This blog is to guide those seeking the Church's traditional liturgy, devotions, teachings, and cultural identity in the Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph areas and beyond. It does not bear any bishop's imprimatur, nor is associated with the Diocese of Hamilton, any parish, order, or lay association. Actually being Catholic isn't easy, but it's simple if you know how.
"It is...Our will that Catholics should abstain from certain appellations which have recently been brought into use to distinguish one group of Catholics from another. They are to be avoided not only as 'profane novelties of words,' out of harmony with both truth and justice, but also because they give rise to great trouble and confusion among Catholics. Such is the nature of Catholicism that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole or as a whole rejected: 'This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly; he cannot be saved' (Athanasian Creed). There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism: it is quite enough for each one to proclaim 'Christian is my name and Catholic my surname,' only let him endeavour to be in reality what he calls himself." -- Pope Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum 24 (1914)
Have you come across any of the following in your church?
The Liturgical Press was founded and is run by the Benedictine monks at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. It has been a cesspool of dissent and disaster certainly recently and possibly since it's very start. The abbey, founded in 1856, is the largest Benedictine community in the world. Sadly and predictably, it is in a nose dive and its future is uncertain. The monks' average age is 71 with understandably not many vocations.
One does not have to dig deep to uncover the Liturgical Press' agenda. The publications listed above are highlighted on its website.
"Liturgy's Imagined Past" is a veiled attempt at proving women were clergy in the early Church. One of the authors, Teresa Berger, is an academic who specializes in gender theory and has an interest in cyberspace liturgical practices (who doesn't?). Catholicism is one of seven faiths she's participated in so maybe number eight isn't far off. The other author doesn't pretend to be Catholic, listing his faith preference with the Church of England, where everything changes except the bread and wine.
Teresa Berger
There is a twelve volume set on feminist interpretation of Scripture authored primarily by Protestant academics interested in gender theory, women's ordination, and LGBT issues.
Julia M. O'Brien Stacy Davis Mary Ann Beavis
Do they share the same barber?
Another featured author, Thomas O'Meara, OP, when not delving into Vatican II hijacker, Karl Rahner, SJ, theology, spends his time wondering if ET could be saved.
"Building A New Church" isn't what I initially thought it was about, but architecture. James E Healy, STL, built St. Mark the Evangelist in Independence Missouri.
Beam me up, Scotty.
"An Unfinished Council" is what you'd expect: the dissident excuse for the decline in faith post-Vatican II. People like Richard Gaillardetz argue the "spirit of Vatican II" hasn't been properly implemented - the changes haven't gone far enough. This is similar to those who insist communism is the perfect form of government, it just hasn't been properly implemented by any nation state, yet.
Finally, Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. offers a fresh and new way to pray the Stations Of The Cross, in case St. Alphonsus Liguori's version bores you. Rev. Radcliffe was the Master Dominican from 1992-2001, is currently Pope Francis' consultor for social justice and peace, and is perhaps best known for suggesting men sodomizing each other can reflect Christ's 'self-gift'.
Rev.Ruff was a member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) but resigned in 2011 because he thought the new translation was going to be too hard for us non-liturgists to understand. He has given talks (not the fraternal correction kind) to known dissident groups Call To Action and Future Church.
Of course it's not just liturgists who quit in a huff:
Minnesota Gay Priest Resigns Over Vatican Policy "Collegeville - A priest at St. John’s University said he was resigning his leadership position because of the Vatican’s latest statement that homosexuals should be barred from entering the Roman Catholic priesthood. “Because I can no longer honestly represent, explain and defend the church’s teaching on homosexuality, I feel I must resign,” the Rev. Bob Pierson said in an e-mail December 14 to administrators and students at St. John’s and the nearby College of St. Benedict. The Vatican announced last month that it was toughening its stand against gay candidates for the priesthood, advising that men with “deep-seated” gay tendencies or who “support so-called gay culture” shouldn’t be admitted to seminaries or ordained. Others with “transitory” homosexual inclinations can be accepted if they have “clearly overcome” them for three years."
Perhaps the most public monk at St.John's Abbey is Bob Pierson, O.S.B. who believes his authority overrules his Ordinary and the Magisterium.
During Minnesota's debate on same-sex marriage, Bishop Nienstedt gave clear direction on how Catholics in good standing were to vote. Fr. Bob disagreed. At least he was being consistent with his abbey:
1. We believe that human sexual orientation, both heterosexual and homosexual, is blessed by God as part of the original blessing of creation. We reject any suggestion that God withholds his blessings from some parts of his creation, and we do not believe that homosexual persons are objectively disordered.
As far as I can tell, Bob Pierson, O.S.B. is in full communion with Rome (but the SSPX is the problem, right?). He claims to be celibate. Why does it seem the liberal/progressive/spirit of Vatican II orders and dioceses have sex abuse crisis and the traditional ones don't?
Father Scott McCaig, superior general of the Companions of the Cross, has some ideas:
"The priesthood was once seen as a manly commitment, almost like going into the military, one that demanded courage, rigor and a sense of dedication that was commended, he said. "You are in a war for souls."
There has also been a kind of false feminization in the Church that strips out anything to do with a male-oriented spirituality, such as military terminology concerning the war for souls, he said."
"One aspect of the current crisis has escaped scrutiny: the present status of the celibate priesthood following the expansive absorption of many sacred functions by the laity that were formerly reserved to the ordained. Endangering priestly celibacy because it is inherently hostile to a healthy masculinity, this structural revolution evokes an image of a square peg being pounded into a round hole. The post-Conciliar Church is of a different shape from that which housed the traditional theology of the priesthood, and a mandatory celibate priesthood simply doesn't fit. Sadly, all the pieces are in place for the introduction of "optional celibacy" into the Western Rite."
Just in time for Advent, a new Hollywood product is hitting theaters with yet another Catholic Pedophile Priest story. Even one victim is one too many, however, it's worth noting a few facts about clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. First, the incident rate of sexual abuse in the Church is no higher than any other religion and significantly lower than the public school system. Why doesn't Hollywood make movies about Pedophile Teachers? Second, the vast majority of victim in the Church were teenage boys, so not pedophilia. Third, Hollywood, the media, and other Church enemies use any excuse to attack the Bride Of Christ. For example, the Boston Globe wrote about the local scandal more than they did World War II.
However, defending the Church is difficult when stories like this keep slithering out of the shadows.
One St. John's Abbey monk, Finian McDonald, O.S.B., admitted to being sexually attracted to boys as young as twelve, had sex with fifteen college students, and paid for male prostitutes. He also stole from the collection baskets.
This web site is dedicated to the 260+ known victims of sexual and other misconduct by over sixty members [ View ] of Saint John’s community in Collegeville, Minnesota (USA). The community includes Saint John’s Abbey, Saint John’s University, Saint John’s Prep School, the Liturgical Press, the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and the School of Theology.
Other blogs such as the Eponymous Flower keep an eye on St. John's Abbey too.
The Abbey's history is a story of decline found in other orders:
As president of the congregation he attended the third and fourth sessions of Vatican II. Saint John’s was also represented at the council by Father Godfrey Diekmann, who served as a peritus for the document on the liturgy. Later he would serve for years as a member of ICEL, the international committee charged with creating English-language texts of the Roman Missal and other liturgical books.
The number of Saint John’s monks peaked at 404 in 1963. In the next decades this number slowly declined as the foundations in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Mexico achieved independent status, the number of young men applying to enter the monastery dwindled, and some professed monks either chose not to make final vows or sought exclaustration and left the community.
The years following Vatican II (1962-1965) were a period of change. The most radical change for the monastic community was the shift from Latin to English in the Mass and the daily round of prayer in choir. Overnight it became possible for the lay brothers and the clerical monks to form a single choir praying the Divine Office in English. This was canonically approved in 1967 when all monks were permitted to make solemn vows, thus eliminating the connection between monastic vows and clerical status which had been in place for centuries.
The following decades saw a changing lifestyle in the abbey. Father Jerome Theisen was elected abbot in 1979 and served until he was elected abbot primate in 1992. A new pattern of community life evolved during the years he and Abbot John Eidenschink held office. Shifting from Latin to English for the Eucharist and Divine Office was a multi-stage change. Like many other monasteries, Saint John’s made do with temporary arrangements of the psalter and readings at first. A temporary version of the Office in English was adopted in 1971. The current seven-volume loose-leaf version was carefully worked out starting in 1983. Antiphons for major feasts have been composed more recently.
Hymns took the place of Gregorian chant. Devotions like Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, novenas, the Angelus, Stations of the Cross became less frequent. The hour for Morning Prayer went from 4:45 to 7:00 a.m. Nocturnal silence yielded to academic and social activity, evening television and events off campus.
Deeper changes took place. Vatican II emphasized the communal character of the Eucharist. As this sank in, private celebration of Mass in all of those downstairs private chapels was frowned on. Priests were encouraged to concelebrate at the daily conventual Mass around the single altar upstairs, its free-standing central location anticipating precisely the liturgical thinking of Vatican II.
A fundamental change occurred when individual personal accounts were introduced. Personal expenses other than health care were charged to this account and a monk could draw cash for personal use within limits approved by the superiors. Gradually a fleet of abbey cars became available for general use. Getting a blessing before leaving the campus fell into disuse.
The community was getting smaller and older. Entering classes of more than three were rare. At the other end of the age scale a whole new generation of monks in their seventies and eighties and nineties needed some or much care. In 1976 Abbot John Eidenschink approved remodeling a section of the second-floor corridor in the Quad as a retirement center with its own nurses’ station, dining room, and chapel. Dedicated as Saint Raphael’s Hall, it was expanded under each of the following abbots to a current capacity of 26 beds. It was thoroughly renovated in 2008.
Basically, when the monks quit acting like Catholic monks their order started falling apart. It was also the time when most of the sexual abuse and misconduct occurred. Connect the dots.
It seems to me their problems really got going soon after their new church was built. Lex Orandi. Lex Credendi. Lex Vivendi.
In all this concrete there are no kneelers, Tabernacle, and the Stations of the Cross are set in the floor.
Statue of the church's patron saint.
You can watch their Masses on-line. To save you some time, yes liturgical abuses are prevalent. The November 22 homily blames the empty pews and their withering order on the natural order of things. Self-awareness has yet to enter their sanctuary.
The homilist is right about one thing though. Sodomy among the clergy isn't new. A thousand years ago St. Peter Damian addressed the problem and proposed solutions. Hopefully the good monks will indeed look to the past to fix the present if they are to have a future.
I had thought Jennifer Roback Morse was getting to the heart of the matter when she pivoted to a focus on the victims of the Sexual Revolution. Her undoubtedly correct view is that gay so-called “marriage” did not start with the gays; rather, the Sexual Revolution prepared the ground beginning in the 1960s.
In The Devil’s Pleasure Palace (Encounter Books), Michael Walsh explains there is something even more fundamental at the heart of the matter, and the Sexual Revolution is only part of it. What lay at the heart of the matter are Cultural Marxism, Critical Theory and the institute that spawned them, the Institute for Social Research, commonly known as the Frankfurt School.
You know these better than you think. In fact, their ideas are coursing not only through all of society, but through your own veins whether you know it or not.
Consider first psychiatrist William Reich, the man who, in 1936, coined the term “sexual revolution” in a book of the same name. Reich was a crackpot of the first order. Eventually even his Freudian colleagues avoided him like the plague. All his books had to be privately published. Quite simply, Reich was sex-mad and very likely insane. Even his photograph in Wikipedia makes him look like an inveterate masturbator. He massaged his nude patients and in 1920s Catholic Vienna advocated contraceptives, abortion, and divorce.
Reich wanted to reconcile psychoanalysis with Marxism and believed that economic Marxism would fail because of the repressed sexuality of the proletariat.
Reich was a paid up member of the Frankfurt School who eventually made his way to the United States, where he invented an orgasm machine later mocked as the “orgasmitron” by sex-mad Woody Allen in his movie Sleeper. He later died in prison after conning people into buying his hilarious machine. The Food and Drug Administration actually burned several tons of his books.
According to Michael Walsh, Reich was one of the most influential members of the Frankfurt School. How influential? During the student riots of 1968 in Paris and Berlin, students threw copies of his bookThe Mass Psychology of Fascism at the cops. They scrawled his name on walls. But, more than that, the Sexual Revolution he theorized is now the common currency, thelingua franca of our age.
The Cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt School believed economic Marxism would fail because of the resistance of the working classes. They believed Marxism could only ever be achieved by undermining the institutions, all of them. They began what they called the long march through the institutions. Who would have thought even a few years ago that the Boy Scouts would go gay? The Frankfurt School would have.
Critical Theory is central to their plan. More than likely, whether you knew it or not, this is what you got in college and probably even in high school. This will sound familiar to you, as familiar as the bromides you now hear from the students at the University of Missouri. Critical Theory seeks societal transformation through the emancipation of mankind from all forms of slavery. The slavers happen to be the Church, the family, and the free market.
When you hear someone badmouthing American history that is Critical Theory. The incessant intonations against the Crusades? Critical Theory. The patriarchal family, rape culture, multiculturalism, political correctness, speech codes; all Critical Theory. The idea is to make you question everything, and in the questioning, institutions fall.
You can even hear Critical Theory in the mouth of our president, When he sneers about orthodox Christians, it comes not from his supposed love of Islam, but his training in Critical Theory and Cultural Marxism, which he learned from his own father’s bitterness, from Communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, from his professors, and from Saul Alinsky. Obama truly is the most radical person ever to occupy the White House for he wants to tear down the institutions that have made and protected our country.
You may never have heard of some of them: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, who were inspired by Antonio Gramsci. You may know a few of their names: Herbert Marcuse, and Eric Fromm. They were wicked men who hated Western Civilization. Most brought their poison to the United States during the Second World War, or shortly thereafter.
It is astonishing to think that this overtly Marxist institute founded to undermine Western Civilization was actually invited to move its operation to Columbia University in 1935. From this lofty perch, these men began the drip of poison into American culture.
Michael Walsh tells a highly readable tale of these men, though he does not begin in the twentieth century, and he does not focus on sociology, psychology, or the other soft sciences, but rather on art, specifically opera. He shows how the ground was prepared for the Cultural Marxists by the artistic nihilists of the nineteenth century.
Walsh was the longtime classical music critic for Time Magazine and before that theSan Francisco Examiner. He has written novels, biographies, and screen plays that have been made into movies. He began writing about politics in 2007 at National Review under the name David Kahane, and under that name published a counter to Saul Alinsky called Rules for Radical Conservatives.
In case you were wondering, Walsh is a faithful Catholic who is ardently pro-life and pro-marriage, both of which he addresses in The Devil’s Pleasure Palace. He is overtly religious in this book, arguing that our struggle against Cultural Marxism is a fight against Satan himself.
Walsh understands that the US may have defeated an empire, but we did not defeat the idea. Marxism is alive and well, hale and hearty, and practically everywhere; down at the community college, the town hall, even at the Elks’ Club. It is in the air we breathe.
Walsh is not pessimistic, however. He believes Cultural Marxism is spent, but, just like the fingernails on a cadaver, may still grow, and that these people and their evil theory will continue to do damage and harm souls, and it is up to us first to recognize what is truly at the heart of the matter, and then to stop it.
Editor’s note: In the image above, Max Horkheimer (left) shakes hand of Theodor Adorno, while in the background, German Marxist theorist Jürgen Habermas runs fingers though his hair in Heidelberg in 1964. (Photo credit: Jeremy J. Shapiro)
Austin Ruse is president of C-FAM (Center for Family & Human Rights), a New York and Washington DC-based research institute focusing on international legal and social policy. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of C-FAM.
The annual national collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is this weekend. What many Catholics do not realize is that at the very core of the CCHD is a philosophy of revolutionary leftist ideologies. Over the years, the CCHD has been rightly criticized for funding organizations that are themselves promoting contraception, homosexuality, abortion, prostitution, and socialism. But these issues are only symptoms of an overall thrust that is aimed directly at convincing Catholics to fund Marxist revolution in the United States. The intent of this article, while certainly not exhaustive, is to help Catholics understand how the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is simply the Catholic version of what Josef Stalin called “Front Organizations” for the Communist Party.
In 1953, the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities received the testimony of a man named Manning Johnson. Mr. Johnson joined the Communist party in America in 1930, and remained in the party until 1940. Johnson held several positions wWhile a member of the Communist Party, such as District Agitation and Propaganda Director, District Organizer of the Communist Party in Buffalo, N. Y. He was also a member of the Trade Union Commission of the Communist Party, a member of the National Negro Commission of the Communist Party, and ultimately served as a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party itself. Mr. Johnson became disillusioned with communism and left the Communist party in 1940. In his own words, he had decided in 1939 that he was through with communism and that forever after he would conscientiously and vigorously oppose it, vocally and spiritually.
“Once the tactic of infiltrating religious organizations was set by the Kremlin, the actual mechanics of implementing the ‘new line’ was a question of following the general experiences of the living church movement in Russia where the Communists discovered that the destruction of religion could proceed much faster through infiltration of the church by Communist agents operating within the church itself.
The Communist leadership in the United States realized that the infiltration tactic in this country would have to adapt itself to American conditions and the religious makeup peculiar to this country. In the earliest stages it was determined that with only small forces available it would be necessary to concentrate Communist agents in the seminaries and divinity schools. The practical conclusion, drawn by the Red leaders was that these institutions would make it possible for a small Communist minority to influence the ideology of future clergymen in the paths most conducive to Communist purposes.”
In general, the idea was to divert the emphasis of clerical thinking from the spiritual to the material and political — by political, of course, is meant politics based on the Communist doctrine of conquest of power. Instead of emphasis towards the spiritual and matters of the soul, the new and heavy emphasis was to deal with those matters which, in the main, led toward the Communist program of “immediate demands.”
The plan was to make the seminaries the neck of a funnel through which thousands of potential clergymen would issue forth, carrying with them, in varying degrees, an ideology and slant which would aid in neutralizing the anti-Communist character of the church and also to use the clergy to spearhead important Communist projects.
This policy was successful beyond even Communist expectations. The combination of Communist clergymen, clergymen with a pro-Communist ideology, plus thousands of clergymen who were sold the principle of considering Communist causes as progressive, within 20 years, furnished the Soviet apparatus with a machine which was used as a religious cover for the overall Communist operation ranging from immediate demands to actually furnishing aid in espionage and outright treason.”
In the early 1930’s the Communists instructed thousands of their members to rejoin their ancestral religious groups and to operate in cells designed to take control of churches for Communist purposes. This method was not only propounded, but was executed with great success among large elements of American church life. Communists operating a double-pronged infiltration, both through elements of Communist-controlled clergy, and Communist-controlled laymen, managed to pervert and weaken entire stratas of religious life in the United States.
Communists in churches and other religious organizations were instructed to utilize the age-old tradition of the sanctity of the church as a cover for their own dastardly deeds. Through Reds in religion, we have a true living example of the old saying: “The Devil doth quote the Scripture.”
The Communists learned that the clergyman under their control served as a useful “respectable face” for most of their front activities. In this way the name of religion was used to spearhead the odious plots hatched by the agents of anti-religious Soviet communism.
In the summer of 2001, Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, widow of famed philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, gave aninterview to Latin Mass Magazine. In this interview, Dr. von Hildebrand mentioned conversations she and her husband had had with the former Communist, Bella Dodd. Dodd, like Johnson, gave her testimony about her time as a Communist before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. Dodd was an organizer for the Communist Party USA from 1932–1948, and from 1944 to ’48 sat on the CPUSA’s National Council. She also served as head of the New York State Teachers Union. She was expelled from the CPUSA in 1949, and received back into the Catholic Church by none other than Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in 1952. This is what Dr. von Hildebrand said in her interview:
“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. She told my husband and me that when she was an active party member, she had dealt with no fewer than four cardinals within the Vatican “who were working for us.”
On May 1 of this year, 2015, Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking defector from communism in the ‘70s, gave an interview to the Catholic News Agency, revealing that Liberation Theology was an invention of the Soviet KGB. It’s important to point this out because Liberation Theology is very much at the heart of the ideology of the Campaign for Human Development. Pacepa was a General for Communist Romania’s secret police. In his interview, he said:
“I learned the fine points of the KGB involvement with Liberation Theology from Soviet General Aleksandr Sakharovsky, communist Romania’s chief razvedka (foreign intelligence) adviser – and my de facto boss, until 1956, when he became head of the Soviet espionage service, the PGU1, a position he held for an unprecedented record of 15 years.
On October 26, 1959, Sakharovsky and his new boss, Nikita Khrushchev, came to Romania for what would become known as “Khrushchev’s six-day vacation.” He had never taken such a long vacation abroad, nor was his stay in Romania really a vacation. Khrushchev wanted to go down in history as the Soviet leader who had exported communism to Central and South America. Romania was the only Latin country in the Soviet bloc, and Khrushchev wanted to enroll her “Latin leaders” in his new “liberation” war.
The movement was born in the KGB, and it had a KGB-invented name: Liberation Theology. During those years, the KGB had a penchant for “liberation” movements. The National Liberation Army of Columbia (FARC), created by the KGB with help from Fidel Castro; the “National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created by the KGB with help from “Che” Guevara; and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), created by the KGB with help from Yasser Arafat are just a few additional “liberation” movements born at the Lubyanka — the headquarters of the KGB.
The birth of Liberation Theology was the intent of a 1960 super-secret “Party-State Dezinformatsiya Program” approved by Aleksandr Shelepin, the chairman of the KGB, and by Politburo member Aleksey Kirichenko, who coordinated the Communist Party’s international policies. This program demanded that the KGB take secret control of the World Council of Churches (WCC), based in Geneva, Switzerland, and use it as cover for converting Liberation Theology into a South American revolutionary tool. The WCC was the largest international ecumenical organization after the Vatican, representing some 550 million Christians of various denominations throughout 120 countries.
I was not involved in the creation of Liberation Theology per se. From Sakharovsky I learned, however, that in 1968 the KGB-created Christian Peace Conference, supported by the world-wide World Peace Council, was able to maneuver a group of leftist South American bishops into holding a Conference of Latin American Bishops at Medellin, Colombia. The Conference’s official task was to ameliorate poverty. Its undeclared goal was to recognize a new religious movement encouraging the poor to rebel against the “institutionalized violence of poverty,”and to recommend the new movement to the World Council of Churches for official approval.
The Medellin Conference achieved both goals. It also bought the KGB-born name “Liberation Theology.”
So, what we have here are three, completely independent testimonies from individuals working inside Communism, giving testimony to the Communist infiltration of the Catholic Church through various venues. Manning Johnson indicated an infiltration of Catholic seminaries and parishes. Bella Dodd indicated that Cardinals in the Vatican were actually working FOR the Communist party. And Ion Pacepa, a former KGB general, said that the KGB created Liberation Theology and spread it through the Catholic Church in South America.
There are more testimonies on record of the Communist infiltration of America to count. Some are former Communists, such as Dodd and Johnson, and others were individuals pretending to be Communists in order to inform American authorities to the subversive activities of the Communist party in the United States, such as Herb Philbrick and Matt Cvetic. Regardless of their background, one common thread in ALL of the testimonies is that Communists were adept at creating civic-minded organizations whose sole purpose is to convert people to Communist ideals. These organizations are called the Unified Front, or Front organizations.
In 1902, Vladimir Lenin wrote a manifesto of his own titled, “What is to be Done?” Since the Communist party was illegal in Russia at the time, Lenin came up with the idea of spreading the message of Communist through the creation of “a large number of other organizations intended for wide membership and, which, therefore, can be as loose and as public as possible.”
The idea of front organizations was to attract non-members who agreed with the Communist Party on certain specific points. For instance, The American Youth Congress, established in 1935, was created to fight against the economic exploitation of the youth. But having been established by a member of the Communist Party USA, it was used to infect youth in America with basic Communist philosophies. Another example would be the American Peace Crusade. Formed by Communists in 1951, the American Peace Crusade claimed to lobby for peace in the world, but it was a peace that would come by allowing Communism to spread. That’s how a front-organization works … address a real public problem, and use it as an opportunity to indoctrinate others in Communist ideals.
The Soviet defector, Louis Budenz spoke authoritatively on the work of Communist front organizations in his book, Men Without Faces:
“[I]t is the Communists’ hidden influence on American [public] opinion that has been most devastating. I can speak with full authority on that matter, having been deeply engaged in directing and executing Moscow’s orders for molding American thinking. Repeatedly…orders went out to form this committee and that, to set up groups of citizens with patriotic names and allegedly patriotic objectives. Then these committees, headed by steeled Communists from the “branches,” would roll up huge numbers of letters and telegrams from all sections of the land – with a view to influencing Congressmen and securing the passage or defeat of some particular piece of legislation.
Thousands of loyal Americans, in the name of “civil liberties,” “rights,” “fascist abuse of labor,” are thus inveigled by the Communists into support of moves and measures which build up the enemies of all liberty. And the end is not yet; even now, as I hope to make clear, new committees under new names are pounding on the doors of Congress and the courts. Each of their insistent demands aids the Communists in undermining the nation.”
In a January 1951 issue of Coronet, the editors published some of Joseph Stalin’s recorded writings that are on file in the Stalin Archives of the National War College in Washington, DC. In this article, Stalin is quoted as writing:
“How will we bring the masses of a nation into the communist programs? We have fashioned a number of organizations without which we could not wage war on capitalism: trade unions, cooperatives, workshop committees, labor parties, women’s associations, a labor press, educational leagues, youth societies.
As often as not, these are non-party organizations and only a certain proportion of them are linked with the party. But under special conditions, every one of these organizations is necessary; for, lacking them, it is impossible to consolidate the class positions of the workers in the various spheres of the struggle.”
Now, keep in mind that the aims of Communism are not just political agitation and civil unrest … it seeks to infiltrate and destroy the Catholic Church and Christianity in general. So, understanding this, these front organizations created by the Communist party are also employed for the infiltration of the Catholic Church and the perversion of Christianity.
One of the most successful Communist agitators and creators of front organizations was the first head of the Young Communist Internationale, Willi Münzenberg. Münzenberg, who was likely murdered by the Gestapo in 1940, established several Communist front organizations that he called “Innocents Clubs.” His front organizations, which operated under innocent-sounding names like, the International Worker’s Relief Fund, were ostensibly created in order to promote undeniably benign causes like famine relief, anti-imperialism, or peace. However, Münzenberg’s true purpose in creating these groups was to recruit liberals and moderate socialists to the cause of Marxist revolution and the establishment of the socialist utopia. During a speech before the Sixth Congress of the Communist Internationale in Moscow in 1928, Münzenberg established a the six point outline explaining the importance and purpose of front organizations:
To arouse the interest of those millions of apathetic and indifferent workers…who simply have no ear for Communist propaganda. These people we wish to attract and arouse through new channels, by means of new ways.
Our sympathetic organizations should constitute bridges for the nonparty workers…who have not yet mustered the courage to take the final step and join the Communist Party, but who are nevertheless in sympathy with the Communist movement and are prepared to follow us part of the way.
By means of the mass organizations we wish to extend the Communist sphere of influence in itself.
The organizational linking up of the elements in sympathy with the Soviet Union and with the Communists.
We must build up our own organizations in order to counteract the increasing efforts of the bourgeois and social-democratic parties in this respect, and
Through these sympathetic and mass organizations we should train the cadres of militants and officials of the Communist Party possessing organizational experience.
Identifying front organizations isn’t difficult, but it takes work and a critical eye. Communist front groups are most easily identified by the commonality of their origins and interlocking of personnel. For example, an organization known as the Midwest Academy is a training center for community organizers. Oftentimes, graduate organizers from the Midwest Academy go to various localities in order to create their own community organizing groups. The Midwest Academy is a direct offshoot of Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, giving common origin to community organizing groups generated by the Midwest Academy to Saul Alinksy. Another form of common origin can be found in board memberships. CCHD-funded or associated organizations like Jobs with Justice, National People’s Action, Gamaliel, PICO, tend to share board members and organizational members in common. This commonality, especially with regard to the origins of the organizations, is one mark of a Communist front group.
Another way of identifying a Communist front organization is to examine its literature, actions and associations. If an organization is utilizing Communist imagery, such as the raised, clenched fist, participates in Communist parades or events, such as the May Day parade, or uses Communist buzzwords, it is very likely to be a front group. Furthermore, if the organization is being praised or defended in Communist publications, such as the Daily Kos, The Socialist Worker or Counterpunch, its likelihood of being a front group increases as well.
The father of front organizations pertaining to the Catholic Church is Saul Alinsky. Alinsky was never an official member of the Communist party himself, but he freely admits to having worked closely with Communists and even admiring their party platform. His two books, Reveille for Radicalsand Rules for Radicals most definitely espouse Marxist class warfare and revolution, very much in line with the philosophy of his Marxist friends. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1932, he started working with Communist agitators in the AFL-CIO. In an interview with Playboy Magazine, Alinsky admitted to actually fundraising for the Communists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. In fact, Alinsky’s collusion with Communists was so close, he said that the Communist platform “stood for all the right things. Take a close look at what Alinsky said about his work with Communists:
“I knew plenty of Communists in those days, and I worked with them on a number of projects. Back in the Thirties, the Communists did a hell of a lot of good work; they were in the vanguard of the labor movement and they played an important role in aiding blacks and Okies and Southern sharecroppers. Anybody who tells you he was active in progressive causes in those days and never worked with the Reds is a goddamn liar. Their platform stood for all the right things, and unlike many liberals, they were willing to put their bodies on the line. Without the Communists, for example, I doubt the C.I.O. could have won all the battles it did. I was also sympathetic to Russia in those days, not because I admired Stalin or the Soviet system but because it seemed to be the only country willing to stand up to Hitler. I was in charge of a big part of fund raising for the International Brigade and in that capacity I worked in close alliance with the Communist Party. … I think the Communists of the Thirties deserve a lot of credit for the struggles they led or participated in. Today the party is just a shadow of the past, but in the Depiession it was a positive force for social change. A lot of its leaders and organizers were jerks, of course, but objectively the party in those days was on the right side and did considerable good.“
During the period of Alinsky’s collusion with Communists, he met Bishop Bernard Sheil, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago, who began introducing him to Catholic priests around Chicago. Shortly thereafter, Alinsky started organizing Catholic priests through an organization called the Back of the Yards Community Organization, and he spent the rest of his life working with the Catholic Church in community organizing. In 1941, Alinsky wrote that through his organizing of the Back of the Yards Community Organization he quickly learned of the important role the Catholic Church played in his scheme. He said:
“A survey of the possibilities for community organization of the residents of the Back of the Yards neighborhood reveals two basic social forces which might serve as the cornerstone of any effective community organization which would, first, be representative of the people of the community and, second, by the very virtue of such representation, possess the necessary strength to effect constructive changes in the life of the Back of the Yards neighborhood. These two elemental social institutions are, first, the Catholic church and second, organized labor.”
In 1940, Alinsky formed an organization called theIndustrial Areas Foundation (IAF). The purpose of the IAF is to help local religious congregations and civic organizations create what are called broad-based organizations. As a parent organization, IAF gave rise to several other organizations, such as the Gamaliel Foundation, the Midwest Academy, the Pacific Institute for Community Organization (also called PICO), and a group called Direct Action and Research Training Center, or DART for short. All of these organizations would be primary recipients of funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
In 1969, Alinsky’s long-time friendship with Msgr. Jack Egan really paid off. Msgr. Egan convinced the president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to take up a national collection to fund national poverty-fighting programs. This collection came to be known as the Campaign for Human Development. Msgr. Egan had previously procured $150,000 for Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation through funding from the Archdiocese of Chicago. Through Msgr. Egan’s influence and the support of then Archbishop Bernardin, a national collection for human development was created by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The first collection went primarily to affiliates of Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, and since that time, community organizing networks connected to Saul Alinsky’s groups have been the primary recipients of CHD funds. In the 1990’s, the word “Catholic” was added to the name because of its long-standing reputation for funding organizations that promoted ideologies and actions at direct odds with Catholic teaching.
Since its inception, the CCHD has been unable to shake its reputation for funding organizations that promote abortion, contraception, homosexuality and Marxism. Faithful Catholics throughout the decades have been shaking their heads, wondering why their bishop or pastor continues to participate in this collection when the evidence against these organizations is so overwhelming. Alinsky himself gave the formula for funneling money to pro-abortion and pro-contraception organizations in his book Rules for Radicals, and the formula was quite simple: by generating a solid foundational relationship with priests and bishops, community organizers will be able to win their trust.
From pages 93-94 of Rules for Radicals, Alinsky said:
“One of the factors that changes what you can and can’t communicate is relationships. There are sensitive areas that one does not touch until there is a strong personal relationship based on common involvements. Otherwise the other party turns off and literally does not hear, regardless of whether your words are within his experience. Conversely, if you have a good relationship, he is very receptive, and your “message” comes through in a positive context.
For example, I have always believed that birth control and abortion are personal rights to be exercised by the individual. If, in my early days when I organized the Back of the Yards Neighborhood in Chicago, which was 95 per cent Roman Catholic, I had tried to communicate this, even through the experience of the residents, whose economic plight was aggravated by large families, that would have been the end of my relationship with the community. That instant I would have been stamped as an enemy of the church and all communication would have ceased.
“Some years later, after establishing solid relationships, I was free to talk about anything, including birth control. I remember discussing it with the then Catholic Chancellor. By then the argument was no longer limited to such questions as, “How much longer do you think the Catholic Church can hang on to this archaic notion and still survive?” I remember seeing five priests in the waiting room who wanted to see the chancellor, and knowing his contempt for each one of them, I said, “Look, I’ll prove to you that you do really believe in birth control even though you are making all kinds of noises against it,” and then I opened the door, saying, “Take a look out there. Can you look at them and tell me you oppose birth control?” He cracked up and said “That’s an unfair argument and you know it,” but the subject and nature of the discussion would have been unthinkable without that solid relationship.”
In studying the philosophical and organizational background of the CCHD, the nature of such relationships is key. As with any network of Communist front organizations, it will be seen that the organizations receiving CCHD funds share a common Marxist ideology and have founders and leaders in common. In short, it is imminently clear, by examining this formula, that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is nothing more than a Marxist front organization as envisioned by Lenin and Stalin and as implemented by Saul Alinsky.
One such solid relationship can be found between the CCHD and the Gamaliel Foundation.
Just to give you an idea of what sort of organization we’re talking about, during the 1980’s, Barack Obama got his start in community organizing by working for the Gamaliel Foundation, where he received reimbursements from the Catholic Church for training in community organizing.
Now, as Communist front groups work to promote their philosophies without tipping their hand too much to what their true intentions are, they will lie and lie and lie in order to maintain their cover. And that’s just what the Gamaliel Foundation did when in 2012, they were caught participating in the promotion of homosexuality.
One of the rules of the Campaign for Human Development is that “CCHD will not fund groups that are members of coalitions which have as their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.” In violation of this rule, the Gamaliel Foundation was not only a member of an organization called the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) … which took an official, organizational position in support of same-sex ‘marriage’ … but it lied to the CCHD about this relationship.
This screen capture showing Gamaliel’s membership in FIRM came from a document that was originally found on the Gamaliel website. Since the discovery of this document, Gamaliel has password protected the page so nobody can see the evidence.
This screen shot shows that Gamaliel wasn’t just a member of FIRM, but actually sat on its executive committee (meaning, it was a part of the leadership of FIRM).
In July of 2012, American Life League sent this and other documentation to the CCHD, showing that the Gamaliel Foundation is a member of the same-sex ‘marriage’ endorsing FIRM, in violation of CCHD grant guidelines. On August 8, ALL received a letter from one CCHD rep. who said that the CCHD discussed this with the Gamaliel Foundation, and Gamaliel informed the CCHD that they severed all ties with FIRM in 2010, specifically BECAUSE of the its position on homosexuality. In fact, Gamaliel went so far as to provide the CCHD with a copy of a letter it claims it sent to FIRM in 2010, explaining that it no longer wishes to be a member, along with the reasons why.
However, further investigation quickly proved Gamaliel’s claims to be completely false, showing that Gamaliel lied directly to the CCHD. The following information was extracted from Gamaliel’s OWN website. Bear in mind that Gamaliel told CCHD that they severed ties with FIRM in 2010, so there should be no further information connecting the two organizations beyond 2010.
This list of files under the heading “FIRM Strategy Session,” all dated for the year 2011, were found on Gamaliel’s website at this link (which is no longer accessible to the public):http://news.gamaliel.org/documents/CRI/cri.html
Each of these items listed was a link to a file. The first file on the list, labeled “FIRM Contact Life – Membership 2011” states that the list is effective December 2011, nearly two years after FIRM officially declared its support for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. This file clearly shows Gamaliel’s Executive Director, Ana Garcia Ashley and Gamaliel’s Director of Civil Rights and Immigrants, Juan Soto, as member contacts for 2011.
This file, titled, “List of current FIRM member organizations plus brief descriptions 2011,” contains an entry for the Gamaliel Foundation (which is not supposed to be a member at this time, remember), indicating that Gamaliel is a founding member of FIRM and currently sits in EC, which means Executive Committee.
This is a screen capture of a google group entry for FIRM. This entry gives a set of meeting minutes from a monthly conference call that took place on December 9, 2011. Note that Ana Garcia-Ashley of the Gamaliel Foundation is listed as a participant on the call.
On the same page is a statement that 18 organizations were nominated for membership on the executive committee for 2012, and one of those organizations is the Gamaliel Foundation.
Simply put, there is no way around the fact that Gamaliel LIED to the CCHD about its relationship with FIRM. The supposed 2010 letter Gamaliel claims to have sent to FIRM “severing all ties” is a complete fabrication. Gamaliel could NOT have severed all ties with FIRM while its OWN files on its OWN website indicate continued membership throughout the year 2011, and a group communication shows that Gamaliel was nominated for the executive committee for 2012. The Gamaliel Foundation lied to the CCHD.
All of this information was sent to the CCHD on September 5th. A meeting was set up for the 14th, but on September 12th, Ralph McCloud, Director for the National CCHD wrote to cancel the meeting saying, “We see no reason to meet at this time.” More on McCloud in a moment.
Another CCHD-funded organization born out of Alinsky’s school of community organizing is a group called Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). The problem with IWJ is that it has deep connections with Marxism and support for homosexuality and abortion.
Bobo has spoken at and keynoted numerous fundraising dinners for the Democratic-Socialists of America … and in case you didn’t know, the Democratic Socialists of America is the US affiliate of the Socialist Internationale. International Marxism. What follows are all pictures of Bobo at various Democratic-Socialist of America events over the past 13 years.
A full run-down of the Marxist leadership of Interfaith Worker Justice can be found here.
It must be understood that these are dangerous, dangerous people whose sole aim is to turn the United States of America into a Marxist wasteland. Faithful Catholics have repeatedly asked the USCCB what is being done about Catholic funding for Interfaith Worker Justice in light of its firm and direct ties to Marxist, revolutionary ideologies, and the only response from the USCCB is that they are “looking into it.”
But given the strong relationship (as per the teachings of Saul Alinsky, mentioned earlier) with the USCCB, there is little hope that this relationship will end any time soon. For instance, IWJ has been an annual exhibitor at the USCCB’s Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. In fact, in 2011, the USCCB entered into a formal collaboration with IWJ, ostensibly to “intensify its efforts to support our unemployed brothers and sisters, and their families.”
But the collaboration between the USCCB and IWJ goes back quite a way. In 2008, disgraced Bishop Gabino Zavala was the chairman of the board of directors for IWJ. Bishop Zavala, who was an auxiliary bishop under Cardinal Mahoney in Los Angeles, resigned in January of 2011 when discovered to have fathered 2 children.
In addition to all of this, Ralph McCloud … the executive director of the CCHD … is currently on the board of directors for IWJ.
Generally speaking, since IWJ is applying for funds from the CCHD, this is called a conflict of interest. But there are other problems with McCloud that should disqualify him from his position at the CCHD.
Ralph McCloud assumed the duties of Director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in November of 2007. Prior to this, McCloud served as a city council member and mayor pro tem in Fort Worth, Texas. While still serving in Texas government, McCloud gave a political endorsement to radical pro-abortion politician Wendy Davis when she announced her run for state senate against the solidly pro-life incumbent, Kim Brimer.
In addition to this endorsement, McCloud also served as the treasurer for Davis’ campaign. McCloud denied any knowledge of Davis’ pro-abortion position at the time he gave her an endorsement and agreed to serve as her campaign treasurer, and claims that he never assumed any of the duties as treasurer.
Going back to the Gamaliel Foundation for a moment, remember that Ralph McCloud was provided with air-tight evidence that the Gamaliel Foundation lied directly to him about its relationship with an organization pushing for legal recognition of same-sex couples, and he broke off communication with investigators at that point. Also, keep in mind that Saul Alinsky said about developing relationships so as to be somewhat bulletproof in the face of controversial topics. There are important things to remember because in 2008, Ralph McCloud gave a speech at a Gamaliel event called, “Realizing the Promise.” The event was a celebration of the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Just listen to what McCloud said about how this celebration of Obama’s election is a “great day” where “we will see a new Jerusalem, and justice will flow like waters.”
So, Ralph McCloud, who endorsed radical pro-abortion candidate Wendy Davis, agreed to be her campaign treasurer, spoke at a Gamaliel event in support of Barack Obama’s election, defended the direct lie of the Gamaliel Foundation, and serves on the board of the radically Marxist Interfaith Worker Justice is in charge of the distribution of Catholic dollars.
Now, these two networks that we just discussed … Gamaliel and Interfaith Worker Justice … annually account for around a million dollars of Catholic money. That’s roughly one seventh of the total grants for any given year. But keep in mind that CCHD was designed to fund members of Saul Alinsky’s Marxist community organizing networks. Here are a few examples of currently-funded Marxist organizations receiving CCHD funds.
This grantee, called the Latino Union in Chicago, got a $65,000 grant for 2014-2015. First, we’ll show you what it does on its own, and then we’ll show you its membership with Jobs with Justice, and why that is bad.
The Latino Union was the fiscal agent for something called ARC 109, which advocates for homosexuality and abortion. As fiscal agent, the Latino Union was responsible for obtaining funding for Arc 109.
The People’s Platform of ARC 109 specifically states the intention to advocate for homosexuality as a “right,” and calls for “unequivocal commitment to reproductive choice for all women.”
The Latino Union is an affiliate of Jobs with Justice, as are several other CCHD grantees. As you examine the problem with Jobs with Justice, remember how front organizations work … their purpose is to recruit and convert people to the ideals of Communism. Sometimes, they’re more open about it than at other times, but their goals are always the same.
As you can see here, Latino Union is a member of the executive committee of Chicago Jobs with Justice.
In addition to being strident in its support for abortion and homosexuality, Jobs with Justice is, at its very core, a Communist institution.
The former executive director of Chicago Jobs with Justice (of which the CCHD-funded Latino Union is a member) was a speaker at the 2010 Socialism Conference in Oakland, California.
The Jobs with Justice 2007 Annual Report states that its project, “Students Labor Action Project” works closely with the Young Democratic Socialists and The Young Communist League.
More information on the CCHD-funded Latino Union and Jobs with Justice can be found at this report produced by the Reform CCHD Now coalition. Suffice it to say that the Latino Union, in addition to directly promoting abortion and homosexuality, both Latino Union and Jobs with Justice fit the Marxist profile that CCHD looks for in groups that it funds.
Here’s another thoroughly Communist organization receiving funding from the CCHD. It’s called the Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union (SCFCU)
Likes gay marriage for New York on its facebook page.
Merced Organizing Project – The organization is run by a homosexual activist and is partnered with Planned Parenthood in a joint healthcare project.
Inland Empire Sponsoring Committee – Its president performs same-sex “marriages,” and is the pastor of a church heavily involved in homosexual activism.
California Center for Cooperative Development – The organization pushes for legalized marijuana and is facilitating the production of marijuana. The executive director funded a campaign in support of same-sex “marriage”
Placer People of Faith Together – The president of PPFT is a radical feminist who actively supports “women’s reproductive rights” and fought to support the HHS contraception mandate.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg at CCHD, but it gives you an idea of just how Catholic money is being funneled to Communist, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual front groups. Even more to the point, it perfectly illustrates just how the very nature of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is to act as a funding agency for Communist front groups, and even stands as a front group itself. Dozens of former Communists have testified to the fact that the Communist Party is intent upon infiltrating Churches … specifically the Catholic Church. They also testified to the creation of front organizations intended to spread Communist idealism without exposing their true identities. We’ve seen that Saul Alinsky knew he couldn’t lead Catholics to embrace abortion and contraception right away, so he had to established firm relationships with priests and bishops first. This is why CCHD grantees rarely ever get defunded even after they’ve been exposed doing something abominable, like support same-sex so-called “marriage.” The organizations have formed relationships with priests and bishops, and so, rather than acknowledging the evidence, the priests and bishops trust the relationships. You can see from the evidence that the CCHD is indeed funneling piles of cash to the enemies of the Bride of Christ, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given the background and associations of the national director of the CCHD, Ralph McCloud.
The bottom line is this. The philosophical underpinnings of the CCHD are socialist in nature, and in fact the institution was created specifically to fund Saul Alinsky’s socialist community organizing groups. This is not an institution that can be reformed, it must be scrapped. It was bad from the beginning, and it has born disastrous fruits.
Over the course of the next few months, the Lepanto Institute will be reporting on other CCHD-funded organizations. It is our hope and our prayer that as more light is shown upon the nature of the CCHD, the bishops of the United States will put an end to this humanist-materialist program, and shift focus to leading souls to Christ.
