via The Daily Mail:
Murdered Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando tried to get BBC bosses to investigate an alleged paedophile ring in the corporation, it has today been claimed. A former friend and retired BBC worker has claimed that the television host was told that 'big name stars' and BBC staff were involved in abuse. But when she tried to get her superiors to investigate, and handed a file to senior management, no action was taken, the source claims. The former staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Daily Star Sunday that she raised the claims with management in the mid 1990s.
The source said that the names were 'surprisingly big'. She said: 'I think she was quite shocked when told about images of children and that information on how to join this horrible paedophile ring was freely available.' They added that Ms Dando had also been told that female work colleagues told her they had been groped or assaulted, and that nothing had been done. 'She compiled a file of complaints but she was not really an investigative journalist, just a presenter. 'She passed the information to someone else and they gave it back. No one wanted to know.'
The BBC said it had not seen anything to substantiate the claims. Miss Dando, 37, was gunned down outside her home in Fulham, west London, on April 26, 1999, moments after stepping out of her car. Dando was killed with a single muffled bullet to the skull and neighbours found her in a pool of blood on her doorstep in a crime that shocked Britain. Part-time stuntman Barry George was jailed for the killing in 2001, but his conviction was overturned in August 2008 following the emergence of fresh evidence. Her killer has never been found.
Showing posts with label cryptocracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cryptocracy. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2015
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Sex parties and ritual abuse at the Bohemian Grove
via Anthony Sanchez's Facebook status:
Back in the early nineties, my girlfriend worked for a venture capital firm whose two principals (Co-Owners) were members of something called the Bohemian Club. It was 1993 when she told me that the CFO secretly told my girlfriend who was the accountant that the two owners would literally get naked, play poker, have sex with the male wait staff, and meet with other members from all over which included politicians, CEOs, etc. to discuss plans affecting industry, and politics all across the country and the world, “New World Order” stuff.
I told her that it was bullshit... I was 23. Several years later I learned it was all true.
I remember one time when my girlfriend had a fall-out with the CFO I called the firm and spoke directly with one of the principals. He was creepy as Hell. He agreed with me and assured me that she had nothing to worry about, and then he damn near wanted to have me over for sex, along with my girlfriend. The emphasis was on me. No joke. He invited us both to his boat in Monterrey for the weekend. I declined.
A couple of years later the secretary, a friend of ours, admitted that she was attending sex parties (orgies) for the "old money - Stanford educated" crowd, initiated through the same guy. She said the money and trips, etc. fooled her into thinking it was okay. It was only after they began forcing her to attend weird ceremonies to get fucked by lots of men that she decided it was too much. We’re talking REAL "Eyes Wide Shut" scenarios.
I was so young back then, and I was not educated on the Bohemian Club nor did I realize how influential these Palo Alto people were. I was not impressed with the wealth, nor did I ever question how it was that these two guys alone determined the direction, fortune and failures of so many early Silicon Valley companies. The list of companies was unreal.
My girlfriend worked for them for close to six years. I learned so much about their inner workings through her. One thing she left with was having learned how to make tens of thousands each month simply handling large amounts of cash, moving it around from one type of account to another generating a lot of interest for these guys, a major portion of her job. And that was just one of the ways they educated her on generating insane amounts of money... they once gave us passes to Davies Symphony Hall to see the San Francisco Symphony perform Antonin Dvořák... we had opportunities like that all the time. We were invited to private wine tastings, parties, etc. and those assholes regularly tried to lure my girlfriend away from me...my girlfriend was a model who was asked personally by Eileen Ford for runway work... she was perfect for them... it is not a gay club as much as it is a Luciferian group of slave owners that like to indulge in strange rituals which possibly include homosexual encounters. I know that these same guys also like to have sex with women as well.
..I just met with my ex-wife yesterday and she told me she ran in to the former CFO (from that time, who she worked with) and was told that both the owners are STILL ALIVE and still in business. Age Imposition through child sacrifice? I mean come on!! These guys must be in their 90s now.*
Back in the early nineties, my girlfriend worked for a venture capital firm whose two principals (Co-Owners) were members of something called the Bohemian Club. It was 1993 when she told me that the CFO secretly told my girlfriend who was the accountant that the two owners would literally get naked, play poker, have sex with the male wait staff, and meet with other members from all over which included politicians, CEOs, etc. to discuss plans affecting industry, and politics all across the country and the world, “New World Order” stuff.
I told her that it was bullshit... I was 23. Several years later I learned it was all true.
I remember one time when my girlfriend had a fall-out with the CFO I called the firm and spoke directly with one of the principals. He was creepy as Hell. He agreed with me and assured me that she had nothing to worry about, and then he damn near wanted to have me over for sex, along with my girlfriend. The emphasis was on me. No joke. He invited us both to his boat in Monterrey for the weekend. I declined.
A couple of years later the secretary, a friend of ours, admitted that she was attending sex parties (orgies) for the "old money - Stanford educated" crowd, initiated through the same guy. She said the money and trips, etc. fooled her into thinking it was okay. It was only after they began forcing her to attend weird ceremonies to get fucked by lots of men that she decided it was too much. We’re talking REAL "Eyes Wide Shut" scenarios.
I was so young back then, and I was not educated on the Bohemian Club nor did I realize how influential these Palo Alto people were. I was not impressed with the wealth, nor did I ever question how it was that these two guys alone determined the direction, fortune and failures of so many early Silicon Valley companies. The list of companies was unreal.
My girlfriend worked for them for close to six years. I learned so much about their inner workings through her. One thing she left with was having learned how to make tens of thousands each month simply handling large amounts of cash, moving it around from one type of account to another generating a lot of interest for these guys, a major portion of her job. And that was just one of the ways they educated her on generating insane amounts of money... they once gave us passes to Davies Symphony Hall to see the San Francisco Symphony perform Antonin Dvořák... we had opportunities like that all the time. We were invited to private wine tastings, parties, etc. and those assholes regularly tried to lure my girlfriend away from me...my girlfriend was a model who was asked personally by Eileen Ford for runway work... she was perfect for them... it is not a gay club as much as it is a Luciferian group of slave owners that like to indulge in strange rituals which possibly include homosexual encounters. I know that these same guys also like to have sex with women as well.
..I just met with my ex-wife yesterday and she told me she ran in to the former CFO (from that time, who she worked with) and was told that both the owners are STILL ALIVE and still in business. Age Imposition through child sacrifice? I mean come on!! These guys must be in their 90s now.*
Saturday, July 5, 2014
At least 40 UK politicians complicit in alleged Westminster 'pedophile ring' – report
via RT.com:
A whistleblower who kicked off UK police pedophile probe Operation Fernbridge believes as many as 40 British MPs and peers were involved in or turned a blind eye to child abuse. Peter Mckelvie, a retired child protection team manager, who has spent more than 20 years compiling evidence of alleged child abuse by people in authority, believes ten current and former politicians are on the list and that there is enough evidence to arrest at least one senior politician, reports the Daily Telegraph. MPs and peers from all three main political parties are on the list including Cyril Smith and Sir Peter Morrison, who are now dead. McKelvie was behind bringing Peter Righton, a notorious pedophile, to justice when he worked for Hereford and Worcester child protection team and believes that up to 20 MPs and Lords should be investigated. “I believe there are sufficient grounds to carry out a formal investigation into allegations of up to 20 MPs and Lords over the last three decades, some still alive and some dead. The list is there,” he said. And in a letter to his local MP Tony Baldry last month, McKelvie suggested that a further 20 may be implicated in covering up child abuse.Although he does not suggest that any of the public servants either MPs or Lords colluded with each other. It was Tom Watson MP who first raised the issue of child abuse by MPs and peers at Prime Minister’s Questions in October 2012 as a result of information that McKelvie had passed to him. Watson spoke of “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful pedophile network linked to parliament and number 10.”
It was after Watson’s intervention that the Metropolitan Police began Operation Fernbridge, an ongoing investigation about alleged child abuse at the Elms Guest House in Barns, South London. It is understood that a Tory MP abused a child under the age of 10 at the guesthouse in the 1980s, but the alleged victim has so far refused to give a sworn witness statement to police. Earlier this week it emerged that a separate file on an alleged Westminster pedophile network, which had been put together by the now deceased MP Geofrey Dickens, mysteriously gone missing after he handed it to the then Home Secretary Lord Brittan in 1983. Labor MP Simon Danczuk, along with six other MPs, has written to the Home Secretary Theresa May demanding a public inquiry into the missing dossier and the people who had been named in it. Mrs May said she has not ruled out an inquiry after the police finish their investigations and Prime Minister Cameron also tried to give reassurance that the issue would not be swept under the carpet. “I’ve asked the permanent secretary at the Home Office to do everything he can to find answers to all of these questions and to make sure we can reassure people about these events. Its right these investigations are made. We mustn’t do anything, of course, that could prejudice or prevent proper action by the police,” he said. Separately it was reported Friday by the Telegraph that a senior Tory who is being investigated as part of Operation Fernbridge, was stopped by customs officials with child pornography in the 1980s but was never arrested.
A whistleblower who kicked off UK police pedophile probe Operation Fernbridge believes as many as 40 British MPs and peers were involved in or turned a blind eye to child abuse. Peter Mckelvie, a retired child protection team manager, who has spent more than 20 years compiling evidence of alleged child abuse by people in authority, believes ten current and former politicians are on the list and that there is enough evidence to arrest at least one senior politician, reports the Daily Telegraph. MPs and peers from all three main political parties are on the list including Cyril Smith and Sir Peter Morrison, who are now dead. McKelvie was behind bringing Peter Righton, a notorious pedophile, to justice when he worked for Hereford and Worcester child protection team and believes that up to 20 MPs and Lords should be investigated. “I believe there are sufficient grounds to carry out a formal investigation into allegations of up to 20 MPs and Lords over the last three decades, some still alive and some dead. The list is there,” he said. And in a letter to his local MP Tony Baldry last month, McKelvie suggested that a further 20 may be implicated in covering up child abuse.Although he does not suggest that any of the public servants either MPs or Lords colluded with each other. It was Tom Watson MP who first raised the issue of child abuse by MPs and peers at Prime Minister’s Questions in October 2012 as a result of information that McKelvie had passed to him. Watson spoke of “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful pedophile network linked to parliament and number 10.”
It was after Watson’s intervention that the Metropolitan Police began Operation Fernbridge, an ongoing investigation about alleged child abuse at the Elms Guest House in Barns, South London. It is understood that a Tory MP abused a child under the age of 10 at the guesthouse in the 1980s, but the alleged victim has so far refused to give a sworn witness statement to police. Earlier this week it emerged that a separate file on an alleged Westminster pedophile network, which had been put together by the now deceased MP Geofrey Dickens, mysteriously gone missing after he handed it to the then Home Secretary Lord Brittan in 1983. Labor MP Simon Danczuk, along with six other MPs, has written to the Home Secretary Theresa May demanding a public inquiry into the missing dossier and the people who had been named in it. Mrs May said she has not ruled out an inquiry after the police finish their investigations and Prime Minister Cameron also tried to give reassurance that the issue would not be swept under the carpet. “I’ve asked the permanent secretary at the Home Office to do everything he can to find answers to all of these questions and to make sure we can reassure people about these events. Its right these investigations are made. We mustn’t do anything, of course, that could prejudice or prevent proper action by the police,” he said. Separately it was reported Friday by the Telegraph that a senior Tory who is being investigated as part of Operation Fernbridge, was stopped by customs officials with child pornography in the 1980s but was never arrested.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
The Knights of Columbus and child abuse cover-up*
This post contains details that may be upsetting for sensitive readers.
The Knights of Columbus (KOC) are commonly known as the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, but most people don't know that the Knights also function as a recruiting organization for highly exclusive Catholic equestrian orders such as the Knights of Malta and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The history of equestrian orders dates back to Ancient Rome, where the order comprised a large proportion of the patrician classes that monopolized the Roman political process, as well as most major commercial enterprises. Today, this same oligarchical tradition is continued through Catholic equestrian orders that subvert the democratic process by way of quasi-political religious organizations. While the KOC does not represent the upper echelons of the Catholic cryptocracy, that dubious honor instead being designated for the equestrian orders noted above, their political influence as an arm of the Vatican has been significant enough to play a role in silencing countless victims of clerical abuse.
The photo above captures the opening Mass of the 131st annual Knights of Columbus convention on August 6 in San Antonio. Included in the photo is church leader Cardinal Roger Mahoney, who the New York Times states "worked quietly to keep evidence of child molesting away from law enforcement officials and shield abusive priests from criminal prosecution more than a decade before the scandal became public, according to confidential church records." The article continues, "Rather than defrocking priests and contacting the police, the archdiocese sent priests who had molested children to out-of-state treatment facilities...Ray Boucher, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs in those cases, said the files released on Monday were “particularly damning,” because they showed the “wanton disregard for the health and safety of children, and a decision by the highest members of the church to put its self-interest and the interest of abusive priests ahead of those of children.”"
Also pictured above is Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who has been accused of sexual assault by former Benectine monk and Catholic priest Richard Sipe. According to Sipe, "On file are the unsealed “MEDIATION DOCUMENTATION FOR FR. G.” that involved McCarrick and the dioceses of Metuchen and Newark, NJ. A financial settlement was reached. The case was sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, but it has not yet responded." What follows is an excerpt of the events described in the mediation document:
A news article reports that the Knights of Columbus sponsored a youth group, the Squires, members of which have accused the KOC of collaborating to cover of child sexual abuse. The article states "In one of the lawsuits, an unnamed Kansas resident claims the Squires leader abused him from 1978, when he was 10 years old, until 1986. He claims the leader shared him with other youth counselors in the group and threatened to kill him if he told anyone, the lawsuit said. The second lawsuit came from Texas resident Jim Dennany, who said he alerted Knights of Columbus officials in 1986 to assaults he said he suffered in the 1970s when he was a young teenager. He claimed the group took no action, concealed the allegations and told him to keep quiet, according to the lawsuit."
According to former Domnican priest and canon lawyer Thomas Doyle, "The Knights of Columbus take great pride in their loyalty to the Church and to the bishops. They regularly show their support for priests and announce their love for the Church. They shell out barrels of money to the Vatican, to bishops, to seminaries and to other causes in support of priests. The Knights of Columbus have totally missed the boat. They have supported priests and bishops in their moral bankruptcy and in their destruction of the bodies and souls of the victims of abuse. They have said and done nothing to support the victims."
So it may not be much of a surprise that a Pennsyvania newspaper, the Observer-Reporter, reported that convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky was awarded Coach of the Year title by the KOC. Sandusky has also been a speaker at KOC events. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was assigned to investigate the Sandusky scandal. "We will immediately report any evidence of criminality to law enforcement authorities," said Freeh. New York state newspaper The Journal News reports that Louis Freeh, along with suspected Russian spy Robert Hanssen, are both members of the secretive Catholic fraternty Opus Dei. In his book, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei, Robert Hutchinson writes of the canonization of Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva, noting that in attendance was "Dr Carl A. Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus and senior American member of Opus Dei." Given the overlapping membership between Opus Dei and the KOC, the likelihood that the Penn State investigation was doomed by favoritism from the very beginning is very high indeed.
According to Vatican Insider, a project run by the daily newspaper La Stampa, Opus Dei is "one of the ecclesiastical bodies closest to the Pope". So the testimony of Jim Jenkins, former chair of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Review Board under Archbishop (now Cardinal) William Levada, should not be ignored. Jenkins states, in reference to the Dallas Charter which provided guidelines for how the Church would respond to the clerical abuse scandal, that "The Charter’s scope needed to be limited to the alleged assaults upon “minors” leaving the inappropriate sexual behavior of clerics with other adults beyond the jurisdiction of the review boards." In other words, the sexual assault of adults was considered to be acceptable behavior. Jenkins also states that "The behavior of bishops and cardinals was off-limits to the scope of any investigation by any archdiocesan review board." Translation: bishops and cardinals are not subject to civil law.
As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Pope Benedict XVI was responsible for investigating clerical abuse scandals. Let's examine some of his accomplishments during that time period.
via CBS News:
The Vatican's lawyer says then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told a California bishop to make sure a priest with a history of sexually molesting children didn't abuse while the church worked to defrock him...Attorney Jeffrey Lena was responding to a 1985 letter obtained by The Associated Press on Friday in which the future pope said more time was needed to study the case of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle. Lena says Ratzinger urged the bishop to give Kiesle "as much paternal care as possible." Lena says that was a way of saying the bishop was responsible for ensuring Kiesle didn't reoffend....The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock Kiesle, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to the 1985 letter bearing his signature. The correspondence, obtained by The Associated Press, is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office. The letter, signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle...
Attorney Irwin Zalkin represents a woman who says Kiesle assaulted her three times by the time she was 7 years old. Court documents accuse Kiesle of providing her with wine, binding her hands and sexually abusing her, Tracy reports....Earlier Friday, the Vatican confirmed that it was Ratzinger's signature on the letter. "The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations," the Rev. Federico Lombardi said....The diocese recommended removing Kiesle from the priesthood in 1981, the year Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican office that shared responsibility for disciplining abusive priests. The case then languished for four years at the Vatican before Ratzinger finally wrote to Oakland Bishop John Cummins. It was two more years before Kiesle was removed; during that time he continued to do volunteer work with children through the church..... the future pope also noted that any decision to defrock Kiesle must take into account the "good of the universal church" and the "detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke within the community of Christ's faithful, particularly considering the young age." Kiesle was 38 at the time.
Kiesle had been sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay area church rectory. As his probation ended in 1981, Kiesle asked to leave the priesthood and the diocese submitted papers to Rome to defrock him. In his earliest letter to Ratzinger, Cummins warned that returning Kiesle to ministry would cause more of a scandal than stripping him of his priestly powers. "It is my conviction that there would be no scandal if this petition were granted and that as a matter of fact, given the nature of the case, there might be greater scandal to the community if Father Kiesle were allowed to return to the active ministry," Cummins wrote in 1982...California church officials wrote to Ratzinger at least three times to check on the status of Kiesle's case and Cummins discussed the case with officials during a Vatican visit, according to correspondence. At one point, a Vatican official wrote to say the file may have been lost and suggested resubmitting materials....As Kiesle's fate was being weighed in Rome, the priest returned to suburban Pinole to volunteer as a youth minister at St. Joseph Church, where he had served as associate pastor from 1972 to 1975.
Kiesle continued to volunteer with children, according to Maurine Behrend, who worked in the Oakland diocese's youth ministry office in the 1980s. After learning of his history, Behrend complained to church officials. When nothing was done she wrote a letter, which she showed to the AP. "Obviously nothing has been done after EIGHT months of repeated notifications," she wrote. "How are we supposed to have confidence in the system when nothing is done? A simple phone call to the pastor from the bishop is all it would take." She eventually confronted Cummins at a confirmation and Kiesle was gone a short time later, Behrend said. Kiesle, who married after leaving the priesthood, was arrested and charged in 2002 with 13 counts of child molestation from the 1970s. All but two were thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a California law extending the statute of limitations. He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony for molesting a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
Now would probably be a good time to include this painting by the highly talented tattoo artist Paul Booth:
*Research credit for many links in this post is due http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/will-opus-dei-knights-shield-sandusky.html
The Knights of Columbus (KOC) are commonly known as the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, but most people don't know that the Knights also function as a recruiting organization for highly exclusive Catholic equestrian orders such as the Knights of Malta and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The history of equestrian orders dates back to Ancient Rome, where the order comprised a large proportion of the patrician classes that monopolized the Roman political process, as well as most major commercial enterprises. Today, this same oligarchical tradition is continued through Catholic equestrian orders that subvert the democratic process by way of quasi-political religious organizations. While the KOC does not represent the upper echelons of the Catholic cryptocracy, that dubious honor instead being designated for the equestrian orders noted above, their political influence as an arm of the Vatican has been significant enough to play a role in silencing countless victims of clerical abuse.
The photo above captures the opening Mass of the 131st annual Knights of Columbus convention on August 6 in San Antonio. Included in the photo is church leader Cardinal Roger Mahoney, who the New York Times states "worked quietly to keep evidence of child molesting away from law enforcement officials and shield abusive priests from criminal prosecution more than a decade before the scandal became public, according to confidential church records." The article continues, "Rather than defrocking priests and contacting the police, the archdiocese sent priests who had molested children to out-of-state treatment facilities...Ray Boucher, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs in those cases, said the files released on Monday were “particularly damning,” because they showed the “wanton disregard for the health and safety of children, and a decision by the highest members of the church to put its self-interest and the interest of abusive priests ahead of those of children.”"
Also pictured above is Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who has been accused of sexual assault by former Benectine monk and Catholic priest Richard Sipe. According to Sipe, "On file are the unsealed “MEDIATION DOCUMENTATION FOR FR. G.” that involved McCarrick and the dioceses of Metuchen and Newark, NJ. A financial settlement was reached. The case was sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, but it has not yet responded." What follows is an excerpt of the events described in the mediation document:
“He put his arms around me and wrapped his legs around mine. Then He started to tell me what a nice young man I was and what a good priest I would make someday. He also told me about the hard work and stress he was facing in his new role as Archbishop of Newark. He told me how everyone knows him and how powerful he was. The Archbishop kept saying, “Pray for your poor uncle.” All of a sudden, I felt paralyzed. I didn’t have my own car and there was nowhere to go. The Archbishop started to kiss me and move his hands and legs around me. I remained frozen, curled up like a ball. I felt his penis inside his underwear leaning against my buttocks as he was rubbing my legs up and down. His hands were moving up and down my chest and back, while tightening his legs around mine. I tried to scream but could not…I was paralyzed with fear. As he continued touching me, I felt more afraid. He even tried several times to force his hands under my shorts. He tried to roll me over so that he could get on top of me, but I resisted, I felt sick and disgusted and finally was able to jump out of bed. I went into the bathroom where I vomited several times and started to cry. After twenty minutes in the bathroom, the Archbishop told me to come back to bed. Instead I went to the recliner and pretended to fall asleep.”
A news article reports that the Knights of Columbus sponsored a youth group, the Squires, members of which have accused the KOC of collaborating to cover of child sexual abuse. The article states "In one of the lawsuits, an unnamed Kansas resident claims the Squires leader abused him from 1978, when he was 10 years old, until 1986. He claims the leader shared him with other youth counselors in the group and threatened to kill him if he told anyone, the lawsuit said. The second lawsuit came from Texas resident Jim Dennany, who said he alerted Knights of Columbus officials in 1986 to assaults he said he suffered in the 1970s when he was a young teenager. He claimed the group took no action, concealed the allegations and told him to keep quiet, according to the lawsuit."
According to former Domnican priest and canon lawyer Thomas Doyle, "The Knights of Columbus take great pride in their loyalty to the Church and to the bishops. They regularly show their support for priests and announce their love for the Church. They shell out barrels of money to the Vatican, to bishops, to seminaries and to other causes in support of priests. The Knights of Columbus have totally missed the boat. They have supported priests and bishops in their moral bankruptcy and in their destruction of the bodies and souls of the victims of abuse. They have said and done nothing to support the victims."
So it may not be much of a surprise that a Pennsyvania newspaper, the Observer-Reporter, reported that convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky was awarded Coach of the Year title by the KOC. Sandusky has also been a speaker at KOC events. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was assigned to investigate the Sandusky scandal. "We will immediately report any evidence of criminality to law enforcement authorities," said Freeh. New York state newspaper The Journal News reports that Louis Freeh, along with suspected Russian spy Robert Hanssen, are both members of the secretive Catholic fraternty Opus Dei. In his book, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei, Robert Hutchinson writes of the canonization of Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva, noting that in attendance was "Dr Carl A. Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus and senior American member of Opus Dei." Given the overlapping membership between Opus Dei and the KOC, the likelihood that the Penn State investigation was doomed by favoritism from the very beginning is very high indeed.
According to Vatican Insider, a project run by the daily newspaper La Stampa, Opus Dei is "one of the ecclesiastical bodies closest to the Pope". So the testimony of Jim Jenkins, former chair of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Review Board under Archbishop (now Cardinal) William Levada, should not be ignored. Jenkins states, in reference to the Dallas Charter which provided guidelines for how the Church would respond to the clerical abuse scandal, that "The Charter’s scope needed to be limited to the alleged assaults upon “minors” leaving the inappropriate sexual behavior of clerics with other adults beyond the jurisdiction of the review boards." In other words, the sexual assault of adults was considered to be acceptable behavior. Jenkins also states that "The behavior of bishops and cardinals was off-limits to the scope of any investigation by any archdiocesan review board." Translation: bishops and cardinals are not subject to civil law.
As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Pope Benedict XVI was responsible for investigating clerical abuse scandals. Let's examine some of his accomplishments during that time period.
via CBS News:
The Vatican's lawyer says then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told a California bishop to make sure a priest with a history of sexually molesting children didn't abuse while the church worked to defrock him...Attorney Jeffrey Lena was responding to a 1985 letter obtained by The Associated Press on Friday in which the future pope said more time was needed to study the case of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle. Lena says Ratzinger urged the bishop to give Kiesle "as much paternal care as possible." Lena says that was a way of saying the bishop was responsible for ensuring Kiesle didn't reoffend....The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock Kiesle, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to the 1985 letter bearing his signature. The correspondence, obtained by The Associated Press, is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office. The letter, signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle...
Attorney Irwin Zalkin represents a woman who says Kiesle assaulted her three times by the time she was 7 years old. Court documents accuse Kiesle of providing her with wine, binding her hands and sexually abusing her, Tracy reports....Earlier Friday, the Vatican confirmed that it was Ratzinger's signature on the letter. "The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations," the Rev. Federico Lombardi said....The diocese recommended removing Kiesle from the priesthood in 1981, the year Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican office that shared responsibility for disciplining abusive priests. The case then languished for four years at the Vatican before Ratzinger finally wrote to Oakland Bishop John Cummins. It was two more years before Kiesle was removed; during that time he continued to do volunteer work with children through the church..... the future pope also noted that any decision to defrock Kiesle must take into account the "good of the universal church" and the "detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke within the community of Christ's faithful, particularly considering the young age." Kiesle was 38 at the time.
Kiesle had been sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay area church rectory. As his probation ended in 1981, Kiesle asked to leave the priesthood and the diocese submitted papers to Rome to defrock him. In his earliest letter to Ratzinger, Cummins warned that returning Kiesle to ministry would cause more of a scandal than stripping him of his priestly powers. "It is my conviction that there would be no scandal if this petition were granted and that as a matter of fact, given the nature of the case, there might be greater scandal to the community if Father Kiesle were allowed to return to the active ministry," Cummins wrote in 1982...California church officials wrote to Ratzinger at least three times to check on the status of Kiesle's case and Cummins discussed the case with officials during a Vatican visit, according to correspondence. At one point, a Vatican official wrote to say the file may have been lost and suggested resubmitting materials....As Kiesle's fate was being weighed in Rome, the priest returned to suburban Pinole to volunteer as a youth minister at St. Joseph Church, where he had served as associate pastor from 1972 to 1975.
Kiesle continued to volunteer with children, according to Maurine Behrend, who worked in the Oakland diocese's youth ministry office in the 1980s. After learning of his history, Behrend complained to church officials. When nothing was done she wrote a letter, which she showed to the AP. "Obviously nothing has been done after EIGHT months of repeated notifications," she wrote. "How are we supposed to have confidence in the system when nothing is done? A simple phone call to the pastor from the bishop is all it would take." She eventually confronted Cummins at a confirmation and Kiesle was gone a short time later, Behrend said. Kiesle, who married after leaving the priesthood, was arrested and charged in 2002 with 13 counts of child molestation from the 1970s. All but two were thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a California law extending the statute of limitations. He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony for molesting a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
Now would probably be a good time to include this painting by the highly talented tattoo artist Paul Booth:
*Research credit for many links in this post is due http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/will-opus-dei-knights-shield-sandusky.html
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Update to Occult Origins of the Counterculture
The following section has been added to the Occult Origins of the Counterculture article, and the introduction to the article has been revised as well.
The social stratification represented by the degree system of Freemasonry is a logical extension of natural law, the Catholic ideology by which rigidly maintained social hierarchy was deemed a necessary component of any holy society. The Eye of Providence, colloquially known as the all-seeing eye, was first a Catholic symbol intended to symbolize the divine providence of God watching over humanity and superseding in human affairs through ecclesiastical authorities. The earliest depiction of the Eye of Providence in Europe was within the Palatine Chapel, whose construction was begun by Charlemagne in 786. Charlemagne was the first Holy Roman Emperor, and his accession inaugurated a return to the divine right of kings in Christian Europe. In the New Testament, the concept of the divine right of kings had been justified by the statement of St. Peter that all Christians should honor the pagan Roman Emperor. Throughout Medieval Europe, the same idea applied to feudal properties, which were believed to be owned by God and managed by Kings, who were in turn answerable only to the authority of Popes. This arrangement of power formed the basis of the figurative pyramid whose base was composed of serfs living in conditions akin to slavery in all of its most essential aspects. Feudal plantation owners were legally allowed to beat, murder and rape their serfs, while the serfs were forbidden from owning or selling property. The etymology of the term “serf” can be traced to the Latin word “servus”, which literally translates to slave.
In 1865 slavery was permanently abolished within the United States by way of the Thirteenth Amendment. Less than a year later, the Holy Office responded via an instruction signed by Pope Pius IX, which states: “Slavery itself, considered as such in its essential nature, is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law, and there can be several just titles of slavery, and these are referred to by approved theologians and commentators of the sacred canons … It is not contrary to the natural and divine law for a slave to be sold, bought, exchanged or given”. This policy was not officially changed within Canon law until 1918. Medieval texts used the words “peasant”, “serf” and “slave” as synonymous representations of the overwhelming majority of the population who did not own property. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a census of Britain's million and a half inhabitants, noting that less than three percent were free landholders. The feudal pyramid explicated a regimented division of value whereby corporeal hierarchies of serfs, lords, abbots, knights and bishops were arranged below heavenly hierarchies of saints, angels and, ultimately, God. As a material extension of these values, religious institutions such as abbeys and monasteries maintained a significant portion of European feudal properties while simultaneously amassing vast fortunes as a result.
The social stratification of greater Medieval society was also applied to individual families, which were typically formed according to strict laws and customs as opposed to individual choice. For example, the lord of an estate could prevent serfs from marrying women from another estate, while also exercising the power to choose husbands for their tenants' daughters. Medieval laws also required parental consent for marriage up to the age of 30 for men and the age of 25 for women. The doctrine of mutual consent also allowed for spouses to abandon their families based on “confession” of prior marriage to a different spouse. As merchant classes arose in later centuries, the doctrine of mutual consent ostensibly allowed for freedom of choice in marriage, however, in practice, parents controlled the choices of their children by denying inheritance rights to those who married against their wishes. The free bench was an English manorial custom that defined a widow's inheritance rights as dependent on her chastity, and remarriage, as well as any ostensible evidence of sexual activity, required the widow to forfeit her lands. Similarly, the Legrewite was a fine designed to punish single sexually active women, a fee often compounded by the childwite, yet another fine for the birth of illegitimate children. As stated previously, the doctrine of mutual consent allowed for previously married women to have their children classified as illegitimate regardless of the wife's commitment to her marriage. In France, unmarried pregnant women were systematically interrogated at local government offices.
The “virtue” of blind obedience to religious and political authorities was promoted by the Jesuits, a Catholic fraternity that predated both the Freemasons and the Bavarian Illuminati. In his Letter on Obedience, Jesuit (Society of Jesus) founder Ignatius of Loyola wrote “And so, I should wish that all of you would train yourselves to recognize Christ our Lord in any Superior whomsoever, and with all devotion, reverence and obey in him His Divine Majesty. And this will appear less strange to you, if you keep in mind that St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, bids us obey even temporal and pagan Superiors as Christ from Whom all well ordered authority descends: Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your hearts as you would Christ: not serving to the eye as pleasers of men, but as slaves of Christ.”
Loyola's apparently tolerant attitude toward polytheistic cultures did not, however, prevent the Jesuits from playing a central role in the Goa Inquisition, a horrific period of history enabled by the Society's reverence for social inequality. The office of the Inquisition on the Portugese state of Goa was responsible for sanctioning the death by torture of dozens of Hindus and Muslims for the crime of practicing their native religion. The Goa Inquisition was originally installed after Francis Xavier, a student of Loyola's, one of seven original Jesuits and co-founder of the same group, wrote a letter to King John III of Portugal, requesting Catholic expedition to India as a route to ensuring Christian purity. As Xavier departed to lead the mission, the pope appointed him apostolic nuncio to the East, an ecclesiastical diplomatic title equivalent to that of ambassador. The Inquisition's first act was to establish the death penalty for open practice of the Hindu faith. Hundreds of prison cells were set up to accommodate the accused. Hindu temples were destroyed and ransacked, their contents confiscated by army action. The local Konkani language was suppressed, Hindu holy books were destroyed and Portugese became the compulsory national language.
The Jesuits organized an annual mass baptism on January 25, the Feast of Saint Paul, whereby their African slaves were ordered to grab Hindus and smear their lips with beef, an act that resulted in many Hindus being labeled as untouchable by their own people. In his book, the Goa Inquisition, Indo-Portugese historian T.R. De Souza writes “...the government transferred to the Church and religious orders the properties and other sources of revenue that had belonged to the Hindu temples that had been demolished or to the temple servants who had been converted or banished. Entire villages were taken over at times for being considered rebellious and handed over with all their revenues to the Jesuits.” The Goa Inquisition also exhaustively details the methods of torture through which Catholic missionaries enforced religious conversions, including flogging, dismemberment and amputations carried out so slowly that the victims remained alive throughout the process. The auto-de-fa was the Catholic ritual of public penance whereby condemned heretics and apostates were burned at the stake. According to De Souza, Francis Xavier was present at the first Inquisition, where two of the accused, including a French cleric, were burned alive. For his efforts, Xavier was canonized as a saint by Pope Gregory XV, at the same time as Ignatius Loyola, and proclaimed the “Patron of Catholic Missions” by Pope Pius XI.
Aside from their work in suppressing cultural and religious expression abroad, the Jesuits also endeavored to suppress European institutions that threatened the power of the Catholic church, particularly in the areas of politics and scientific discourse. In 1616 the Inquisition declared the scientific proposition that the Earth rotates around the Sun to be heresy, shortly after the Index of Prohibited Books banned any writings that advanced Copernican heliocentric astronomy. Jesuit astronomers argued that geocentrism, the theory that the earth is the center of the universe around which all heavenly bodies revolve, was in accordance with a literal interpretation of Scripture, particularly Psalms 96:10, Chronicles 16:30, Psalms 93:1, Ecclesiastes 1:5 and Psalms 104:5. The chief theologian of the Inquisition, Robert Bellarmine, was a Jesuit who read the astronomer Galileo Galilei the decree of the Index and ordered him to abandon his research into the Copernican system. When this decree was ignored, Galilei was confined to house arrest for the rest of his life. Galilei's discoveries were so ground-breaking that he has since been dubbed the “father of observational astronomy”.
The Society of Jesus was also able to gain political influence by hearing the confessions of kings, princes and other political authorities. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “they acted as royal confessors to all French kings for 2 centuries, from Henry III to Louis XV; to all German emperors after the early 17th century; to all Dukes of Bavaria after 1579; to most rulers of Poland and Portugal; to the Spanish kings in the 18th century; to James II of England; and to many ruling or princely families throughout Europe.” Confessions in this context functioned much as the Bacchanalia had in previous centuries: organizations in a position to elicit incriminating secrets were much more likely to gain the advantage of political blackmail. Royal confessors were thus able to promote the interests of the Papacy, such as when LeTellier, Jesuit confessor to King Louis XIV, convinced the monarch to revoke the Edict of Nantes which granted substantial rights to Calvinist Protestants. Because of this history of political maneuvering, the Society was expelled from most states across Europe, as well as a number of European colonies. In Portugal the Jesuit royal confessor Gabriel Malagrida was declared guilty of high treason on account of his role in plotting the attempted assassination of King Jose I. Malagrida was not executed because the Papacy expressed opposition to the execution of a Jesuit by secular authorities. Instead, he was confined to a dungeon beneath the tower of Belem along with other Jesuits, who were also arrested for their role in the plan.
Aside from political intrigue, another charge commonly leveled at the Society was economic exploitation, especially regarding trade revenues derived from colonial mission plantations. As a religious order the Jesuits were technically forbidden from buying and selling for profit, however, as had been the case with the Knights Templar before them, this rule was largely disregarded. Referring to the Society's financial management of mission plantations, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 states “...this was allowed, partly to provide for the current expenses of the mission, partly in order to protect the simple, childlike natives from the common plague of dishonest intermediaries.” In the Americas, Jesuit acquisitions were so extensive that suppression of the order resulted in widespread economic changes. The Society had owned the largest number of black slaves in Chile, so when Jesuits were expelled from the country there was a sharp decrease in the number of imported slaves. After Jesuit vineyards in Peru were auctioned, wine production also declined because the new owners did not have the expertise necessary to manage the fields.
The combined political, economic and academic influence of the Society contributed to numerous anti-Jesuit conspiracy theories alleging the order to be involved in plotting to overthrow nation-states on behalf of the Papacy. Many of these theories were a product of French anti-clericalism and claimed a rivalry between Freemasons and the Society of Jesus. Ironically, historians documenting the origins of speculative Freemasonry have unearthed evidence indicating that Freemasonry is in large part derived from Catholicism, with the Jesuits, in particular, playing an important role in their expansion throughout France and Germany. According to Chevalier Ramsay, a Fellow of the Royal Society as well as a tutor to King James' two sons, Freemasonry was founded in antiquity and renewed at the time of the Crusades. Crusaders utilized a symbolic language derived from the ancient Mystery cults, which was intended to differentiate Crusader from Saracen. The close relationship between these early Masons and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem eventually resulted in the Blue Degrees which are named St. John's Masonry. Masonic participation in the Crusades may also be the reason why, according to Freemasonic legend, the original Lodge is “symbolically” located in Jerusalem. It may also be worth noting that Ramsay was a Baronet in the Jacobite Peerage (a hereditary honor granted by the deposed Stuart dynasty), so he may have been in a strategic position for absorbing the guarded secrets of high-ranking initiates.
One of the oldest surviving Masonic documents, from December 1658, suggests that the commonly held belief of the ideals of Freemasonry being opposed to royalism may, in truth, be erroneous. The document states, “That as formerly we and predecessors have and had from the temple of temples building on this earth one uniform community and union throughout the whole world from which temple proceeded one in Kilwinning in this our nation of Scotland and from that of Kilwinning many more within this kingdom of which there proceeded the Abbey and Lodge of Scone, built by men of art and architecture where they placed that lodge as the second lodge within this nation, which is now past memory of many generations, and was upheld by the Kings of Scotland...this Lodge is the most famous Lodge (if well ordered) within this kingdom-of which name of Mylne there had continued several generations of Master Masons to his Majesties the Kings of Scotland ." Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts is a book by architectural historian Vaughan Hart which further verifies this assertion, primarily through documenting the Hermetic-Cabalistic themes inherent in the masques of the Stuart court, which were typically planned and conceived by Masons.
The acolytes of King James Stuart II, the Jacobites, followed him into exile and renewed the ancient Rite of Heredom, also known as the Scottish Rite of Perfection, along with the Rite of Kilwining, which had commingled with the Templar tradition. Although this moment in history is a point of contention amongst many modern historians, in his work Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences, the Freemasonic historian Albert Mackey states that King James II took refuge in the Jesuit College of Clermont in Paris, where a network of aristocrats and members of the royal court had founded a Masonic Lodge. The purpose of this Lodge was the restoration on the House of Stuart to the throne of England, and its rites consisted of six degrees including those of St. John's Masonry. The Baron von Hund then synthesized the ideas of these degrees and produced from them the Rite of Strict Observance which gained popularity in Germany. Mackey also contends that the Masonic lodge at the Jesuit College of Clermont has had a particularly notable influence on the advanced degrees of Freemasonry.
These higher degrees can be easily traced to their origin in Jesuit initiation ceremonies by scrutinizing the commonalities found in both fraternal orders, as well as the Templars and Knights of Malta who share a common line of descent with the Society of Jesus. Although detailed accounts of Jesuit initiations are scarce, the Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge contains revealing quotes from a 16th century Jesuit document which describes ceremonies culminating in acts analogous to modern day accounts of Satanic ritual abuse. The second degree into the Jesuits began when the candidate fasted and was then blindfolded and led through a cavern while reciting incantations. After crawling through a narrow opening, the initiate's blindfold was removed and he found himself in a dungeon with three lamps on the ground, surrounded by skeletal remains. This room was called the Cave of Evocation. A similarly darkened room, containing a skull, scythe and candle, is used within the initiation rites of advanced Freemasonic degrees, and referred to as the Chamber of Reflection. The second degree initiation of the Knights of Malta also contains the Chamber of Reflection, which the order says is a symbolic representation of the tomb of the Pharaoh.
The Jesuit document quoted in the Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia describes the conclusion of the rite: “...they took off all his clothing, which they cast upon a pyre in one corner of the cave, and marked his body with numerous crosses, drawn with blood. At this point, the hierophant with his assistants entered, and having bound a red cloth round the middle of the candidate's body, the brethren, clothed in bloodstained garments, placed themselves beside him, and drawing their daggers, formed the steel arch over his head.”
Further corroboration of the details of Jesuit initiation rites can be found in the Journals of the 62nd Congress, 3rd session, which records the personal testimony of former Jesuit priest Alberto Rivera: “When a Jesuit of the minor rank is to be elevated to command, he is conducted into the Chapel of the Covenant of the Order, where there are only three others present, the principal or Superior standing in front of an altar. On either side stands a monk, one of whom holds a banner of yellow and white, which are the Papal colours, and the other a black banner with a dagger and red cross above a skull and crossbone, with the words INRI and below them the words IUSTUM NECAR REGES IMPIUS, the meaning of which is: it is just to exterminate or annihilate impious or heretical Kings, governments or rulers. Upon the floor is a red cross at which the postulant or candidate kneels. The superior hands him a small black crucifix, which he takes in his left hand and presses to his heart, and the Superior at the same time presents to him a dagger, which he grasps by the blade and holds the point against his heart.” The Jesuit candidate is then instructed to receive “the wafer from the Superior and writes his name with the point of his dagger dipped in his own blood taken from over his heart.”
The presence of a dagger, as well as that of the skull and cross bones, can also be found within Freemasonic ceremonial rites. In a documentary entitled “Secrets of Secret Societies”, the Discovery Channel interviewed Catholic author and former high-ranking Freemason John Salza, who reported his participation in an initiation rite that involved him stripping off his clothes and being pierced with a knife. He described the rite as conveying a “warning” to the initiate. The skull and crossbones were also adopted by the Knights of Malta, whose second degree initiation involves the candidate being presented with bones which are described as the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph, whose body had been carried to Egypt by his people.
Rivera expresses further similarities to Freemasonry with his delineation of how fellow Jesuit members identify one another, stating that the initiate, “with his right hand makes a circle around his head, touching it; the other then with the forefinger of his left hand touches the left side of his body just below the heart; the first then with his right hand draws it across the throat of the other, and the latter then with a dagger down the stomach and the abdomen of the first.” As reported by Richardson's Monitor of Freemasonry, a candidate is awarded the Grand Master Elect degree when he is either being pricked under the chin with a knife, or clenches the fingers of his right hand, extends the thumb and slides the tip of it up his abdomen to the underside of his chin. Within both the Society of Jesus and the Freemasons, the gesture is meant to convey the image of the initiate being ripped open with a knife, typically in response to his having violated the vow of secrecy protecting fellow members. This ceremony is based on the penal code of Freemasonry, which, Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor states, “intimates that the stiff neck of the disobedient shall be cut off from head of the living...”.
The social stratification represented by the degree system of Freemasonry is a logical extension of natural law, the Catholic ideology by which rigidly maintained social hierarchy was deemed a necessary component of any holy society. The Eye of Providence, colloquially known as the all-seeing eye, was first a Catholic symbol intended to symbolize the divine providence of God watching over humanity and superseding in human affairs through ecclesiastical authorities. The earliest depiction of the Eye of Providence in Europe was within the Palatine Chapel, whose construction was begun by Charlemagne in 786. Charlemagne was the first Holy Roman Emperor, and his accession inaugurated a return to the divine right of kings in Christian Europe. In the New Testament, the concept of the divine right of kings had been justified by the statement of St. Peter that all Christians should honor the pagan Roman Emperor. Throughout Medieval Europe, the same idea applied to feudal properties, which were believed to be owned by God and managed by Kings, who were in turn answerable only to the authority of Popes. This arrangement of power formed the basis of the figurative pyramid whose base was composed of serfs living in conditions akin to slavery in all of its most essential aspects. Feudal plantation owners were legally allowed to beat, murder and rape their serfs, while the serfs were forbidden from owning or selling property. The etymology of the term “serf” can be traced to the Latin word “servus”, which literally translates to slave.
In 1865 slavery was permanently abolished within the United States by way of the Thirteenth Amendment. Less than a year later, the Holy Office responded via an instruction signed by Pope Pius IX, which states: “Slavery itself, considered as such in its essential nature, is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law, and there can be several just titles of slavery, and these are referred to by approved theologians and commentators of the sacred canons … It is not contrary to the natural and divine law for a slave to be sold, bought, exchanged or given”. This policy was not officially changed within Canon law until 1918. Medieval texts used the words “peasant”, “serf” and “slave” as synonymous representations of the overwhelming majority of the population who did not own property. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a census of Britain's million and a half inhabitants, noting that less than three percent were free landholders. The feudal pyramid explicated a regimented division of value whereby corporeal hierarchies of serfs, lords, abbots, knights and bishops were arranged below heavenly hierarchies of saints, angels and, ultimately, God. As a material extension of these values, religious institutions such as abbeys and monasteries maintained a significant portion of European feudal properties while simultaneously amassing vast fortunes as a result.
The social stratification of greater Medieval society was also applied to individual families, which were typically formed according to strict laws and customs as opposed to individual choice. For example, the lord of an estate could prevent serfs from marrying women from another estate, while also exercising the power to choose husbands for their tenants' daughters. Medieval laws also required parental consent for marriage up to the age of 30 for men and the age of 25 for women. The doctrine of mutual consent also allowed for spouses to abandon their families based on “confession” of prior marriage to a different spouse. As merchant classes arose in later centuries, the doctrine of mutual consent ostensibly allowed for freedom of choice in marriage, however, in practice, parents controlled the choices of their children by denying inheritance rights to those who married against their wishes. The free bench was an English manorial custom that defined a widow's inheritance rights as dependent on her chastity, and remarriage, as well as any ostensible evidence of sexual activity, required the widow to forfeit her lands. Similarly, the Legrewite was a fine designed to punish single sexually active women, a fee often compounded by the childwite, yet another fine for the birth of illegitimate children. As stated previously, the doctrine of mutual consent allowed for previously married women to have their children classified as illegitimate regardless of the wife's commitment to her marriage. In France, unmarried pregnant women were systematically interrogated at local government offices.
The “virtue” of blind obedience to religious and political authorities was promoted by the Jesuits, a Catholic fraternity that predated both the Freemasons and the Bavarian Illuminati. In his Letter on Obedience, Jesuit (Society of Jesus) founder Ignatius of Loyola wrote “And so, I should wish that all of you would train yourselves to recognize Christ our Lord in any Superior whomsoever, and with all devotion, reverence and obey in him His Divine Majesty. And this will appear less strange to you, if you keep in mind that St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, bids us obey even temporal and pagan Superiors as Christ from Whom all well ordered authority descends: Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your hearts as you would Christ: not serving to the eye as pleasers of men, but as slaves of Christ.”
Loyola's apparently tolerant attitude toward polytheistic cultures did not, however, prevent the Jesuits from playing a central role in the Goa Inquisition, a horrific period of history enabled by the Society's reverence for social inequality. The office of the Inquisition on the Portugese state of Goa was responsible for sanctioning the death by torture of dozens of Hindus and Muslims for the crime of practicing their native religion. The Goa Inquisition was originally installed after Francis Xavier, a student of Loyola's, one of seven original Jesuits and co-founder of the same group, wrote a letter to King John III of Portugal, requesting Catholic expedition to India as a route to ensuring Christian purity. As Xavier departed to lead the mission, the pope appointed him apostolic nuncio to the East, an ecclesiastical diplomatic title equivalent to that of ambassador. The Inquisition's first act was to establish the death penalty for open practice of the Hindu faith. Hundreds of prison cells were set up to accommodate the accused. Hindu temples were destroyed and ransacked, their contents confiscated by army action. The local Konkani language was suppressed, Hindu holy books were destroyed and Portugese became the compulsory national language.
The Jesuits organized an annual mass baptism on January 25, the Feast of Saint Paul, whereby their African slaves were ordered to grab Hindus and smear their lips with beef, an act that resulted in many Hindus being labeled as untouchable by their own people. In his book, the Goa Inquisition, Indo-Portugese historian T.R. De Souza writes “...the government transferred to the Church and religious orders the properties and other sources of revenue that had belonged to the Hindu temples that had been demolished or to the temple servants who had been converted or banished. Entire villages were taken over at times for being considered rebellious and handed over with all their revenues to the Jesuits.” The Goa Inquisition also exhaustively details the methods of torture through which Catholic missionaries enforced religious conversions, including flogging, dismemberment and amputations carried out so slowly that the victims remained alive throughout the process. The auto-de-fa was the Catholic ritual of public penance whereby condemned heretics and apostates were burned at the stake. According to De Souza, Francis Xavier was present at the first Inquisition, where two of the accused, including a French cleric, were burned alive. For his efforts, Xavier was canonized as a saint by Pope Gregory XV, at the same time as Ignatius Loyola, and proclaimed the “Patron of Catholic Missions” by Pope Pius XI.
Aside from their work in suppressing cultural and religious expression abroad, the Jesuits also endeavored to suppress European institutions that threatened the power of the Catholic church, particularly in the areas of politics and scientific discourse. In 1616 the Inquisition declared the scientific proposition that the Earth rotates around the Sun to be heresy, shortly after the Index of Prohibited Books banned any writings that advanced Copernican heliocentric astronomy. Jesuit astronomers argued that geocentrism, the theory that the earth is the center of the universe around which all heavenly bodies revolve, was in accordance with a literal interpretation of Scripture, particularly Psalms 96:10, Chronicles 16:30, Psalms 93:1, Ecclesiastes 1:5 and Psalms 104:5. The chief theologian of the Inquisition, Robert Bellarmine, was a Jesuit who read the astronomer Galileo Galilei the decree of the Index and ordered him to abandon his research into the Copernican system. When this decree was ignored, Galilei was confined to house arrest for the rest of his life. Galilei's discoveries were so ground-breaking that he has since been dubbed the “father of observational astronomy”.
The Society of Jesus was also able to gain political influence by hearing the confessions of kings, princes and other political authorities. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “they acted as royal confessors to all French kings for 2 centuries, from Henry III to Louis XV; to all German emperors after the early 17th century; to all Dukes of Bavaria after 1579; to most rulers of Poland and Portugal; to the Spanish kings in the 18th century; to James II of England; and to many ruling or princely families throughout Europe.” Confessions in this context functioned much as the Bacchanalia had in previous centuries: organizations in a position to elicit incriminating secrets were much more likely to gain the advantage of political blackmail. Royal confessors were thus able to promote the interests of the Papacy, such as when LeTellier, Jesuit confessor to King Louis XIV, convinced the monarch to revoke the Edict of Nantes which granted substantial rights to Calvinist Protestants. Because of this history of political maneuvering, the Society was expelled from most states across Europe, as well as a number of European colonies. In Portugal the Jesuit royal confessor Gabriel Malagrida was declared guilty of high treason on account of his role in plotting the attempted assassination of King Jose I. Malagrida was not executed because the Papacy expressed opposition to the execution of a Jesuit by secular authorities. Instead, he was confined to a dungeon beneath the tower of Belem along with other Jesuits, who were also arrested for their role in the plan.
Aside from political intrigue, another charge commonly leveled at the Society was economic exploitation, especially regarding trade revenues derived from colonial mission plantations. As a religious order the Jesuits were technically forbidden from buying and selling for profit, however, as had been the case with the Knights Templar before them, this rule was largely disregarded. Referring to the Society's financial management of mission plantations, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 states “...this was allowed, partly to provide for the current expenses of the mission, partly in order to protect the simple, childlike natives from the common plague of dishonest intermediaries.” In the Americas, Jesuit acquisitions were so extensive that suppression of the order resulted in widespread economic changes. The Society had owned the largest number of black slaves in Chile, so when Jesuits were expelled from the country there was a sharp decrease in the number of imported slaves. After Jesuit vineyards in Peru were auctioned, wine production also declined because the new owners did not have the expertise necessary to manage the fields.
The combined political, economic and academic influence of the Society contributed to numerous anti-Jesuit conspiracy theories alleging the order to be involved in plotting to overthrow nation-states on behalf of the Papacy. Many of these theories were a product of French anti-clericalism and claimed a rivalry between Freemasons and the Society of Jesus. Ironically, historians documenting the origins of speculative Freemasonry have unearthed evidence indicating that Freemasonry is in large part derived from Catholicism, with the Jesuits, in particular, playing an important role in their expansion throughout France and Germany. According to Chevalier Ramsay, a Fellow of the Royal Society as well as a tutor to King James' two sons, Freemasonry was founded in antiquity and renewed at the time of the Crusades. Crusaders utilized a symbolic language derived from the ancient Mystery cults, which was intended to differentiate Crusader from Saracen. The close relationship between these early Masons and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem eventually resulted in the Blue Degrees which are named St. John's Masonry. Masonic participation in the Crusades may also be the reason why, according to Freemasonic legend, the original Lodge is “symbolically” located in Jerusalem. It may also be worth noting that Ramsay was a Baronet in the Jacobite Peerage (a hereditary honor granted by the deposed Stuart dynasty), so he may have been in a strategic position for absorbing the guarded secrets of high-ranking initiates.
One of the oldest surviving Masonic documents, from December 1658, suggests that the commonly held belief of the ideals of Freemasonry being opposed to royalism may, in truth, be erroneous. The document states, “That as formerly we and predecessors have and had from the temple of temples building on this earth one uniform community and union throughout the whole world from which temple proceeded one in Kilwinning in this our nation of Scotland and from that of Kilwinning many more within this kingdom of which there proceeded the Abbey and Lodge of Scone, built by men of art and architecture where they placed that lodge as the second lodge within this nation, which is now past memory of many generations, and was upheld by the Kings of Scotland...this Lodge is the most famous Lodge (if well ordered) within this kingdom-of which name of Mylne there had continued several generations of Master Masons to his Majesties the Kings of Scotland ." Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts is a book by architectural historian Vaughan Hart which further verifies this assertion, primarily through documenting the Hermetic-Cabalistic themes inherent in the masques of the Stuart court, which were typically planned and conceived by Masons.
The acolytes of King James Stuart II, the Jacobites, followed him into exile and renewed the ancient Rite of Heredom, also known as the Scottish Rite of Perfection, along with the Rite of Kilwining, which had commingled with the Templar tradition. Although this moment in history is a point of contention amongst many modern historians, in his work Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences, the Freemasonic historian Albert Mackey states that King James II took refuge in the Jesuit College of Clermont in Paris, where a network of aristocrats and members of the royal court had founded a Masonic Lodge. The purpose of this Lodge was the restoration on the House of Stuart to the throne of England, and its rites consisted of six degrees including those of St. John's Masonry. The Baron von Hund then synthesized the ideas of these degrees and produced from them the Rite of Strict Observance which gained popularity in Germany. Mackey also contends that the Masonic lodge at the Jesuit College of Clermont has had a particularly notable influence on the advanced degrees of Freemasonry.
These higher degrees can be easily traced to their origin in Jesuit initiation ceremonies by scrutinizing the commonalities found in both fraternal orders, as well as the Templars and Knights of Malta who share a common line of descent with the Society of Jesus. Although detailed accounts of Jesuit initiations are scarce, the Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge contains revealing quotes from a 16th century Jesuit document which describes ceremonies culminating in acts analogous to modern day accounts of Satanic ritual abuse. The second degree into the Jesuits began when the candidate fasted and was then blindfolded and led through a cavern while reciting incantations. After crawling through a narrow opening, the initiate's blindfold was removed and he found himself in a dungeon with three lamps on the ground, surrounded by skeletal remains. This room was called the Cave of Evocation. A similarly darkened room, containing a skull, scythe and candle, is used within the initiation rites of advanced Freemasonic degrees, and referred to as the Chamber of Reflection. The second degree initiation of the Knights of Malta also contains the Chamber of Reflection, which the order says is a symbolic representation of the tomb of the Pharaoh.
The Jesuit document quoted in the Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia describes the conclusion of the rite: “...they took off all his clothing, which they cast upon a pyre in one corner of the cave, and marked his body with numerous crosses, drawn with blood. At this point, the hierophant with his assistants entered, and having bound a red cloth round the middle of the candidate's body, the brethren, clothed in bloodstained garments, placed themselves beside him, and drawing their daggers, formed the steel arch over his head.”
Further corroboration of the details of Jesuit initiation rites can be found in the Journals of the 62nd Congress, 3rd session, which records the personal testimony of former Jesuit priest Alberto Rivera: “When a Jesuit of the minor rank is to be elevated to command, he is conducted into the Chapel of the Covenant of the Order, where there are only three others present, the principal or Superior standing in front of an altar. On either side stands a monk, one of whom holds a banner of yellow and white, which are the Papal colours, and the other a black banner with a dagger and red cross above a skull and crossbone, with the words INRI and below them the words IUSTUM NECAR REGES IMPIUS, the meaning of which is: it is just to exterminate or annihilate impious or heretical Kings, governments or rulers. Upon the floor is a red cross at which the postulant or candidate kneels. The superior hands him a small black crucifix, which he takes in his left hand and presses to his heart, and the Superior at the same time presents to him a dagger, which he grasps by the blade and holds the point against his heart.” The Jesuit candidate is then instructed to receive “the wafer from the Superior and writes his name with the point of his dagger dipped in his own blood taken from over his heart.”
The presence of a dagger, as well as that of the skull and cross bones, can also be found within Freemasonic ceremonial rites. In a documentary entitled “Secrets of Secret Societies”, the Discovery Channel interviewed Catholic author and former high-ranking Freemason John Salza, who reported his participation in an initiation rite that involved him stripping off his clothes and being pierced with a knife. He described the rite as conveying a “warning” to the initiate. The skull and crossbones were also adopted by the Knights of Malta, whose second degree initiation involves the candidate being presented with bones which are described as the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph, whose body had been carried to Egypt by his people.
Rivera expresses further similarities to Freemasonry with his delineation of how fellow Jesuit members identify one another, stating that the initiate, “with his right hand makes a circle around his head, touching it; the other then with the forefinger of his left hand touches the left side of his body just below the heart; the first then with his right hand draws it across the throat of the other, and the latter then with a dagger down the stomach and the abdomen of the first.” As reported by Richardson's Monitor of Freemasonry, a candidate is awarded the Grand Master Elect degree when he is either being pricked under the chin with a knife, or clenches the fingers of his right hand, extends the thumb and slides the tip of it up his abdomen to the underside of his chin. Within both the Society of Jesus and the Freemasons, the gesture is meant to convey the image of the initiate being ripped open with a knife, typically in response to his having violated the vow of secrecy protecting fellow members. This ceremony is based on the penal code of Freemasonry, which, Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor states, “intimates that the stiff neck of the disobedient shall be cut off from head of the living...”.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Fury of Opus Dei in Latin America
Some of the word choices in this article seem a bit odd to me, but that might be due to problems of translation. I don't necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed here, aside from criticism of Opus Dei. FYI, some details that follow may be upsetting for sensitive readers.
via Pravda:
Lawyer Ives Gandra Martins da Silva, the principal exponent of the fascist sect Opus Dei in Brazil, is concerned about the advancement of the left in Latin America. In an angry article in the column Trends / Debates of Folha de Sao Paulo, he distilled hatred and prejudice against Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Fidel Castro and Lula... Besides lying about the reality of human rights in Cuba, he cannot hide his sympathy for the dictatorial regime of Chile, which has always had the active support of Opus Dei....The right-wing ideas and prejudices of Opus Dei are already known, but it is good not to underestimate the influence of this world sect - which enjoys space in the middle class media and has a strong presence in the state apparatus. Its interest in Latin America is not new and always hovers threateningly. Since its arrival to the continent, 50 years ago, Opus Dei cunningly plans its rise to power. The project only gained momentum with a wave of military coups in the region in the 60s. Its followers presided in several nations or advised numerous dictators. In the 90s, with the neo liberal avalanche, the faithful technocrats of this sect once again enjoy a certain prestige.
"Catechism" in Latin America
In the 50s, the sect seduced its first believers among the old oligarchies that sought to differentiate from indigenous peoples and preached religious fundamentalism. But Opus Dei only acquired greater strength with the wave of attacks from the 60s. Until then, its action was still dispersed. According to an excellent article by Marina Amaral in the magazine Dear Friends, "in 1970, Josemaría Escriva [founder of the sect in Spain] traveled to Mexico to start giving 'travel catechisms' of the Americas that lasted until the eve of his death in Rome in 1975."
In 1974, he visited South America, then dominated by dictatorships. "The progressive clergy tried to use the weight of the church to denounce torture and killings and to fight for the restoration of democracy. In his speeches, he once replied to a soldier that asked to follow the path of 'spiritual sanctification' of the Opus Dei: 'The soldier already has done half of the spiritual path." In this dark period, the sect supported the attacks and has participated in various dictatorial governments, according Emílio Corbière, author of the book "Opus Dei: Catholic totalitarianism.”
In Chile, the fascist sect of dictator Augusto Pinochet was what Augusto Franco was in Spain. The main ideologist of this bloodthirsty regime, Jaime Guzmá, was an active member of the sect, as well as hundreds of civilian and military boards. It also supported the strikes and participated in the authoritarian regimes in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. According Corbière, it funded the regime of Nicaraguan dictator Anastácio Somoza until his defeat by the Sandinistas. In the decade of the 90s, it still gave "active assistance" to the terrorist and corrupt dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori, Peru.
Another "prosperous" phase occurs with the neo liberal offensive in the 90s. Boasting the sympathy of the pope and of autonomy facing the local churches, it benefited from the invasion of Spanish multinationals, the result of state-owned privatization. Many of them are influenced by cash from Opus Dei. According Henrique Magalhães, in article in the magazine The New Democracy, "Argentina handed their state telephone, oil, aviation and energy to Telefonica, Repsol, Endesa and Iberia. Iberia had already swallowed the LAN [aviation], of Chile, where the generation of energy was already controlled by Endesa. The Spanish banks also came to the continent in this process.”
"The Opus Dei is for the neo liberal model what the Dominicans and the Franciscans were to the cross and the Jesuits for the Lutheran Reform," compares José Steinsleger, columnist for the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. In the 90s, the sect also enlisted several bishops and cardinals in the region. The most famous was Juan Cipriani, of Peru, intimate friend of the dictator Alberto Fujimori. In 1997, during the invasion of the Japanese embassy by militants of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, the bishop earned the position of mediator and used a listening device in a crucifix, which enabled the police to invade the house and kill all its occupants.
In Brazil, the Opus Dei entrenched its root in 1957, in the city of Marília, inside Paulista, with the establishment of two centers. In 1961, given the importance of the branch, the sect visited the Spanish sect Xavier Ayala, the second in the hierarchy. "Doctor Xavier, as he liked to be called, although a priest, stepped foot on Brazilian soil with the mission of strengthening the conservative wing of the church. On the eve of the Second Vatican Council, the progressive clergy in Latin America argued for the revolutionary return to the origins of Christianity and the 'option for the poor', fundamentals of Liberation Theology," explains Marina Amaral.
The tentacles in Brazil
Still, according to the report, "the few, Opus Dei have been finding their allies on the university’s right. Among the first were two young promising youths: Ives Gandra and Carlos Alberto Di Franco, the first one sympathetic to monarchism and a defeated candidate for representative; the second, a secondary school student of the College Rio Branco, the Rotarians of Brazil. Ives began to attend the meetings of Opus Dei in 1963, Di Franco 'whistled' (asked to enter) in 1965. Today, the organization says it has in the country a little over three thousand members and about forty centers, where approximately six hundred sects live."
Growth in dictatorship
During the dictatorship, the sect also focused its action in the legal environment, which yields fruit until today. The retired promoter and ex-deputy Mr. Hélio Bicudo reveals two times being harassed by judges loyal to the organization. The exponent at this stage was José Rodrigues Geraldo Alckmin, appointed minister of the STF by dictator Garrastazu Medici in 1972, and uncle of the Tucanos (PSDB) candidate to the presidency in 2006. Until the 70's, however, the power of Opus Dei was embryonic. It had boards in important positions, but without coordinated action. Moreover, it was divided with the Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) the sympathies of Catholics of the extreme right-wing.
Its growth depended on the blessing of generals and links with powerful companies. Ives Gandra and Di Franco turned their "ambassadors", linking themselves with the owners of the media, right-wing politicians, bishops and entrepreneurs. College Catamarã (SP), Casa do Moinho (Cotia) and Publisher Quadrant - is from this phase of the construction of the structure of facade. It also created an NGO to raise funds: OSUC (Works Social, and Cultural University). It receives donations until today from Itaú, Bradesco, GM and Citigroup. Faced with this denunciation, Lizandro Carmona, OSUC, begged the journalist Marina Amaral: "For the love of God, do not go write that companies such as Itaú donate money to Opus Dei."
Recent Offensives in the region
In the recent phase, the Opus Dei set bold plans to win more political power in the region. In April 2002, it participated actively in the failed coup against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. One of its faithful, José Rodrigues Iturbe, became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the elusive con man. The embassy of Spain, at the time governed by the Franco Popular Party (PP) of Jose Maria Aznar - whose wife is the Opus Dei - gave Guarita (Watchtower) to their faithful. Another con man linked to the sect, Gustavo Cisneiros, is the largest communications businessman in the country.
In December 2006, the sect witnessed the defeat of its candidate, Joaquim Laví, former adviser to the dictator Augusto Pinochet, for the presidency of Chile. Back in May 2006, it collected a new defeat with the candidacy of Lourdes Flores, nominee of the National Unity Party. In compensation, it celebrated the victory of narco terrorist Álvaro Uribe in Colombia, who dispersed millions of dollars from the government of George Bush. In Mexico, another known faithful of Opus Dei, Felipe Calderon, a former executive of Coca-Cola, won one of the most fraudulent elections in history of this country.
Its most daring move, though, was the attempt to elect a follower in Brazil. According to Henrique Magellan, "the hope of Opus Dei turned to Geraldo Alckmin, that today is one of its most prominent political structures. The Organization tried to make him president to form an axis with thegeopolitical leaders of Colombia and Mexico. " The media and the Tucanos (PSDB) members have even tried to cover up that shadowy connection. In a piece in the Folha de Sao Paulo, Alckmin pledged: "I am not one of the Opus Dei, who is in respect, but I do not know." He lied to hide his close relations with the fascist sect - from the time of childhood, in the meeting with his father and uncle-Minister of the dictatorship of the STF, to the illegal "talks of Morumbi." But the nation is not deceived. This explains the recent elitist moanings of Ives Gandra, high head of Opus Dei.
The above article does a great job of summarizing Opus Dei's connections to Latin American military dictatorships, but it doesn't get into some of the social policies the sect is actively promoting. For example, Opus Dei is known to have ties to Priests for Life, an anti-abortion organization which denies the medical reality that continuing a pregnancy can sometimes endanger the life of the mother. To get an idea of what a society governed by these principles would look like, consider the recent case in Brazil, where the mother of a 9-year-old, pregnant rape and incest victim was excommunicated by the Catholic church after arranging for her daughter to get an abortion. The doctors involved in the decision, who were also excommunicated, had warned her that her daughter was risking her life by continuing the pregnancy. Most reasonable people would let it go at that. The Vatican, however, insisted that, even though the child did not have the skeletal structure necessary for childbirth, she could still receive a Caesarian section.
This perspective demonstrates blatant and willful ignorance of the medical risks of pregnancy faced by young mothers. One of these risks includes preeclampsia, a condition of high blood pressure that can result in swelling of the face and hands, as well as permanent organ damage. Preeclampsia can also be a life-threatening condition. "Pro-life" organizers will argue that a few nine-year-old incest victims being forced to carry a rape baby to term despite their potential loss of life is a small price to pay for all the lives saved due to stringent anti-choice legislation. Let's examine that line of thinking more closely.
via The New York Times:
For proof that criminalizing abortion doesn't reduce abortion rates and only endangers the lives of women, consider Latin America. In most of the region, abortions are a crime, but the abortion rate is far higher than in Western Europe or the United States. Colombia - where abortion is illegal even if a woman's life is in danger - averages more than one abortion per woman over all of her fertile years. In Peru, the average is nearly two abortions per woman over the course of her reproductive years. In a region where there is little sex education and social taboos keep unmarried women from seeking contraception, criminalizing abortion has not made it rare, only dangerous. Rich women can go to private doctors. The rest rely on quacks or amateurs or do it themselves. Up to 5,000 women die each year from abortions in Latin America, and hundreds of thousands more are hospitalized.
Abortion is legal on demand in the region only in Cuba, and a few other countries permit it for extreme circumstances, mostly when the mother's life is at risk, the fetus will not live or the pregnancy is the result of rape. Even when pregnancies do qualify for legal abortions, women are often denied them because anti-abortion local medical officials and priests intervene, the requirements are unnecessarily stringent, or women do not want to incur the public shame of reporting rape.
But Latin Americans are beginning to look at abortion as an issue of maternal mortality, not just maternal morality. Where they have been conducted, polls show that Latin Americans support the right to abortion under some circumstances. Decriminalization, at least in part, is being seriously discussed in Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina, and perhaps will be on the agenda after the presidential election in July in Mexico....Latin American women, who are increasing their participation in the work force and in politics, have also become more vocal. Their voice would be much louder were it not for the Bush administration's global gag rule, which bans any family planning group that gets American money from speaking about abortions, or even criticizing unsafe illegal abortions. This has silenced some respected and influential groups, such as Profamilia in Colombia. Anti-abortion lawmakers in Washington can look at Latin America as a place where the global gag rule has worked exactly as they had hoped. All Americans can look at Latin America to see unnecessary deaths and injuries from unsafe abortions.
via Pravda:
Lawyer Ives Gandra Martins da Silva, the principal exponent of the fascist sect Opus Dei in Brazil, is concerned about the advancement of the left in Latin America. In an angry article in the column Trends / Debates of Folha de Sao Paulo, he distilled hatred and prejudice against Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Fidel Castro and Lula... Besides lying about the reality of human rights in Cuba, he cannot hide his sympathy for the dictatorial regime of Chile, which has always had the active support of Opus Dei....The right-wing ideas and prejudices of Opus Dei are already known, but it is good not to underestimate the influence of this world sect - which enjoys space in the middle class media and has a strong presence in the state apparatus. Its interest in Latin America is not new and always hovers threateningly. Since its arrival to the continent, 50 years ago, Opus Dei cunningly plans its rise to power. The project only gained momentum with a wave of military coups in the region in the 60s. Its followers presided in several nations or advised numerous dictators. In the 90s, with the neo liberal avalanche, the faithful technocrats of this sect once again enjoy a certain prestige.
"Catechism" in Latin America
In the 50s, the sect seduced its first believers among the old oligarchies that sought to differentiate from indigenous peoples and preached religious fundamentalism. But Opus Dei only acquired greater strength with the wave of attacks from the 60s. Until then, its action was still dispersed. According to an excellent article by Marina Amaral in the magazine Dear Friends, "in 1970, Josemaría Escriva [founder of the sect in Spain] traveled to Mexico to start giving 'travel catechisms' of the Americas that lasted until the eve of his death in Rome in 1975."
In 1974, he visited South America, then dominated by dictatorships. "The progressive clergy tried to use the weight of the church to denounce torture and killings and to fight for the restoration of democracy. In his speeches, he once replied to a soldier that asked to follow the path of 'spiritual sanctification' of the Opus Dei: 'The soldier already has done half of the spiritual path." In this dark period, the sect supported the attacks and has participated in various dictatorial governments, according Emílio Corbière, author of the book "Opus Dei: Catholic totalitarianism.”
In Chile, the fascist sect of dictator Augusto Pinochet was what Augusto Franco was in Spain. The main ideologist of this bloodthirsty regime, Jaime Guzmá, was an active member of the sect, as well as hundreds of civilian and military boards. It also supported the strikes and participated in the authoritarian regimes in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. According Corbière, it funded the regime of Nicaraguan dictator Anastácio Somoza until his defeat by the Sandinistas. In the decade of the 90s, it still gave "active assistance" to the terrorist and corrupt dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori, Peru.
Another "prosperous" phase occurs with the neo liberal offensive in the 90s. Boasting the sympathy of the pope and of autonomy facing the local churches, it benefited from the invasion of Spanish multinationals, the result of state-owned privatization. Many of them are influenced by cash from Opus Dei. According Henrique Magalhães, in article in the magazine The New Democracy, "Argentina handed their state telephone, oil, aviation and energy to Telefonica, Repsol, Endesa and Iberia. Iberia had already swallowed the LAN [aviation], of Chile, where the generation of energy was already controlled by Endesa. The Spanish banks also came to the continent in this process.”
"The Opus Dei is for the neo liberal model what the Dominicans and the Franciscans were to the cross and the Jesuits for the Lutheran Reform," compares José Steinsleger, columnist for the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. In the 90s, the sect also enlisted several bishops and cardinals in the region. The most famous was Juan Cipriani, of Peru, intimate friend of the dictator Alberto Fujimori. In 1997, during the invasion of the Japanese embassy by militants of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, the bishop earned the position of mediator and used a listening device in a crucifix, which enabled the police to invade the house and kill all its occupants.
In Brazil, the Opus Dei entrenched its root in 1957, in the city of Marília, inside Paulista, with the establishment of two centers. In 1961, given the importance of the branch, the sect visited the Spanish sect Xavier Ayala, the second in the hierarchy. "Doctor Xavier, as he liked to be called, although a priest, stepped foot on Brazilian soil with the mission of strengthening the conservative wing of the church. On the eve of the Second Vatican Council, the progressive clergy in Latin America argued for the revolutionary return to the origins of Christianity and the 'option for the poor', fundamentals of Liberation Theology," explains Marina Amaral.
The tentacles in Brazil
Still, according to the report, "the few, Opus Dei have been finding their allies on the university’s right. Among the first were two young promising youths: Ives Gandra and Carlos Alberto Di Franco, the first one sympathetic to monarchism and a defeated candidate for representative; the second, a secondary school student of the College Rio Branco, the Rotarians of Brazil. Ives began to attend the meetings of Opus Dei in 1963, Di Franco 'whistled' (asked to enter) in 1965. Today, the organization says it has in the country a little over three thousand members and about forty centers, where approximately six hundred sects live."
Growth in dictatorship
During the dictatorship, the sect also focused its action in the legal environment, which yields fruit until today. The retired promoter and ex-deputy Mr. Hélio Bicudo reveals two times being harassed by judges loyal to the organization. The exponent at this stage was José Rodrigues Geraldo Alckmin, appointed minister of the STF by dictator Garrastazu Medici in 1972, and uncle of the Tucanos (PSDB) candidate to the presidency in 2006. Until the 70's, however, the power of Opus Dei was embryonic. It had boards in important positions, but without coordinated action. Moreover, it was divided with the Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) the sympathies of Catholics of the extreme right-wing.
Its growth depended on the blessing of generals and links with powerful companies. Ives Gandra and Di Franco turned their "ambassadors", linking themselves with the owners of the media, right-wing politicians, bishops and entrepreneurs. College Catamarã (SP), Casa do Moinho (Cotia) and Publisher Quadrant - is from this phase of the construction of the structure of facade. It also created an NGO to raise funds: OSUC (Works Social, and Cultural University). It receives donations until today from Itaú, Bradesco, GM and Citigroup. Faced with this denunciation, Lizandro Carmona, OSUC, begged the journalist Marina Amaral: "For the love of God, do not go write that companies such as Itaú donate money to Opus Dei."
Recent Offensives in the region
In the recent phase, the Opus Dei set bold plans to win more political power in the region. In April 2002, it participated actively in the failed coup against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. One of its faithful, José Rodrigues Iturbe, became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the elusive con man. The embassy of Spain, at the time governed by the Franco Popular Party (PP) of Jose Maria Aznar - whose wife is the Opus Dei - gave Guarita (Watchtower) to their faithful. Another con man linked to the sect, Gustavo Cisneiros, is the largest communications businessman in the country.
In December 2006, the sect witnessed the defeat of its candidate, Joaquim Laví, former adviser to the dictator Augusto Pinochet, for the presidency of Chile. Back in May 2006, it collected a new defeat with the candidacy of Lourdes Flores, nominee of the National Unity Party. In compensation, it celebrated the victory of narco terrorist Álvaro Uribe in Colombia, who dispersed millions of dollars from the government of George Bush. In Mexico, another known faithful of Opus Dei, Felipe Calderon, a former executive of Coca-Cola, won one of the most fraudulent elections in history of this country.
Its most daring move, though, was the attempt to elect a follower in Brazil. According to Henrique Magellan, "the hope of Opus Dei turned to Geraldo Alckmin, that today is one of its most prominent political structures. The Organization tried to make him president to form an axis with thegeopolitical leaders of Colombia and Mexico. " The media and the Tucanos (PSDB) members have even tried to cover up that shadowy connection. In a piece in the Folha de Sao Paulo, Alckmin pledged: "I am not one of the Opus Dei, who is in respect, but I do not know." He lied to hide his close relations with the fascist sect - from the time of childhood, in the meeting with his father and uncle-Minister of the dictatorship of the STF, to the illegal "talks of Morumbi." But the nation is not deceived. This explains the recent elitist moanings of Ives Gandra, high head of Opus Dei.
The above article does a great job of summarizing Opus Dei's connections to Latin American military dictatorships, but it doesn't get into some of the social policies the sect is actively promoting. For example, Opus Dei is known to have ties to Priests for Life, an anti-abortion organization which denies the medical reality that continuing a pregnancy can sometimes endanger the life of the mother. To get an idea of what a society governed by these principles would look like, consider the recent case in Brazil, where the mother of a 9-year-old, pregnant rape and incest victim was excommunicated by the Catholic church after arranging for her daughter to get an abortion. The doctors involved in the decision, who were also excommunicated, had warned her that her daughter was risking her life by continuing the pregnancy. Most reasonable people would let it go at that. The Vatican, however, insisted that, even though the child did not have the skeletal structure necessary for childbirth, she could still receive a Caesarian section.
This perspective demonstrates blatant and willful ignorance of the medical risks of pregnancy faced by young mothers. One of these risks includes preeclampsia, a condition of high blood pressure that can result in swelling of the face and hands, as well as permanent organ damage. Preeclampsia can also be a life-threatening condition. "Pro-life" organizers will argue that a few nine-year-old incest victims being forced to carry a rape baby to term despite their potential loss of life is a small price to pay for all the lives saved due to stringent anti-choice legislation. Let's examine that line of thinking more closely.
via The New York Times:
For proof that criminalizing abortion doesn't reduce abortion rates and only endangers the lives of women, consider Latin America. In most of the region, abortions are a crime, but the abortion rate is far higher than in Western Europe or the United States. Colombia - where abortion is illegal even if a woman's life is in danger - averages more than one abortion per woman over all of her fertile years. In Peru, the average is nearly two abortions per woman over the course of her reproductive years. In a region where there is little sex education and social taboos keep unmarried women from seeking contraception, criminalizing abortion has not made it rare, only dangerous. Rich women can go to private doctors. The rest rely on quacks or amateurs or do it themselves. Up to 5,000 women die each year from abortions in Latin America, and hundreds of thousands more are hospitalized.
Abortion is legal on demand in the region only in Cuba, and a few other countries permit it for extreme circumstances, mostly when the mother's life is at risk, the fetus will not live or the pregnancy is the result of rape. Even when pregnancies do qualify for legal abortions, women are often denied them because anti-abortion local medical officials and priests intervene, the requirements are unnecessarily stringent, or women do not want to incur the public shame of reporting rape.
But Latin Americans are beginning to look at abortion as an issue of maternal mortality, not just maternal morality. Where they have been conducted, polls show that Latin Americans support the right to abortion under some circumstances. Decriminalization, at least in part, is being seriously discussed in Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina, and perhaps will be on the agenda after the presidential election in July in Mexico....Latin American women, who are increasing their participation in the work force and in politics, have also become more vocal. Their voice would be much louder were it not for the Bush administration's global gag rule, which bans any family planning group that gets American money from speaking about abortions, or even criticizing unsafe illegal abortions. This has silenced some respected and influential groups, such as Profamilia in Colombia. Anti-abortion lawmakers in Washington can look at Latin America as a place where the global gag rule has worked exactly as they had hoped. All Americans can look at Latin America to see unnecessary deaths and injuries from unsafe abortions.
Opus Dei lobbies to prevent maternal death exception for Irish abortion ban
via The Guardian:
The secret ultra-conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei is mobilising within the Irish professions to stop the republic reforming its abortion laws, one of the country's most prominent doctors has warned. John Crown, a leading cancer specialist and member of parliament, accused the powerful organisation of trying to exercise influence on the medical profession and politicians to prevent limited abortion being made legal for the first time in Ireland. The only physician on the parliamentary subcommittee exploring the abortion question at present, Crown said he believed Opus Dei was "a major player" in the campaign to thwart legislation that would allow for abortion when a mother's life was at risk.
The member of Ireland's second chamber, the Seanad, said he had received abuse over his role on the subcommittee, particularly when he revealed that 30 terminations had been carried out in Irish hospitals last year. The Fine Gael-Labour coalition is under intense pressure to introduce legislation that would allow for abortions when a woman's life is at risk, including from suicide. The momentum for change on abortion laws has intensified since the Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar died from blood poisoning after a Galway hospital refused to terminate her pregnancy last autumn.
Enda Kenny's government has promised reform but the taoiseach's Fine Gael party is coming under attack from anti-abortion activists, particularly in rural, conservative parts of the republic, who have threatened to picket the constituency offices of teachta dálas (members of the lower house of parliament, the Dáil Éirann) who previously promised to oppose any change in the law. Crown said: "I believe that many of the organisations that are most prominent in this campaign in trying to thwart reform will have substantial membership from Opus Dei." He said it was time for members of the Oireachtas (parliament) – both the Dáil and Seanad – to be required to declare if they belonged to any secret organisations, such as Opus Dei. "That is something that should be declared because there are potential conflicts of interest if one believes that one is answering to a higher authority than the parliament of the republic.
"We have several examples in history where leaders of this country asked if people should state their allegiance. Garret Fitzgerald [a former taoiseach] once famously asked his cabinet to inform him if they were members of secret organisations, which I think is not a bad idea at all for the whole of the Oireachtas."
Despite a highly organised, well-funded anti-abortion lobby, Crown told the Guardian he was confident both houses of parliament would pass legislation allowing abortion in limited circumstances. Such a move would finally enshrine in law the recommendations made by supreme court judges in the X case in 1992, when it was ruled that a 14-year-old rape victim had the right to a termination because of the risk to her life from suicide. Since then successive governments have failed to legislate in relation to the ruling. more...
The secret ultra-conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei is mobilising within the Irish professions to stop the republic reforming its abortion laws, one of the country's most prominent doctors has warned. John Crown, a leading cancer specialist and member of parliament, accused the powerful organisation of trying to exercise influence on the medical profession and politicians to prevent limited abortion being made legal for the first time in Ireland. The only physician on the parliamentary subcommittee exploring the abortion question at present, Crown said he believed Opus Dei was "a major player" in the campaign to thwart legislation that would allow for abortion when a mother's life was at risk.
The member of Ireland's second chamber, the Seanad, said he had received abuse over his role on the subcommittee, particularly when he revealed that 30 terminations had been carried out in Irish hospitals last year. The Fine Gael-Labour coalition is under intense pressure to introduce legislation that would allow for abortions when a woman's life is at risk, including from suicide. The momentum for change on abortion laws has intensified since the Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar died from blood poisoning after a Galway hospital refused to terminate her pregnancy last autumn.
Enda Kenny's government has promised reform but the taoiseach's Fine Gael party is coming under attack from anti-abortion activists, particularly in rural, conservative parts of the republic, who have threatened to picket the constituency offices of teachta dálas (members of the lower house of parliament, the Dáil Éirann) who previously promised to oppose any change in the law. Crown said: "I believe that many of the organisations that are most prominent in this campaign in trying to thwart reform will have substantial membership from Opus Dei." He said it was time for members of the Oireachtas (parliament) – both the Dáil and Seanad – to be required to declare if they belonged to any secret organisations, such as Opus Dei. "That is something that should be declared because there are potential conflicts of interest if one believes that one is answering to a higher authority than the parliament of the republic.
"We have several examples in history where leaders of this country asked if people should state their allegiance. Garret Fitzgerald [a former taoiseach] once famously asked his cabinet to inform him if they were members of secret organisations, which I think is not a bad idea at all for the whole of the Oireachtas."
Despite a highly organised, well-funded anti-abortion lobby, Crown told the Guardian he was confident both houses of parliament would pass legislation allowing abortion in limited circumstances. Such a move would finally enshrine in law the recommendations made by supreme court judges in the X case in 1992, when it was ruled that a 14-year-old rape victim had the right to a termination because of the risk to her life from suicide. Since then successive governments have failed to legislate in relation to the ruling. more...
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Opus Dei and right wing dictatorships
Since yesterday's posts there have been several incoming search phrases regarding Opus Dei so here is some basic information on the organization's support for right wing dictatorships, via the Opus Dei wikipedia page. Bracketed quotes are my own commentary.
Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by an Aragonese Roman Catholic priest, Josemaria Escriva, and it was subsequently recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as its first secular religious institution...Members make a commitment to dedicate their professional talents to the service of God and to seek to win converts through their missionary zeal. The organization in Spain and everywhere else has emphasized professional excellence, whether they are farmers or teachers, and it has expected its members who have talents for politics to serve in government positions, in accord, it says, with the Social Doctrine of the Church...Many newly published Spanish history textbooks agree that the Opus Dei had a strong influence in the Franco regime. Moreover, Opus Dei developed itself in its early days during the Franco regime. According to these books, Opus Dei was not only linked but also tightly interwoven with the power structures of the Francoist authoritarian government soon after the Spanish Civil War, although its stronger involvement in the government came only in the late 1950s. It had at least 8 ministers during Franco's rule. This was in keeping with the organization's aim of influencing the development of society indirectly....Because of what some critics see as clannishness and secrecy surrounding the organization, they termed it the "Holy Mafia."
Also, here is an excerpt from an excellent article on neofascism within the Catholic Church, via the Daily Kos:
What we are seeing today in the fight over birth control is a revival of a very old, and very dangerous kind of Catholicism. It is not one supported or practiced by most Rank and File Catholics. It is a kind of Catholicism which has done irreparable harm. It is a kind of Catholicism unfit for existence in the modern world. It was the underpinning of the regimes of Mussolini in Italy, The National Catholicism of Francisco Franco, in Spain; The Parti Rexiste in Belgium; The Irish Blueshirts; The Croatian Ustaše, the Nazi puppet government in Croatia, and ultimately, was the kind of Catholicism practiced by the Sainted Josemaría Escrivá, founder of the Catholic order Opus Dei.
That's where the story begins and ends: Opus Dei.
Spain, The Founding of Opus Dei
Josemaría Escrivá is the best place to start. He was a catholic priest during the Second Spanish Republic, who developed a kind of Catholicism in the late 1920's which Fascists found very attractive. He rose to prominence and political influence during Franco's spain. His book describing Opus Dei was first published with an introduction by a Pro-Franco bishop, which contained many statements in support of National Catholicism. Saint Escriva personally preached to Franco during a week-long prayer retreat at Franco's Palace. Saint Escriva has been accused by catholic priests who knew him of Holocaust Denial, and many recall statements by Escriva defending Hitler. Saint Escriva has said that Hitler couldn't have killed 6 million Jews, and that "Hitler against the Jews" really meant "Hitler against communism."
He famously wrote a letter to Franco in the 1950's saying
None of this is to say that all Catholics supported Franco. Plenty of Catholic bishops and priests opposed him, including bishop Mateo Múgica, and Cardinal Francisco Vidal Y Barraquer. I would also like to point out that neither Vidal Y Barraquer or Mateo Mugica were sainted. They are relatively forgotten. Múgica doesn't even have a Wikipedia page in English. You'll notice that this will become a recurring theme in our history of Opus Dei and Catholicism in Fascist Europe. Those who stood against the tide end up forgotten, while those that supported the brutal regimes end up sainted.
And so courageous men that fought a military dictatorship and died in exile are forgotten while Escriva is the sainted founder of Opus Dei. Racist. Fascist. Holocaust Denier. Despite the fact that we know about his writings, his views, his pretension to political power, and his support of Franco, all of these facts surrounding the man have been referred to as "Black Myths." Catholic authorities deny that any of this happened, and call anyone who dares point out indisputable facts "anti-catholic." Just like those laws about birth control.
Here is some additional information on Francisco Franco's regime, again via wikipedia:
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde (Spanish: [fɾanˈθisko ˈfɾaŋko]; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975), was a Spanish general, the leader of the Nationalist military rebellion during the Spanish Civil War, and the authoritarian head of state of Spain from 1939 to his death in November 1975....After winning the civil war with military aid from Italy and Germany as exemplified in the Bombing of Guernica — while the Soviet Union and various Internationalists aided the Republicans —, he dissolved the Spanish Parliament. He then established a right-wing dictatorship and was de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain, that lasted until 1978, when a new constitution was drafted....he supported the volunteer Blue Division that fought with the Axis on the Eastern Front, and until 1943 the German navy used Spanish harbours....
...After the end of World War II, Franco maintained his control in Spain through the implementation of austere measures: the systematic suppression of dissident views through censorship and coercion,[4][5] the imprisonment of ideologically opposed enemies in concentration camps (1936–1947) throughout the country (such as Los Merinales in Seville, San Marcos in León, Castuera in Extremadura, and Miranda de Ebro),[6] the implementation of forced labor in prisons,[7] and the use of the death penalty and heavy prison sentences as deterrents for his ideological enemies....The first decade of Franco's rule in the 1940s following the end of the Civil War in 1939 saw continued oppression and the killing of an undetermined number of political opponents. Estimation is difficult and controversial, but the number of people killed probably lies somewhere between 15,000 and 50,000 (see above, The end of the Civil War)...Franco's Spanish nationalism promoted a unitary national identity by repressing Spain's cultural diversity. Bullfighting and flamenco[62] were promoted as national traditions while those traditions not considered "Spanish" were suppressed... All cultural activities were subject to censorship, and many, such as the Sardana, the national dance of Catalunya, were plainly forbidden...
...On the other hand, the Catholic Church was upheld as the established church of the Spanish State, and regained many of the traditional privileges it had lost under the Republic. Civil servants had to be Catholic, and some official jobs even required a "good behavior" statement by a priest. Civil marriages which had taken place under Republican Spain were declared null and void unless confirmed by the Catholic Church. Divorce was forbidden, and also contraceptives and abortion....The enforcement by public authorities of traditional Catholic values was a stated intent of the regime, mainly by using a law (the Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, Vagrancy Act) enacted by Azaña.[63] The remaining nomads of Spain (Gitanos and Mercheros like El Lute) were especially affected. In 1954, homosexuality, pedophilia, and prostitution were, through this law, made criminal offenses,[64]...
Status of women
Francoism professed a devotion to the traditional role of women in society, that is: loving child to her parents and brothers, faithful to her husband, residing with her family. Official propaganda confined her role to family care and motherhood. Immediately after the war, most progressive laws passed by the Republic aimed at equality between the sexes were made void. Women could not become judges, or testify in trial. They could not become university professors. Their affairs and economy had to be managed by their father or by their husbands. Even in the 1970s a woman fleeing from an abusive husband could be arrested and imprisoned for "abandoning the home" (abandono del hogar). Until the 1970s a woman could not have a bank account without a co-sign by her father or husband.[65][These policies would have been in keeping with Church doctrine, since Pope Pius XI was opposed to women having the right to vote.]
Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by an Aragonese Roman Catholic priest, Josemaria Escriva, and it was subsequently recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as its first secular religious institution...Members make a commitment to dedicate their professional talents to the service of God and to seek to win converts through their missionary zeal. The organization in Spain and everywhere else has emphasized professional excellence, whether they are farmers or teachers, and it has expected its members who have talents for politics to serve in government positions, in accord, it says, with the Social Doctrine of the Church...Many newly published Spanish history textbooks agree that the Opus Dei had a strong influence in the Franco regime. Moreover, Opus Dei developed itself in its early days during the Franco regime. According to these books, Opus Dei was not only linked but also tightly interwoven with the power structures of the Francoist authoritarian government soon after the Spanish Civil War, although its stronger involvement in the government came only in the late 1950s. It had at least 8 ministers during Franco's rule. This was in keeping with the organization's aim of influencing the development of society indirectly....Because of what some critics see as clannishness and secrecy surrounding the organization, they termed it the "Holy Mafia."
Also, here is an excerpt from an excellent article on neofascism within the Catholic Church, via the Daily Kos:
What we are seeing today in the fight over birth control is a revival of a very old, and very dangerous kind of Catholicism. It is not one supported or practiced by most Rank and File Catholics. It is a kind of Catholicism which has done irreparable harm. It is a kind of Catholicism unfit for existence in the modern world. It was the underpinning of the regimes of Mussolini in Italy, The National Catholicism of Francisco Franco, in Spain; The Parti Rexiste in Belgium; The Irish Blueshirts; The Croatian Ustaše, the Nazi puppet government in Croatia, and ultimately, was the kind of Catholicism practiced by the Sainted Josemaría Escrivá, founder of the Catholic order Opus Dei.
That's where the story begins and ends: Opus Dei.
Spain, The Founding of Opus Dei
Josemaría Escrivá is the best place to start. He was a catholic priest during the Second Spanish Republic, who developed a kind of Catholicism in the late 1920's which Fascists found very attractive. He rose to prominence and political influence during Franco's spain. His book describing Opus Dei was first published with an introduction by a Pro-Franco bishop, which contained many statements in support of National Catholicism. Saint Escriva personally preached to Franco during a week-long prayer retreat at Franco's Palace. Saint Escriva has been accused by catholic priests who knew him of Holocaust Denial, and many recall statements by Escriva defending Hitler. Saint Escriva has said that Hitler couldn't have killed 6 million Jews, and that "Hitler against the Jews" really meant "Hitler against communism."
He famously wrote a letter to Franco in the 1950's saying
Although a stranger to any political activity, I cannot help but rejoice as a priest and Spaniard that the Chief of State’s authoritative voice should proclaim that, “The Spanish nation considers it a badge of honor to accept the law of God according to the one and true doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church, inseparable faith of the national conscience which will inspire its legislation.” It is in fidelity to our people’s Catholic tradition that the best guarantee of success in acts of government, the certainty of a just and lasting peace within the national community, as well as the divine blessing for those holding positions of authority, will always be found. I ask God our Lord to bestow upon your Excellency with every sort felicity and impart abundant grace to carry out the grave mission entrusted to you.
None of this is to say that all Catholics supported Franco. Plenty of Catholic bishops and priests opposed him, including bishop Mateo Múgica, and Cardinal Francisco Vidal Y Barraquer. I would also like to point out that neither Vidal Y Barraquer or Mateo Mugica were sainted. They are relatively forgotten. Múgica doesn't even have a Wikipedia page in English. You'll notice that this will become a recurring theme in our history of Opus Dei and Catholicism in Fascist Europe. Those who stood against the tide end up forgotten, while those that supported the brutal regimes end up sainted.
And so courageous men that fought a military dictatorship and died in exile are forgotten while Escriva is the sainted founder of Opus Dei. Racist. Fascist. Holocaust Denier. Despite the fact that we know about his writings, his views, his pretension to political power, and his support of Franco, all of these facts surrounding the man have been referred to as "Black Myths." Catholic authorities deny that any of this happened, and call anyone who dares point out indisputable facts "anti-catholic." Just like those laws about birth control.
Here is some additional information on Francisco Franco's regime, again via wikipedia:
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde (Spanish: [fɾanˈθisko ˈfɾaŋko]; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975), was a Spanish general, the leader of the Nationalist military rebellion during the Spanish Civil War, and the authoritarian head of state of Spain from 1939 to his death in November 1975....After winning the civil war with military aid from Italy and Germany as exemplified in the Bombing of Guernica — while the Soviet Union and various Internationalists aided the Republicans —, he dissolved the Spanish Parliament. He then established a right-wing dictatorship and was de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain, that lasted until 1978, when a new constitution was drafted....he supported the volunteer Blue Division that fought with the Axis on the Eastern Front, and until 1943 the German navy used Spanish harbours....
...After the end of World War II, Franco maintained his control in Spain through the implementation of austere measures: the systematic suppression of dissident views through censorship and coercion,[4][5] the imprisonment of ideologically opposed enemies in concentration camps (1936–1947) throughout the country (such as Los Merinales in Seville, San Marcos in León, Castuera in Extremadura, and Miranda de Ebro),[6] the implementation of forced labor in prisons,[7] and the use of the death penalty and heavy prison sentences as deterrents for his ideological enemies....The first decade of Franco's rule in the 1940s following the end of the Civil War in 1939 saw continued oppression and the killing of an undetermined number of political opponents. Estimation is difficult and controversial, but the number of people killed probably lies somewhere between 15,000 and 50,000 (see above, The end of the Civil War)...Franco's Spanish nationalism promoted a unitary national identity by repressing Spain's cultural diversity. Bullfighting and flamenco[62] were promoted as national traditions while those traditions not considered "Spanish" were suppressed... All cultural activities were subject to censorship, and many, such as the Sardana, the national dance of Catalunya, were plainly forbidden...
...On the other hand, the Catholic Church was upheld as the established church of the Spanish State, and regained many of the traditional privileges it had lost under the Republic. Civil servants had to be Catholic, and some official jobs even required a "good behavior" statement by a priest. Civil marriages which had taken place under Republican Spain were declared null and void unless confirmed by the Catholic Church. Divorce was forbidden, and also contraceptives and abortion....The enforcement by public authorities of traditional Catholic values was a stated intent of the regime, mainly by using a law (the Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, Vagrancy Act) enacted by Azaña.[63] The remaining nomads of Spain (Gitanos and Mercheros like El Lute) were especially affected. In 1954, homosexuality, pedophilia, and prostitution were, through this law, made criminal offenses,[64]...
Status of women
Francoism professed a devotion to the traditional role of women in society, that is: loving child to her parents and brothers, faithful to her husband, residing with her family. Official propaganda confined her role to family care and motherhood. Immediately after the war, most progressive laws passed by the Republic aimed at equality between the sexes were made void. Women could not become judges, or testify in trial. They could not become university professors. Their affairs and economy had to be managed by their father or by their husbands. Even in the 1970s a woman fleeing from an abusive husband could be arrested and imprisoned for "abandoning the home" (abandono del hogar). Until the 1970s a woman could not have a bank account without a co-sign by her father or husband.[65][These policies would have been in keeping with Church doctrine, since Pope Pius XI was opposed to women having the right to vote.]
Friday, November 30, 2012
Senior U.S. military officers linked to Knights of Malta push for holy war, says Seymour Hersch
source: Foreign Policy, via Cryptogon:
“What I’m really talking about is how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over,” he said of his forthcoming book. “It’s not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it — how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced.”
Hersh then brought up the widespread looting that took place in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. “In the Cheney shop, the attitude was, ‘What’s this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they’re all worried about some looting? … Don’t they get it? We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody’s gonna give a damn.’”
“That’s the attitude,” he continued. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command.”
He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.” Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic organization committed to “defence of the Faith and assistance to the poor and the suffering,” according to its website.
“Many of them are members of Opus Dei,” Hersh continued. “They do see what they’re doing — and this is not an atypical attitude among some military — it’s a crusade, literally. They seem themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”
“They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins,” he continued. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.”
“What I’m really talking about is how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over,” he said of his forthcoming book. “It’s not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it — how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced.”
Hersh then brought up the widespread looting that took place in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. “In the Cheney shop, the attitude was, ‘What’s this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they’re all worried about some looting? … Don’t they get it? We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody’s gonna give a damn.’”
“That’s the attitude,” he continued. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command.”
He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.” Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic organization committed to “defence of the Faith and assistance to the poor and the suffering,” according to its website.
“Many of them are members of Opus Dei,” Hersh continued. “They do see what they’re doing — and this is not an atypical attitude among some military — it’s a crusade, literally. They seem themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”
“They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins,” he continued. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.”
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Pope's butler discovered documents on occultism, Freemasonry
via New York Post:
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict's former butler stole highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked "to be destroyed" and compromised Vatican security through his actions, the Holy See's police told his trial on Wednesday..."You can understand our unease when we saw these documents. This was a total violation of the privacy of the papal family," said police agent Stefano De Santis, one of the four agents who said they found the papers in Gabriele's home, using a Vatican term for the pope's closest aides...The mass of incriminating documents, most of which were hidden in huge piles of papers stashed in a large wardrobe, included personal letters between the pope, cardinals and politicians on a variety of subjects.
Some papers, De Santis said, bore the pope's handwriting and had been marked "to be destroyed" by the pontiff in German. He did not say what those papers concerned.
Some of the documents were copies of encrypted documents. "One photocopy was enough to threaten the operations of the Holy See," De Santis told the court, without elaborating. The agents said they found a mass of documents and books filled with newspaper clippings on the occult, secret services, Masonic lodges, yoga, political scandals in Italy, scandals involving the Vatican bank and other subjects...Bishop Francesco Cavina, who knew Gabriele in the Vatican, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Wednesday that the butler, a father-of-three, may have a "disturbed mind" and "a split personality".
Two of the four policemen who testified on Wednesday also rejected Gabriele's accusations, made on Tuesday, that he was mistreated for several weeks after his arrest...Gabriele told the court's previous hearing that for up to 20 days he was held in a room so small he could not stretch out his arms and that the light was left on 24 hours a day, causing him eye damage....The letters to the pope included one in which a senior Vatican functionary expressed concern about corruption in the Holy See's business dealings with Italian companies.
The letter-writer, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, was posted to Washington after raising the issue, despite begging to be allowed to stay at the papal state. more...
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict's former butler stole highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked "to be destroyed" and compromised Vatican security through his actions, the Holy See's police told his trial on Wednesday..."You can understand our unease when we saw these documents. This was a total violation of the privacy of the papal family," said police agent Stefano De Santis, one of the four agents who said they found the papers in Gabriele's home, using a Vatican term for the pope's closest aides...The mass of incriminating documents, most of which were hidden in huge piles of papers stashed in a large wardrobe, included personal letters between the pope, cardinals and politicians on a variety of subjects.
Some papers, De Santis said, bore the pope's handwriting and had been marked "to be destroyed" by the pontiff in German. He did not say what those papers concerned.
Some of the documents were copies of encrypted documents. "One photocopy was enough to threaten the operations of the Holy See," De Santis told the court, without elaborating. The agents said they found a mass of documents and books filled with newspaper clippings on the occult, secret services, Masonic lodges, yoga, political scandals in Italy, scandals involving the Vatican bank and other subjects...Bishop Francesco Cavina, who knew Gabriele in the Vatican, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Wednesday that the butler, a father-of-three, may have a "disturbed mind" and "a split personality".
Two of the four policemen who testified on Wednesday also rejected Gabriele's accusations, made on Tuesday, that he was mistreated for several weeks after his arrest...Gabriele told the court's previous hearing that for up to 20 days he was held in a room so small he could not stretch out his arms and that the light was left on 24 hours a day, causing him eye damage....The letters to the pope included one in which a senior Vatican functionary expressed concern about corruption in the Holy See's business dealings with Italian companies.
The letter-writer, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, was posted to Washington after raising the issue, despite begging to be allowed to stay at the papal state. more...
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Missing girl 'buried in murdered mobster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties', claims Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest
via Daily Mail...
The Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest has sensationally claimed a missing schoolgirl thought to be buried in a murdered gangster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties.
Father Gabriel Amorth, 85, who has carried out 70,000 exorcisms, spoke out as investigators continued to examine mobster Enrico De Pedis's tomb in their hunt for Emanuela Orlandi. Last week police and forensic experts broke into the grave after an anonymous phone call to a TV show said the truth about Emanuela's 1983 disappearance would be 'found there'. And although bones not belonging to the mobster were recovered they have not yet been positively identified as hers.
However Father Amorth, in an interview with La Stampa newspaper, said: 'This was a crime with a sexual motive. It has already previously been stated by (deceased) monsignor Simeone Duca, an archivist at the Vatican, who was asked to recruit girls for parties with the help of the Vatican gendarmes. I believe Emanuela ended up in this circle. I have never believed in the international theory (overseas kidnappers). I have motives to believe that this was just a case of sexual exploitation. It led to the murder and then the hiding of her body. Also involved are diplomatic staff from a foreign embassy to the Holy See.'...Charismatic mobster De Pedis, leader of a murderous gang known as the Banda della Magliana, was gunned down aged just 38, by members of his outfit after they fell out.
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, 15, in 1983, believe De Pedis is linked to her kidnap and the body of the Vatican employee's daughter has never been found. Last month the diocese of Rome, on orders from the Vatican, granted investigators permission to open up the tomb in the Sant'Apollinare basilica close to Piazza Navona in the centre of Rome. At the time of his funeral there were raised eyebrows when despite his criminal past church chiefs allowed De Pedis to be buried in the crypt of Sant'Apollinare...De Pedis, whose name on the £12,000 tomb is spelt in diamonds, was buried in Sant'Apollinare church after he was gunned down in 1990 in the city's famous Campo De Fiori. He and his gang controlled the lucrative drug market in Rome and were also rumoured to have a 'free hand' because of their links with police and Italian secret service agents.
Twelve years ago a skull was found in the confessional box of a Rome church and tests were carried out on it to see if it was Orlandi after a mystery tip off but they proved negative.
In 2008 Sabrina Minardi, De Pedis girlfriend at the time of Orlandi's disappearance, sensationally claimed that now dead American monsignor Paul Marcinkus, the controversial chief of the Vatican bank, was behind the kidnap. Monsignor Marcinkus used his status to avoid being questioned by police in the early 1980's probing the collapse of a Banco Ambrosiano which the Vatican had invested heavily in.
The collapse was linked to the murder of Roberto Calvi dubbed God's Banker because of the Vatican links and his body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982. His pockets filled with cash and stones and it was originally recorded as a suicide but police believe he was murdered by the Mafia after a bungled money laundering operation.
more...
The Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest has sensationally claimed a missing schoolgirl thought to be buried in a murdered gangster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties.
Father Gabriel Amorth, 85, who has carried out 70,000 exorcisms, spoke out as investigators continued to examine mobster Enrico De Pedis's tomb in their hunt for Emanuela Orlandi. Last week police and forensic experts broke into the grave after an anonymous phone call to a TV show said the truth about Emanuela's 1983 disappearance would be 'found there'. And although bones not belonging to the mobster were recovered they have not yet been positively identified as hers.
However Father Amorth, in an interview with La Stampa newspaper, said: 'This was a crime with a sexual motive. It has already previously been stated by (deceased) monsignor Simeone Duca, an archivist at the Vatican, who was asked to recruit girls for parties with the help of the Vatican gendarmes. I believe Emanuela ended up in this circle. I have never believed in the international theory (overseas kidnappers). I have motives to believe that this was just a case of sexual exploitation. It led to the murder and then the hiding of her body. Also involved are diplomatic staff from a foreign embassy to the Holy See.'...Charismatic mobster De Pedis, leader of a murderous gang known as the Banda della Magliana, was gunned down aged just 38, by members of his outfit after they fell out.
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, 15, in 1983, believe De Pedis is linked to her kidnap and the body of the Vatican employee's daughter has never been found. Last month the diocese of Rome, on orders from the Vatican, granted investigators permission to open up the tomb in the Sant'Apollinare basilica close to Piazza Navona in the centre of Rome. At the time of his funeral there were raised eyebrows when despite his criminal past church chiefs allowed De Pedis to be buried in the crypt of Sant'Apollinare...De Pedis, whose name on the £12,000 tomb is spelt in diamonds, was buried in Sant'Apollinare church after he was gunned down in 1990 in the city's famous Campo De Fiori. He and his gang controlled the lucrative drug market in Rome and were also rumoured to have a 'free hand' because of their links with police and Italian secret service agents.
Twelve years ago a skull was found in the confessional box of a Rome church and tests were carried out on it to see if it was Orlandi after a mystery tip off but they proved negative.
In 2008 Sabrina Minardi, De Pedis girlfriend at the time of Orlandi's disappearance, sensationally claimed that now dead American monsignor Paul Marcinkus, the controversial chief of the Vatican bank, was behind the kidnap. Monsignor Marcinkus used his status to avoid being questioned by police in the early 1980's probing the collapse of a Banco Ambrosiano which the Vatican had invested heavily in.
The collapse was linked to the murder of Roberto Calvi dubbed God's Banker because of the Vatican links and his body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982. His pockets filled with cash and stones and it was originally recorded as a suicide but police believe he was murdered by the Mafia after a bungled money laundering operation.
more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)