Illuminati: The Synagogue of Satan
There are only two views of History: one, that everything happens by accident; and two, everything occurs by design. The former view is held by the ignorant, the fool and the liar, the second is held by the wise. History is made by design and not a product of happenstance. Two public figures separated by time understood this. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) the 32nd President of the United States said: “Nothing in politics ever happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) Prime Minister of Britain, wrote: “The world is governed by people far different from those imagined by the public.” These two simple statements illustrate the basic premise which underlies the substantive and proper study of History: that every major event in politics, economics, finance and international relations are the products of calculated power moves by secret cabals bent upon controlling the world absolutely and forever. In short: that History is made by hidden powers working according to preordained plans. Consequently, those who understand this, that History is Made by largely unseen forces, also understand and can perceive this ongoing titanic power struggle within the historical process. A fateful struggle that constantly shapes the present in preparation for the planned future, yet, which is neither recognised or understood by most people. That is why those who do not recognise this reality find current events baffling and modern diplomacy illogical no matter how diligently they follow the “news” pumped out by the controlled media.
This ignorance and naiveté renders even the most intelligent vulnerable to manipulation by the hidden powers operating behind the scenes. However, those who understand this reality, who understand that hidden hands work behind the scenes, who see the consequences of this activity by largely unseen forces, recognise that all major events are engineered and, in many instances, often predictable. Thus , the proper student of History soon comes to realise that the most striking feature arising from their studies is that seemingly countless, chaotic and unrelated historical events are in fact none of these things. That they are, in truth, all intimately bound by a calculated design and tied together by a purposeful mind orchestrating them throughout the ages. The proper student of History armed with such wisdom thus becomes less vulnerable, less manipulated and infinitely more difficult to control by those seeking absolute power over every one, everywhere and forever. This is why those who seek absolute power have continually sought to conceal their terrible ambition form all who would be most effected by it. Power is always most secure and invariably more effective when it is not recognised, when it is origin is well concealed. Thus, the supreme temporal power on Earth has always and assiduously sought to conceal itself from those it seeks to control. Moreover, this power, this hidden power, has made every effort to keep its identity and information about it from becoming public. Immense effort and energy have been made by the Lords of Power to conceal their presence and ambition from public exposure. That is why they inhabit and ruthlessly control the dark Empire of the Secret Societies. They have ruthlessly and mercilessly guarded their true identity and power.
These Lords of Power are the Occult Hierarchy who command the Dark Empire of the Secret Societies who are part of a very closed network of inter-generational Luciferian dynasties whose bloodlines are exalted by fellow Luciferians above all others. Their occult power is such that they rule above even the so-called “Rothschild Tribunal,” which consists of the high councils of organised witchcraft, Freemasonry and the Illuminati; the Council of 13 (Grand Druids), and the Council of 33 (Grand Masters of Freemasonry) that function as the principal council for the Brotherhood of Death. Nor does it reside in the so-called Council of Nine, the “Nine Unknown Men.” The real temporal and secular power in the world lies above these unholy unions and resides in an ancient Luciferian Cult whose roots go deep into human history. A baneful presence that has slowly, inexorably garnered immense power and influence and whose impress upon the historical process can easily be seen by those with eyes to see.
It is here, in this ancient Luciferian Cult that is found the secret force behind the great power moves that shape History. For, it is here, in this ancient Luciferian Cult, unknown to even those who think themselves exalted within the Dark Empire of Secret Societies that the organising mind behind the ancient agenda for World Empire is found. A diabolic intelligence that permeates throughout the Dark Empire of Secret Societies that it ruthlessly controls. A cold, calculating mind that orchestrates the massive, age-old programme whose ultimate goal is to establish World Government under its direct control. This very secret, very powerful cabal is the true temporal and secular power on Earth whose power and influence is made manifest at the highest levels of global state-craft and elsewhere through the network of societies, cults, sects that comprise the Dark Empire of the Secret Societies. Moreover, by the placemen, agentur and lackeys who are members of these Secret Societies and who are promoted because of their membership into the highest offices of state. This very Evil and very wicked cabal consists of people who are inter-generational Luciferians and Satanists who are the supreme exponents of a form of Magick, of Black Magic, and are the Dark or Black Adepts in the Cult of Evil who are verily the main human agents of Evil on Earth. And, gentle reader, it is this ancient, organising mind, this Luciferian and Satanic spirituality made manifest in the Cult of Evil, and personified by these Black Adepts, that Christ identified as the Synagogue of Satan … the great and terrible bane of humanity.
Thus, the Cult of Evil, the Synagogue of Satan, is the religion of Evil. It is very ancient and is in fact the oldest religion on Earth at whose head are found the two Dark Gods of immense spiritual power called Lucifer and Ahriman (Satan). Because of this inherited occult and temporal power, these Black Adepts are men of Pharisees Conspire to Kill Christunexampled secular power and are, in the temporal sense, the secret masters of this world. That is why they are often alluded to in certain writings as the “Secret Chiefs,” “Ascended Masters,” “divine teachers,” “the Occult Hierarchy,” or whatever and, more prosaically, simply the Shadow Government of this World. This same dark power operated in Palestine during Christ’s Mission in the Jewish sects that opposed Him: the Pharisee, Sadducee and Scribes. The power and influence of the Cult of Evil, the Synagogue of Satan, today is such, that now there is a handful of people in several countries who wield real power and collectively posses the greatest power in the modern world. And it is the Cult of Evil, this Synagogue of Satan, who possess this unequalled power, who are the true and only “Global Elite.”
Regardless of the public perception of their political leaders and the perceived power of their once sovereign parliaments, the real temporal and secular power on Earth lies elsewhere. It lies in the dark, Luciferian Empire of the Secret Societies but especially in the supreme expression of this Luciferian Creed: a very secret cabal of occult and secular power, power accrued over many centuries, the very ancient, the very evil and very wicked, Cult of Evil. This super-secret cabal of power has all useful people, including politicians and religious leaders, in its pockets. These are the placemen of the conspiracy, the agentur, who move to advance the ambitions of their secret masters by corrupting and betraying the organisations and institutions they swore to uphold. This group has been shaping Western society for many centuries, and its power is such that it now is able to manipulate the whole world and modify its destiny to suit their unholy aims. This is not sensationalism, hyperbole or “conspiracy theory” it is “conspiracy fact”: for, it is the TRUTH. And those who deny it or either fools or liars.
Although Freemasonry delights in its reputation as the world’s most powerful secret society, it is not up to the great and terrible task of usurping Creation. In fact, it is not even in the running. Although the network of Freemasonry and its Lodge system are integral to the World Revolutionary Movement for World Government the real powerbrokers are very, very secret, and take great care to remain hidden from the scrutiny of society. In Britain, there are only three of them, in Ireland, there are two; in France, there are eight, in Germany, there are six: in North and South America, there are twenty. Ponder awhile on this fact, gentle reader, that 39 men are effectively the supreme rulers of this world … and yet they want more … much more …
This true “Global Elite,” this super-secret cabal of power, this Synagogue of Satan, this Secret Order, does not contain any Presidents, Prime Ministers, generals, admirals, CEO’s, or bankers. They are not required, for the fabulous wealth and privilege at the disposal of this secret cabal -accrued over centuries- easily corrupts all and any aspirant to power and influence. Thus, there are 39 very wealthy men- so uniquely wealthy- they can circumvent any security there is and corrupt the morals of most any man alive. They have their agents within Freemasonry, the Rosicrucians, the Jesuits and any secret society of any concern at all. It has also controlled Organised Jewry for many centuries exacerbating and exploiting the tension between Jew and Gentile. These people can influence all aspects of society, especially in the judiciary and in politics. They control the United Nations, the European Union and the USA by the placement of agents of influence – their agentur- in key positions. They have some of their creatures in crucial posts in the Vatican. They have agents of influence in the media, academia and every social movement and every political party and trade union. Ideology does not concern them in any form, for they are above such parochial concerns. They operate on a higher level than party politics, which is why it is difficult to perceive their actions. They distract ordinary men by creating the politics of “Right” and “Left,” knowing that the resulting ideological squabbles distract and exhaust the creative energies of good people. They possess consummate skill in the art of metapolitics: the manipulation of events on a global scale and across decades of time. All politicians, whatever their public profile, are minor players in the much larger game played by these hidden masters. It does not matter what complexion of politician is elected into government- all of them will carry out, wittingly or otherwise, the policies of these hidden powerbrokers, these true Lords of Power.
Surface politics of “two party” opposition and rivalry – of high political theatre- are simply smoke and mirrors masking the true stratagems orchestrated by these hidden puppet-masters that have control of these supposedly rival parties. The “Two Party” system in the US and Britain is a myth. Both sides, the “Right” and the “Left,” “Capital” and “Labour,” “Conservative” and “Labour,” “Republican” and “Democrat,” are in the thrall of this cabal of power and enact legislation that ultimately draws the world towards the New World Order. Parliamentary goings-on are now simply a Punch and Judy show for the ignorant masses. Consequently, diversions, spurious political party lines and false concerns are stirred-up to confound proper understanding of the reality … of the truly dire situation that faces us all. Acts of one government and policies of another conceal the stealth of these hidden masters. Moreover, as low-level debate on very mundane matters occupies people, diverting attention and confounding proper understanding, this evil cabal digs ever deeper into the Soul of the World.
Throughout history there have lived men who schemed to bring to their group absolute worldly power. Men who were part of an age-old Secret Order that has contrived and orchestrated chaos throughout the entire historical process to subvert all powers but their own. This age-old Secret Order hides behind what some researchers have called the Global Elite or the Anglo-American Establishment whose exoteric expression is most evident in the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, the huge Tax-Exempt Foundations, the United Nations and the European Union. On the mundane level, the Global Elite, this Corporatocracy, are heads of the ultimate criminal syndicate. It has succeeded in creating the most incredible crime syndicate of exploitation, extortion and control that this world has ever seen. That is, by wholesale subversion of the political process; by foisting counterfeit currencies on gullible nations; by usury; by a relentless Humanist Agenda designed to morally and spiritually degrade Western civilisation, and by cynical manipulation of public perceptions via a subtlety controlled media and academia, this age-old Secret Order have erected their Matrix of Evil around the world. However, this Secret Order does not merely seek to establish the most crafty and efficient crime syndicate in history. It has infinitely more vaunting ambitions than this.
Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Spanish Ed.)The creation and manipulation of fear and hate are integral to the age-old plan of this Global Elite, this Secret Order, to ensnare humanity. Thus, wars and rumours of wars are a potent weapons in their armoury of subversion, deceit, deception and corruption. That is why from at least the War of Independence in North America, this Cabal of Evil has engineered all major conflicts to further their agenda for the total and absolute subjugation of humanity. The French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, Vietnam and the running sores of the Middle East, Korea and Taiwan. These are all bitter fruits of the labours of this Secret Order, this Cabal of Evil, who are verily the true Lords of Power on Earth. Whose dark works that collectively is the Great Conspiracy of History: A conspiracy summarised in the most evil piece of literature, the Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion.
The Dark Lords of Power, this Occult Hierarchy now alive, are the heirs to the age-old, occult agenda for World Empire. A dark, terrible agenda nurtured and promoted by the Secret Societies whose most powerful, most ancient, most exalted sect is the Cult of Evil. A Secret Order, a Brotherhood of Darkness, at whose head sit 39 men who are verily the true Lords of Power on Earth. And so, gentle reader, these Lords of Power, this Occult Hierarchy, are the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed, the Black Adepts in the Cult of Evil, who, by their ruthless control of the Empire of the Secret Societies, are the main human agents of Evil on Earth. They are men who are inheritors of such concentrated occult power, of such temporal and secular power and influence garnered from centuries of plotting and scheming, that their will prevails wherever and whenever it is so desired. Many men have succumbed to this power, many have been corrupted by it and many have been consumed by it.
For, it is a truly a universal corrosive force acting in every sphere of human endeavour and acting upon everyone, everywhere even though most do not know it. For, it is a monumental spiritual battle raging on this Earth and it is taking place at a time when mankind is least able to perceive it. That at the time when wisdom, discernment and understanding is most needed these faculties are wholly absent in the majority now too materialistic, affluent, indulged, distracted, brainwashed and spiritually blind to see the dire danger they are in. That they can not perceive this baneful presence lurking in the shadows that is intent on bringing everyone, everywhere under their direct control from the cradle to the grave. This Cult of Evil, this Synagogue of Satan, who are the main human agents of Evil on Earth and who are the arbiters of the ancient agenda of Evil, the Evil Agenda for the establishment of a totalitarian World Government under their direct control. And it these few men, these Lords of Power, who are the earthly representatives of the very same dark power that put Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary. They are the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed that are the main vehicle of the spirit of Antichrist within the historical process, which is the terrible, dark force Christ called the Synagogue of Satan. It is Organised Evil on Earth that nurtures the spirit of Antichrist, which brings forth the spirits of blasphemy.
Synagogue of Satan atop the New World OrderThe inexorable and fateful rise to supreme power by the dark Empire of Secret Societies has brought humanity to the point in its History in which nearly every official in the highest offices are members of Secret Societies. In fact, membership of one or another of these cults is the primary way that guarantees entry into high office. Freemasonry, Skull and Bones, the Jesuits, Knights of Columbus, Papal Knights, Opus Dei, the Illuminati and numerous other cults and sects are all interlocked by one common agenda and all are based on habitual secrecy that shrouds their works in mystery. The grip of Secret Societies on the modern world is such that Antichrist Illuminists, members of the myriad cults comprising the Dark Empire of Secret Societies, hold most of the high offices in Church and State.
However, Christ informed us that the only reason for habitual secrecy by organised men is to hide their evil (John 3:19-20; 18-20). Thus, the habitual secrecy of the Empire of Secret Societies is designed to not simply conceal occult ceremonial and ritual tomfooleries but a great and terrible secret: that they are the main vehicle of Evil on Earth and seek to eradicate God’s presence on Earth. And, those with eyes to see and hears to hear can perceive this wholesale corruption of society and see many men in high places living under the Sword of Damocles … For, in the final day, these men and women who have willingly and unwittingly advanced this Evil Agenda will have to face Christ and justify their actions: during the day when all men will stand before Christ and will be judged for their deeds For, Christ, sitting on the Great White Throne of Judgement, will judge all men according to their works, for, He is verily the Lord of Karma (Rev. 20:11-15).
Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russian ed.)And, gentle reader, the Synagogue of Satan, the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed, the Black Adepts in the Cult of Evil, these very few men, these true Lords of Power, are approaching the zenith of their power as they move the world inexorably towards their penultimate goal of World Government. A stage in which a World Empire of unimagined tyranny is set up before the inauguration of their ultimate goal: the Kingdom of Antichrist on Earth. But, before this can happen, they must carry out a terrible purging of humanity whereby all will be offered the choice of the Luciferian Initiation into the New World Order or be killed, sacrificed on the altar of the Kingdom of Antichrist. It is a time of the greatest manifestation of Satanic energy on Earth, a time unique in human history. A time long anticipated by the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed, the secret masters of the Secret Societies who Christ called the Synagogue of Satan. An Evil Agenda these Black Adepts in the Cult of Evil revealed in the very wicked and very evil document known to History as the Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion.
Where Mel Gibson Got His Anti-Semitism
By Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Report
Posted on January 27, 2007
“Fucking Jews!”
So began Mel Gibson’s now infamous anti-Semitic rant to Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies who pulled him over on suspicion of drunken driving last July. “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” the world-famous movie actor continued, before asking his arresting officer: “Are you a Jew?”
After his tirade made international news, Gibson promptly disappeared into an addiction clinic. He left behind a statement, released through a spokesman, begging the Jewish community for forgiveness and suggesting that booze was to blame. He was, he wrote, “in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display.” But their origin is easy enough to pinpoint — the extremist Catholic beliefs Gibson learned at the knees of his anti-Semitic father.
Gibson’s dad, Hutton Gibson, is an important player in the shadowy world of radical traditionalist Catholicism, also known as “integrism” or Catholic separatism. This religious subculture’s teachings have little in common with the modern Roman Catholic Church and its universalistic theology. Hutton Gibson, for one, is a well-known Holocaust denier who believes the Second Vatican Council reforms of the 1960s, which made the church vastly more tolerant of other faiths, were the result of “a Masonic plot backed by the Jews.” He is particularly incensed by the council’s historic declaration, “Nostra Aetate,” which condemned “all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews.” In Gibson’s world, the Second Vatican Council’s liberalizing reforms are rejected and anti-Semitic teachings and conspiracy theories are heartily embraced.
Like father, like son.
Mel Gibson has his own traditionalist house of worship near Los Angeles — a church, funded entirely by him, that is not recognized by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese. It is unclear what is said in the hallowed halls of the Holy Family Chapel, since, unlike virtually all other Catholic churches, it is closed to the public. What is known is that Gibson is reported to have blamed Jews for forcing him to cut a scene, in which Jews and their descendants are held responsible for the murder of Christ, from his 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.” Sounding a bit like he did that July night in Malibu, Gibson told The New Yorker: “If I included that in there, they’d be coming after me at my house. They’d come to kill me.”
Few Americans defended Mel Gibson’s drunken rant about the evils of the Jews. But radical traditionalist Catholics did. A three-year investigation of this subculture by the Intelligence Report has found that these Catholic extremists, including the Gibsons, may well represent the largest population of anti-Semites in the United States. Organized into a network of more than a dozen organizations, scores of websites and several extremist churches and monasteries, radical traditionalists in the U.S. are preaching anti-Semitism to as many as 100,000 followers. A few, such as the lawyer for Terri Schiavo’s family, Christopher Ferrara, are even movers and shakers in important right-wing Republican circles.
Jew-bashing at the Holiday Inn
The Philadelphia airport Holiday Inn is an odd place to celebrate a Catholic mass, especially in a city filled with lovely churches and an extraordinary, century-old Romanesque cathedral. But the inn is where the radical traditionalist Catholic outfit, (CFN), held its annual conference in 2003, dressing up one end of a drab conference room with an altar, incense, and a statue of the Virgin Mary, and transforming it into a church.
The rest of the hall looked rather different. Vendors set up folding tables along almost every inch of the remaining walls, piling them high with books, videotapes and Catholic accessories. The stacks were notable for the prominence of anti-Semitic and extremist materials, from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to Hutton Gibson’s Is the Pope Catholic? to CFN head John Vennari’s popular anti-Semitic conspiracy tract, The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita. Priests in Roman collars staffed many tables; brown-cloaked monks manned others.
CFN conferences hearken back to the era before the Roman Catholic Church enacted the liberalizing Vatican II reforms, which removed from the weekly Mass prayers for the conversion of the Jews and also ended the centuries-old practice of celebrating the Mass in Latin, the Vatican’s official language. At the Holiday Inn in 2003, Sunday’s religious activities started with a now rarely celebrated hour-long recitation of the rosary. After that, apostate priests conducted a rendition of the Latin Mass, a format dating to the Middle Ages, before an audience remarkable for the veils that covered every woman’s hair and the time it spent on its knees.
Vatican II did not ban these time-honored celebrations, and many Catholics who call themselves “traditionalists” continue to worship in this manner in churches that remain an official part of the Holy See (these churches are awarded an “indult” that allows them to continue celebrating the Latin Mass). The vast majority of those who practice Catholicism in this older form are unrelated to the radical traditionalist Catholics who gathered in Philadelphia. Indeed, the groups that gave presentations at the CFN conference preach a theology specifically rejected by the Vatican, and many have been declared schismatic, or officially separated from the church.
The participants at the CFN conference spent most of their time bashing Jews and, in particular, dwelling on the perils of much-feared “Judeo-Masonic” plot. As preached from the pulpit that day, the alleged conspiracy involves ancient, shadowy fraternities such as the Masons and the Illuminati, who are seen as puppets in a Jewish master plan aimed at destroying the Catholic Church. The theory is laid out in great detail in Venarri’s Alta Vendita, which has been compared to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous tract also alleging a global plot by the Jews.
But the “Judeo-Masonic” plot wasn’t the only fearful conspiracy that was described that day. There was also the “Marxist-Jewish” scheme that is ruining our schools, the “Jewish-homosexual” alliance that is destroying the priesthood, and, naturally, the 9/11 conspiracy, which has to do with the fact that the 2001 terrorist attacks were actually “predicted by the Blessed Virgin Mary 84 years ago.”
The passion of the anti-Semites
The Philadelphia Jew-bashing was not a one-off. Several such conferences are held quietly around the country each year, and they attract thousands upon thousands of people. The Intelligence Report also attended a radical traditionalist conference held in 2005, a year and a half after CFN’s. Put on by the St. Joseph Forum (SJF) of South Bend, Ind., the conference was held at a Quality Inn up the road from Notre Dame, the esteemed Catholic university seen by conference attendees as fatally corrupted by multiculturalism and religious tolerance.
The SJF conference, attended by more than 250 people, was awash with extremists. A favorite of the crowd was Father Stephen Somerville, who Mel Gibson employed as his spiritual adviser during the filming of “The Passion of the Christ.” Somerville was suspended in 2004 by the Vatican for schismatic behavior and is a popular speaker at radical traditionalist Catholic conferences. At the forum, he raged at “a corrupt subculture or network of homosexuals” ruining the priesthood.
But the most extreme comments of the weekend came from Brother Anthony Mary of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a monastery and order based in Richmond, N.H. (The Slaves were founded in the 1950s by Boston-based priest Leonard Feeney, an anti-Semite ultimately excommunicated by the Vatican.) Mary’s presentation was entitled, “The Fruits of Zionism.”
“The perpetual enemy of Christ is the Jewish nation,” Brother Mary roared, explaining that the aim of the Jews is to “destroy all Christian nations.” Mary blamed Jews for both world wars — an opinion also mouthed by the drunken Mel Gibson — and a coming world government. Professing from the pulpit a “great hatred” of Jews, Brother Mary declared that “Jews are the synagogue of Satan” — a phrase that is also part of the official ideology of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. “We must always and everywhere,” he added, “oppose Jewish schemes.”
An unsavory tradition
Since the colonial period, American society has been marred by sometimes savage anti-Catholic prejudice, an antipathy that mushroomed as waves of Irish, Italian and German Catholics arrived here in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Anti-Catholic hatred fueled the 1850s rise of the Know Nothings, the largest third party in U.S. history, and it also drove the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, when nearly 4 million Americans became members.
Yet some of America’s greatest peddlers of hate have themselves been extremist Catholics. The best known of these was Father Charles Coughlin, the Michigan “radio priest” who at his height in the late 1930s was spewing pro-Nazi propaganda to 3.5 million listeners on his CBS radio broadcasts. Repeating common anti-Semitic canards, Coughlin blamed the Great Depression on an “international conspiracy of Jewish bankers”; Jews also got the blame for communism. Two weeks after the German national pogrom known as Kristallnacht, Coughlin blamed the Jews for their own persecution, making him a hero in the German press. Also in 1938, Coughlin published an article in his Social Justice weekly — which at one point had 1 million subscribers — attacking Jews, atheists and communists. Parts of the article were plagiarized directly from the English translation of a 1935 speech by Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Coughlin was finally forced off the air in October 1939, the month after Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland.
Two other priests, both now dead, serve as the primary inspiration for today’s radical traditionalist Catholics. The first is Father Denis Fahey, an Irish priest who died in 1954 and was much admired by Coughlin — just as he is also admired by today’s neo-Nazis, some of whom have contributed a number of his quotes to “1,001 Quotes By and About Jews,” a feature on the racist Stormfront website.
Fahey was a prolific author whose main topic was the inherent evil of the “Jewish Nation.” Repeating classic anti-Semitic allegations, Fahey blamed nearly all iniquity on Jews. According to an article by Sandra Miesel in Crisis, a conservative Catholic magazine, Fahey “enjoyed quoting papal policy statements against Jews, coyly refused to reject the long-debunked Protocols [of the Elders of Zion], praised the anti-Semitic activities of [automaker] Henry Ford, and denied the death toll from the Holocaust.” Taking on the church’s main bogeyman in the early 1900s, Fahey laid atheistic communism directly at the feet of the Jews: “The real forces behind Bolshevism are Jewish forces, and Bolshevism is really an instrument in the hands of the Jews for their establishment of their future Messianic kingdom.”
While spouting the same kind of anti-Jewish propaganda as the Nazis, Fahey crafted an argument that he believed should exempt him from the label of anti-Semite. Fahey claimed he didn’t hate the Jews per se, but merely opposed their “naturalistic aims.” Since he also argued that Jews can’t help but work to further those aims — communism, the destruction of Christianity, and the like — this was a distinction without a difference. (Today’s radical traditionalist Catholics, including the Society of St. Pius X, a far-right powerhouse that has thousands of supporters, continue to claim they are not anti-Semitic, just against “Jewish naturalism.”)
Along with Coughlin, Fahey is the main source for The Plot Against the Church, a 1967 book supposedly written by 12 clerics under the pen name “Maurice Pinay.” Similar to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the book blames Jews, also referred to as the “synagogue of Satan,” for every evil that has befallen Catholics from Roman times to the present. Citing ancient papal writings, the book suggests that Jews be expelled or enslaved, segregated and forced to wear visible marks. It’s little wonder that modern neo-Nazis praise Pinay’s work. But so do large numbers of radical traditionalist Catholics, and the book is sold by Omni Christian Book Club, the favorite bookseller of today’s radical traditionalists.
The beat goes on
The second great inspiration for contemporary radical traditionalists is Father Leonard Feeney, another fervent anti-Semite who was for years a leader of Boston’s St. Benedict Center, a Jesuit institution. Feeney is best known in Catholic circles for his especially hard-line version of the “no salvation outside the church” doctrine.
Feeney also is known for preaching against Jews on the Boston Common with his followers. Although he was finally excommunicated for disobedience in 1953, he rapidly founded his own order, Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and started a newsletter, The Point, that was suffused with anti-Semitism. Feeney’s newsletter blamed Jews for controlling and biasing the press and for creating communism. One article lambasted Jews for their role in the “anti-hate” initiatives that it despised. Another, published in April 1958, was entitled “Newspapers and The New York Times: Other Jews and Minister Sulzberger” and summed up the Jewish “problem” like this: “Essential to the understanding of our chaotic times is the knowledge that the Jewish race constitutes a united anti-Christian bloc within Christian society, and is working for the overthrow of that society by every means at its disposal.”
Feeney did reconcile with the church in 1974, four years before his death. But his anti-Semitic ideas remain popular in radical traditionalist Catholic circles and in the New Hampshire monastery his followers started, which still endorses his anti-Semitic ideology, to the point that a New Hampshire bishop lambasted the monastery’s teachings in 2004 as “blatantly anti-Semitic” and “offensive.”
The bishop isn’t the only one who sees Feeney as anti-Semitic. One white supremacist has created an online archive of Feeney’s writings (fatherfeeney.org) for the benefit of fellow Aryans. It is part of the so-called “World White Web.”
A dynamic movement
Today’s radical traditionalist Catholics — the theological descendants of Feeney and Fahey — are part of a thriving, energetic movement, even if it is one that is tiny when compared to the approximately 70 million Americans who are mainstream Catholics. The dozen or so organizations that make up this movement read each other’s writings, buy each other’s conference tapes, and co-publish major theological works. They put on conferences several times each year that are served by circuit-riding preachers like Brother Mary and Father Nicholas Gruner.
The movement is important for a number of reasons. It is growing, and spreading its anti-Semitic teachings, at a time when anti-Semitism and religious conflict generally are clearly resurgent around the world. Some of the most radical of the traditionalists are increasingly interacting with neo-Nazis and their fellow travelers. For example, John Sharpe, head of the anti-Semitic Legion of St. Louis, attended the 2006 conference of American Renaissance, a racist publication that specializes in race and intelligence. That same year, Father Gruner, leader of the International Fatima Rosary Crusade, attended a conference of The Barnes Review, a Holocaust denial journal. Gruner celebrated a special Mass at the Washington, D.C., conference, which was also attended by an array of long-time neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other anti-Semites.
The radical traditionalists may also be gaining influence on the larger political scene. The best example of this is Christopher Ferrara, the lawyer who in 1990 started the American Catholic Lawyers Association to defend “Catholics in religious and civil liberties cases.” Ferrara writes for anti-Semitic traditionalist journals like The Remnant. He recently said Pope Benedict XVI had “abased himself by entering a synagogue.” He uses Robert Sungenis, a particularly venomous anti-Semite, to staff the “Apologetics Desk” at his legal organization. But he also was the lawyer for the family of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed in 2005 after a protracted court battle. In that role, Ferrara rubbed shoulders with key Republican and Christian Right leaders who convinced Congress to pass a law to protect Schiavo that was ultimately killed by the courts.
If radical traditionalists belong to a particular sect — and many do not — it is most typically the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a sprawling international group that publishes reams of anti-Semitic writings on its website and is based, in the United States, in Kansas City, Kan. In the late 1980s, Pope John Paul II excommunicated all SSPX priests and declared the sect formally in schism, but it has continued to grow. In America, 20,000 to 30,000 people are members.
Many of these radical traditionalists embrace “sedevacantism,” a word derived from the Latin that refers to a period when “the see [or seat] is vacant.” While the term is the official Roman Catholic word for the period between a pope’s death and the election of his successor, many radicals are sedevacantists in the sense that they believe that there has not been a real pope for years (typically, since 1958 ). Some have adopted conspiracy theories about rigged papal elections and even the idea that the authentic pope is secretly being held in captivity.
The radicals’ understanding of what has gone wrong with the world boils down to a few basic things. They believe that most of the theological developments within the church since Vatican II have been egregiously wrong, especially with regard to reconciling with Jews and the followers of other faiths. They despise the Vatican’s ecumenical outreach efforts. And they lament the fall of the Latin Mass and argue that the new Mass, “Novus Ordo,” does not guarantee salvation. Through it all, disdain and even outright hatred for Jews flows like a poisonous river.
A Joyless faith
For the vast majority of Catholics, the existence of an anti-Semitic, sedevacantist subculture is highly distressing. The church has worked extraordinarily hard in recent decades to distance itself from anti-Semitic teachings and the idea of forcing its view of the world on unbelievers. And, by most accounts, it has been successful, with many Jewish and organizations from other faiths praising its efforts. Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, signaled his gratitude after the 2005 death of Pope John Paul II, who, he said, “revolutionized Catholic-Jewish relations” by denouncing anti-Semitism as a “sin against God and humanity.” More recently, Pope Benedict XVI’s repeated clarifications of statements he made about the Islamic faith in September reflected a commitment to interfaith dialogue.
Yet the ranks of the radical traditionalists seem to be swelling. Michael Cuneo, a scholar of Catholicism, wrote in his 1997 book The Smoke of Satan that weekly attendance at American chapels of the Society of St. Pius X had been growing at about 10% annually since the late 1980s. Today, SSPX, which raises its own funds without help from Rome, employs 336 member priests in 27 different countries, teaches 226 seminarians in six international seminaries, runs 130 priories, and serves more than 600 Mass centers. The group also runs nine retreat houses, 14 major schools, and another 50 schools connected to priories or chapels.
Stephen Hand, a respected Catholic theologian and editor of the Web-based Traditional Catholic Reflections and Reports, wrote in 2000 of his worries about the growth of the movement. “Integrism,” he said in his book Tradition, Traditionalists and Private Judgment in a reference to radical traditionalist Catholicism, “is a bitter affair, a joyless ‘faith.’ It thrives on polemics, on opposition and hatred.”
There is little question that much of the world is seeing a resurgence of ethnic and religious hatreds and accompanying violence. As dangerous conflicts between Christianity and radical versions of Islam multiply around the globe, the last thing humanity needs is still one more form of religiously based extremism.