Saturday, May 28, 2005
EMAIL FROM LEE PENN
FYI
This Jason Berry story, published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 10, during the interregnum, corroborates John Allen's recent analysis of the tug-of-war within the Vatican on whether to investigate and try Maciel. It does appear that Sodano and his staff are on the side of the Legionaries, and they have made their influence felt this week. And Berry got the essence of the story more than a month ago.
Click here: Next pope must forthrightly confront church sex scandal / Bishops with a history of sheltering priests who moleste
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/10/ING0UC4KOM1.DTL
The whole story is below: I have added some bolding for emphasis.
Lee
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In the interests of not violating copyright laws, I have not copied the whole story. It can be read at the link. The passages Lee highlighted are the following.
Carrie
But a clergy "sexual underground" -- a term coined by Barry Coldrey, an Australian member of the Irish Christian Brothers -- has rocked the church not just in the United States but in many countries. ...
In 1994, Brother Coldrey spent six weeks in Rome doing research at his order's archives for an internal report, which found its way to the media. Ten percent of the Irish Christian Brothers members -- a huge percentage -- had sexually assaulted youths, he wrote, and hid "within a sympathetic underworld of other clergy and church workers who are merely breaking their vows by having heterosexual or gay sex with consenting adults."
Pope John Paul II's first extensive briefing on the issue came in March 1993 by bishops and cardinals from several countries, just as the archbishop of Santa Fe, N.M., Robert Sanchez, resigned because of a "60 Minutes" report of his abuse of teenage girls. John Paul called for prayers for Sanchez, expressed concern for those harmed, and scored the media for sensationalism. ...
A champion of human rights to people under dictatorships, he chose as secretary of state Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a former papal ambassador to Chile who befriended the sadistic dictator Augusto Pinochet and tried to intervene on Pinochet's behalf when he was under house arrest in London, facing indictment by a Spanish court. Several weeks ago, when Sodano met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he asked her to help defuse a class- action sex-abuse lawsuit against the Vatican by a Kentucky lawyer, something over which she had no control.
Within the Roman Curia, Sodano is a powerful supporter of another man who stands today as perhaps the most notorious priest in Rome: Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican who founded a religious order called the Legion of Christ. In documents sent by a Long Island bishop to the Vatican in 1976 and 1978, Juan Vaca and Felix Alarcon -- who had left the legion but remained priests -- accused Maciel of sexually assaulting about 20 seminarians. ...
John Paul never acknowledged the allegations. He praised Maciel in Mexico City as an "efficacious guide to youth" in 1994 and for his "integral promotion of the person" in a November 2004 ceremony at the Vatican. ...
In a split at the highest levels of the Vatican, as Sodano heaped praise on Maciel, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the chief theologian, reopened the dormant canonical investigation just before John Paul died.
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A few thoughts of my own
- Benedict kept Sodano.
- Will Benedict defer to Sodano in this instance, and if so, why, when it will be a polar opposite from his position at the CDF?
- If he does defer to Sodano, does that indicate a real "power behind the throne", which would mean that the apparent leader in the Vatican has become a puppet?
Carrie
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Friday, May 27, 2005
VIAGRA USERS GOING BLIND
Channel 4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul reports:
Federal health investigators are looking into reports that some men who used Viagra may have suffered a new and very serious side effect -- blindness.
Twenty-three million men worldwide have used Viagra. A very small number of them are going blind after taking normal doses. And CBS News has learned from the FDA that it is urgently meeting about it with experts and Pfizer.
Blogger credit to Crux News
IF YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING THE MACIEL STORY
John Allen has a balanced evaluation of the events to date, which boil down to "the story isn't over yet."
COULD THE EU FAIL ?
Tom Hundley of the Chicago Tribune reports:
Such are the depths of Francois Vincent's disdain for the new European constitution that he recently uttered words that have not passed the lips of many Frenchmen.
"I would rather be an American than a European," said Vincent, 63, who owns a vegetable stall in one of Paris' open-air markets. "At least Americans love their country."
Like many Frenchmen who plan to vote "no" in this Sunday's referendum, he is worried that the new European constitution will rob France of some vital piece of its national soul.
Didier Vernet, 53, a stallholder in the same market on Boulevard Raspail, thinks that's nuts.
"Do you think the French will be stupid enough to vote `no'?" he said with a disdain to match Vincent's. "That would really be going backwards."
The French referendum Sunday and another one three days later in the Netherlands have unexpectedly turned into a crisis for the architects of the European Union. Voters in both countries appear ready to ignore the pleadings of their elected leaders and reject the turgid 448-article draft that is supposed to serve as a constitution for the EU's 25 member states.
That soul in danger of being lost is Catholic.
SCIENTOLOGY AND CATHOLICISM DIDN'T MIX
LOS ANGELES: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman didn't consider marriage counselling to save their relationship because beliefs in his controversial religion, Scientology, forbids such forms of "psychiatry". ...
Meanwhile, the star used the interview on the show to praise his Catholic ex-wife for allowing him to follow Scientology, and letting their adopted kids join the church, even though she never became a member herself.
What was she thinking?
It's really no surprise that these two couldn't make a marriage work with this sort of religious diversity. Apparently Cruise believes promiscuity is a part of marriage. The two belief systems are hardly compatible!
CONTEXT ANYONE ?
A EU Press Release:
SARAJEVO, May 27 (FENA) - European Union is providing support aimed at establishing human resource capability within the BiH Government to influence and implement soundly based BiH Government policies and strategies towards integration with Europe and the development of the BiH economy. The objective of the project is to educate and train selected BiH nationals and to develop and strengthen their knowledge and personal capabilities in order to be effective actors within the BiH Government on issues related to European integration and economic development.
The contract worth 391,000.00 Euro was signed with consortium of 3 universities: 1. Centre for International Development - University of Bologna (Italy) - leading consortium member; 2. EHSAL - European University College Brussels (Belgium) 3. Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) on 30 April 2005. Project started on 12 May and is planned to last 30 months (covering two academic years 2005-06; 2006-07).
The recipient group of the "Educational Support Scheme" project consists of a number of BiH Nationals (university graduates) who will work within the State Institutions, or within Governments of Republic of Srpska, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and District Brcko. The beneficiaries of the project shall include those institutions to which the graduates are assigned to work following their completion of studies.
1) 15 Selected BiH Nationals have attended and completed a Masters level [or equivalent] academic study programme organised by the Contractor during academic years 2005/6/7. The Masters course compulsory topics and related optional topics shall be such that the Degree obtained majors in either 1) ECONOMIC AND FISCAL POLICY and related issues pertinent to transition economies and in a European context, and 2) EUROPEAN INTEGRATION and related issues pertinent to the range of requirements [treaty, legal and other] to be met for integration with and accession to Europe, 3) EUROPEAN LAW and related issues pertinent to the range of requirements to be met for integration with and accession to Europe and importantly including the EC Acquis Communitaire.
2) 30 selected BiH Nationals have attended and completed a short and intensive academic study programmes tailored by the Contractor to suit the needs of BiH during 2005 and 2006.
Both Master study programmes and short intensive course will take place in Italy or Belgium and will be provided in English language.
The Contractor shall make the necessary travel and accommodation arrangements for the students. The Contractor shall provide as a minimum for all tuition and course materials, full board accommodation, internet communications, medical insurance, and travel costs.
The Contractor will conduct the Selection of candidates for Master study together with the BiH State Civil Service Agency end June 2005 in Sarajevo.
The public will be informed timely about the programme requirements.
(Fena) jc
Since a Catholic university is involved, is there Vatican cash behind this scheme?
Thursday, May 26, 2005
ALEX GREY'S CHAPEL OF SACRED MIRRORS
website links page has some interesting links, including the Global Dialogue Institute founded by Catholic Professor Leonard Swidler who also founded the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, Episcopal Bishop William Swing's United Religions Initiative, The Theosophical Society, the Earth Charter Initiative, and more. I guess Alex Grey is in the loop of the folks promoting a one world religion.
CHURCH DESECRATION
in the UK:
BLACK magic rituals or anti-Christian vandalism may lie behind the desecration of statues at a Roman Catholic church being investigated by police.
The Church of the Five Precious Wounds in Stonebridge, has been the target for at least four separate attacks this year in which images of Christ, Mary and John the Blessed were defiled. In most of the attacks black paint was poured over the statuettes, which were kept behind a grille in an alcove outside the church on Brentfield Road.
Blogger credit to Spirit Daily.
ALEX GREY
Yesterday in a comments box on the Satanic Ritual Abuse post, pml made the following observation:
This article brought to mind another "pentagram" scene from this website:
http://www.alexgrey.com/
Go to the "archives" [see left panel on home pg], at "archives" click on TOOL [right of page], go to #20 and click. AHH, what do you see? Yes, the "tools" used in his trade!
A close artist friend of Episcopalian Priest Matt Fox. Go to Matt Fox's video of his Techno Cosmic Mass and what do you see crawling around? Yep, Snake.
And, Master Grey, has open his own CHAPEL of MIRRORS too.
I thought it would be easier to respond here than in the comments box. Blogmeister’s privilege. :)
The group meditating with the pentagram looks quite similar to the description of the “Emissaries of Light” meditating around their emissary wheel in a “monastery” in Bosnia, as described by James Twyman in his book Emissary of Light. In Twyman’s group there were 12 meditators plus the Teacher who made 13. (p. 79-80)
Like the James Twyman/Stephen Simon's Spiritual Cinema Circle, Grey has started his own visionary cinema, showing with "Jacob's Ladder." You can also see the cinema advertised on the CoSM events calendar. Stephen Simon's Spiritual Cinema also will screen "Jacob's Ladder" during their Festival-At-Sea.
Grey has a magazine, “CoSM”. Matthew Fox's article appeared in Volume 1. Fox is also on the Board of Advisors of CoSM, as is Ken Wilber, Depak Chopra, and Jean Houston. You will find Ken Wilber cited repeatedly in this National Catholic School of Social Services website of the Center for Spirituality & Integral Social Work.
Keith Critchlow's article appears in Volume 2. Critchlow is a member of Lindisfarne Associates. Lindisfarne is the work of William Irwin Thompson, and was started at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York. This is the Gaia worship group.
The second issue of CoSM also features an article on Damanhur. If you want to get the sense of something not of the heavenly world interacting with humanity, look into the history of Damanhur.
Alex Grey is working with the rock group Tool, doing the artwork for their CDs.
Paul Carlucci gives a hint of what Tool is about in this description of Black Metal Music from his article “Into the Black” at the Eye Weekly website:
There's always been a lot of extreme shit floating out there in the contemporary ether. Ozzy beheading doves with his yellowed teeth. Alice Cooper mutilating fake babies. GG Allin shoving various objects up his ass. Marilyn Manson immolating bibles on stage. Tool and their stop-motion child molestation videos. The horizons of shock are now so familiar that their crimson sunsets seldom raise an eyebrow. We think we've seen it all.
In his book Lucifer Rising: sin, devil worship & rock ‘n’ roll Gavin Baddeley writes:
In Russia, during early 1997, an anti-personnel mine was defused in beautiful Elokhovsk Cathedral just as Christmas service was about to be addressed on the iniquities of local youth. The following day, a tabloid newspaper identified those responsible as ‘the Black Metal Brotherhood…the most powerful grouping of Satanists in Russia today. At present the Russian branch of the Brotherhood contains nearly 200 members.’ A spate of arson attacks, vandalism and explosions was directed at Russian churches and synagogues…’(p. 198)
With that quote in mind, take a look at this piece of Alex Grey’s artwork.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
IT MUST BE BAD TO BE ON 60 MINUTES
Whatever BishopAccountability.org has, it must be shocking. I've just received this email from Lee:
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Malachi Martin, call your office!
Lee
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Murder, Sex Ring, Destroyed Files: Allegations in Springfield MA Diocese
May 25, 2005
Dear Friend,
At 8PM tonight, CBS-TV's "60 Minutes Wednesday" will examine a former priest's role in the murder of an altar boy in the diocese of Springfield MA.
The Springfield situation is especially sordid. Allegedly, some of the diocese's highest-ranking officials not only tolerated child molestation by priests but were guilty of it themselves. BishopAccountability.org has just posted a special section of formerly sealed Springfield documents as well as news articles. To view them, click here.
In this Monitor:
Murder of an altar boy
Alleged sex ring included Springfield priests and diocesan officials
Reports of destroyed abuse files
Brave acts by victims and a lone priest
Why do law enforcement officials believe that ex-priest Richard Lavigne murdered 13-year-old Danny Croteau? To read a gripping narrative, click here.
Were Lavigne and other Springfield priests involved in a child abuse sex ring? A professional investigator believes they were. To read more, click here.
Corruption at the top: High-ranking church officials in Springfield, including former Bishops Dupre and Weldon, have been accused of molesting minors. Read this informative article.
Did diocesan leaders destroy files? Yes, according to whistleblower priest James Scahill. In the winter of 2002, Scahill heard former Bishop Dupre say that the Boston church scandal wouldn't happen in Springfield because former Bishop Weldon had destroyed incriminating files. To learn more, click here.
Virtue before obedience: Father James Scahill apparently is the only priest in the country who has withheld, as an act of conscience, his parish's mandatory 6% financial contribution to the diocese. To read more about this unusual priest, click here.
None of the corruption in Springfield would have been exposed if victims hadn't come forward. The damage done to a child when she or he is used to gratify the sexual appetite of a trusted priest is staggering -- as is the strength one must draw on to come public to cite the abuse and name the abuser.
To read the story of how a Lavigne victim found the courage to speak out, click here.
Announcement: Posting of once-sealed Springfield files: In coming weeks, keep checking our new Springfield section.
Today, BishopAccountability.org posted files from the Danny Croteau murder investigation. You'll also find firsthand accounts by Lavigne's victims -- nearly unbearable to read but important to preserve. To read them, click her e.
This collection marks the beginning of our Springfield MA diocesan abuse archive. BishopAccountability.org is obtaining thousands of pages of priest personnel files from the Springfield church archive, showing how the various bishops handled abusers. We'll be putting them online as soon as we can.
BishopAccountability.org will be the only place on the Internet where you can view this crucial Springfield archive. Thanks for your support.
Sincerely,
Paul Baier
BishopAccountability.org
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email: staff@bishop-accountability.org
phone: 781 910 5467
web: http://www.bishopaccountability.org
TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT MATT C. ABBOTT
has turned up in the Archdiocese of Miami...The Archdiocese is being sued and the Plaintiff's Verified Complaint is posted. This concerns another whistleblower priest.
Blogger credit to Spirit Daily.
BOSTON GLOBE COLUMNIST JAMES CARROLL
offers some negative views on the exclusivist belief of Catholicism:
Pope Benedict XVI would never countenance the physical denigration of the Koran or the harassment of Jews for being Christ-killers, but his warnings about the ''dictatorship of relativism," and his robust assertions of Vatican-centered Catholicism's exclusive possession of the fullness of truth are signs of changing weather.
The election as pope of such a figure has dark significance for the future of Catholic liberalism, but it may go far beyond the boundaries of the church, pointing to the arrival of a global cold front, the coming of a new climate of radical intolerance.
Is doubt part and parcel of rational inquiry, or not? Is ambiguity essential to human knowing, or not? If the ground on which one stands while thinking, and the time within which one pursues a thought to its conclusion are both in flux, as suggested by the insights of Albert Einstein, why is ''relativity" to be taken as wicked?...
Thinking of Christianity in particular, one must ask a hard question of those who reassert the triumphalist claims of the past: Do you not know the history of such absolutism? How theological denigration of others so often led to bloodshed? How, in particular, those labeled ''Christ-killers" were themselves killed? How the religion of Muslims was itself understood as a capital crime? How the very idea of democratic liberalism was forged in the crucible of religious wars, Christians slaughtering each other in good conscience for the sake of the ''one way" of Jesus Christ?
In the era of global warming, the link between human assumptions and climate is clear. The threat to the Earth of unintended climate change is a metaphor for the less tangible but equally grave threat arising from reasserted assumptions of religious superiority, polluting the human climate with intolerance, perhaps spawning winds of violence.
SATANIC PEDOPHILE RING
discovered in Columbus, Ohio, with connections to New Orleans, according to this article sent in by a reader.
UPDATE
If you go to this website and click the "storage search" report, you can hear more on the story. (You may have to click the "back" or "more" arrows to get it.)
MORE ON THE STORY
An MSNBC story from New Orleans:
"One time, I had to return something to (Lamonica)," Norman said. "I walked up to the door and heard his wife screaming. She was a Eucharistic minister, too, and I heard her say, 'I'm going to whip the sins right out of this guy.' She was screaming at the top of her lungs. Man, I turned right back around. I had goose pimples. I told my wife they're doing an exorcism. It was like 'Poltergeist' or something."
Another story on this ring from the Associated Press includes this comment:
Reed said Hosanna Church was founded by Lamonica's father, who died years ago, and was once affiliated with the Assemblies of God. Authorities suspect the alleged abuse began after the younger Lamonica took over the church, it left the Assemblies of God and a large number of its members left, Reed said.
This story comes from rickross.com:
According to Carpenter, Lamonica described how he had sex with some children, and then taught them to have sex with each other and an animal.
“That’s what he told detectives,” said Carpenter. “He said he was educating the children in sexual exploits and how to have sex. We didn’t know how to take it the man just came in off the street.”
The New York Times Institute reports:
NEW ORLEANS – “There were ritualistic acts that were going on. There were pentagrams drawn, and the children would be placed inside the pentagram,” Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards said of an alleged child-sex-abuse ring at the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula….
Normand said the children of the church were rarely seen, but he recalled Lamonica requesting the use of the creek on Normand’s side of the property.
“They wanted to baptize children in that creek,” Normand said. “I told them there was mercury in that creek. It’s poisonous!”
Normand said the church ignored his warnings and trespassed on his property to get to the creek.
“Some of the members we spoke to indicated that some of these people were devil worshippers,” Edwards said of the church’s activities. “I can’t say all of them were. I just can’t say at this time.”
EMAIL FROM DR. BOND
Dear Friends,
As you can see from the article linked below from today's Times Leader, the relationship between the SSJ and their bishop, Joseph Martino, is not a happy one.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/11722654.htm
It is now perfectly clear to whom the SSJ was referring in their press release when they wrote:
"The Society regrets vividly the unfairness and even the injustices committed against its institution and its members, especially by those whose office it is to be ministers of truth and mercy in this world."
Please allow me to translate: the SSJ no longer has a bishop who will protect their perversions.
Pax vobiscum,
Dr. Jeffrey M. Bond
HE SUMS IT UP
A blogger named Akron Al has posted his thoughts at Free Republic, and the link was sent in by a reader.
Akron Al has a new blog called "Bishop Pilla Please Resign" where the same comments are posted.
He sums up what it's like to be in the Cleveland Diocese observing the goings-on in Rome. And he sums up my feelings accurately. We have no hope in Levada. We had doctrinal confession in Ratzinger, but we had no enforcement. Actions speak louder than words.
The time is running out for the hierarchy of the Church. If destruction of the Church is their intent--and more and more I'm convinced that it is--they have just about completed their mission.
What spirit of madness has been unleashed in the Catholic world?
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
THE CONFESSIONAL STATE
The discussion is getting buried down below, so I'm moving it up here for convenience.
SF DEACON THREATENED
From ABC7 News:
Archbishop Levada, an auxiliary bishop and a pastor. Now police have found guns in his parish apartment. A restraining order has been issued.
Blogger credit to Spirit Daily.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM
as envisioned by Christian Libertarians, is explained in this essay by Dr. Bruce Prescott, Interfaith Alliance forum on Religious Extremism, which was sent in by a reader.
For some reason this essay brought Tracy Twyman and the Desposyni to mind. I don't know why.
OAKLAND CATHEDRAL
Spirit Daily links Michael Rose's website pictures on a design for the Oakland cathedral, asking "Wouldn't this have been better?"
Well, it depends. If you want to portray a Catholic symbolism, it certainly would have been better. Much better. But what if you want to portray a different symbolism--a symbolism that conveys the tenets of a religion that is not Catholic? What would you do then? I guess you would think that this design is better and opt to build it.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
REGAIN STATEMENT ON THE MACIEL CONTROVERSY
"That communiqué does NOT belong to the Holy See; it is a communiqué from the Legionaries of Christ. They called me, the same as you are calling me, and they asked me if there is any communiqué about the investigation, or about a possible investigation, into Fr. Maciel. I told them that the Press Office had not received any communiqué about whether there is, was or will be any such investigation; that this issue does not concern the Press Office but directly concerns Monsignor Scicluna [the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s Promoter of Justice]."
I repeatedly asked him whether or not the communiqué was from the Vatican Press Office, and he emphasized on more than three occasions that it was NOT; that the communiqué comes from the Legionaries and that the only thing that he had done was to point out that the Press Office has no news about said investigation.
Go to the website to read the rest.
Blogger credit to Crux News.
CATHOLIC TO THE CORE
In the midst of all the bad news about being Catholic comes this commentary by Chicago Tribune correspondent Charlie Madigan. (Scroll down to April 20, "Does the Pope Matter?"):
I recall a funeral I attended years and years ago at St. Ben's in Chicago. An old Irish guy had died and I was asked to sing. I was flattered. I got there early. There were a dozen women in the church praying the rosary in hopes that God would bring an end to Communism and its oppression of religion.
I have never been able to get the image of those women out of my head. It's burned in there, and what it tells me is that at the center of this huge church -- with all of its broadly discussed problems, weaknesses, even its sins -- sit the many believers.
Through disappointment, through scandal, through the discomforts of changing liturgy, though the disappearance of parish priests, the transformation of nuns and everything else, the Catholic Church still has a core of believers bigger than anyone can count. Bigger than anyone can imagine.
Yeah, I guess this is why I'm still Catholic in spite of everything. It's sort of in the genes.
CRIPE
SNAP reports:
"This transparent whitewash aborts the church's legal system to the benefit of a notorious pedophile and the harm of brave, persistent victims. Pope Benedict has forfeited all credibility on the single most serious crisis in the church.
This is a horrible betrayal by the highest echelon of the Catholic hierarchy. We grieve for these courageous victims, and ache because their suffering has been compounded time and time again. Their quest for justice and truth has been rewarded with Vatican disdain.
It borders on cruelty to inexplicably close, re-open years later, then suddenly and inexplicably close this Vatican sex abuse investigation again, while issuing no findings, taking no action. It rubs salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of Maciel's victims.
It is also grossly insensitive to force these brave men to learn through the news media that they've again been rejected.
One cannot help but wonder if Ratzinger shrewdly manipulated Maciel's victims as pawns in the papal succession struggle. For years, Ratzinger ignored and rebuffed these victims. Suddenly, as the papal election neared, he reversed course.
Has Rome really reached this state of deceit? God help us, it seems plausible.
The New York Times reported the same thing, but they are basing this conclusion on what appears to be incorrect information according to Dom:
A couple of interesting points. Fr. Benedettini is alleged to have said that he did not say that there is no canonical process underway, but only that the Vatican Press Office has no knowledge of such a process. And he is alleged to have acknowledged that anyone who reveals that such an investigation is underway is excommunicated “latae sententiae” and thus he could speak authoritatively one way or another.
Amy has a more in-depth look at the confusion and has opened this to comments.
The charges Berry and Renner make are substantial enough to require an investigation. Sandro Magister raised additional questions and hints that there are more victims. If the Vatican drops this, how is one supposed to trust this Pope, especially on top of the appointment of Levada?
Too often I'm getting the urge to run...to get away from something this deceptive. Is there war in Rome in the very hallowed halls of Catholicism? It certainly looks as though there is, and it's impossible to distinguish those serving Christ from those serving their own agenda.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
LOOK AT THIS...!
Disneyland unveils the newest death-defying rolle....ah, no wait....this is the architect's rendering of the new Oakland cathedral.
John King, offers his commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle:
Imagine a woven wooden basket that's 120 feet high, broad at the base and curving gently inward as it rises.
Now imagine that basket wrapped in opaque glass. In daylight the glass is a veil, shrouding what's within; but at night, light seeps out through the basket and the veil, glowing for all to see.
That's the ethereal promise of the design for Oakland's Christ the Light Cathedral, which marked its ceremonial groundbreaking Saturday. For today's Bay Area, it's a uniquely adventurous work of architecture -- and the only high-profile one that isn't by a globe-trotting celebrity architect.
Do you like it? If not, chances are this is what's wrong. Sara Garlick, on the Bryn Mawr website offers an opinion of the architectural firm that has done the designs for the Oakland cathedral:
Despite attempts by some to create links between the modernist architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the classical tradition, it represents a clear departure from previous architectural traditions....Modernism created a break with prior architectural tradition and was therefore successful in creating forms that were anti-historical, but despite their attempts the creation of "obscelesense-proof", a-historical architecture is impossible.
Other failures of modernist architecture are apparent. Though firms such as Skidmore Owings & Merrill did not seem to intend to move beyond the realm of corporate architecture, the critics of modern form have recognized it not only as a failure, but as detrimental to society as a whole. To the extent that their forms, and those of modernism on the whole were imposed upon their environments, and adopted both as a universal corporate form and later as a form of private housing (including government subsidized housing), this phase in American architecture has been seen as harmfully generic and arrogant.
A break with past architectural tradition is not the only thing represented here in this architecture. It is also a break with Catholic Tradition that is represented. This "Light of Christ" is a new religion being thrust upon Catholics with their own money used to fund it. That is not Catholicism. It is Theosophy. Don't underestimate the power of the non-verbal message. Architecture is symbolical as is religion, and the symbolism of the new Oakland Cathedral is not the symbolism of the faith. This is a new faith being ushered in.
Michael Rose calls this cthedral "ugly as sin" on the Crux News website.
John King indicates in his article that "local talent" was chosen. The original architect, Santiago Calatrava, parted company with the Diocese, and this local firm was chosen instead. King implies they were chosen at considerably less cost. The firm might be local, but their reputation is international. As Sara Garlick reports:
The modernist architecture represented by the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill--the first transnational architectural bureaucracy...was readily adopted by corporate America in the post-war period....The product of their demand was the development of what seems to be a universal corporate style, whose form came to exemplify the magnitude of American business.
She also places this style of architecture in the style of Mies van der Rohe. The Movements in Twentieth-Century Art Before World War II website places Frank Lloyd Wright in the De Stijl movement and notes that Wright was a theosophist, and that this movement influenced the Bauhaus, including Mies van der Rohe, which in turn influenced modern architecture.
This is delt with in more detail in Susan Henderson study "Architecture and Theosophy: An Introduction".
In conclusion I can only say let's hope that the new Oakland cathedral really is death-defying, even if it isn't located in Disneyland. Picture all that glass after the next earthquake, especially if it hits during Sunday Mass.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
DEVIL WORSHIPERS WANT RIGHTS
A reader sent in a link to this story yesterday. Today it's linked at Crux News.
If they get these rights, I wonder how it will impact the culture. If they do not get their rights, how will the failure impact the Christians living in Muslim controlled states?
SAY IT AIN'T SO...PLEASE !
From a story at NewsMax.com sent in by a reader:
a veteran U.S. diplomat told NewsMax regarding U.N. chief Kofi Annan's role in the ever-expanding Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal.
The diplomat, closely tied with the world body's most influential members, said pressure is building for Annan to resign. "It is possible that the secretary-general could, for the good of the organization, eventually offer his resignation," he told NewsMax's Stewart Stogel.
But who would replace Annan?
"Bill Clinton," the source said with a smile.
The U.S. official admitted that Bill Clinton as secretary-general, while still a long shot, is now being taken more seriously than in the past.
Monday, May 23, 2005
MY LATEST ARTICLE
is available from the Spiritual Counterfeits Project website. It's a co-authored article on Indigo Children and the Spiritual Cinema Circle.
IT’S SIMPLY ILLOGICAL
Once the Church makes a pronouncement on something, it cannot be changed.
That is the argument against women’s ordination. The same argument is presented at KLTV on the subject of birth control.
A blog reader sent in the following comments in email, and since they are my concerns as well, I’d like to bring them up:
The older papal statements about non-Catholic religions always made
clear the belief that these sects hold principles of faith and morals that
are in themselves false, harmful to the soul, and an impediment to one's
chances for salvation. This is what seems to me to have collapsed
completely in the modern papacy. The way I have put it before is that
the previous Pope, for example, was very stern about Catholics not doing or
believing certain things, but if an Anglican or a Muslim believed or
did them it was no big deal, and certainly no jeopardy to their salvation.
What we end up with then seemingly is two sets of morality, one for
Catholics and one for everyone else. The "Splendor of Truth" becomes
something that Catholics are required to bask in, and it may be
proposed to anyone else who cares to read the encyclical, but if you don't get
it fine. God won't really care. Any real urgency to conversion is thus
dissipated in my view.
“God won’t really care.” Yes, that is the message of the Assisi event. That is the message of inculturation at Mass. That is the message of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. With dialogue particularly, all religions have equal status at the dialogue table, as Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict has said.
Yet regular readers will remember that I’ve posted passages from encyclicals that present this concept of the exclusivity of the Catholic faith. What’s more, Dominus Iesus also makes the claim of exclusivism. This is what the Church has Traditionally taught. The operative word was “heresy” which seems to have been eliminated from the most recent revision of the Code of Canon Law.
Now we can dabble in other religious faiths and practices, and that is precisely what we are doing more and more of. Nuns tout Buddhist prayer and meditation. Hindus conduct their own service in the chapel at Fatima. People come to Mass in strange costumes representing the beliefs of other cultures. In short, we make nice everywhere we go, excluding no religion or religious practice as beyond the pale.
So, if we can break with our Tradition in this area that is so vital to the health of the faith, why do we have to retain the birth control encyclical as infallible and never to be changed? Why can’t women be ordained? If we break with the teaching of one encyclical, we can break with them all. None of them are sacred if some of them are not.
No one has a good explanation of this. As the reader quoted above indicated in email, when this is brought up there is a screaming silence all around. If this is beyond logic, why aren’t more people pointing that out?
MORE ON MACIEL
at Open Book, though Amy has not opened this up for comments.
and at Dom's blog where comments are being accepted.
EMAIL FROM DR. BOND
Dear Friends,
The Society of St. John has posted on its web site a "Press Release" and a "Letter to Benefactors" (www.ssjohn.org), both of which provide evidence that madness is not the cause of evil, but rather that evil is the cause of madness. Indeed, the SSJ has now reached a stage that can only be called delusional.
In their press release, the SSJ claims that the sale of their Shohola property "gives evidence to the Society's claim that their project is financially viable." Yes, you read that right. The SSJ is claiming their project is "viable."
Now, let us consider for a moment what the SSJ's project really is. The SSJ raised approximately 5.5 million dollars by telling donors they were building a Catholic city with a school system designed to cover the years from kindergarten through college. In 1999, the SSJ paid 2.9 million dollars for the Shohola property where this development project was to occur, and then, without a single building having been built, the SSJ sold this same property in 2005 for 3 million dollars. This adventure in real estate has now led the SSJ to boast as follows: "Even without the proposed development, the sale of their property has enabled the Society to pay in full the substantial mortgage attached to a large property." In other words, the SSJ's proof that their "project" is still financially viable is the fact that the SSJ bought a property it should have never bought, and then sold it six years later to pay off the mortgage. The press release neglects to mention that the SSJ thus wasted 5.5 million dollars of donors' money, and left in their wake thousands of disillusioned and broken-hearted Catholics, not to mention their victims of sexual abuse. Yet the SSJ claims their project--whatever it is--is still viable.
The press release then states that, along with this "blessing" (of having bought and sold a useless property?), the SSJ has participated in a settlement of a "civil case involving two of its priests." According to the press release, this settlement "has been forced upon the Society because of the extraordinarily expensive legal costs of legitimate defense in these cases and in no way implies confession of guilt on the part of the Society or its members." But why, we must ask, were the legal costs so high? Answer: the extraordinary costs were the direct result of the extraordinary legal efforts required to keep damaging evidence out of the courtroom, especially the psychosexual reports on Carlos Urrutigoity and Eric Ensey. If the SSJ had wished to avoid these costs, if the SSJ had really been eager to have its day in court (as they repeatedly claimed), the SSJ could have easily instructed their attorneys to stop using every possible legal delay, a process that led to over $200,000 in defense costs. Ensey's abuse of the federal bankruptcy court was a particularly shameless maneuver intended to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining access to his psychosexual report which, Bishop Timlin has acknowledged in a letter, reported that Ensey had a problem with pornography.
The SSJ's "Letter to Benefactors" exhibits a mindset even further deranged. This gem was authored by Fr. Dominic Carey who, back in February 2002, admitted that the SSJ priests shared their bed with boys. (See the affidavit of Diane Toler at http://www.saintjustinmartyr.org/news/TolerAffidavit.html.) Poor Fr. Carey was so brainwashed by Urrutigoity that Fr. Carey did not realize he was supposed to deny what the all the SSJ cult members knew to be true. Fr. Carey has since figured out that lying to those outside of the cult is a charitable act.
Fr. Carey begins his letter to benefactors by assuring them that God does indeed desire the work and mission of the Society of St. John. The proof is that the SSJ has "been given the green light to found a house in South America!" Fr. Carey does not tell the benefactors who has given the SSJ this "green light," but he asks for "offerings" (read: money) as "we now bring the liturgical and faith treasures of Catholic tradition to lands that are fast becoming the promise of the Church." Someone better warn parents in Argentina to keep their boys inside their homes.
Fr. Carey then states that the SSJ's property in Shohola was sold "at a significant profit, proving the value of the great investment you all have being [sic] making possible." Is the SSJ now transforming itself from a telemarketing debt-servicing corporation to a speculative real estate firm? Perhaps, but the important point of all of this, according to Fr. Carey, is that "there are many expenses for a new foundation and the maintenance of our chapel here in Shohola, where we still offer Mass and the sacraments according to the Old Rites of the Church thanks to the permission extended by Bishop Martino." Are we to believe, then, that Bishop Martino has lifted the decree suppressing the SSJ? The diocesan statement about the SSJ, entitled "No Society," does not support Fr. Carey's claim (http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/mainpage/index.htm), but when it comes to bishops and the sex abuse crisis in this country, we are ready to believe just about anything is possible.
Finally, Fr. Carey celebrates the "great joy of seen [sic] the end of useless litigation with regard to a draining civil suit." Fr. Carey reports that the SSJ was "at a loss as to where to find the million dollars necessary to bring our own defense to court." One would have thought the truth would have been sufficient, but for some reason Fr. Carey thinks a million dollars was required. We then learn, however, that the SSJ's decision to settle the sex abuse lawsuit was simply an act of charity on the SSJ's part, for "the civil case was going to prove quite inconclusive and expensive for all the parties concerned." Expensive, perhaps; inconclusive, no.
Noting that the SSJ had to fork out only $55,000, whereas the Diocese coughed up $200,000 and the Fraternity of St. Peter $125,000, Fr. Carey underlines how "little, although unjust" this settlement was. Fr. Carey then concludes with a humdinger: "The Society has always and still does maintain the innocence of the Diocese of Scranton, the Fraternity of St. Peter, St. Gregory's Academy, and its own, the true victims of interested propaganda and false allegations." Yes, folks, the true victims were not those groped and even sodomized by the priests of the SSJ, but the poor priests themselves.
We will keep you posted as we try to determine if there is any truth at all in the SSJ's latest work of fiction. Eventually it will all be sorted out through our lawsuits against the SSJ and the Diocese of Scranton. Suffice it to say there are more extraordinary costs ahead for the SSJ.
Pax vobiscum,
Dr. Jeffrey M. Bond
Sunday, May 22, 2005
EMAIL FROM LEE PENN - HIS BOOK IS OUT
Dear Carrie:
You wondered when the book was going to appear, and I can now tell you.
My new book, False Dawn (about the United Religions Initiative, the New Age movement, and globalism), is now in print and available for purchase. It is 508 pages long (including the bibliography and the index), and contains a great deal of new information and analysis that has not been published anywhere before.
The book is an extended challenge to those who would impose what the Pope has called a "dictatorship of relativism."
The book has a web site:
FalseDawn.us
http://www.falsedawn.us/
with excerpts from the book available for download or on-screen viewing, and an "order now" link to buy the book directly from the publisher, Sophia Perennis.
It would be most beneficial to the publisher (and to me) if you buy the book directly from the publisher, via this web site.
However, the book is also available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble; search those sites for the author "Lee Penn" and the title "False Dawn." Additionally, other sources of the book -- American, Canadian, and European -- can be found at the following link:
BookFinder.com: Search Results (Matching Books)
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?isbn=159731000X¤cy=USD&st=xl&ac=qr&src=dir
For Christ,
Lee
---------------------------------------------------------------
My goodness...from SDS to Byzantine!
I've just ordered the book from Barnes and Noble since they allow completion of the order by phone.
Before placing the order to Barnes, I did look at the Sophia Perennis website for an address to order from them, but couldn't find one. I'm still reluctant to transmit personal information via computer. Too much identity theft out there.
Carrie
LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER COVER-UP
From Spirit Daily - a letter from the Legionaries's Communictions Director for North America:
The Holy See has recently informed the Congregation of the Legionaries of
Christ that at this time there is no canonical process underway regarding
our Founder, Fr Marcial Maciel, LC, nor will one be initiated.
Fr Maciel has unambiguously affirmed his innocence. On April 22, 2002 he
made the following statement, "Before God and with total clarity of
conscience I can categorically state that the accusations brought against me
are false. I never engaged in the sort of repulsive behavior these men
accuse me of, and nothing could be further from my way of dealing with
others, as is evident to any of the thousands of Legionaries who know me."
Let me get this straight...According to Sandro Magister, there are new accusations:
During those same days, his promoter of justice, Scicluna, was leaving for America to investigate the accusations against Maciel. He arrived in New York on April 2, and interviewed not only Vaca, one of the eight who issued the canonical denunciation, but also another important former Legionary, Lennon, who confirmed the accusations of the former with his own testimony relating to more recent years. On the 4th Scicluna arrived in Mexico City, where he continued his interviews until April 10. He spent a total of twelve hours listening to the two formal issuers of the canonical denunciation, Jurado and Barba Martin. He also interviewed the rest of the eight, except for Fernando Pérez Olvera, who sent him a written account. But above all, he interviewed many new witnesses from Mexico, the United States, Ireland, and Spain, some of whom had been Legionaries until just a few years ago. They all added new accusations to the investigation, not only against Maciel, but also against younger leaders in the Legion, always for the same “filth.”Opposing that is Fr. Maciel's claim that he is innocent.
With Scicluna was a priest taking dictation. He kept a written transcript of each testimony, and at the end had this checked and approved by the witness. When the two returned to the Vatican in mid-April, they had on their agenda the names of twenty former Legionaries in Spain and Ireland who had asked to be interviewed. Scicluna might soon visit these two countries. In any case, he will as promoter of justice prepare a report with his concluding proposals at the end of his preliminary investigation. The Vatican authorities will decide on the basis of this whether or not to begin a real and proper canonical trial.
So all of these seminarians and former seminarians are lying, but Fr. Maciel is telling the truth. That would mean that this representative of the Legion is calling Jason Berry and Gerald Renner liars as well, because their book Vows of Silence leaves one with the very definite opinion that there has been abuse. And we know that all of these people are lying because a representative of the Legion says so.
The background to this claim is that the Church has been engaged monstrously in a cover-up.
Phuleeese--don't make me laugh. If you believe that Fr. Maciel is innocent and all of these other people are simply lying, maybe we could talk about the nice Terminal Tower I have for sale.
If this letter is correct and the Vatican has dropped the investigation, I can only conclude that they are trying to completely destroy any shred of credibility they have left!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
