Opus Judei

[Michael K.]

Editorial Comment:  You will be surprised to find that "Saint" (barf, gag) Escriva, founder of the Opus Dei organization embodies things which I'm sure many of you cannot begin to reconcile within your minds.  On the one hand, he was a dedicated fascist who defended Hitler, Mussolini and Franco and denied the HolocaustTM  myth of six million. On the other hand, he is a Marrano crypto-Jew who openly quotes the Talmud and has created a vast organization for sheltering fascist money from taxes, using it to combat Islam and striving to create a "Christian" theocracy through deception.  His organization has been found guilty of actual slavery among its converts, whom it brainwashes and isolates for the purposes of creating the perfect worker bee.


http://www.opusdeialert.com/opus-deis-rabbis.htm

The Marrano's Wormed Their Way In

Around 1492 A.D. the top Jews in Spain had wormed their way into high positions of Church and State by pretending to be Catholics. These false Marrano Jews, as they were called, were involved in treacheries against Spain and The Church. The Catholic Church's Glorious Inquisition was used to confront this grave attack on Catholic Life, with the holy purpose of weeding out these infiltrating Jews, who were masquerading as converts, whose sole purpose (the Jewish infiltrators) was to subvert the Catholic Church from within, while remaining undetected.

Queen Isabella prudently instituted the Holy Spanish Inquisition which was constituted to inquire who precisely were the false Marrano Jews who were working in Church and in State to betray both. The Holy Inquisitors were theological experts who followed the rules meticulously and justly, and carefully rooted out the traitors who were about to betray and perhaps destroy Spain first, and then Catholic Europe.

There is much evidence that Opus Dei's, unholy founder "Escriva" came from very proximate Jewish ancestry. Some point out that "Escriva's" changing his name a documented five (5) times, was a stealthy "shell game" tactic he ("Escriva") utilized to keep his anti-Catholic roots hidden. Yet, although he may have thought it expedient to keep his alleged Talmudic background in the dark and from public scrutiny; he (Escriva) during this era of the "uneducated Catholic" nonetheless, brazenly showed himself as one to have openly and knowingly judaized. [That is only of course presupposing he ever intentionally held the Catholic Faith and not just demonically exuded, just enough of a calculated veneer of Catholicism exteriorly, in order to snatch the unthinking and/or unweary Catholic into his anti-Christ Marrano Money Cult.]

Thus when Escriva teaches that Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ, was not more than one of his most loved Jews.
It gives even more evidence (as if it were needed) that this group was instituted and formed by Jews long ago as a part of their age-old plot of infiltration to destroy their greatest nemesis and obstacle to their quest for worldly power – the Catholic Church.

Rabbi Angel Kreiman Praises Escriva and Opus Dei for Helping Him and Others to Become Rabbis

Links Escriva's Teaching on Work to the Talmudic Tradition

(Note: The following information about Opus Dei's Rabbis, was taken directly from Opus Dei's Official Website on January 31, 2002)

    *Rabbi Angel Kreiman:

    "Many of Josemaria Escriva's concepts call to mind the Talmudic tradition and reveal his profound knowledge of the Jewish world."

    Rabbi Angel Kreiman contended that Josemaria Escriva's teachings are strongly rooted in Talmudic traditions about work. Kreiman, who is the international vice president of the World Council of Synagogues, made his remarks in an address to a congress in Rome on Opus Dei's founder. The rabbi said that he was pleased about the interreligious prayer meeting for peace occurring January 24 in Assisi. Such meetings, he said,

    "help us to remember often that we all have the same common father."

    The Rabbi, who is a Cooperator of Opus Dei, said he wanted to demonstrate his special affection for the organization founded by Josemaria Escriva.

    "Opus Dei members helped me, right from the beginning of my seminary studies, to persevere in my vocation," he [Kreiman] said, "and I have also seen them do it with other rabbis, for which I am deeply grateful."

Comment from Webmaster: Escriva and his Opus Dei cult's love for, and promotion of Talmudic Judaism (documented above from their official website 01/31/02), is the most heinous and reprehensible of practices.
It is diametrically opposed to everything a Catholic holds to be holy and dear. To foolishly think otherwise, is to surrender to the enemy and to undeniably *sever oneself from Christ's Mystical Body, putting oneself outside of the Catholic Church.

In the famous Catholic Church Imprimatured (Approved) Book The Talmud Unmasked, written by the erudite, Father Iustinus Bonaventura Pranaitis (A Hebrew Scholar)... Fr. Pranaitis heroically exposed the demonic prose of the Jews blasphemic Talmud, which the Marrano Escriva and his mindless minions (Opus Dei members) adore and strive to live out.

Fr. Pranaitis wrote:

    In numerous places [in the Talmud] ignominious names are given by the Jews to Christian things. It will not be out of place to list a few of these names which they give to things and persons which are held holy and dear by Christians, as follows:

    JESUS is ignominiously called Jeschu—which means, May his name and memory be blotted out. His proper name in Hebrew is Jeschua, which means Salvation.

    MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS, is called Charia—dung, excrement (German Dreck). In Hebrew her proper name is Miriam.

    CHRISTIAN SAINTS, the word for which in Hebrew is Kedoschim, are called Kededchim (cinaedos)—feminine men (Fairies). Women saints are called Kedeschoth, whores.

    SUNDAY is called the day of calamity.

    FEAST OF CHRISTMAS is called Nital, denoting extermination.

    EASTER is not called by the proper word Pesach (Passover), but Ketsach, meaning a cutting down; or Kesach, a Gallows.

    A CHRISTIAN CHURCH is not called Beth Hattefillah, House of Prayer, but Beth Hattiflah, a House of Vanity, a House of Evil.

    THE GOSPEL BOOKS are called Aavon Gilaion, Books of Iniquity.

    CHRISTIAN SACRIFICES are called Dung Offerings. In the Jerusalem Talmud (fol.13b) the following occurs:
    "He who sees them mezabbelim (excrementing—sacrificing) before their idol, let him say (Exod. XXII, 20): He that sacrificeth unto an idol shall be utterly destroyed."

    Rabbi Iarchi (referring to Num. XXV, 3) teaches that the Gentiles actually honor their God by excrementing before him.

    Fr. Pranaitis in the epilouge to his book says, "Kind Reader: In this work I have quoted from only a very few of the Talmudic books which refer to the Christians. For the sake of brevity, and to spare your sensitive soul, I omitted many others which could have been included. If it revolted you, Christian reader, to study the horrible blasphemies in this book, do not vent your anger on me. I did not state in the beginning that I was going to narrate something pleasant, but merely to show you what the Talmud really teaches about Christians, and I do not think I could have done so in a more suitable way."
    (The Talmud Unmasked, The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians, by Rev. I. B. Pranaitis, Catholic Priest, IMPRIMATUR: St. Petersburg, April 13, 1892 KOZLOWSKY ARCHBISHOP METROPOLITAN OF MOGHILEFF,C. Propolanis, S.C, Secretary)

http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/currenterrors/jopus.htm

OPUS JUDEI - An Exposition of Opus Dei -

Prologue (Foreword)

In order to decipher the enigma of a notorious false movement of our current times and to discover the secret of its surprisingly labyrinthine structure, it has been necessary for me to untangle, as it were, a knot enmeshed in a miswoven fabric. Appearances can be deceiving. Things are not what they seem to be. Ambiguity and confusion are the symptoms of the times in which we live.

In Humanum Genus Leo XIII said (referring to Freemasonry) that to expose it was to conquer it. Let us shine a beam of light on the real Opus Dei, exploring its roots, examining its doctrines, and delving into the underground waters that irrigate the structure of this organization embedded in the very marrow of the Catholic Church. This is the objective of this book, to uncover the background and inner workings of an organization that enjoys a personal prelature of its own, approved by the Holy See (which is in the process of elevating its controversial founder to sainthood).

History generally is narrated either in a superficial or an anecdotal way for any given event, usually not revealing the underlying reality. To gain a meaningful understanding requires a sense of order about background information. It is vital that all shroud of secrecy be removed and that we learn about the forces behind the scenes.

When Opus Dei is unmasked, we find the history of a conspiracy where reality and fiction seem to combine into a perfect partnership. The author of this book attempts to probe and reveal generally concealed information about this powerful multinational organization.

It is not a scandalous or sensational book. Controversial, perhaps. You may or may not be in agreement with its content. Indifference, neutrality and aloofness will not be possible once the book is read. It begins the work of opening a new and essentially unpublished field of investigation. The author also makes the Jewish connection, not by way of mere proximity, but by a similarity of identity, of purpose, of fundamental beliefs, and of objectives.

The reading of this book is a must if one does not wish to remain unaware of a threat to the very salvation of souls. Ignorance cannot exempt from ravaging spiritual consequences.

Alfonso Carlos de Borbón


A Suspicion Confirmed: Subheading 1, Chapter I

No cult considers itself to be such.(1) Nevertheless, we are of a mind to make a definitive and categorical statement in connection with Opus Dei. It is one of the most powerful and mysterious cults in the history of the 20th century.(2) Its Raimundo Panikkar, one of the pioneers at the establishment of the initial nucleus and an important member of its founding fathers, and who assisted in writing the documents setting forth the mission of Opus Dei, says "what begun as a small charismatic group slowly changed, by force of circumstances and by the spirit of its founder, into what could be called, in sociological terms, a cult."(3)

We live immersed in a process of social crisis that has created a marketplace of strange beliefs. Cults proliferate, expand, infiltrate, mature, and execute their secret purposes, passing like smoke throughout the fabric of society, destroying and annihilating many for the lucrative benefit of a few.

The warning was on the first page. The chapter headings did not leave any allowance for uncertainty. The publication that spread the information was a national one. The headline of the newspaper announced: "Members of Opus Dei are treated by cult deprogramming specialists in a Barcelona clinic."(4) The content of that surprising news story was confirmed: an indeterminate number of young applicants and active members had been treated in Barcelona during the last few months by specialists in the mental deprogramming of cult members. The clinical treatments were applied at the request of their relatives who tried in this way to correct emotional disorders.

The story added that the assisting specialists were provided by the Association for Youth and that the technical equipment was from the Center for Recovery, Re-Orientation and Assistance to Cult Victims (CROAS), both of which are commonly known to be deprogramming organizations that follow a process of informing the cult victims of the true beliefs and actions of the organizations to which they have belonged. The first clinical treatments by deprogrammers of Opus Dei members and followers were made in November, 1987. Approximately 20 families of members or followers of Opus Dei, from different parts of Spain, had gone to the Association for Youth, requesting information and assistance in order to "recover their children" or to obtain clinical treatment for them.

Officials of the Association of Youth (to conclude the news story) said that the dogmatic attitudes of some of the members and followers of Opus Dei were similar to those belonging to harmful cults. The secrecy and the recruiting activities, or "apostolic activities," were, in the opinion o f the Association for Youth, some of the most negative and harmful characteristics of the "personal prelature" of Opus Dei. The story noted that "at the First International Congress on the Harmful Effects of Cult Activity, held the previous November at Saint Cugat of the Valleys (Barcelona), some presumably harmful and negative aspects of Opus Dei were examined and discussed."(5)

The sensation of being labeled as a pernicious sect is soaking into Spanish public opinion to the extent that, in a survey of college students, the statistical results of which were broadcast o Channel1 of Spanish Television on 23 July 1990, during the second presentation of the news show Telediario, most of the interviewees said that they considered Opus Dei to be a "destructive cult."(6) Two years earlier, the writer Vázquez Montalbán, in an article titled "The Opus Dei that Never Rests," also said that "it should be enough that a television news program revealed some of the internal contradictions of Opus Dei, for example, the necessity that some of its members be deprogrammed as if they were members of cults outside of established Christianity, the news of which has disturbed the Catholic hierarchy."(7)

Now we can explain better that recommendation from the 1983 pamphlet, Be Safe with Opus Dei, which referred to the initiatives and precautions that should be taken by North American high schools organizing trips by their students to Spanish universities, and which provided for them, before leaving for Spain, some rules and instructions on what they should eat or the foods from which they should abstain, the places of tourist or cultural interest they should visit, the locales they should avoid to prevent being robbed or attacked . . . but among those recommendations there were none warning them to be cautious of an organization called Opus Dei.(

Ivon Le Vaillant, in his nonfiction book titled The Holy Mafia, published in México in 1985, tells us that when a celebrated Italian doctor, well-known in international psychoanalytical circles, was informed that the son of one of his patients had joined Opus Dei, he revealed that among his patients he had several that had obtained permission to leave Opus Dei and that these were all neurotics, commenting that "This is a crime. They were bewitched."(9)

Concerning these people, the picture that this book paints for us is that "when they look straight ahead, with their eyes, you are surprised to notice they are not truly themselves, that they seem to live besides themselves, as if deprived of their own personalities. It is as if they were empty in body and soul, mere appendages of an all-absorbing organization: "The Work:" (Opus Dei, the Work of God).(10) It is the archtypical picture presented by people who are caught in the web of such a cult. The German magazine Der Spiegel calls it a "mousetrap".

In an in-depth report that was published with the title of "The Opus Dei, the True Power in Spain,: in the magazine Tiempo, a well-established sober journal still published today, and which covers a wide range of general topics, it was said that "there are more and more parents who do not give up, in spite of a lack of legal recourse, in trying to remove their children from what they consider to be a brain washing operation." The report(11) continued: "In Valencia there is a psychiatrist that has specialized in deprogramming young people captured by Opus Dei," for the majority of whose full members the first commandment and daily activity is precisely the recruitment of new proselytes. According to John Roche, Professor of the History of Science in the University of Oxford and who was a member of the "The Work" for 14 years, "Today they try to capture the children from 8 to 9 years old . . . a dossier is prepared in which, little by little, significant information is recorded; age, studies, tastes, social environment, family environment, attitude toward religion and contacts with people associated with "The Work . . . "(12)

The report(13) concluded that the power of the Opus Dei in Spain was so secretive that 38% of all Spaniards were convinced that the Institute founded by Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer was either a cult, a special interest group, an economic mafia, or a political cabal. The editor of Tiempo, José Oneto, noted in an editorial published in connection with the report, that "The Opus nowadays is so embedded in mystery in our country that we wanted to clarify part of that mystery, the part concerning its hidden power.

The survey taken by OTR and Emopublica is based on 1200 interviews made throughout the whole national territory, and is certainly significant: there are more than enough Spaniards who think that Opus Dei is an 'economic mafia' or a 'special interest group'. Additionally there are many Spaniards (35%) who are convinced that the fundamental ends of 'The Work' are to influence politics as a special interest group or to achieve certain economic ends.(14) With difficulties, with a lot of effort and work, with arduous investigation, one begins to see the light at the end of the shadowy and dark tunnel.

This present book, published after several years of exhaustive dedication to the collection and examination of data and verified sources, could result in the author's untimely death.

What Is A Sect?: Subheading 2, Chapter I

Julián García Hernando, in an article published in the magazine of the Institute of Applied Sociology, points out that there are two possible etymological derivations for the word "sect". The first can be derived from the Latin "sequi", to continue. In this sense a sect would be a religious movement that follows a leader and accepts his message. the word may also be connected to the root word "secare" or "secedre" -- to cut, or to separate. In his case it would mean a group that has separated from a church or from another sect, with an obvious tendency to keep to itself.(15)

From a sociological point of view, and in a wide sense, a sect could be called an ordinary group or people that participates in the same religious practices.(16) A sect, in a global sense, is nothing more than a group of people joined together by the fact that they believe in a certain doctrine and/or leader.(17) In any context, a secret is a group of people united by a particular doctrine, and the word "sect" by itself being rather uninformative, it must for that reason be further qualified as "cults or destructive sects", "youth movements", or "pseudo-religious totalitarian movements".(18)

A sect is a voluntary association of converts, limited only to adults, with sinners excluded; that is, the sect is reserved only for those that follow the law of God after having been converted to it, if we agree with the definition given by Benoit-Lavaud. In the sect, therefore, the faithful ones adhere to the revelations made to a founder. A sect is distinguished from the Church (in the theological sense) in that it recognizes a new revelation, different from the one affirmed in the Sacred Scripture, which must be followed. In addition to this, the sect limits salvation to its own members.

According to P. Caballero, the elements that characterize modern sects are the following: a sense of security and a sense of certainty. The members of the sect have feeling of belonging to a group that has a monopoly on the truth and salvation.

A related factor is that the group considers itself to be self-sufficient. It does not have contacts with other groups and does not seek to convert them and to integrate them into itself. There is no place for ecumenical dialogue, only for proselytism. It shows no charity to anything that is outside the group, and finally ends up by turning itself into a genuine "ghetto".

Another characteristic of a sect is the rigor of its doctrine, both disciplinary and moral. A total primacy is granted to its principles and to its doctrine, and the interpretation of these is superior to the rights of its members. The "sect" always comes first and is identified with the will of God.(19)

The full Spanish Congress of Deputies, after deciding to investigate the groups considered to be sects in Spain, listed the characteristics that justified defining these groups as being negative or anti-social. According to the socialist deputy Carlos Navarrete, the characteristics of a cult are as follows:(20)

1 Doctrinal integrity, religious or socio-religious, demagogic, as typical of these organizations.

2 The presence of a charismatic leader who is considered to be an incarnation of God or to be His prophet.

3 The existence of a vertical and totalitarian theocratic organizational structure.

4 Establishment of limits on the employment of rational criticism to examine the tenets of the sect by virtue of the dogmatic precedence of certain beliefs.

5 The formation of either enclosed communities or those with great group cohesiveness.

6 The suppression of individual freedoms, private conversations, communications, etc.

7 The recourse to specific neurophysioloical manifestations of meditation, spiritual rebirth, enlightenment, etc.

8 The total rejection of all social organizations and secular institutions.

9 The recruitment, collection of money, and economic spoliation of their members.

To the characteristics listed above, the journalist Pepe Rodriguez, who has specialized in the study of sects, in his recently printed book on the question titled "The Power of the Sects", corrects and expands upon those already pointed out in his previous work, The Sects: Here and Now, and Slaves of a Messiah. He adds, among others:

1 The control of all incoming communications to the members, manipulating it for the convenience of the sect.

2 The use of sophisticated psychological or neurophysiological techniques (disguised under the term of "meditation") that serve to deaden the will and the reasoning of the followers, causing them to suffer, in many cases, serious psychic disturbances.

3 A proposal of the total rejection of society and its institutions. Outside of the group, everyone is an enemy (polarization between the good (the sect) and the evil (society). The society is so much garbage and the people that live in it are only of value for the financial contributions that they can make to the sect.(21)

The two primary activities are the recruitment of new followers, accomplished in a surreptitious and illegitimate way, and the collection of money by soliciting for funds on the streets, prize contests, commercial and industrial activities and, in some groups, clearly criminal activities. In the case of the multinational sects, the money collected is sent, for the most part, to the headquarters of each group.

To obtain, under psychological coercion, the surrender of the personal estates of the new followers to the sect or large sums of money for educational programs or audits, the members that work on the fringes of the group have to give everything, or a great part of their wages to the sect. And those that work for companies belonging to the group do not receive wages (the payrolls of the companies owned by the sect are only a legal fiction so that a profit never seems to be made -- or the workers return the money they are paid for their work).

There are two observation upon which Pepe Rodriquez insists and places special emphasis when discussing the characteristics of the sects. On the one hand, the neophyte is isolated from the external world, all the better to depersonalize him; his environment is manipulated; his family ties are severed; his social activities and relationships are subjected to meticulous control; any prior information he may have had about the sect is suppressed and replaced with the sect's own propaganda during orientations; his personal communications are governed by strict rules and censorship; he is taught a language peculiar and characteristic of the sect, which gives to words a meaning different from the common or profane use; he learns secret signs of identification; he is imbued with a feeling of hostility and rejection toward the things of the outside world;(22) and the confiscation of his finances and means of survival, under the pretext of his own "spiritual evolution", make him have a submissive and humiliating dependence on the sect.(23)

The second aspect that is stressed and underlined by Pepe Rodriguez is the one that refers to the suppression and elimination of the personality, the destruction of individuality by means of deliberate methods and techniques that, when perfectly executed upon the recruit, end up by leading him to believe the paradox that man -- taken as an isolate individual -- is a fragile and weak being. For this reason, he looks for help in the embrace of the group or community. There he feels strong and powerful when, in fact -- and this is the cruel paradox -- he has passed to a state in which he is completely vulnerable and manipulable. While the isolated individual acts under rational rules, the community acts under emotion and irrational imperatives.

It is, then, a road without return, because "when he has entered into the sectarian community, he will never return to private life." When he was asked the question, "Why do you not belong to Opus Dei?" the politician and lawyer, Manual Cantarero del Castillo (from Madrid) answered briefly and concisely, "Because I am not willing to join a sect."(24) In other words, not willing to sell himself.

Already, some years ago, in February of 1984, the journalist Luis Reyes printed an item in the weekly publication, Tiempo, that slipped by without being widely noticed, in spite of its seriousness. He wrote: "Opus Dei in Germany is included among the harmful sects, and is also known to the police as 'The Way'".

As compelling testimony we will reproduce the open letter that a father directed to his Opus Dei son. It is like a cry that comes from the depths of his heart:

My son Pedro:

I wish that one day you would arrive at the light of the truth and that you would discover the baseness of the sect in which you now are caught, like an impotent fly entangled in the fine meshes of a spider's web. The gigantic spider is the Marquis de Peralta, the web is his work, and the lair where he takes his prey to devour them is the Antichrist's Church. I will enjoy an immense happiness on the day that you are able to escape from the dense nets in which you are now tortured so greatly. In the meanwhile, I will continue praying for you. A hug from your father who suffers and waits . . .(25)

These are the tears of the head of family who fights against a destructive sect that, as such, favors the destruction (destructuralization) of the follower's previous personality and which damages him severely by destroying his family ties.

The Hidden Secret & the Revealed Mystery: Subheading 3, Chapter I

The 1990 Nobel Prize laureate for literature, Camilo José Cela, stated: "I do not belong to Opus Dei because I don't like secret societies."(26) The secrecy within Opus Dei is an obsessive and nightmarish syndrome. Its followers practice hermeticism. As Santiago Aroca wrote: "Another of the myths of 'The Work' is its secrecy. Opus Dei officially refuses to be considered an underground organization."

However, Article 193 sanctions: "These Constitutions, the published instructions and those that may be published in the future, as well as other documents, must not be disclosed. Moreover, without the permission of Father (José María Escrivá), those documents written in Latin must not be translated into vernacular languages."

Article 191 proclaims the value of discretion and indicates that the members of "the Work: should keep a wise silence regarding the names of other members and that they will not reveal to anyone that they belong to Opus Dei.(27)

One of the most knowledgeable people concerning the inner affairs of Opus Dei is Alberto Moncada, who belonged to the group for many years, and in which he held important positions and worked on significant projects. He has written various books that tell of "a mania for secrecy and surreptitiousness which is imply unacceptable in a modern society",(28) and he defines Opus Dei as "an intricate skein of threads", taking as his own the words of R. S. when he affirmed that "to understand 'The Work' is to want to put an end to Opus Dei".(29) In it the conditions imposed by its leaders on those that wish to leave is that they must not tell anyone about their experiences in "The Work",(30) but that they only may say that Opus Dei hates, by virtue of the profound demands of Christian sincerity, "all hidden power and all pretense".(31)

For Ivon Le Vaillant, the most surprising aspect -- and the one most often noted by outside observers -- is the secret character of Opus Dei, its nature and its behavior as a "secret society". For instance, its use of specific watchwords. The Jesuit Jean Beyer explains that "the secrecy involves the members, the property, and the oaths of the organization."(32)

There are many maxims in the Opus Dei members' handbook, The Way, that insist upon and reiterate the necessity of the suffocating atmosphere in "The Work:". There are entire chapters dedicated to such topics as "discretion" (tactics) where the principles of secrecy are discussed more or less explicitly. We may read, for example:

970: It is true that I (José María Escrivá) have called yours discreet apostolate "a silent and clandestine mission" and I do not wish in the least to change this.

The Constitutions of Opus Dei, edited in 1947, also insist on this aspect of discretion. From their Articles we highlight the following:

Article 6. Opus Dei . . . cannot publish magazines and other publications under the name of "The Work", except for the internal use of its members, who will not receive any special payment; they will speak with caution of Opus Dei to those that are not members . . .

.Article 190. Belonging to "The Work" does not require any external show of identity, and a member will conceal from outsiders the number of his associates, and furthermore, we ourselves will never speak of this matter with outsiders.

Article 191. . . .A lack of discretion could constitute a serious obstacle for the apostolic work, and also cause some difficulties in the immediate family environment or in the exercise of one's profession. The full members and auxiliary members should be convinced of the necessity of keeping a wise silence about the names of the other members, and must not reveal to anyone their own affiliation with "The Work", not even with the intention of promoting the Institute, without the local director's special permission. This discretion applies to all the members of the Institute and to the associates that have left it for any reason.

Article 193. These Constitutions, the published instructions, and those that may in the future be published, as well as any other documents, must not be disclosed, or even translated into vernacular languages.

.It frequently happens that two members living in the same house, or in the same Opus Dei residence, pretend not to know each other when they meet in public. Sometimes members of the same family do not know that another member belongs to Opus Dei. It may happen that people discover with surprise that a friend, or a co-worker of many years' association has hidden carefully from them his membership. It is not unusual that this experience even happens to bishops who have been surprised to discover that such-and-such a priest belonged to Opus Dei.(33)

Lieutenant General Fernando Rodrigo Cifuentes made the following observations when referring to Opus Dei: "In my military capacity, I consider any commitments, except for the exalted ones that a soldier has contracted with the Nation, to be in total opposition to his duty, particularly when they undoubtedly are contracted to accept the regulation of a secret association whose purpose is to ensnare and modify the personality."(35) The writer Evaristo Acevedo commented that Opus Dei surrounds its activities with great caution and wariness, almost as if they were official government secrets, "up to the point that I have to ignore my wife, brothers, uncles, cousins and dear friends unless they belong to 'The Work'. The mystery and suspense that surround the 'Opusites' and the measures they take prevent me from judging with accuracy if its aims are beneficial or harmful."(37)

One has to remember that with the sectarian spirit of Opus Dei, who is and who is not a member is a matter of silence and that only on rare occasions and for their own convenience will their members admit that they belong to "The Work".

One could argue that the corporate works of Opus Dei do exist and occasionally are acknowledged. This is the only publicity that they make of their activities, but it is significant that activities never appear with the Opus Dei name.

In the corresponding civil registrations of works under Opus Dei, their name never appears, but we do find patrons, real estate brokers, and renowned people from all manner of trade associations or cultural societies. This tactic hinders the government authorities from taxing the corporate works of Opus Dei's secular institutions. Then, not surprisingly, these patrons and real estate brokers commend to Opus Dei the spiritual guidance of these centers.(38)

The University professor of the History of Contemporary Spain, José Cepeda Adán, made the following logical reflection: "I do not understand the mystery and the secrecy that enfolds the deeds of Opus Dei. If the road is strait and narrow, it will be made clear by the light and it will lead you away from the dangers of a selfish and dark world."(39)(40)

The inclination for secrecy and surreptitiousness in the sect has led them to adopt passwords and special handshakes of recognition in the image and likeness of Masonry. To some it has seemed a significant fact that among the members of this Work, which has been described as "white Masonry", numerous symbols, countersigns and signs are used. Example: If one is in a meeting and a person that has just arrived says, when being introduced, "Pax", you might consider that person to be somewhat unstable. What it means is that he belongs to Opus Dei and that he displays their "saint and sign", so that, if there is in the group another person belonging to "The Work", he identifies himself by saying: "In aeternum."(41) Secret rites. Esoteric practices.

Surely, the adoption of such attitudes is not surprising when one observes the considerable results such practices have produced for Freemasonry. Opus Dei copied the technique of secrecy, as a means and system of penetration and control, with the enormous advantage of having the official assistance of priests.

The Mexican writer Manuel Magaña in his book, Revelations of the Holy Mafia, alerts us to the existence of secret meetings of Opus Dei members, which occur with more frequency than might be supposed, that have as their object the control of the press, the cinema, radio and TV, so that their plans of political-religious infiltration, of international extension, may be favored with a public image that hides their true purposes. (42)

An investigator and specialist in topics related to Opus Dei, the journalist Santiago Aroca, provided more information on the existence of these scheduled secret meetings, when he wrote about "the cryptic internal language of those gathered together, whose high-ranking members and directors refer to themselves by numbers and not by their names when attending the highest level meetings concerning the governance of Opus Dei." (44)

The scrutiny of this secret society of this secret society has been constant. Daniel Artigues, in his documented book published in France in 1971 entitled Opus Dei in Spain, wrote on the first page that it was a nearly secret society that aspired, first, to capture the elitists, while simultaneously pursuing concealed ends which were more political than religious, using the good reputation that it enjoys and the pleasure it takes in its own secrecy. He concluded that "this desire for discretion, as the members of Opus Dei call it, or this cult of secrecy, as its opponents describe it, is one of the essential characteristics of 'The Work'."(45)

According to Ivon Le Vaillant, it is impossible to know the exact number of residences or of student's houses. The name of Opus Dei is not listed in any phone guide, bringing one to the obvious conclusion it does not want to be discovered. By keeping itself under tight control, it brings to mind two observations:

l Opus Dei reserves to itself its choice of contacts, its adherents, and its spokesmen.

l It retains the possibility of using its houses and residences like 'traps'.(46)

In any case, it is vain to seek for clarification from those responsible for such an enterprise. Jesus Ynfante, author of The Wonderful Adventure of Opus Dei, finds in "The Work" of Escrivá "a terrible distillation system"(47) whose membership is organized in multiple and complicated ways, from wide external networks down to intimate, secret groups operating according to enigmatic methods, with the result that those younger than 18 receive instructions not to say anything to their parents, and to maintain the secret of their involvement with Opus Dei until their parents or guardians have no legal recourse to remove them from it.(48)

Such is the secrecy that reigns in Opus Dei that one of its own authorities could write: "I doubt greatly that even one in a thousand of the members knows the Constitutions."(49) And therefore, it should be added, neither do they 'know' the group to which they belong.(50)

Antonio Pérez,(51) one of the people closest to Escrivá and for some time his personal secretary, reminisced: "Father Josemaria always had a great concern for secrecy. He took it upon himself to apply to these topics the same strategy as that which was used for internal matters, that is to say, that only a few people in the inner circle knew each other and they worked only with those directly responsible, withholding that information from the rest of the members. This took place mainly by controlling the documentation and, more or less, the accessibility to the notes and warnings or Rome. There was even a secret code for the correspondence, in which each single numeral or combination thereof with vowels had a significance." María del Carmen Tapia recalled: "The codebook was hidden in a book called San Girolano.

The daily newspaper El Mundo, in its December 4, 1991 edition, published an interview with the theologian, Hans Küng, who was in Madrid to promote his "Project for an Ethical World", and who, when asked if "The Work" had as much power in the Church as it was said to have, responded: "It has a great deal and, apparently the Pope now supports the secret society of Opus Dei from top to bottom . . . Opus Dei is worse than a sect: it is a secret and clandestine subversive organization."

The Charismatic Leader: Subheading 4, Chapter I

The followers of sects are usually the slaves of a messiah, to adhere to the terminology of Pepe Rodriguez, who even used this phrase as a title for one of his books on the sects. According to this author, in a sect we find two doctrinal bodies, perfectly differentiated from each other, but nevertheless intimately bound together. One is the cult of personality and the other is that of a new revelation.

The cult of personality consists of an overvaluation of the leader's human qualities, until he is seen as embodying values and abilities that may be characterized as divine. In the sect, Rodriguez continues, a hierarchical range of spiritual maturity is established, whose logic leads to placing the neophytes at the base of a pyramid and the leader of the sect at the peak.

Therefore, a word from a Teacher will have much more value and force the higher is the place in the hierarchy occupied by its speaker. This mechanism gives birth to another fundamental principle: only the leader (the peak of the pyramid) is entitled to the "doctrine of the written personal myth and is to be adored through it."

The doctrine of the personal myth not only deifies the leader's biography, but it also invents a plausible personal history that agrees with his intellectual formation. The objective is to place the leader in such a high position of physical, moral and spiritual qualities that no follower will ever even dream of attaining such a state. The consequence of this, once the leader's position as the perfect one is accepted, causes the cessation of all criticism and the total subjection of the pupil to the will of the "perfect teacher".(52) In this synoptic summary of the theory of the charismatic leader, exposed by the writer Pepe Rodriguez, he condenses the characteristic typology that is repeated with only minor variant in all the sects.

Another relevant detail that delineates this theory even more is that "leaders of sects make their followers break all contacts with outside society so that they can create and mold a group that will have no other object than to follow and obey them blindly. All sect leaders pretend to have been 'enlightened' by divinity."(53)

An ostensible megalomania of the charismatic leader may be seen in all the supposition which form the basis of his all-embracing and absolute authority over his flock.

It is curious to note how "at a symbolic level it may be demonstrated that the members of a sect resemble a mother and its leader resembles a father."(54) This is exactly the title and the nomenclature that the adepts reserve for Escrivá de Balaguer.

The cult of the Founder has reached unheard-of-extremes with "The Work". As Alberto Moncada tells us in his Oral History of Opus Dei, the Opusdeistas see themselves s members of a family in which the Father is the main character. The history of these first fifty years of Opus Dei is nothing but the enlarged biography of monsignor Escrivá, of his psychological evolution, of his relationships with his close friends and strangers and of the unconditional obedience of his followers.

This obedience, this devotion to the Father, becomes the reason for living for his children and the key to their religious experiences, and it ultimately overwhelms any other way of understanding the Mission Opus Dei. The cult of the Father's personality, which is the greatest difficulty for psychoanalyst to overcome in deprogramming an Opusdiesta, was begotten in the spirit of that man (Escrivá) whose faith in his destiny made him say: "I have known seven popes, hundreds of cardinals, and thousands of bishops. But there is only one founder of Opus Dei."(55)

"Father" Escrivá always surrounded himself with his most loyal confidants and most of his appearances took place in group settings, if at all possible, surrounded by young boys and enraptured admirers. The paroxysm of reverence, in relation to the Founder of the sect, is described for us by Luis Carandell(57) when he writes that the members of Opus Dei kneel before the Founder. The Catholic generally only kneels before the Blessed Sacrament. Every morning, in the Roman residence of Opus Dei, a maiden wearing a white cap entered the presidential office while Escrivá had breakfast and, kneeling, placed on the table a silver tray with the mail. All his children kneel before kissing his hand.

And here is another item that once more confirms this key feature of his character. Monsignor "tolerated" these manifestations of the veneration professed by his children, but he wanted to institutionalize the custom of kneeling before him so that it could not be thought there was in his acceptance the smallest shade of vanity, arrogance or self-importance. A senior member who, in his time, held positions of great responsibility in "The Work", told me -- Carandell continues -- that, in a General Congress of Opus Dei, which he attended a short time before leaving the organization, the only point that was widely discussed, and the one on which all were in agreement, was that of the obligation that members must kneel before the President General, whoever he might be. This was passed "so that the successor of Father Escrivá would not be humiliated", remembering that the members knelt before the Founder.

"Father" Escrivá, the charismatic leader, was placed on an inaccessible pedestal within the organization, and was mythified while he still lived. Speaking to the members, the insider Carandell gives us a key by revealing that the decisive test(58) to determine if a person belongs to Opus Dei or not is to speak to him disparagingly of the "Father". They react at once. They admit that he is their "father" and that any person would react if ill were spoken of their father.

Pilar Salarrullana, a former senator and former deputy, has written a book, The Sects, as a living testimony of the terrorist messiahs in Spain. It points out that the leader is an essential characteristic of the sects, because he is a messianic, charismatic character, with a great personal charm and a great power of attraction and suggestion -- what psychologists call an "expansive paranoiac"; that is, one who makes himself the owner of bodies and minds and, of course, the wallets of his followers. They call themselves, continues Pilar Salarrullana, guru, teacher, prophet, reverend, Swami, shepherd, president, commander, or father.

For Salarrullana, the "Father" is the one who knows everything, who controls everything and who foresees everything. One cannot doubt his works, neither his writings, neither his commands; he can never be disobeyed. Their own "Father" Escrivá referred to the members of Opus Dei as his "sons and daughters", and for that reason they had to kneel before him when in his presence.

In a lengthy feature published in the women's magazine, Marie Claire, a numeraria (Note: a celibate female member who lives at an Opus Dei residence) who titles her article "The Bitter History of an Opus Dei Numeraria",(59) explains to us that the mythification of the figure of the leader is taken to such extremes of paroxysm that he is endowed with such an exalted state that he has no need to lie or to distort the fact. Another of the characteristics that is manifested in personality of sect members is that they are accustomed to place the writings of the sect's Founder -- for an example we have the booklet The Way, written by the "Father" -- on the same level as Sacred Scripture and to interpret the Word of God according to the exegetical whims and the teachings of the leader of the sect.

Consequently, affiliation in "The Work" requires absolute submission. The Father's rule embraces everything. The children of Escrivá are like treadmill donkeys: one turn, another turn, more turns, tied to the pole that moves the treadmill. they are tied to the Father; they have no power to act, they do not know how to do anything, they cannot think anything that is against the Father's magnetic personality. We can say that they live as if they were drugged.(60) Escrivá de Balaguer is a powerful drug for those that allow themselves to be caught in the strong meshes of his spider's web. So high is the degree of intoxication that you suffer and to which you are subjected that in your thought, in your speech, in your acts, it is not Christ who is there. It is the "Father".

There is nothing more graphic and representative than the image of the treadmill donkeys, always walking, going in circles, but going nowhere. Father Escrivá urges his "children" to be, in the spiritual realm, just like the treadmill donkeys. And among the partners of "The Work" it is the fashion to have in their houses a statuette of ceramic, straw or wood, that depicts a donkey with a saddle. The presence of the burro in the foyer of a house, or in the reception area of an office, could be an indication that the expert Opus Deiologist should remember when determining if the tenant belongs to "The Work".(61)

Covadonga Carcedo, a former assistant professor from Asturias, denounced Opus Dei openly, saying: "Opus Dei is a mafia that controls everything. I have become an apostate, thanks to Opus Dei. I want to inform my fellow citizens of the hypocrisy of those people, all those spiritual daughters of José María Escrivá de Balaguer, a marquis whom they aspire to raise to the altars."(62)

When speaking of today's sects, the journalist Pepe Rodriquez also questioned if it would be interesting to study why there are so many Spanish leaders in certain sects with a manifest of latent homosexuality.

The Community of the Elect; Adepts and Initiates: Subheading 5, Chapter I

One of the best studies which has appeared in Spain on the topic of the sects is that of Steven Hassan under the title The Techniques of Mental Control Used by Sects and How to Combat Them. He tells us of the "celestial deceit" in which "God forgives the deceit of the 'elect' if by it they gain new 'spiritual children', "and that the sects teach their followers to consider the Father to be the representative of God on Earth. The sectarians are inoculated with the idea that by the mere fact of membership, of being part of the group or of the clan, they belong to a special class comprising "the elect", a community of the privileged, a nucleus of those who have answered a "call", a circle of the predestined.

The sects, by exploiting religious motivations, stress to the addict the necessity of a personal experience of God and that, consequently, they can justifiably call themselves "the elect", and they are even inculcated with the belief that they are sacred in comparison to all other people,(63) thus creating in themselves a feeling of superiority that is in reality artificial and vacuous.

Another idea that they transmit to the members of the sect is that of the exclusive and excluding character of their own behavior. This condition of exclusivity betrays itself in the false idea that, by being a member of the sect, you automatically reject those who do not belong to it. From now on you must be concerned only with the interests of the sect and no others.

The most evident illusion is shown in that the sects usually present themselves as the "way to salvation", presenting the most diverse methods of salvation, but all being the same in having a common denominator in the relation of the external world to each sect, which generally holds that the world is evil.

This feeling of superiority leads to the belief that all the members of the sect will live under the graces of a special divine protection,(64) and this generates that feeling of superiority, that sensation of being one of the elect, a factor that not only contributes to the cohesion of the group, but also changes its morality: those who are not "the elect" are "sinners" and it therefore is just that they be destroyed. There is no pity, neither pardon, for the "sinner".

Another phenomenon that takes place when all of society is made to appear to be hostile is that not only do you isolate the follower, but you also plant in him the seed of the hear, which is conveniently played upon, that he will be punished if the leader orders it.(65)

In Opus Dei the greatest emphasis is placed upon the belief that God, the Absolute, comes to you through the Organization. This idea that your road toward full happiness goes through "The Work" justifies all the rules that you impose on yourself or that they impose on you.(66) The longings for bliss and eternal life, of immortality, that made Miguel de Unamuno tremble when he felt the agony of his Christianity, are achievable by renouncing everything, if you are convinced that this is the price of their realization.

In the opinion of the writer, Evaristo Acevedo, "Opus Dei seems to insinuate that only the Spaniards belonging to its organization 'are with God'. That has the character of a monopoly and exclusivity that does not fit with my religious beliefs."(67)

María Angustias Moreno, a member of Opus Dei for many years, gives us, with respect to this point, an illuminating and illustrative testimony:

What does "The Work" say of itself? That it is simple; that it is authentic; that its members are similar to other men; that they are average people amid the world. However, there is more. They ae thoroughly inculcated with the idea that to belong to "The Work" is something wonderful, the best thing in the world, the greatest thing. As a logical consequence of this, the member looks on others as if from a pedestal: he enters into the illumination of the inner mysteries, he is chosen from among thousands to be part of a perfect body; all others are condemned! They continue down below, wrapped in the darkness of err, and exposed to all dangers.

By virtue of the fact of being a member of "The work", he will always have certainty, he himself will give the true doctrine to hose who are unsure, in error, ignorant and poor; simple-minded, because there is nothing else to achieve, one is already endorsed, confirmed and guaranteed by the directors, specially selected people (or so they are thought to be) that possess, by their union with the Father, the gift of infallibility. Because the Father never makes a mistake, and in "The Work" everything is reviewed by the Father: "You must show me everything for review by my head and by my heart", Escrivá repeatedly said to the directors.(68)

You cannot even be a good Christian, for Opus Dei, if you have some problem, ailment or illness. It does not admit people who fail the meticulous medical examination to which they are subjected. The "club of God" is restricted to the health, as we are told in the bitter history of a numeraria who ran up against this a few days before "whistling" -- that is, joining "The Work" -- when they said that she had to take a medical examination. "Why did they have to know my state of health to join 'The Work'? The important thing to them was that you had a vocation, because if they had discovered polyps in my nose, would my vocation become a decision in the hands of the doctor? 'This young lady has arrhythmias. Forget all that you have been expecting. You cannot join 'The Work'. . . . Amusing, isn't it?"

The reason for this step is not to become encumbered with a person, seemingly young and healthy, who shortly after joining "The Work" is discovered to have some type of illness, more or less serious, and has to be taken care of. "The Work: does not want the prematurely infirm, although two days before the examination she was certain that she had a vocation as strong as a fort. "In my case, they didn't find anything. Even so, they advised me in my (Opus Dei) house not to say anything to the doctor. It was necessary to be discreet."(69)

In the booklet The Way, written by the charismatic leader himself, contradictory images also appear:(70) two types of man.

The first type bears the resplendent image of the superman, fierce, arrogant, willful, immovable in his devotion to the ideology of his leaders and with an iron scorn for everyone else; a pistolero of God, effective and pitiless, disciplined to the point of absurdity, intolerant, inquring , in search of the Absolute.

The second type is the tender image of the humble servant, a little vulnerable, modest, the least among the least, with a downcast look, as if hunted and pursued, annoyed by the general hostility of life, a masochist on occasion, a hypocrite in others, a little delicate, lukewarm in everything, audacious to a point, but mainly, never rash. He goes in search of a good bed in which to die of love sickness.

http://www.irishresistancebooks.com/reviews/opusdei.htm

Opus Dei
'Their Kingdom Come'  by Robert Hutchinson
(Transworld/ Doubleday, London 1997, £20)

Secret societies, by their nature, tend to attract a hilarious response or a sense of fascination. We smile indulgently at the image of the mason in his rolled-up trouser leg wearing his dinky little apron or at the thought of the Orangeman "riding the goat". Opus Dei is, however, a different kettle of stinking fish. It is a serious political organisation with a clearly defined agenda which has infiltrated the highest levels of government and, particularly, higher education. This book provides detailed evidence of their nefarious activities and their continuing manipulation of the controlling powers in a wide range of countries.

Opus Dei was founded by Josémaría Escrivá, the son of a petty-bourgeois bankrupt confectioner. (The soubriquet de Balaguer was a subsequently added affectation intended to separate him from the common surname of Escrivá and to imply a non-existent aristocratic pedigree). He comes across as a fundamentalist Christian, a monomaniac who was ideologically authoritarian. Naturally, he was a supporter of Franco and indeed it was under Franco that his organisation, Opus Dei, thrived. His innate fascism is recorded in his comment that Hitler had been "badly treated" by the world's media because "he could never have killed six million Jews. It could only have been four million at the most." !!! The communists, homosexuals and gypsies who were murdered by Hitler do not merit a mention. Escrivá also established the exercise of "pilleria" (dirty tricks) as justified on the grounds that "our life is a warfare of love and for Opus Dei all is fair in love and war."

Escrivá seems to have been influenced by the Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas – a secular elite deployed to defend the interests of the Catholic Church and he built Opus Dei along similar lines, though he also involved clergy at the highest level (numeraries), laymen as supernumeraries and women in an inferior role as associates.

His sado-masochistic tendencies are reflected in his use of the cilicio – a medieval barbed metal bracelet attached around the thigh – and the discipline, a braided whip used as an instrument of penance. According to Hutchison, "he practised self-mortification with such ferocity that it caused his children to wince."

Opus Dei from the outset targeted people in higher education, what it called a university apostolate.[/size] "Intellectuals are like the snow-capped summits. When the snow melts, the waters pour down the valleys and make them fertile." This holy trickle-down approach is self-evidently as inadequate spiritually as we have experienced economically under Blatcherism.

Opus Dei as an organisation is multi-layered. The outer layer is for mass consumption and successive inner layers are reserved for the higher ranks in the hierarchy. It involves a dedicated and disciplined militia, troops of various ranks and stations whose function is to convert others and to oppose the spread of communism and particularly Islam.

Opus Dei members supported the Francoist cause during the Spanish Civil War describing it as a "crusade", a holy war accompanied by the same propensity for atrocity as during the Crusades of old. Escrivá, however, although telling his disciples he was prepared to become a martyr, let his tonsure grow out, removed his cassock (which he did not wear again until the Republic was defeated) and took to wearing his mothers' wedding ring. He also spent five months in a psychiatric clinic on the outskirts of Madrid where he learned to simulate the behaviour of the mentally ill. Some martyr!

The essence of Opus Dei is to be found in Escrivás' 5 writings, particularly his Maxims. Maxim 387 states, " The standard that God asks of us is determined by these three points: holy intransigence, holy coercion and holy shamelessness." Maxim 941 "Obedience the sure way. Unreserved obedience to whoever is in charge... obedience in your apostolate, the only way." Maxim 623 "One must obey in every little detail, even if it seems useless and difficult. Do it! Maxim 59 "One's own mind is a bad adviser." This elimination of discernment, of individual judgement, is at the core of the cultic status of Opus Dei and its brainwashing of the individual to the extent where members are incapable of thinking for themselves is designed to ensure that they follow a pre-programmed agenda.

          But Escrivá was not just interested in the spiritual well-being of his disciples. He was an intensely political animal, wishing to control not just higher education but also government ministries. His mission was to defeat the evils – as he saw them – of Anarchism, Liberalism and Marxism. And to gain entrance to heaven, members had to do battle for the church. This involved, among other things, sanitising education to erase Liberal influence and placing members in influential positions in government. A case in point is that of Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain who was unfortunately assassinated in December 1973. He was one of Opus Dei's strongest supporters. He also discovered that ETA explosives were more uplifting than prayer when the Basques blew his bullet-proof limousine over the rooftops into the next street.

Opus Dei has, in the past seventy years, spread its tentacles to many countries in Latin America, the Philippines and Africa. African and Asian countries with Islamic populations are a particular target with "hotspots" and "confrontation points" identified ranging from Algeria and Sudan to Bosnia and Iran. The irony of this is that they wish to replace one theocratic state with another form of spiritual tyranny which rigidly controls basic freedoms and denies human rights.

The manipulation of political power, especially in Italy, through graft and corruption is well documented as is the parallel economy dominated by intrigue, double-bookkeeping and murder. The names of Roberto Calvi (found hanged from scaffolding at Blackfriars Bridge, London in 1982), Michele Sindona (died in a Milan prison after drinking a poisoned cup of coffee), Cardinal Marcinkus and the Banco Ambrosiano are well enough known but they run like a dirty smear through the narrative of this book. The former prime ministers Andreotti and Berlusconi have also played significant roles in smoothing "The Way" for Opus Dei.

Opus Dei is a secret sect that has successfully removed itself from the hierarchic control of the Church. Secrecy is the enemy of an open, democratic society. It also has its own perverted sense of morality as is revealed in two passages from its confidential internal publication, CRONICA:

    •  The lesson is clear, crystal clear: all things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient.
    •  Dirty clothes are washed at home. The first manifestation of your dedication is not being so cowardly as to go outside the Work to wash the dirty clothes. That is if you want to be saints. If not, you are not needed here.

And this is the organisation whose most senior supporter is none other than Karl Wojtyla aka John Paul II. God save us!

CRAOBH RUA

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/07/opus-judei-founder-escriba-preached.html

Opus Judei Founder, Escriba Preached Kabbalistic Doctrine, Tikkun Olam [

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Interesting. Thanks for posting Michael.

Found this from a link.  Looks like Madonna is being used as a "Judas Goat" of sorts to bring in others.
----

Madonna 'ditches Kabbalah for Opus Dei'

by Tom Bryant, Daily Mirror 11/04/2011
Madonna in Malawi (Pic:AP)

FOR the past 15 years, she has been Kabbalah's most high profile and dedicated follower.

But now Madonna has apparently ditched the controversial faith and taken up with Opus Dei – the secretive Catholic sect made famous in The Da Vinci Code.

The singer is said to be intrigued by the organisation and spent Friday with priests from the centre's London HQ.

The move follows her alleged falling out with some Kabbalah leaders after reports that cash raised for her Malawi charity was squandered. Last night a source claimed: "She has invested so much into Kabbalah so she was devastated by these damning accusations.

"She has started exploring different religions. Madonna has always been intrigued by Opus Dei. As yet, she's not a fully paid-up member – she's just had informal chats."

It is not known yet whether the star, 51, has formally quit Kabbalah.

Two weeks ago a report claimed Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi, was meant to spend £2.4million to fund a new school in the country – but most of it was allegedly spent on the Kabbalah Centre's offices in LA.

Madonna has now removed directors of Raising Malawi. Among the axed board members is Michael Berg, a co-director of the Kabbalah Centre. Two other ditched board members, John Larkin and Rachel Almog, also had links to Kabbalah.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing from any board members.

Newsweek in the US said the FBI and Inland Revenue Service were investigating the charity but Madonna denies it.

On Friday she spent 90 minutes at the Opus Dei centre in Orme Court before returning to her North West London home. Last night her spokesman declined to comment.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/201 ... -23052669/

[Michael K.]

Her Madgesty (aka Madonna) meets the Queen at the London premiere of 'Die Another Day'.  Jun 4, 2010

[Michael K.]

A censored story from Pacific News, no longer available in its original form. Republished at :
http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/Opus_Dei.htm

FROM: http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories ... 5-spy.html

Was FBI Agent's True "Loyalty" To Opus Dei?

By Yoichi Clark Shimatsu

Date: 03-05-01

The mystery within the mystery concerning Robert Hanssen, accused of spying for the Soviet Union for more than 15 years, is simply what motivated him to do it? With no signs of pro-Soviet ideological commitment or extravagant spending, the answer may lie in Hanssen's membership in Opus Dei, an ultraconservative Catholic organization. PNS commentator Yoichi Clark Shimatsu is former editor of The Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo, and has reported on the Aum Shinrikyo sect.

Intelligence experts and congressional committees are puzzling over what motivated FBI agent Robert Hanssen to spy for Moscow over the past 15 years.

Money seems to offer no clues, because Hanssen lived in an ascetic style. Nor is there yet any evidence that this happily married man fell into a "honey trap" involving a coy Natasha.

The search for a motive is complicated by the fact that his colleagues say that Hanssen was fiercely anticommunist and a devout member of Opus Dei, an ultraconservative Catholic organization. He was a regular parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Church, in a Virginia suburb of the capital, where an elite congregation, which includes Supreme Court justice Antonia Scalia, attend traditional Latin masses.

It might be reassuring to believe that Hanssen acted alone. But if that is the case, he would likely have repented and confessed all. The opposite reaction -- his stony silence -- indicates something other than the sins of a prodigal son.

Hanssen's one-word explanation for his treason, according to an FBI affidavit, was "loyalty." It may well be that his loyalty -- to Opus Dei and, by extension, the foreign service of the Vatican state -- hold the key to the mystery.

Opus Dei, Latin for "Work of God," is a secretive lay group within the body of the Catholic Church, with more than 80,000 members worldwide. As the only personal prelature in the Church, it is an entity unto itself, separate from the diocesan structure.

Founded in the late 1920s by Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva, Opus Dei assumed a political role from the start, openly siding with the Franco dictatorship. Its members served in cabinets while Spain was allied with Hitler and Mussolini.

Opus Dei floundered in the wake of World War II, but regained impetus under Pope John Paul II, after providing crucial support for his papal candidacy. In the Polish pope, the group found a champion willing to back its harsh stance against abortion, birth control, its crusade against communism, the push for Catholicism as a state religion, and war on left-leaning liberation theologians within the church.

It may seem paradoxical that Hanssen would spy for the Soviet Union, a moral adversary and indeed a satanic force in the eyes of Opus Dei. During Gorbachev's glasnost era, however, there is evidence of behind-the-scenes collaboration between the Vatican and Moscow. In particular, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, a powerful Opus Dei supporter, pursued a policy of reaching out toward Moscow with the aim of gaining Poland's release from the Warsaw Pact.

Rivers of money, much of it provided by Bill Casey's CIA, poured into Warsaw and Moscow, and the Vatican found ready support from the U.S. because the security establishment under President Ronald Reagan was packed with conservative Catholics, including Casey, Richard Allen and William Clark.

Hanssen's most damaging activities in FBI counterintelligence coincided with these years, 1985-89. Secrets from America's intelligence vaults could well have been part of the quid pro quo in the late cardinal's dance with Moscow.

Certainly, the Vatican has had no qualms about violating American sensitivities. Indeed, it seems to reflect a Eurocentric triumphalism. The papal encyclical on labor rights slapped rampant materialism -- that is, the immoral United States -- as the "other" great evil afoot in the world.

The Vatican's political work with Moscow paid off handsomely with the independence of Catholic-dominant Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and later, from Moscow's nominal ally Yugoslavia, of Slovenia and Croatia. All the while, Hanssen kept up the flow of U.S. secrets to Moscow.

Why might a conscientious Catholic be accused of betraying the FBI's Russian recruits to the firing squad? Hanssen has spoken of his schoolboy fascination with a book about Kim Philby, Britain's notorious turncoat spy (a claim flawed by the fact that "The Philby Conspiracy" was published after Hanssen graduated from high school).

But Hanssen may well have read John LeCarre's 1974 "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," based on the Philby saga, in which a high-ranking mole betrays his fellow agents in order to advance his career inside the British intelligence bureaucracy. As Moscow rolls up their spy rings, his rivals, one by one, lose their chances for promotion, while the double agent becomes the golden boy headed for the pinnacle of power.

The plot of "Tinker, Tailor" bears a disturbing resemblance to the recent chaos inside U.S. intelligence. Did Hanssen clear the path to the FBI directorate for his fellow Opus Dei member Louis Freeh? This possibility cannot be dismissed, nor should reluctance to interfere with a religious organization prevent a probe into Hanssen's ties within Opus Dei.

In nearly every case involving a secretive sect, like the Branch Davidians or Aum Shinrikyo, law enforcement authorities have erred on the side of acting too slowly.

For the faithful, the response to the Hanssen affair should not be limited to sermons about a lost sheep tangled in Satan's snares. Opus Dei, models itself after the Counter-Reformation, appears to be repeating the worst mistakes from that chapter of church history. As the church became engrossed in the fates of nations, its moral certitude against Protestant dissent was lost. The institutional paranoia of the Inquisition gave rise to the secret police of Cardinal Richelieu who were at the service of the state.

That attempt to remold the state into the image of the church resulted in its very opposite, the French Revolution.

[Michael K.]

 

"St." Escriva ........................................Woody Allen

[Michael K.]

http://www.mgr.org/ODRobertHanssenPerversion.html

The Perversions of ex-FBI Agent and Opus Dei Member - Robert Philip Hanssen

and

The Price to the Security of the United States of America

(and we worry about Muslim fanatics...)

by Lee Penn


NOTE: The following is an excerpt from an article by Lee Penn, "Opus Dei & the Da Vinci Code, part II", published in the Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project [SCP] (Vol. 29:4-30:1, 2006, pp. 42-67.)  (*) (**) (***)



Fourth, there is the case of Robert Philip Hanssen, a top-level FBI agent responsible for counterintelligence in the US, who spied for the Russians from 1979 until his arrest in February 2001.[1]  He told the Soviets about four of their own intelligence staff who were spying for the US, interfered with the investigation of a Soviet spy in the US State Department, and gave the Communists "the plan of a program for the continuity of government in case of a Soviet nuclear attack and planned defense and retaliation."[2]  A biographer calls him "the most damaging spy in history."[3]  For his efforts, the KGB (and its successor agency, the FSB) gave Hanssen $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

While betraying his country, Hanssen was a devoted member of Opus Dei.[4]  With the Soviet money, Hanssen put his children through Opus Dei-approved private schools.  According to one report, Hanssen believed that his children "might in the future be part of a holy war that would remerge God and country, whose leaders would then ban abortion, divorce and other evils of the world that he and Opus Dei opposed."[5]   He and his wife were public activists against abortion.[6]  Meanwhile, he put sex stories about his wife on the alt.sex group on the Internet, "shared pornographic photos of his wife with his best friend, [and] secretly broadcast his sex acts over closed-circuit television to his guest room."[7]   He also spent $80,000 of Soviet-supplied cash on a two-year flirtation with a stripper – and justified himself by refraining from intercourse with her, and by trying to get her to attend church.[8]

When his wife confronted him in 1982 after she caught him in the basement counting out $20,000 in $100 bills,[9] she made him confess to an Opus Dei priest – Fr. Robert Bucciarelli, the former head of Opus Dei in the US.  The priest told Hanssen to give the $20,000 that he had thus far received to Mother Teresa's charities.[10]  The rite of penance did not cause a change in Hanssen's behavior; he continued to spy on the US throughout the Gorbachev era.  Hanssen and Louis Freeh (head of the FBI from 1993 to 2001) attended the same church,[11] St. Catherine of Siena,[12] as have Justice Antonin Scalia and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa).

One way that Hanssen might have rationalized his behavior was his belief that the Soviet Union would soon collapse.  One of Hanssen's bosses at the FBI said, "He was a religious person who put the Soviets into a religious context. He would say that the Soviet Union is bound to fail because it is run by communists and communists don't have God in their life. He said to me, 'Without religion, man is lost.'"[13]  The reporter Adrian Havill added, "Did Hanssen believe that giving our most vital secrets to the Soviet Union was a moot issue because they were about to collapse? If so, he was a true seer. Mikhail Gorbachev would declare communism dead in 1991. 'Ramon Garcia' [the name Hanssen used in his dealings with the KGB]  went to ground a few months later."[14]

Another reporter sees a more direct link to Vatican and Opus Dei statecraft: "It may seem paradoxical that Hanssen would spy for the Soviet Union, a moral adversary and indeed a satanic force in the eyes of Opus Dei. During Gorbachev's glasnost era, however, there is evidence of behind-the-scenes collaboration between the Vatican and Moscow. In particular, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, a powerful Opus Dei supporter, pursued a policy of reaching out toward Moscow with the aim of gaining Poland's release from the Warsaw Pact.  ...

 Hanssen's most damaging activities in FBI counterintelligence coincided with these years, 1985-89. Secrets from America's intelligence vaults could well have been part of the quid pro quo in the late cardinal's dance with Moscow.  Certainly, the Vatican has had no qualms about violating American sensitivities. Indeed, it seems to reflect a Eurocentric triumphalism. The papal encyclical on labor rights slapped rampant materialism – that is, the immoral United States – as the 'other' great evil afoot in the world.  The Vatican's political work with Moscow paid off handsomely with the independence of Catholic-dominant (sic) Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and later, from Moscow's nominal ally Yugoslavia, of Slovenia and Croatia. All the while, Hanssen kept up the flow of U.S. secrets to Moscow."[15]

_______________________________________

(*)        Although we appreciate the courtesy of the Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project [ SCP Journal] in allowing us to publish documents authored by Mr. Lee Penn, documents which have appeared in their magazine, we do not in any form whatsoever endorse, agree or recommend any other article or recommendation and/or promotion which may appear the SCP Journal.

(**)    The entire article, which describes the track record of Opus Dei and its members, is available to those who order a copy of this magazine.  To do so, visit the magazine's web site at http://www.scp-inc.org, or call their office in Berkeley,California at 510-540-0300, between 9am and 5pm, Pacific time.

(***) The full text of Part 1 of Lee Penn's article about Opus Dei is now available on-line, courtesy of SCP. To read the article go to http://www.scp-inc.org/publications/jou ... /index.php.



[1] Information in this paragraph, unless otherwise noted, is from Wikipedia, "Robert Hanssen," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen, printed 09/08/05.

[2] Wikipedia, "Robert Hanssen," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen, printed 09/08/05.

[3] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 4, "On the Road to Oblivion," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 09/08/05.

[4] In addition, his brother-in-law is an Opus Dei priest in Rome, and one of his daughters is an Opus Dei numerary.  ("Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 5, "Secret World of a Spy," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 08/28/03.)

[5] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 5, "Secret World of a Spy," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 08/28/03.

[6] Michael Walsh, "Secrets and Spies," The Tablet, January 1, 2005, http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/regi ... blet-00966, printed 09/08/05.

[7] Wikipedia, "Robert Hanssen," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen, printed 09/08/05.

[8] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 6, "Inside Robert Hanssen's Weird World," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 09/08/05.

[9] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 4, "NYC to Washington and Back," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 09/08/05.

[10] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 4, "NYC to Washington and Back," http://www..crimelibrary.com/terrorists ... ml?sect=23, printed 09/08/05.

[11] Freeh and Opus Dei have denied repeated allegations that Freeh is an Opus Dei member.  (Wikipedia, "Robert Hanssen," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen, printed 09/08/05.)

[12] Yoichi Clark Shimatsu, "Was FBI Agent's True 'Loyalty' To Opus Dei?," Pacific News Service, March 5, 2001, http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories ... 5-spy.html, printed 08/28/03.

[13] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 5, "Secret World of a Spy," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 08/28/03.

[14] Adrian Havill, "Robert Philip Hanssen: The Spy Who Stayed Out In the Cold," section 5, "Secret World of a Spy," http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_ ... ml?sect=23, printed 08/28/03.

[15] Yoichi Clark Shimatsu, "Was FBI Agent's True 'Loyalty' To Opus Dei?," Pacific News Service, March 5, 2001, http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories ... 5-spy.html, printed 08/28/03.
 


Document Published on leepenn.org on December 26th, 2007

Copyright 2007 - All rights reserved.

[Michael K.]

Editorial Comment:  Did you notice the worst spy scandals in US history became a dead issue in  the press after 9-11.?  Did you realize that Putin himself was KGB chief in East Germany at the time these secrets were compromised to Russia?  Also notice below, that the Russian Orthodox Archbishop of Vienna and Austria recruited the US Colonel caught spying.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1323604/FBI-spy-who-sold-out-to-Russia-did-megaton-damage.html

FBI spy who sold out to Russia 'did megaton damage'

By Ben Fenton in Washington

12:00AM GMT 21 Feb 2001

BRITISH and American spycatchers were yesterday investigating the damage done by a senior FBI officer charged with spying for Moscow for the past 16 years.

Robert Hanssen, a father of six who faces the death penalty if convicted, was described as having done "megaton damage" to American intelligence. His arrest, as he allegedly made a "dead drop" and picked up $50,000 (£33,000) in a park near his home in Virginia on Sunday, sent shock waves through the intelligence communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

The arrest came after the FBI obtained documents from the former KGB, but sources said considerable detective work was needed because Hanssen had been able to keep his identity secret from his paymasters.

British sources said that intelligence officials from London had been in close contact with their American counterparts to try to discern what Hanssen might have given away that would affect British security.

Although Hanssen, 56, worked mainly in the FBI's counter-intelligence sector, watching the activities of foreign diplomats in Washington during his 27-year career, his security clearance was so high that he had access to the highest grade of secrets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1343143/US-colonel-accused-of-spying.html

US colonel accused of spying

By Toby Harnden in Washington

12:00AM BST 15 Jun 2000

THE most senior United States military officer to be charged with espionage was accused yesterday of spying for the KGB in Germany for a 25-year period during the Cold War. [Putin was attached as KGB to East Germany's govt. during the last several years of this period.  --MK]

George Trofimoff, a retired Army Reserve colonel, was arrested in Tampa, Florida, on suspicion of committing 32 "overt acts" of selling classified military intelligence information while employed as a civilian.

Igor Vladimovich Susemihl, a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church who became Archbishop of Vienna and Austria and died last year, was named as the person who recruited Trofimoff as a KGB "agent-in-place". Both men were allegedly arrested in Germany in 1994 on suspicion of spying but were released without charge.

From 1969 to 1994, when he was said to have been an active spy, Trofimoff, born in Germany to Russian parents, was head of the civilian element of the Joint Interrogation Centre in Nuremberg. An American citizen since 1951, Trofimoff retired from his civilian job five years ago and from the army in 1987.

He was said to have photographed and passed American intelligence reports to his KGB handlers, giving them "the opportunity to identify, penetrate and neutralise potential threats to the Soviet Union" and engage in "denial and deception".

The reports included details of Soviet military preparedness and debriefing notes from interviews with refugees and defectors. The information was said to have been shared with the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact allies.

Trofimoff was indicted by a grand jury in Tampa and was due to appear before a magistrate last night.

[Michael K.]

Editorial Comment:  Compare and contrast these following articles and draw your own conclusions about Opus Dei in Russia:

http://www.mgr.org/sect23.html

The Vatican vs Russia:  A Brief, But Realistic, Review of the Situation

INTRODUCTION and BACKGROUND

The bickering continues between the powers behind the Papal Throne and Russia. Of course, this is not more than a stage on the manifestation of Divine Justice for the disobedience of the Vatican authorities [1] since, should the instructions of Heaven associated with the events of Fátima had been followed, Russia would have been converted a long time ago, World War II would have been averted and the Soviet Union would not have spread its errors. [2]

Nonetheless, let us take a peek behind the scenes so that the faithful, as well as the administrators of the Opus Dei, understand what is really taking place.


DETAILS

We read in Catholic World News Service (CWNS) [December 13, 2002] that...

    Russian government officials have referred to the Roman Catholic Church as a threat to national security, according to a report uncovered by the Keston News Service.

We further read that...

    The draft explains that the Catholic Church poses a threat because Catholic evangelists are gaining "individual priests and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church as converts to Catholicism."

We also read in CWNS [December 13, 2002] that...

    Civilta Cattolica-- a magazine that is regarded as an accurate indicator of Vatican opinions, since articles are cleared in advance by the Secretariat of State-- charges that Russia political leaders are cooperating with the Russian Orthodox hierarchy in an effort to "decapitate" Catholic communities. The magazine refers to a "campaign of persecution" against the Catholic Church in Russia.

And furthermore...

    Pointing out that a recent census shows only 16 percent of the Russian people as Orthodox believers, while 60 percent are atheists or agnostics, the Jesuit magazine ask the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church to reflect on their claims that Catholics are engaged in "proselytism" among the Orthodox faithful. Catholic evangelists, Civilta Cattolica points out, are making their inroads among Russians who are not affiliated with any church-- especially among young people and intellectuals, who feel no affinity for the Orthodox faith.

However, CWNS [December 6, 2002] reported earlier that....

    Most of Russia's people believe in God or at least a supreme being, according to a nationwide poll. But only a minority reported an active prayer life.

    Approximately 60 percent of the Russian people believe in God, according to the results of an opinion poll just published by the Romir Research Center. Another 21 percent of the Russians who answered the survey said that they believed in a "supreme force, spirit, intelligence" while just 16 percent said that they had no such belief.

Let us stop and ponder: One report claims that 60 % of the Russians are atheist while another claims that 60 % of the Russians believe in God.

Brothers and sisters, it all depends on the agenda of those in charge and has nothing to do with reality, a reality we pray that you are fully aware of.

But before jumping to any sweeping and possibly erroneous conclusion let us review a survey published by the Spanish daily El Pais on December 8, 2002, (p. 6).

In this survey, which only pertains to Spain - the birth place of Josemaría Escrivá, founder of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei and a country in which Opus Dei operatives have heavily infiltrated the highest levels of the Political and Intellectual sectors - we learn that...

    46 % of self confessed Catholics almost never attend Mass

    18 % attend Mass "almost" all Sundays

    4.6 % claim to be atheists

    1.6 % are members of other religions

According to "The Church in Spain 1950 - 2000" we see that...

    In 1960 95% of Spaniards were Practicing Catholics

    In 1993 only 52% were Practicing Catholics

    A drop of 45.3 %!


SUMMARY and CONCLUSION

Why would Russia allow an Opus Dei controlled Church to make inroads and proselytize the young and the intellectuals in their already Christian rooted society?

First - From a purely political perspective

    Why allow in those who cannot even Evangelize Spain where its roots are firmly planted. It is perfectly logical for the Russian authorities not to trust their true motives.

Second - From a purely religious perspective

    Why isn't the Vatican trying to make inroads where they should instead? Like in Asia, for example. It is perfectly logical for the Russian authorities to be suspicious of the "burning desire" of the Vatican to Evangelize an already Christian country.

Third - From a purely geopolitical perspective

    The Kremlin and the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church are fully aware and conversant with the Opus Dei agenda and modus operandi and will simply not open their doors to them. Russian authorities would be insane to allow them in.


EPILOGUE

It is not difficult to discern why the "Kettle" and the "Pot" are at odds.

The Opus Dei leadership must understand that the chances of hell freezing over are greater than their chance to penetrate and subvert Russia with their "theology" any time before the period of the Antichrist.

The Opus Dei will only achieve this after the period of the Antichrist... when the time of the ultimate snare is sprung on humanity: The manifestation of the False Christ.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/patriarchate_of_moscow_welcomes_opus_dei_presence_in_russia/

Patriarchate of Moscow welcomes Opus Dei presence in Russia

Moscow, Russia, Dec 18, 2007 / 11:42 am (CNA).- The vice president of the Department of Foreign Ecclesial Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, welcomed the personal prelature of Opus Dei, which recently opened a community in Russia, and said its energy and fidelity "to Christian ideals are worthy of great respect."

"Opus Dei has as its mission strengthening Christian values in today's society, which moves us to sympathy," the archpriest said in recent statements.  The vicar for Opus Dei in Moscow, Father Jose Antonio Senovilla Garcia, said his community has gone to Russia "to encourage the people to be good orthodox believers, to find God in their daily lives and to help others."

Father Senovilla noted that the Russian Orthodox Church has welcomed the presence of Opus Dei in the country, and he said he was "very happy to be here" and that he "has not had any problems."

The new Opus Dei center in Moscow was inaugurated on June 26, the feast of its founder, St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=4436.2695.0.0

Vatican Takes Step to Reabsorb Orthodox Church

November 16, 2007 | From theTrumpet.com
A recent document brings Catholic and Orthodox members closer to reconciliation.
 

The Vatican has drafted a joint document with Orthodox Church leaders declaring that the pope has primacy over all Catholic and Orthodox bishops. The agreement was reached by a joint international commission in Revenna, Italy, on October 13 and released by the Vatican on Thursday.

The document specifically declares that the pope held the highest position in the unified church before the Great Schism in 1054, and that the bishop of Rome was the protos, or first, among the patriarchs, including those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.

That acknowledgment could pave the way for eventual reunification of the two churches—under the pope's rule.

Cardinal Water Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, called discussions of the pope's power in the early Catholic Church the "real breakthrough" of the document.

"This document is a modest first step and as such one of hope," he told Vatican Radio. "But we must not exaggerate its importance. This will not be easy. The road is very long and difficult."

The Orthodox Church split with Rome in 1054, largely because of disagreements over the authority of the pope. Its 220 million members fall under the authority of autonomous national churches, rather than a universal ruler, the way 1.1 billion Roman Catholics do.

Although the two sides agreed on the primacy of the pre-1054 pope, they still disagree on what his authority entailed in terms of the power he could exercise. The early popes had much less consolidated and centralized power than their second-millennium counterparts have wielded. This will make for thornier deliberations, particularly when the dogma of papal infallibility, which the Catholic Church developed after the split and formally defined in 1870, is discussed. However, in the interest of ecumenicism, the commission has called for the role of the pope to be studied in greater depth.

Pope Benedict xvi has called regaining the Orthodox Church a priority of his administration. In May last year, a senior Russian Orthodox official delivered a message from Patriarch Alexiy ii to Benedict, and Vatican officials said they were working toward a meeting between the two. The same month, 50 Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox officials held a meeting in Vienna.

In November last year, the pope met in Istanbul with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is considered the spiritual head of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Benedict is literally making a career out of re-acquiring Catholicism's daughter churches. However, no matter what is on the table for discussion, one dogma will remain the same: Everybody obeys the pope.

As a result of these ecumenical maneuverings—resulting in Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant daughters being welded back into the universal church—look for papal authority not to weaken but to ultimately increase even further than it has already.

[Whaler]

What do you guys think of this?



REAL FOOTAGE: Opus Dei Jews Take Over the Largest Catholic Cathedral in the Midwest, Steal Relics
[youtube:2lwhqm4d]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmW66hHfjWM[/youtube]2lwhqm4d]

Is this guy a crank?  

Here is his website
http://www.fatimamovement.com/

[Michael K.]

Dear Whaler,

Thank you for providing this extremely thought provoking reference link.  I have spent several hours sifting through the compiled evidence on the website, and in answer to your request for an informed opinion I offer the following.

No, the authors of the website should not be dismissed as "Cranks."  Their theology has a several errors which show an inconsistency of thought, vacillating between rejecting Protestantism on one hand, and embracing certain Protestant arguments on the other.  This does not disqualify the significance of their major points, however, which are as follows:

1.)   Our Lady the Theotokos (God-bearer) the Blessed and Ever-Virgin Mary is the litmus test of a true Christian.  Rejection or animosity toward her is evidence that one is a Talmudic Jew at heart.  Recognition of her grace is recognition of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

2.)  Substitution of a Solomonic magickal Baal concept of God for a Jesus Christ concept of God is the fundamental work of the Anti-Christ, and both are technically "Lord" in English, so back to (1.) above to sort the two out.

3.)  This is one significant piece of evidence which delineates the linguistic difference between a traditional Catholic conceptual vocabulary and a Judaized Protestant vocabulary among English speakers.  Pay close heed:



One point on which I differ with these theologians, as an Orthodox Christian, is that I do not necessarily have to reject the Old Testament as Jewish claptrap pertaining to a different God from Jesus Christ, because I have an understanding of the OT more grounded in the Greek theology of the early fathers of the Church.  While I do not accept their almost Protestant rejection of the theology of the Fathers, I understand that they are in their hearts deeply committed to the true identity of divinity as revealed through Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, and through the Theotokos.

For my part, I agree with the general concept that they argue, that the notion that Jesus had two male parents is part of the sickness of pagan Judaized theology, and I understand the Holy Ghost to be the feminine counterpart to the Eternal Father, which is essentially the same idea under different terminology that they are expressing in the following graphic:



I would take their contentions with a grain of salt, since the Catholic is generally 'often wrong but never in doubt.'  They certainly are staking quite a big piece of their credibility on their doomsday clock which runs out in about five days.

Still, there is much to be gained by studying these people's evidence and theology.  I give them four out of five stars and a whole bunch of love and gratitude for their courageous stand and obvious hard work.

[Michael K.]

P.S. -- Also a significant point made by the authors of the website Whaler provided above:

DEI is the plural form of DEUS, Hence OPUS DEI = "Work of THE GODS" and not "of God."

[Shiksa Rage]

P.S. -- Also a significant point made by the authors of the website Whaler provided above:

DEI is the plural form of DEUS, Hence OPUS DEI = "Work of THE GODS" and not "of God."

Oh dear! It's clear that neither Michael K nor the compilers of that site took Latin at school. Latin is a more economical language than english, so instead of using an extra word like "of", the grammatical sense of a sentence or phrase is contained in a word's ending or declension. "Deus" is indeed the singular of "God" or "god" but in the nominative case. In the phrase "Opus Dei" the word "Opus" is in the singular nominative case whereas "Dei" is in the singular genitive case. the genitive case denotes possession or attachment.
If we reverse the phrase to read "God of Work" then "God would be in the nominative case and "Work" in the genitive case. Thus the phrase would translate to "Deus Opei".
http://www.math.osu.edu/~econrad/lang/ln.html

[Whaler]

Dear Whaler,

Thank you for providing this extremely thought provoking reference link.  I have spent several hours sifting through the compiled evidence on the website, and in answer to your request for an informed opinion I offer the following.

No, the authors of the website should not be dismissed as "Cranks."  Their theology has a several errors which show an inconsistency of thought, vacillating between rejecting Protestantism on one hand, and embracing certain Protestant arguments on the other.  This does not disqualify the significance of their major points, however, which are as follows:

1.)   Our Lady the Theotokos (God-bearer) the Blessed and Ever-Virgin Mary is the litmus test of a true Christian.  Rejection or animosity toward her is evidence that one is a Talmudic Jew at heart.  Recognition of her grace is recognition of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

2.)  Substitution of a Solomonic magickal Baal concept of God for a Jesus Christ concept of God is the fundamental work of the Anti-Christ, and both are technically "Lord" in English, so back to (1.) above to sort the two out.

3.)  This is one significant piece of evidence which delineates the linguistic difference between a traditional Catholic conceptual vocabulary and a Judaized Protestant vocabulary among English speakers.  Pay close heed:



One point on which I differ with these theologians, as an Orthodox Christian, is that I do not necessarily have to reject the Old Testament as Jewish claptrap pertaining to a different God from Jesus Christ, because I have an understanding of the OT more grounded in the Greek theology of the early fathers of the Church.  While I do not accept their almost Protestant rejection of the theology of the Fathers, I understand that they are in their hearts deeply committed to the true identity of divinity as revealed through Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, and through the Theotokos.

For my part, I agree with the general concept that they argue, that the notion that Jesus had two male parents is part of the sickness of pagan Judaized theology, and I understand the Holy Ghost to be the feminine counterpart to the Eternal Father, which is essentially the same idea under different terminology that they are expressing in the following graphic:



I would take their contentions with a grain of salt, since the Catholic is generally 'often wrong but never in doubt.'  They certainly are staking quite a big piece of their credibility on their doomsday clock which runs out in about five days.

Still, there is much to be gained by studying these people's evidence and theology.  I give them four out of five stars and a whole bunch of love and gratitude for their courageous stand and obvious hard work.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I also spent a whole night going over the website. Thought it was very interesting. They probably shouldn't have made the bold prediction about Rome being destroyed in 4 days...They will be dismissed as nutters if it doesn't happen. Which would be a shame because I think they are deeply committed to exposing the Jewish infiltration of the Catholic Church. The website is also pretty impressive and I can tell they have worked hard on it.

Shiksa Rage, I was told Latin was a dead language. I wonder who killed it? :think:

[Shiksa Rage]

Whaler, I've no idea, we need to get Columbo on the case. Seriously, I wasn't making a case for Opus Dei, I was just pointing out a grammatical howler.
Btw, the title of this thread is grammatically incorrect if it is supposed to be "Work of the Jews".  That, in fact, would "Opus Judaeorum".

[Whaler]

Whaler, I've no idea, we need to get Columbo on the case. Seriously, I wasn't making a case for Opus Dei, I was just pointing out a grammatical howler.
Btw, the title of this thread is grammatically incorrect if it is supposed to be "Work of the Jews". That, in fact, would "Opus Judaeorum".

 


I took spanish in high school for my required foreign language. I remember my guidance counselor saying that "Latin was a dead language" and to not bother with it.  My guidance counselor was a Jewess. Possibly an agenda against Latin?  :think:

[Michael K.]

 

http://www.europarussia.com/posts/2904

Pope Wojtyla's statue unveiled in Moscow.



A new statue of the Pope John Paul II was unveiled in Moscow on Friday. "This is an extraordinary gesture by the Russian authorities for all Christians living in Russia," Fr Jozef Zaniewski, rector of Moscow Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, said. "John Paul II loved Russia and wanted to come here, but he was not able to do it during his lifetime," Zaniewski continued.

 Located in the backyard of the Library of Foreign Literature, the monument was created by Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Vasyatkin and Russian artists Ilya and Nikita Feklin. The decision to unveil it comes after John Paul's former secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, donated an ampoule of the Pope's blood to the cathedral.

 The presentation ceremony of the Polish Pope's statue took place on the day of the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the conclave, which saw Cardinal Karol Wojtyla elected as pope two days later.

http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-jo ... atron.html

Why John Paul II is Opus Dei's Patron Saint: analysis of conference at Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome

The FACE (Mask) of Opus Dei is John Paul II and their (Phantom) Spirit is   St. Josemaria Escriva, their founder. Opus Dei controlled the 27 years papacy of John Paul Ii and they must now finalize it with his beatification and canonization....Below, we analyze their very superficial reasons (their words are in italics).

We start with an analysis of the pathetic reasons of Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Opus Dei personal secretary of John Paul II for 27 years whose controlling motto was imitated from Christ: "No one goes to Holy Father John Paul II - except through me." Opus Dei controlled the entire 27 years papacy of John Paul II and therefore must control and finalize his beatification and canonization (as they have planned when JP2 was alive). Opus Dei is wasting no time because they don't want to take any chances from future elected popes so before he dies Benedict XVI must beatify and canonize John Paul II. In all Opus Dei chapels, there is only one image on their wall, that of their founder St. Josemaria Escriva and now they've added Blessed John Paul II. Opus Dei do not pray to other saints such as the Carmelites or Jesuits or Franciscans saints. Opus Dei pray only to their own species... because they consider themselves as the 'superior race'. ...

The most important university now is the relatively new Opus Dei Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome where all Opus Dei priests are educated, all "future" Bishops and their assistants, all journalists and media experts who work at the Vatican Radio and Vatican TV (and at Zenit.org), all must study there to qualify to work for the exclusive Vatican media and the Opus Dei media empires all over the world...

Ironically April 1 is April Fools' Day and Saint John Paul II can only be a saint for fools.

April 1 has been established by the Opus Dei as an annual conference day about the saintly life of John Paul II at the Holy Cross Pontifical University because it is the eve (like Christmas Eve) of his papal death. Opus Dei orchestrated John Paul II's date of death on April 2, 2005 - see the article John Paul II Euthanasia: his last papal act http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/09/john-p ... papal.html. And Opus Dei now control John Paul II's beatification this coming May 1.  

[Michael K.]

Am I seeing a ghost? That looks like JP2 on the arm of a heretical Mary Magdalene/Lilith.



http://goodlawd.com/nicki-minaj-brings- ... my-awards/