More REAL news about the FAKE priest

As it turns out, his adventures are now getting on to him.

Read about it here.

Here's an excerpt:

Bunag, for his part, posted a comment on Amamangpangs post threatening to file charges against him and Pascua if they did not retract their statements. [Wow!  Like the MILF talking about peace when they massacre policemen, no?  Ironic.]

"I would like to clarify that I am NOT a fake priest. I have legal and ecclesiastical documents to prove. That my present bishop is NOT Ramzi Musallam, but Bishop Shimmun-Artemus Bar Kepha under Archbishop Levi Bar Kepha of the Ancient Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East," [the who???] "Bunag said on his post also denying that he concelebrated mass at the installation of Archbishop Lavarias.

If you want to Google those "bishop's" names.  Go ahead.  I'm warning you.

You have a better chance of winning the lottery than proving that these men are actually priests of the Roman Catholic Church.

Good luck or should I say....May you have all the patience you need to Google these names.

Onward!


PS:  You might want to read this.

Clerical impostors

I like the cartoons!

But the news of this nut job trying to sneak into the General Congregation of Cardinals certainly must made the Swiss Guards think of how to better identify the cardinals other than their crimson fascias and skullcaps.

An ID perhaps?

By the way, impostors are out there in the field,....like this guy!

I blogged about this fake Roman Catholic priest before.

Now he claims he was "appointed" monsignor by his equally bogus archbishop!

And look!  He has his own stemma!  That of a Protonotary Apostolic, the highest grade of a monsignor!

Did you know that there are only two classes of protonotary apostolic monsignors?  The de numero, those who work in Rome and customarily only seven is the highest of the two grades.  You can identify them by their purple mantelleta.  Only the PA de numeros are entitled to wear this and other regalia.  See the photo below.

You can see him wearing the purple mantelleta and his red tufted-biretta.

The other protonotary apostolic monsignor is the supernumerary which is awarded to monsignors outside of Rome.  Take note.  ONLY THE POPE AWARDS THIS TITLE.

So who gave Mark Bunag his monsignori title?

Let's see...from his website...

It came from his "archbishop" who himself is a FAKE!

He even had the gall to post a photoshopped photo of him with the Pope Emeritus!

They are making it to appear that they are legitimate Catholic priests and bishops with these so-called appointments and photos.

The fact is THEY ARE NOT!

The Catholic Church of the East, where Mussalam and Bunag belong, is not an Eastern Rite Catholic recognized by the Holy See.  Check the list here.

A quick look at the web can confirm this.

Furthermore, if he claims to be an archbishop who heads an archdiocese, therefore a metropolitan archbishop, where in the world is this photo of Ramzi Mussalam?

Well, what do you expect?  The guy is a "poser" ever since.  He stalked Joseph Ratzinger.  Look!

Just for the doubters, I searched for his name of Catholic Hierarchy where all bishops' names are listed.  Here is a screencap under the list of bishops whose last name start with an "M"

I cannot find Mussalam there.  Maybe I can find "MANDURUGAS" in another site, no?

You know why you won't find his name there?  Because HE IS NOT WITH THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH and that makes Mark Robinson Bunag also A FAKE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST.

Mussalam himself admitted it in a newspaper article in the USA!

A founder of the archdiocese, Musallam is also its first priest and first archbishop. He said he is also the first Arabic Palestinian priest to be ordained in the Polish National Catholic Church.

Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1979, Musallam said he came to the United States in 1992. He graduated in 1997 from Jonathan Law High School in Milford, Conn., and in 2001 from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in theology. He graduated from Savonarola Theological Seminary of The Polish National Catholic Church, Scranton, in April 2004. He was ordained a priest in the Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral in Buffalo, N.Y., on April 14, 2004, by Prime Bishop Robert Nemkovich.

The Archdiocese of St. James the Apostle was formed in 2008 by Arabic Catholics who were members of the Polish National Catholic Church but wanted to form their own diocese.

On March 1, 2009, Musallam was named a bishop by the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil. He was also accepted as a bishop by the Assyrian Church of the East. On March 28, 2009, at Christ the Redeemer Church at Houtzdale, Clearfield County, Archbishop David Bell of the Apostolic Church of Brazil named Musallam Archbishop of the Catholic Church of the East, Archdiocese of St. James the Apostle, Western Rite Liturgy.

"While we are under the Assyrian Church of the East, we hold liturgies which resemble the Western Rite, similar to the Roman Catholic Church," Musallam said.

Lotsa self-proclaimed bishops there, no?

If indeed he admitted that he is not Roman Catholic, then why do they have THIS in their website?

The moral of the story?

These guys are SCAMMERS!  They are intent on fooling people.  They don't care about the salvation of your souls!

All they care about is feeding their egos and getting your money!

Stay away from them!

Mark you calendars for the Divine Liturgy!

Only a true Catholic university can do this!

This is true ecumenism!

Not like those smiling ecumaniacs, who'd go gaga over basketball rather thank sponsoring this kind of an event in their school grounds...

Did I mention that that school ceased to be catholic when they'd rather choose ambiguity over certainty?

Oh yeah, They'd rather be famous for basketball and sweet corn than being true Catholics.

Thanks to Miguel for the tip!

The New Patriarch of the Maronites

BKERKE, Lebanon, Mar 16, 2011--Lebanon's Maronite Catholic Church has elected Bishop Bechara Rai, a 71-year-old monk, as its new patriarch.  [Huzzah!]

“We carry Lebanon in our prayers, to regain its role in these difficult days that the east is living in,” announced the new patriarch after his election, referring to widespread instability throughout the Middle East.

“We pray for Lebanon especially to get out of its crisis,” he said, expressing hope that the country would soon manage to form a new government.

The former Bishop of Jbeil has become the Maronites' 77th leader, with the official title of “Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Maronites.” His successor, Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, retired on Feb. 26 at age 90.

A spokesman for the Maronite synod of bishops, Monsignor Youssef Tawk, announced the news to crowds gathered outside the Maronite Church's headquarters in Bkerke, near Beirut. Since the deliberations began on March 9, the faithful had been eagerly anticipating the election of a new leader for the ancient church.

“Our joy has no limit,” said Monsignor Boulos Nasrallah, a priest of the new patriarch's former diocese, following the election announcement. The monsignor described the Maronites' new leader as “a very qualified person from a spiritual standpoint,” who has long been “one of the pillars of the church.”

“He listens to everyone,” Msgr. Nasrallah said, “and greets everyone the same, whatever their background.”

Although 59 percent of Lebanese are Muslims, Christians also have a strong presence. Maronite Catholics are the country's largest Christian group, representing 21 percent of the total population.

Lebanon's unusual power-sharing system reserves political offices for candidates who hail from the various religious groups, so that the president is always a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shi'ite Muslim. Long-running political tensions forced Saad al-Hariri to resign as Lebanon's prime minister in January 2011, and no new government has yet formed. [Lebanon's political system has a very unique set-up.]

Patriarch-elect Rai is known as a political moderate, in contrast with his predecessor's outspoken opposition to the influence of Syria and the militant political Islamic group Hezbollah.

The patriarch-elect entered monastic life as a member of the Mariamite Maronite Order, founded in 1695 during a monastic revival. Lebanese Christianity has favored monasticism from its earliest days, with the Maronites deriving their name from the monk – St. Maron – who established their church.

Maronites are Eastern Catholics of the Syriac tradition, whose church was never formally separated from communion with the Pope. [The most faithful of the Eastern Catholics to stay loyal to the Holy Father.] Maronites worship in Jesus' own language of Aramaic, [and they understand it!  So what does the vernacular champions have to say about it?  Devotees of the TLM are of the same page as the Maronites.] and follow a different liturgical tradition than many of the other Eastern churches which trace their origin to the Byzantine empire. (CNA)

***

What?  They were not inculturated?

Sorry.  Can't help it.

Ha!

God bless the Maronites!

May the new patriarch guide his flock especially during this trying times.

And may he be a shepherd modeled after the Heart of the Good Shepherd.

Cross vs. the Crucifix: Which is more Catholic?

We have seen this but never did I expect that this will also happen in...an Eastern Catholic parish.

Parishioners are fighting with their local bishop who wanted to remove the crucifix hanging over their altars with a Marthoma cross (shown above).  The parishioners want the traditional Latin crucifix with the corpus of the crucified Christ rather than the simple cross.

I am not familiar with the liturgical rubrics of the Syro-Malabar Church but it is simple logic why the people would prefer a crucifix over a cross.

John Paul II and Benedict XVI insisted the crucifix MUST be at the center of the church during Mass.

Which do you think reminds them more of the loving sacrifice of Christ made present always in the Holy Sacrifice or Divine Liturgy?

That is why the Church does not allow a simple cross nor a Resu-fix, the one with the levitating Christ.