Vatican turmoil over leaked secrets

It will be interesting to see if the latest scandal within the Vatican throws further light on the festering controversies detailed in my book The Fátima Phenomenon - Divine Grace, Delusion or Pious Fraud?

A Vatican spokesman has confirmed that the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, is now under arrest and being held in a cell within the Vatican, charged with aggravated theft. He is alleged to have stolen and leaked hundreds of confidential documents.

The documents are said to include correspondence, notes and memos to the pope and his private secretary. Gabriele was is one of only a handful of people with access to the pontiff's private papers.

Reports from Rome suggest the documents contain evidence and expressions of concerns about internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption at the highest levels of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI's butler was the alleged mole feeding the documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff's No. 2.

Last week, the President of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted amid money laundering allegations. Associated Press has quoted Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the bank, as saying the turmoil was beyond belief even in a work of fiction. “No editor would let you put it in a novel," he said.

Deep concerns about goings-on in the Vatican have long been expressed by traditionalist groups within the Church, such as the Fátima Center apostolate based in North America, and the worldwide Sedevacantist movement.

These two groups and many other devout Catholics are convinced that the present pope and some of his predecessors have been responsible for a cover-up of the so-called Third Secret of Fátima. These concerns are fully explained in The Fátima Phenomenon – Divine Grace, Delusion or Pious Fraud? 
First published in Portuguese in 2010, it is now available in English as an ebook from Amazon.

   

Plenty of time to ponder a better life

 I arrived at a state-run health centre last Tuesday in good time for my appointment made exactly a month earlier. The receptionist told me I was third in line to see the doctor, a young woman. More people were waiting in the same area to see another doctor, a middle-aged man.

That morning, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had issued its latest Better Life Index. It reported that 61% of Portuguese women aged between 15 and 64 are in paid work, compared with 70% of men.

Here it seemed like more than 90% of the observable staff were women, despite the OECD’s assertion that “glaring gender differences” mean Portuguese women spend more than five hours a day on domestic chores, while men spend only about 90 minutes cooking, cleaning or caring for children.

In the developed world, Portugal has one of the biggest gaps between rich and poor. It is the most unequal country in Europe, according to the OECD. The top 20% of the population earn six times as much as the bottom 20%. I felt sure no one in the top 20% would be seen dead in this national health centre.

The male doctor was clearing his line of patients fairly quickly. The woman doctor was taking much longer but, eventually, she got around to calling in her next client, a young mother with a baby. It occurred to me that in keeping with the OECD average, this Portuguese baby had a life expectancy of almost 80 years – 77 if it was a boy, 83 if it was a girl.

Meanwhile, the elderly patient in front of me was becoming increasingly depressed at having to spend so much of his dwindling lifespan waiting in a corridor. It must have seemed like eternity.

Suddenly a young schoolgirl appeared and marched confidently up to a desk staffed by two talkative women who seemed to have the joint responsibility of answering a phone that seldom rang. The girl was probably a grandchild of one of the operators.

As the three of them chatted, the phone rang but the women simply ignored it and carried on nattering. The demeanour of the operators suggested they were not among the 30% of Portuguese adults aged between 25 and 64 who have successfully completed a high-school education. This, incidentally, is the lowest rate among OECD countries. The average is 74%.

Later, when the little girl said goodbye and skipped off home, I guessed she would score well in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment. In reading literacy, maths and science tests, Portuguese girls outperform boys by 10 points, slightly more than the average OECD gender gap of 9 points.

Finally and at long last I was summoned to the consulting room. The lady in white smiled, shook hands firmly and asked brightly: “How are you?”

I passed her an envelope containing blood test results, hoping she would answer the question for me.

No wonder she was smiling. Male domination is on the wane. Across the 34 OECD countries, women have more job satisfaction and are happier than men.

As the doctor tapped clinical statistics into her computer, I still had time to reflect on the Better Life Index. Would I emerge from the health centre among the 72% in Portugal who say that, on an average day, they have more positive than negative experiences? 

Whither the Weather?

     The Algarve is supposed to have one the best climates in the world. Well, it’s simply not good enough.

     Can you remember as far back as the first week of November last year? Winter got off to a rip-roaring start. A storm tore the roof off the terminal at Faro Airport and trashed vegetable greenhouses. Then, throughout the supposedly wettest months, we basked in sunshine, leaving orange groves gasping for liquid refreshment. A few spring showers came too late for the burgeoning broad beans.

     A friend of mine accepted an outdoor contract in late April. The nature of the work demanded dry, calm conditions. The conditions had been perfect all winter. The day his team started work, it started raining. It rained intermittently, sometimes heavily, for two weeks. When the rain stopped, it was replaced by gale-force winds. When the winds stopped, temperatures suddenly shot up to 40ºC – and it was only mid May! What is it going to be like in July and August?

     The climate is changing the world over. It would be surprising if it wasn’t. It’s been changing this way and that for about four billion years. It’s sure to continue to change whatever we do, or don’t do. We will either just have to get used it, or just  keep on moaning.

     While you are lying awake at night thinking of one more thing to worry about, consider this. Please concentrate. The temperature in Portugal has risen by an average of 1.2 degrees since 1930. Before that, it took a whole century to rise by 0.8 degrees.

     It may be all our own fault. Well, not ours exactly. It’s the fault of those daft people who send many billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. 

     Whether or not it’s due partly, or mainly, to our carbon emissions, hotter and more prolonged summers could have alarming consequences. These could include making the Algarve as attractive to residents and foreign visitors as the Sahara desert.

     It’s bad enough that global warming is causing the far-away polar ice caps to melt. Now we learn that the Gulf Stream that warms our shore is likely to weaken by as much as 25% over the next 100 years.

     Some scientists are predicting that the Gulf Stream may disappear altogether. If so, it may get colder, not hotter, in the Algarve. Monchique could become a ski resort.
     Incidentally, no one is suggesting that temperatures might stay boringly more or less the same as at present.

     This is all very worrying for wine lovers. Viticulturists say that increased temperatures of around 2.0ºC during the growing season over the past 50 yeas have significantly helped improve the quality of vintages in all major wine-producing countries. Analysts expect the average growing season temperature to increase by another 2.0ºC in most wine countries over the next five decades – and by a whopping 2.85ºC here in southern Portugal.

     Now for the really bad news. Grape varieties have been carefully selected to suit the climate in which they are grown. If the Algarve becomes a desert and the grapes frizzle, we might have to import our wine from Britain!

 

People in a Place Apart - comments

Published Algarve Daily News, http://algarvedailynews.com

McCartney, Madeleine, Galloway, Cook - People in a Place Apart, the latest book by Len Port
A new book about the Algarve, unlike any before it, has just been published and is available exclusively from Amazon. It is called People in a Place Apart by the well-known local author Len Port who has been writing about the goings-on in the region for years.

     This new non-fiction title focuses on the people of southern Portugal from ancient times right up to the present day.  It contains intimate insights into various cultures and individual personalities, including royalty, political heads of state, outstanding warriors on the high seas and in the air, celebrated writers and stars of sports and entertainment. The famous characters included are as diverse as Henry the Navigator and Henry Cooper, Vasco da Gama and George Galloway, The Marquess de Pombal and Paul McCartney.

     Early chapters deal with people during momentous periods in the Algarve's history, from  the Phoenician explorers and the Moorish occupation, to nationhood and the Age of Discovery.  
The later chapters consider the movers and shakers from the Swinging Sixties to the troubled times right now. 
     While much of People in a Place Apart is about the famous and influential, parts dwell on villains and victims, as well as infamous murders and mysteries. The notorious trial of Michael Cook and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are included.
     Well aware of the parlous economic state of print publishing nowadays, Len Port has embraced the new era of eBooks by launching People in a Place Apart with Amazon's Kindle  Direct Publishing programme. A print edition of the book may become available later in the year, but for now it is available as an eBook that can be read on Kindle devices and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Android-based devices.
     It can be downloaded from Amazon in seconds. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0074KBJRW
http://www.amazon.com/People-Place-Apart-ebook/dp/B0074KBJRW

More comments:

http://vintageholidays.co.uk/a-new-book-on-the-algarve-people-in-a-place-apart/
http://www.algarve123.com/en/Articles/3-1522/People_in_a_Place_Apart

http://www.algarve123.com/pt/Artigos/3-1522/Gente_num_lugar_a_parte

http://www.algarve123.com/de/Artikel/3-1522/Menschen_an_einem_besonderen_Ort

http://www.algarveresident.com/44677-0/algarve/new-book-about-algarve

http://www.carvoeiro.com/New%20book%20Len%20Port

http://suzyturner.blogspot.pt/2012/02/people-in-place-apart-by-len-port.html

http://holidayinnalgarve.blogspot.pt/2012/02/people-in-place-apart.html

http://www.silobreaker.com/journalist-len-port-tells-the-full-story-of-ftima-5_2265673938883313764

The Fátima Phenomenon - comments

Published Jornal Algarve 123 - www. algarve123.com/
Much fuss over  Fátima: the full story

The 95th anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary reported from Fátima in Portugal will be celebrated this Sunday, May 13,  with mixed feelings.

     Pilgrims from around the world will worship at the hallowed shrine where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared before three Portuguese children on the 13th day of six successive months in 1917. The anniversary will also be celebrated at the Vatican.

     Controversially, it will be marked with dire warnings at the opening of an international conference in Rome. The conference will hear that not only the Catholic Church, but the whole world, is facing an apocalypse unless the so-called ‘Message of Fátima’ is fully implemented.

     The conference is being organised by the Fatima Center, an apostolate with a large following of traditionalist Catholics in North America and beyond. The organisers say the aim of the conference is “nothing less than saving the world from unthinkable disasters, including, in Our Lady of Fátima´s own words, ‘the annihilation of nations’.”

     There is an easy way to avoid this, according to the apostolate. The Pope, accompanied by all of his bishops, must formally consecrate Russia and thus convert the people of that country to the Catholic Faith - as requested by the Virgin Mary at Fátima.

     The alleged cover-up of the ‘Third Secret of Fátima’ is another highly contentious issue that is sure to be widely discussed again on Sunday.

     Members of the international sedevacantist movement, another radical traditionalist group, claim the Third Secret warned of the Church’s downfall. Freemasons have infiltrated the Church to its highest level, they say. Like at least three of his predecessors, the present Pope, Benedict XVI, is neither a true Pope nor a true Catholic, according to sedevacantists.

     These and all other aspects of the story of Fátima are delved into dispassionately in a new ebook, The Fátima Phenomenon – Divine Grace, Delusion or Pious Fraud?

     The author, Len Port who has lived in Portugal for many years, details the development of the cult of Fátima from historical and political as well as religious perspectives. He quotes the opinions of many eminent non-believers as well as devout believers. Readers are invited to make up their own minds about where the truth lies.

     “The aim of the book is to add light rather than generate more heat. It is meant to be factually informative and thought provoking,” says Port.

     Because it alludes to the much broader debate about faith and reason, creationism and evolution, the supernatural and evidence-based science, the author hopes his book will be of interest to believers and non-believers alike.

     The Fátima Phenomenon – Divine Grace, Delusion or Pious Fraud? is available as an ebook from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/The-F%C3%A1tima-Phenomenon-Delusion-ebook/dp/B007XC7Q32
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-F%C3%A1tima-Phenomenon-Delusion-ebook/dp/B007XC7Q32

More comments:

http://www.algarve123.com/en/Articles/2-1007/Of_Fatima,_False_Popes,_Maddie_and_eternal_questions

http://www.algarve123.com/pt/Artigos/7-1648/Fatima_causa_controversia:_saiba_porque

http://www.algarve123.com/de/Artikel/7-1648/Viel_Aufregung_um_Fatima:_Die_komplette_Geschichte

http://algarvedailynews.com/community-news/general/6523-algarve-journalist-tells-the-full-story-of-fatima

http://www.pr.com/press-release/410393

http://www.free-press-release.com/news-the-f-tima-phenomenon-divine-grace-delusion-or-pious-fraud-1335974600.html

Thank you for visiting this site.

I haven't updated for a while because I've been concentrating on preparing two new eBooks. They are both now available from Amazon.

I'm hoping that anyone with any interest in southern Portugal will enjoy People in a Place Apart. It's about the various cultures and outstanding personalities who have visited or lived in the Algarve over the years, from the dawn of history to the present day.


The Fátima Phenomenon - Divine Grace, Delusion or Pious Fraud? delves deeply into one Christendom’s most fascinating and controversial sagas. On six consecutive months in 1917,  the Virgin Mary is said to have confided to three Portuguese children dire warnings about Russian communism, world war and a terrible crisis within the Catholic Church. Having spent years looking into the subject from a neutral point of view, I'm hoping this book will be of equal interest to believers and non-believers.


Even if you don't have a Kindle or Kindle apps device, you can read the opening chapters of these books from your computer. Simply go to an Amazon website and typing one or other of the titles in the search box. Click on to the front cover and then on to the invitation to 'Look Inside'.

Aliens, doomsday and the debt crisis

This week's news that Russian scientists expect humanity to encounter alien civilisations within the next two decades came at an opportune moment. It seems that nothing short of financial and economic wizards from another planet are capable of sorting out the mess the eurozone now finds itself in.

Astronomers are among the few people on earth capable of grasping the sort of figures politicians are now juggling with. Apparently, the universe has 100 billion galaxies. That's 22 billion galaxies more than the Portuguese bailout - and each galaxy contains hundreds of millions of stars.

The figures make it almost certain that aliens are out there, says Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute. Speaking at an international forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, he said we are likely to come into contact with aliens who resemble humans, with two arms, two legs and a head. Unfortunately, he did not speculate on the size of their brain or their business acumen. It seems that when it comes to money matters, however, they could not be less adept than ourselves.

The financial and economic crisis engulfing not just us PIGS, but the whole of Europe, has our politicians in a spin. It also seems to have rendered some of the analysts and commentators dizzy too.

During the street violence in Athens this week, the venerable Wall Street Journal, which has two million readers daily, came out with a headline that read:: “Better Save Some of That Tear Gas for Portugal, Spain, Italy”.

The opening paragraph of the article was similarly flippant: “We’re all mesmerized — though apparently not the least bit bothered — today by the images of rioting in Greece as politicians there struggle to hammer out austerity plans that will get the country its next bit of methadone, er, bailout money.”

It's no laughing matter, and yet you can't stay serious for ever.

Here's the underlying worry, though. If Finkelstein is right, things could get a lot worse than even the Wall Street Journal is suggesting. The British cosmologist Steven Hawking, who agrees with Finkelstein that there are probably intelligent aliens out there, believes that contact with them could be devastating for humanity.

In a TV documentary series last year, Hawking suggested that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on. He could almost have been talking about bankers and politicians when he said: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they (aliens) might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

Who knows? The Mayan calendar doomsayers who predict the world will come to an end on 12th December next year may be right. In which case, perhaps we in Portugal shouldn't contemplate rioting and risking tear gas, or even waste our time getting into a tizz about more austerity measures. Que será será.