Still Running Off at the Keyboard

BRITISH ISRAELISM

Described at Wikipedia

JEWISH LEADERS IN THE UNIFICATION CHURCH ?

From Wikipedia:

Some members of the Unification Church, including some important leaders, are Jewish. There are also Jewish people employed in church related organizations including the Washington Times and the Unification Theological Seminary.

JEWISH PONTIFICATING CONTINUED

"Hebrew Christian and Crypto Jewish Connections"

In writing of the Blessed Virgin Aharon Yosef (AY) presents the Sophiology that has come out of Russia:

The Virgin is the much sought after Wisdom or Sophia...She is the feminine aspect of Shekinah that went into Exile with Adam and Eve.

The Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that the Shekinah is "The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to 'dwell' among men." Sophiology labels the mother of Christ a goddess. This is contrary to Catholic dogma which proclaims The Blessed Virgin to be fully human. The Catechism of the Catholic Church #971 makes the distinction between adoration of God in Three Persons and devotion to the Mother of God.

AY continues:

Thus the Frankists had a liberated view of the role of woman and woman played an important role in their movement. They were prophets and mystics of great respect...They saw that returning to Eden before the Fall reversed the curse that divided the sexes. They were new Adam's and the new Eve's - the Lords of Creation. The Virgin was seen by Frank as one of the Cherubim/Seraphim who guarded the Garden of Eden. She was the Queen of the Cherubim and Seraphim. Satan or Samael had once been Lucifer, the Ruler of the Cherubim and Seraphim. The Seraphim were holy fiery Serpents and thus Satan took the form of a fallen Serpent or Seraphim. Jesus is symbolized by the Bronze Serpent (a Seraph) on the Cross or Pole in the Book of Numbers. The Two Cherubim of the Garden are the two Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant - they are Jesus and Mary in Eternity as Metatron and Matronita, the male and female aspects of Shekinah. Entry back to Eden (Paradise/pardis/bliss) is through these two Cherubic Hearts. The Frankists wanted to return to the conditions of Paradise where man was naked before God. Some Frankists like the Adamites took this literally and prayed and meditated naked causing scandal to others.

This is Sophiology. Taken to it's conclusion it requires a fourth hypostasis of the Trinity. The Blessed Virgin/Sophia shares deity with Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Sophiology, via Vladimir Soloviev, derived from visionary experiences of a woman who first appeared to Soloviev while he was studying the Kabbalah. Sophiology has significant Gnostic overtones. Gnostics desire to reunite masculine and feminine into the state of original purity.

Jesus as Metatron has no place in Catholic theology. It is a Jewish name for an angel according to Wikipedia. The source is the Talmud. Intermingling Jewish spirituality with Catholic spirituality in this manner makes confusion of both.

AY continues:

The Frankists were misunderstood and slandered by many inside and outside the Church. The Frankists believed that it would only be by joining Rome that the true mystical message of the Jewish people would become universal. They had a vision of being a Jewish leaven in Catholicism, which would move the Church Universal in a more mystical and spiritual direction. They wished to renew the Church on its early Jewish foundations leading to a 'new' Church of all people in an era of peace.

This is a picture of Frankists shared by no other source that I have been able to find, and once again AY has provided no source.

Jewish film director Aran Patinkin is making a film about Jacob Frank titled "Through the Smoked Glass". In the description of this film Patinkin tells us:

On Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement) 1759, Frank homosexually molests one of his male followers in front of all his believers."...

The Christians did not believe that Frank sincerely converted to Christianity, and he is brought to court. The court exposes the cult secrets. Frank is found guilty and is jailed in a remote castle of Chenstochov. The believers continue to visit him there. He accuses them from his imprisonment and orders them to beat each other. Frank copulates with his wife in front of his believers, and orders one of the visiting Frankists to do the same. He demands his followers obey him unconditionally. In 1774 the journey of rectification continues. Frank proclaims his own sixteen years old daughter to be the inheriting Messiah, and takes her virginity in public in order to qualify her for her historic role.

It seems that Aharon Yosef is the only Jew who believes Jacob Frank can be rehabilitated.

In the closing paragraphs of his Pontification, AY once again links the Frankists with the Irvingites, the Catholic Apostolic Church, the Scottish Freemasons, the ecumenical movement, and Pentecostalism/Charismatic Renewal. He tosses in one additional element that I will use to close this look at AY's Pontification:

The Catholic Apostolic Church of Drummond practiced exposition of the Blessed Sacrament which they called Proposition. This custom was especially strong among the early pre 1835 movement drawing on the Eucharistic Adoration movement of the Roman Catholic Church which was strong at this time in Catholic Europe. Joseph Wolff was familiar with this practice in Bavaria in his childhood and also in Rome. The aristocratic and gentry families connected with this early movement practiced Adoration of the Sacrament in their private chapels in their homes. They also had a devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary influenced by the Catholic and Orthodox devotion to Mary growing at this time.

With that passage AY gives us a peek into the heresy on the right.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

FRANKISTS PRACTICE SEXUAL RITES

From the writings of T. Allen Greenfield, Bishop of the Gnostic Catholic Church:

At approximately the same time that Chassidic Judaism was developing, another trend which for many years was almost lost to history was bubbling up in the Ghettoes of Eastern Europe in the wake of the Tzvi messianic expectations. Indeed, most older English-language sources relegate this rather substantial movement to a footnote, usually couched in the most unflattering terms.

This was a sect known as the Zoharists or Frankists, after Jacob Frank (1726-91 EV), originally named Jacob Leibowicz1.

Like the Chassidim, the Zoharists were deeply steeped in Qabala and magick and ecstatic religious expression.

Like the followers of Tzvi, they were also messianic. Unique to the Frankists was a doctrine of salvation through sexual ecstasy that had not characterized these other tendencies. Indeed, the Zoharists anticipated the sexual magick that emerged a century and more later under the influence of such luminaries as P.B. Randolph, Max Theon and, ultimately, Aleister Crowley.

There is a bare chance, in fact, that the Zoharists may have influenced these later exponents of sexual spirituality. ...

Within five years the Rabbinical Judaism had denounced the Zoharists as heretics.
The Frankists enjoyed some protection in Roman Catholic circles, ever hopeful of making conversions among the Jews.

In a certain sense Frank's critique of the Talmudic Judaism of his time resembled the friction between Jesus and the Pharisees of an earlier era.

Frank, who felt that his sect was above restriction, was quick to exploit this protection, and proceeded to promise Baptism of his followers.

He was himself baptized in Warsaw with the Polish King, Augustus III, acting as his godfather.

But the Frankists continued to practice sexual orgiastic ecstasy as a spiritual sacrament, and soon ran afoul of the Holy Inquisition.

Unlike Aharon Yosef's Pontifications, this article cites references.

A CATHOLIC JEW PONTIFICATES

Hebrew Christian and Crypto Jewish Connections

Picking up where I left off yesterday...

According to Aharon Yosef (AY) the followers of Sabbatai Zevi/Jacob Frank took their religion to England where a group called the Adamites was founded. "They went naked in their rituals and meditated nude" indicating that the sensual overtones of this sect were transported with them. Unfortunately that is reminiscent of the priest who claims to say Mass in the nude--the papal latinist who teaches at the Greg which I posted the other day.

AY continues:

When Sabbatai Tzvi rose to prominence some of the Adamites traveled to join him. He mated with Eva the daughter of the chief Adamite leader.

"Mated" is not married. That would seem to be a clear admission that Zevi was immoral. Nevertheless, according to AY "Jacob Frank and the Frankists have been slandered by history through their enemies in the Jewish and Catholic religions. One would have to conclude that Gershom Scholem, who is Jewish and a significant authority on Jewish mysticism, "slandered" the Frankists in order to believe what AY has pontificated without documentation.

But it gets better!

He and his followers were accused of sexual depravity because of the deep 'theology of the body' that Frank taught.

Yes! Theology of the Body. The same title John Paul II used for his book on sexual relations.

AY claims that the Jesuits

understood Frank and his ideas and they were his supporters. Unfortunately the Jesuits themselves were under attack by many negative forces in the Catholic world and were suppressed in 1773 however they continued to exist in the Russian Empire as the Czar refused to allow the Jesuit's suppression in his territory and they continued their work in the Russian provinces of Poland....the Baal Shem Tov and some other Hasidim opposed Frank publicly, in secret they respected his great sanctity and knowledge. Like the Baal Shem Tov, Frank disliked the dry intellectualism of the Judaism of his day and he championed the common man's spirituality. His spirituality was down to earth and practical, similar to what Catholics later would call Opus Dei (the Work of God).

Do Opus Dei priests dance around in the nude, one wonders? Not that I've ever heard!!

From those startling and undocumented statements AY moves on to discuss the "Universal Messianic Religion that would come forth from the present Catholic Church". He speaks of an "Ecumenical Church that would through the Virgin's leading usher in a universal era of peace where the hidden mysticism of the Zohar would be fully understood and deepened as the Torah of Atzilut."

So according to AY, the Blessed Virgin is going to lead her Son's Church back to Judaism which will become the universal religion. And

He foresaw that Poland would be the place that would prepare for the coming universal transformation (by the Divine Will) of the earth in the coming Messianic Era of Peace. He saw Poland as a place to be in the turn of 'night' before the great era of light that was coming. He foresaw a Slavic or Polish Pope who would draw on the insights that his follower's descendants in Poland would spread in spiritual and mystical circles among the common people. He also foresaw a great role for the Jews and for the French in this coming time. He foresaw a united Catholic Europe under a Great Catholic Monarch called Messiah ben Ephraim (or Messiah ben Joseph) a Catholic descendant of King David and a descendant of the Stuart Kings.

All of that presumably comes from Jacob Frank. While it would seem that AY is predicting the reign of John Paul II, once again we are told this without documentation.

Frank also developed a deep mystical 'theology of the body' based on the teachings of the Zohar. It was earthy and sexual while being mystical at the same time.

There it is again--Theology of the Body. Is AY attempting to imply that John Paul II took the title of his book from the immoral teachings of Jacob Frank? What chutzpah! I would simply dismiss this outright were it not for research I did in occultism and reported in this blog titled "Messianism and Adam Mickiewicz", dated July 19, 2005, which bears an uncanny resemblance to what AY has written. The blog is too long and involved to include here. If you have an interest, please go over there and read it.

Returning to the Pontification:

His enemies and even some of his Frankists midunderstood these teaching and distorted and misrepresented them. Some of his followers took these teachings into an occult direction such as his relative Moses Debuchka. Frank also correctly perceived that the Catholic Church...of his time was not fully ready for his insights so that he and his followers must practice 'holy silence' outside the Frankist's circles. Through their silence they must become a Jewish leaven in Catholicism from which in the fullness of time would emerge 'holy knowledge' (Daat) hidden within the Zohar which would be universalized for the benefit and enlightenment of all

That is a description of plans for infiltration.

The Roman Catholic Church is suffering through a major sexual abuse scandal.

Jacob Frank preached an earthy and sexual mysticism.

There is little doubt that Pentecostalism has found a home in Roman Catholicism, and now we are told by Aharon Yosef that the Jewish mysticism of the heretics Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank were instrumental in the founding of Pentecostalism.

Aharon Yosef claims Frank's beliefs have been enthroned within the Roman Catholic Church.

To be continued.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

JOSEPH WOLFF

Aharon Yosef (AY) pontificates about him in the blog I began unpacking this morning. In an effort to corroborate what AY has written, I went to the Jewish Encyclopedia entry for Wolff. Yes, Wolff was a real-life historical Jew. He converted to Catholicism, but

having publicly attacked the doctrine of infallibility, he was expelled from the papal dominions on account of erroneous opinions. After a brief stay at the Monastery of the Redemptorists at Val Sainte...he went to England to visit the eccentric Henry Drummond, M.P.

He traveled around the orient, but raised the hackles of Asian potentates as well. According to the Encyclopedia "he confronted the sovereigns of Central Asia with imperturbable audacity, refusing to conform to their court etiquette or to observe any ceremony in his speech".

He shifted religious committment again by joining the Anglican Church:

In 1845 he was presented with the vicarage of Ile Brewers in Somerset, where he resided until his death. Before joining the Church of England, Wolff had entertained all sorts of religious opinions. He was a member of the little band which met in Henry Drummond's house at Advent, 1826, for a six days' study of the Scriptures, which resulted in the orgination of the Catholic Apostolic Church under the leadership of Irving....His greatest opposition came from the Jews...Wolff was possessed of many erratic ideas. In India he was considered a fanatic; in England he was at one time ostracized by the clergy; and he bent all facts to suit his theories of the lost tribes.

Wikipedia offers an interesting Wolff fact:

In his travels in Bokhara he found the doctrine of the Lord's soon coming held by a remote and isolated people. The Arabs of Yemen, he says, "are in possession of a book called 'Seera,' which gives notice of the coming of Christ and His reign in glory, and they expect great events to take place in the year 1840." "In Yemen I spent six days with the Rechabites....With them were the children of Israel of the tribe of Dan,...who expect, in common with the children of Rechab, the speedy arrival of the Messiah in the clouds of heaven."

In his Pontification, AY calls Joseph Wolff "a famous Jewish convert to Christianity". I think "infamous" would be a better choice of adjectives.

Incidently, Wikipedia has an entry for Tzadikim Nistarim and describes them as AY has described them.

"HEBREW CHRISTIAN AND CRYPTO JEWISH CONNECTIONS"

You will find an essay with that title here This is the weblog of Aharon Yosef who appears to go by the name Athol Bloomer as well if the first comment in the comments block is any indication. Ahron Yosef (hereinafter referred to as "AY") styles his weblog "A Catholic Jew Pontificates" and cites Father Elias Friedman, founder of the Association of Hebrew Catholics.

This is quite a Pontification. One blog is not going to cover it, but it's a beginning. From the website:

This blog is to vent my opinions on life, the universe and everything. Which is 42 which in gematria is "My Heart". The Divine Heart is the centre of
everything.

Hmmm.

The heart is the seat of the evil inclination; from it stems desire and gravitation to sin. (Steinsaltz, OPENING THE TANYA, p. 55)

First the Pontification speaks of the "Apostasy of the Gentiles". No argument there. We are, indeed, in the midst of apostasy. It speaks of the need to pay attention to the "signs of the times":

Another of the 'Signs of the Times' was to be the conversion or 'Ingrafting" of the Jews. The 18th and 19th centuries saw thousands of Jews becoming Christians and the Frankist Jews also entered the Church as a group under their leader Jacob Leibowitz Frank.

Let's stop right there since he is speaking of the Frankists. They were followers of the Jewish heretic Sabbatai Zevi. Gershom Scholem, a recognized authority on Jewish mysticism, speaks of them. In the chapter titled "Sabbatianism and Mystical Heresy" he writes:

We must all descend into the realm of evil in order to vanquish it from within. In varying theoretical guises the apostles of nihilism preached the doctrine of the existence of spheres in which the process of Tikkun can no longer be advanced by pious acts; Evil must be fought with evil. We are thus gradually led to a position which, as the history of religion shows, occurs with a kind of tragic necessity in every great crisis of the religious mind. I am referring to the fatal, yet at the same time deeply fascinating doctrine of the holiness of sin, that doctrine which in a remarkable way reflects a combination of two widely different elements: the world of moral decadence and another, more primitive, region of the soul in which long-slumbering forces are capable of sudden resurrection. That in the religious nihilism of Sabbatianism, which during the eighteenth century proved so dangerous to the most precious possession of Judaism, its moral substance, both these elements had a share, cannot be proved better than by the tragic history of its last phase, the Frankist movement. (Scholem, MAJOR TRANDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM, p. 315)

Those are the Frankists.

Returning to AY's Pontification:

The Jewish adorers of the Divine Heart were known as the Kabbalah mystics or Chaverim....In Eastern and Central Europe a secret society of these Jewish Chaverim formed the Society of the Nistarim.

Today's Nistarim are not secret. They are very much out in the open and presumably making money in the process of doing their thing. But I digress.

Apparently Joseph Wolff was an early Nistarim, though the Pontification doesn't actually say that. It does say that he was "a famous Jewish convert to Christianity." It also says:

The story of Joseph Wolff and Sir Henry Drummond is a very interesting one connected with the Irvingites and the Catholic Apostolic Church. This story is also connected to the Frankists and Cardinal Henry Stuart (York) and the Jacobites.

Joseph Wolff was the son of a Rabbi according to the Pontification. He played a role in the genesis of the Hebrew Christian movement. He became a Hebrew Catholic after being raised an Orthodox Jew and subsequently became a Hebrew Christian evangelist and an Anglican priest. His mother was a granddaughter of Jacob Frank, and his education was financed by Frankist Jews who were supported by a group of Jesuits and Cardinal York. He was a "Jewish wonder child" descended from Sabbatai Zevi through his father, according to AY.

Irvingites:

Although the Pentecostal movement had its beginnings in the United States, much of its basic theology was rooted in earlier British perfectionistic and charismatic movements. At least three of these--the Methodist holiness movement, the Catholic Apostolic movement of Edward Irving, and the British Keswick "Higher Life" movement--prepared the way for what appeared to be a spontaneous outpouring of the Holy Spirit in America. (Synan, THE CENTURY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: 100 YEARS OF PENTECOSTAL AND CHARISMATIC RENEWAL, p. 2)

Synan is the foremost authority on the history of Pentecostalism.

The Nistarim were founded by Rabbi Elijah Baal Shem for the purpose of preserving the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia and the Zohar. These teachings were brought to Krakow, Poland by Rabbi Joseph Jospa, another Jewish wonder child. He appeared openly as a healer and miracle worker in Worms, according to the Pontification.

The booklet "Toledot Adam" ("The Generations of Adam") contains Nistarim mystical beliefs including healing remedies, and describes, according to the Pontification,

a Kabbalistic practice involving mystical squares and the seven seals of God. In a tradition coming from Rabbi Abraham Abulafia he attained the level or experience of Rauch ha Kodesh (the Holy Spirit) and through this experience he received the healing power through the name of Mashiach ben Joseph (Messiah son of Joseph)....Abulafia had taught that this experience of the Holy Spirit could be received by Jew or Gentile, man or woman.

Adam Baal Shem Tov was according to Hasidic tradition the third leader of the Society of the Nistarim in Eastern Europe....He was a secret son of Sabbatai Tzvi (1626-1676)....Sabbatai Tzvi's mother was the daughter or granddaughter of Rabbi Elijah Baal Shem the founder of the Nistarim.

I plugged "nistarim" into the Jewish Encyclopedia search window and got a response of "There are no search results."

I plugged "Nistarim" into My Jewish Learning search window and got "Your search - Nistarim - did not match any documents. No pages were found containing "Nistarim".

I plugged "nistarim" into Google and found Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab where you can read:

TZADIKIM NISTARIM

Also called the Lamed Vev, two letters in the Hebrew alphabet that translate to the number thirty-six. In this violent, ugly, strife-riddled world of ours there are thirty-six men, the Hidden Just Men or Hidden Saints, who bear on their shoulders the burden of all our pain, sorrows and sins. The Tzadikim Nistarim move in obscurity, and are usually found among the poor, the downtrodden and the meekest among us, and are chosen for this task because of their righteousness, stalwart sense of genuine justice, and the true goodness of their souls. When one of these men dies, God chooses another to take his place. It is for their sake and for love of them that God does not destroy His imperfect creation. As long as the Lamed Vav serves humanity, the world will continue to plod on, but once one of them dies and God cannot find another worthy to take his place, the world will be destroyed. In Qabala, the thirty-six men of the Tzadikim Nistarim together combine to symbolize the seventy-two bridges, corresponding to the seventy-two names of God, that connect the concealed and revealed worlds of our universe. The scent is one of unadulterated spiritual purity, with a taste of the world's eternal pathos, and the joy of suffering with grace: frankincense, olive, spikenard, hyssop and galangal.
.purchase 5ml.

If you click over there check out the scents for "gluttony", "greed", "lust", "pride", "sloth"...

To be continued.

NO THANKS ROLLING STONES

A Polish Catholic charity has refused to take a donation from the Rolling Stones for the families of 26 Polish pilgrims killed in a coach crash last week.

The group said it would donate money from ticket sales from its concert in Warsaw to the families of those who died in the coach crash in France.

But the Caritas charity said it wanted nothing to do with the band's offer because the concert was taking place during a period of national mourning for the dead which ends at midnight tonight.

There is a possibility the concert might be cancelled in an effort to avoid corruption of Polish society:

Local authorities and the government confirmed they would be consulting a list being drawn up by an NGO called the All-Polish Defence Committee Against Sects (OKOPS), which tries to track down corrupting influences on Polish society and youth.

And government ministries and local authorities said they would use it as a basis of deciding which bands will be banned from performing, and there were fears that it might mean a ban for the Stones concert.

Read the whole article...

HOMOSEXUAL TEACHERS IN MALTA CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

Malta's Union of Teachers is threatening to publish the details of four attempts to oust gay and lesbian teachers from Roman Catholic school posts, unless the government launches an independent inquiry into sexual orientation discrimination.

According to the union, Church schools were under pressure from parents to fire the teachers, leading to four interventions in the past five years.

Continue reading...

KERALA CATHOLICS WANT CHURCH DEMOCRATIZED

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Latin Catholic Association (KLCA) has called for radical reforms to democratise the Catholic Church and check the amassment of wealth by a section of the clergy.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, KLCA president Anto Marcelene and leader of the women’s wing Cordial Stephen rejected the pastoral letter issued by the Thiruvananthapuram Archbishop on Sunday.

“It is only when the leadership of the Church senses a crisis in the education sector that it issues a pastoral letter. They remain inert when it comes to offering assistance to fishermen families reeling under the impact of coastal erosion and contagious diseases or to ensure reservation for the Latin community,” they said.

Mr. Marcelene said the clergy had appropriated minority rights for their own benefit. “They are only interested in amassing wealth and maintaining power and authority. The laity does not benefit by the stand adopted by the Church. Believers have no say in the management and administration of institutions under the Church. Yet, they are expected to participate in agitations for minority rights.”

Mr. Marcelene accused the Archbishop of shedding crocodile tears for the deprived sections of the laity. “Poor fishermen families have to shell out hefty donations to get their children admitted to educational institutions under the Church. It is this craze for money that has driven the Church to set up shopping complexes. Foreign funds and revenue from commercial activities are not properly accounted.”

Continue reading...

FIRST U.S. FAITH AND ORDER CONFERENCE

"You of the Faith and Order movement are the salt of the earth," said the Rev. James Forbes, preaching at the final prayer service of a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first ecumenical Conference on Faith and Order.

Some 300 persons gathered on the campus of Oberlin College in Ohio, where the first meeting took place, for the National Council of Churches USA (NCC)-sponsored conference to take stock of the Christian ecumenical movement in North America. For five days participants examined several questions including what Christian unity in the United States might look like.

The movement known as "Faith and Order" actually traces its history in the United States to 1910 when Episcopal Bishop Charles Henry Brent and Disciples of Christ leader Peter Ainsley, among others, began to articulate the need for a setting where churches could together engage their differences in understanding the Christian faith and God’s intention for the right-ordering of the Church.

Brent would have been pleased with the 2007 conference, Bishop C. Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church’s deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations, told Episcopal News Service.

"This was not a clone of the 1957 conference, but perhaps a bridge to the next generation of Faith and Order scholars," he said. "The number of younger participants was impressive as was the breadth of Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical participation."

Forbes who recently retired after 18 years as senior minister at The Riverside Church in New York City told the prayer service that if there ever was a time for a new Great Awakening to happen in the United States, the time is now.

"Who would’ve thought that the new Great Awakening could breakout at a Faith
and Order conference," Forbes said, urging nearly 300 attendees to return to their 80 Christian denominations and organizations to be "truth and light at a time of darkness."

Continue reading...

HEBREW CATHOLICS

Wikipedia has an entry for Hebrew Catholics that contains the following:

Hebrew Catholics (in Hebrew עברים קתולים Ivrim Qatholim) are Christians who consider themselves part of the Roman Catholic Church and who follow a liturgy in Hebrew. Many are resident in Israel.

Hebrew Catholics are fully in line with the doctrines of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The main point of differentiation lies not in dogmatic beliefs but in liturgical pratices. For example, their liturgical calendar differs from Latin Catholics in their use of Jewish holidays. Hebrew Catholics celebrate Passover, Rosh Hashana, Shavuot, etc.

The movement is not a sectarian nor a schismatic group inside the Catholic Church. Their identification as Hebrew and as Catholic derives from their spiritual background as belonging to the Hebrew People and to the Catholic faith. They do not respond to any other "catholic" denominations but only to the "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" at the Vatican See. Their masses are held principally in the Latin Rite (and in fact in the Roman Rite) but in the Hebrew Language. In Israel they are under the pastoral care of Monsignor Michel Sabbah, current Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

How can a group of Hebrew Catholics use a different liturgical calendar? Isn't there only one liturgical calendar? Isn't one of the sticking points over the SSPX the liturgical calendar? How can they be Roman Catholic while clinging to Jewish holidays?

What rite is a "Latin Rite in the Hebrew Language"? Novus Ordo? Tridentine?

KABBALAH AND MODERNITY

An International Conference at the University of Amsterdam, Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, July 4-6, 2007, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Speakers and Abstracts

ENOCHIAN JUDAISM ? ? ? ?

It's only available in a cached version of a my Catholic network webpage. From the website:

We are all familiar with the Mosaic tradition of Judaism, from which the modern day observants of the Jewish faith come. But many scholars believe that Jesus’ theology was much more consistent with an older alternative form of Judaic theology, based on the patriarch Enoch. Enochian Judaism existed before the division of nations among the Jewish people, and was therefore more reflective of the unity that existed in Mesopotamian and Sumerian culture. Enoch was the seventh patriarch in succession from Noah, and was deeply mystical in his approach to the divine. He possessed the “secrets of Heaven and Earth,” and “walked with God”. He was skilled at divination and astrology, and gave the Jewish people the solar calendar. And it is from this Sumerian High Priest that a sect of priests known as “Keepers of the Secrets” was born.

Huh?????

The links at the website all go to the same webpage that offers nothing further.

Is that webpage the same "Spiritus Project" as this webpage? Because if it is, this is the gay church.

This appears to be the book that is the source for claims about Enochian Judaism.

The UCLA website lists the book on its Virtual Qumram website. Enochian Judaism can be found under the Second Temple period.

At the University of North Carolina Charlotte website are remarks by Prof. James Tabor Delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 1997. From the remarks:

I think the evidence is strong, both internally and externally (dating of the texts--paleography/C-14), that the crisis of belief that this text reflects had come to a climax in the mid-first century B.C.E. In other words, surely by the time of the Roman invasion of Palestine (63 B.C.E.) and the reign of Herod the Great (37 BCE), such hopes and expectations had been severely tried and found wanting. I do not think the more general movement completely perished--that is what Boccaccini refers to as "Enochian Judaism" or as I would prefer: the Messianic movement in Palestine--from the Maccabees to Masada. It might well be the case, however, that as a specific party or school of thinking (the Yachad), the strict adherents to the figure of the Teacher of Righteousness were dispersed or largely faded away.

Enochian Judaism turns up at the Daily Grail website. The essay is entitled "Turning the Hiram Key" by Robert Lomas:

I have developed an hypothesis that modern Freemasonry was created by William St Clair during the building of the Chapel at Roslin. I believe that he drew on various religious traditions, such as Enochian Judaism, Phoenician Goddess worship, Christianity and the Norse mythology of Freyja. ..the path of Freemasonry evolved from a mix of some of the oldest teachings on spiritual growth.

FR. TOM EUTENEUER WILL BE CELEBRATING MASS AT EWTN

this week according to his email. That's today through Saturday.

SORDID STORY OF A CHICAGO PRIEST

The Rev. Mark Sorvillo loved taking his parish's money and spending it on himself. Trips to Rome, Venice, Paris. And $900 meals at New York restaurants.

In 1999, Sorvillo found someone else to lavish his parishioners' collection-plate donations on -- a male stripper.

Sorvillo -- who pleaded guilty Friday to stealing nearly $200,000 from St. Margaret Mary parish on the North Side -- gave cars, plane tickets and thousands of dollars in cash to James Sosnicki, a married Louisville man who stripped frequently at gay clubs in Chicago, law enforcement sources said.

Reached in Louisville, Sosnicki told the Chicago Sun-Times he paid Sorvillo back -- and said their relationship was never sexual.

"He was like a big uncle to me," Sosnicki, 30, said Thursday. "If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be living in a cardboard box right now."

Sorvillo's lawyer, Brian Collins, declined to comment.

Sorvillo resigned from St. Margaret Mary in February 2006 after parishioners caught him stealing from the collection bags.

Read the rest...

Hat tip to NOR.

THE DANGERS OF HARRY POTTER

From a NOR link:

he leading exorcist of Mexico's main archdiocese said the popular Harry Potter book and film series could allow the devil to enter children's minds, and does ''a lot of damage.''

The Reverend Pedro Mendoza, a Roman Catholic priest and exorcist coordinator of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, made the comments at the end of a five-day exorcism conference in Mexico City.

''If you put all these ideas in a child's head, that he can become a wizard, the child believes that, and that is opening an avenue through which the devil can get in,'' Mendoza said Friday - the eve of the release of the series' final book.

Read more...

MARY K. HAYDEN'S LINEAGE

Reminiscent of Catholic Apostolic Succession, occultist Mary K. Hayden displays her lineage on her website. Two steps back is the name Kathleen Ann Milner.

Milner is a worldwide teacher of Reiki, Shamanic experience, healing, Tera Mai Seichem, and something else I have not seen associated with Wiccans until now--Enochian magic attunement.

Enochian is the language of the angels according to occultist John Dee, who worked with Edward Kelly, the medium who did the actual speaking with the angels. It is described in detail at this Golden Dawn website. The website discusses the disagreement about it's safety. Occultist Paul Foster Case believed it is "volatile and dangerous". Its association with Kabbalah, or Qabalah, is openly acknowledged.

If a Catholic nun offers to perform Reiki over you, be aware of what she is messing around with!

MORE QUOTES FROM RABBI ADIN STEINSALTZ

Taken from the book OPENING THE TANYA: DISCOVERING THE MORAL & MYSTICAL TEACHINGS OF A CLASSIC WORK OF KABBALAH:

- The Torah has numerous modes of interpretation; a single word or phrase will have many meanings, all true, for it was meant by its divine author to be read from various angles and in various contexts. (p. 53)

- The basis of all that the TANYA will say is that every Jew possesses two souls. (p. 56)

- Thus, we say that the soul enclothes itself in the blood of the human being. It hides itself in the blood and manifests itself in the blood, providing the body with the spiritual force of life and vitality, and hiding behind the body's obscuring veil of corporeality. The blood is the medium through which the animal soul--the spiritual force that supplies the body with physical life--manifests itself. (p. 60-61)

- But even in the animal, biological sense, the Jewish soul is a species unto itself. Just as living things are a unique genre in creation, and the human being is a unique species of animal, so is the Jew a unique species of human... (p. 64-65)

- The second soul of the Jew is a part of God above, literally. As it is written, "And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," "And You breathed it into me"... (p. 70)

- ChaBaD (acrostic of chokhmah, binah, daat) (p. 103)

- In mathematical terms, the function of this dimension of binah (its depth) is comparable to squaring the circle... (p. 110)

- In Hebrew, the word daat (commonly translated as "knowledge") implies a relation and connection such as between a man and his wife, as in the verse "And Adam knew (yada) his wife Eve"... (p. 115) [Is this concept sexual? - ct]

-Daat, as we said, is the soul's connection to a subject, the part of the mind that decides "This relates to me," "This is important to me." A person makes this connection by "fixing his mind," by focusing on a certain truth and meditating upon it until it becomes an integral fixture of his soul. This fixing of the mind must be constant; for if one diverts one's mind, there is no longer any daat, and the matter is no longer fixed in his soul. This diversion of the mind does not mean that the person's understanding of the matter has disappeared but that the mind is no longer birth to any emotions in the soul. (p. 117) [Chaos magicians have various techniques for accomplishing this, some dangerous enough to kill - ct]

- "Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the World to Come." (p. 120)

LIVING WAGE

St. Thomas University has implemented a living wage policy to cover its housekeeping and grounds maintenance employees. Twenty will get a raise of $3 per hour to $10.27. Before the raise workers were earning around $16,000, $4,000 below the federal poverty guidelines for a family of four.

St. Thomas and Georgetown are the only two Catholic universities with a living wage policy.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Trinity Western's Latin teacher provides commentary on the English translation of the recent CDF document that is raising so many hackles. He says in essence that the English translation is defective.

CATHOLIC UTOPIA IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Ave Maria, Florida revealed to the public.

Will Protestants and Jews really want to live there, or is this the first Catholic ghetto? Will giving streets names such as Assisi and Annunciation, and naming buildings Loyola and Avila lift up the culture or drag down the religion?

It's an interesting experiment, trying to artificially redeem the culture. Sort of reminds me of the good intentions behind Vatican II. We know how that turned out. It will be interesting to see how this city will.

LOS ANGELES

Is there a city better known for corrupting the morals of America than Los Angeles? A city that better represents secular leadership? Yet author Raphael J. Sonenshein has written a book titled POLITICS IN BLACK AND WHITE: RACE AND POWER IN LOS ANGELES. His article in the L A Times discusses the development of the city from a religious point of view:

Religion has always played a significant role in Los Angeles politics, although just which group has the upper hand has changed a number of times over the years. We're now in the third "era" of religion as a political force in the city, in which Catholics are once again playing a vibrant role in the transformation of Los Angeles -- and the $660-million settlement in the clergy abuse scandal seems unlikely to alter the situation much.

The first era began with the city's founding in 1781 under Catholic auspices; its full name was "The Town of Our Lady of the Queen of the Angels." The Catholic archdiocese was founded in 1840.

But beginning in the 1880s, an influx of white Americans gradually displaced the city's Catholic community of mostly Mexican-origin residents as the predominant political and cultural force, ushering in the second era. The new Angelenos brought with them a Midwestern Protestant heritage that, by 1900, had become a militant conservatism married to a Progressivism antithetical to machine politics. They wanted to build a great metropolis without what they considered the "vices" -- immigrants, unions, party bosses, liberals, minorities, Catholics and Jews -- of New York and Chicago.

"In 1900," historian Mitchell Gelfand says, "Los Angeles was about as much a native, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant city as existed anywhere in the United States for its size."

Sonenshein claims the shift back to Catholicism took place in 1993 and that Cardinal Mahony played a major role:

The alliance between two Irish American Catholics, Richard Riordan, elected mayor in 1993, and Roger Mahony, elevated to cardinal in 1991, provided a new look at how religion and politics intersected in L.A. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, whose construction began during the Riordan administration, showcased the emerging role of the church in civic life and complemented Riordan's dreams for a reborn downtown.

And the future he sees:

A generation of popular Latino political leaders, chief among them Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, today overshadows the church. But that could change if a dynamic Latino cardinal were someday named head of the archdiocese. Then Los Angeles, overlooked for much of the 20th century, would command the attention of the 21st century world.

Will the Latinos be able to change Los Angeles? Or will Los Angeles merely corrupt the Latinos by its secular way of living?

FROM THE EMAILBOX

Spirit & Life®

"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)

Human Life International e-Newsletter

Volume 01, Number 76 | Friday, July 20, 2007
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www.hli.org

The Blood That Saves

In the month of July the Church meditates in a special way upon the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. While it may seem strange for a religious people to be devoted to something as earthly as blood, it is not just anyone's blood that we meditate on. It is the Blood of the Paschal Lamb who was slain for the sins of the whole world, and we truly worship His Blood as the perfect sacrifice which sanctifies us.

The Old Testament gives us abundant evidence of the sanctifying power of blood. For example, the blood of Abel cried out to God from the earth when he was killed by Cain. Moses instructed the people of Israel to apply the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their homes in Egypt in order to be saved from the destroying angel, and then he sprinkled the blood of the covenant over the people to purify them and strengthen them to keep God's commands. King Solomon established the cult of blood sacrifice of animals as Israel's primary form of worship and atonement for their sins. A blood sacrifice even averted a plague in the time of David. Blood, therefore, had an undeniable significance for the people of Israel as expiation for sins, protection from evil and as a means of consecration.

The New Testament tells us, however, that there is one perfect sacrifice of blood which surpasses all others. This sacrifice is the Blood of Christ "which speaks more eloquently than the blood of Abel" says the Book of Hebrews (12: 24); Hebrews also says that It cleanses our consciences to make us capable of true worship and St. Paul adds that It has the power to break down the barrier wall of animosity between God and man. We know that Christ's Blood flowed from His pierced Heart on Calvary as a font of sacramental life of the Church, and St. Peter's first letter describes this Blood as precious "beyond all price, the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb." (1:19) Truly, there is no greater gift in all eternity than the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ!

So if this Blood was shed for each one of us, how do we receive Its full benefit? Simple. We spiritually "apply" the Blood of Christ to things and people for their sanctification. This is done by an act of imagination, will and prayer on our part, especially at the moment of consecration at Mass. Because Christ's Blood can dissolve bonds of evil and sin we can spiritually "cover" our loved ones and friends with the Blood of Christ if they are living immoral lives or immersed in environments of great sin. Imagine a rain of Precious Blood gently falling on your son or daughter in their home or workplace. One may bring a loved one spiritually to Calvary and place his hand on the wood of the Cross so that the Blood of Christ will flow down and seep into the very depths of his being. This happens by our willing it and by the depth of faith with which we make our prayer.

We can also bring a person, spiritually, to the altar at Mass, and when the priest raises the chalice at the moment of consecration, place her in the chalice to be immersed in love and detached from her sin. These devotional exercises do not replace the sacramental grace of Confession of course, but they apply the Blood towards the salvation of our people.

There is no greater force of spirit and life than the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. It is our protection from the evil one, our detachment from sin and our sanctification in all circumstances of life. It brings conversion, enlightenment and peace when we apply it to all the needs of the world, especially the greatest need: the salvation of souls. That, after all, is why It was shed!

Sincerely Yours in Christ,javascript:void(0)
Publish Post

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

P.S. Stay tuned for next week's Spirit and Life on the Precious Blood as it relates to our work in the pro-life movement. This will be an excerpt from my upcoming book on Exorcism.