#if according to the ultraconservatives a right to marriage is not the same as a right to live with your spouse

[edaworks]

I looked at my wife and said: “I know you just got here, but I’m wondering how soon we can leave.”

[noreligionisgood]

The Archdiocese of San Francisco, known for its outspoken conservative leadership, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone announced on Monday. The filing is intended to protect the archdiocese from what Archbishop Cordileone described as more than 500 civil lawsuits filed against it under a state law passed in 2019 that extended the statute of limitations for civil claims in child sexual abuse cases.

“We believe the bankruptcy process is the best way to provide a compassionate and equitable solution for survivors of abuse while ensuring that we continue the vital ministries to the faithful and to the communities that rely on our services and charity,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a letter addressed to Catholics in San Francisco.

Archbishop Cordileone signaled the bankruptcy earlier this month, warning publicly that the filing was “very likely.”

San Francisco is the third archdiocese in the state to file for bankruptcy this year. The dioceses of Oakland and Santa Rosa filed in the spring, citing the number of sexual abuse lawsuits filed against them. The diocese of San Diego, one of the largest in the state, announced in May that it planned to file later this year.

Overall, about a dozen dioceses and archdioceses in the United States are currently in bankruptcy proceedings, according to a list maintained by Marie T. Reilly, a professor at Penn State Law. Still more have emerged from bankruptcy.

The vast majority of documented abuses in Catholic institutional settings took place decades ago, making it challenging for victims to seek legal recourse. But some states, including California and New York, where the majority of pending bankruptcies are, have enacted a “look-back window” in recent years that allows victims to bring civil claims that would otherwise be barred by statutes of limitations.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco, which includes about 450,000 Catholics, is the only diocese in the state to not have released a list of clergy credibly accused of sex abuse, according to lawyers and survivors’ advocacy groups. Instead, the archdiocese maintains a list of priests and deacons in good standing, and removes men from the list if they are under investigation for child sexual abuse.

Archbishop Cordileone, who has led the archdiocese since being appointed to the role by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, is an outspoken voice in the ultraconservative wing of the American Catholic Church. He helped lead Catholic efforts to pass Prop 8, a 2008 state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage in the state.

More recently, he has repeatedly confronted former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who represents much of San Francisco, over her support for abortion rights, saying last year that she would not be permitted to receive communion in the archdiocese.

The filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy will halt claims against the archdiocese, while it develops a reorganization plan based on its assets and insurance.

The archdiocese itself is the only entity included in the filing, Archbishop Cordileone said in the statement. Parochial schools and individual parishes, which the archdiocese said are independently managed and self-financed, will not be affected.

[drthrvn]

🇵🇱🏳‍🌈 according to the newest polls, 64℅ of Poles want partnerships to be legalized and almost 50% is pro same sex marriages. unfortunately, because of our ultraconservative government who preys on homophobic views of a loud minority and who has way too close ties with the catholic church, we are seen as the most homophobic country in the EU and LGBTQ+ folks are often being harrassed by conservatives and the far right. this nation is less conservative than its government and it's really showing.

[paulbenedictblog]

%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

News Trump lawyer Pat Cipollone was a camera-shy Washington Everyman — until impeachment made him a star - The Washington Post

News

“No person knew who he change into,” mentioned a individual shut to Cipollone, speaking on the condition of anonymity to command a closed-door campaign gathering.

Right here change into a Washington Everyman, regarded as one of the most indispensable faceless masters of the universe within the capital metropolis who quietly flip the wheels of energy, affect, the law and alternate — pointedly, and by assemble, with out ever producing a headline.

That temporary stumble upon would self-discipline in trail regarded as one of the most indispensable extra outlandish pairings in novel American politics, one thing drawing reach the knitting of a sinner and a saint. A twice-divorced president with a penchant for extramarital dalliances, title-calling and celeb journal spreads aligned with a preternaturally non-public father of 10 whose gigantic passions pattern extra to devotional journeys to the Vatican and Catholic charitable endeavors.

The affect Cipollone made on the day of Trump’s debate prep — the future president and his crew considered this unknown quantity as a individual of discretion, of “judgment, mind and modesty, no longer a leaker,” as one attendee set aside it — would linger. Virtually 2½ years later, Trump would steal out Cipollone as his White House counsel and extra these days as the lead felony professional within the impeachment trial that has performed out for the past two weeks within the Senate chamber.

Cipollone’s central feature within the protection has positioned him on televisions shows across The US, even when he would personal most neatly-most authorized it change into no longer so. He’d argued earlier than the trial that cameras may maybe presumably maybe serene be banned from the chamber. He believed that Trump’s case shall be broken by the re-airing of comments made by the president and performing chief of crew Mick Mulvaney, who’d mentioned at a news conference that the media may maybe presumably maybe serene “gather over it” on sage of quid pro quos “happen the total time” in U.S. international policy, in accordance to of us accustomed to Cipollone’s pondering who spoke on the condition of anonymity to focus on confidential approach sessions. But preserving cameras out additionally would personal had the assemble of affirming his fastidiously nurtured under-the-radar profile.

Unless Jan. 21 at 1: 27 p.m., when Cipollone stepped onto the podium on the second day of Trump’s trial and mentioned, “Thanks, Mr. Chief Justice,” he had by no formulation uttered a be conscious recorded by C-SPAN’s ubiquitous cameras. As if to underscore his reach-anonymity in Washington, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on the initiating mispronounced Cipollone’s title — as, at numerous instances, would House impeachment managers Adam B. Schiff, (D-Calif.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). (It’s SIP-uh-loan-ee.) Earlier than Cipollone’s title rising as a contender for Trump’s White House counsel job, he’d by no formulation even seemed within the news pages of his hometown newspaper — The Washington Put up.

But, he change into now The US’s most considered felony professional.

“Pat Cipollone is doing a in fact perfect making an try job, made more uncomplicated by the truth that the opposite facet has no case — and it is a Whole Hoax,” Trump mentioned Thursday in a electronic mail to The Put up. “He has been a Mighty White House counsel.”

'Biblical views'

Cipollone, who did no longer answer to interview requests, and Trump came from rather just a few universes. The president change into born into privilege, the scion of a valid estate empire. Cipollone, whose given title is Pasquale, is the son of Italian immigrants of modest formulation. While Trump change into the product of an uncommon Jap boarding college, Cipollone had attended a conservative establishment removed from the energy facilities on the East Flit, Covington Catholic High College in Kentucky. His household had moved to the train from the Bronx when his father transferred to Kentucky for his manufacturing facility job. (A Covington student is now embroiled in a lawsuit in opposition to The Put up in accordance to the newspaper’s coverage of his feature in a confrontation all the plot by technique of last year’s March for Life.)

In temperament and class, Cipollone seemed as if it may maybe be the president’s reverse. At the College of Chicago law college, he’d been is believed as the indifferent one, “no longer the model to steal in just a few gigantic Socratic debate. Not an extraordinarily outspoken individual,” mentioned Melanie Sloan, a classmate.

Early on, he worked on the orderly firm Kirkland & Ellis, nonetheless he took a detour to become a high attorney on the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal group, where he held the title supreme advocate. While there, he filed a temporary in a Supreme Court docket abortion case in strengthen of a Nebraska law that outlawed a plot dubbed by critics “partial initiating” abortion.

The be conscious, he wrote, amounts to “the killing of a human child all the plot by technique of an already going down dwell initiating.” The excessive court indirectly struck down the law.

Later, he became a title accomplice within the D.C. firm Stein, Mitchell, Cipollone, Beato & Missner — which made him a neatly off man. Cipollone earned extra than $6.7 million in 2017 and 2018, in accordance to a financial disclosure assemble filed when he took the White House job.

His recent client record has included the enchancment big Bechtel, Sony Leisure Crew and the Recording Industrial of The US. He additionally as soon as served on a factual crew for Johnny Depp in a lawsuit in opposition to regarded as one of the most indispensable actor’s outdated attorneys.

Through the years, Cipollone naturally fell in with the metropolis’s circle of neatly-connected Catholics, love-minded influencers with firm positions on disorders such as abortion and related-sex marriage.

“Pat puts biblical views on all the pieces,” mentioned worn senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Both males personal teenagers who attended the Heights College in Potomac, Md., which is affiliated with Opus Dei, an ultraconservative Catholic establishment.

He additionally solid a deep bond with Leonard Leo, then the vp of the Federalist Society, the influential conservative factual neighborhood that has performed a most indispensable feature in shaping the judiciary. Alongside with Leo, Cipollone change into regarded as one of the most indispensable founders of the Nationwide Catholic Prayer Breakfast, shaped in 2004 “in accordance to Saint John Paul II’s name for a Contemporary Evangelization,” in accordance to its internet sites.

The chums traveled to Rome together two summers ago and visited the Vatican with a priest from the Catholic Data Heart, a D.C.-essentially based academic group on whose board Leo and Cipollone personal both served. Cipollone has additionally served on the board of the Cohesion Association, a corporation that helps Catholic evangelization and schooling.

Cipollone cares about “non secular freedom, the tradition of life,” Leo mentioned in an interview.

Leo and Cipollone are shut with William P. Barr, who served as President George H.W. Bush’s felony professional frequent and now holds the same put up within the Trump administration. Cipollone worked for a time as a speechwriter under Barr in Bush’s Justice Department.

“Pat and Invoice reach from the college that believes executive energy is mainly most indispensable to the preservation of particular individual freedom, since the branch that is most inclined to abusing the public is the legislative branch,” Leo mentioned. “Since the legislative branch by a long way is mainly the most noteworthy of the three branches, there have to be a take a look at from both other branches.”

Cipollone has generally avoided electoral politics, nonetheless in 2012 he jumped in to relieve Santorum’s presidential campaign, flying on diminutive planes with the candidate and one other volunteer. The operation change into so stripped down that the excessive-powered attorney ended up doing projects in total dealt with by pimply interns — grabbing coffee or lunches for Santorum or doing reach work.

“Nothing change into under him,” mentioned David Metropolis, a specialist and Republican campaign operative who change into the third member of the diminutive campaign crew.

In an interview, Santorum mentioned he and Cipollone meshed on most disorders nonetheless “didn’t consistently explore sight to sight on immigration.” Cipollone told him to sensible his demanding-line tone, hewing to Catholic tenets about serving to the heart-broken.

On policy, “Pat’s valid no longer a heavy hand,” mentioned Santorum, who has been a client of Cipollone’s to handle contracts within the years for the reason that campaign. “By plot of factual [strategizing], he generally is a very heavy hand.”

'Sturdy, soundless model'

When Trump change into elected, Cipollone all as soon as more took a step toward politics, angling to become deputy felony professional frequent within the Justice Department headed by then-Attorney Total Jeff Sessions. Barr — then in non-public be conscious — change into among those that instructed Cipollone, in accordance to a individual who is shut to both males. Santorum and Leo additionally instructed him.

Cipollone didn’t gather the job, a flip of events that irked Barr and other supporters. But he remained on the president’s radar, and in 2018 his title surfaced as possible White House counsel. He wasn’t the supreme finalist, in accordance to an exterior adviser who change into consulted on a contest that he described as a photo enact.

“There change into a orderly amount of self belief in both his ability as an felony professional and that he brought loads to the table as somebody who understood the increased conservative mission,” the outside adviser mentioned.

Having secured the job, he sought enter from Melanie Sloan, his College of Chicago classmate.

“I expressed my surprise that he would have to work in this White House. He valid doesn’t explore the president as I carry out,” mentioned Sloan, who is a senior adviser to American Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog that has been most indispensable of Trump. “I imagine Pat as a really ethical and ethical man and a actual household man. All of those values appear at odds with the president.”

At a White House tournament the month after Cipollone took the job, Trump told the viewers that his new high felony professional change into the “strong, soundless model.”

But last autumn, Cipollone — the individual who doesn’t assemble headlines — spoke loudly, blasting out an almost Trumpian whisk that dominated the news cycle. In a brusquely worded, eight-internet page letter to House leaders, he declared that the White House would no longer cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry. The inquiry change into precipitated by allegations of a quid pro quo in which Trump threatened to withhold protection drive relieve to Ukraine except it announced an investigation of a number one political rival, worn vp Joe Biden, and his son Hunter, who held a lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian oil and gasoline firm.

“By no formulation earlier than in our history has the House of Representatives — under the regulate of either political occasion — taken the American of us down the harmful path you appear certain to pursue,” Cipollone wrote. “Set simply, you explore to overturn the outcomes of the 2016 election and deprive the American of us of the President they've freely chosen.”

The defiant plot change into cheered by conservative tastemakers.

Two days later, 21 of Cipollone’s worn law college classmates, who mentioned they represented a wide quantity of political affairs, requested him to withdraw the letter, arguing that it “flouts the traditions of rigor and mental honesty that we realized together” and that it “distorts the law and the Constitution for other functions, including cable news consumption.”

But those that are shut to Cipollone were no longer surprised on the allege material or tenor. Cipollone has a visceral disdain for this House and how it basically works, in accordance to of us who know him neatly nonetheless spoke on the condition of anonymity to command non-public conversations.

Internally, Cipollone’s arrival within the White House has, at instances, precipitated friction. He has complained generally about Mulvaney and puzzled his efficiency as chief of crew, in accordance to a pair of officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to focus on non-public conversations.

Political instincts puzzled

Even just a few of his allies negate he does no longer part ample records with someone as antagonistic to the president, on sage of he is too terrified of leaks to the media. All the plot by technique of meetings, he in total has mentioned he needs to talk with Trump one-on-one after the neighborhood leaves, a behavior that some White House advisers negate has left them out of the loop on what he believes is the ethical route of action. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham has complained many instances that he doesn’t maintain the communications crew instructed.

But publicly the White House has most effective correct things to negate about the counsel. “Pat Cipollone has carried out a masterful job leading the president’s protection crew on impeachment and he has frequent strengthen in the end of the White House,” ­Grisham mentioned in a press originate emailed to The Put up. “The president trusts his counsel on a wide quantity of disorders and counts him as regarded as one of his closest advisers.”

Cipollone has proved to be a deft infighter. His powers of persuasion were examined all the plot by technique of a fierce debate about whether or no longer Trump may maybe presumably maybe serene originate the rough transcript of the phone name with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Communications aides told him it would assemble things worse for Trump, in accordance to officers pondering about the discussions. But Cipollone prevailed.

Even then, it wasn’t a straightforward path. Cipollone tried to organize the media approach for the transcript originate with out appealing the communications put of work, arguing that he would provide the supreme briefings for journalists and lawmakers. He ended up doing the briefings.

The internecine squabbles did no longer subside. Some within the White House considered him as lacking political instincts and heaps instances giving Trump rosier predictions than other advisers. Loads of days earlier than the impeachment vote, Cipollone change into serene telling the president that the House may maybe presumably maybe no longer vote to impeach him, in accordance to advisers who listened in on the discussions. Others told Trump, “Listen, you’re going to assemble impeached.” They told the president no longer to put stock in Cipollone’s evaluation.

The others were ethical. On Dec. 18, a House vote made Trump valid the third president in American history to be impeached.

Cipollone change into in line to take care of the lead on the Senate impeachment trial that all people knew change into coming. But with a client as snappy as the president, he wasn’t going to assemble to assemble the total decisions about who else would be on the protection table.

On Christmas Eve, Trump approached Alan Dershowitz, the infamous O.J. Simpson protection felony professional and emeritus Harvard law professor, within the buffet line on the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seashore, Fla. Trump told Dershowitz that he wanted him to affix the impeachment protection crew, Dershowitz mentioned in a recent interview.

Dershowitz demurred, telling the president that his spouse, Carolyn Cohen, would no longer be cosy. That despatched Trump off to search out Dershowitz’s spouse in other locations within the room. The president convinced her, and valid love that, Trump had added some neatly-known individual energy to his protection crew.

The warmth of the spotlight

Going into the trial, Cipollone additionally told officers on the White House that he did no longer have to appear on television news programs and focus on shows all the plot by technique of impeachment. As an different, he mentioned, he most neatly-most authorized to defer that project to others, including Pam Bondi, a staunch Trump supporter who these days left put of work as Florida’s felony professional frequent.

“I consistently hoped that he would carry out press,” mentioned Ingraham, who has hosted a Fox Data Channel program since 2017. “Many instances along the plot it change into definite to me he had no favor to be a television attorney. He likes to assemble his job carried out within the back of closed doors.”

But there change into no avoiding television last week when Cipollone change into the significant felony professional to take care of the podium to debate the proposed suggestions for the trial. He adjusted the microphone. A slim man with graying, exquisitely parted hair, he wore a sad suit and a straightforward purple, striped tie. The Washington Everyman in uniform.

His train dripping with disdain, Cipollone flung many of his remarks on the president’s significant antagonist, Schiff, the California Democrat and lead House supervisor who had valid completed his presentation.

“It’s too a lot to hear to almost,” Cipollone mentioned, “the hypocrisy of the total thing.”

He invoked the nation’s founders, saying the trial change into “their worst nightmare.”

“It’s a partisan impeachment that they dropped at your step,” he mentioned.

“They’re no longer here to purchase one election,” he mentioned. ‘They’re here to purchase two elections.”

He closed by urging senators to “discontinuance this ridiculous charade” so “we can trot personal an election.” With that he clapped his folder shut, punctuating the second, and walked back to his seat.

Cipollone’s client change into an ocean away, communing with just a few of the enviornment’s richest of us on the World Financial Summit in Davos, Switzerland. But Trump change into paying attention and wanted a fiery efficiency, of us accustomed to the president’s pondering mentioned. Trump had hoped for even extra of a flamethrower — somebody extra love himself.

Within the past year, the unassuming attorney now arguing to retain Trump in put of work had ensconced himself deep into the perilous president’s inner sanctum.

And not utilizing a doubt one of Cipollone’s two predecessors, Donald McGahn, change into known for staying in his lane, steerage definite of the staffer risk zone that surrounds Trump and that has been a component in so many White House departures.

“Don change into a good deal pondering about the judicial endeavor and deregulation,” mentioned Leo, Cipollone’s perfect friend. “Pat has focused some time on that, nonetheless he has broadened his passion areas. He will get himself pondering about other things within the building with better depth than Don may maybe presumably maybe need.”

Inserting himself in policy matters and palace intrigue carries risk. But Cipollone, who has traveled with Trump extra than his predecessors, had staked floor as reach as possible to the president.

His chums anguish he is having fun with a runt bit too shut to the fire.

Alice Crites contributed to this file.

[political-fluffle]

Russia’s Lasting Grip on Christian Conservatives

(...) Despite being sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury and the European Union for crimes in Ukraine, the same Russians under investigation for meeting with National Rifle Association (NRA) members are using Christian fundamentalist groups as a conduit to influence lawmakers.

Russians continue to skirt around sanctions by penetrating American churches and “family values” nonprofit organizations, and by manipulating IRS 501(c) loopholes, which do not require these groups to disclose their donations.

This is similar to the way members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle infiltrated the NRA.

Recently disclosed documents reveal that, over the last decade, at least $50 million has been dumped into fascist European fundamentalist groups. The list of donors includes former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon; Trump legal advisor, who converted from Judaism to become a Christian televangelist, Jay Sekulow; US Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; and DeVos’s brother, former Blackwater mercenary founder turned Virginia cattle rancher, Erik Prince.

Another top donor is one of Russia’s richest men, oligarch Konstantin Malofeev — Putin’s most effective Eurasianism lobbyist. Malofeev’s stature catapulted him to the center of America’s growing Christian fundamentalist syndicate, with a healthy boost from Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing media empire. In 2011, together with Jack Hanick, a former producer of Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, Malofeev launched an Orthodox Christian network called Tsargrad.

Hanick and Malofeev successfully modeled their propaganda network after Fox News. Hanick moved to Russia in 2012; four years later he, his wife, and his kids converted to the Russian Orthodox faith. Malofeev is currently the subject of six US criminal investigations into Russian ties to the NRA.

Not only is Malofeev suspected of laundering money into the NRA’s coffers, he has bankrolled and hosted events for the World Congress of Families (WCF), a right-wing Christian coalition based in Rockford, Illinois. Hanick serves on the WCF planning commission. (...)

Despite these disturbing revelations, American Christian nonprofit groups remain committed to Kremlin-led extremists, and recently attended the WCF’s annual conference in Verona, Italy. Met with over 20,000 protestors, the world’s most ultraconservative, populist voices spoke at the three-day summit, dog-whistling xenophobic, anti–human rights rhetoric. Returning US participants included WCF founder Allan Carlson and HSLDA global outreach director Mike Donnelly. Also in attendance was John Eastman, chairman of the anti-LGBT organization National Organization for Marriage. A Chapman University School of Law professor, Eastman clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He serves as chairman of the Federalist Society’s Federalism and Separation of Powers practice group. (...)

Russia’s long history of courting US politicians dates back to the Reagan era — Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition. But so-called family values nonprofit organizations have dramatically proliferated under the Trump administration, fueled by right-wing radio and cable news. Last November, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who advised Trump to forge stronger ties with Russia, helped produce a film titled The Trump Prophecy that claims the president has been anointed by God. One in four Fox News viewers believe Falwell’s notion, according to a recent poll. (...)

The Golden Lardassy Calf LOL. These grifters were well tricked by the Kremlin...

[sjohnson24]

Costa Rica’s New President Has His Work Cut Out

Carlos Alvarado Quesada’s election as president of Costa Rica on April 1, which defied every recent opinion poll, marks the rejection by Costa Ricans of fundamentalist populism. The thirty-eight-year-old ruling party candidate—a former labor minister, musician, journalist, and novelist—won 60 percent of the vote. Despite taking place amidst rampant corruption, rising crime and inequality, and a looming financial crisis, the election was defined by the issue of same-sex marriage.

Alvarado Quesada’s opponent, Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz, an ultraconservative evangelical preacher, relied on family values rhetoric and opposition to same-sex marriage to garner support. In the end, that was not enough.

Alvarado Quesada has a long road ahead of him to repair not only societal divisions that have been deepened by the fierce election campaign, but the institutional and economic damage caused by previous administrations.

In a year marked by critical and high-profile elections in Latin America, Costa Rica’s election received more international press coverage than usual because of an advisory opinion issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that appeared to legalize same-sex marriage in Costa Rica.

The international media intensely covered the impact of the opinion that described same-sex marriage as a human right. The Court’s opinion caused outrage in deeply religious Costa Rica, was seized upon by ultraconservative Alvarado Muñoz, and, as a result, had an impact on electoral forecasts.

Alvarado Muñoz made his opposition to the opinion the central issue of his campaign. He called for Costa Rica to withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Such rhetoric was enough to catapult him from an afterthought to leader in the polls and earned him a surprising victory in the first round of elections.

The Court’s opinion and Alvarado Muñoz’s unexpected surge polarized the country and sparked a national debate on human rights, the separation of church and state, so-called gender ideology,  and the rise of evangelical churches as a powerful political force.

In the end, it was ruling party candidate Alvarado Quesada who triumphed.

Alvarado Quesada inherits the presidency from the most unpopular administration in years. Outgoing President Luis Guillermo Solis, a member of Alvarado Quesada’s center-left Citizens’ Action Party (PAC), leaves behind a largely dysfunctional country. Mismanagement of public funds and unchecked spending by the Solis administration have stoked fears of an economic crisis—Costa Rica closed 2017 with the highest fiscal deficit in almost four decades. In 2017, it also witnessed the highest levels of violence in its history with more than 600 homicides. According to some estimates, 2018 will be even worse.

Finally, the Solis administration left Costa Ricans with the Cementazo: the single-largest corruption scandal in the country’s history. The Cementazo uncovered a complex and far-reaching influence-trafficking network that involved deputies from all of the country’s major parties, the Supreme Court of Justice, and many of Solis’s closest allies.

Despite the deep polarization in the country, there are a lot of reasons to celebrate. Voter turnout was high compared to the first round despite the fact that the election took place on Easter. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) officially announced Alvarado Quesada as the winner just two hours after polls closed.  Less than an hour later, Alvarado Muñoz delivered a concession speech in which he called for national reconciliation and respect for the results, an increasingly rare gesture in Latin America. The election also made a bit of history. Alvarado Quesada’s vice-presidential candidate, Epsy Campbell, will be continental America’s first black female vice president.

One of Alvarado Quesada’s biggest challenges during the campaign was to convince Costa Ricans that despite belong to the same party he is different from his predecessor. He must now address the fiscal deficit, the most ominous cloud hanging over his incoming government. A first step would be to push tax reform through the legislative assembly and impose legal limits to growth of public spending. He must also deal with the ballooning homicide rate, which, out of all countries in Central America, is the only one going up. He must also implement anti-corruption reform, a task made all the more urgent by the Cementazo.

Finally, and most importantly, he must heal the deep divisions that are the consequence of the recent election. He has already started down this path by offering half of the ministerial-level positions to opposition parties as long as they agree to help push forward a negotiable legislative agenda. The new president will also need to rebuild bridges with the marginalized and rural coastal areas that voted against him. As a Costa Rican journalist succinctly stated, it was necessity, not ignorance, that led these communities to vote for Alvarado Quesada’s opponent.

Significant challenges lie ahead, but Alvarado Quesada is uniquely situated to push the country forward. If he plays his cards right, Costa Rica, under his leadership, could come out stronger and more united than ever.

Alberto Matamoros is an intern in the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

BY ALBERTO MATAMOROS, From AtlanticCouncil.org

[oselatra]

Righting Governor's School

Summer program at Hendrix targeted once more.

When Jerry Cox, the president of the ultraconservative Family Council organization, suggested on Facebook that his application to teach at Arkansas Governor's School this summer was rejected because he was a Christian, state Rep. Mark Lowery (R-Maumelle) responded, assuring him that "significant change is coming. I have been working on this for months and will have more to say about this soon."

Governor's School, which has been held in summer at Hendrix College since its founding in 1980, has periodically come under attack as an incubator of left-wing ideas. The censors of the American Family Association of Arkansas have demanded on several occasions the school be shut down for "brainwashing" students against religion.

Hendrix College, a private four-year liberal arts school that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, does not does not hire faculty; hiring and curriculum are the "responsibility" of the Arkansas Department of Education, Hendrix Provost Terri Bonebright said. AGS has included clergy among its teachers and has scheduled speakers with all points of view, including former Republican state Rep. Dan Greenburg and national figures like Phyllis Schlafly.

The mission of Governor's School, which is funded through the Gifted & Talented and Advanced Placement office of the Department of Education, is to lead students to "explore cutting-edge theories in the arts and sciences and to develop a greater understanding of how art, culture, and knowledge change with time," and to challenge them to "develop the rigorous creative and intellectual skills that will be critical to their leading the ideal 'life well lived' and for making positive contributions to their communities and to society at large," its website says.

That Cox would assume he was rejected as a faculty member because of his Christian beliefs despite his qualifications is yet another example that many on the right are unhappy with the manner of teaching at the AGS. However, standards for hiring at AGS are high: Half of those hired to teach in academic areas have doctoral degrees. Cox, according to his two-page application, has a B.S. in education, social science and library science, but did not complete a master's degree program. His other listed credentials are 11 years' "classroom teaching experience"; his involvement in the pro-life movement and his work to "uphold traditional marriage." His hobbies are photography, fishing and collecting antiques. He was competing against applicants with advanced degrees, specifics on where they've taught, including at the college level; what special teaching certificates they have; books and journal articles published; and scholarly presentations.

Rep. Lowery has been unhappy with Hendrix' selection at least since last summer, emails released under the state Freedom of Information Act indicate. In August 2017, Lowery contacted ADE Commissioner Johnny Key with his "concerns about the lack of competition for site selection" for the Governor's School, adding, "but I have become more concerned about the amount of authority ceded the host site over staffing, policy, etc." Lowery did not return a call from the Arkansas Times for comment.

Lowery said he wanted to talk to Key because Hendrix's contract as the AGS site — a three-year contract — ends after this summer, allowing for changes in the department's Request for Proposals to potential host colleges.

It has also been assumed in some quarters that the ADE's rules for site selection were tailored to Hendrix College.

Mary Stein, who has headed the state's office of gifted and talented for several years, wrote to ADE Assistant Commissioner Stacy Smith on Aug. 14, 2017, that the complaint about Hendrix's apparent lock on the program "often surfaces." But, Stein explained, the state has interpreted its rules to mean that host campuses can't schedule other activities simultaneous with AGS. "Having only AGS going on without other campus distractions is very important. The rules for site selection mirror the original North Carolina model for Governor's Schools and weren't written just for Hendrix. Hendrix is the only institution willing to give up the revenue from other summer programs that could generate funds for the college."

Governor's School site selection Rule 13.01 requires applicants to submit a written plan providing "specific details guaranteeing no other campus activity or its participants will interfere with any Governor's School activity or student including the requirements listed in 13.02 through 13.06." (The latter rules apply to dining facilities, dorms, library access and classrooms, labs, studios and other facilities.)

Smith told the Times last week, just before the site application deadline, that there were "internal discussions" within the ADE this year on how to interpret the rule, and that the ADE will no longer take it to mean that campuses cannot host other activities while the school is in session. However, those activities must still not "interfere" with the Governor's School.

It appears from the emails that Lowery or the governor wanted to encourage an application from Harding University in Searcy, which describes itself as a "Christian institution."

Harding was apparently informed of the new interpretation. Dean and Professor of Education Clara Carroll contacted Commissioner Key on Feb. 7, writing, "Harding hosts many summer activities and this seems to be a barrier in the application process. If you could help us overcome this obstacle, I'd greatly appreciate it." That same day, Key emailed Governor Hutchinson's education liaison Leslie Fisken asking that she let the governor know "that Harding is submitting."

The new site selection Request for Proposals for the 2019-21 AGS contract summarizes rule 13.01, dropping the words "participants," "any" and "student." But Smith said the summary refers to rule 13.01 and that "the rules trump everything."

As it turns out, Harding did not make an application to host the school. But after years of being the sole applicant for the school, this year Hendrix faces competition from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.

The RFP for the 2019-21 contract adds a computer science component; Tech proposes to "provide students with a contemporary, technology-based curriculum," infusing the theme of Technology: Past, Present and Future into all areas of the curriculum. UCA touts its "cyber range for simulating computer network technology." Hendrix cites Governor Hutchinson's "state wide endeavors to increase the understanding of computing and coding in the public schools" and says course work will "provide opportunities for students to expand their ability to code" and "understanding advances in computing theory."

It will be up to a committee selected by Key to award the contract for the AGS for the 2019-21 contract. Key has not yet named the committee members, Smith said.

Righting Governor's School

[newstfionline]

A Vatican Shot Across the Bow for Hard-Line U.S. Catholics

By Jason Horowitz, NY Times, Aug. 2, 2017

VATICAN CITY--Two close associates of Pope Francis have accused American Catholic ultraconservatives of making an alliance of “hate” with evangelical Christians to back President Trump, further alienating a group already out of the Vatican’s good graces.

The authors, writing in a Vatican-vetted journal, singled out Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, as a “supporter of an apocalyptic geopolitics” that has stymied action against climate change and exploited fears of migrants and Muslims with calls for “walls and purifying deportations.”

The article warns that conservative American Catholics have strayed dangerously into the deepening political polarization in the United States. The writers even declare that the worldview of American evangelical and hard-line Catholics, which is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, is “not too far apart” from jihadists.

It is not clear if the article, appearing in La Civiltà Cattolica, received the pope’s direct blessing, but it was extraordinary coming from a journal that carries the Holy See’s seal of approval. There has apparently been no reprimand from the pope, who is not shy about disciplining dissenters, and La Civiltà Cattolica’s editor has promoted the article nearly every day since it was published in July.

The article and the backlash to it--accusations of anti-Americanism have been rife, and one prominent American prelate likened the authors to “useful idiots”--have highlighted the widening distance between Francis and American Catholic conservatives.

Since the 2013 election of Pope Francis, conservatives have worried that he has given short shrift to the social issues that have animated them, among them abortion and same-sex marriage. They have sat through his warnings to steer clear of politics. They have watched warily as Francis has installed pastors in his image while sidelining conservative leaders.

It is no secret that Francis, the first Latin American pope, who has often criticized capitalism, has a complicated view of his old neighbors to the north.

Not long after Francis’ election, Vatican ambassadors briefed the pontiff about various situations around the world and suggested that he be especially careful when appointing bishops and cardinals in the United States.

“I know that already,” the pope interrupted, according to a high-ranking Vatican official familiar with the details of the conversation, who asked that his name not be used while discussing internal Vatican deliberations. “That’s where the opposition is coming from.”

The Vatican declined to comment about the conversation.

Fans of the article said it made clear that the conservatives who ran the American church for decades were out of step with the new Catholic mainstream under Francis.

Massimo Faggioli, a professor of historical theology at Villanova University and a contributor to liberal Catholic journals, said the Civiltà Cattolica article would “be remembered in church history as one of the most important to understand the Vatican of Francis and the United States and American Catholicism.”

American Catholicism, he argued, echoing the article’s thesis, “has become different than mainstream European Catholicism and mainstream Latin American Catholicism,” and has fallen “into the hands of the religious right.”

The authors of the article argue that American evangelical and ultraconservative Catholics risk corrupting the Roman Catholic faith with an ideology intended to inject “religious influence in the political sphere.” They suggest that so-called values voters are using the banners of religious liberty and opposition to abortion to try to supplant secularism with a “theocratic type of state.”

Even before the article was published, many Catholic supporters of Mr. Trump, who won the white Catholic vote, were already wary of Francis for suggesting during the campaign that Mr. Trump was “not Christian” because of his preference for building walls rather than bridges.

Francis’ apparent openness on key issues such as granting communion to Catholics remarried outside the church has galvanized the opposition, led by the American cardinal Raymond L. Burke, an outspoken critic whom Francis has repeatedly demoted.

The essay, which critic have dismissed as woefully ignorant of religion’s deep history in American politics, has energized camps on both sides of the divide. In a Breitbart article headlined “Papal Advisers Bash American Christians in Bigoted Screed,” Thomas Williams, the site’s Rome correspondent and an associate of Mr. Bannon’s, wrote that instead of attacking Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon, “they have ended up attacking America itself.”

Benjamin Harnwell, a Catholic traditionalist in Rome, fan of Mr. Bannon and confidant of Cardinal Burke’s, said the article’s authors were doing little more than “trolling Steve Bannon.” Mr. Bannon, a former altar boy who once articulated his worldview to a Vatican conference, wrote in a brief email that the pope’s associates “lit me up.”

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, a standard-bearer for conservatism in America, likened the Civiltà Cattolica authors in his weekly newsletter to the “useful idiots” who supported the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. He called the article “an exercise in dumbing down and inadequately presenting the nature of Catholic/evangelical cooperation on religious freedom and other key issues.”

If Archbishop Chaput’s own thwarted ambitions are any indication, Francis might not agree. The pope has vexed conservatives by repeatedly declining to elevate Archbishop Chaput to the rank of cardinal, a requirement for entrance into the conclave that will choose the pontiff’s successor.

“I was a little bit disappointed,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a German conservative appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the church’s chief doctrinal watchdog, said in a recent interview. “The appointment of the cardinals should not be a personal relation with the pope’s to these bishops,” he said, adding that he was puzzled as to why Francis passed them over. “I don’t know,” he said. “Politics.”

In July, Francis fired Cardinal Müller.

Personnel decisions in the Catholic hierarchy are crucial to Francis’ effort to make the church more inclusive, particularly in the United States.

American Catholic conservatives once unacquainted with being out of papal favor have stewed privately and expressed horror publicly on numerous right-wing Catholic blogs. They accuse Francis of wrecking the church and diluting its doctrine.

Liberal American Catholics, bruised by crackdowns under John Paul II and Benedict XVI, are less than sympathetic to conservative complaints and have felt emboldened by Francis. They are delighted with the pope’s promotion of figures like Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, who has started a program against gun violence and opposed Republican health care proposals on the ground that they would strip coverage for the weak and poor. Francis chose him to lead the Chicago diocese in 2014, after the retirement of Cardinal Francis George, a giant of American Catholic conservatism, and elevated him to cardinal last year.

“We should speak in a way that invites people and creates a sense of unity in society,” Cardinal Cupich said in an interview at the Vatican on the day of his elevation.

Some progressive Catholics have even begun expressing a previously tacit resentment of the hard-right zeal of evangelical, Calvinist and Protestant converts to Catholicism, among them Newt Gingrich, the husband of Callista Gingrich, the new American ambassador to the Holy See.

“I am so tired of converts telling us that the pope is not Catholic,” Michael Sean Winters wrote last week in the newspaper National Catholic Reporter.

That deep suspicion of evangelical fundamentalism and the fear of politicization corroding the conservative hierarchy of the American Catholic church was laid bare by the article in La Civiltà Cattolica. The authors were the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the journal’s editor, who is a confidant of Francis’; and Marcelo Figueroa, an Argentine Presbyterian minister who is a friend and longtime collaborator of the pope’s.

In an interview, Father Spadaro said the reaction to the essay had been “incredible.” He said he had received kind words but also “plenty of hate.”

The main point of the article, he said, was the pope’s argument that religion in the service of politics or power is ideology, and that the manipulation of anxiety for political ends risks rendering the church a “sect of the pure.”

Father Spadaro also said it was important to explore the “apocalyptic narrative which inspires” Mr. Bannon, who has digested the works of often anti-Christian right-wing writers such as Julius Evola, who contend that people had drifted away from a primordial, heroic truth.

Father Spadaro said he was alarmed by the retrofitting of a mystical apocalyptical worldview into conservative Catholicism.

“We are warning against this kind of mixture, which is dangerous,” he said.