Still Running Off at the Keyboard

WAKING UP IN A VERY STRANGE PLACE

In the course of doing research into things that have been hidden, it often happens that I click on a link that reveals a whole new world--an ugly world that is frightening. Something like that has happened over the last few days, and I'm still reeling.

I had been reading through the lists of articles in the website The Masonic Trowel where I found the article on Albert Pike's mysticism, and the paper on the history of Scottish Masonry by Eric Wynants. Both of those articles seemed to me to be reasonable research worth noting. Then I clicked on another link in the website--one that took me to Chapter VIII of Lt. Col. Gordon "Jack" Mohr's book THE HIDDEN POWER BEHIND FREEMASONRY - "Jewish Influence on Freemasonry".

There are blatant statements in this chapter that at first appeared to back up other sources I've cited. For example, the chapter opens with the following claims:

Beginning with this chapter we will get into an in-depth discussion of FREEMASONRY and the "Hidden Power" which makes it operate and successful.

Much has been said about the Jewish, or maybe it would be more accurate to say the Zionist, interests which influence Freemasonry. Few members of the lower orders know the significance of this, or its importance to them. This is especially true if they are Christians.

There is no doubt that the Zionist question MUST be linked with the MASONIC question. At present, as in the past, Zionist world leaders, and men in high positions with the Masonic organization, have worked "hand in glove" for a universal world revolution, which will bring in the One-World Church and a One-World Government. Many Masonic Lodges are exclusively Jewish, as are the B'nai B'rith Lodges, the mother of the infamous and very dangerous Anti-Defamation League, which is an unregistered agent of a foreign government (Israeli) which has been allowed by our government to operate unhindered on American soil.

Well, it had my attention, needless to say. I moved on to Chapter X, "Modern Judaism", also contained in The Masonic Trowel website, and found more of the same sort of bold claims. For some reason a red flag started waving. Who is this Lt. Col. Gordon (Jack) Mohr?. I found a bio at the Scriptures for America website. Mohr sounded legitimate. He really was a Colonel in the U.S. Army, with what seemed to be a shining war record. But what else was there.

About then the name William J. Cork caught my attention in the Google search on Mohr. William J. Cork is a Texas deacon with a website of apologetics for Catholicism. He's pretty well known among Catholic journalists.

Turns out this webpage is a response to Robert Sungenis' comments on "Reflections on Covenant and Mission." And as luck would have it, it turns out that Sungenis used Mohr as one of his resources, and Cork was making a point of it.

There is a war between Sungenis and Cork. That's pretty obvious from the website. It struck me as a shouting match. A turnoff. I scrolled through it hastily until I got to the subheading "Lt. Col. Jack Mohr, White Supremacist". Oh really? There are side-by-side quotes from Sungenis and Mohr, and Cork claims Sungenis plagarized Mohr. It looks rather convincing.

Back to Google. What else would turn up?

There is a letter, penned by Mohr on May 5, 2000, at Scriptures for America. It's addressed to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. It begins:

Rabbi Eckstein:

I do not want any more of your perverted Jewish material coming to my address. From now on, all of your material will be thrown away without being opened.

Not all Christians are "dumb goyim", as your letter shows you believe.

and goes on from there in the same vein up to the conclusion. Mohr signs it "For God and Country". Could that really be the same God I worship? The letter is filled with hatred. Christ did not come to bring hatred.

A link at the bottom of the letter is supposed to take me to Jack Mohr's webpage. It doesn't work.

Returning to Google I found a biography of Colonel Jack Mohr in the Keltic Klan Kirk website. The first item in the website is a paper written by Mohr titled "This Time Bomb Called Zionism". Further down in the website I noted this one belongs to Pastor Joe Johnson, Keltic Klan Kirk of YHVH. A link below his name took me to "Aryan Reformation Ministries". Here is the link, but you really don't want to go there. Talk about anti-Semitic! It's enough to make me consider inviting a Jew to dinner to apologize. This is being done in the name of the God I believe in? It violates everything I believe in as a Christian. Pastor Joe Johnson has included his address at the bottom of the website as Malvern, Arkansas.

Is Bill Cork correct in demonstrating Sungenis' plagarism of Mohr? Did Sungenis use this source knowingly, or was he oblivious to Mohr's dark side? If he did use it knowingly, his work must be anathema to this Catholic.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

A SILLY LITURGY

Over at Free Republic there is a link to the closing Mass of the 2008 Call to Action conference.

More puppets.

More liturgical dancers.

Some strange hymns.

This one gets the blue ribbon for Catholic nonsense. Where is a good pope with an excommunication order?

"ALBERT PIKE, MYSTIC"

The Masonic Trowel website is large and contains several articles. One with the above title was written by Bro. Henry R. Evans, and appeared in The Master Mason in May of 1925. Comments made there are interesting because they indicate a relationship between Judaism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Much of the article is devoted to the Cabala. Evans writes:

It is well known to all students of Masonry that the degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States are, more or less, tinctured with the occult doctrines of Jewish Cabala and the Hermetic and Rosicrucian teachings, to say nothing of the principles of Neo-Platonism and other mystical schools of philosophy....General Albert Pike...was a deep student of the Cabala...

He asserted that the Square and Compasses, the Oblong Square, the Three Grand Masters, the idea embodied in the Substitute Word, the Double- Headed Eagle of the Scottish Rite, the Sun, Moon, and Master of the Lodge were all derived from Hermetic and Rosicrucian sources. He wrote as follows :

I cannot conceive of anything that could have induced Ashmole, Mainwaring, and other men of their class to unite themselves with a lodge of working Masons, except this - that as the Alchemists, Hermeticists, and Rosicrucians had no association of [their] own in England or Scotland, they joined the Masonic lodges in order to meet one another without being suspected, and I am convinced that it was the men who inherited their doctrine who brought their symbols into Masonry, but kept the Hermetic meanings to themselves....

There are over thirty-eight Masonic manuscripts by Albert Pike in the library of the Supreme Council under lock and key, of course, and highly prized....

It is interesting to note that Pike was Chief Adept and Archimagus of the Societas Rosicruciana of America, and wrote a ritual for the Order....

The Cabala - the symbols, sacred words and esoteric doctrine - which has so influenced the degrees of the Scottish Rite, represents the theosophy of the Jews. "It contains," says Joseph Jacobs, in his Jewish Contributions to Civilization, "in itself all the mystic elements of the cultures through which Judaism has passed - the ectasies of the Bible theophanes, the Neo-Platonism of Alexandria, and the Sufism of the Arabs."...

When Jerusalem was captured by Titus, the son of Vespasian, and the second temple was destroyed, many of the inhabitants of the Holy City fled from the victorious Romans and sought refuge in the neighboring mountains. Among them was the Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai, who had been condemned to death by the Roman general. According to tradition, he lived for twelve years in a cave, hermit-like, where he was visited by a faithful band of disciples. He had constant ecstatic visions like all mystics. He communicated the occult doctrines, orally transmitted from the Patriarchs of olden times, to his son Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, who put them into writing for the first time. From this material was subsequently built up the famous Zohar, or splendor. This book, together with the Sepher Jetzirah and the Commentary of the Ten Sephiroth, constitutes the body and doctrine of the Cabalistic teachings.

The lecture on the "Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept" (28d), as contained in the Morals and Dogma is the real Hermetic ritual of the Rite. The Supreme Council of Belgium lays particular emphasis on this abstruse but beautiful degree, which goes to the bedrock of Gnosticism, Cabalism, and Hermeticism. For a scholarly exposition of the Cabalistic cosmogony the student is referred to the Jewish Encyclopedia....

An interesting feature of the Zohar is its theory of a prior creation and destruction of worlds...

The Cabala is the efflorescence of the mystical schools of Alexandria, and as such was duly appreciated by General Pike...

Among the adepts of India the symbol of the Diety is the mystic word Aum, sometimes spelled and pronounced om. "A Brahmin," says Menu, "beginning and ending a chapter on the Vedas, must always repeat to himself the syllable "Om." This sacred triliteral monosyllable is perhaps the oldest name of the Deity known to man. Its origin is unknown....Among the Sufis of Persia the pronounciation of the word Aum represents the creative process: the outgoing and incoming of the great breath...The sacred syllable Aum is concealed in the names of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and in the Irano-Aryan name of God, Ahura-Mazda. Its letters form the initials of Agni, Ushas, Mitra. It was perpetuated among the Egyptians by the word Amun, and is concealed in many of the Masonic sacred words.

ROME'S CALLING, BUT LAMBETH WON'T ANSWER

Response To Catholic Leader’s Appeal For Clarity From Lambeth ‘08 Likely To Be Blocked By Conference Structure

Report/Analysis By Lee Penn
The Christian Challenge

www.challengeonline.org

May 27, 2008

A Roman Cardinal with a liberal reputation – Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council on Christian Unity – has called on the Anglican Communion to clarify its identity at the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and to align itself with Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox rather than Protestants.

Kasper warned that any continued effort to avoid resolving Anglican conflicts over issues of doctrine and discipline would only serve to perpetuate the Communion’s crisis, and impede ecumenism between Canterbury and Rome.

There’s just one problem. The Anglican establishment, led by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has sought to ensure that Lambeth 2008 in Canterbury will – by design – make no substantive decisions.

In contrast to past Conferences, including Lambeth ‘98, which passed some significant resolutions – notably Resolution 1.10, opposing “homosexual practice,” “same-sex unions,” and ordination of those involved in such unions – the 2008 Conference, set for July 16-August 3, will have fewer plenary sessions and “no resolutions,” the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, an Episcopal seminary professor who is on the Lambeth Design Team, said during a May 20 webcast with Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Thus - as some of the mostly African prelates planning to skip the Conference have pointed out before this – disappointment likely lies ahead for anyone who expects Lambeth to make clear decisions on disputes that have taken the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism.

Instead of a decennial deliberative council of the whole Communion, Lambeth this time appears to have been crafted by Dr. Williams and his Conference managers as more of a combination ecclesiastical seminar, retreat, and cultural exchange.

Participating bishops will be assigned to small discussion groups. In the morning, there will be Bible study groups on the Gospel of John, including the same eight prelates for the duration of the Conference. At lunchtime and in the early afternoon, there will be “indaba” discussion groups of 40 bishops each. According to the official Lambeth website, “Indaba is a SiZulu word. It refers to a small group that gathers, without time pressures and constraints, to ‘chew over’ important issues. The word best describes what will happen in these sessions. All indaba groups will discuss the same material. This will relate to the day’s theme and might be a DVD presentation, document or input from a speaker. The group will then be led in an activity or discussion that addresses the theme. All group members will have the chance to contribute and different groups will be able to share their findings with one another.” In the late afternoon, participants will be free to choose among seminars, workshops, and discussion groups. There will be a few evening plenary sessions for bishops and their spouses, given by a “high-profile speaker.”

One official reason given for the increase in group activities at this Lambeth is the Global South participants’ stated discomfort or unfamiliarity with Western processes. But it is worth noting that the group dynamic has been used effectively in The Episcopal Church (TEC) as a device to control outcomes (e.g., it disperses conservative forces in different bi-partisan or multi-partisan groups, hindering them from acting together in the body as a whole).

That is not the way it was portrayed, though, in a Pentecost letter Dr. Williams wrote to Anglican bishops. In it, he maintained that the aim of the new Conference style “is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God’s way forward. It is a method with parallels in many cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community where all are committed to a fellowship of love and attention to each other and to the word of God…The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion.” While calling for Lambeth participants to work toward closer unity as envisaged by the 2004 Windsor Report and proposed Anglican covenant, he said that: “We hope that people will not come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds.”

In this, the Archbishop seems to suggest that, despite ten years of failed appeals for TEC to come sufficiently into line with Communion sexuality policy, getting everyone together again at Lambeth will help cut through a problem that he sees as rooted more in poor communications and psychological and cultural distance than In divergent theology. Therefore, his solution to the crisis is better communications and building trust relationships. In this manner (which conspicuously avoids a clear up or down vote on any significant matter and much of the appearance of a split in the Communion), Williams hopes to resolve today’s intra-Anglican problems, which he told Vatican Radio on May 5 are “unprecedentedly difficult.”

Dr. Douglas, Angus Dun professor of world Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, maintained during the May 20 webcast that the indaba sessions would not shy away from the hard questions, noting that there would be study and conversations on the authority of the Bible, human sexuality, gender and violence, Anglican identity and the Anglican covenant, the proposed pact intended to help assure some level of theological unity and mutual accountability among Anglican provinces.

But he said the Conference will not be text- or report-driven, nor will it include “time spent drafting resolutions based on those reports.”

Dr. Douglas said the Lambeth Design Group, which has worked since 2004 to plan the Conference, intended “to do a new thing and help the Anglican Communion focus on what were the mission opportunities of the Communion globally.” The meeting is to be “de-centered, many voiced, conversational and relational – an opportunity for genuine and deep meaningful conversation and building of incarnational relationships.”

As Lambeth’s design appears to promise that TEC will – once more – go undisciplined for its liberal sexuality policies, it is not surprising that Bishop Schori seems delighted with plans for the confab.

In the May 20 press conference at “815” (Episcopal Church headquarters in New York), she contended that the Lambeth program, in removing the emphasis on procedure and legislation, “really beings us back to the heart of what it means to be Christian community…That is the place to where God calls us.” She said this process will allow Anglican bishops to “encounter each other as human beings working in vastly different contexts around the globe” and to “build relationships.” She clearly aspires by that means to win some friends for the liberal, Western cause. “Conversation entered into deeply and fully leads to opportunity for conversion, and I have that as a hope,” she said.

As an alternative to resolving the Anglican divisions on doctrine and discipline, Schori underscored the Millennium Development Goals “as an image of what the Communion could be engaged in together…Together we are building something that moves toward the reign of God when the hungry are fed…and children have access to healthcare. We are moving toward the dream of what we hold together; of what a healed world looks like. Lambeth is part of that vision.” She did not clarify why a church body is needed for this task, when the Red Cross or a United Nations agency might do the same.

Following upon similar complaints over the last year from some Global South Anglican leaders, the conservative Anglican Laity Fellowship expressed its disappointment with the Lambeth plans in a May 21 open letter to Archbishop Williams: “The cost for Lambeth, which will last for nearly three weeks, has been reported to run in the millions of dollars. We do not see how such a cost, which must be borne primarily by laity, is justified under Christian stewardship” if Lambeth will not “resolve the two most serious issues before the Anglican Communion: (1) the status of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s compliance with the Windsor Report and the primates’ Dar es Salaam ultimatum, and (2) an Anglican Covenant establishing a process for deliberation of doctrinal matters and for discipline of unilateral acts.” (The covenant is to be discussed at Lambeth, but it will likely be after that meeting that a final text of the concord will be submitted to provinces for approval or rejection. By one official estimate, the approval process will take seven years.)

-Pointed Words From Pope, Cardinal-

Cardinal Kasper’s admonition was part of a series of recent appeals by Catholic hierarchs for the Anglican Communion and other liberal-minded Protestant bodies to return to traditional Christian faith, order, and discipline.

First came some pointed remarks on April 18 by Pope Benedict XVI at an ecumenical prayer service in New York City.

“Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called ‘prophetic actions’ that are based on a hermeneutic not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition,” the pontiff noted. “Communities consequently give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of ‘local options’.”

He said that such innovations could lead to “the splintering of Christian communities,” and cause “those who are not Christians” to become “confused about the Gospel message itself.” The Pope added that “a clear, convincing testimony to the salvation wrought for us in Christ Jesus has to be based upon the notion of normative apostolic teaching: a teaching which indeed underlies the inspired word of God and sustains the sacramental life of Christians today.”

Following up on this papal initiative on May 5 – the same day that Rowan Williams met with the Pope in Rome - Cardinal Kasper called on the Anglican Communion to use the coming Lambeth Conference to settle disputes over issues of doctrine and discipline that were dividing the church, and to unambiguously identify itself with “the churches of the first millennium.”

The Anglican Church has traditionally identified itself as both Catholic and Protestant. But Kasper told the UK’s Catholic Herald that unless Anglicanism chooses between two “it only extends [its] crisis” and impedes ecumenical dialogue with Rome.

“Ultimately, it is a question of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong? Does it belong more to the churches of the first millennium – Catholic and Orthodox – or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century? At the moment it is somewhere in between, but it must clarify its identity now and that will not be possible without certain difficult decisions.”

The Cardinal – who Williams has asked to address Lambeth this year – added, “We hope that certain fundamental questions will be clarified at the Conference so that dialogue will be possible. We shall work and pray that it is possible, but I think that it is not sustainable to keep pushing decision-making back because it only extends the crisis.”

And, on May 7, two days after publicly taking the Anglican Communion to task, Kasper told Vatican Radio and the Catholic News Service that the Vatican is praying for the unity of the Anglican Communion and offering its assistance “because we are not interested in new factions, new divisions – this is not helpful.” He added that local autonomy “must be linked with solidarity and commonality between the provinces (of the church) on a universal level. This is now the project of the Archbishop of Canterbury - to strengthen the bonds of universal communion.”

The Cardinal’s comments followed upon a speech he gave in January at Ushaw College in Durham, in which he noted that divisions emerging on ethical issues were offsetting ecumenical progress that had been made between Rome and Protestant bodies on longer-standing doctrinal disagreements.

The decision by some Anglican Churches to ordain and bless those in same-sex relationships does not conform with the faith of the Gospel and the early Church, Kasper told the Durham audience. If Anglicanism cannot add to the Catholic Church’s fullness by speaking with a common voice on hitherto universally agreed ethical standards, its value as an ecumenical partner was questionable, he said.

TO BE SURE, diplomatic business continues as usual between Canterbury and Rome, as seen in Dr. Williams’ May 5 private encounter with Pope Benedict at the Vatican. Williams’ second audience with the pontiff, a 20-minute meeting, was described by the Archbishop as “friendly and informal.” Williams said they discussed “a number of ecumenical issues, some of the Pope’s impressions from his American visit and common issues in Christian-Muslim dialogue.”

As well, on May 7, Williams installed the Very Rev. David Richardson, former Dean of the Anglican cathedral in Melbourne, Australia, as the new director of the Anglican Center in Rome; in attendance was a Vatican official, Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Indian-born Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, who will be one of the speakers at Lambeth. The installation service was held in the Church of Santa Maria Sopa Minerva, where rest the sacred remains of St. Catherine of Siena. This site is the titular church of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor of Westminster, and he offered it to the Anglicans for that occasion.

Still, impediments to reunion between Rome and Canterbury have multiplied over the years: TEC’s consecration of a partnered homosexual bishop in 2003, and the spread in the U.S. Church of same-sex unions; the acceptance within some provinces of the Communion of the ordination of women priests, and in a few of them, women bishops; and preparations within the Church of England to consecrate women as bishops. Cardinal Kasper has warned that this decision by the C of E would lead to “a serious and long lasting chill” in ecumenical relations.

But in that matter, and in his hopes for clarity from the Anglican Communion this summer, Cardinal Kasper seems doomed to disappointment. Conspiring against him is not just a hamstrung Lambeth, but Anglican nature itself.

“It’s quintessentially Anglican to put things off,” Living Church News Editor Steve Waring observed recently. “There’s always hope that the end of the world would come first.”

Sources: The Catholic Herald, The Vatican, Catholic News Agency, The Lambeth Conference web site, Anglican Laity Fellowship, Times Online, Episcopal Life Online, The Church of England Newspaper, VirtueOnline, Catholic World News, ZENIT, website of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Reuters, The Guardian, Catholic News Service, Anglican Communion News Service, Religious Intelligence

Permission to circulate the foregoing electronically is granted, provided that there are no changes in the headings or text. To learn more about The Christian Challenge, which has provided independent reporting on Anglican affairs since 1962, please visit www.challengeonline.org

CATHOLIC-ORTHODOX RELATIONS

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI believes relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church are increasingly close and has expressed his gratitude to the Russian Orthodox patriarch for pursuing dialogue.
Benedict made the remarks in a letter to Patriarch Alexy II. The Vatican released the text Friday.

The letter was delivered by Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. Kasper has been on a visit to Russia and met with Alexy on Thursday.

The pope said the visit by Kasper gave him the opportunity «to restate my appreciation for your commitment to fostering relations between Catholics and Orthodox.

Read it here...

A somewhat different take on the dialogue is provided by InterFax:

Moscow, May 30, Interfax - Head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper stated that the Roman Catholic Church would keep up its theological dialogue with local Orthodox Churches only with the Moscow Patriarchate participating.

"We launched the dialogue with all Orthodox Churches and we won't continue it without the Russian Orthodox Church," he said in his interview cited by the official website of the Moscow Theological Academy.

The theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and local Orthodox Churches goes on international level in frames of the Mixed Orthodox-Catholic Theological Commission with the Catholic party co-chaired by Kasper. The last session of this Commission was held in October 2007 in Ravenna.

Then the Moscow Patriarchate's representatives left its plenary session as they didn't agree to the participation of the so-called Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church established in 1996 by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Russian Church. The session's participants without the Moscow Patriarchate representatives adopted a final document defining their shared attitude to the nature of authority in the Ecumenical Church.

Read it here...

BLAIR'S FAITH FOUNDATION

Former prime minister Tony Blair has launched a "faith foundation" to tackle global poverty, challenge conflict and unite the world's religions.

Mr Blair, who is a Roman Catholic, unveiled the foundation in New York.

It has three key aims: to encourage understanding between religions, promote faith as a force for good and tackle poverty and conflict.

Mr Blair said there was "nothing more important" than creating understanding between different faiths and cultures.

Read more...

The official launch is slated for Time Warner headquarters. Time Warner?? Excuse me??

THE NEW JEREMIAH WRIGHT IS A CATHOLIC PRIEST

REV. MICHAEL PFLEGER, SAINT SABINA CHURCH PASTOR: I'm Bill's wife. I'm white, and this is mine! I just got to get up and step into the plate. And then out of nowhere came, hey, I'm Barack Obama. She said, oh, damn! Where did you come from? I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!

She wasn't the only one crying. There was a whole lot of white people crying!

HUME: That was Sunday's sermon at Barack Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The minister, Michael Pfleger, a long time Catholic priest and community activist in Chicago, a member until just a few weeks ago of a group called "Catholics for Obama," an advisory board to the Obama campaign, and a man identified in a "Chicago Sun-Times" report four years ago as one of Barack Obama's spiritual counselors.

He has now apologized saying--excuse me--Obama has now reacted to this by saying he was, quote, "deeply disappointed in father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."

And Pfleger himself has a statement out today saying "I regret the words I chose on Sunday. These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama's life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Senator Clinton or anyone else who saw them."

So we appear to have a new reverend controversy swirling around the Obama campaign.

Continue reading...

"THE TRUE HISTORY OF SCOTTISH ESOTERIC FREEMASONRY"

Returning to the paper online at The Masonic Trowel, Wynants continues with the Sabbatian link:

The perceived linkage between Sabbatians and Protestant subversives possibly spurred Solomon Franco to publish a royalist panegyric, Truth Springing Out of the Earth, which he dedicated to Charles II on 2 July 1668.

As Hebrew instructor of Ashmole, Franco may have learned that Ashmole's friend Evelyn was now undertaking a study of Sabbatai Zevi and similar radical enthusiasts. In his pamphlet, Franco announced his conversion to the Church of England, which he credited to the miraculous nature of Charles II's restoration and to the arguments of Christian friends that the Cabala proved that Jesus was the Messiah. He stressed that the ancient Jews were devoted to monarchy and that rebels against the king were punished with death. Franco was also determined to defend Cabalistic traditions against critics like Samuel Parker, who two years earlier had ridiculed Rosicrucian exponents of Cabala.

Perhaps Franco also hoped to forestall Evelyn's potential criticism of Sabbatai Zevi's Cabalistic pretensions. Thus, he gave detailed expositions of Cabalistic traditions of the male and female Cherubim, the role of the Shekinah in reception of divine influx, the architecture of the Temple, etc. In a passage with Masonic resonance, Franco affirmed: "The Temple, which is the Heart of the World, whose Influence is communicated to all parts of the Body, which now is of Stone, after the coming of the Messias shall be of flesh. (56)

With Cabalistic study reclaimed by Franco as permissable for royalist Christians, Evelyn's expose of the Sabbatian movement was rendered less threatening to Jews (and Marranos) who enjoyed the protection of the king.

Yo Arlington, Evelyn linked Christian partisans of the Sabbatians with Cromwellian radicals, who still posed a threat to the Stuart regime:

But whil'st the Time is not vet accomplish'd, I could wish our modern Enthusiasts, and other prodigious sects amongst us, who Dreame of the like Carnal Expectations, and a Temporal Monarchy, might seriously weigh how nearly their Characters approach the Style and Design of these Deluded Wretchcs [Jewish Sabbatians], least they fall into the same Condemnation, and the Snare of the Devil. (57)

Despite the attacks by militant Protestants, Charles II continued to welcome pacific Rosicrucians and Cabalists to his court. (pp. 18-19)

The Jesuits are mentioned in the article as well.

The sect of Assassins lived in the mountains near Tyre...

Having studied the Assassins, the Jesuits then adopted their methods in order to destroy Protestantism.

Rather than giving their agents hashish, the Jesuits used charms and exorcisms, performed in "Chambers of Meditation and other Recesses of Darkness": they "conjured up gradually to that prodigious fury, as to think that in bloody assassinations of Kings and Princes, and merciless blowing up of Kingdoms, they do acceptable service to God, and merit everlasting Life." Through their magical meditation techniques, the Jesuit agents become angelized and divinized to prepare for their deadly work. (p. 21-22)

Returning to the Jewish-Masonic connection, Wynants writes:

A decade later, Ramsay revealed to the Ecossais lodge in Paris a Jacobite version of Masonic history that echoed and colaborated many of Swift's revelations in A Letter from the Crand Mistress.

Swift stressed the Jewish roots of Masonry, noting that it was originally called Cabala, and he revealed the initiates' preoccupation with Cabalistic gematria and notarikon. (115)

For their Masonic relationship, see M.K. Schuchard, "Ramsay, Swift, and the Jacobite-Masonic Version of the Stuart Restoration," in Esoterisme, Gnosis et Imaginaire Symbolique (2001), 491-50.

Ramsay similarly stressed the Jewish origins and Cabalistic descent, noting that "The secret Science can be preserved pure only amongst God's people," the Jews, because the Masons' traditions... are founded on the annals of the most ancient race in the, world, the only one, still in existence with the same name as of old and not intermingled with other nations although so widely dispersed and also the only one that has preserved its ancient books, whereas those of almost all other races are lost." (116)

While Swift referred to the preservation of Jewish secrets in lodges of "the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem or the Knights of Maltha," Ramsay described the concealment of Solomon's hieroglyphic writing ("the original Code of our Order") in the foundations of the Second Temple and its subsequent discovery by the crusading knights who liberated Jerusalem.

According to Swift and Ramsay, when the crusaders returned to Europe, they infused the Solomonic secrets of Cabalism and Temple building into their lodges. More explicitly than Swift, Ramsay named "James, Lord Steward of Scotland" as "Grand Master of a Lodge established at Kilwinning" in 1286, when he also initiated the English Earl of Gloucester and the Irish Earl of Ulster. Obliquely identifying early Masonry with the Templars, Ramsay noted that "an intimate union" was formed with the Knights of St. John of jerusalerd (the Hospitallers'). Unlike Swift, he did not mention the Knights of Malta, who subsequently absorbed Templar and Hospitaller traditions and who underwent a short-lived revival in Ireland during James II's residence there in 1690. Since the merging of the chivalric orders into Masonry, the brothers continued to imitate their Jewish forefathers: "The union was made after the manner of the Israelites when they built the Second Temple, whilst some handled the trowel and the compasses, others defended them with sword and buckler." (p. 34)

Throughout the eighteenth century, the "ancient" Stuart traditions were maintained in clandestine Jacobite lodges in Britain and in the lodges of the Stuart diaspora. The Jewish associations were carried on by Francis Francia (the 'Jacobite Jew"), Dr. Samuel Jacob Falk (the "Baal Shem of London"), Martines de Pasqually (the "Elu Cohen"); the Swedish-Stuart loyalties were preserved by Carl XIL Carl Gustaf Tessin, Carl Gyllenborg, Emanuel Swedenborg, and Gustaf III.

For footnote citations go to the website. There are 116 of them.

BENEDICT XVI IN AMERICA

LEE PENN takes a closer look at some of the statements made by Benedict XVI during his first visit to the U.S. as Pope, including his up-front approach to the clergy sexual abuse scandal, which got mixed reviews.

The Christian Challenge

www.challengeonline.org

May, 2008

Receiving a warm and rousing welcome wherever he went, Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States from April 15-20, speaking and praying at the White House, the United Nations, and Ground Zero in New York City, as well as to various assemblies of Roman Catholic clergy and laity.

Of the number of topics he addressed during his visit – which included Truth, freedom, social reform, the UN, immigration, religious freedom, relativism, secularism, Christian unity and inter-religious dialogue - he was most noted for openly and pastorally confronting the American Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal. Critics, however, observed that U.S. bishops who enabled clergy abuse to go on have largely suffered no ill consequences for their actions, and that Benedict asserts that these same prelates now have the problem under control. (More on this later in the story.).

This was Benedict’s first visit to the U.S. as Pope, although he had been to the country five times while he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II.

During his American sojourn, the Pope offered two open-air Masses, one at Washington Nationals Park, and one at Yankee Stadium, for Catholic laity. He also addressed congregations of bishops, priests, monks and nuns, Catholic educators, and seminarians and other youths from all U.S. dioceses at cathedrals in New York and Washington D.C.

Additionally, in New York Benedict visited a Jewish synagogue, and went to a Catholic parish to address a gathering of leaders from all major Christian churches. Though invited to attend this April 18 meeting, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori absented herself, pleading a prior commitment to bless a new center in the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. (Reports maintained that she made this commitment in April 2007, before the papal travel schedule was announced in November 2007.) Instead, The Episcopal Church (TEC) was represented at the April 18 encounter by Bishop Christopher Epting, TEC’s ecumenical officer, and New York Bishop Mark Sisk.

Tens of thousands of Catholics competed, schemed, and scalped for tickets to the papal services; as one New Yorker told The Wall Street Journal, “I don’t care what it costs ... To a real Catholic, it’s the closest thing to God you’re going to get.”

After the visit, a priest of the Legionaries of Christ wrote in the National Catholic Register that: “From the welcoming ceremony at the White House to the Youth Rally in New York, Benedict XVI drew tremendous, overflowing crowds. And their size was matched by their enthusiasm. The thousands of priests and religious who gathered with him in St. Patrick’s Cathedral gushed with three separate standing ovations and deafening applause that went on, and on, and on. The U.N. General Assembly gave him a standing ovation. The 20,000 young people who squeezed onto the rally lawn at Dunwoodie cheered so loudly and so often that the elderly Pope spent more time grinning than talking.”

The Pope’s arrival April 15 at Andrews Air Force Base, where hundreds of Catholic students gave him a rock star’s welcome, also marked the first time that President Bush had gone to the base to meet any foreign head of state upon his arrival. The President explained to the U.S. cardinals who were present, “How could I not come out to meet him? He’s the greatest spiritual leader in the whole world.”

The next day, Benedict’s 81st birthday, was mostly spent at the White House, where the pontiff was honored with a 21-gun salute and a crowd of 9,000 invited guests on the South Lawn – the largest such gathering of the Bush presidency. Among the guests, seated with the dignitaries, was conservative Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton.

IN HIS U.S. HOMILIES, Benedict linked freedom to social obligation and the quest for truth. At the White House, he said, “The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate.”

He also restated the Catholic Church’s commitment to social reform and the creation of a “fraternal society” for all: “The Church, for her part, wishes to contribute to building a world ever more worthy of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. … Faith also gives us the strength to respond to our high calling and to hope that inspires us to work for an ever more just and fraternal society.”

In his address to the Catholic bishops, Benedict took a pro-immigration stance, and emphasized the need for Catholics to live in accord with Church teaching seven days a week: “Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death?” he asked, for example. “Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted,” the pontiff said.

At the Catholic University of America in Washington, the Pope addressed the 200 presidents of Catholic universities and colleges, and the superintendents of Catholic schools from 195 dioceses. Benedict reminded the assembled educators that faith and reason are compatible, and urged them to be faithful to the church teaching in all aspects of school life, and not to use “the principle of academic freedom” to justify contradictions to that teaching.

“Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice,” Benedict said. “This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.” (If this principle were applied, the wayward practices of some Catholic universities, such as offering contraceptives to students, or hosting performances of The Vagina Monologues, would have to be ended.)

In his meeting with interfaith leaders at Washington’s John Paul II Cultural Center, the Pope called for continued inter-religious dialogue that would “inspire all people to ponder the deeper questions of their origin and destiny. May the followers of all religions stand together in defending and promoting life and religious freedom everywhere.”

He suggested that, “in our attempt to discover points of commonality, perhaps we have shied away from the responsibility to discuss our differences with calmness and clarity. While always uniting our hearts and minds in the call for peace, we must also listen attentively to the voice of truth. In this way, our dialogue will not stop at identifying a common set of values, but go on to probe their ultimate foundation,” he said. “Confronted with these deeper questions concerning the origin and destiny of mankind, Christianity proposes Jesus of Nazareth.”

At the UN headquarters, the Pope called for respect for religious freedom – not just freedom to worship, but also freedom for socio-political action by the religious:

“The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order.”

At the end of his address to the General Assembly, Benedict restated Catholic support for the UN’s mission, saying that “the Church is happy to be associated with the activity of this distinguished organization, charged with the responsibility of promoting peace and good will throughout the earth.”

But he cautioned against the creation of “new rights,” and said that such claims should be met by discernment between good and evil.

During the ecumenical Christian meeting –the one that TEC’s Presiding Bishop skipped due to a prior commitment to the Diocese of Utah – the Pope called for Christian unity on the basis of “sound teaching.” From the viewpoint of conservative Episcopalians, his remarks were highly relevant to the situation in TEC.

In an apparent rebuke of departures from traditional Christian faith, order, and discipline in various denominations, Benedict said, “Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called ‘prophetic actions’ that are based on a hermeneutic not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition. Communities consequently give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of ‘local options.’” The result of this, he said, is “the splintering of Christian communities” and – for non-Christians – confusion about “the Gospel message itself.”

The Pope also denounced the dilution of the Gospel message by “a relativistic approach to Christian doctrine similar to that found in secular ideologies, which, in alleging that science alone is ‘objective’, relegate religion entirely to the subjective sphere of individual feeling.”

Benedict also warned against the lure of relativism when he spoke to seminarians and other young Catholics. “Have you noticed how often the call for freedom is made without ever referring to the truth of the human person?…[A]nd in truth’s place – or better said its absence – an idea has spread which, in giving value to everything indiscriminately, claims to assure freedom and to liberate conscience. This we call relativism. But what purpose has a ‘freedom’ which, in disregarding truth, pursues what is false or wrong? How many young people have been offered a hand which in the name of freedom or experience has led them to addiction, to moral or intellectual confusion, to hurt, to a loss of self-respect, even to despair and so tragically and sadly to the taking of their own life?

“Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ,” the pontiff declared.

Benedict then called upon the youth to follow “the example of the saints” and to cultivate “personal prayer and silence, liturgical prayer, charity in action,” and the pursuit of their God-given vocations.

In describing the arenas for “charity in action,” the Pope warned that “new injustices have arisen: some are complex and stem from the exploitation of the heart and manipulation of the mind; even our common habitat, the earth itself, groans under the weight of consumerist greed and irresponsible exploitation.”

-“Shame” Of Clergy Abuse Scandal-

On his final day in America, the Pope prayed at Ground Zero for healing and for peace, and then offered Mass at Yankee Stadium. The Pope gave thanks for the growth of the Catholic Church in the last 200 years in the U.S., and urged the faithful to bring their convictions to the public square, and thus to transform society

“Each day, throughout this land, you and so many of your neighbors pray to the Father in the Lord’s own words: ‘Thy Kingdom come’. … Praying fervently for the coming of the Kingdom also means being constantly alert for the signs of its presence, and working for its growth in every sector of society. It means facing the challenges of present and future with confidence in Christ’s victory and a commitment to extending his reign. It means not losing heart in the face of resistance, adversity and scandal. It means overcoming every separation between faith and life, and countering false gospels of freedom and happiness. It also means rejecting a false dichotomy between faith and political life…And this, dear friends, is the particular challenge which the Successor of Saint Peter sets before you today…Hasten the coming of God’s Kingdom in this land!”

In contrast to John Paul II, Benedict spoke explicitly and repeatedly of the “shame” and “great suffering” that the clergy abuse scandal has caused for the Roman Church. On April 17, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston escorted six abuse victims to a private meeting and prayer time with the Pope – a gesture that survivors had sought from Benedict’s predecessor, but never obtained. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), one of the prominent victims’ activist groups, said that this was “a positive first step on a very long road.”

During his flight from Rome to Washington on April 15, Benedict had told reporters, “It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the Church in general, for me personally, that this could happen. If I read the history of these events, it is difficult for me to understand how it was possible for priests to fail in this way…I am ashamed and we will do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen in future.

“I think we have to act on three levels. The first is at the level of justice and the political level. I will not speak at this moment about homosexuality: this is another thing. We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry…Then there is a pastoral level. The victims will need healing and help and assistance and reconciliation: this is a big pastoral engagement and I know that the bishops and the priests and all Catholic people in the [U.S.] will do whatever possible to help.” The third level cited by Benedict was “a visitation of the seminaries…Only sound persons can be admitted to the priesthood.” It is “more important,” he said, “to have good priests than to have many priests.”

When Benedict addressed the assembly of American bishops on April 16 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, he expressed “deep shame” over the “sexual abuse of minors,” describing this evil as “one of the countersigns to the Gospel of Life.” Nevertheless, he framed the scandal as a thing of the past, now being handled well by the bishops:

“Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior. As you strive to eliminate this evil wherever it occurs, you may be assured of the prayerful support of God’s people throughout the world. Rightly, you attach priority to showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged. Responding to this situation has not been easy and, as the President of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was ‘sometimes very badly handled.’ Now that the scale and gravity of the problem is more clearly understood, you have been able to adopt more focused remedial and disciplinary measures and to promote a safe environment that gives greater protection to young people…In this regard, your efforts to heal and protect are bearing great fruit not only for those directly under your pastoral care, but for all of society.”

In his first address to America’s Catholic laity, at Nationals Park on April 17, Benedict again expressed regret for “the sexual abuse of minors,” and called for the victims to be “given loving pastoral attention.” However, he assured his listeners that “great efforts have already been made to deal honestly and fairly with this tragic situation, and to ensure that children…can grow up in a safe environment. These efforts to protect children must continue… I ask you to love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do.”

On April 19, the third anniversary of his election to the papacy, Benedict led the Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral attended by over 3,000 priests, deacons and religious, at which he prayed for the “purification” and “healing” of the American Church. He urged his listeners to “cooperate with your bishops who continue to work effectively to resolve this issue.”

These apologies won applause for the Pope; as one NPR commentator said, “By saying sorry so openly and unequivocally, Pope Benedict’s confession and appeal for forgiveness has obviously rallied many Americans behind him and given millions of Christians a basic reminder of how true repentance can lead to a fresh start.”

However, Benedict, in addition to offering assurances that American bishops now have the problem under control, seemed to focus mainly on the issue of pedophilia, even though active homosexuality in the priesthood has been recognized as an equally serious matter. (A recent study sponsored by the U.S. Catholic Church showed that 81 percent of the abuse victims were male, and 53 percent of the victims were adolescents, not pre-pubescent children. As such, homosexual priests account for at least as much of the abuse as do pedophile priests.)

Fr. Thomas Doyle, a priest and canon lawyer who has been an advocate for abuse victims since the 1980s, remains skeptical of the depth of Benedict’s change of heart. He said that the Pope “sidestepped the very hurtful, destructive reaction of a number of Vatican officials over the years. He sidestepped the responsibility of the papacy and the official Vatican reaction as well, and he certainly did not even get into the responsibility of the bishops in this country and other countries for enabling abusers, for lying about it, for re-victimizing the victims. He sidestepped that completely.”

Sources: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The White House, Vatican web site, Catholic News Service, The Charleston Post and Courier, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Episcopal Life, National Public Radio, National Catholic Register, Titus OneNine, Australian National Radio

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF SAINT STANISLAUS KOSTKA EXCOMMUNICATED

From the website of the Archdiocese of St. Louis:

Recent Decisions of the Holy See Regarding Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation

The following is the text of Archbishop Rayond L. Burke's weekly column in the St. Louis Review, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This column will be published in the May 30 edition of the newspaper.

Introduction
On December 15th of 2005, I was obliged to declare the excommunication of the members of the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation because of their persistence in schism. The members of the Board had committed the most grievous delict of schism by hiring a suspended priest, that is, a priest not in good standing in the Church, for the purpose of attempting to celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals at Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church, all outside of the communion of the Catholic Church. The priest in question, the Reverend Marek B. Bozek, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, had left his priestly assignment against the expressed will of his bishop, Bishop John Leibrecht, in order to be hired by the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation.

Bishop Leibrecht warned Reverend Bozek, several times, about the grave consequences of his actions, and, when Reverend Bozek refused to heed his warnings and abandoned his priestly assignment, was obliged to suspend him from all acts of the power of Holy Orders and of governance. When I received news of Reverend Bozek's coming to the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I urged him to be obedient to his bishop and not to participate in the schismatic activity of the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation. Reverend Bozek also refused to follow my direction and, likewise, incurred the penalty of excommunication because of persistence in schism.

On March 23, 2006, the Board of Directors and Reverend Bozek presented a recourse against my declaration of their excommunication before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office of the Holy Father which treats all matters of heresy and schism. The recourse alleged that I had unjustly declared the excommunication of the members of the Board of Directors and of Reverend Bozek.

Read more...

FAULTY MEMORY SYNDROME IN CLEVELAND

From MyFox Cleveland:

Smith's former boss, Father John Wright, testified that he authorized a one time, lump sum payment of about $250,000 to keep Smith from pursuing other jobs. Wright says that was the only money he authorized.

But Smith's attorney, Phil Kushner, sought to show that Father Wright's memory was fuzzy. Father Wright says he thought he signed a blank check on behalf of the diocese that he assumed would be made out for $250,000 and would me made out to Smith, but no such check has ever been found.

Father Wright also acknowledged that signatures on documents showing an account set up for Smith looked like his writing. But Father Wright said he couldn't remember signing those documents.

Father Wright's $250,000 payment was kept secret from Bishop Anthony Pilla for eight years.

When Wright finally told Pilla in 2004, Kushner asked, "Did you tell... Bishop (Pilla) that you had signed a blank check?"

Father Wright replied: "I don't know that I said it in those words...."

I am so convinced they are lying again. As long as I believe they are lying, the contributions will be sent elsewhere.

"THE TRUE HISTORY OF SCOTTISH ESOTERIC MASONRY"

is the title of an article by Eric Wynants found online recently. The article interesting because of some of the admissions made by the author--admissions that Masons in other venues have tried to deny.

It's a long article that prints out at 42 pages. I will use page citations and leave the footnote citations in to give you an estimation of where in the article you can find the quote.

The article makes it clear that at the time of the birth of Freemasonry, politics in the lodges played a big part of its formation.

All the royalist plans were thrown into full gear when news arrived on the Continent of the death of Oliver Cromwell in September 1658. When the inept Richard Cromwell assumed the Protectorship, the royalists increased their overtures to Monk in Scotland. On 30 September a Cromwellian officer in Leith wrote to Thurloe that Scottish preachers were now using mystical language, while they pray for the deliverance of' the exiles and captives to be delivered from the yoke of Pharaoh and out of Egypt: "Thus they speake, but so ambiguously that they can evade, if questioned; yet see plainly that the whole people knowes their meaning." (26)

The use of mystical Hebraic terminology harked back to the days of the first Covenantand its underlying Masonic organization. Moreover, many Scottish masons were currently employed on the fortifications at Leith, which were directed by the Swedish architect Tessin and his commander Monk. Tessin had earlier been initiated in the Edinburgh Lodge, which was directed by John Mylne. (p. 9)

According to Burnet, who probably received the information from Moray or the Bruces, "Thus Cromwell had all the king's party in a net. He let them dance in it at his pleasure; and upon occasion clapt them up for a short while." (30)

"There is no department of knowledge that gives us more certainty of Christ‘s divinity than magic and cabala," wrote Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the translator of the so called writings of "Hermes" in 1486.

The ritualized unification of the Masters Word drew on Christian Cabalistic lore, in which the unification of the letters of the Tetragrammaton was "predicated on and facilitated by some form of visualization of these letters within the imagination. (p. 11)

From the time of Charles II's oral commitments to the Jews at the Restoration, his philo-Semitic policies over the next twenty-five years fueled a secretive tradition of Jewish-Masonic collaboration that emerged dramatically in the next century. Moreover, this tradition would be strongest in the Rosicrucian degrees of Ecossais rites developed by exiled supporters of the Stuart dynasty....In the Stuart Temple of Wisdom, not only Protestants and Catholics but Jews and Moslems would be welcomed as comrades in chivalric fraternity. (p. 13-14)

In january 1663 Charles and his foreign secretary Arlington established a new precedent by allowing a naturalized Jew from Barbados, the diamond merchant Da Vega, to become a Freeman of a Company in London. (37)

Though Charles still could not count on parliamentary support, he communicated to various Portuguese Jews in April that "he was resolved to grant" permission to a large number of Marranos to immigrate to England. (38)...

The king's policy also opened the doors for renewed Hebrew studies in Scotland, where it was well-known that Lauderdale was an expert in the language. One Jew travelled to Scotland, where he instructed Patrick Gordon, who became Professor of Hebrew at King's College, Aberdeen. (40)

At St. Andrews the king donated Pound 50 for a Professor of Hebrew, while at Edinburgh a converted Jew was invited to teach Jewish language and history. (41) (p. 14)

In a manuscript entitled "The History of Masonry," written by Thomas Treloar in 1665, there is a striking merger of Scottish Masonic tradition and Hebrew royalist panegyric. An inscription on the manuscript reads: "History and Charges of Masonry, Copied by me Jon Raymond MDCCV." (46)

In the surviving fragment, there are inscriptions in Hebrew lettering which reinforce the stress of Jewish and Solomonic traditions in the restored fraternity. The text begins with the Hebrew inscription, "in the beginning God created the heaven and earth," and then recounts the story of' Hiram the architect.

The text then relates a highly Judaised version of the Old Charges, adding peculiar details and claiming Jewish sources for the discoveries of Euclid and Pythagoras. McLeod observes that in standard English texts of the Old Charges, Solomon's Temple is simply one episode of many and not the most important at that... (p. 16)

McLeod expresses puzzlement at this "remarkable I early- naming of the architect as Hiram, but Stevenson suggests that the Hiramic legend in Scottish Freemasonry was already present in William Schaw's time. Thus, "the mental lodge" or "memory temple" described in late seventeenth-century catechisms contained the grave of Hiram, "the greatest of all architects." Through certain Cabalistic and necromantic rituals, the initiate could discover and rejuvenate Hiram. The emphasis on his role as the "widow's son" pointed to Charles II's role as Henrietta Maria's son----a Stuart reference that would take on more poignant significance for Jacobite exiles in the next century. (48) (p. 16)

Sabbatai Zevi's heresy is mentioned in the manuscript:

In the year when the manuscript was written, the Jewish community in London must have worried that religious sectarians in Britain were linking their cause to Jewish millenarian developments in the Middle Last. Reports of the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi, a Cabalistic prophet in Smyrna, stimulated waves of enthusiasm among many Jews on the Continent....

In November 1665 Robert Boulter published in London a Sabbatian message to serve the agenda of radical dissidents, who opposed Charles II's policy of toleration. He claimed that he received a letter from Aberdeen which dcscribed the arrival on the Scottish coast of a mysterious ship, loaded with Hebrew-speaking Jews who were gathering their brethren from all over the world to return to Jerusalem. (51)

The Sabbatians boldly proclaimed on their satin sails, "THESE ARE THE TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL," who would give liberty of' conscience to all (except the Turks). It is unclear whether Boulter believed there were actual Jews living in Scotland, or whether he hoped to insult the Scots and their Stuart king by implying that they where Jewish.

Meanwhile in Amsterdam, some Jewish admirers of Sabbatai Zevi hoped that the English king would assist them, despite the current state of war between England and Holland which had spread to the Mediterranean.

But when Sabbatal Zevi -under threat of death-apostasized to Islam, the royalists in Britain were relieved that the potentially incendiary movement fizzled out. There is little evidence that Jews in London supported the campaign, which threatened to undermine their delicate position under the king's protection. (52) (p. 17)

I'll pick up this Sabbatian link in the manuscript next time.

THE ONE WORLD RELIGION FORGES AHEAD

MEL GIBSON was forced to defend his film The Passion Of The Christ against charges of anti-Semitism, but the Catholic Church wants no part of such a controversy when Pope Benedict XVI visits Australia in July.

The church has changed one of its most popular devotions and a landmark event of World Youth Day to take account of the sensitivities of Jews and draw other Christian denominations into its youth celebrations.

In the Catholic tradition the Stations of the Cross, the depiction of the final hours of Jesus Christ, features 14 scenes including the fall of Jesus three times - but only eight have scriptural foundation. To make the event more appealing to all Christians, a Vatican-approved scriptural version, founded entirely on passages from the New Testament, will be adopted when it is staged in the streets of Sydney on July 18.

It is not the only concession the church is willing to make in the name of interfaith unity: scriptural texts, reflections and video commentaries will be carefully worked so that the scene at the Sydney Opera House in which Jesus is condemned does not incite anti-Semitic feeling.

The Pope will pray with Australian Christian leaders, including those from Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Eastern Rite churches in the St Mary's Cathedral Crypt the morning of the Stations of the Cross. That will be followed by a meeting with the heads of non-Christian faiths, including the Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu religions.

Read the rest...

CLUSTERING IN CLEVELAND

The six-parish Willoughby cluster has decided to pare down to three parishes. Details can be read at News-Herald.com.

I spoke recently with a member of the clustering team at the parish where I'm registered who indicated it isn't likely that the parish will close, but that perhaps another church in my area might close. No decisions have been made. Schools--and the lack of them--are a determining factor in which parishes to keep and which to close. On the other hand, a Catholic academy not connected to any particular parish was also an option being considered.

The parish has also embarked on a major restoration campaign--the second in my tenure there. Why repair it if you're just going to sell it? I won't be contributing to this one.

Strangely, it no longer has any affect on me. Close it? Keep it open? It just doesn't matter. Since I no longer have a sense of parish affiliation, the church where I attend Mass has become a matter of indifference. I will go where the Mass is said by the rubrics and the preaching is orthodox if I can find one. If not, I will go, pick a place in the church where the acoustics are poor, and put my mind on personal prayer during the offensive parts. In other words, just tune it out. This represents a big step back from all churchy things Catholic for me. I've even come to the place where the question of who will say my funeral Mass has become less important. If no priest will say it, well then the funeral director can say some of the prayers I have said so many times myself and just stick me in the ground. I'm all out of anger and all out of fight for what is right in the Church. I've just gotten worn out with the struggle after 40 years of chaos and the sexual scandal.

HOMOSEXUAL YOUTH EVENT IN THE GAY STATE

LifeSite reports:

The now annual Massachusetts Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Youth Parade was highlighted this year by fully sanctioned participation by a variety of school groups. Children encouraged to display homosexual acts on camera to be posted to the group's website, a gay prom at Boston City Hall and the distribution a variety of information pamphlets homosexualizing Christianity....

At one point during the event, a guest speaker incited the crowd to violently harass photographers from "Mass Resistance", the pro-family action group. The photographers were surrounded, barred from taking pictures and then assaulted as a Boston police officer in uniform stood by and watched.

The event was funded by taxpayer money according to Brian Camenaker:

Brian Camenker, head of the Massachusetts based pro-family group MassResistance, says the homosexual youth rally was organized using taxpayer money. "And it was run by the state-funded organization called the Massachusetts Commission on Gay\Lesbian\Bi-sexual and Transgender Youth – which was created by the legislature and uses hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money," Camenker contends.

The MassResistence website notes a curious double standard in Massachusetts law enforcement:

Massachusetts has a strict law that requires a state CORI (criminal offender record information) investigation of any adult volunteering for activities involving minors. A mother who wants to volunteer at her child's high school will be told she needs a CORI check. A Little League coach in Massachusetts needs a CORI check....

But there's one "unofficial" exception. Homosexual activists working with schoolchildren seem to get a free pass. They have never to our knowledge been required to get a CORI check.

And the worst situation is the annual "Youth Pride Day" and the "Transgender Prom" that evening. The homosexual groups openly advertise on their websites for adult "volunteers" for this event. As we've pretty well documented, some very depraved-looking people show up, volunteer, and freely mingle with the kids. And as we've reported, at least one former member of the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, Bill Conley, has been arrested for soliciting oral sex from students.

Pictures from the 2006 parade event are posted on the MassResistance website.

Americans for Truth offers a more detailed description of the event and the handouts distributed, including:

“History of Saints Servius and Bacchus”, handed out by a man dressed as a Catholic priest, claiming that these two Catholic saints were actually homosexual lovers.

“Catholic Theological Defense of Same-sex Marriage” pamphlet which states that there is “no moral right to declare marriage off limits to persons whom God has made gay” and that the Pope “is definitely wrong and he will be corrected some day by one of his successors.” (Also handed out by the aforementioned “priest”.)

“Reading the Bible with New Eyes” - a pamphlet that portrays Jesus as having had a homosexual affair with Lazarus and Mary as a lesbian. It also describes the Book of Acts as “defining a lesbian and gay ‘nation.’” It also states that Jesus “was a functional, if not physical, eunuch.”

“Queer Spirituality” A booklet from a “church” describing how homosexuality is a spiritual experience that “opens us up to God.”

Boston Pride Week is scheduled for June 6-15, 2008

ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN PRIESTS REFERRED TO AS CATHOLIC "SECT"

They got it at least half right. Womenpriests is a Catholic sect. They call traditional Roman Catholics a "sect" as well, though. Can't tell whether they are referring to the SSPX or the Roman Catholic Church.

SAINT DEATH COMES TO CHICAGO

For decades Santa Muerte has been present in the tough neighborhoods of Mexico City, where prostitutes and drug traffickers worshiped her mostly in secret. Last month, a group devoted to the icon made her over, giving the figure long, brown hair and a rose to hold in an attempt to change her image and win Mexican government recognition.

But as Mexican immigrants journey north, devotion to Santa Muerte has grown immensely in Chicago, Los Angeles, Tucson, Ariz., and other urban areas. In one of the more unusual religious phenomena to cross the border, statuettes, candles, charms and medallions of the skeletal figure are sold in supermarkets, dollar stores, malls and flea markets.

Often, Santa Muerte stands near statues of Catholic images of Jesus, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Peter or St. Lazarus. Moreover, followers are no longer limited to the lowest sectors of society. In the Chicago area, young people, housewives and grandmothers purchase the icon and speak openly about her power and their faith.

'I respect her,' said Brenda Alfaro, 25, who works in a Chicago store where Santa Muerte items are sold. 'She represents death, and that's something we are all going to face one day. She's everywhere now, and it's because of the faith people have in her. It's almost like a new religion.'

In Mexico, the Catholic Church has spoken against Santa Muerte, saying she is linked to Satanism and is being used to mislead desperate people. Catholic priests leading large Mexican-American congregations in the Chicago area are confronting questions about Santa Muerte and what she represents.

Read it here.

INDIANA JONES

The hard sell worked. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” pushed by one of the biggest marketing campaigns in Hollywood history, sold an estimated $151.1 million in tickets in North American theaters over the five-day holiday weekend.

The box office gross, generated between Thursday and Monday, put to rest questions about whether one of moviedom’s most popular characters could strike a cultural chord after a 19-year hiatus from the big screen. Overseas the movie, which generated mixed reviews from critics, sold an estimated $143 million in tickets between Thursday and Sunday; Monday estimates were unavailable.

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I didn't see it. Back in the 1980s I did see "Raiders of the Lost Ark". It scared the heck out of me. I was still shaking by the time we got home and have never been able to explain it. Nothing like it had ever happened before, and it has not happened since. It was enough to convince me that I had no business seeing another Indiana Jones movie. Maybe this was why, though I couldn't have made the connection back then:

(IsraelNN.com) The famed archaeologist, the inspiration for the “Indiana Jones” movie series, has spent most of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and was hidden just before the destruction of the First Temple.

The Talmud says the Ark is hidden in a secret passage under the Temple Mount. Jones says that the tunnel actually continues 18 miles southward, and that the Ark was brought through the tunnel to its current resting place in the Judean Desert.

Throughout the many years of his quest, Jones has been in close contact and under the tutelage of numerous Rabbis and Kabbalists. Extremely knowledgeable in Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah sources dealing with Holy Temple issues, Jones has now received permission from both known and secret Kabbalists to finally uncover the lost ark.

Dr. Jones, who divides his time between Texas and Israel, has been here since March 9th ready to finally reveal the Ark. However, he has been waiting for both permission from the mysterious Kabbalist and for project funding to come through.

As recently as last month, the rabbi, who only communicates via messenger, told Jones that the time was not yet right to discover the Temple vessels.

Last Thursday, however, Dr. Jones received a communication from the rabbi reading, “The time is right.”

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I first encountered Vendyl Jones at a traveling show that stopped off in Akron a number of years ago. They had on display various old copies of the Bible and some archeological finds and provided a movie that came through loudly to me as anti-Catholic. They were selling Jones' books. Jones is a Noahide.

Not everyone believes Jones is the prototype for the Indiana Jones movies. The Jewish Legends website tells us:

The fact that a fictional Indiana Jones, who shares Dr. Vendyl's last name, also found the lost ark doesn't faze Dr. Vendyl, for one reason-he claims to be the source of the Indiana Jones character. Dr. Jones says the man who wrote the first draft of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Randolph Fillmore, was one of the volunteers who worked with him in 1977. “I agreed to help him write the movie as long as – number one – he wouldn’t set it here (in Israel). Some people believe the ark is in Ethiopia or Egypt, some believe its in Constantinople or Rome. I just didn’t want it to be portrayed as being here. The second thing was, 'Don’t use my name.' So he didn’t. My name is Vendyl – V-E-N-D-Y-L. So he just dropped the first and last letters and it ended up Endy Jones," Jones said in an Arut Sheva interview.

This account directly contradicts the director and executive producer of the Indiana Jones films, Hollywood mega movie moguls Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. On the bonus material of the Indiana Jones Trilogy, Lucas explains the name "Indiana"came from the name of his dog, of an Alaskan malamute, that he had in the 1970s. As for the "Jones, " the character was originally named Indiana Smith, but Spielberg disliked the name and Lucas casually suggested "Indiana Jones". The name was thus changed early in the production of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

While a scriptwriter Randolph Fillmore may have been on one of Jones' digs, Philip Kaufman and George Lucas came up with the idea of an archaeologist hunting for the Ark and are credited as such in the film, with Lawrence Kasdan writing the actual script. Furthermore, Randolph Fillmore is not credited, nor is he known to have written any Hollywood script.

Truth or disinformation campaign? I'll probably never know.

"WHEN WORLDS THAT SHOULD COLLIDE, DON'T"

The article is a year old, but the questions it asks are no less pertinent today.

From the National Catholic Register:

“There seems to be a growing trend in Catholic retreat houses to offer courses in yoga and Zen meditation,” Father Kedjierski says. “I have even seen the brochures of some Catholic retreat houses and when I looked at the activities offered I have wondered if the facility even is Catholic because there are no courses on the saints, on the Catholic spiritual tradition, nor catechesis, but there are plenty of offerings about Zen Buddhism, yoga, and meditation.

“Have we chosen to abandon the richness of our own faith tradition for another? Have we sufficiently altered the ideas inherent in Zen and yoga about a total abandonment to all attachments and concepts that Christ and the truths of the faith can find a place in them? If the answer is No, then very clearly this is doing damage to the Catholic faith.”

ST. JOAN OF ARC PARISH ON YOUTUBE

Palm Sunday Mass at St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis.

As theater it's not bad. I think there were even some ETs represented in there. As a part of Mass, it makes me shudder. But as theater, staged apart from Mass, I think it has merit. Does this thing go against the rubrics, or is there a loophole that allows it?

For still photos of the event go here. It's an eyeful!

FROM THE EMAILBOX

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

Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 21 | Friday, May 23, 2008
..................................................................................

www.hli.org

The "Last Lion" of Abortion

Sen. John McCain responded to the news of Sen. Edward Kennedy's brain tumor saying that Ted Kennedy was the "last lion of the Senate." Nice words, but hollow. Clearly Kennedy has been a forty-year force to reckon with in the US Senate, but lionizing him for his headstrong political partisanship over four decades is a little like saying that sticking around for a long time and being opinionated qualifies as a "legacy." That very record of anti-life advocacy is the measure by which his soul will be judged.

While I pray for Sen. Kennedy's recovery from a brain tumor, I pray more for his recovery from the cancerous metastasis of abortion ideology in his soul. Ironically, in the same years in which abortion has become less and less acceptable to the American public, it has become more and more of an obsession for Sen. Kennedy. Prior to Roe v. Wade, Sen. Kennedy had actually held a pro-life view of the sanctity of life. In a letter to a constituent he said,

"While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized - the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old." (See http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=31615 )

However, post-Roe, Kennedy's record of recognizing the "value which our civilization places on life" has been, shall we say, less than stellar. In fact, he has a 0% record of voting in favor of life, and there is not one life-related issue in which his vote reflects a concern for the weakest members of our society, let alone the concern that his supposed Catholic faith places on them.

Senator Kennedy

* Is rated 100% by NARAL for his pro-choice voting record.
* Voted NO on banning human cloning.
* Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions.
* Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
* Voted NO on criminal penalties for harming an unborn child during the commission of another crime.
* Voted NO on maintaining the ban on military base abortions.
* Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines.
* Voted YES on $100 million to "reduce teen pregnancy" by hedonistic sex education programs and contraceptives.
* Is a sponsor of pending radical legislation in the Senate to promote special protections for homosexuals in the workplace.
(See http://www.ontheissues.org/
Social/Ted_Kennedy_Abortion.htm)

In other words, Kennedy has spent the better part of his long political career promoting the forces that kill and maim and destroy all the things that we hold sacred. What a shocking example of public service for a man who purports to call himself Catholic.

A month to the day after illicitly receiving Communion at the Mass of the Vicar of Christ in our nation's capital, Sen. Kennedy seems to have been given a real wake up call. When all moral voices go unheeded, the prospect of death tends to focus the mind on the truth. Let us all pray for his conversion from a career of abortion advocacy, for his enlightenment and for a peaceful death, something denied to all aborted babies in this country.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

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