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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: IS THE NEW AGE REALLY HERE?
3/21/2013 5:41:43 PM

Sheldan Nidle Update 3-19-13…”Your World Continues To Teeter On The Brink Of A New Realm”

paoweb_globegrid33Highlights

  • The dark’s minions are very aware of just how close your reality is to a most significant transformation. We are monitoring several developments that are being staged by the dark ones in an effort to somehow change their looming fate.
  • We have news for you dark arrogant ones: “This time, what you have planned is not going to save you… The time your predestined removal from power is indeed approaching rapidly!”
  • This grace-filled moment for your [the Annunaki's] exit is here.
  • Shortly, a glorious event is to take place! This Light will permit us to come and secure a great victory for not only the Light but also for the long-suffering people who live on the surface-world of this sacred globe.
  • Our allies are busy adding names to the already lengthy lists of detainees. The special courts, convened to conduct your [the Annunaki's] trials, are in situ and their dockets are waiting to be announced.
  • …you are assaulting the atmosphere and drastically altering the very nature of Gaia’s ecosystems. These actions of yours further confirm the need for you to go and go now.
  • The Galactic Federation Main Council summoned us over two decades ago to carry out what Heaven now commands of us, namely, a mass landing of our personnel on Gaia’s sacred shores.
  • This is a truly planet-wide shift! Your solar system and each and every one of you are to become members of this new star-nation. Then you can rejoin your Agarthan family and return your beautiful homeworld, united, to the Light!
  • Our grand Administrators in Heaven inform us that a most auspicious time is at hand! The Heavens are beginning to move in a way that reflects the sacred intentions of the Supreme Creator. This means that this time is on the threshold of the changes.
  • You are being returned to your natural state of full consciousness so that you can properly assist us in a most special and sacred service.
  • This process of inner and outer change is the reason why this great collection of souls that you are had this special dispensation conferred upon it.
  • You are a most promising motley group of spiritual energy. You are in fact the cream of the crop of humanity!
  • Hold steady, perceive what is already emerging around you, and help create this most exquisite gift from the Creator: full consciousness.

—————————————————————————

Sheldan Nidle Update 3-19-13
11 Lamat, 16 Ceh, 9 Eb

Dratzo! We come again! Your world continues to teeter on the brink of a new realm. The dark’s minions are very aware of just how close your reality is to a most significant transformation. We are monitoring several developments that are being staged by the dark ones in an effort to somehow change their looming fate. The Anunnaki’s ‘children’ have ruled your lives with an unchallenged hand for nearly 13 millennia, but this prolonged unpleasantness is now drawing to a close. Until now they have always found a way to escape from serious predicaments and are still hoping for some means of reshaping their current situation. We have news for you dark arrogant ones: “This time, what you have planned is not going to save you. We are monitoring your recent clumsy attempts to stage incidents designed to spark a wide-ranging series of conflicts. This time, dark ones, you will not be allowed to shake up the world. Our sacred allies are now occupying positions that can effectively limit what you are planning. We have also created a network that can intervene against when so required. The time your predestined removal from power is indeed approaching rapidly!”

Heaven has decreed your future and our task is to carry out these sacred decisions when signaled to do so by our heavenly advisors. When Atlantis fell into its fiery and watery grave, the Anunnaki emerged and were given a special dispensation by Heaven, and, as we have often reminded you, this dispensation possesses a predetermined time limit. This grace-filled moment for your exit is here. Shortly, a glorious event is to take place! This Light will permit us to come and secure a great victory for not only the Light but also for the long-suffering people who live on the surface-world of this sacred globe. Your dark and dreadful technology can no longer prevent the inevitable. This living realm, and indeed this entire solar system, is in urgent need of a series of sweeping changes which will constitute a most fitting prelude to ascension into a new 5-D reality. Our specific task is to facilitate these transformations and dispatch you from power. This we fully intend to do. We await the heralds of this new reality, and then a thorough accounting will be made of the old outgoing paradigm and those who perpetrated it.

“This period of waiting is swiftly coming to a close. You know this, and yet you continue to bumble about and compel your misguided alliances to keep resisting the unavoidable. The time for the removal of your personnel approaches. Our allies are busy adding names to the already lengthy lists of detainees. The special courts, convened to conduct your trials, are in situ and their dockets are waiting to be announced. The sacred events spoken of by Heaven are happening and are building to a most amazing crescendo! The termination of your lunatic reign is close as this sacred ‘clock’ tick-tocks inescapably toward change. Above you, dark ones, lies a vast fleet which guarantees your prophesied end, so do not think for even a minute that what little activity left at your command can in any way prevent this divine turn of events! Meanwhile, you are assaulting the atmosphere and drastically altering the very nature of Gaia’s ecosystems. These actions of yours further confirm the need for you to go and go now.”

The Galactic Federation Main Council summoned us over two decades ago to carry out what Heaven now commands of us, namely, a mass landing of our personnel on Gaia’s sacred shores. The dark cringes at the mere thought of this eventuality; nevertheless, this moment is nearly upon us. After countless drills and myriad adjustments and adaptations, we stand very ready to come and visit you en masse. This mission has undergone many incarnations, and we are ready to bring our beloved siblings of this world a great gift: the final stretch of a now fully opened highway to full consciousness for those living on Gaia’s surface realm. Each of you is destined to experience once again the joys of full consciousness. Even the dark’s most die-hard minions will eventually reconnect with this most glorious state of Being! This is a truly planet-wide shift! Your solar system and each and every one of you are to become members of this new star-nation. Then you can rejoin your Agarthan family and return your beautiful homeworld, united, to the Light!

Namaste! We are your Ascended Masters! We arrive with Joy in our Hearts and a most brilliant Light to guide us! Our grand Administrators in Heaven inform us that a most auspicious time is at hand! The Heavens are beginning to move in a way that reflects the sacred intentions of the Supreme Creator. This means that this time is on the threshold of the changes. If you consult your heart knowing, you will sense that something truly immense in scope is happening. The Heavens are a vast interdimensional realm. In the lower vibrational realms, Heaven begins to form a physical aspect which, as it descends, becomes physicality. We are now moving an aspect of physicality upwards, and in retrospect re-forming how physicality is to unfold. As this operation proceeds, we are able to assert our blessed grace and thus act as a divine proxy co-creator for physicality in general.

We mention this now for a purpose: you need to see that what is happening here is not just some “flash in the night”. Developments here possess a high spiritual and physical purpose. You are being returned to your natural state of full consciousness so that you can properly assist us in a most special and sacred service. This is the time when your hard-earned wisdom can be put to good use in re-forming physicality and by assisting in its unfolding. This future mission was anticipated by Heaven back when she permitted the dark to perform a series of drastic adulterations to your consciousness. This explains why these times are so vital. This is when you not only recoup your original abilities, but enhance them greatly as a result of the wisdom garnered during your long sojourn through the shadow-realms of the dark. This grievous stint so valiantly endured is now to provide great dividends in how physicality is transformed in the time ahead.

This process of inner and outer change is the reason why this great collection of souls that you are had this special dispensation conferred upon it. You are a most promising motley group of spiritual energy. You are in fact the cream of the crop of humanity! The time you spent on Gaia was to prepare you, first, by having you care for one of the most sacred Beings in physicality. Out of this group came us, your Ascended Masters, and shortly now, each one of you. In addition, there is the sanctuary realm of Agartha. Once we are all conjoined, we, with the grace of our sacred Heavenly Administrators, are to carry out a wondrous assignment for all of physicality. This behooves you to think grand, and draw on your divine qualities of patience and fortitude. Hold steady, perceive what is already emerging around you, and help create this most exquisite gift from the Creator: full consciousness. We will be there to guide you to your destiny. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Today we talked about how your realm is to be transformed. Much is happening that will quite shortly change the world as you know it. The dark’s time of supremacy is almost over and the time for the Light is now to manifest around you! Know, dear Ones, that the countless Supply and never-ending Prosperity of Heaven are indeed Yours! So Be It! Selamat Gajun! Selamat Ja! (Sirian for Be One! and Be in Joy!)

NOTE: This message has been posted again with a view to include Kauilapele's unique comments on it.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: IS THE NEW AGE REALLY HERE?
3/21/2013 5:45:47 PM

The Mayan Calendar & the numbers ‘20’ & ‘13’

ARTICLE LAST UPDATED: 19 March 2013
Please keep reading below for update under ‘April 2013′ heading….

Source: Universal Life Tools

Last year (2012) marked the end of the Mayan Calendar (the 13th Baktun) and we have now entered the threshold of a new cycle, a new year referred to as ‘twenty-thirteen’.

The numbers ‘20’ and ‘13’ are the key numbers in the Tzolk’in calendar, the foundational calendar of the Maya. The Tzolk’in charted 20 named days with an interlocking cycle of 13 numbers creating a greater cycle of 260 named days (20 x 13), referred to as a ‘Ritual Year’ (refer Note 2). The named day on which you are born within the 260 day cycle brings understanding to your physical, emotional and spiritual journey here on Earth.

The Tzolk’in was based on the number 13 as it represented the levels of ‘Heaven’ or the spiritual levels of evolution through creation. It is then thought the number 20 was chosen as it represented the total number of fingers and toes. Another way of saying this is that the numbers 13 & 20 together symbolize the expression of Heaven here on Earth, the expression of Spirit through our physical bodies.

Now that we have entered 2013 (twenty-thirteen) we have the potential to take the wisdom from the old cycle, our collective galactic evolutionary experiences and begin a new cycle of heart-centred consciousness.

Another way of saying this… we have the potential to transcend the pain of perceived separation through the experience of having a physical body (the number 20) and truly live a spiritual life as is encoded within our DNA, the expression of spirit through us (the number 13).

The year 2013 is about fully celebrating the joy of allowing your physical body (the number 20) to be full of light & love (the number 13), and hence be an active pioneer of a new humanity through the Heart.

February 2013

The 21/22 February 2013 is prophesized as marking the beginnings of a whole new cycle of our cosmic evolution. But lets look at the lead up to this date to get a better understanding of what this means.

Firstly, on the 15/16 February 2013 Asteroid 2012 DA14 (newly discovered on the 23 February 2012), makes a very close passage to earth… transiting approximately 27,700 km from the Earths surface… closer than many of our satellites in orbit.

The Asteroid 2012 DA14 energetically is like a peace-dove, or olive branch… gently stimulating our pineal glands and awakening our conscious awareness to the LOVE of all creation that exists within us. You may experience ‘lightbulb’ moments or dreams/visions of potentials beyond your perceived limitations… take note of your experiences as they are messages from your higher-self regarding your journey this year. Be gentle with yourself as emotions maybe running high, and sleep maybe disturbed during this time. Here is some spectacular video footage of Asteroid 2012 DA14 on Vimeo >>

On the 18/19 February 2013 the Earth and Sun come into alignment with Cygnus x-3, a most powerful source of x-rays, gamma source and ultra-high energy cosmic rays within our Galaxy. Cygnus X-3 is a microquasar within the Swan Constellation (Cygnus), known as the Northern Cross, and represents the World Tree of Life in the Mayan Culture.

As stated in Drunvelo Melchizedek’s book Serpent of Light Beyond 2012 – ‘19 February represents the beginning of a new cycle and a new world… entire heavens would be opened up… free to explore our natural environment of space, time, and dimension beyond the Earth’. (Guatemalen Mayan Prophecy).

Interestingly as well, the 18/19 February 2013 marks 260 days since the transit of Venus (refer Note 3) across the path of the sun that took place on the 5/6 June 2012.

Then as stated in the ‘Holisic Book of Knowledge’ by Dr Jose Jaramillo, three days of darkness will follow the Cygnus X-3 alignment, and on the 21/22 February a new humanity will be brought into existence.

Its as if ‘conception’ took place during the passage of Venus on the 5/6 June 2012, followed by a ‘gestational’ period some 260 days later with ‘contractions’ and later the movement down the birth canal (electro-magnetic properties of Asteroid 2012 DA14 and Cygnus X-3) for then humanity to be birthed on the 21/22 February 2013.

The 23 February 2013 then marks the first full day of enlightened beingness for all of mankind. In numerology this date adds up to the number ‘13’, the expression of Spirit through all of Creation.

The above dates, and corresponding prophesies / astrological alignments give amazing insight for humanity… as Earth and all her life forms will be showered in high-frequency cosmic, gamma and powerful x-rays during this time frame. As our auric fields… right down to the trillions of cells within our body’s are being bathed in these electro-magnetic frequencies… our DNA is awakening to an evolved state of beingness in order to help us anchor 5th Dimensional light within our physical bodies.

It is thought that it is these multi-dimensional high cosmic emissions that have played an important role in the quantum evolution of Earth (and our entire Galaxy) over millions of years. For example, over 775 million years or so ago single cell organisms became multi-celullar (quantum leap), then over 450 million or so years ago aquatic plants moved to land (quantum leap), then over 225 million years ago the dinosaurs left Earth. We are now at the end of another 225 million year cycle (the period it takes Earth/Solar System to do one complete revolution around our Milky Way Galaxy).

Thus, in this generation, at the end of once cycle and hence the beginning of our next Galactic Cycle (225 million year cycle)… we are once again ‘quantum leaping’ into the next cycle of our evolutionary journey…. what we choose to evolve into is up to us… through our hearts !

These electro-magnetic cosmic emissions that we are currently experiencing are pulsating the torroidal field of energy that surrounds our heart, helping us to ‘beat our Hearts’ in unison with the Earth (Earth’s Heart), in unison with one-another (Human Hearts), in unison with Creation (Galactic Heart). Through the one-heart we move beyond the limitation of our perceived separateness, and we embrace the Love, the Joy, the Beauty of a ONE humanity evolving into an enlightened new world.

To understand more about Cygnus X-3, and how it emits powerful cosmic rays please visit the
NASA website – Cygnus X-3
as well as view the NASA movie below:

To help connect with the energy of this time, I highly recommend my Galactic Heart Meditation :

March 2013

C/2011 L4 – Photo: Terry Lovejoy – Australia

On the 5 March 2013, non-periodic comet C/2011 L4 (Panstarrs) will pass closest to Earth, then on the 10 March 2013 will pass closest to the Sun.
On the 4 February 2013 comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) passed closest to the Earth and then on the 24 March 2013 will pass closest to the Sun.

Follow the movement of C/2011 L4 >

It is said that these comets most probably took millions of years to come from the Oort Cloud, a spherical cloud of matter/energy that surrounds the outer edge of our Solar System formed during our Solar Systems evolution.

The Oort cloud is a mass of potentiality, possibilities that exist within the electro-magnetic torroidal field of our Solar System. Through our Solar Systems evolutionary journey, ‘matter’ is created from energy within the Oort cloud via our individual and collective heart-mind thought-forms, as well as through the collective intelligence of higher dimensions (such as the 6th Dimension of the Pleiades, 7th Dimension of Sirius, and the 8th Dimension of the core of our Milky Way Galaxay).

Emmisions form the Oort Cloud (such as comets) seek to work with particular ‘aspects/rays’ of our planetary evolution, supporting our spiritual renaissance.

These comets are inspiring humanity to look within and really question:

‘Who are we as a civilisation ?’,
‘Where are we going as a civilisation ?’,
‘Where do we want to go as a civilisation ?’
and awakening deep within our DNA ‘Dreams’ of how to get there !!!

The energetics of these comets are igniting within our hearts the desire to stand outside of the box of the old paradigm of non-conscious Earthly ways and dream our highest vision for self and humanity. Through our dreams we transcend the problems of our world and emerge with infinite solutions.

When we choose to walk the beat of our own hearts in truth, authentic love, compassion and reverence for all of life…. the dreams of our higher-selves ‘meet up’ in the etheric field… such that our single-cellular dreams join with the dreams of others to become multi-cellular dreams. These multi-cellular dreams create a new dream-template for humanity, just like the trillions of multi-cells within our body create the one organism or template called the human body. Over time, this new dream-template becomes the ‘norm’, and we find ourselves truly living in the heaven here on Earth.. where are hearts and our dreams have bridged the gap of separation, pain and fear. We are no longer competing to exist, but living in a global community, a global humanity focussed on sharing, supporting, nurturing and living life through the heart.

For some this idealistic utopia may seem a long way off… but the influx of many comets this year (along with a whole multitude of cosmic activity) is helping us to really embrace this vision as a reality and to know deep within us this is an eternal truth of our evolution if we so choose !

To see the latest pictures of the comets from around the world see: http://spaceweather.com/

Follow the movement of C/2011 L4 >

Then on the 28 March 2013, the Maya Sun-Venus Calendar ends which marks the end of the current 52-year Venus cycle and the beginnings of the next 5000-year cycle of the fifth Sun.

In the words of Maya Elder Don Alejandro:
“On March 31, 2013 the sun will be hidden for a period of 60-70 hours and this is when we shall enter the period of the Fifth Sun.”

The 31 March 2013 marks the anchoring and conscious acknowledgement of the weaving of Light (21 Dec 2012 – Masculine – Yang energy) and the Dark (31 March 2013 – Feminine – Yin energy) into a symbiosis of harmony and balance.

Interestingly again, the date 31 March 2013 adds up to the number ‘13’ in numerology. The 31 March 2013 is also Easter Sunday, the rising of Christ.

Here is a short timelapse video capturing both comets (C/2011 L4 & C/2012 F6) sweeping through the Southern Hemisphere in late Feb 2013 on their journey of cosmic awakening. http://vimeo.com/59571509

April 2013

UPDATED NEW !!!!

On the 31 March to the 2 April 2013, Earth will orbit through a portal of energy (a gravity trough) that connects our Sun with an inbound Black Dwarf Star from the Leo Constellation. This event will electromagnetically charge the Earths crystalline matrix, with the effect of potentially shifting its axis and triggering earthquakes within the ‘ring of fire’ (see image).

The Earth has been found to have significant shifts in it’s axis every 188 days.. with the most recent events including Chile (27 February 2010 – magnitude 8.8), Christchurch NewZealand ( 4 September 2011 – magnitude 7.1), Fiji (15 September 2011 – magnitude 7.3), Japan (11 March 2011 – magnitude 9) and Alaska (26 September 2012 – magnitude 7).

When we become conscious of our energetic interactions within our SolarSystem, Galaxy and greater Cosmos, then we have the potential to work with these energetic exchanges for our highest good, in reverence of all life and for the greater good of all. We have the potential to be proactive conductors or bridges of these events rather reactionary agents of fear.

Please read my Article on ‘Humanity: Bridges to an Awakened Consciousness’.
http://www.universallifetools.com/2013/03/humanity-conscious-evolution/

Please also visit the following webpage to learn more about this astro event:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvlo2vjt7rrvoiu/DE-Fl_ZhAS/April%202%202013%20Press%20Release.pdf

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: IS THE NEW AGE REALLY HERE?
3/21/2013 10:54:22 PM

Obama makes direct peace appeal to the Israeli people


U.S. President Barack Obama, during a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, and 'an end to occupation and the daily indignities that come with it.

By Steve Holland and Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama appealed directly on Thursday to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians and recognize that Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory hurts prospects for peace.

In a showcase speech in Jerusalem to Israeli university students,Obama coupled his plea with an acknowledgement of the Jewish state's security concerns in a region destabilized by the West's nuclear standoff with Iran and civil war in Syria.

But he urged Israel's younger generation to demand that their politicians take risks for peace in an address interrupted frequently by applause, including a standing ovation for the president during a brief outburst by a heckler.

"You must create the change that you want to see," he told his youthful audience.

Obama, on his first official visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, said only peace could bring true security, but he did not offer any new ideas on how to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, stalled since 2010.

"Given the demographics west of the Jordan River, the only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine," he said.

It was a clear warning that Israel's continued hold over the West Bank, territory captured along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, would ultimately lead to an Arab majority in land controlled by the Jewish state.

"Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable, that real borders will have to be drawn," Obama said, stopping short of calling for a construction freeze.

"Put yourself in their (Palestinians') shoes. Look at the world through their eyes," he said. "It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day."

Obama has received an effusive welcome in Israel since his arrival on Wednesday, hoping to reset his often troubled relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"America will do what we must to prevent a nuclear Iran," he told his enthusiastic audience, reinforcing a main theme of his visit to Israel and adding that Washington and its allies still thought there was time for a diplomatic solution.

Sprinkling in Hebrew words meaning "you are not alone", Obama said: "Today, I want to tell you - particularly the young people - that so long as there is a United States of America, 'ahtem lo levad'."

In a brief statement after Obama's speech, Netanyahu thanked him for "his unconditional support for the state of Israel" and said he shared the president's view that peace, ensuring Israelis' security, should be sought.

Obama has faced the tough task of winning over skeptical Israelis after he bypassed their country in 2009 when visiting Egypt and offered a "new beginning" to the Muslim world in a speech at Cairo University.

Four years on, students at the school said Obama had not lived up to his promises.

"I don't see any change in American policy toward the Middle East since Obama's speech," said Mayada Mohammad Yousef, 19. "This is because Obama promised the implementation of a two-state solution and to stop settlements ... and he has not achieved any of this."

WEST BANK VISIT

The mood was also tinged with disappointment in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which Obama visited before his Jerusalem speech. Meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for three hours, Obama pressed the Western-backed leader to drop his demand for a settlement freeze before peace talks can resume.

The core issue now, Obama said at a news conference with Abbas, was hot to achieve sovereignty for Palestinians and security for Israelis.

"That's not to say settlements are important. That's to say if we solve those problems, the settlement issue will be resolved," Obama said.

About 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, home to 2.5 million Palestinians. Most countries regard Israel's settlements as illegal. Israel cites historical and Biblical roots to the West Bank and Jerusalem.

In Ramallah, about 150 Palestinian demonstrators protested against Obama's visit. Held back by ranks of police from nearing Abbas's compound, they raised their hands to wave away the helicopter that brought Obama to the city.

"We want RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), not collaboration with the CIA," they shouted.

Obama, embarking on a second and final four-year term in the White House, has made clear he is not bringing any new peace initiatives and has instead has come to Israel and the Palestinian Territories on a "listening" tour.

But he said his new secretary of state, John Kerry, would spend a significant amount of time and energy trying to narrow differences between the two sides as the United States seeks to move them back to the negotiating table.

A U.S. official said Kerry would return to Israel for talks after accompanying Obama to Jordan on Friday and Saturday.

As a reminder of the ever-present risks in the region, Iranian state television quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying Tehran would raze Tel Aviv and the city of Haifa if Israel carried out veiled threats to attack Iran.

And Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into Sderot, a southern Israeli town that Obama visited when running for president in 2008. Police said no one was hurt.

A small Islamist militant group, Magles Shoura al-Mujahddin, claimed responsibility. Obama is not going to visit Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, a rival to Abbas, who condemned the attack.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Ramallah, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Matt Spetalnick, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem and Ayman Samir in Cairo; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Will Waterman)

Article: Palestinians vent frustration at brief Obama visit

Article: Obama: Israeli settlement building not constructive to peace

Article: Islamist group says it fired rockets at Israel from Gaza

Article: Obama tells Israelis that settlement activity hurts peace

Article: Gaza rockets hit Israeli town during Obama visit



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: IS THE NEW AGE REALLY HERE?
3/22/2013 12:58:04 AM

Obama to shore up ally Jordan on last stop in Mideast


U.S. President Barack Obama, during a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, and 'an end to occupation and the daily indignities that come with it.

By Matt Spetalnick

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - President Barack Obama flies to Jordanon Friday for talks with King Abdullah, a key U.S. Middle East ally, that are expected to focus on the civil war in neighboring Syria and the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy.

Obama will head to Amman after the final day of his first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, which will be heavy on symbolism as he tours sites of historic and religious importance to both peoples.

The president's visit to the desert kingdom is aimed at reassuring Abdullah of Washington's support at a time when it is flooded with refugees from the violence in Syria, and battling economic difficulties and tensions from the "Arab Spring" upheaval in the region, aides say.

Obama and Abdullah will consult extensively on the spillover of the Syrian conflict to Jordan, where an influx of more than 350,000 refugees has further strained the resources of a country that has almost no oil. Washington has provided some aid to alleviate the humanitarian situation.

Obama backs the Syrian opposition's effort to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but has limited its support to non-lethal aid to anti-government rebels despite a growing calls from European and Arab allies to take a stronger tack.

The king has taken a mostly cautious line on Syria, calling for Assad to go, but advocating a "political solution" and not arming the Syrian leader's foes. Jordanian authorities worry that any emergence of Islamist rule in a post-Assad Syria could embolden Islamists who are the main opposition group in Jordan.

Also on the agenda will be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jordan is one of only two Arab states - Egypt is the other - to have signed peace treaties with Israel, and is seen as a potential player in any future U.S.-led peace push. It also has a majority Palestinian population.

Obama appealed directly on Thursday to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians and recognize that Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory hurts prospects for peace.

SHOWCASE SPEECH TO ISRAELIS

In a showcase speech in Jerusalem to Israeli university students, Obama coupled his plea with an acknowledgement of the Jewish state's security concerns in a region destabilized by the West's nuclear standoff with Iran and civil strife in Syria.

Obama said only peace could bring true security, but he did not offer any new ideas on how to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, stalled since 2010.

"Given the demographics west of the Jordan River, the only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine," he said.

It was a clear warning that Israel's continued hold over the West Bank, territory captured along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, would ultimately lead to an Arab majority in land controlled by the Jewish state.

The state of Jordan's troubled economy, which receives nearly $360 million in U.S. economic assistance, will also be on the agenda, as will renewing the two countries' counterterrorism partnership.

And Obama will encourage Abdullah to press ahead with a program of economic and political reform. Jordan has been the scene of mostly peaceful street protests, rather than the uprisings that have shaken some of its neighbors, and the king has responded with cautious steps toward democracy.

"We have our stalwart ally Jordan moving in the direction of reform," a senior Obama administration official said.

Before leaving Israel, Obama will visit the tombs of Theodor Hertzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, and slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He will also tour the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

It is all part of paying tribute to Israeli and Jewish history in his outreach to the Israeli people, who gave him a rousing welcome despite lingering wariness about him.

He will then travel to West Bank town of Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe Jesus was born, in what is seen as a message of solidarity to dwindling Christian communities in a turbulent region.

Obama will visit the ruins of the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan on Saturday before heading home to Washington.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by Will Waterman)

Article: Palestinians vent frustration at brief Obama visit

Article: Obama: Israeli settlement building not constructive to peace

Article: Islamist group says it fired rockets at Israel from Gaza

Article: Obama tells Israelis that settlement activity hurts peace

Article: Gaza rockets hit Israeli town during Obama visit


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: IS THE NEW AGE REALLY HERE?
3/22/2013 1:03:39 AM

Jesuit pope offers hope to some targeted US nuns


Associated Press/Domenico Stinellis, File - FILE - This is a Sunday, March 17, 2013 file photo of Pope Francis gestures as he delivers his Angelus prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican. The election of a Jesuit pope devoted to the poor and stressing a message of mercy rather than condemnation has brought a glimmer of hope to American nuns who have been the subject of a Vatican crackdown accusing them of having focused too much on social justice at the expense of other church issues such as abortion, according to interviews with several groups. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - This is a Monday, June 18, 2012, file photo of Sister Simone Campbell, right, executive director of Network, speaks in front of Renate Dellmann, of Ames, Iowa, left, during a stop on the first day of a 9-state Nuns on the Bus tour in Ames, Iowa. Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a social justice lobby founded by nuns four decades ago, said ``it can make a big difference'' to have a pope who knows about life in religious orders. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The election of a Jesuit pope devoted to the poor and stressing a message of mercy rather than condemnation has brought a glimmer of hope to American nuns who have been the subject of a Vatican crackdown, according to interviews with several groups. The nuns were accused of having focused too much on social justice at the expense of other church issues such as abortion.

The 2012 Vatican crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns, unleashed a wave of popular support for the sisters, including parish vigils, protests outside the Vatican embassy in Washington and a U.S. Congressional resolution commending the sisters for their service to the country.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered up the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR in 2009 around the same time another Vatican department launched an investigation into the 340 women's religious orders in the country in a bid to try to stem the decline in their numbers. The results of that review haven't been released.

But the doctrine investigation led the Vatican to impose a full-scale reform of the conference after determining the sisters had taken positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." Investigators praised the nuns' humanitarian work, but accused them of ignoring critical issues, including fighting abortion.

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. bishops' conference, said he expected Pope Francis would bring "freshness" and understanding to the debate with the Leadership Conference, given Francis' own experience as a Jesuit familiar with the problems of life in religious orders. Francis also ran the Jesuit province in his native Argentina in the early years of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, which kidnapped and killed thousands of people — including some priests — in a "dirty war" to eliminate leftist opponents.

Dolan said: "I think the greatest thing he's going to bring is to say to everybody 'Be not afraid. We're friends. We're on this journey together. We can speak openly to one another. We both have things to learn. We both have changes we need to make and let's serve one another best by being trusting and charitable yet honest to one another.'"

Dolan said it was "too early to say" whether Francis would take a softer approach on the crackdown than his predecessor, German theologian Pope Benedict XVI and his then-chief doctrinal watchdog, Cardinal William Levada, who has since retired.

Sister Nancy Sylvester of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Monroe, Mich., who has held leadership posts in U.S. sisters' groups, said she has been encouraged by Francis' emphasis on the poor.

"I am really trying to be hopeful," Sylvester said. She said there were signs in Francis' public comments as pope and his track record "that he would be much more sympathetic to women religious."

"He's an intelligent man, his experience clearly has changed him and I think those are good signs," Sylvester said in a phone interview.

U.S. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who preceded Dolan as head of the U.S. conference bishops, said he didn't expect any major shift in the process and said Francis' Jesuit background would actually bring the Vatican's reform greater credibility to its critics.

"He is a religious who governed a province through a lot of these difficulties," George said in an interview. "It's one thing to be for the poor, it's another thing to be for the poor in a way that compromises the teaching of the church. He showed that. And if anybody can bring credibility to the religious superiors ... it will be a religious pope."

The former Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a Jesuit priest when the Vatican in 1989 imposed a similar crackdown on the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious orders, purportedly because it relied too heavily on Marxist interpretation of social ills — a victim of the Vatican's overall crackdown on liberation theology at the time in the region.

Bergoglio is no friend of liberation theology, the Latin American-inspired view that flowered in the 1970s and 1980s that Jesus' teachings imbue followers with a duty to fight for social and economic justice. He has disavowed it as a misguided strain of Catholic tenets.

But that doesn't mean he rejects the ultimate goal. Francis' addresses and homilies as cardinal often referred to the need for the church to focus on the world's economic failings and growing divides between rich and poor — a theme he made clear would be a priority now that he is pope in his homily at this week's installation Mass.

In that homily and in one two days earlier, Francis also gave a hint about how he might exercise the power that he now wields: with tenderness and mercy, not condemnation and punishment.

"I think we too are the people who, on the one hand want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand at times like to find a stick to beat others with, to condemn others," Francis told parishioners at the Vatican's St. Anna church on Sunday. "And Jesus has this message for us: mercy. I think - and I say it with humility - that this is the Lord's most powerful message: mercy."

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a social justice lobby founded by nuns four decades ago, said "it can make a big difference" to have a pope who knows about life in religious orders.

"This is a time of wait and see. I've talked to a lot of people are more hopeful than they have been in a very long time," said Campbell, who was a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention that nominated President Barack Obama for a second term. "There is a huge hunger for spiritual leadership, real spiritual leadership, and I hope it goes to that and not to the internal political fights. ... This has always been about an internal political fight. It's never been about faith."

Campbell said no one expects church officials to ever announce they would drop plans for the overhaul, even if they decided the approach was misguided. "They'll never say this is a bad idea. That will never happen," Campbell said. "The most we can hope for is that the Italian method is followed where it quietly slips to the background and life goes on."

But Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale, a theologian at Boston College, a prominent Jesuit school in Massachusetts, argued that there is some evidence Francis could take a hard line with American sisters. Jesuits have a different approach to religious authority than many sisters do, grounded in obedience to a superior, she said.

"I would think Pope Francis would have the same understanding," Hinsdale said. Religious sisters' vow of obedience "operates more through the community, more democratically," Hinsdale said.

"He's clearly a theological conservative," Hinsdale said of Francis. "He's religious himself, however he's a Jesuit."

Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain and two other bishops were named by the Vatican to oversee rewriting the Leadership Conference's statutes, review its plans and programs, approve speakers and ensure the group properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual. The conference represents about 57,000 sisters or 80 percent of U.S. nuns.

The Leadership Conference has argued that the Vatican reached "flawed" conclusions based on "unsubstantiated accusations." The group's officers have said they would participate in discussions with Sartain "as long as possible" but vowed they would not compromise their group's mission.

The LCWR declined a request for an interview but said in a statement their conversations with Sartain continue. "We look forward to continuing to work with the Vatican for the good of the whole church," the group said.

Greg Magnoni, a spokesman for Sartain, said the archbishop was not available for an interview. However, Magnoni said "no one knows at this point whether Pope Francis' election will have an effect" on the reform. At a Seattle news conference last week on Francis' election, Sartain said he had no reason to believe his role overseeing the changes would be different under the new pontiff.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of "The Jesuit Guide" who has been an outspoken supporter of U.S. sisters in the wake of the Vatican crackdown, said Jesuits have traditionally worked closely with sisters and even helped found their religious orders.

"Since the pope's first homily focused specifically on 'tenderness,' we may see that his application of church rules will be a little more gentle," he said.

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Zoll reported from New York.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield and Rachel Zoll at www.twitter.com/rzollAP


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