Wednesday, January 10, 2007
MERCIECAS ON THE WEB
Before leaving an investigation into the globalist activities of Charles Mercieca, I found it interesting to see what those who share the name were doing in the headlines.
Charles Mercieca keeps his private life and his public life separate. I was not able to learn much about his life prior to the formation of IAEWP or who his relatives might be today. In her report on "Travel for Peace with Focus on June 2005-2006" Alexander Mercieca indicates that Charles was born and raised in Malta, that he visited the nation twice to meet with friends and to attend a 300th centenary celebration.
There have been other Maltese Merciecas in the news recently. The resignation of Maltese Archbishop Joseph Mercieca, who turned 75 three years ago, was accepted last fall and his replacement was announced in December 2006 according to the Department of Information - Malta. There had been speculation of an "amalgamation" of the archdiocese of Malta with the diocese of Gozo, a small Maltese island, when the bishop of Gozo retired and was replaced approximately a year ago, though this has not happened.
Pope Benedict attended a Eucharistic Congress in Malta at which both Archbishop Mercieca and the Bishop of Gozo were in attendance. According to the article Archbishop Joseph Mercieca hails from St. George parish on Gozo. His brother Canon John Mercieca is a member of the Chapter of St. George's basilica, or was in June 2005.
Another Gozo Mercieca made the American headlines last fall. Father Anthony Mercieca had a relationship with Congressman Mark Foley that became news when Foley was discovered sending email to a young man, and subsequently resigned. MSNBC contacted Fr. Anthony Mercieca at his home in Gozo where he lives in retirement with his brother Father George Mercieca, another Gozo native. According to a woman who was born in the house next to the Merciecas' home and still lives there both brothers were raised in a deeply religious home where three of four brothers became priests. The article doesn't indicate if there is any relationship with Archbishop Mercieca, but if the reporter had known that there was, it seems likely that would have been included in the story.
A story from a Maltese reporter, archived at Bishop's Accountability, contains the following analysis of the Archdiocese of Malta:
Call him naïve, but coming from omertà-ridden Gozo, Fr Mercieca is really a blessing in disguise for all the Maltese victims of clergy abuse. As scores of journalists from the international media camp outside his house, his case is bound to mark a turning point in the way the Maltese and Gozitan curias treat cases of reported child abuse by their priests.
In all fairness, it is the first case to be faced by the new Bishop of Gozo, Mgr Mario Grech, and the first signs show he has nothing to do with his ageing Maltese counterpart Mgr Guzeppi Mercieca.
Mgr Grech immediately contacted the Archdiocese of Miami, which was responsible for Fr Mercieca at the time of the alleged abuse, in stark contrast with Archbishop of Malta who has steadfastly ignored warnings from foreign dioceses about priests who had child abuse records and were named and blamed in the foreign and national press.
Mgr Mercieca was in fact responsible for handpicking Fr Godwin Scerri, among others, who after learning of child abuse reports to Canadian police was rushed to Malta and posted as a spiritual director in a girl's secondary school in Malta. He was also serving at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera, where a decade since his escape from Canada he then faced fresh charges of child abuse of children who lived at the home together with another two priests.
Mgr Mercieca and his medieval public relations machine have always been in denial when faced with child abuse allegations. They cite legalistic arguments, justifying their silence on the grounds that once a case is in court it is 'sub judice' – a favourite among criminal lawyers defending the indefensible. They insist on confidentiality simply to dismiss any sort of commitment in public, while dioceses abroad issue public apologies, urge other alleged victims to come forward with their cases and take immediate steps to defrock the alleged abusers even though legally they would still be innocent.
And they fork millions in compensation to the victims – something the Maltese church has never done and has refused to do ever since the first Maltese case of clergy paedophilia ever emerged.
The international spotlight on Gozo is surely adding to the heat in Mgr Grech's diocese, but so far he has acted promptly and appropriately, pledging full cooperation with the authorities so that justice is done – something Mgr Mercieca has always refused to do and opting instead to bury his internal inquiries and leave it up to the police to fish for clergy abusers.
It might prove interesting to watch developments.
Another Mercieca turned up, though not in headlines this time. John Joseph Mercieca heads up the Malta UFO Research center. He appears to focus primarily on reporting on activities in the UFO community. He reported on the Imperial College, London's Conference in 1996, which included speakers Richard Hoagland, Graham Hancock, and Robert Bauval. The Malta UFO Research website sells books by Hoagland, Bauval, and Hancock as well as Whitley Strieber, Zecharia Sitchin, and others on topics such as Atlantis and Ancient Mysteries, UFOs and Aliens, and ET Artefacts and Planetary Anomalies--some of the same topics covered by IAEWP's Public Relations Director Willard Van De Bogart in his Earth Portals website. I found no evidence whatsoever that Van De Bogart and John Joseph Mercieca have any contact with each other or even know of the existence of each other, however.
All of this may mean something or it may mean nothing at all. It may simply be coincidence. But it is a curious coincidence given that Barbara Fields Berstein, Executive Director of the Association of Global New Thought, was on the tentative IAEWP program of the First National/International Assembly in Atlanta, Georgia at Morehouse College, in the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel. Bernstein and Global New Thought were also instrumental in the Synthesis Dialogues that took place at the Papal Summer Residence with the help of Focolare. I reported on those dialogues in ten blog entries between April 25, 2006 and May 9, 2006. Put "Synthesis Dialogues" in the search window and search my blog to get the links. Titles of the entries are the following:
4/25/06 "Held at Castegandolfo????"
4/25/06 "Partnership for Synthesis Dialogues"
4/26/06 "AGNT - What Do They Believe?"
4/27/06 "Reaching Toward Synthesis"
4/28/06 "Synthesis Dialogues II"
4/28/06 "Gurdjieff Foundations and AGNT"
5/02/06 "Synthesis Dialogues I"
5/03/06 "Peer Perspectives and Synthesis Dialogues"
5/06/06 "John E. Mack and Synthesis Dialogues"
5/09/06 "Adoring Body Parts - Connecting the Dots"
We have been given ample evidence in the sexual abuse scandal that the Roman Catholic Church has engaged in cover-up. What else are they not telling us?
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UPDATE
I have activated the links to previous blogs.
4/25/06 "Held at Castegandolfo????"
4/25/06 "Partnership for Synthesis Dialogues"
4/26/06 "AGNT - What Do They Believe?"
4/27/06 "Reaching Toward Synthesis"
4/28/06 "Synthesis Dialogues II"
4/28/06 "Gurdjieff Foundations and AGNT"
5/02/06 "Synthesis Dialogues I"
5/03/06 "Peer Perspectives and Synthesis Dialogues"
5/06/06 "John E. Mack and Synthesis Dialogues"
5/09/06 "Adoring Body Parts - Connecting the Dots"
