The two Catholic women who do not wish to be named reached out to Cathnews after reading an article in the NZ Herald about four neo-Nazis identifying as traditional Catholics at the Posie Parker rally last Saturday.

They say they feel aggrieved because their faith has no relationship to what the neo-Nazis stand for.

"Antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia have nothing to do with the 10 Commandments, nor the Beatitudes," one said.

"The Gospels and Jesus Christ are positive guides to good living," said the other.

As traditional Catholics in a Synodal Church, they want to make a stand and distance themselves from the suggestion in the article.

Before the rally in Auckland, the four neo-Nazis had covered their faces with skull masks and were pictured flashing Nazi salutes.

They wore symbols of the Azov Battalion - a far-right ultra-nationalist regiment of the Ukrainian military - and an American far right group called the Boogaloo Boys.

Although British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker, calls neo-Nazis "abhorrent", her rallies seem to attract them.

There were several far-right groups among the 150-200 people who showed up to support her Let Women Speak event. They included right-wing populists, Christian fundamentalists and a selection of neo-Nazis.

Paparoa is a body of researchers focusing on Aotearoa-New Zealand's extremist organisations. They are also concerned the emerging so-called traditional Catholic neo-Nazi group promotes extreme antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia.

The Paparoa researchers say also among the far-right protesters at the rally was Sam Brittenden. He's a member of the white nationalist group Action Zealandia.

In 2020 Brittenden allegedly made an unproven threat against the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch. He was previously found guilty of disorderly behaviour for making anti-Muslim slurs while a student at the University of Otago.

Researcher Byron Clark says the far-right individuals were mostly on the fringes of the rally.

While most Parker supporters aren't on the far-right, Clark says the far-right sees them as a group they can find an audience with.

Transphobia had become a large part of the far-right's ideology, he says.

"They see it as a kind of deviation from the ideal of a straight, cisgender white person, in the same way they see homosexuality and disability as being deviated from this ideal.

"It's become prominent because it's still something of a more socially-acceptable prejudice, more so than racism, so they can use this as the thin edge of the wedge to gain an audience among the more mainstream conservative crowd."

After around 2,000 protestors drowned out Parker's and she abandoned her tour, citing safety concerns.

Source

• NZ Herald

The group came from a parish near Rome, where Fr Andrea Conocchia has been ministering to a transgender community for several years.

Last year Francis asked Krajewski to provide food and financial support to members of the transgender community who were struggling without work due to the pandemic.

"Life is life and you must take things as they come," Francis says. Each situation is unique and must be welcomed, accompanied, studied, discerned and integrated.

"This is what Jesus would do today," Francis said another time when asked about meeting a transgender man who said it would be a consolation to come and see him with his wife.

This Easter, the papal almoner invited Conocchia to bring the transgender people under his care to the Vatican to have their COVID vaccinations.

The group reacted with "surprise" and "emotion" to the experience of entering the Vatican for the vaccination, Conocchia says.

Many are undocumented and unable to access Italy's free health care services, he says.

"They were moved to tears and felt remembered, having experienced once again and in a tangible way the closeness and tenderness of the pope's charity."

Vaccine hesitancy and disinformation

Pope Francis and others in the Vatican are working to encourage vaccinations of all people, especially those most vulnerable to missing out on the life-saving opportunity.

The Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life along with French-based World Medical Association and the German Medical Association have released a joint statement about this issue.

They say disadvantaged communities' reluctance to be vaccinated "is rooted in historical inequities, breaches of trust in medical research, negative experiences with healthcare and suspicion about pharmaceutical companies' behavior focused on profit."

More must be done to overcome such hurdles to save lives around the world, they say.

"Millions around the world are still suffering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination is widely seen as a fast and effective way to control the spread of the virus and save human lives," their statement says.

They are blaming "vaccine nationalism" with wealthy countries quickly signing agreements for vaccine doses for their populations while poor and developing countries were left unable to protect their own populations.

The Vatican's bioethics academy and the World Medical Association echoed these concerns last Friday, calling for an all-out effort to combat vaccine hesitancy and correct the "myths and disinformation" that are slowing the fight against the disease.

Some vaccine reluctance in poorer countries is rooted in historical inequalities and suspicions of Western pharmaceutical companies, they said.

But "a more pernicious form" of hesitancy is being driven by fake news, myths and disinformation about vaccine safety, including among religious groups and some in the medical community.

"All relevant stakeholders [should] exhaust all efforts to … confront vaccine hesitancy by sending a clear message about the safety and necessity of vaccines and counteracting vaccine myths and disinformation," they said.

Source

• UPI
• Religion News Service
• New York Post
• Image:America Magazine