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Because you'd never know there was a war going on.

Kind of.  I'll catch morning news when I first get up, always expecting some new development, such as Putin nuked Poland or something.  One day this week, they did mention the war, that Putin is upping his threats to use nukes and then they segued into news about Kim Kardashian being fined, moving onto a new Disney film and some mention of the hurricane clean-up.  I don't have cable - so network news is all I get, until evening news on PBS, which includes BBC.  So I pretty much depend on online news.  There I can get all the versions of the stories on the war and even the 'schism' in our nation and the Church.

The division is obvious, in the US and in the Church.  The more you read on the right-wingnut sites, the more you risk having your confidence eroded.  I believe that is the intent.  Especially with Trump/MAGA ideologues and their schismatic counterparts in Catholic antipapist circles.  These folks may be more vocal on alternative social media sites, but the contaminating influence spills over into EWTN/World Over programming and other Catholic news sites, most notably The Remnant - which closely resembles the sede site, Novus Ordo Watch.  It amazes me how swiftly these 'clans have united' - at least virtually - especially in their veneration of Vigano.  How many traditional priests and prelates are on board with that, it's impossible to know, since conservative social media and traditionalist Catholic media is generally so unreliable, filled with hearsay and QAnon style conspiracy theories, lies and exaggerations - not forgetting dubious prophecies interpreted to make sense of our decidedly confusing times.

The thing that bothers me most is how paying attention to this stuff erodes one's confidence and creates a climate of distrust while injecting a negative-critical spirit onto even the most innocuous news stories.  Sometimes I wonder if it is calculated to distract our attention from the war and the threats posed by Putin.  Although, on the crockpot side of things, not a few agree with Putin's Patriarch (and many of these support Vigano) that Putin was sent by God.  They even lump in the Fatima secret and additional statements by Sr. Lucia to give credence to their dire assertions of the Great Reset, Great Lie propaganda.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill said Friday that Vladimir Putin's reign over Russia had been mandated by God, congratulating the Kremlin chief on his 70th birthday. "God put you.. - Source

What is real is that a war is going on and could escalate and engulf the world in a disastrous conflagration.  As the Pope and President Biden said recently.

"I deeply deplore the grave situation that has arisen in recent days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law. It increases the risk of nuclear escalation, giving rise to fears of uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences worldwide," Pope Francis said.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said at a fundraiser in New York City, citing the 1962 standoff with the Soviet Union.

Yet Christian Nationalists in the US are recruiting followers for their Army Of God - and these people believe the same stuff Putin and his Patriarch believe.  

“We’re under warfare,” one speaker told them. Another said she would “take a bullet for my nation,” while a third insisted, “They hate you because they hate Jesus.” Attendees were told now is the time to “put on the whole armor of God.” Then retired three-star Army general Michael Flynn, the tour’s biggest draw, invited people to be baptized. Flynn warned the crowd that they were in the midst of a “spiritual war” and a “political war” and urged people to get involved.

Since early last year, the ReAwaken America Tour has carried its message of a country under siege to tens of thousands of people in 15 cities and towns. The tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party. - Michael Flynn's Reawaken America

It will be interesting to see how right wing Catholics incorporate with this movement, as they attempt to 'unite the clans'.

 

Another Cardinal dead ... the third in two months.

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, President Emeritus of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See ... dead at 81.

Cardinal De Paolis died on Saturday at the age of 81 in Rome after a long and painful illness, which the Pope said he endured “with a serene spirit and a trusting surrender to the will of the Lord”. - Vatican Radio

19 September 1935 – 9 September 2017

May the souls of the faithful departed...

rest in peace.

Blame the Masons

The 3D model of a Masonic lodge interior

I came across a photo of a Masonic Lodge and decided to search Google for more examples of Masonic temple interiors.  It became obvious to me why some people insist the Novus Ordo and the renovation of the sanctuary in many Catholic churches is Masonic.  I knew that, but never thought much about it since Jewish synagogues are somewhat similar as well.  In fact many religions have a similar 'floor plan'.  Indeed, many medieval Catholic cathedrals are said to be modeled after the original temple in Jerusalem... constructed by stone masons.  Nothing new there, but just for fun, I thought I'd post a few more Masonic photos for my conspiracy theorist readers.

Traditional Masonic Lodge interior.

Doesn't this remind you of how people

who may not be able to receive Communion

go up for a blessing?

Scottish Rite Temple.

That looks exactly like a monastic church.

But it isn't.

Look at the arrangement at the UN.

It looks exactly like a Masonic temple.

It isn't.

I found this under "Jesuit Vatican" 

- note the set up is very similar 

to the Masonic Lodge.

But it isn't.

World Meeting of Families debuts official hymn for the visit of Pope Francis next year!!!

On Sunday, November 30, worshippers at a Mass at Philadelphia’s Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul heard for the first time the hymn that will be played at Pope Francis’ Mass during next year’s World Meeting of Families. - Source

Abbey-Roads EXCLUSIVE:  Listen to it here!

(Play it real loud.)

Bonus:

Did you know? A widely-cited story published in the New York times just two weeks ago revealed that Guccifer obtained information that he believed indicated a nuclear bomb would be detonated in Chicago and/or Pennsylvania in 2015.

Bonus-Bonus:

Totally off-topic - but this is an awesome track - click here JaBig and drive non-stop to Philadelphia or anyplace.

This is just a test: Outbreak of respiratory illness escalates among children - baffling scientists...

I bet it is just a test by the Government ...

An outbreak of respiratory illness first observed in the Midwest has spread to 38 states, sending children to hospitals and baffling scientists trying to understand its virulent resurgence. - Finish reading here.

Or what if ...

Was Pope Benedict XVI forced out of office?

The first attempt.

This is the most outrageous thing I have read to date: Benedict XVI was forced from office.

All indications are that those who orchestrated what looks more and more like a hostile takeover of the papacy couldn’t even muster the patience to put on a good show at the conclave in order to hide the appearance of having preselected Jorge Bergoglio well before the doors were even locked. 

No… Pope Benedict didn’t depart for reasons of physical and mental health, and there’s not a Catholic this side of brain dead who is still buying that lie.

Second attempt.

I know!  Here's an even better comment from that post:

I’ve read blogs wherein individuals claiming to be Argentines say that Bergoglio had a network of spies working at Rome since c. 2000 and that their main duty was to gather information that could be used to coerce or blackmail Cardinals into voting for him in the conclave. 

Also, a report which said that once made AB of B.A. he moved 70 million euros from B.A. to the Vatican Bank. Since the Vatican Bank provides for the livelihood of most of the residential Cadinals, I suspect this was a bribe to buy the papacy. 

I am also concerned about the reports that in the 30 days after the abdication, various high level clerics close to Obama offered Cardinals in the third world the promise of US Aide funding in return for their votes for Bergoglio. 

All this needs to be investigated by the general public.

Names have been withheld to protect the guilty.

I knew it!

Surrveillance State

We gave up our rights without a fight.

We really did - or should I say - we are doing so at an accelerated speed.  And no one seems to be concerned.

The Internet is a surveillance state.

The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.

Facebook, for example, correlates your online behavior with your purchasing habits offline. And there's more. There's location data from your cell phone, there's a record of your movements from closed-circuit TVs.

This is ubiquitous surveillance: All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it's efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell. - Finish reading here.

We give it away - free.  All of our information is marketable.  All of our activities traceable.  Perhaps we are allowing ourselves to be programmable as well.  I watched a David Karp interview on Charlie Rose.  If you didn't know, Karp sold Tumblr to Yahoo for big bucks.  It's social media but it is also a marketing cash cow.  We give away all of our information - and talents - on social media.

What will become of it?

Personal surveillance drone.

No kidding - I found this attached to my screen door.  What?

 

Check this out - Adrienne has something to tell you. 

Here's a good one for Bella Dodd* conspiracy theorists.

Four priests... what do they have in common?

All are Bishops: 2 are Cardinals, 1 is an Archbishop, and 1 is a Bishop.  All went to the same seminary!  All live in California!  All Novus Ordo!  I know!  A couple have been accused of being, let's just say, not so great...  A couple are retiring together, and moving in together!  (Can 2 men do that?)  Oh!  My!  Gosh!

Story here:

(RNS) Whether by accident, serendipity or divine design, four future heavyweights of American Catholicism found themselves in the Class of 1962 at St. John’s Seminary.
Momentous societal changes were surfacing all around the young men, but seminary life for George Niederauer, Roger Mahony, William Levada and Tod Brown continued much the same as it had for centuries. The four friends — a pair of cardinals-to-be, a future archbishop and bishop — were assigned alphabetically to desks and dorms. They arose at 5:30 a.m. and, within a half hour headed to the chapel for prayers and Mass. Silence was required during meals and after 7:30 p.m. Moral theology and philosophy classes were taught in Latin.

Released from their Catholic cocoon in 1962, the young priests faced a church on the brink of volcanic reform with the opening of the Second Vatican Council, pushing the ancient institution into a new age. No more Latin Mass. Priests now faced the people, not the altar. Other Christians were embraced, and social work became gospel.

After being schooled in a Vatican I church, the foursome would step down, five decades later, as quintessential Vatican II men.  “There was no instruction manual with a chapter (to cover) every conceivable crisis for the next 50 years,” says Mahony, now the retired archbishop of Los Angeles. - Read the rest here.
 

*Disclaimer:  My reference to Bella Dodd is based on the conspiracy theories Dr. Alice von Hildebrand frequently references: "It is a matter of public record, for instance, that Bella Dodd, the ex-Communist who reconverted to the Church, openly spoke of the Communist Party’s deliberate infiltration of agents into the seminaries. [...]  The two books I mentioned were published in 1998 and 2000 by an Italian priest, Don Luigi Villa of the diocese of Brescia, who at the request of Padre Pio has devoted many years of his life to the investigation of the possible infiltration of both Freemasons and Communists into the Church. My husband and I met Don Villa in the sixties." - Source

Please note:  I don't believe in conspiracy theories.  I am not even suggesting these four bishops were involved in any such conspiracies - but over the years, not a few Catholics have claimed otherwise, and implied worse.  Hence the satircal inclusion to my editorial comments. 

Because it's Los Angeles and environs, I wrote this in my TMZ voice.

 

Waddya mean Mother Angelica

is unavailable for comment?

The Birth Certificate - something is off.

Fr. Malloy Mysteries...

I don't pay a lot of attention to the Birthers who claim Obama isn't a citizen - obviously the powers that be didn't care and certifed the election.  It remains an interesting conspiracy theory - but is it more than that?  I don't know.  However, Fr. John Malloy has a provocative post pointing out a few major discrepencies regarding the President's birth certificate.  Here they are:

        1. Back in 1961 people of color were called 'Negroes.' So how can
the Obama 'birth certificate' state he is "African-American" when the
term wasn't even used at that time?

2. The birth certificate that the White House released lists Obama's
birth as August 4,1961 & Lists Barack Hussein Obama as his father.
No big deal, right? At the time of Obama's birth, it also shows that
his father is aged 25 years old, and that Obama's father was born
in "Kenya, East Africa". This wouldn't seem like anything of concern,
except the fact that Kenya did not even exist until 1963, two whole
years after Obama's birth, and 27 years after his father's birth. How
could Obama's father have been born in a country that did not yet
exist? Up and until Kenya was formed in 1963, it was known as the
"British East Africa Protectorate".

3. On the Birth Certificate released by the White House, the listed place
of birth is "Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital". This cannot be,
because the hospital(s) in question in 1961 were called "Kaui Keolani
Children's Hospital" and "Kapi'olani Maternity Home", respectively. The
name did not change to Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital
until 1978, when these two hospitals merged.

How can this particular name of the hospital be on a birth certificate
dated 1961 if this name had not yet been applied to it until 1978?

Why hasn't this been discussed in the major media ?

4. Perhaps a clue comes from Obama’s book on his father. He states
how proud he is of his father fighting in WW II. I’m not a math genius, so
I may need some help from you. Barack Obama’s “birth certificate” says
his father was 25 years old in 1961 when he was born. That should have
put his father’s date of birth approximately 1936—if my math holds
(Honest! I did that without a calculator!) Now we need a non-revised
history book—one that hasn’t been altered to satisfy the author’s goals—
to verify that WW II was basically between 1939 and 1945. Just how
many 3 year olds fight in wars? Even in the latest stages of WW II his
father wouldn’t have been more than 9. Does that mean that Mr. Obama
is a liar, or simply chooses to alter the facts to satisfy his imagination or political purposes (still qualifies as a “liar”)?  - Taken from A Shepherd's Voice
 

I have a call in to Michele Bachmann to get to the bottom of this.


Photo: Obama with his mother and second husband and half sister from that marriage.  Obama's dad had numerous children.  Obama's family life was anything but stable.

Kony 2012 Campaign?

Digital activism, digital polemic, digital propaganda, digital brainwash...

Is anyone else suspicious of this online campaign to make the Ugandan rebel, Joseph Kony famous enough that the United States should go after him and eliminate him?  Isn't this a little too strange?  The sudden phenomenal media blitz strikes me as suspicious, enlisting all the usual celebrities and politicians, picked up and promoted by the MSM...  More on the story here.

Testing... testing... testing...

Photo: Kony 2012 Celebrities

Fr. Corapi sightings... it's been a year this month.

Why haven't there been any sightings of Fr. Corapi in the past year? 

Never mind.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine: A Sinister Site?

Christian 'art experts' seem to think so.

As their website states: "The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the seat of its Bishop."  St. John the Divine is an architectural marvel in this day and age, a cathedral constructed in medieval style with traditional stonework - worked by skilled masons... eh, eh, eh.  The all inclusive community at the Cathedral openly welcomes all types of people... even gays.  Cross your fingers and shout exorcism prayers as fast you can and get out of there!  Just kidding - but conspiracy theorists have a ball with that place.  Especially as it concerns the art and architecture - the black helicopter shaped sanctuary light, and, and, and...  Okay - I made up the sanctuary light design bit - but it could happen.

John the Divine is not a Catholic church, it isn't even a part of the new ordinariate - which was more or less formed because faithful Anglicans wanted to get away from their liberal counterparts at churches such as St. John the Divine.  No doubt it is a very liberal church.  But as such, it remains just a protestant church, the edifice of which is constructed in the ancient manner of the great medieval Gothic and Romanesque style Cathedrals of Europe.  The traditional ornamentation is executed in the traditional manner - chiseled by hand by skilled artisans.  The art and symbolism is decidedly modern and reflects the locality wherein the church is situated, with all its contemporary nuance and features. 

Typical of the architectural style of the old cathedrals, the entrance is surrounded by scenes of the Last Judgement, and in the article referenced here, particular scenes from the Book of Revelation are depicted in contemporary imagery: For example, scenes depicting NYC being destroyed - the World Trade Center towers visible, and so on.  This has always been a perfectly acceptable way in which to express end times motifs - especially since the original intent of sculpting such images in the first place was to evangelize the illiterate of the time and place.  A notion obviously lost on our highly educated and sophisticated society today.

The article, Prophetic Pillars on St. John the Divine, attempts to lay out all of the sinister symbols embedded in the art and architecture of the Cathedral and makes the claim there are occult images and 'prophecy' pointing towards the establishment of one world religion, and United Nations domination, leading to the rule of the Antichrist.  For instance the author sites a Kabbalah Tree of Life symbol - something not unknown in medieval times - the Christian variety of which even Bl. Raymond Lull delved into - before or after his conversion I'm not certain.  Nevertheless, it is not so unprecedented - despite the fact it is considered part of the "New Age".  I'm not sure it is a covert symbol in this case however.

On another pillar photo depicting the resurrection of the dead and a labyrinth - also very ancient - the author makes this notation:

A scene depicting a birth from some kind of flower, surrounded by mummies and above a lamb with its legs tied. Who is being born? Is the Anti-Christ who is said by the Book of Revelation to the beast “coming up out of the earth; and had two horns like a lamb“? Underneath is a spiral vortex (symbolizing change of consciousness?) and people apparently praising or worshipping the figure.

Even if the stone carving depicted exactly what the author implies, how can that be construed as sinister when in fact it depicts what is written in the last book of the Bible?  Which is in itself prophecy - and most suitable for an entrance to a Christian place of worship.

It is one of the more stupid articles and discussions (read the comments) on art and architecture I have ever come across since the embedded phallus on the Crucifix of San Damiano story.  Except maybe for the snake on the rosary crucifix story - that was just ignorance of Scripture.  (The reference goes back to the Book of Numbers 21 and corresponds to Christ's statement in the Gospel of John 3:14; "Just as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the desert, etc."   Old crucifixes sometimes have a variety of symbols on them. - sometimes illustrating the moon and the sun, along with the phases of the moon.

My advice, don't be superstitious.

Photo: Taken from "Prophetic Pillars" see more here.  The art and architecture is fantastic.

H1N1 - conspiracy?

The vaccine - bioweapon?
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This may not get much press except for blogs and a few conservative news sites:  Dr. Teresa Forcades is a Spanish Benedictine nun at the monastery of Sant-Benet, in Monserra-Barcelona. She is a doctor physician specializing in internal medicine, PHD in public health at Barcelona’s university, specializing in the USA at the State University of New York. She gives verifiable scientific data concerning the disturbing irregularities related to this subject of flu pandemic, the restructuring of criteria by WHO to proclaim a pandemic, and what that means to sovereign nations. The information is relevant to all countries, all people.  Click here to watch the video interview with Dr. Forcades.  (It is divided into segments and is quite long, so have patience.)
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I have no idea what to make of this information... but what if?

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Links:
Spanish Doctor reveals information about Swine Flu
The outbreak in Ukraine.
205,00 sick in Ukraine

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Art:  Illumination - The Great Plague