Still Running Off at the Keyboard

EMAIL FROM DR. BOND

Dear Friends,

Many of you have probably already heard about the suppressed Society of St. John's latest initiative. Having been formally suppressed last May, the SSJ is now presenting itself as a "civil corporation" that is "following the Pope." Carlos Urrutigoity and Eric Ensey, both of whom were sued in federal court for homosexual molestation, are the first two pictured on the new SSJ web site (www.ssjohn.org). The others pictured there are Dominic Carey, Basel Sarweh, Anthony Myers, Kevin Lieberman, and Paul McCleary. All of these individuals were past members of the SSJ. Noticeably absent from the current list are two former priests of the SSJ, Daniel Fullerton and Dominic O'Connor.

We long ago exposed the SSJ as a homosexual cult. The overwhelming evidence of their sexual and financial misconduct is set forth at www.SaintJustinMartyr.org/news/notices.html. When Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton became convinced that Urrutigoity and Ensey were guilty as charged, he suppressed the SSJ. When the SSJ appealed the decision, the Vatican upheld the suppression. (For details see http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14665342&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6.) Since Bishop Martino has denied the SSJ priests' request to reestablish themselves in another diocese, it is clear that the SSJ is acting on its own authority. Urrutigoity and Ensey do not have permission to function as priests, yet both men are pictured celebrating Mass as if they are priests in good standing.

The SSJ's new web site gives Maple Hill, Kansas as their new location in the United States. They are asking for donations so that they can build a priory, chapel and classrooms in Paraguay. Having wasted over five million dollars of Catholic donations to build a "city on the hill" in Shohola, PA (where not one building was ever constructed), the SSJ is now ready to begin abusing Catholic families once again.

Please warn anyone you know who might be approached by the SSJ, especially those living in the Maple Hill area. In addition to the names given above, families should be forewarned about Joseph and Anthony Mioni who, I have been told, are living in the same area. These former employees of the SSJ, despite their knowledge of SSJ priests sharing their beds with young men, continued to support the SSJ. In fact, Anthony Mioni has founded a company (Sacros, formerly known as Patmos) that sells a missal for children that presents the perverts of the SSJ as model priests.

Pax vobiscum,

Dr. Jeffrey M. Bond

NEW BLOG - THE LE FLOCH REPORT

is dedicated to exposing the errors contained in Perennialism and the points where it deviates from Catholic social teaching.

ASSOCIATION FOR CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLORATION

or ACE, is the name of the organization that sponsors the Starwood Festivals and their winter variety of Pagan fest called WinterStar. At the website The Nation Paul Krassner has done a story on ACE titled "Life Among the Neo-Pagans". From the story:

The annual Starwood Festivals have been presented by the Cleveland-based Association for Consciousness Exploration, a group of about thirty friends, ACE's co-directors, Jeff Rosenbaum and Joe Rothenberg, were both raised in traditional Jewish homes. Rosenbaum's parents were Holocaust survivors. He calls himself a pantheistic social libertarian with a psychedelic spiritual orientation.

Krassner was one of the entertainers at the 2005 event. He speaks of the New York Festival being in "Amish country on the border near Ohio and Pennsylvania--on private campgrounds, where clothing was optional. Many women were bare-breasted, and several men and women were fully naked, a practice known as 'going skyclad'."

Krassner also points out an anti-Christian bias on the part of at least one of the Festival presenter.

"The Growing Dangers of American Theocracy" by Phyllis Curott, First Amendment lawyer, Wiccan High Priestess, author of The Love Spell: An Erotic Memoir of Spiritual Awakening: She warned of the Christian right's stealth desire for achieving "biblical law" that would require the death penalty for blasphemy, adultery, homosexuality and witchcraft. Already, teenage witches are expelled from school; Pagans in the military are harassed by religious fundamentalists; there have been public burnings of Harry Potter books; a Wiccan couple is challenging a court order that they must protect their 9-year-old son from "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

Does anyone else find it the least bit unsettling that a "First Amendment lawyer" thinks Christians want the death penalty for blasphemy? Especially considering that one of the most prominent Christians is calling for an end to the death penalty for any reason? Do people like this lawyer actually get to play with our First Amendment?

The article indicates that the founders and managers of Starwood belong to the Chameleon Club, which is also listed on the Starwood/ACE website.

ACE (or A.C.E.) appears to be active on the Wright State University campus. There is an entry listing Stefanie Hengge on the Student Organization Contact List and a Wright State website for A.C.E. as well, but clicking on the logo as the website directs produces a star-studded blank page, at least on my computer.

In any case, the mailing address for Joseph Rothenberg/ACE is 1643 Lee Road #9, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118; and the Starwood Center is located at 712 E. 185th Street (& Hiller). I asked my husband about the 185th Street location with a thought of taking a ride. His response: "Do you want to get your throat cut?" I guess there are safer neighborhoods.

According to The Virtual Jewish History Tour website, the Jewish "exodus to the suburbs continued unabated until the mid-1950s, emptying the central city, as the vast majority of Jews settled in an inner suburban ring formed by Cleveland Heights, South Euclid, University Heights, and Shaker Heights. Since my husband spent part of his childhood near Cleveland Heights, I'm familiar with at least part of the neighborhood, although it has changed considerably since I used to go shopping there. My all-time favorite Jewish bakery was located in Cleveland Heights. They had the best bagels I've ever eaten and other good stuff. Sadly the bakery closed several years ago. Gone but not forgotten.

You can read about ACE here, and the Chameleon Club here. According to the ACE website, Starwood is "America's Greatest Magickal Event." Krassner's article indicates the first event weekend was attended by 185 people, with twenty presentations and a bonfire. The 25th anniversary event drew 1,600, and offered 150 presentations and performances. There is a bio of some of the Chameleon Club members here at the links on the left. A picture of one of the rituals at Starwood shows some who are clearly skyclad if you look closely.

The Starwood Speaker Roster lists the speakers starting with the first Starwood in 1981 through 1996. DePaul faculty member Patricia Monaghan has been a regular. She appears on the list for '92 through '96. She's been doing this for a while. Also on the list are O.T.O., occultist Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, and Terence McKenna. Aleister Crowley would have been right at home if he were living today. Strange company for a faculty member of a Catholic college.

In the summer of 2003 the co-founder of ACE, Joseph Rothenberg, spoke at two Cleveland Heights City Council Meetings. Cleveland Heights, "the only city in Ohio to provide spousal health benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees" according to Gay People's Chronicle, was considering a domestic partner registry. Rothenberg addressed Council on July 7, 2003 and August 4, 2003, speaking in favor of the registry. In both instances he identified himself as being gay or having a live-in male partner. If you have the time, read through his brief comments on August 4 and note that he believes this registry, if it becomes law, may prevent a few diseases "because people will be in committed relationships where they've agreed to commit to one another." He believes "Nobody is going to become gay because we have a domestic partner registry," and that "the only thing that's really left is your fear and your prejudice." He sounds so sincere and family-oriented in these comments to Council. How could anyone refuse what he wants? Of course if they knew about Starwood...

At Starwood 2002 Shawn Eyer conducted a ritual "reminiscent of colonial era Freemasonry," and presented a workshop titled "Your Grandfather's Magic: The Esoteric Legacy of Freemasonry." Not surprisingly, Joseph Rothenberg is, or was in 2005, a Junior Deacon at Heights Lionheart Lodge 633. The Lodge spells out membership requirements here which state in part:

Freemasonry is not a religion, though anti-Masonic writers try to show that it is, and (claim it) is also unchristian. Masonic beliefs are heavily influenced by 18th and 19th century Deism and Universalism. Masons must only swear a belief in a Divine Being, but is open to any religion otherwise. No atheist can be a Mason. Many confuse this non-discriminatory policy of welcoming all religious adherents as members to be endorsing the validity of all religions. Actually, religion, as well as politics, are forbidden topics in any lodge. How one worships is one's own private business. All Masonry demands is that you do have religious beliefs to rest your moral development on.

Homosexual Pantheist Joseph Rothenberg has his own variety of "religious beliefs to rest his moral development on". I wonder if his lodge brothers know just what sort of morals he believes in? Rothenberg gives a new definition to Masonic morality. One wonders after exploring his activities if there is such a thing as Masonic immorality? What sort of immorality would be left after Rothenberg's morals have been classified as acceptable? Is there any sexual activity left that the Starwood Festival hasn't already endorsed?

DNA ESTABLISHES JEWISH PRIESTHOOD

An article from the Journal Nature, 2 January 1997 claims that it is possible to determine through DNA which Jewish males are part of the Jewish priesthood.

Nova Online makes the same claim that the Cohanim can be traced back to Aaron through the DNA.

CONNECTING THE DOTS - MORE DEPAUL UNIVERSITY

DePaul has a Catholic Studies program that looks Catholic, which is what one would expect at the largest Catholic university in the U.S. Any parent looking at that list of courses would think this place is orthodox. But what you see there is not always what you're apt to get at DePaul.

John Dominic Crossan, known as one of the founders of the Jesus Seminar, is Professor (Emeritus) of Religion Studies at DePaul. He delivered an address for the Jewish Studies Lecture Series at The University of Kansas titled "The Execution of Jesus and American Christianity" while he was "Theologian in Residence 2004".

A reviewer of Lon Milo DuQuette's book, THE MAGICK OF THELEMA, at the Amazon website indicates he had his copy of the book signed by the author "when he spoke at DePaul University." I doubt the Grand Master of the O.T.O. delivered a Catholic address.

I've already covered the activities of Jason Winslade, DePaul faculty member, who was a speaker at the Starwood Festival XXV, and his participation in the Slayage Conference. At the Slayage, Number 1 website, Winslade presents "Teen Witches, Wiccans, and 'Wanna-Blessed-Be's': Pop-Culture Magic in Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where he cites colleague and fellow faculty member at DePaul, author Patricia Monaghan.

A News Release from DePaul lists Patricia Monaghan as an SNL professor and conference organizer. She is considered by DePaul to be an expert on "Women - Feminism".

SNL is the School for New Learning. Monaghan's bio. is in the SNL website as is the bio. for Bro. Wayne Teasdale, but that's another story. Monaghan's bio indicates she is a "SNL Resident Faculty" member, that "She did her doctoral work on the intersection of quantum theory and poetics." and that she is "An Award-winning fiction writer". The bio talks about her "new book on the mythology of gardens."

She has some other books that the bio doesn't mention, perhaps because Catholic parents looking over the DePaul faculty might not appreciate seeing what she dabbles in. Pagan Presence, Inc. offers her book SEASONS OF THE WITCH, POETRY AND SONGS TO THE GODDESS. Pentacle Press offers her book THE GODDESS PATH: MYTHS, INVOCATIONS, AND RITUALS.

ACE offers her books as well. ACE produces the Starwood Festival where she has been on the program in 2005.

She was on the program in 2001 as well, where her topic was "Getting Published." Apparently it doesn't hurt to be a goddess promoter teaching at a Catholic University if you want to get published.

Why is there a woman who writes about goddess religion and takes part in Pagan, clothing-optional festivals teaching at a Catholic University in Chicago? Is Cardinal George too powerless to stop this? Is he too cowardly to stop it? Is he cooperating with it?

This Catholic in the pew went to sleep seething with anger yet again yesterday, knowing that the faith is being misrepresented with no consequences by a Catholic university that for all intents and purposes appears to offer the opposite of Catholicism. DePaul University is guilty of false advertising when they claim to be Catholic while having such professors as Winslade and Monaghan on their faculty. Yet apparently our shepherds couldn't care less. Perhaps they see nothing wrong with promoters of witchcraft at a Catholic institution. I find this simply outrageous. Why don't they?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

THE JEWISH COVENANT

We seem to be talking past each other on this topic.

I would refer everyone to an explanation by Father James V. Schall, S.J., titled "A Man from Mars" which can be read at the website of the Association of Hebrew Catholics. Shall is commenting on the document "Reflections on Covenant and Mission." There you can read:

*** The Roman Catholics think that they have something to do with the Old Testament, but affirm that the original covenant is not revoked. The Jewish covenant is the origin of Jewish spiritual vitality. The argument is made from Gamaliel that “only undertakings of divine origin can endure” as a justification for respect for Judaism. This same principle would justify also religions older than Christianity or even Judaism. This principle is in fact used by some theologians to leave the older religions unevangelized also.

*** Interreligious dialogue is "devoid of any intention whatsoever to invite the dialogue partner to baptism."

*** The Jews already have a covenant with God. The Jewish covenant is salvific for them. A twofold "mission" seems to exist within one "covenant."

*** Evangelization "no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history." The Jews already have a "saving covenant with God."

*** The conclusion is that "Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God."...Their witness to the kingdom which did not originate with the Church's experience of Christ crucified and raised, must not be curtail3d by seeking the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity.

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Eschatology and Dual Covenant Theology

In a recent New York Review of Books essay on Rosenzweig Mark Lilla neatly formulates the dilemma of redemption. "If redemption is wholly God's work, we are tempted to leave him to his work and ignore our own; if, however, we participate in this redemptive labor, the temptation is equally great to think we can redeem ourselves through temporal activity." (5) Does redemption come from outside or is it initiated from inside human life? According to Lilla, Rosenzweig gives an "ingenious explanation": the Jewish covenant is unconditional and passive whereas the Christians covenant is conditional and active. (6) Yet this alleged solution does not, in my view, adequately account for Rosenzweig's complicated, ambivalent position.

As befits a dual covenant theology, on Lilla's (and others') interpretation, Christianity and Judaism each play a complimentary if not a cooperative role with the other. Typically this program maintains that Judaism assures redemption by a covenant once made between God and His chosen People, Israel, while Christian salvation is secured with a new dispensation granted by God to those who declare their faith in the savior, Jesus Christ

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From the Jewish-Christian Relations website: "Dabru Emet: Sic et Non" by Michael A. Singer

Let me conclude my Responsio in the spirit of Isaiah as understood by the first section of the Babylonian Talmud tractate Avodah Zarah, "Let them give their testimony and be justified." The final evidence that a shift in Christian theology is in process comes from the Christian Scholars Group, an ecumenical and voluntary organization of Christians. They have recently issued a statement, A Sacred Obligation that was composed as a response to Dabru Emet. Some of their propositions speak directly to the themes that have been most vexing to Jews. Let me present them as further testimony.

"God’s covenant with the Jews endures forever." This proposition moves to the heart of the issues that arise from Christian supersessionism. For generations the Christian community has asserted that the coming of Jesus Christ offered a new covenant to the world that cancelled the covenant God had made with the Jews. The problem for Christians has not been so much that" Christ lived and died a faithful Jew," but what are the implications of that reality after Christ died? What happened to the Jewish covenant? What happened to the Jewish people? Affirming the eternal reality of the Jewish covenant will have implications for Christian theologians as they continue to think about their eschatology and soteriology.

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At the website of Commentary Magazine - "Cynthia Ozick, Jewish Writer". From the website:

She calls herself a Jewish writer because, first, she has given up "the religion of Art," and, second, takes seriously the Jewish covenant and its commandments...

...the 19th-century novel, at its pinnacle, was "a Judaized novel," adding: "george Eliot and Dickens and Tolstoy were all touched by the Jewish covenant...

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Conference Proposal Abstracts for the 34th Annual Conference, Association for Jewish Studies, Brandeis University

Strange Bedfellows: Eugene Borowitz and Feminist Judaism

S. Daniel Breslauer (University of Kansas)


In several places the Reform Jewish theologian, Eugene B. Borowitz confesses that he has learned much from Jewish feminists. He listens in respectful silence as they offer a new challenge to Jewish thinking. Silence, however respectful, allows for ambivalence. This paper examines how that ambivalence plays out in Borowitz's view of ethics and the Jewish covenant.

=========================

Google even found the term "Jewish covenant" in Mark Shea's blog.

There are many more references to "Jewish covenant", but this sampling gives you the general flavor of the term.

I take this reference to the "Jewish covenant" to mean all of Judaism from Adam and Eve until Jesus began His public ministry. Interreligious dialogue as described in the Catholic document "Reflections on Covenant and Mission" seems to be saying that this is a parallel covenant that will save the Jews--something apart from Christ's gift of salvation, and having nothing to do with Jesus.

THE BISHOP'S APPEAL IN CLEVELAND

The Catholic Charities annual appeal, which began Sunday with a special Mass by Bishop Anthony Pilla, will last through December.

February through December?

In the past the appeal has taken place during a couple weeks in the spring--April or May. This seems to be a change in procedure.

The article gives the statistics of target and collected amounts for 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. It's basically a flat line. Perhaps this explains why the campaign will be 11 months long this year?

CONNECTING MORE DOTS - DEPAUL UNIVERSITY

Located in Chicago, DePaul claims to be the largest Catholic university in the U.S.

While doing the research for the Spero News article on Lon Milo DuQuette, I found that Jason L. Winslade uses DuQuette's book on the spirits in a class at DePaul Univ. which claims to be the largest Catholic university in the U.S.

At the same time that I was doing this research there was a lot of discussion in Dom's blog about the heretical priest being transferred to Brandeis University to act as chaplain.

With that as background, this is some further research on DePaul

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First Winslade:

His course syllabus for "Ritual in Everyday Life" - Summer 2003 has some interesting entries. There you can read that his

July 8 - Artifacts (Magic I) presentation covered "Everyday Shrines and Tabernacles"

The July 15 presentation - Ritual (Magic II) used "Ritual as Bonding, Action as Ritual" from the witch Starhawk, the one who works with Matthew Fox, I presume

The July 29 presentation - Myth used The Myth of Inanna.

That takes on more significance when you look at the other activities he is involved in...including the Slayage Conference (See entry for FRIDAY, MAY 28 | 4:15-6:00 4E. WITCHCRAFT IN BtVS for Winslade's contribution), but especially The Starwood Festival XXV where he was one of the presenters on the program. His presentation is titled "Occultism and the Academy"

In the Overview at The Starwood website you can read that

The Starwood Festival features over 15 performances of music, drumming, dance and theatre. Its a multiversity featuring over 150 classes, workshops and ceremonies offered by teachers from many fields, disciplines, traditions and cultures. Its a clothing-optional family camping event with tenting and hiking, a pool and a hot-tub, a food court, co-op child care, a Kid Village and multimedia shows. Starwood is also a social event with costume parades, jam sessions, merchants, parties, all-night drumming and much more, including our huge and infamous Bonfire!

A couple of additional Starwood speakers chosen at random are "Oberon Zell-Ravenheart" "a renowned Wizard and elder in the worldwide magickal community" and "Raven" who has "been active in the Pagan community for more than twenty years".

Starwood is quite an operation. It takes a while to go through the website. I still haven't seen all of it. Here is the complete list of speakers.

======================

Moving on to another De Paul instructor - Gary Cestaro

DePaul has instituted as of last month, "LGBTQ studies" according to Page 18 in a letter from the Dean.

Out in Chicago ran a story from the Chicago Free Press on the establishment of this course

Depaul lists Cestaro as an expert in Gays and Lesbians according to their "Index to DePaul's Experts Guide" by professors.

Cestaro is an expert also in Renaissance Studies, particularly Dante.

He spoke at Notre Dame in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature on October 31, 2000 on "Dante's Queer Nature"

Cestaro has also been cited in the Dante Society Newsletter, Volume 6, Number 2, April 2000, a publication of the Dante Society of America, Brandeis University.

From the website:

Gary Cestaro offered a close reading of Inferno XV and XVI in his "Queering Nature, Queering Gender: Dante and Sodomy,"

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Lastly, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), the magical fraternity of Lon Milo DuQuette who started this series of connect the dots, practices sex magick. The 11th degree is homosexual, according to P. R. Koenig. (Koenig is considered an authority on O.T.O.) Here is what he has to say about the 11th degree. (WARNING: before you access this website, please be aware that there is a particularly offensive graphic flashing there, and the content is also offensive.)

The website talks about, among others, Michael P. Bertiaux who lives (or lived) in Chicago. Which is the home of DePaul and was the home of Cardinal Bernardin who was accused of homosexuality, and who is rumored to be one of the participants in the enthronement ceremony that took place at a black mass in North Carolina according to Malachi Martin. The founder of CESNUR, Massimo Introvigne, has had some odd dealings with Bertiaux in the founding of an occult organization, according to one source. The founding of CESNUR is supposed to have been the work of a group of Catholics, according to their website which also indicates:

CESNUR sponsors a wide range of publications, from the very scholarly to those intended for the general public. A collection of hundred-pages booklets on movements and religious trends published with a leading Catholic publisher is being extremely successful in Italy and publication in Spanish has started. English and French translations have also been published. These monographs are regarded as the standard references on a number of groups, particularly (although not exclusively) in the Catholic world, where knowledge of the Italian language is widespread. CESNUR also produced a three-videos course on new religious movements intended for Catholic schools and parishes in Italy. Its main project in Italian has been the monumental Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy (2001), which was the most reviewed non-fiction work in the Italian media in 2001.

How does it come to be that the director of a cult-watch organization working with Catholic schools and parishes also is involved in the consolidation of a group of occult societies? It would seem to be a conflict of interest.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

COVENANT - OLD AND NEW

A reader sent in Fr. John Hardon's explanation of "The Covenant in Revelation".

He doesn't specifically address the present position of the Church on the "Jewish Covenant", but indirectly he addresses it by saying that "The Old Testament Covenant was only a preparation for Christ's Covenant and there would be no other."

He lists four Covenants:

1. The Covenant with Noah
2. The Covenant with Abraham
3. The Covenant with Moses
4. The Covenant with David.

It is the Covenant with David that we keep today: "As the Jewish people rejected Christ, as a result Paul was chosen." "The Apostles were chosen as the ministers of the New Covenant." "The Old Testament Covenant was not abrogated, destroyed, but raised by Christ."

Where, then, does this leave the modern day Jew in Catholic theology? Where does this leave the Talmud and the Kabbalah? Can a Catholic dabble in Tarot as Hans Urs von Balthasar would appear to have done by sanctioning MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT? May a Catholic adhere to the teachings of visionaries that sound Catholic, even though the Church has not investigated and approved the seer, as von Balthasar did with von Speyer? Or do these visionaries represent the practice of divination specifically forbidden by the First Commandment...a practice closely associated with the doctrine of the Kabbalah?

The visionary experience, and mysticism in general, practiced within Roman Catholicism via the Charismatic Renewal with its roots in Jacob Boehme, provides fertile ground for the destruction of the Church via a supression of doctrine.

Since the monks who are the heart of the centering prayer movement have affiliated the movement with a Gurdjieffian church in Austin, these questions become core questions of the faith.

Has God rejected His Chosen People? Does He still seek them, and will they one day come home? Does God take back His Covenants?

We appear to be at a crossroads. Rejecting this mysticism will keep us on the path of Aquinas and Augustine. Embracing it may not necessarily throw us immediately off the path to God, but dangers lurk at every turn.


Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

CHRISTIANS AND THE HOMOSEXUAL WAR

Linda P. Harvey's commentary at Renew America contains the words of wisdom that I wish every Catholic bishop would read.

INVESTIGTING AN ALLEGED PEDOPHILE RING IN CORNWALL

TORONTO -- A long-awaited public inquiry that will examine how the justice system responded to allegations that doctors, lawyers and priests sexually abused children in an eastern Ontario city over the course of a half-century begins today.

The probe team includes lawyers who will look at 150,000-plus pages of documents. The inquiry is expected to take over a year.

"There has been at least a feeling in this community, and I'm sure in other communities, that the issue hasn't been fully and promptly addressed," Engelmann said.

Sordid tales have spread of a purported underground clan of pedophiles that existed since the late 1950s and allegedly involved prominent members of the region's Roman Catholic clergy.

Police laid 114 charges against 15 high-profile men in the 1990s under an investigation dubbed Project Truth, including a doctor, a lawyer and three Roman Catholic priests. But only one person, unconnected to the alleged sex ring, was ultimately convicted of sex offences.

The article indicates the police cover-up began in 1992 after a former altar boy, age 35, came forward claiming abuse by two priests in the 1960s.

Blogger credit to New Oxford Review.

ARCHBISHOP HARRY FLYNN TAKES HEAT AND DOESN'T BACK DOWN

As the Roman Catholic archbishop honored hundreds of married couples inside the Cathedral of St. Paul on Sunday, more than 150 people gathered outside to protest his support of a state constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.
"Today we come together to celebrate … the vocation of marriage between one man and woman,'' Archbishop Harry Flynn said during the Mass. "Today that vocation is under challenge, even under attack.''

The archdiocese has celebrated an annual Mass honoring marriage for the past 25 years. This time, though, protesters attended to oppose efforts by the state's Roman Catholic bishops to promote a constitutional amendment, destined to be a key issue in the upcoming state legislative session.

"We … are outraged by the position and tactics taken by the Minnesota Catholic bishops in actively endorsing and advocating for the discriminatory and anti-Christian marriage amendment, both from the pulpit and through official Catholic publications,'' said David McCaffrey, one of the protesters.

Continue reading...

Blogger credit to New Oxford Review.

ABORTING THEMSELVES OUT OF EXISTENCE

Sydney: The birth rate of Muslim immigrants is so high that Australia is in danger of becoming an Islamic nation, a member of parliament from Prime Minister John Howard's ruling party said Monday.

Dana Vale, former veterans affairs minister, gave her warning while urging fellow MPs to vote against a bill that would give women easier access to the abortion drug RU486.

Vale said the health minister should continue to have a veto over the availability of RU486 rather than allowing a panel of medical experts adjudicate on its safety.

Continue reading....

BURLESCONI THINKS HE'S THE CHRIST OF POLITICS

according to an article at WEBINDIA123.com:

Addressing party supporters over dinner at the weekend, Berlusconi had said he felt like "the Jesus Christ of Italian politics. I am a patient victim. I put up with everything, I sacrifice myself for everyone," the Ansa news agency quoted the premier as saying.

Berlusconi, who only last week had compared himself to Napoleon and who once described himself as "the anointed one", later said he had been misunderstood.

Cardinal Tonini voiced the Church's objection.

Maybe he should try comparing himself to Berlusconi.

The Sunday Morning Herald from Australia offers a few more Berlusconisms.

WANT TO KNOW WHAT CHAOS MAGICK LOOKS LIKE ?

Check out this thread in Amy Welborn's blog.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

LAST NIGHT'S HOMILY

was focused on "love", not surprisingly considering the encyclical. Father used the exclusion of lepers from the company of healthy members of an older society as a jumping-off point. He talked about St. Damien and his service to lepers on the Island of Molokai. He also made the distinction that has been on my mind over the last couple of days--that one kind of love (he didn't say "agape" but I assume that is what he meant), which is really charity, is an intellectual kind of love--a head trip. The other kind of love is emotional--a heart trip, so to speak.

He said that while we are called to love our neighbor, we are not necessarily obliged to like him. Our love for our neighbor amounts to our desiring that he spend eternity with God in heaven, and that we do nothing to interfere with that happy outcome, which must include avoiding thoughts for his damnation.

He elaborated extensively on the many reasons why we could possibly dislike our neighbor, including silly things like not liking the way he walked or talked, and more serious things as well. He spoke of the jockying for table position at priests events, where the tendency is to hang back to see where others are sitting, as an example of behavior that derives from liking and not liking people; and that this is not sinful. He also talked about making efforts with school children to include the child who is always excluded on the playground and at the lunchtime table. He indicated that each of us may experience being excluded from time to time, when we don't fit the thinking of a group we find ourselves involved with.

One could almost believe he had ventured into St. Blogs if it weren't for the fact that he keeps emphasizing that he doesn't even know what a blog is and he's not computer literate!

THE JEWISH COVENANT

I've posed a question in the forum at Bettnet, but no one seems to have an opinion over there, so I'll propose it here in the hope that it might generate some discussion.

The current issue of “Culture Wars” contains an article that I've detailed over at Bettnet and won't repeat here. For the specific quote that brings up the question, take a look at Bettnet.

What it comes down to is the nature of the Jewish Covenant and of the Covenant with Jesus Christ. Are there two Covenants; or one Covenant first with the Jews, and when the Jews rejected Christ, then extended to the Gentiles?

The matter came up here in a blog recently. My own opinion is much closer to the claim that there is one Covenant made first with the Jews, but subsequently extended to the Gentiles when Christ was rejected. Yet Scripture passages claiming two Covenants are difficult to deny.

So what does the Church teach on the Jewish Covenant? And is the belief in a single Covenant a departure from what the Church has taught for 2000 years, or merely another way of looking at the same thing?

This becomes important when considering the contemporary culture that is embracing elements out of Jewish Kabbalah, including the tarot. Kabbalah is a post-Christ Jewish theology. The claims made by Dan Brown in TDVC are arising from this thinking. Believing there are two Covenants opens the door for what the Catholic Encyclopedia calls Judaizers, which are those people who want to impose the Old Testament Judaic laws on everyone. The potential claim is that the first Covenant is still in force, and thus that the Jews will be saved by that first Covenant, and without Christ. Two parallel Covenants means two parallel paths to salvation. If this is accepted, the next step on this path will be the enactment of the Noahide Laws which condemn Christianity for being polytheistic. At which point the door is open to anti-Christ.