, some of which were addressed to Pope Benedict XVI. The arrest follows by a day the ouster of the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, amid conflicts over how to bring the secretive institution in line with international transparency standards and days after the publication of a sensational book, “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI,” in which the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, aided by “Maria,” discloses a huge cache of private Vatican correspondence, many with allegations of mismanagement at the Vatican bank and cases of corruption and cronyism.
The letters, which have made their way into the Italian news media in recent months, draw a portrait of an ancient institution in chaotic disarray behind its high, stately walls, where various factions vie for power, influence and financial control in the twilight years of Benedict’s papacy.

“Of course there are problems, big problems,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert for the Italian daily La Stampa and its website, Vatican Insider. “What is happening now shows that there’s a crisis.”

It was not clear whether the bank president’s ouster and the arrest of the man found with confidential documents were directly related, although Nuzzi’s book includes various memos from Gotti Tedeschi about the Vatican bank.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, declined to identify the person who was arrested, saying only that he was not a priest or member of a religious order and that he had been detained for further investigation.

But Italian news media reported that he was Gabriele, 40, and a butler in the papal household. Some publications even showed images of him holding a white umbrella above the pope and pouring him wine at dinner.

The twist that “the butler did it” was fully worthy of a whodunit that began earlier this year when documents began appearing in the Italian press. In one, a Sicilian cardinal, writing in German in order to be more stealthy, said he had heard in China about a bizarre plot to kill the pope. At the time, Lombardi called the accounts “delirious and incomprehensible.”

In another letter from 2011 that appeared in the Italian press this year and is also published in Nuzzi’s book, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, then the deputy governor of Vatican City, wrote directly to Benedict. In it, he argued that transferring him to another post would impede his efforts to fight “corruption and abuse” in various Vatican offices, sending the wrong signal about his efforts to rein in cronyism in the awarding of contracts for construction work at the Vatican.

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ALESSANDRO BIANCHI/REUTERS

The Pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, bottom, was arrested Friday in connection with an investigation into leaks of confidential documents.

It is all about money.. money.. money..

Charity and all other nobler objectives come way too behind it.. All the principles and ideology is formed just to follow money.. Nothing can be a better example of this scenario of Komen's flip-flop around abortion/anti-abortion policy. It clearly shows height of this "Charity Business" and how powerful these big charitable organizations have become. I think it is time to tear down these big and powerful Charitable organizations. May be FTC should open another wing in their office to monitor and investigate monopolistic nature of these charitable organizations..

That is one big reason I am personally not supportive of this Charity Business anyhow.. If you really want to do Charity, help or help create one job which will sustain and enable one person/family to live on their own, rather than feed hundred families for a year or so.. Well it may seem radical initially.. but think of it and you will find rationale in it. Of course, this is my personal view not to endorse either side or any side..

Coming back to this issue of Komen's flip-flop around funding/donation to "Planned Parenthood" Organization.. If you look at it carefully, both the organization got huge amount of publicity.. both of them got more than 700K USD extra in first twenty four hours after this all started. Who know, it was well planned flip-flop to energize or ramp-up both sides. We all know that both proponent and opponent of this issue has tons of money and both sides are willing to spend millions or billions to settle it their way..

Lastly, it does shows the huge power of internet.. If used properly, how much damage or gain it can give it to you!! At the same time it is very easy to play with sentiments of masses especially in the matter of religion or close to religion or Cult I should say.. It gives feeling of kind of mob phycology.. This kind of mentality can easily produce seriously poor decision making and can make it very difficult for anti-populist or radical views which may be against our belief system..

I think enough said.. here is the link to this news clip in case you want to read more:

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19888167

and copy in case it doesn't work..

BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION 

Social media credited with Komen shift

Planned Parenthood will be allowed to seek grants after group’s reversal

By Sandy Kleffman

skleffman@bayareanewsgroup.com 

The breast cancer advocacy organization that used the Internet to mobilize fundraising walks nationwide backed off Friday from its decision to eliminate grants for Planned Parenthood after many of its supporters ignited an online firestorm of protest. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation caved to the pressure. It announced that it would allow Planned Parenthood to continue applying for breast cancer screening grants.

The foundation gave the group $680,000 last year.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” a Komen statement said.

Many questioned that commitment four days ago when Komen said it would exclude Planned Parenthood from grants because the organization had come under a government investigation. It cited an inquiry by a Florida congressman urged on by anti-abortion groups.

“We will amend the criteria to make clear that  disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political,” Komen said Friday. 

All seven of California’s Susan G. Komen affiliates opposed the group’s initial decision. So did 26 U.S. senators and many newspapers. 

The biggest influence may have been the deluge of criticism made through Twitter, Facebook and other social media. The progressive groupMoveOn.org launched an online petition supporting the grants and said 60,000 people signed it within hours. Some of the sharpest criticism came from participants in Komen’s benefit walks. 

“I feel Susan G. Komen acted foolishly and hastily, and maybe they didn’t realize the power of the Internet,” said Teresa Tirado, of Castro Valley, whose eldest daughter has raised funds for the organization in its Walk for the Cure. 

“It’s almost like Occupy Susan G. Komen,” she said. 

Tirado, who noted that she has donated a large amount of money to Komen, learned of its decision through Facebook. She posted comments on her Facebook page. 

“I was really upset, along with many, many other people — both male and female,” she said. 

She was pleased with Friday’s about-face, but said it’s not easy “to forgive and forget.” 

“It doesn’t make me feel that all of a sudden Susan G. Komen has this huge heart,” she said. “No. It makes me realize it’s affecting their pocketbook, and that’s why the decision was made.” 

Conservatives and antiabortion groups had supported the original decision and were unhappy about Friday’s development. 

A U.S. senator said he was extremely disappointed. 

“Unfortunately, it seems that Komen caved to political pressure from the pro-abortion movement and enforcers in the media,” Sen. David Vitter, R-La., wrote in a statement to The Washington Post. The depth of the national outpouring is not surprising in light of the many people touched by breast cancer, said Joanne Bamberger, the Washington, D.C.-based author of “Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America.” 

“This is so personal to so many people, and using the tools of social media is so easy,” she said. “That really just lit the fire underneath it. 

“How many people do you know or I know who have done the Walk for the Cure because they have a mother or sister who had the disease?” she said. 

The network of supporters Komen organized became an accountability tool, noted Jamia Wilson, a vice president of programs for the Women’s Media Center in New York and a former Planned Parenthood staff member. 

“Because the tools are so interactive — constantly being a part of the conversation — it makes it so people have a much easier and quicker opportunity to frame an opinion,” Wilson said. 

With so many people supplying information through social media, however, it increased the possibility of inaccuracies and misunderstandings, said Maria Sousa, executive director of Komen’s Bay Area affiliate. 

She worried that the controversy could affect the Walk for the Cure in September. She said that she hopes people realize the organization will still support services for low-income women. 

The controversy unleashed a flood of financial donations, leaders on both sides reported. 

Planned Parenthood said it raised $650,000 in the 24 hours after the news broke. Komen leaders said its donations were up “100 percent,” but declined to give specifics. At centers in the Shasta Pacific chapter of Planned Parenthood, which covers 17 counties including Contra Costa and Solano, people walked in this week and delivered checks for several hundred dollars each, said president and CEO Heather Estes. She would not estimate the total raised. 

Estes noted that one in five women nationwide have used Planned Parenthood services in their lives. 

“Women health care advocates, particularly breast cancer survivors, have learned that they need to speak up for what’s important,” she said. On Friday, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Jackie Speier and Mike Honda, among others, praised Komen’s reversal. 

“The divisiveness caused by the original Komen decision did not reflect well on the foundation’s positive work,” Feinstein said in a statement. “This is a victory for women’s health and a huge win for all the men and women who made their voices heard this week.” 

The Associated Press and staff writers Bruce Newman, Angela Woodall and Josh Richman contributed to this report. Sandy Kleffman covers health. Contact her at 925-943-8249. Follow her at Twitter.com/skleffman. 

 

JANE TYSKA/STAFF 

Maria Sousa, the executive director of the Bay Area chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, fears the controversy over the group’s grants for Planned Parenthood could imperil this year’s Walk for the Cure.