Pope election: Opus Dei pulls strings

[emad]

By Barry James in Vatican City
Monday, 11 April , 2005, 13:04

One of the unanswered questions about next week's secret conclave to elect the next pope is how much influence will be wielded by "the Work," the conservative Roman Catholic organisation called the Opus Dei.

Only two cardinals among the 115 electors belong to the organisation, which counts more than 80,000 followers around the world and has often been referred to in Spain, the country where it was founded in 1928, as "God's Octopus."

But it had an extraordinary degree of access to Pope John Paul II, and enjoys the support and encouragement of many of the most powerful cardinals, including Camillo Ruini, the prelate deputed to run the diocese of Rome, who is seen as a strong contender to become the next pontiff.

Ruini last year opened proceedings to declare the Opus Dei's second leader, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, a saint.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13714784

[DaDeacon]

1. One to many Dan Brown books me think. ?!? (n/t)

[Matilda]

2. Never underestimate the power of Opus Dei.

It's quite out of proportion to their numbers, thanks largely to
John Paul II.

They are the scourge of progressive Catholics everywhere. Make that
moderate Catholics even.

[Demeter]

4. So, John Paul II Had His Own Brownshirts

No wonder Bush feels his faith renewed and his commitment strengthened.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Agreed -- they are truly frightening. And we apparently have some...

of their number in positions of power in the U.S.

[emad]

8. We have some, just north of Regent's Park in London:

January 11, 2005

Controversial Catholic group is given care of parish church
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent



OPUS DEI, the conservative Roman Catholic organisation that counts Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, among its members, has been given its first parish in Britain since it was founded in 1928.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, is to hand over pastoral care of St Thomas More church, Swiss Cottage, to Father Gerard Sheehan, an Opus Dei priest.

Father Sheehan is one of 17 priests in Britain who work for the Opus Dei organisation. None of the others is a parish priest although Father Sheehan is local deanery secretary for the Westminster archdiocese and regularly hears confessions at Westminster Cathedral and St James’ Spanish Place.

He will take over at Easter from Father Ian Dickie, who is to be moved to another parish.

The decision by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor to entrust the parish of 500 souls and their 1968 red-brick church to Opus Dei partly indicates that the organisation has “come of age” and is achieving mainstream respectability within the Catholic Church in Britain.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1434918,00.htm

OPUS DEI members were used by Margaret Thatcher to gag the 1986 arrest of the late Robert Maxwell MP in a Children of God brothel in Hampstead, where 4 kids under the age of five were rapes, tortured and then murdered. In a house that had previously belonged to Thatcher's family.

OPUS DEI was subsequently banned from this area of North London. But now is flourishing under Poodle's personal approval.

As for Ruth Kelly, cited above, she is another Tory plant. SHe is the bastard daughter of Ann Widdecombe, Tory MP:

Ruth Kelly MP:

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. One of your best yet, emad

:rofl: :applause:

By the way, has your gender changed in your profile?

[emad]

13. Gender stated in my profile has always been the correct gender.

[Rich Hunt]

20. wow, great post

Interesting stuff, there. I didn't know about this.

[Al-CIAda]

3. Latest neocon target: The Vatican

Latest neocon target: The Vatican
The neocon strategy to ensure their candidate is selected pope

Wayne Madsen
Online Journal
April 5, 2005

The dream candidate of the neocons for the next pope is the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn. According to a major neocon media outlet of convenience, The Jerusalem Post, Schoenborn, on a recent visit to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, echoed the Christian Zionist line of George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Newt Gingrich, and neocon Catholic and New American centurion Michael Novak. Schoenborn referred to Israel as "God's chosen land" for the Jewish people. Responding to the comments of a clearly pained Palestinian priest, who questioned the cardinal on his support for Israel's usurpation of Palestinian lands and homes, basically said that as a refugee from war time Czechoslovakia he understood the pain of refugees. Commenting further, Schoenborn said that was a matter of international law while the Jews' inheritance of the Holy Land trumped international law because it was prophesized in the Bible and that all Christians should embrace Zionism as the fulfillment of that Biblical prophecy.

Although Pope John Paul II established diplomatic relations with Israel and was the first pope to visit a synagogue, he was also cognizant of the Holy See's responsibility to Catholicism's flocks in Palestine and other Arab lands. For example, he maintained close links to the late Palestinian President Yasir Arafat.

John Paul II was not only strongly opposed to George W. Bush's unprovoked invasion of Iraq but came out vocally against Bush's father's Desert Storm invasion. Speaking to ABC's This Week on April 3, Jim Nicholson said that during his last meeting with the pope in March, before he departed his post as American ambassador to the Vatican to take up the position as secretary of Veterans Affairs, the pope wanted to know where Bush intended to take America in the world with its awesome temporal power. It is no secret that the late pope had no time for Bush and his bellicose and aggressive ways and, according to well-placed journalists for Catholic Italian newspapers whom I spoke to in 2003, the pope commented to some of his closest assistants that what he feared most in Bush was the coming of the Antichrist as prophesized in the Book of Revelation. It was the fear of the arrival of the Antichrist during his priesthood that plagued John Paul II since his earlier years in Poland.

Not waiting for John Paul II's burial, the neocons are already working behind the scenes to ensure that the next pope will be as compliant with their global agenda as Pius XII was with the National Socialists and Fascists. It is up to Catholic leaders like Lustiger and his fellow likeminded Cardinals who believe in John Paul II's views on human rights and global survival to confront the machinations of the neocons and their favored candidates, Schoenbron and Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze.

Con't-
http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/040505Madsen/040505madsen.html

[emad]

5. JP2 will be the last Pope. Rome murder trial of "God's Banker"

Roberto Calvi resumes shortly.

So many Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops are implictated in this murder, the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and the bankruptcy of the Vatican Bank, it's a wonder they have the cheek to carry on like nothing's happened.

In 1983 Poppy have Cardinal Marcinmus (CEO of the Vatican Bank)immunity from prosecution in the Banco Ambrosiano biz because he said all the evidence pointed to Calvi committing suicide.

The in 2003 new forensic techniques proved Calvi had been murdered.

Four members of the P2 Lodge are now in the Rome slammer awaiting resumption of the trial, which was halted last year after UK's City of London Police Fraud Squad submitted a reported 70 boxes of new evidence about the Calvi murder and the P2 Lodge.

The P2 Lodge was a paedohpile masonic cult that was run by the KGB since 1958 and had infiltrated the Vatican by 1962.

They were implicated in the Cuban missile crisis which JFK had to thump down on hard.

Also implicated in an extensive cover-up of JFK's assasination.

In the 19602 the UK the press always alleged that Frank Gelli, a Russian of Cuban extraction lookalike of George Herbert Bush, had taken over Bush's ID after the Dallas shooting of JFK, and then wormed his way into the CIA before becoming VP to Ronnie Raygun.

Gelli was implicated by UK press in the Dallas shooting and in the subsequent cover-up.

[merh]

15. Link?

Is there a link to this?

[Demeter]

16. Now THAT Would Be a Gift From God

I'll believe it when I see it.

[leftofthedial]

7. Opus Dei:Catholics as neocons:Repukes

extreme RW fundies

[Bridget Burke]

9. Truth is stranger than fiction....

But fiction is much more fun. Time to reread the Illuminatus Trilogy!

[hopein08]

11. Was John Paul II actually Opus Dei himself? n/t

[Rich Hunt]

21. totally *not*

I mean, they're wackos. Just because he met with some of them (called 'access' in the article) doesn't mean that he was one of them.

[Zerex71]

12. I should point out that Scalia is part of this organization.

As are many other high-profile types. Look it up. It's like Skull and Bones for the Vatican set.

[Me.]

14. As Is That Dreg Of Human Life

Novak. I believe I also read somewhere that Clarence Thomas is too.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. Scalia, Clarence Thomas & Robert Hansen the spy was Opus Dei.....

also Hannity , O'Lielly, Sen. Rick Santurum


"Suspected spy Robert Hanssen was many things, including a devout Catholic. He was a member of an organization, Opus Dei, a religious group of lay men (some of whom take a vow of chastity) and priests that has a strong following in Washington.

"Fifteen years ago, at the height of the Reagan administration, dozens of Opus Dei members held prominent jobs in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and throughout the government. Now that group, which meets regularly in a large house in Washington, is coming under scrutiny by the FBI.

"If Hanssen was active in this group, who's to say what he heard, what he saw, or whether there might be others who inadvertently and unknowingly aided him over the years," says an FBI source. "It's troubling because this is such a high-profile group. The names of its members and friends reached into the cabinet of the Reagan and Bush administrations.

~~~~~~~~~~

Unmarried members, called "numeraries," commit to celibacy, turn over their salaries to Opus Dei and live in group-run "centers," where men and women are segregated.

Numeraries also regularly practice acts of "corporal mortification" uncommon to most Catholics, which can include flagellating one's buttocks and wearing a spiked chain on one's thighs. Such acts are said to help bolster self-discipline and recall the suffering of Christ.

In the new headquarters, the sexes live, work and worship in separate parts of the building. They even come and go through separate entrances.

Female members are encouraged to pursue all occupations, but within Opus Dei residence facilities, certain women and not men perform the housekeeping chores.

"I suppose Opus Dei appeals to people who want to belong to a spiritually disciplined group," says Ken Woodward, religion writer for Newsweek magazine. "There always is going to be a certain number of Catholics to whom that is going to appeal."

An Increasing Presence

While U.S. Opus Dei membership may not be exploding, there are many signs of a growing strength and influence.

Most striking is the newly constructed headquarters in the heart of New York City. The 17-story building houses at least six chapels, 26 bedrooms for guests visiting on retreats, quarters for permanent residents, a gym, a cafeteria and offices.

Opus Dei also has facilities in 34 other cities, including four conference centers, three high schools, and five inner-city tutoring centers. It also operates more than 60 residence centers for members nationwide.

"It started basically with three people coming over 50 years ago with nothing," says Finnerty, the organization's spokesman. "So when you consider, from those three people, four high schools, three major conference centers, this building and the 3,000 members of Opus Dei, and other people connected, all of them trying to put the message of Opus Dei into practice, it's a significant thing."

Official Sanction

As for influence, Opus Dei's founder and central message have been praised by many of the nation's top Catholic leaders, including the late archbishops of Chicago and New York, and the current archbishop of Washington, Cardinal James Hickey.

Hickey last September dedicated the first public chapel in the United States honoring Opus Dei's founder. The chapel is located in the Washington Archdiocese's Catholic Information Center, which is currently run by an Opus Dei priest, Father John McCloskey, just two blocks from the White House.

In March, Opus Dei reached another milestone, when the Rev. Jose H. Gomez became the first Opus Dei member to be ordained an auxiliary bishop in the United States. The pope named him to the Archdiocese of Denver in January.

And, New York's new cardinal, Egan, is expected soon to bless a chapel in the new Opus Dei headquarters.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. Cardinal's Tettamanzi and Hummes are also Opus Dei

:scared:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. Opus Dei activities on University campus' in the US...white supremists

the activities of an Opus Dei group at my university when I was
a college student several years ago.

I went to small (approx 3000 undergraduate students) Catholic liberal
arts university in Texas and never heard of Opus Dei until my second
year. Now I consider myself a very liberal Catholic, as were all my
friends. A close friend of mine worked part time in the university
president's office as part of her financial aid package to pay for
college expenses. There she became acquinted with some of the clerical
staff who had been at our university for years. The women in the
office cautioned her about joining a campus student organization
called Opus Dei (you see, we were all studying to get into medical
school and academically were well known on campus) which might want
the likes of us in their group to add "legitamacy"- after all, there
were no science majors or pre-medical students in the group at the time.

My friend passed this information along to the rest of us, and over
the course of the nest several months, we began to build a picture of
what Opus Dei was all about- and frankly, it scared the hell out of
us. As you describe, they were very much a cult and very much
contradictory to what I was raised to believe as a Catholic.

The group was made up of upper middle class to affluent students who
were generally conservative in their politics. What we found sinister
(espcially since I am Oriental ) was that the group included not a
single minority student. Several of the group's student leaders were
closet white-supremacists (several of us managed to get a good look at
their bookshelves and were quite shocked to find books with titles
like "The White Man's Way" and other racist literature right next to
The Way).

Membership was based upon whom the group wanted as one of their own.
Usually one or two of the more charismatic members of the group would
approach you in the library, in your dormitory, or at a local place
frequented by the student body. And they never actually asked if you
wanted to join- they would befriend you and then weeks down the road
after establishing you as a possible asset to the group, would invite
you to prayer meeting or bible study group one evening. By that point
you probably had already met a few other members, so you would figure
this would be an evening among friends rather than predators.

Group meetings were never publicized or known to non-members. Several
of the university faculty were also members- supoosedly they had joint
ownership of a large home in a wealthy neighborhood near the campus in
which the group met. My friends and I, however, were not able to
confirm this but we had a significant amount of second-hand accounts.

Often weekend retreats would be held at this house off-campus (we did
note the absence of known members on certain weekends) and from what
we've heard, males and females were separated from each other and
stayed in different parts of the house. Ritualistic self-mortification
would occur- from self-flagellation to sleeping on wooden boards- part
of their belief in the evils of the human body and it's desires. One
individual related to us how the women often had to wear something
called a "scolex" which was like a small belt which you wore around
your upper thigh which had inward-pointing spikes meant to cause
extreme discomfort during the course of the weekend retreat.

It wasn't enough that this group of students and faculty engaged in
these perverse activities. Often, deceit, lying, and character
assassination were used to forward the group's agenda and protect
their secrecy. Approximately a year before we became aware of the
group, a female student was date-raped by a member. When she
threatened to name names and expose the group, stories were fabricated
about her "sexual lewdness" which eventually ruined her reputation and
credibility. She eventually lost her campus job as part of Opus Dei's
efforts to discredit her and protect themsleves.

During my third year, the campus newspaper did a feature on
homosexuality and the gay community's rocky relations with the Church.
This, as you might imagine, ruffled a lot of Opus Dei members, which
we later found out included the university president. The editor of
the campus paper lost his job and was threatend with expulsion- he
saved himself from being kicked out by taking his story to a local
newspaper which ran an article blasting the university for restricting
free speech. Although Opus Dei was never mentioned in the article, the
sudden attention forced them to back off. the faculty sponsor of the
newspaper, an individual I admired and respected as open-minded and
briliant, was forced from his position as faculty sponsor and replaced
with a professor who was conservative and by some sources, an Opus Dei
member. Later that year the professor who was the previous faculty
sponsor left our university to teach in Oregon. Many of us believe he
was really fired or threatened. Whatever the case may be, a good
number of openly gay students were threatened later on and many
subsequently transferred to other universities.

I applaud your efforts to expose Opus Dei for who they really are.
Unfortunately for us as college students, we were unsure who our
allies were when we discussed exposing the campus group. There still
are rumors of particular faculty members and university employees who
see it as their duty to prevent Opus Dei from dominating the
university. I applaud their efforts as well. My university was a great
place with many great indivduals committed to open-mindedness and
tolerance. For them and those like me, I'm writing you about what we
found out as young, idealistic college students.

Catholic means "universal". One of our Church's greatest strengths has
been its moderation and tolerance. Opus Dei threatens all that I hold
sacred about my faith. The beatification of Josemaria Escriva troubles
me, and I understand the Jesuits are fighting his cannonization.
Personally, I find his views and the views of the group absolutley
heretical. I worry about the future of the church with elements like
Opus Dei present- to me, they are a cancer in the body of the Catholic
Church.