Still Running Off at the Keyboard

KNIGHTS OF JUBILATION...CONNECTING THE DOTS

Recently I was reading an article in the March "Culture Wars" titled "Voltaire and the Black Operation known as the Enlightenment," by E. Michael Jones. In that article he talks about a man named Toland, the Whig radicals and the Knights of Jubilation.

Google brought up this cached entry for "Winston Churchill & The Ancient Order of Druids" when I looked for additional information on the Knights.

According to the article, Churchill was a Freemason and was also initiated into the Druid Order. Even more interesting to anyone curious about the occult is the following:

The Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids was founded in 1874 by Wentworth Little. Little was a Freemason and his druidic order was designed as an exclusively Masonic society. All of its members had to have reached the degree of Master Mason before joining. The purpose of the Ancient and Archaeological Order was to study the connections between Freemasonry and the druid tradition.

In 1866 Little founded the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, a project not dissimilar to the Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids. SRiA members were also required to be Master Masons first and just as Little’s druid order studied Freemasonry and druidry so the S.R.i.A. also concerned itself with research.

It was three members of the S.R.i.A. William Wynn Westcott, Samuel Liddle McGregor Mathers and Dr. W. Woodman who founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an order which has gained a notorious reputation largely by introducing Aleister Crowley to the occult. Little’s Druid and Rosicrucian interests seem to have been brought full circle in 1916 when Nuada, a Duid society and off-shoot of the Golden Dawn tradition was founded. Nuada was based in Clapham, London and was led by G.W. MacGregor Reid. McGregor Reid was a personal friend of Crowley and was also a Chosen Chief of the Universal Druid Bond from 1909-1946 after which he was succeeded by his son Robert (Chosen Chief 1946-1964).

The connections between these orders and Freemasonry are part of a much wider relationship between the two traditions of Druidry and Masonry giving Little’s Druids much to ponder in their research.

The Appletree Tavern in Covent Garden, London was the scene of the landmark meeting in 1717 at which Freemasons decided to organise a Grand Lodge to co-ordinate Freemasonry across the capital and later throughout England. In the same public house, in the same year, the inaugural assembly of the Universal Druid Bond was held, signifying what could be called the institutionalisation of the Druid revival which had begun with the work of John Auberey.

It is said that the first Chosen Chief of the Universal Druid Bond was John Toland, a member of a Masonic organisation called the Knights Of Jubilation. Toland was chief from 1717 to 1722 when he was succeeded by William Stuckley (1722 - 1765). Stuckley was also a prominent Freemason.

Toland’s role in the Druid revival is however questioned. In 1726 he wrote History of the Druids a critical account of ancient Druidry which sits uncomfortably with the notion that Toland was a Druid himself.

Connections between Freemasonry and Druidry crossed the Atlantic. In the United States in the eighteenth century, one Masonic Lodge at Newburgh, New York transformed itself into The Druid Society using the former Masonic lodge for its meetings and adopting much Masonic ceremony too.

Churchills’ own association with both Freemasonry and Druidry were short-lived however and his interest in Druidry appears to have been wholly towards its fraternal character with little or no sympathy for its spirituality.

S.R.I.A. is still around, though the relationship between this group and the one started by Little is complicated. In any case they have retained the rose and cross emblem.

According to Robert Anton Wilson:

Any psychoanalyst will guess at once the most probable symbolic meanings of the Rose and the Cross; but no psychologist engaged in psi research has applied the key to the deciphering of traditional magic texts. The earliest reference to freemasonry in English occurs in Anderson's "Muses Threnody," 1638: "For we be brethren of the Rosey Cross We have the Mason Word and second sight" but no parapsychologist has followed up the obvious clue contained in this conjunction of the vaginal rose, the phallic cross, the word of invocation, and the phenomenon of thought projection. (ILLUMINATUS!, p. 772)

And further:

Ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, is chiefly emblematic of the Mass of the Holy Ghost

which I blogged a short time ago demonstrating the relationship between the rosy cross, the ouroboros, and the mass of the holy ghost.

Returning to the article on Winston Churchill & The Ancient Order of Druids:

That a British prime minister should have once been a Druid may at first seem surprising but on reflection Churchill seems to have followed an unlikely tradition of religious pluralism amongst prime ministers. Famously there was Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew. Less well known and, where know, infamously there was Jonh Stuart, the third Earl of Bute. Stuart was born in 1713 and became an Earl in 1723 on the death of his father (the Isle of Bute was the family estate). Educated at Eton, Bute obtained a law degree and had a life-long interest in botany. In 1736 he became a member of the House of Lords. A Tory Bute has the unenviable reputation of having been one of Britain’s most unpopular prime ministers ever having gained the post through royal favour in 1762 and serving in the post until the following year (he was in fact Britain's first Scottish Prime Minister.

Bute was also a Satanist, or at least he was as much a Satanist as Churchill was a Druid, belonging to an avowedly Satanic group though probably for social and fraternal reasons more than theological conviction. The group in question was the Order of St. Francis the most notorious of the so called Hell Fire Clubs of eighteenth century Britain. The Order of St. Francis was founded by Francis Dashwood (hence its name) sometime around 1745. At its core were an inner circle of founding members known as the Unholy Twelve, of which Bute was one. Though several were there for social (and as we shall see sexual reasons) some members were avowedly satanists. Aside from Dashwood, both Thomas Potter and George Selwyn have been cited in this context.

Meetings of the Order of St. Francis were, from 1750, held at Medmenham Abbey (a former Cistercian abbey) and began with a black mass but this was only the prelude for a drinking binge and sexual orgy facilitated by prostitutes (usually dressed as nuns) hired (or coerced) for the evening, the real attraction for members like Bute. According to Daniel Mannix, Bute was a dedicated member, never missing a meeting.

As a member of the establishment Bute was not alone at Medmenham. Dashwood, an M.P. was Postmaster General and among other prominent members was John Wilkes, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Dashwood had also served a turn in this post).

Another member was a poet called Charles Churchill. Unfortunately a familial connection with the Druid Winston is ruled out by Mannix who states in his erroneously entitled book about the Order The Hell Fire Club that Charles Churchill was not related to the family of the twentieth century prime minister.

An Aleister Crowley website also speaks of the monks of Medmenham and indicates that Timothy Leary follows in their path:

The word Thelema finds its origins in the Bible, but was first brought into common usage by Rabelais, who wrote of the Abbey of Theleme, and had the motto "Fay ce que vouldras" or "Do what you will." This theme echoed St. Augustine's "Love and do what you will" and was a part of the emerging philosophy of humanism. Others who adopted this idea was Sir Francis Dashwood and the Monks of Medmenham (better known as The Hellfire Club) and Sir Walter Besant and James Rice in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878).

Science, Magick, and Sexuality

Crowley claimed to use a scientific method to study what people at the time called "spiritual" experiences, making "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion" the catchphrase of his magazine The Equinox. By this he meant that mystical experiences should not be taken at face value, but critiqued and experimented with in order to arrive at their underlying religious meaning. In this he may be considered to foreshadow Dr. Timothy Leary, who at one point sought to apply the same method to psychedelic drug experiences. Yet like Leary's, Crowley's method fell short of objectivity and has received little "scientific" attention outside the circle of Thelema's practitioners.

Timothy Leary's devotees are part of the movement known as Discordians:

Remarks: The web of discord touches many other audience cults. Discordian web pages are often linked to such groups as the Church of the Sub-Genius, the Cthulhu cults, Timothy Leary's devotees and the like. Although the work of the Discordians can not be measured as a group effort, the individual efforts to broadcast the Discordian message in imaginative ways is impressive. Audience cults have no concept of leadership in a traditional sense, and therefore they are constantly changing. Because of this metamorphizing way of life, the audience cults are often met with distrust by more conventional faiths and organizations.

And as I've blogged in the past, one of the premier Discordians today is Robert Anton Wilson, co-author of THE ILLUMINATUS!TRILOGY with Robert Shea, whose widow, Patricia Monaghan, is a faculty member at Catholic DePaul University. ILLUMINATUS! includes a black mass said by a homosexual priest named "Father Pederasti."

Here is a list of "Known Discordians." Scroll down until you see the link to "Discordian Society of Saint Mary's University", and click the link. You will end up here at their homepage. Scroll down to the bottom and click the "Homepage of the Discordian Society of Saint Mary's University" link which will take you here. At the top of the St. Mary's homepage there is a dropdown menu where you can link to the history of the institution. You can clearly see on the history page that this is a Catholic university.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

GOSPEL OF JUDAS FROM A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE

At Zenit, an article by Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, looks at the Gospel of Judas from a Catholic perspective.

COULD THERE BE TWO SISTER LUCYS ?

A reader sent in a link to this story about the possibility that there was a switch made, and the real Sister Lucy was substituted prior to 1960.

Look at the pictures presented at the website. They are not the same person. Those pictures are also available if you do an image search, so these are not some obscure photos. Horvat points out the differences in the photos of the two women, but there is one thing she does not point out. Look at the pictures in which both nuns are smiling. Look at the teeth. The Sr. Lucy whose face is similar to the picture of the child, Lucia de Santos, has poorly aligned teeth. The picture of Sr. Lucy which does not look like the child has much smaller perfect teeth. It's quite a makeover.

Whether Horvat is right or not, I have often wondered what the Vatican sealed up in Sr. Lucy's room immediately after she died. There has been no word on what was in there.

HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION

The title of the article is "Adopting Chaos." The following comes from it:

People like Charles Mitchell who grew up with homosexual parents know that the church’s opposition to the practice isn’t an eccentricity of Catholic belief. It’s a bold, counter-cultural stand in defense of children.

Charles Mitchell and two brothers were adopted as infants by two men. He called same-sex adoption “a tragic social experiment” and said, “homosexuality destroyed a normal way of life for us.”

Often, the homosexual parents shown in the media are straight-laced, responsible men. Mitchell said that his “dad” and “uncle” weren’t unlike that. But “it’s not just the two people involved; it’s the environment.”

Both he and his two adopted brothers were sexually molested by friends of his “dad” and his “uncle.” To this day it is difficult for him to trust men, he said on a March 14 “Straight Talk Radio” broadcast.

The truth is, from the song “YMCA” to the Showtime program “Queer as Folk,” homosexuals have long celebrated sex with underage partners. In The Gay Report, by homosexual researchers Karla Jay and Allen Young, the authors report data showing that 73 percent of homosexuals surveyed had at some time had sex with boys 16 to 19 years of age or younger.

When the John Jay College of Criminal Justice thoroughly researched clergy sex abuse for the U.S. bishops, they found not a pedophilia crisis, but what Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, described as “homosexual predation on American Catholic youth.”

John Jay’s report found that 81 percent of sexual abuse by clergy was homosexual.

McHugh called that a “bombshell” and said, “I’m astonished that people throughout America are not talking about it, thinking about it, and wondering about what the mechanisms were that set this alight.”

American Catholics are talking about it and thinking about it. The reason McHugh asks the question is that the news media is not being honest with us. They are not reporting that Catholics are talking and thinking about this. You can only get that information by reading blogs.

It's time for political correctness to be relegated to the history file. It's time for truth in journalism to return.

NOTER DAME IS NO LONGER CATHOLIC

Get someone in there who can restore the mission or take "Catholic" out of their advertising and take Our Lady out of their name. They are insulting Her.

UPDATE

An article at Catholic online addresses what it means to have a Catholic identity, giving the four points from "Ex Corde Ecclesiae." No. 3 is particularly significant:

3. “Fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the church.”

“A Catholic university has an obligation and a responsibility to make sure students are exposed to the church’s official teaching and the reason for that teaching,” Cesareo said.

“One of the things that sometimes happens is that the Catholic perspective is dismissed completely or presented in a way that is very subjective, as if that perspective is really not worth even consideration,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s saying that they are not going to be exposed to other ways of looking at a particular moral issue,” he added. “But when they do look at the different perspectives of a moral issue, it’s absolutely critical that not only the Catholic perspective is presented, but it must be presented objectively.”

When Notre Dame allows the presentation of "Monologues", does it accompany the presentation with clear Catholic teaching that this is sinful and morally offensive? That such behavior is repugnant to a person with Catholic sensibilities?

HOW WILL ROME FACE MECCA ?

Joseph has an article up at Front Page:

One of the Catholic Church's most controversial figures inflamed public debate in Italy with a typically off-handed comment -- and inadvertently exposed the Vatican's problems in crafting a coherent, comprehensive response to Islamic imperialism.

Cardinal Renato Martino -- the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Vatican's former ambassador to the United Nations -- said that the Italian government should allow the Koran to be taught during the hour mandated for Catholic religious instruction.

"If there are 100 Muslim children in a school, I don't see why they shouldn't be taught their religion," Martino said in a press conference March 9. "If we said 'no' until we saw equivalent treatment for the Christian minorities in Muslim countries, I would say that we were placing ourselves on their level."

Martino's comments came as campaigning in Italy's April 9 general election entered its final push. Two significant issues are the effect of massive Muslim immigration on Italian society and the ensuing place for government-sponsored Catholic religious education, mandated by the 1929 concordat between the Vatican and Italy that was renewed in 1984.

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MONOLOGUES--YES ** OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY--NO

This is what our Catholic universities have come to.

At Notre Dame John I. Jenkins once again has permitted the production of Vagania MonoloWhatever their motives for performing this play, however, I do not believe that such a per-formance could be permitted at Notre Dame. Its anti-Semitic elements are clearly and egregiously opposed to the values of a Catholic university. Even if those wishing to stage the performance had pure intentions, the staging of the play at Notre Dame would appear to endorse or at least acquiesce in a tolerance of an anti-Semitism whose consequences are only too clear to us.
gues, a play highly offensive to a significant number of Catholics, that portrays the sin of lesbianism in a positive light. Gay.com reports:

(South Bend, IN) – Despite subject matter that goes against Roman Catholic teachings, The University of Notre Dame will allow The Vagina Monologues and other events with similarly controversial subject matter on campus because universities should promote debate, the school's president said Wednesday.

”To be a university means that we engage in diversity of viewpoints that are vigorously debated, some of which will challenge Catholic understanding,” the Rev. John I. Jenkins said, according to the Associated Press. “I don't think we should be afraid of that. That's what it is to be a university.”

Jenkins will not, however, entertain the possibility of performing the Oberammergau Passion Play on the campus. Why? Because it offends Jewish sensibilities. SouthBendTribune.com reports on Jenkins speech:

Precisely because academic freedom is such a sacred value, we must be clear about its appropriate limits. I do not believe that freedom of expression has absolute priority in every circumstance. While any restriction on expression must be reluctant and restrained, I believe that, in some situations, given the distinctive character and aspirations of Notre Dame, it may be necessary to establish cer-tain boundaries, while defending the appropriate exercise of academic freedom.

Consider the following case. The well known Oberammergau Passion play has been a work of the-atrical and religious power for centuries. The play has been performed by the villagers of this Bavarian town as an act of pious thanksgiving to God for sparing their town from the plague in 1633. Performances occur every ten years, and they draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands from around the world. Audiences have been moved religiously and emotionally by the performances.

In 1860 Fr. Joseph Alois Daisenberger, the parish priest of the village, revised the script, and it was fundamentally his version, with minor revisions, which was to be performed until the year 1980. Daisenberger’s script was dramatically and religiously powerful, but it bore an anti-Semitic message. The Jewishness of Jesus and his disciples was entirely hidden, while the opponents of Jesus, who were depicted as greedy and treacherous, were clearly Jewish. The text strongly suggested that Jews collectively were responsible for the death of Jesus. Adolf Hitler attended two performances of the play, praised it for exposing “the menace of Jewry,” and insisted that it continue for its depiction of the “muck and mire of Jewry.”

Politically correct, but to hell with Catholicism.

When did Notre Dame become a Jewish University? Or perhaps it is just Jenkins who is covertly Jewish? One could certainly get the impression that he is, judging by his artistic sensibilities.

Either take the name Catholic out of your advertising, Notre Dame, or replace the university president with one who actually is.

In a variation of the trite expression "With friends like these...", I can only ask With Catholics like this, who needs persecutors?

Lord deliver us from the traitors in our midst!

MOTHER RUE AT BETTNET

She claims to be a Catholic priest, of course. She has some other interesting activities.

HOW DOES THAT GO AGAIN?

Pink News brings us the latest developments in academic freedom:

A gay film festival has been allowed to go ahead at a Roman Catholic university.

University of Notre Dame President Reverend John Jenkins gave the go ahead on the basis of academic freedom, after spending two months considering allowing the event along with a screening of the Vagina Monologues.

Mr Jenkins said: “I am very determined that we not suppress speech on this campus. I am also determined that we never suppress or neglect the Gospel that helped inspire this university.

“As long as the Gospel message and the Catholic intellectual tradition are present, we can welcome any serious debate on any thoughtful position here at Notre Dame.”

Is Notre Dame serious about the thoughtful Catholic position, one wonders? You know, the one that says sex outside of the marriage of a man to a woman is sinful?

Today is Wednesday. Wednesday must be gay day. Do Catholics get to have Thursday? Do adulterers get Monday? Polygamists on Tuesday? Who gets Friday? And do murders and child molesters get to air their beliefs as well? Does Jenkins have any standards left at all, or are the students at Notre Dame free to entertain all conceivable sins in a positive light?

Catholic Notre Dame is false advertising.

ONE TITLE GONE, MORE FOR POPE TO LOSE

PARIS (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, who has dropped his title "patriarch of the West" to boost ties with Orthodox Christians, should scrap more terms tagged to his name if he wants real progress, a senior Russian Orthodox bishop has said.

Papal titles such as "vicar of Jesus Christ" or "sovereign pontiff of the universal Church" were "unacceptable, even scandalous" for the Orthodox, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev said in a statement published this week on his Web site.

"Only renouncing titles stressing the universal jurisdiction of the pope, and the ecclesiological doctrine hidden behind that, would be a real step on the path toward reconciliation between the Orthodox and Catholic churches," he wrote.

Hilarion, Russian Orthodox bishop of Vienna and his church's main representative in Europe, said the "patriarch of the West" title was actually more acceptable than some others.

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RENT FOR SEX

Ads at Craigslist:

In Atlanta, an online ad offers a room in exchange for "sex and light office duty." In Los Angeles, a one-bedroom pool house is free "to a girl that is skilled and willing." And in New York City, a $700-a-month room is available at a discount to a fit female willing to provide sex.

On the widely used Web site Craigslist.org, some landlords and apartment dwellers looking for roommates are offering to accept sex in lieu of rent.

"They have to be attractive. I don't let just anybody come into my house," said Mike, a man who answered the phone at the New York City listing but declined to give his last name -- and refused to say whether he has, in fact, collected the rent under the sheets.

The offering of shelter for sex is older than, well, real estate itself.

But the online come-ons are franker than anything you might see in the newspaper classifieds, because they are not edited by Craigslist, and perhaps also because the anonymity of the Internet often causes people to shed their inhibitions.

Trading housing for sex is a form of prostitution. But the police aren't kicking down doors.

This is where liberalism leads. Once in exchange for sex a woman received the promise "Till death do us part." Now she gets a room, and presumably when she starts to age or gains too much weight, or has a headache, she gets evicted.

This is what American male culture has devolved to. What happened to real manhood? It seems to be in short supply in the priesthood, and apparently out of the priesthood as well.

Chastity looks more noble every day!

THE LAWSUIT GAME WORKS BOTH WAYS

A Catholic civil rights group announced Monday that it sued the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in federal court for condemning the Catholic Church's opposition to adoptions by same-sex couples.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic citizens of San Francisco.

The league said the suit claims that a resolution passed by the supervisors on March 21 violates the constitutional First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion and separation of church and state.

It's good to see the Church defend Herself!

The Thomas More Center, a Michigan-based public interest law firm representing the league, said the lawsuit contends that the First Amendment "forbids an official purpose to disapprove of a particular religion, religious beliefs or of religion in general."

Robert Muise, the center lawyer handling the case, said, "The Constitution forbids hostility toward any religion."

Separation of Church and State works both ways.

Read the entire article here.

ATILLA THE NUN HAS BEEN BANNED

NEW AGE CHRISTIANITY CURES AIDS

Gregg Braden, (author of “Awakening to point zero” and “Walking between the worlds”) wrote in his books about the DNA research done with children HIV positive at birth. “We are changing the DNA inside our bodies during the same generation where we are seeing changes in the outer world as well”. If we define “human” the way we always have, since we discovered the genetic codes in the 1950’s, we define ourselves as combinations of aminoacids and genes and chromosomes, etc. There is a new species of human being birth in our communities; they look the same on the outside, however the DNA is changed on the inside. Where researchers first began to see this was in global blood studies in 1995/96 and in short, researchers discovered in response to life’s challenges, such as illness, emotional trauma and life threatening conditions, changes people’s belief system and the DNA inside their bodies mirrored that change.

We know that for every thought, feeling and emotion that we create, there is a chemistry pattern in our bodies that reflects this thoughts, feelings and emotions. So if your thoughts are loving and happy your DNA mirrors the joy and happiness. In case of HIV children, not knowing of the virus and having an emotional stable happy environment the DNA reflected the happiness and changed its expression of the immune system. For the first time in research at the Heart-Math Institute of California digitally measured thoughts, feelings and emotions and found they have a direct linear effect on the quality of the DNA and the human immune system. Another way to describe this is through the 64 codons that are possible in the DNA but only 20 of these are presently being used. Some scientists believe that these HIV children could possibly be using 24 codons. The children simply lived the life, the innocence and joy of being a child and the belief system present had no place for the HIV virus. Over a few years the body responded and the DNA mirrors the joy of the child and the virus had no place for expression. The child simply transcended what the virus meant. By the time the child goes to pre-school, about 4 years old, the tests for the virus was negative and was completely gone from the child’s body. What this means is that we have the power simply changing the way we think, feel and our emotions, by changing this we are changing the DNA, It is interesting that we found this by the way of children born with AIDS. Biblical text tells us that the children shall not pay for the sins of the parents (Moses). The HIV children were found to be 3000 times more resistant to the virus and to other cancer viruses, to the point where they didn’t mean anything to the body. This is a very exiting time for humanity, because this is the first time that we have seen an evolution in one generation… The name of this new genetics is the Indigo Children after Dr. Indigo who made the discovery. In future articles I will go into a deeper explanation of these aspects.

Read the whole article here.

The author of this article owns the Kabbalah Gym. Someone should alert the tabloids.

DIOGENES ON PILLA

Bishop Anthony Pilla has taken the 401-§2 exit off the Cleveland expressway, according to this morning's Bulletin. Pilla was due to offer his resignation in November of 2007, but made a surprise request this past January that he be permitted to retire under the provision of the above-mentioned canon, which allows bishops to leave office before their 75th birthday "because of reluctance to lick the frozen lamp-post of a public perjury trial, or for some other grave reason." Pilla declined to give the reason for his request, according to the news account, insisting it was "between him and the Vatican."

Oy vey.

MORE BISHOP LENNON

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer article:

When he took over for Law at the nation's fourth-largest diocese, friends and colleagues praised him for his compassion and commitment to his faith and said he had the heart of a parish priest.

But as his time as interim leader role wore on, he was criticized by victims for allegedly continuing Law's hard-line approach, including by issuing subpoenas for victims' therapists and hiring a First Amendment lawyer to fight the sex-abuse lawsuits on the grounds that the separation of church and state bars civil courts from getting involved in how church officials supervise priests.

And

In the Cleveland Diocese, at least 17 priests have been suspended over abuse allegations since 2002. In a lawsuit deposition last July, Pilla declined to specify how many priests he had reassigned were known pedophiles.

From Rocco Palmo:

While winning plaudits for his handling of the short-term meltdown caused by massive revelations of sexual abuse by clergy and cover-up by church officials, Lennon's record as vicar general and moderator of the curia in the administration of recently-elevated Cardinal Sean O'Malley has been repeatedly marked by controversies over decisions and methods which have been met with pain and sadness among the clergy and people of the archdiocese.

Deja vu?

Lennon and the Boston scandal are hand in glove. It is his handling of the scandal during the months right after Cardinal Law resigned that catapulted him into the spotlight.

Are we on the verge of a very public airing of the scandal in Cleveland which Lennon is being brought in to handle?

There has been silence on the situation here. Is a trial about to commence? Is a settlement being planned?

Is there a basilica in Rome about to get a new rector?

SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS

Gerald Augustinus has blogged graphs of statistics in priestly sexual abuse which I bound via Dom's blog.

One thing he doesn't suggest re the reasons why the peaks are there could be the explanation given by Bella Dodd in SCHOOL OF DARKNESS.

SCALIA - HMMMM

From PinkNews.co.uk:

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese has released a statement condemning comments Justice Antonin Scalia made recently at a Swiss law school claiming there is no constitutional right to "homosexual conduct."

According to a clip aired on CNN, on March 8, 2006, member of the US Supreme Court, Justice Scalia told students at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, "Question comes up: is there a constitutional right to homosexual conduct? Not a hard question for me.

"It's absolutely clear that nobody ever thought when the Bill of Rights was adopted that it gave a right to homosexual conduct. Homosexual conduct was criminal for 200 years in every state. Easy question."

Very interesting!

BOSTON'S AUXILIARY IS COMING TO CLEVELAND

Bishop Richard Lennon has been appointed the new Bishop of the Cleveland Diocese to replace Pilla according to the AP.

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Has he been sent to Cleveland because the scandal is not yet history here? I don't recall reading anything about settlements in Cleveland. Of course, I could have missed it. This article focuses on Lennon's experience with the settlements in Boston.

CLEVELAND (AP) — An auxiliary bishop who helped guide the Archdiocese of Boston through the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal has been named to lead the Cleveland Diocese's 800,000 Catholics.

Richard Lennon was to be introduced later Tuesday as the successor to retiring Bishop Anthony Pilla, diocese spokesman Bob Tayek told The Associated Press.

Lennon, 59, was ordained in 1973 and became an auxiliary bishop in 2001. He led the Boston Archdiocese for about six months on an interim basis after Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in 2002 amid the priest sex-abuse scandal.

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Cleveland Diocese website announces Lennon's appointment. His background is Boston College and the seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts.

CRUCIFIXION AND PLAYING THE RACE CARD

It's not Mel Gibson's The Passion, but folks involved in this big-screen's production are no less passionate in bringing this adaption of Christ's last 48 hours to your local cinema house in a film that openly plays the race card - with the Messiah cast as a black man.

This racial perspective to the conventional biblical story, the producers say, "is sure to challenge Conservative Christian beliefs."

Producers for “Color of the Cross,” an independent biblical biopic based on the last 48 hours of Christ’s life, claims their film stands to be the most controversial depiction of Jesus to date. “Color of the Cross,” is written and directed by lead actor Jean Claude LaMarre, and co-stars Debbi Morgan (“Coach Carter,” “Woman Thou Art Loosed”) as Mary, the mother of Jesus. The film, independently financed is currently in production and scheduled for theatrical release in fall 2006.

Supporters of the film claim that it is unique in distinct ways: It is said to be the first dramatic film in Hollywood history ever to depict Christ as a black man. Secondly, it is the first Christian based film to inject race as a possible factor in the Crucifixion of Christ.

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Ok, we usually see Him pictured as a white man, but that isn't accurate either. He was, and so is, Jewish. His skin would be olive based on where He lived. Now how do you parse that into a racial conflict?

Maybe the film will speak the language of the African-American Christian community better than a film like Mel Gibson made, but that would also depend upon the content of the film. How much is the race card being played-up?

In any case, it won't be released until this fall. Did production fall six months behind schedule?

GOSPEL OF JUDAS

(ANSA) - Rome, April 3 - A fourth-century papyrus manuscript containing the long-lost 'Gospel of Judas' will be presented in Washington on Thursday .

The Gospel of Judas is one of several ancient accounts of Christ's life which were rejected as suspect by the fathers of the early Church and so they did not become part of the Bible .

Vatican officials have denied that the publication this week is part of a rehabilitation of Judas by the Catholic Church .

The document reportedly argues that Judas Iscariot, known to Christians as the man who betrayed Jesus Christ, was an essential part of God's design and, as such, almost a hero .

Without his betrayal, Jesus would not have been crucified and so, the argument goes, God's plan to save mankind from its sins would not have been fulfilled .

The papyrus containing the text of the 'gospel' appeared about 30 years ago on the Egyptian antiquities market. It had last been heard of in AD180, when Saint Irenaeus, a bishop, condemned it as heretical .

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YOUTH LITURGY

at the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference.

Novus Ordo Watch has linked these pictures of the liturgy. Can you find anything in them that would make you think a Mass was taking place? Looks like a staged play more than anything sacred to me.

COMING ISLAMIC PERSECUTION

From LifeSite:

BRUSSELS, March 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Catholic priest in Belgium known popularly as Père Samuel is to be brought to trial for hate crimes according to a decision reached last week by the Belgian judiciary. According to the Brussels Journal (http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/936 ), the priest, who fled from Turkey under Islamic persecution, is being prosecuted for warning against Islamic fundamentalism.

His offending statement: "Every thoroughly islamized Muslim child that is born in Europe is a time bomb for Western children in the future. The latter will be persecuted when they have become a minority."

After hearing of his upcoming trial the priest, who was suspended by his bishop but nonetheless remains a popular clergyman, repeated his statement and warns against "the islamic invasion" of the West.

While that sentiment may seem bitter to some, it is a sincere conviction for many prelates coming from Islamic nations.

In a startling statement which received very little coverage, the Patriarch of the Greek Melkite Catholic Church, stated in an interview published last October "According to me, after 11 September, there is a plot to eliminate all the Christian minorities from the Arabic world."

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Blogger credit to New Oxford Review for the link.

WAR ON CHRISTIANS CONFERENCE

Came under fire by the news media. Naturally.

Last week (March 27-28), Vision America convened a War On Christians conference in Washington, D.C. It was the first to address escalating attacks on Christians from Hollywood, the news media, academia, the courts, and activist groups like the ACLU and Anti-Defamation League.

Speakers included scholars, authors, clergy (among them an Orthodox rabbi), lawyers and members of Congress. Delegates came from as far away as South Africa. I was the conference coordinator, as well as a speaker on two panels ("Jews Confront the War On Christians" and "Hollywood: Christians Through a Distorted Lens").

You will be shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that the mainstream media did its best to trivialize and marginalize the conference: to present a thoughtful examination of the rising tide of anti-Christian bias and persecution as the work of hysterical, paranoid whack-jobs who are manufacturing a crisis to generate donations and mobilize Republican votes.

WHY HAS SCALIA COME UNDER ATTACK ?

Ok, you politically savvy readers, can you explain it to me?

Dom has been blogging about the way the Boston press has been portraying Scalia recently over his Sicilian hand gesture. If you've been following it, Dom thinks this has been blown way out of proportion and that the reporter gave an incorrect interpretation of the meaning of the gesture as well.

Now it seems that the Rutherford Institute--an organization founded to protect the rights of Christians in the public forum--has waded in against Scalia's impartiality in a particular case. Are they right? Does this even fit within the mission of the Institute? And who is trying to undermine the credibility this Supreme Court Judge?

CHRISTIANITY IN IRAQ IS UNDER ATTACK

The source of this story is Moscow, of all places!

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Pyotr Romanov.) - While recognizing the universal and appropriate appeals for tolerance for Muslims, I'd like to draw your attention to the strange attitude of the Western political elite, which has recently become so acute. I do not know what stands behind the lack of foresight, but too many of the political elite's actions have dealt a devastating blow to Christianity.

I read the latest report: Andreas Abuna, Auxiliary Bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, said the strength of the Christian communities of Iraq was diminishing at a shocking rate. Despair, constant fear and lack of hope are compelling more and more Christians to leave Iraq. People do not want to leave their country, but they have to go because of the situation, he said. Christian rights and the status of believers went from bad to worse after the parliamentary elections last December. Iraq is flooded with police, their number is constantly growing, especially in the suburbs of Baghdad, but the protection they offer is very mediocre, said the bishop.

U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair say Iraq is becoming more democratic and the situation is improving, but eyewitnesses of what is happening there are not rejoicing over the democratic parliamentary elections or the growing number of the local police. Under the plan of the founders of Iraqi democracy, the latter should replace occupational troops.

The blood of many of our brethren has been spilled and many of our children have become orphans. Although there are still many believers in churches, if you go out into the street, you'll understand that Christians in Iraq have been done away with, the bishop said. The latest statistics put the number of Christians in Iraq at around 750,000, as compared to about a million before the U.S. invasion, according to The Universe Catholic Newspaper.

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I never thought I'd see a statement like this one from this story coming out of Russia:

I could cite Europe as an example. The European Union has deleted any mention of Christianity from its constitution, as if it has not shaped European civilization. European bureaucrats think that they have been politically correct to appease "new Europeans," but in fact they have distorted the historical truth and offended many "old Europeans." Such omissions are far from harmless - they are changing the image of Europe, and I'm not sure this change is for the better.

Here's an abstract from an article written by one of my readers: "Imagine, new mosques are mushrooming up here, in Scandinavia, a country where people have not heard of anybody but Thor and Christ for millennia." He goes on to say that the police squelch the discontent of the local Protestants - a Protestant is liable for a fine of 4,000 euros and a suspended term in prison of two to three months. At the same time, dozens of mullahs in mosques are urging the destruction of Jews and Christians, but in this case the law is silent.

If this is not an exaggeration, it appears that a Christian cannot feel safe even in the center of Europe. Who is to blame for this situation then besides the Europeans?

This is not the story we are hearing from our own news sources.

Is it worse, even, than we are getting from this story? The pope has called for two days of prayer and fasting for Iraq.

TONIGHT'S VIDEO - "THE MIRACLE OF MARCELINO"

is about an orphaned boy raised by Franciscans who, at the age of 6, manages to disrupt an entire town fair and get his friars evicted from their monastery. The situation is turned around when Christ comes down off the cross to comfort the boy; and the word of the miracle gets out, making the event into an annual festival.

The story is based on a novel and is presented in black and white. It was filmed by a Madrid company in Italy and Spain. Cinematically it isn't the greatest video you've ever seen, but the story makes up for what the video lacks. Good for the whole family.

This was another video from my parish lending library that I was able to borrow after Mass today.

TODAY'S HOMILY

was about death and the moment of change that it brings to those of us who must go on without the one who has died. Father said that each time we experience the loss that death brings, and even each time that we experience a significant change in our lives, we should identify our feelings with Christ crucified.

Without the cross there could have been no resurrection. Without loss we cannot have the good things that come about because of the changes loss brings. The secret is to dedicate our lives and our will to Christ rather than to our own desires.

As I was listening to this homily, I couldn't help but think about the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff believed that we must come to remember ourselves at every possible moment of every day. His followers still teach that. Gurdjieff wanted his followers to be completely centered on themselves. So did Aleister Crowley, who taught "Do what thou wilt."

The two systems are polar opposites. On the one hand are those who surrender to the will of God. On the other are those who grasp at power and self-actualization. On one hand is the worship of Christ crucified. On the other is the worship of the self. The contrast couldn't be more obvious, and that contrast is reflected in Catholic cosmology by God and the good angels and the saints on one side and Lucifer and the fallen angels on the other.

It's rather awesome to see the truth of Scripture exhibited so plainly on the current religious landscape.