Did you know that one of Pope Francis' 'closest adviser' and 'right hand' has been smeared by the ADL & Alan Dershowitz as a 'anti-semitic' conspiracy theorist & "an out and out Jew-hater"

His Eminence Oscar Andres Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras is known to be one of Pope's Francis' closest advisers. Oscar Andres Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B. is the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras and Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Speranza. He is often touted as one of Pope's Francis' closest advisers. You hardly hear a peep about him nowadays, but when he was considered to be a potential Papal successor to Pope Benedict XVI two years ago, the gloves came off. Let's take a closer look at this very influential cleric. Also, this is a good opportunity to vindicate all of us who are often falsely called 'anti-Semitic.' The Vatican condemns anti-Semitism, yet this proves that they themselves have been accused of it and have refuted - or in this case seemingly ignored- the hysterical charge.
His Eminence served two terms as President of Caritas International, from 2007-2015.

The Vatican website "College of Cardinals Biographical notes [last updated 4/14/13] states, in part, "Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras), was born on 29 December 1942 in Tegucigalpa. He was ordained for the Salesians on 28 June 1970 and holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, and a diploma in clinical psychology and psychotherapy from Leopold Franz University, Innsbruck. He taught chemistry, physics and music at various Salesian colleges in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and was professor of moral theology and ecclesiology at the Salesian Theological Institute, Guatemala, and rector of the Salesian Philosophical Institute in the same country."

Numerous recent news reports have acknowledged that Rodriguez Maradiaga is Pope's Francis' closest adviser.

Express News reports "But the influential cardinal, once considered a possible first Latino pope and now described as Pope Francis' right hand, also used his visit to address the plight of Central American immigrants, his fellow Hondurans... In 2013, Pope Francis named him coordinator of the eight-member Council of Cardinals, charged with reforming the Roman Curia and the Vatican's bank and figuring out how the church should be governed in the 21st century and beyond."

Bloomberg recently referred to the Cardinal as Pope Francis' 'closest adviser.' :"Pope Francis's closest adviser said U.S. critics are wrong to try to shut the pontiff out of the debate over climate change because the church has a role to play in shaping the ethical considerations of emissions."
There is much more information on the Cardinal after these two quotes from the ADL and Dershowitz. But first let's go two years back and see what Alan Dershowitz had to say about him: "To put it most simply, Rodriguez Maradiaga is an out and out Jew-hater."

Please note that the Jews themselves have admitted that this smear of 'anti-semite' is a well known 'trick' imposed on anyone who is ever critical of Israel or Jews. LibertyFight.com in no way agrees with the Zionist ADL or Dershowitz. As a matter of fact, myself and my website LibertyFight.com were falsely touted by leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz as 'the new anti-semitism' in 2013.

But I thought it was interesting that in 2015, no one seems to be aware that one Pope Francis leading advisers has been criticized in such a manner in the past - particularly since Pope Francis seems to be known for being particularly close to the Jews.

In the op-ed Will a Notorious Anti-Semite Become The Pope? By Alan Dershowitz in Jewish World Review, Dershowitz wrote, in part,

"If Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga were to be elected pope, much of the good work done by recent popes in building bridges between the Catholic Church and the Jews would be endangered. Among those being considered to succeed Pope Benedict XVI is a notorious anti-Semite, Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras. ...He is very charismatic and popular in his home country and was recently invited to speak to Latino Catholics in the United States. To put it most simply, Rodriguez Maradiaga is an out and out Jew-hater. He has said that "the Jews" are to blame for the scandal surrounding the sexual misconduct of priests toward young parishioners! The Jews? How did Rodriguez Maradiaga ever come up with this hair-brained idea? Here is his "logic." He begins by asserting that the Vatican is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian (as he says it should be). It follows, therefore, that "the Jews" had to get even with the Catholic Church, while at the same time deflecting attention away from Israeli injustices against the Palestinians. The Jews managed to do this by arranging for the media - which he says they control - to give disproportionate attention on the Vatican sex scandal.

Listen to Rodriguez Maradiaga's own words: "It certainly makes me think that in a moment in which all the attention of the mass media was focused on the Middle East, all the many injustices done against the Palestinian people, the print media and the TV in the United States became obsessed with sexual scandals that happened 40 years ago, 30 years ago. Why? I think it's also for these motives: What is the church that has received Arafat the most times and has most often confirmed the necessity of the creation of a Palestinian state? What is the church that does not accept that Jerusalem should be the indivisible capital of the State of Israel, but that it should be the capital of the three great monotheistic religions?"

Rodriguez Maradiaga then goes on to compare the Jewish controlled media with "Hitler," because they are "protagonists of what I do not hesitate to define as a persecution against The Church." ...But that didn't matter to the bigoted cardinal, who -- along with other classic anti-Semites -- believes that if there is a problem, "the Jews" must be to blame for it. As James Carrol, the distinguished columnist for the Boston Globe who is himself a Catholic, has characterized Rodriguez Maradiaga's "crackpot" mindset: "when the church has a problem - here is the oldest move of all - blame the Jews." When asked whether he wanted to reconsider his attack, Rodriguez Maradiaga replied: "I don't repent... sometimes it is necessary to shake things up." He later promised Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League that he wouldn't repeat his conspiratorial nonsense, but he has refused to publicly apologize or "repent."

In July 2002, the Anti-Defamation League issued this press release:

ADL Outraged by Honduran Cardinal's Jewish Conspiracy Theory
Update: In a conversation between Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, ADL explained to the Cardinal that his comments were offensive because they perpetuated an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jewish control of the media. The Cardinal apologized, said he never meant his remarks to be taken that way, and indicated that he would never say it again.

New York, N.Y., July 25, 2002 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed outrage at comments made by a Honduran Catholic Cardinal that implied an alleged Jewish manipulation of the American media. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, in a May interview with the Italian-Catholic publication 30 Giorni, claimed Jews influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

"The Cardinal's odious anti-Jewish conspiracy theory must be immediately and forcefully condemned by responsible voices in the Catholic Church," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in a letter sent to Cardinal Walter Kasper, of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Jews. "We are outraged by Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga's implication and, as John L. Allen, Jr. states in the July 19th Catholic Reporter, 'the logic of his comments seems clear: Someone in America doesn't like the pro-Palestinian tilt of the Catholic Church, and used their media clout to deliver payback. It's not much of a reach to imagine who Rodriguez might suspect that 'someone' to be."

Cardinal Rodrigues Maradiaga stated: "It gave me considerable food for thought that, at a time of total media focus on developments in the Middle East with all the injustices being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, U.S. television and press people were obsessed with sex scandals of 30 or 40 years ago."

CBS News, in its' list of potential PAPAL SUCCESSORS, in 2013, featured Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga:

Born: Dec. 29, 1941
Archbishop of Tegucigalpa

The first Cardinal of Honduras, Maradiaga was ordained a priest in 1970, and went on to become Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in 1993. He is multilingual, with degrees in theology and philosophy, a diploma in clinical psychology, and classical piano training. He is a dynamic pastor and is considered a rising star in the Latin American Church. He served as President of the Conference of Latin American Bishops from 1995 to 1999 and he used the position to denounce Latin America's foreign debt burden. His campaign for human rights and the poor have been highly praised. In addition, he is the founder of the Catholic University of Honduras, and served as the Vatican's spokesperson to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on the topic of third world debt.

Wikipedia notes "On 12 June 2012 Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga was appointed a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education for a five-year renewable term. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that selected Pope Francis. On 13 April 2013 he was appointed to a group of cardinals established by Pope Francis to advise him and to study a plan for revising Pastor Bonus, the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, with the group's first meeting scheduled for 1-3 October 2013... Rodriguez was the Vatican's spokesperson with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on the issue of Third World debt, and has encouraged countries to give development aid. He has said that a politician who publicly supports abortion excommunicates himself, and that it's not question of receiving Communion or not, since he has already done serious harm to the communion of faith of the Church. In 2009, Cardinal Rodriguez agreed with the Pope that condoms cannot be of any real benefit in the fight against AIDS."

National Catholic Register: Interview with Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga February 24, 2001 vvv

Vatican Radio conducted an interview with Cardinal Maradiaga in 2013 when Pope Benedict XVI was stepping down. Honduran cardinal reflects on challenges facing today's church MP3 Church 2013-03-01 18:02:30

(Vatican Radio) Cardinals from around the world are making their way to Rome in anticipation of the upcoming conclave, during which the successor of His Holiness, Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, will be elected. Among them is Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and president of Caritas Internationalis. Speaking with Emer McCarthy, the cardinal emphasized how, before beginning to discern who the right successor of the See of Peter should be, it is vital to first understand the challenges facing the Church at this time. "We are in the year of faith," Cardinal Maradiaga said, "and it is necessary to think about how can we continue the essential mission of the Church." "Pope Paul VI used to say, the Church exists to evangelize. This is our mission." The Latin American prelate cited materialism as being a central obstacle in spreading the Gospel. "God has been displaced by materialism, and the Church exists to announce God and His loving care of the world. This is our main challenge." When asked about the role of prayer in the discernment process, Cardinal Maradiaga said: "I think the Holy Spirit will be present. It will be my second Conclave, and I hope it will be the last! Because it's not easy to say 'farewell!' to our dear pope." Listen to Emer McCarthy's full interview with Cardinal Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa
A New York Times article from 2005 notes "Several Latin American cardinals are also frequently cited. One is Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, who advanced a social justice agenda for years as president of the Federation of Latin American Bishops' Conferences."

 http://libertyfight.com/2015/Cardinal_Rodriguez_Maradiaga_called_antisemite.html