7 comments on An Interview With A Swiss Guard

1. Andrea says:

   May 24, 2021 at 7:30 pm

   Hi guys,
   Andreas relationship with Pope St. John Paul II was a glimpse of the caring Pope up close. What an interesting man and businessman, and such a great pick for an interview. His story on how he started following Jesus and continues to do so is inspirational.
   1Chronicles 16:11
   “Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.”
   “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Pope John Paul II
   Ti volio bene!
   Andrea

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2. Austin Silverstein says:

   May 25, 2021 at 6:40 pm

   With all due respect and true reverence for the experiential (among other sorts of) knowledge demonstrated by Herr Widmer and the CTS team.

   I just have to chime in with some confusion. While you were talking about how the capitalist “free market” is somehow the best when there was no talk about – for instance – Germany’s social market economy, where there is both innovation and incentive for the producers without (as is the case in many industries in America i.e. the medical variety) the inflated profit margin and monopoly that many companies have over their products (i.e. insulin among other life saving medications). Germany is the strongest financial force in all of the Schengenraum… why wasn’t this model mentioned? Tax-funded universities, a semi-privatized medical industry with government stipulations of profit margin (doctors get paid but patients don’t have to lose their house over a broken bone)? I feel the need to mention these arguments as their existence alone demonstrates how idealized Herr Widmer’s approach to capitalist business is. IF social mobility is the aim of capitalism, then why does America NOT rank as the best country for social mobility? Instead we are a society that is very welcoming to rich non-nationals while “native-born” Americans are systematically UNHELPED as is the glaringly obvious case in Flint, Michigan (who has still not received any aid, federally or state). If their homes and neighborhoods had been proud symbols of the industriousness of their people, they no longer are after quickly deflating property values and rising crime rates, which further decrease property values. Best of all? The free market is the reason cited by the powers that would be able to help those in Flint for having not done so. I need not mention the financial implication that this has on schools and other state institutions for civil improvement. Where is the benevolence of high-profit business now? The Gates Foundation maybe… but this organization is one of the most despised among American protestants and – only minimally better – catholics.

   One last comment for Herr Widmer: Ihr Kommentar “Ich kam auch alleine, ohne irgendwas in dieses Land…” Ehhmm… ich glaube nicht, dass die Lage eines im Militär erfolgreichen Schweizers, der persönlich die Gegenwart des Papstes mehrmals genoß, sich mit einem vergleichen lässt, der tatsächlich (wie in den Fällen der syrischen Flüchtlingen) nichts hat. Stimmt es nicht, dass selbst die ärmsten in der Schweiz nur den höchsten Lebensstandard genießen? Das beste Trinkwasser, Milch, Luxusuhren und Steuerausnahmestellung? Per Capita einer der reichsten Länder der Welt, nicht? Auch ohne Finanzen haben Sie einen der stärksten Pässe der Welt also finde ich Ihren Aussage ein bisschen skurril. Und nach der Zeit in der Schweizergarde… meinen Sie wirklich, dass dies auf dem Lebenslauf Sie gar nicht unterstützt hat? Toll, dass Sie nun die freie Marktwirtschaft Americas genießen aber bitte nicht vergessen: man dient entweder Gott oder Mammon. Obwohl ich schon glaube, dass auch in Amerika man finanziell moralisch handeln kann und viele das auch tun… statistisch arbeiten diese Gesetze gegen die Allgemeinheit.

   Mit vollkommenem Respekt, Herr Widmer. Ich bin nämlich (aus Amerika) nach Deutschland eingewandert – buchstäblich ohne irgendwas ausser Bibel und Unterhosen – und zwar allein. Keine Familie um mich rum, keine Freunde denn ich hatte anfangs keine, keine Arbeit, keinen Partner, kein Geld und keine Deutschkenntnis. Nichtsdestotrotz… kam ich mit viel mehr als die, die zum Teil auf dem Mittelmeer ums Leben kamen und was anderes kann man – weder Sie noch, in dem Fall, Ich – nicht behaupten.

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   1. Andrea says:

      May 26, 2021 at 10:37 am

      WOW ! I wandered into the wrong study hall.

      Reply
      1. Gail says:

         June 26, 2021 at 3:15 pm

         You have a great sense of humor.

         Reply
   2. Andrea says:

      May 26, 2021 at 10:37 am

      WOW ! I wandered into the wrong study hall.

      Reply
3. Pingback: Secrets of the Pope’s Security Force: Inside the Life of a Swiss Guard for St. John Paul II - JP2 Catholic Radio
4. Ave Maria says:

   June 1, 2021 at 11:57 am

   To those of you that are trying to be good Catholics, ask yourselves a very simple question. Did the October 27, 1986 meeting (that included praying alongside those that reject Christ as God, and believe in false Gods) break against ecumenical church councils of the past and Past Popes clear teaching that Catholics do no pray with heretics/schismatics? The simple answer is YES. This meeting, whatever good intentions that he had…is a stain on his time in the Vatican. And it’s sad, because I think he genuinely believed that he had been trying to do good, but didn’t understand church teaching on such a gathering. Is he a material heretic?

   I advise my fellow Catholics to google why this meeting had been heretical, and to understand that the Vatican II church is a different religion that uses some parts of Catholic teaching to disguise their true intentions. Archbishop Vigano has talked about the deception and the 2 churches in recent years, Archbishop Lefebvre before him, etc. The novus ordo is a different religion, plain and simple.

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