Saturday, August 25, 2007
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 81 | August 24, 2007
.................................................................................. www.hli.org
Dear Friends of HLI - please join me in welcoming our guest columnist, Mr. John Mallon, to the Spirit and Life e-newsletter. An archive of John's articles may be found at http://www.johnmallon.net, and an archive of his articles by category is under construction on the HLI website.
Amnesty International: What Part of Human Rights Don't You Understand?
It's Official: Amnesty International Joins the Culture of Death
By John Mallon
It's official. Amnesty International (AI) has betrayed its mission.
AI's executive committee decision of last April, to treat abortion as a human right, was ratified by delegates to their international meeting in August.
In so doing, they have departed the civilization they were founded to uphold and joined the Culture of Death.
Western civilization has, until recently, been based on the 4,000-year-old Judeo-Christian ethic expressed in the Ten Commandments. Human rights are derived from this tradition, which its adherents believe come from God. The Western legal tradition is based largely on this. While not without difficulties, it has worked remarkably well.
The Culture of Death has emerged as various elites of society discarded elements of the Judeo-Christian ethic in the name of expediency, convenience, and most ironically, "being realistic."
Whether one is a believer or not, it is clear that the traditional moral code, including - especially - those elements regarding sexual behavior, make for a better ordered, more sane and balanced society. Believers know that sin leads to death. Lots of sin leads to a culture of death.
The claim is that AI is "protecting women" with this move. Rather than focusing resources on making and enforcing laws against rape and other forms of violence against women, especially in wartime and the developing world, AI instead sides with destroying the innocent "products" of sexual violence - not to mention further traumatizing the woman. Once again, life is made easier for criminal men who abuse women.
So, in reality, with AI's decision the world is now not a safer, more just, place to live, but a much more dangerous place, not only for women but for all people, because AI has used its reputation and credibility to place a truly helpless group of people - the unborn - outside the purview of human rights. No one is safe because as history shows, once the blood starts flowing it is hard to stop. No one should know this better than AI, but now they have joined the enemy. They have become their own enemy. They are now complicit in genocide.
Of course, the feminist blogosphere is touting this as a "victory" over the Catholic Church. That clarifies the battle lines doesn't it?
Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and former Vatican Observer to the United Nations, has called this move a betrayal and called on Catholics to stop supporting AI.
In a July 10th letter to William S. Skylstad, Bishop of Spokane, Washington, and sitting president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, writes that the Bishops' Conference "incorrectly asserted that AI has adopted a 'pro-abortion stand'." Cox defends the policy saying it merely "seeks to ensure that women and men can exercise their sexual and reproductive rights free from coercion, discrimination and violence."
Mr. Cox objects to the U.S. bishops calling Amnesty International's new pro-abortion policy a "pro-abortion stand," invoking, rather "sexual and reproductive rights."
"Sexual and reproductive rights" means basically the "right" to commit fornication, sodomy, and abortion. Throughout history the major world religions have condemned these acts, and with good reason. The misuse and perversion of the sexual faculty leads to death.
In reality, sin kills whether you believe in the concept or not.
Simply put, "sexual and reproductive rights" are ideologically manufactured "rights" and therefore not "rights" at all.
AI has thrown in with the abortion lobby - the angels of death like population controllers, the United Nations Population Fund, Planned Parenthood, Marie Stopes, and others, human rights abusers all.
By its actions Amnesty International has shown that in today's world what determines a "human right" is based on ideology rather than human dignity.
..................................................................................
John Mallon is Contributing Editor for Inside the Vatican magazine and does public relations for Human Life International.
Friday, August 24, 2007
THINK THE CHARTER PROTECTS THE KIDS ?
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y., Aug. 22 — For nearly two years, students at St. Dominic Savio Middle School here — particularly the girls — referred to Christian Butler, a part-time computer teacher, as “the Perv.”
Mr. Butler began earning that nickname shortly after the school opened in 2002, frequently making lewd comments in class and, in a one-on-one encounter, coarsely complimenting a pre-teen girl on her body, according to court records and interviews with his former students, their parents and a co-worker.
Students turned on the laptop computers assigned to them to find pornography, both live and animated. At least twice, students said, Mr. Butler projected crude images, including one of two topless women wrestling in mud, onto walls during class.
He was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in prison for violating probation requirements stemming from his 2005 guilty plea on charges of possessing child pornography and endangering the welfare of a minor. At the same time, two families of his victims are filing a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo seeking $1.5 million and an apology, claiming that school and church officials ignored repeated complaints about Mr. Butler until a former student alerted the police in June 2004.
“What did they do when this behavior was repeated for two years?” asked one of the plaintiffs, Remi Gonzalez, a director for the Niagara Falls Catholic Youth Council, a Eucharistic minister and the father of one of the girls. “They did nothing and made these kids live with a sexual predator.”
Continue reading...
According to the article this guy did what he did in plain sight in a classroom setting. He did it after the Dallas Charter was put in place. The principal was told that he was doing it--one person claims she told the principal 20 times that there was a problem--but allegedly the principal did nothing.
IN THE CONTINUING CLEVELAND DIOCESAN SOAP OPERA...
A former accountant for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese testified Thursday that his business partner, Anton Zgoznik, routinely inflated bills and doctored invoices submitted to the diocese.
Zgoznik is on trial in U.S. District Court for charges related to what prosecutors say was a kickback scheme with the diocese's former chief financial officer, Joseph Smith, who will stand trial later this year.
During his second day on the witness stand, Zrino Jukic said the diocese paid him and Zgoznik $17.5 million over five years. Many of those payments were based on falsified billing receipts, Jukic said.
Read the whole story...
Ok, if the bills were inflated and the diocese is innocent of corruption, why did the diocesan accountants pay the inflated bills?
ANOTHER LIBERAL BISHOP SPEAKS OUT
From the Australian "The Age":
THE Catholic Church is still not serious about confronting sexual abuse, only "managing" it, according to the Sydney bishop who headed Australian efforts to tackle abuse.
Bishop Geoffrey Robinson says the Catholic Church needs to reverse 2000 years of teaching on sex and power as part of radical reforms from the Pope down.
While it refuses to look at some fundamental teachings — including sex outside marriage, women priests, homosexuality and papal power — the culture that produced and protected abusers will continue, he says.
These explosive claims — unprecedented for a bishop — are in a book to be launched tomorrow: Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church.
Bishop Robinson, 70, who was abused as a child, headed the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference professional standards committee for a decade until he retired because he was so disillusioned in 2004.
Calling for the most radical changes since Martin Luther started the 16th century Protestant Reformation, Bishop Robinson says the Pope has failed the church, and the church has failed its members.
"I'm aware of how radical the call I'm making is. I'm looking for a very different church," he told The Age.
Continue reading...
SEER GETS FOUR MORE YEARS IN JAIL
An Australian news website reports:
CULT leader and self-proclaimed prophet William Kamm has been sentenced to an extra four years in jail for raping one of his former followers.
Kamm, 56, ordered the girl, then 14, to have sex with him, saying it was God's will because she was chosen by the Virgin Mary to help him repopulate the earth with his mystical seed.
Read the rest...
HOLY UNION - THE ORDER OF ST. ALRED
Yesterday in a blog about "Alchemy and Kabbalah" I quoted a passage from a paper by Micha Ankori, at the New Israeli Jungian Society website, titled "A Mytho-Psychological Study of the Biblical Legacy: Based on Parallels between Jewish Mysticism and Alchemic Art." The section I quoted is titled "The Holy Union", and the paper discusses the erotic content of the Kabbalah.
It may perhaps be the case that the Order of St. Aelred, located in Manila, Philippines, has read the paper because this Monastery offers a ritual they call "Holy Union". They equate this Holy Union to the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. It does not involve "any law of the government" and "does not require a license, a registration or any other governmental intervention", nor does it convey any legal privilege. It is open to a woman and a man, a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.
Their "About" page indicates they offer a hotline for resolving problems related to sexuality, including coming out, being gay and lesbian and Christian. There is a link on this page for their "Center for the Study of Spirituality and Sexuality (CSSS)".
Their "Sex and Salvation" webpage is taken up primarily by a picture, but also indicates that Fr. Richard R. Mickley, O.S.Ae., helps Bayani Santos, Jr. in publishing ManilaOUT, a publication of "News, information, and advocacy for seven million gays and lesbians in the Philippines".
The Order of St. Aelred's belongs to the Diocese of One Spirit. Fr. Mickley is listed at the diocesan website. His bio there indicates Fr. Mickley has a doctorate in clinical psychology, that he is associate bishop of the diocese, and bishop of the diocese in the Philippines.
The bishop of the diocese, James H. Burch, is also president of the Association for Contemporary Catholic Life, pastor of One Spirit Catholic Community in Fairfax, Virginia, a former real estate developer, a former political consultant, and Press Secretary to a U.S. Senator. He was founding chairman of the World Trade Center, Washington, D. C.
The diocese concentrates on home churches. There is a picture of a priest saying mass at this webpage along with a hint that a Roman Catholic priest would be welcome to minister in this diocese. It would be hard to tell that this is not a Roman Catholic Mass from the picture at the website. Some of our progressive priests officiate at ceremonies that provide the same party atmosphere.
SMC News reports that "bishop" Jim Burch lead a group of protestors outside the November 2006 meeting of the U. S. Conference of Bishops as they attended Mass at the Baltimore Cathedral.
Burch was pivotal in enabling the Women's Ordination Conference to stage their protest at a Hyett Hotel Roman Catholic Bishop's meeting. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a woman-priest and co-chair of the Ministry of Irritation, staged a silent protest before the bishops during Mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, to which she wore her priestly robes. She was given the Eucharist while dressed in this garb.
Burch appeared on a Godtalk program along with Bridget Mary Meehan, the moderator and member of the Sisters for Christian Community and a Call to Action Virginia board member; Fr. Bill Callahan of Priests for Equality; and Rea Howarth, a cofounder of Call to Action. The topic of the discussion was inclusive language.
Burch operates a national generic wedding service that provides a directory of ministers across the U.S. available to officiate at weddings.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
"SOCIAL EROTICISM"
is the title of an article in NY Arts Magazine by Lisa Paul Streitfeld. The article discusses the painting by the same title of Anton S. Kadinsky.
A bold exposition of this ideal of erotically charged self-containment is in Anton Skorubsky Kandinsky’s monumental painting Social Eroticism. The painting was begun in Crimea in 1989 at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was finished at the turn of the millennium and premiered at "Icons of the 21st Century," a show I curated at the Lab Gallery in the Roger Smith Hotel in January 2006. The emergence of this painting was a result of the tireless efforts of Zorianna L. Altomaro, who began representing Ukrainian art at a time that her country had broken free from a long history of oppression. Her gallery is called Zorya, which means star in Ukrainian. Need we look further for a sign pointing to the return of the Goddess?
Rising with its nationality like a phoenix out of the ashes, Social Eroticism positions Kandinsky at the center of a new galaxy. Here we have a visual manifesto of a movement. At once mystical and erotically charged, the painting proclaims a union between religion and sex that is as old as recorded history and as new as–well, contemporary art. He pays homage to postmodernism by utilizing the style of fellow Ukrainian Kasimir Malevich to transform Soviet instruments of power into symbols of fertility; missiles floating above the outstretched hand of the woman represent sperm aimed at the Sputnik egg above the male. Suprematist lines integrate this contemporary Adam and Eve into the downward pointing triangle of the Luria Kabbalah, representing the fallen feminine. Now we witness a revisionist myth of the Garden of Eden where man and woman have followed their instruments into a descent into
matter. ...
Social Eroticism is not only a passport but a guarantee that we will get the bi-millennial recurrence of the hieros gamos myth right this time around. How else are we to realize the ideals of equality and freedom proclaimed by the Age of Aquarius?
Somehow I have a hard time believing that this "equality and freedom" is going to bring anything good for those who equate freedom with the freedom to do what is right. The combination of religion and sex in the Roman Catholic Church is a prime example of this so-called freedom run amok. If we buy this new feminine "religion", the next innovation in liturgy is going to be the Hieros Gamos. No thanks, I'll pass.
ALCHEMY AND KABBALAH
There is an interesting paper online at the New Israeli Jungian Society. The paper is authored by Micha Ankori and was published in the Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice, New York, 2005, 1. The title of the paper is "A Mytho-Psychological Study of the Biblical Legacy: Based on Parallels between Jewish Mysticism and Alchemic Art."
The following segment is taken from the paper:
The Holy Union [Ziwuga Kaddisha]
A familiar yet not well-understood characteristic of Kabbalah is the striking frequency of sexual and erotic symbols in its writings. Despite the criticism that has been levelled at the Kabbalah on this count, kabbalists never tried to conceal or minimize the value of this symbol. Against the background of a spiritual and moralistic perception that played down sexual matters and the body in general, kabbalists viewed even the relationship between the human and the divine as erotic. Eroticism, then, touches upon the holiest of experiences. According to the Kabbalah, the entire world is suffused with erotic relationships, and even the dynamics that characterizes godliness as such is the perpetual union between the divine male (the sefirah of tif’eret [beauty]) and the divine female (malkhut). The Kabbalah introduced a blessing to be recited before all positive commandments: “Behold I perform this commandment for the sake of the yihud [unity] between the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Shekhinah”—every human act serves to advance the communion within the divine.
When we take into account the kabbalists’ psychology, their frequent references to sexual symbols become somewhat clearer. The all-encompassing quality of the kabbalistic conception leads to a discovery of the divinity precisely at the sensual, instinctual levels, in the sense of “but while I am still in my flesh… I would see God” (Job 19:26). No other experience is as total as the sexual experience, involving every human element, as Nietzsche (1973) wrote: “The degree and kind of a man’s sexuality reaches up into the topmost summit of his spirit.” (p. 75). The kabbalists discovered this much before him and, in our picture, the process is described through the transformation into the winged couple, whose mating brings out the spirituality.
A significant contribution toward our understanding of the Kabbalah’s erotic nature emerges from the parallels with other mystical doctrines. Surprisingly, mystical schools evolving in distant and quite dissimilar symbolic contexts share the very same symbol, and disregard of this finding will preclude understanding of the symbol and its complex meanings. When Jung suggested viewing sexuality as largely a symbol, Freud countered that Jung was repressing his sexuality. This argument, however, could not be raised against the mystics. They viewed sex as an important and multifaceted symbol but, as their paintings show, they were certainly not afraid of contemplating sexuality per se. The paintings we see here are extremely sensual, yet the couple and copulation are clearly symbolic as evident, for instance, in the sun and the moon accompanying the king and queen (in the upper painting), who lie in a womb-like pool.
An additional motif linked to copulation is the motif of death. Expressions such as “kiss of death,” or “death marriage” are well known in all cultures and identify death as union with the source, as a return to the womb, as communion with God.[iv] Intercourse as birth and intercourse as death symbolize the life span and the entire spiritual course. The famous Eleusinian mysteries are tied to the story of Persephone’s descent into Hades and her rebirth. The story of Dionysus (who features in the mysteries as well) is also connected to birth and death. Not fortuitously, the Eleusinian mysteries are also linked to the Moerae, the Fates: Clotho spun the thread, Lachesis measured it, and Atropos cut it. This is the law of the thread of life, which binds even the gods. The mysteries connect the span of life with the symbol of death and renewal.
This association of death with holiness, however, is alien to the biblical spirit. The Bible (Numbers 19:14) indicates that any contact with the dead makes one impure. The biblical text views pure and impure as a dichotomy, and describes a complex procedure enabling release from impurity resulting from contact with the dead and return to a state of purity.[v] This intensifies even further the subversiveness of the mythical elements discussed here ascribing holiness to death, which appear in the Zohar in connection with the story about the death of R. Simeon Bar Yohai.
According to kabbalistic tradition, the Idra Zutta is the climax of the entire book. The Idra is part of the Zohar’s exegesis on the biblical portion of Ha`azinu (Deuteronomy 31-32), where Moses is told: “Go up into this mount Avarim…and die in the mount into which thou goest up, and be gathered to thy people…” (Deuteronomy 32:48-50).
As usual, the Zohar uses the biblical contents symbolically. It devotes scanty attention to Moses’ death, shifting the entire exegesis to the death of R. Simeon Bar Yohai. His death assumes mythical proportions, and includes the rich symbolism of the death motif in ancestral mythologies and in folklore rituals. The Idra Zutta is the encounter (Idra [encounter] Zutta [small]) of a group of disciples, who gathered together to be told hidden secrets before their rabbi’s death.
In the first section of the Idra, R. Simeon Bar Yohai expounds his symbolic approach to the concept of death:
Rabbi Simeon wrapped himself in his cloak and sat down. He began by quoting: “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that descend to silence (Dumah)” (Psalm 115:17). “The dead do not praise the Lord.” This is certainly true of those who are called “dead,” for the Holy One, blessed be He, is called “living”; and He dwells among those who are called “living” and not with those who are called “dead.” (Tishby, Y, 1989, p.163).
R. Simeon Bar Yohai draws a distinction here between “dead” and “living” based on a symbolic understanding of the terms: the living are the mystics and the dead are those whose souls are closed to the spiritual message arising from within them. Hence, he only addresses the “living,” who are those worthy of hearing hidden mysteries. The text continues:
And this is the secret: “therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus, 20, 11) for then all is one complete body, for the queen cleaved to the king and they became one body, and that is why the day is blessed. Hence, whoever lives without a male or female is called a half-body, for no blessing descends upon the blemished and flawed, but upon a place that is whole, upon a thing that is whole and not upon a half-body, and a half-body never prevails, and is never blessed.
After the text presented the basic principles of existence and creation and introduced the symbolism of the king and queen, which fits the alchemic symbolism discussed above, it expands upon sexual metaphors based on these principles:
The male’s phallus is the tip of the whole body. And it is called yesod, and it is that which delights the woman. All the man’s desires for the woman are in this yesod, which enters the woman at a place called Zion, for that is the woman’s cover, the place of the woman’s womb…
It is written: “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation” (Psalms 132:13)—after the mistress departed and joined the king face to face, on the eve of the Sabbath, all became one body.
… no license is given to enter the holy of holies, only to the High Priest who comes from the realm of hesed, since no one is allowed to enter that place on high, but he who is called hesed and enters the holy of holies.
This rich and lush description of intercourse in all its aspects and at all levels, portraying “Zion” as a divine vagina, “the holy of holies,” and the High Priest as the divine phallus, is followed by the description of R Simeon Bar Yohai’s death. This description, the end of the Idra Zutta,[vi] is pervaded by conflicting emotions: mourning for his departure while also celebrating the “hilullah of R. Simeon.” The feast is the wedding, the holy union, the hierosgamos.[vii] In his death he returns to the cave, to the womb of the earth, and reunites with the source of his mystical doctrine that was written while he had been in a cave with his son Elazar.[viii] This suggests that his exit from the cave after a delay (incubation) was his second birth—a motif frequent in the world of mystics.[ix] This is the description of his death at the end of the Idra: “When the bier came out of the house, it went up into the air and fire flared out in front of it. They heard a voice saying: Come and assemble for the feast of Rabbi Simeon: ‘He enters in peace. They rest on their beds’ (Isaiah, 57,2).” (Tishby, Y., 1989, 165).
It was the hieros gamos--the sexual ritual with her father as participant that Sophie stumbled upon--in Dan Brown's book THE DA VINCI CODE.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
It seems that Athol Bloomer has erased his "My Spiritual Journey" article.
As of 9:34 a.m. today the website was blank. Part of the article is still available in a cached version here and here.
BISHOP MANAT AND THE VISIONARY JUDIEL NIEVA
Picking up where I left off yesterday with the visionary of Agoo who captivated Bishop Lazo and Bishop Manat...
From the Manila Standard Today:
It was the height of queerness when a transvestite portrayed the Virgin Mary in a Passion Play last Holy Week. Not only did the event and the gesture challenge the tradition that fixes the gender of Christ’s mother, so hauntingly transposed in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ; it also redefined the meaning of the nature of the Passion. It was an act of transformation along different axes: the change of gender and its body, the performance of sexuality, and the history of a hopeful self not condemned to a social type. But there was more to this conversion, for the Mary in question was Angel de la Vega, who in a previous incarnation was the androgynous Judiel Nieva, the celebrated miracle worker of Agoo in La Union named after the archangel Jehudiel. The privileged religious instrument, who was a soloist in the choir and baked strawberry shortcake, created a stir when he claimed to have had visions of Mary, an experience akin to the revelations to the innocents of Fatima and Garabandal; he also testified to a mystical communion with Christ. After the media circus had relented in its coverage of this so-called paranormal curiosity as well as of the pilgrimages it had provoked, nothing much was heard of its star, until he, like a quick-change artist of characteristic alacrity, made himself over as a woman bearing the name Angel. From the stage of apparition, he now appears before us on the screen of show business as actress and impresario, thriving on the myth of appearance and bedeviling our notions of faith and fantasy: from Marian visionary to Mary’s own surrogate in theater, a mission carried out in ecstasy.
It was Bishop Lazo who encouraged Bishop Manat to look into the Agoo apparition and the SSPX. A Catholic website lists the lineage of the SSPX bishops and includes Bishop Lazo among them. The bio indicates that Bishop Lazo retired in 1993, the same year that Bishop Manat claims to have first met him in the Philippines.
An SSPX website claims
Asian pilgrims were able to visit Econe and Mgr. John Bosco Manat of Ratchaburi, a friend of Mgr. Lazo celebrated the Mass in the new Church of Econe.
The website also takes note of the death of Bishop Lazo.
Just to close the loop, remember that it is Bishop Manat who is credited with the founding of the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, the same society to which Athol Bloomer belongs, and which is noted at the Hebrew Catholic Association website. A cached version of a TCR News article confirms Bishop Manat's association with the Missionary Society. The original version of the story at TCR News has mysteriously disappeared.
DIOCESE OF CLEVELAND ON TRIAL
According to Catholic World News Bishop Lennon disagrees with me. He says "The Diocese of Cleveland is not on trial; it is the victim of crimes alleged against the defendants." (Of course I doubt he knows who I am, let alone the title of my Monday blog.) There are some interesting comments posted. Like for instance the last one: "I will warn the Catholics of Cleveland to be very afraid of Bishop Lennon. here in Boston we are still recovering from his "leadership" after the Cardinal Law fiasco."
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
BISHOP MANAT AND A MARIAN APPARITION
In yesterday's blog I quoted the following paragraph from an article at the SSPX website:
When I was in Manila a friend encouraged me to go to Agoo, a part of the La Union Diocese [formerly of Bishop Salvador Lazo (1916-2000)]. Great numbers of people were going there to see an apparition of our Lady and a statue of the Madonna which reportedly wept tears of blood. In November of that year I had a chance to visit there and speak with the seer who told me that Bishop Lazo, the former bishop then retired in Manila, was in favor of this apparition and that I should meet with him.
Agoo is an interesting apparition. The story of the apparition and the statue that weeps blood, of the visionary Judiel Nieva, of healings, and of the dancing sun can be read at . At this website in an AP story from May 1993. The story also includes communion wafers that turn to blood in the visionary's mouth.
An Index to Philippine Newspapers indicates there is a story titled "Apparition star Judiel Nieva is now a showbiz star"; but to read it the story must be purchased.
Emil Jurado, reporting for the Manila Standard Today, reports a visit to the apparition site:
JUDIEL Nieva, the alleged “visionary” of Agoo, La Union, whose claim to an apparition of the Blessed Virgin on a hill a kilometer from the town was declared a big hoax. And Judiel, who was a young boy, is now a woman and an actress. And she now goes by the name of “Angel.
My family and I were actually victims of that big hoax which brought thousands of devotees to Agoo to witness an apparition, which never came.
While the Catholic Church deemed it a hoax, I never really regretted going to Agoo. Hoax or not, my devotion to the Blessed Virgin is not diminished a bit.
Then there is the story in Asian Journal which I could access only in the cached version. There you can read the story of "'Apparition' star Judiel Nieva now a show biz star":
YOU think being a teenage "visionary" who could see the Virgin Mary and receive her messages was the greatest performance of Judiel Nieva's life? Well, where were you Sunday night?
During show biz-y ceremonies at the University of the Philippines Film Center in Diliman last Sunday, Nieva -- now 26 and going by the name Angel de la Vega -- made his screen debut with the premiere showing of the film "Siklo."
In it, he plays Angel, a woman who falls in love with her new neighbor, a young man named Mark (played by the boyish VJ Mark Ocampo) who loves to toy around with a video camera. A crucial scene showed the two making love: sensual shots of flesh, sweat, and passionate kissing in the grassy outdoors.
"Nahihiya nga ako," Nieva said after the screening. "May love scene ako, may kissing scene, may violent scene pa."
But screenwriter Ricky Lee, who attended the premiere, generously praised Nieva's performance: "Sa acting, she's a natural. Some of the actors in the film were raw, others were weak, but Angel was a natural. The only performance that outdid hers was that of Chanda Romero, and Chanda is a veteran."
Unity Publishing has picked up the story of Judiel Nieva. Scroll down to the sub-heading "Judiel Nieva, the Philippines" and be sure to take a look at the picture.
Then there is this interesting blog entry. To see it you have to scroll down to near the bottom of the website. The blog entry is titled "I Was Blessed" and the picture is worth the effort. Here is what the blogger has written:
I was blessed... Apr 10, '07 8:33 AM
by the sight of an apparition last night.
Or at least someone who once claimed to see apparitions.
Meet Angel dela Vega.
Pretty isn't he?
That's right. Angel is a he.
Which really isn't too much of an oddity, considering that Boracay does have more of its share of angels like Angel.
What makes Angel different is the fact that if you look very closely, you'll notice that Angel looks almost exactly like Agoo visionary Judiel Nieva. And that's no coincidence because Angel is Judiel.
So that's Judiel right there beside me in a bikini.
Everyone, say it with me.
Holy mother of God.
The website for another Philippine apparition site has the following to say about Agoo:
The Blessed Mother reportedly appeared to Judiel Nieva in Agoo, La Union in 1989. It received great media attention to the extent Jaime Cardinal Sin officiated Mass in the apparition site. However, in the course of time and the test of time, the Nieva family and Judiel himself failed to resist the luster of money in the form of donations. The money supposed to go to building a Church in the apparition site were used for the family's personal consumption. At the height of this corruption in 1993, the Blessed Virgin Mary left and began to appear to another. This time in Murphy, Cubao to Allan Rudio. In 1995, the Church publicly proclaimed the Agoo Apparitions condemned. Messages dating from 1993 onwards seemed duplicates of messages from other seers. The Church was not able to observe a true change for the better in Judiel Nieva and his family.
The situation of corruption is such that a priest expressed to Allan Rudio that Judiel Nieva was seen wearing a dress, lipstick and make-up for his 18th birthday.
Judiel Nieva continues to deceive by claiming to still receive messages as reported by Ethel Valiente, reporter of a weekly magazine, "Women's Journal."
THAILAND
In a comments box Athol Bloomer claims I misrepresent Bishop Manat and Thailand:
This is my last post. I am absolutely shocked at the depths of wickedness that you are coming to in this post. It is just pure inneuendo and slander. I have known Father Martin and Bishop Manat for many years and neither of them are homosexual. You also slander the beautiful country of Thailand. You could google Homosexuals or Lesbians in America and get some interesting results and then say that Carrie lives in America so connect the dots...
I have accused no one of homosexuality. The Rick A. Ross Institute has accused Fr. Martin Lucia of belonging to an organization that practiced homosexual acts in its inner circle. Re the "beautiful country of Thailand", see below.
Bishop Manat founded the Missionary Society of Our Lady of Perpetual Adoration after asking Pope John Paul II about it. The Pope was very enthusiastic. He also resigned early from his diocese after asking the Popes permission so that he could focus on the spread of Perpetual Adoration. Unfortunately Bishop Manat spoke up publically against the Freemasons in the Church and powerful men in the Church did everything they could to discredit him and anyone associated with him. These too men are responsible for starting thousands of Perpetual Adoration chapels with all the graces coming from them. Whatever little faults and weaknesses they may have will certainly be nothing compared with the blessing they have brought to the world. I for one would not like to stand before God knowing that I slandered these two Godly men. Isn't it strange how Bishop Manat was respected by his priests and the hierarchy when he was a liberal bishop and the head of Ecumenical affairs for the Church of Thailand but as soon as he had a spiritual conversion to orthodox Catholicism most turned on him and set out to destroy him except for a handful of holy priests and laity.
Aharon Yosef | 08.21.07 - 1:51 am | #
Bishop Manat founded the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, not the "Missionary Society of Our Lady of Perpetual Adoration" as you have stated. Are you telling me he has now founded a new organization? The reason for Bishop Manat's resignation has not been made clear in anything I have found so far. He resigned before the usual age of retirement. His organization, the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, has been suspended. You are the one, Mr. Bloomer, suggesting they have "little faults and weaknesses."
Re Thailand:
http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Uncle-Go-Homosexuality-Thailand/dp/0942777115
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/qb/articleFile.php?searchterm=3-1-4
http://shs.wustl.edu/medicalServices/IntGLBTQ.htm (Jackson's book is listed at this website.)
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/98/0807/cs5.html
http://www.cpamedia.com/culture/thailand_kathoey/
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/anth.htm
http://www.chiangmainews.com/indepth/details.php?id=808
http://www.beautifullthailand.info/Travel_In_Thailand/Gay_Travel_Thailand.htm
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Monday, August 20, 2007
CLEVELAND DIOCESE ON TRIAL
following a kickback scheme that involved many millions of dollars. The trial is scheduled to begin today. Bishop Pilla is expected to testify. According to yesterday's Plain Dealer article:
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Boston-based BishopAccountability.org, said Zgoznik's trial will get national attention.
"Nationwide, the judges' willingness to demand that the dioceses make financial disclosures is something we're seeing with increasing frequency," Doyle said. Church officials "have been shown to be secretive and not honest."
In expectation of widespread media coverage, Bishop Richard Lennon last week sent letters to all of the Cleveland Diocese parishes, warning the pastors to be prepared for "sensational" news reports from the trial.
The defendants are expected to call retired Bishop Pilla to testify at both trials.
Sozio, the diocesan attorney, predicted the defendants would take extreme measures to divert attention from their crimes.
"These are desperate allegations by desperate men," Sozio said.
BISHOP JOHN BOSCO MANAT CHUABSAMAI - CONNECTING THE DOTS
Susanna has gathered up a wealth of information on this bishop that I will try to deliver in a coherent manner, even though there are a lot of interconnecting details. Hopefully she will chime in with a correction when I go astray.
First, he was a Bishop of Ratchaburi, Thailand.
Since much of the information is centered in Thailand, a bit of background on the thinking over there. Peter Tatchell's website describes the attitude of the culture in an article titled "Thailand: Gayness, Bar Boys and Sex Tourism - Peter Tatchell looks at the myths and realities of the country that many call a gay paradise". The article opens this way:
There are no laws against homosexuality in Thailand. The capital, Bangkok, boasts over 60 gay bars and sex establishments. It's not uncommon to see gay men walking arm in arm in the street. No-one seems to bat an eye-lid.
This, together with the abundance of beautiful Thai youths, has led many westerners to describe the country as a "gay paradise."
The reality is, alas, somewhat different and more complex. In the opinion of Noi, a 24 year old male nurse at a Bangkok hospital: "European gays are mesmerised by all the pretty boys and night-clubs. They mistakenly assume that this means there is equality for homosexuals in Thailand. In fact, the social integration of gay people is quite ambiguous, even precarious. The toleration of so many gay bars has as much to do with maintaining the profits of the tourist industry as with the social acceptance of homosexuals."
The idea that Thai society has a somewhat contradictory attitude towards homosexuality is echoed by Chuan, a gay university lecturer:
"In Thailand, the distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality is more blurred and tenuous than in the West. Our culture is very gentle. Thai men are much less macho. A lot of them are open to homosexual experiences and these are fairly well tolerated by our society."
"Yet there's little public discussion about homosexuality or awareness of lesbian and gay issues. It's a curious mixture of tolerance, ignorance and evasion."
If you want confirmation of that cultural background, Google "Thailand" and "Homosexuality" and you'll get it. I'll provide just one example--an Amazon listing for the book THAI FOR GAY TOURISTS.
With that background in mind, next turn to the priest Martin Lucia. Reach back in your memory and recall that he was a member of the Apostolic Formation Center for Christian Renew-All as reported by the Rick A. Ross Institute until the center was shut down. Remember that homosexual acts of the inner circle was the cause of the society being disbanded. Recall that Fr. Martin Lucia turned from this organization to the promotion of Eucharistic Adoration as his next adventure.
Next turn to Athol Bloomer's bio, "My Spiritual Journey" part 3 and read about his activities in Thailand:
There I met Father Surin and Bishop Manat and we instantly clicked. Father Surin asked me to pray over the group at midnight in the small Adoration chapel and the Holy Spirit powerfully touched all the people there. The Thais were seeking spirituality but the charismatic and Marian movements had not reached them before. The Bishop asked me to speak on Eucharistic Adoration and other spiritual topics while he translated for me. This started a ministry with Father Surin and the Bishop at which I would speak and pray over people for the Holy Spirit to touch them and heal them spiritually, emotionally and physically. It was a bit of a shock to have a lay person ministering in this way in Thailand as it was very clergy centred but because I was a foreigner and I was under the authority of the Bishop and priests and ministered with them, I was accepted.
When I had left the seminary and returned to teaching I had lost contact with my best friend Patrick who had been my godfather (sponsor) when I became a Catholic and we had worked together in the street kid community and then been in the Seminary together. I didn't know that he had gone to Thailand and spent 6 months trying to get the first chapel of Perpetual Adoration started in Thailand. Just when it was about to start much to the disappointment of all, the priest decided he didn't want it. Patrick very depressed and downhearted left Thailand and I arrived about 3 weeks later to start praying for it to come to Thailand. I had always remained close to the mission of promoting Adoration and believed God told me I would see Patrick in the future in Thailand and that one day the Lord would take me to Jerusalem. I later was able to introduce Patrick and Father Martin our superior to Father Surin and the Bishop who was to become our Bishop protector in our re-formed Society called the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
That brings me to the suspension of the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament (see page 76 at the website), although there is no reason given for this suspension.
The Congregation for Clergy advises that the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament has been suspended from its activities pending the results of an investigation by the Holy See. Two of the founders of this Society, established under the sponsorship of the former Bishop of Ratchaburi, Thailand, live in Houston. Some priests and laity associated with the Society live in several places in the United States.
Bishop Manat has an interesting history. Apparently his resignation was not voluntary if this angelqueen.org forum is accurate:
JDobbs
Joined: 13 Jun 2005
Posts: 2145
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EddieArent wrote:
Bishop John Basco Manat Chuabsamai --- many people ask of His Excellency. Any updates?
I asked Fr. Couture about His Excellency a couple years ago, and he said he is doing work quietly in Thailand, especially translating, after being forcibly resigned in 2003.
Another source offers a possible reason why Bishop Manat may have been forcibly resigned. Check out the report at the SSPX website:
Another Bishop returns to Catholic Tradition - A conference given by Bishop John Bosco Manat of Thailand - Given by His Excellency John Bosco Chuabsamai Manat, current Bishop of the Diocese of Ratchaburi, Thailand, at the Society of Saint Pius X’s United States District Priests’ Meeting held at Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, MN (February 15, 2001).
Bishop Manat gives a little background in the article:
I am a priest from before Vatican II. I studied theology and philosophy in Madras, India, for seven years. This seminary was run by the Salesian Fathers to whom the diocese had been given for more than 50 years. Then, it was divided into two dioceses, with the Salesians taking the southern portion and the northern district given to the native priests. I am the fifth bishop of this diocese formed of the southern region. Many priests in my diocese are given the name John Bosco, even though we are not Salesians, but we are disciples of the Salesian Fathers. You might say we are "half religious" because we were trained by the Salesian Fathers!
I was ordained to the priesthood on May 10, 1961. I have pastoral experience in parish, school, and seminary work. My former bishop sent me to get my Master’s degree in philosophy at Catholic University, Washington, DC (1976-77). When I returned to Thailand I taught philosophy in Lux Mundi Seminary for eight years. Lux Mundi is the only major seminary in Thailand....
In Asia we have the CCA [Christian Council of Asia]. It is an imitation of the WCC [World Council of Churches]. We have made up a new common body to organize meetings which we call AMCU, standing for for Asian Movement of Christian Unity, an office created during my tenure of the last 12 years. We used to sponsor common meetings of Christians and Protestants. In Thailand, we don’t call non-Catholics "Protestants;" we commonly refer to them as "Christians." By this organization we have frequent meetings to work together for a better understanding and for friendship. The AMCU sponsors joint prayer meetings for Christian unity (in the last week of January) at alternating Catholic and Protestant sites. It organizes group study on certain theological issues. In any case, we propose to defend the Catholic Church of the Vatican II documents.
Now, about interreligious dialogue....The bishops of Asia emphasized the importance of interreligious dialogue because Asia is the cradle of many religions of the world. We live surrounded by the pagans and sects so we cannot evangelize directly; we have to use interreligious dialogue as a means of evangelization. So when Dominus Jesu was published [cf. the September 2001 issue of Si Si No No, #42 —Ed.], protests came from many parts of the Catholic Church in Asia that the Church was going back, that it was unacceptable, that interreligious dialogue had to continue, that we had to hold hands with other religions for our survival....
As far as I have seen, the ecumenical inter-religious dialogue is good only to make friends with people of other religions. It is good for peaceful coexistence, but has little or no effect on conversion. In fact, because they have been told to respect freedom of conscience, priests and religious are less active in making converts....
I was sent to Catholic University for my philosophy study. I was flowing in the mainstream of Vatican II, smoothly and happily, until one day in May 1993. It was the turning point of my life.
When I was in Manila a friend encouraged me to go to Agoo, a part of the La Union Diocese [formerly of Bishop Salvador Lazo (1916-2000)]. Great numbers of people were going there to see an apparition of our Lady and a statue of the Madonna which reportedly wept tears of blood. In November of that year I had a chance to visit there and speak with the seer who told me that Bishop Lazo, the former bishop then retired in Manila, was in favor of this apparition and that I should meet with him.
Bishop Lazo
So I went to see Bishop Lazo and talked with him about the weeping Madonna. He told me as much as he knew about it from his own experience. I invited him to visit my diocese in Thailand and our relationship became more close. Later, when my duties took me to Manila, I used to go to visit Bishop Lazo... half an hour… one hour... The first time I went there he said, "Bishop, these are books for you to read." So I took the books and began to read, little by little. Another time I went and saw him he said: "Bishop, you must say the Tridentine Mass at least once or twice a month for your diocese. It is full of grace for your diocese." I listened to him but I didn’t put it into practice because I thought, "Where can I find an old Missal?!" No more! "Without an old Missal I cannot say the Tridentine Mass!" When I went back to Manila another time, I visited him again. He said, "Bishop Manat, I just read this book and I cannot bear it to see the prelates of the Church, the Pope, Ratzinger. They are modernists." I did not believe it. I just listened and kept it in my heart. He told me that I had to visit the priory of the Society of Saint Pius X nearby. I nodded my head. "OK, it is interesting," I thought. Who would introduce me to them? Moreover, hadn’t I heard that this Society of Archbishop Lefebvre... He was a schismatic, wasn’t he? How could I go to them? I felt I had to keep away from this Society. But, I didn’t refuse Bishop Lazo. The last time I went to visit him before his hospitalization, he said, "Go to the priory." I said, "Next time."...
I have not yet told any bishop that I came to learn things from the Society of Saint Pius X. They would be shocked! I think there are some good bishops, but since they have not had the chance to read the good books I have read, they have no chance to see reality. They have not seen what I have seen during these three weeks in your country, so they are in darkness. I can pass on what I have learned, but will they form the same convictions as I did? I don’t know... You can give books to anyone, but will they put them down somewhere and never read them? You have to pray that God may catch someone like He caught me. If you are not open to God’s grace, there is no chance.
Bishop Manat presided at the funeral of Bishop Lazo.
The acceptance of the resignation of Bishop Manat is reported here.
Vatican City (Fides Service) – The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has (24 July 2003) accepted the renunciation of the pastoral government of the diocese of Ratchaburi (Thailand), presented by Bishop John Bosco Manat Chuabsamai, in conformity with the Code of Canon Law, code 401 § 2 (S.L.) (Fides Service 24/7/2003; lines 4; words 49)
The Wikipedia entry for Bishop Manat indicates he was born October 31, 1935. That means that in 2003 when he resigned he was 68 years old.
In the Code of Canon Law, 401 reads as follows:
Can. 401 §1 A diocesan Bishop who has completed his seventy-fifth year of age is requested to offer his resignation from office to the Supreme Pontiff, who, taking all the circumstances into account, will make provision accordingly.
§2 A diocesan Bishop who, because of illness or some other grave reason, has become unsuited for the fulfilment of his office, is earnestly requested to offer his resignation from office.
It looks as though he was forcibly retired.
To be continued...
Sunday, August 19, 2007
SQUARING THE CIRCLE
If you've studied occultism, you've heard the phrase "squaring the circle." The phrase is so common that it is even the title of a book sold at Wall Mart.
It's mentioned at this tarot website.
It's also mentioned at the Order of Mary the Magdala, aka Order of Mary Magdalene website as well. Here the phrase is described this way:
Yeshua taught balance between the sexes and (scandalously!) accepted females into his school. He and Mary Magdalene embodied and manifested the archetypes of divine masculine and divine feminine united in the sacred marriage. The sacred marriage is a process that occurs in the subconscious mind as well as in the collective unconscious of humanity. Our Order of Mary Magdala teaches techniques that actualize these powerful archetypes, inner guides, divine "entities," and show you how to bring them into your life. Getting to know your inner guides, practicing wholeness, and the alchemy of the sacred marriage will transform your awareness and lead to the highest form of ecstasy or "bliss".
The sacred marriage is working in our lives whenever we balance pairs of opposites: heart and head, male and female, light and dark, heaven and earth, conscious and unconscious, ego and soul, spirit and matter. Symbols such as the Yin-Yang, Star of David and Sufism's Lock & Key represent the sacred marriage. You can even find the sacred marriage archetype in the Tarot deck -- the Lovers card. ...
...the squaring of the circle, that ancient symbol of the hieros gamos (sacred marriage). The figures are either Mother and Father God or Magdalene and Jesus.
Oh, and btw, automatic writing is mentioned in that website as well.
THE VOW BEFORE THE MAGGID
At the Sophian.org website Tau Malachi presents the ritual titled "Speaking of the Vow before the Great Maggid". It would appear to be a compilation of Christian and Jewish phrasing.
WILLIAM BUTLER YATES AND AUTOMATIC WRITING
A LookSmart article titled "Ghost Writer" by Tom Prendeville claims William Butler Yates channeled his material:
HE'S Ireland's most famous poet - but it is being claimed Yeats's writing was actually done by GHOSTS. ...
But historians now claim his most famous works were secretly co- written by demonic spirits.
They say Yeats was obsessed with the afterlife, joined several spooky cults and even believed he was followed by a spirit DEMON called Leo Africanus.
And they think that, using the weird phenomenon known as "automatic writing", he allowed ghosts to write his best-loved books.
Yeats Society chief Stella Mew said: "He had some very frightening experiences dabbling in the occult.
"He was very interested in automatic writing and got his images and symbols from the writing.
"His book A Vision and The Second Coming were very heavily influenced by it.
"Yeats and his wife Georgie kept up the automatic writing for seven or eight years. ...
Read the rest...
AUTOMATIC WRITING IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
In a blog on Aug. 16 I linked an interview in which Jewish scholar Daniel Matt claimed the Zohar may have been a product of automatic writing.
The prophecies of Vassula Ryden are said to have resulted from automatic writing. At
this website you can read the words of Maria Laura Pios, who has dedicated an entire website to refuting Vassula:
By all accounts she was doing fine living a very down-to-earth life as a wife of a diplomat with all the social obligations and changing circumstances that it involved. But in 1986 she had a shocking experience. She was making a shopping list when suddenly her hand began writing in a strange handwriting, very different from her own. The words on the paper said: ”I am your guardian angel and my name is Daniel”.
This event marked the beginning of a radically changed life. Since then everything in her life has been centrered around her daily communication with the divine world. At first she communicated with her angel Daniel, later on with Jesus, Maria, Yahweh and the Holy Ghost. Most of her conversations though are with Jesus, and since 1990 Vassula has published 12 books – all named ”True life in God” – containing extracts from these conversations. The books have been translated into 40 different languages.
Who is moving her hand?
Representatives from the Greek Orthodox Church very early pointed out that the strange handwriting was very similar to occult automatic writing, and the Church did not want to support her activities. Within the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, she has found strong and learned defenders who claim that this handwriting is certainly not automatic writing, but a so-called hieratic writing coming from a divine source. They consistently refer to her as ”one of the most prominent living prophets”.
Her writings and her person have been officially examined by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Vassula herself as well as her followers tend to give the impression that the Vatican has fully accepted her as a true prophet receiving divine revelations. This is certainly not true. On the contrary, as early as in 1995 a vatican notification stated and announced to Catholic leaders and laity that her writings and messages were not to be considered supernatural but should be taken only as private meditations. This judgement is still valid.
Automatic writing played a part in the life of the founder of Pentecostalism, a forerunner of the charismatic renewal movement in the Roman Catholic Church. The following is taken from an article by Rick Salbato:
Despite the fact that there were indeed Pentecostal churches before 1901,
this should not detract from the fact that it was Charles Francis Parham who
is the one individual who is almost universally acknowledged to be the
founder of modern "Pentecostalism" and the individual most instrumental in
publicizing the idea of "glossocentric pneumabaptism", or the idea that the
"baptism of the Holy Spirit" is evidenced by speaking in tongues. The modern
Pentecostal movement is generally recognized to have begun at the Topeka
Kansas Bible College on January 1st, 1901, when Parham, a former Methodist
minister and holiness preacher, invoked the Holy Spirit over his
congregation, and a certain Agnes Ozman, one of Parham's students began,
according to eyewitnesses to speak in "Mandarin Chinese"...
It was undoubtedly at Shiloh that Parham conceived the idea of tongues as an
articulate foreign language-since he apparently first heard tongue speaking
at Shiloh; the occult practice of automatic writing was also practiced by
adherents of the cult.
Probing further back in Roman Catholic history we encounter Madame Jeanne Guyon, mystic and contemplative (1647 to 1717) who gave us the Quietist heresy. Madame Guyon used automatic writing:
"Modern critics say that Jeanne-Marie used self-hypnosis to achieve her 'spiritual' states and trances and point out that she used 'automatic writing' which suggests spiritualist practice. They wonder that she had so little to say about Christ (in proportion to the total number of words she wrote)." —Christian History Institute
An article in Jewish Heritage Online Magazine claims that automatic writing occurs through the agency of the Maggid. The article speaks of Joseph Caro, a well-known mystic among the Safed Kabbalists had a maggid.
The Jewish Encyclopedia describes the Maggid, tracing the advent of this type of prophecy to the sixteenth century, and indicates it resulted from the persecution of the Jews in Spain.
My Jewish Learning indicates that Joseph Caro kept a diary of the Maggid's pronouncements and indicates that Caro may have been "a far greater scholar than his Maggid".
What do we get when we stir all of these elements into a mystical soup? "'OPUS ANGELORUM - Satanism and Disobedience' by Richard Salbato, 2-16-2007". The article opens with the following paragraph:
Based on 80,000 pages of private revelations that Gabriele Bitterlich allegedly received from heaven, the Opus Angelorum was founded in Austria in the years shortly after the Second World War. The 80,000 manuscript pages written by Frau Bitterlich came into existence within a period of only two months: [See Note below] Opus Angelorum retreat masters state: "an angel stood behind her and commanded: 'Write!'...The angel didn't give her a moment's peace, and she had to write almost continuously for the entire time."
And that is why, when the parish where I am registered brought Opus Angelorum in for a retreat, I abandoned the parish.
