The Race is Run

The Jesuit Approach

...continued from Men in Black

We have followed the fortunes of Jesuit Father Pietro Tacchi-Venturi and his collaboration with Italian Fascism as far as the publicly-available records allow.

I don't propose to rehash the documented history of the Society of Jesus, founded by the Spaniard Ignatius Loyola in 1534, which is readily available to all who seek to know. The private story is another matter - allegations well-founded or otherwise pepper the pages of history and ever since the Society's foundation have been the subject of numerous books, pamphlets, rumours, scandals, conspiracy theories and now internet sites.

There is no denying Jesuit impact on ecclesiastical and civil history, even to the extent that the name has become synonymous with their perceived methods:

Jesuitic, Jesuitical 

1. Of or pertaining to the Jesuits, or to their principles and methods. [1913 Webster]
2. Designing; cunning; deceitful; crafty; -- an opprobrious use of the word. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

Unlike other internet sites, however, I don't intend to provide fodder for the rumour mill. Here on The Race is Run, we will confine ourselves to the activities of individual Jesuits as and when the occasion demands, and then only if there is documentary evidence available.

My practice has always been to provide solid academic scholarship in support my arguments. To do otherwise even once would compromise my credibility.

Men in Black

...continued from The "Man in Black"

We will take our leave of the influential Jesuit Father Pietro Tacchi-Venturi by quoting from a self-described Ignatiophile website containing what seems to be the only publicly-available information still in existence. In an article primarily concerning the Jesuit Superior General, Wlodimir Ledochowski, and the material benefits that the Jesuits gained from the Concordat [the Lateran Treaties of 1929],  we discover incidentally that the Concordat was "somewhat engineered by a Jesuit, Father Tacchi Venturi..."

But the really interesting information about Father Tacchi-Venturi's activities is not publicly-available: it is held within the archives of the Society of Jesus and there is precious little likelihood that anyone would be granted access to those files, even though they have been requested by the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission.

The ICJHC project entitled "The Vatican and the Holocaust" was announced in Rome in October, 1999 by Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, President of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and Mr. Seymour D. Reich, Chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC).

The Historical Commission began its work with the proposal put to it by Cardinal Cassidy to examine critically the eleven volumes of archival material published by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State between 1965 and 1981, entitled Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la seconde guerre mondiale (ADSS). Each volume considers a different topic and time frame. Included in these documents are the diplomatic correspondence of the Holy See’s Secretariat of State with its representatives and foreign officials, as well as notes and memoranda from meetings with diplomats and Church leaders from various countries. These documents are published in the languages in which they were originally written (primarily Italian, French and German, but also some in Latin and English), and each volume, apart from Volume 3 which is divided into two books, has a separate introduction.

In the concluding observations of its Vatican and the Holocaust Preliminary Report of October 26, 2000, the ICJHC had this to say:*

"In assessing the adequacy of the eleven volumes for an understanding of the role of the Vatican during the Holocaust, let us bear in mind that no history of the role of any government in a matter so broad as the Holocaust could be effectively undertaken on the basis of diplomatic exchanges alone ­ even when supplemented, as the ADSS occasionally are, with notes prepared as aides mémoires or other records. Furthermore, historians need to know what material is not in those volumes. Even without an inventory of the archives of the Holy See, it is plain from the ADSS that important pieces of the historical puzzle are missing from that collection. Some of these are the records of day to day administration of the Church and the Holy See. In addition, there are the numerous internal communications that every administration leaves behind ­ diaries, memoranda, appointment books, minutes of meetings, draft documents, and so forth that detail the process of how the Vatican arrived at the decisions it made.

"Apropos the usefulness of having documents outside the official archives, it would be helpful to have access to the papers (spogli) of such prominent protagonists as Luigi Maglione, Amleto and Gaitano Cicognani, Giovanni Montini, Domenico Tardini, Alfredo Ottaviani, Valerio Valeri, Giuseppe Burzio, Angelo Rotta, Eugene Tisserant, Filippo Bernardini and other Vatican officials of the period.

"Similarly, it would be useful to have access to the various archives of the Society of Jesus, particularly for the papers of Wlodimir Ledochowski, Robert Leiber, Pietro Tacchi-Venturi, Gustav Gundlach, and Robert Graham..."

Reactions to this Preliminary report by the Vatican and others will be the subject of a future post.

* The Preliminary Report is well worth reading in its entirety and can be found at Boston College, one of the oldest Jesuit Universities in the USA.

The "Man in Black"

I originally intended to arrange my posts more or less chronologically in this series on Rome and European Fascism but the need to address current events and also to follow the threads of particular issues means that we will have to depart from this course on occasion. Now we must pursue the career of Father Tacchi-Venturi as far as the record will take us.

The role of Father Tacchi-Venturi, Mussolini's "Great and Good Friend," was described by his fellow Jesuit, Pierre Blet:*

"Father Tacchi-Venturi served as the Vatican's official intermediary not only with Mussolini but also with the various governmental departments, including the heads of police as well as the general board for demographics and race, which was responsible for foreigners especially the Jews."

Twenty-one years after we first encountered Tacchi-Venturi in 1922, his sphere of influence remained undiminished - he was still the emissary between the Italian State and the Vatican, but now under Eugenio Pacelli: Pope Pius XII.

After the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, Italy's new anti-Fascist Government of Marshal Badoglio was expected to rescind the most extreme laws of Fascism.

On August 18 1943, Tacchi-Venturi suggested to Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione that it would be a good idea to take advantage of the overthrow of the Fascist regime and ask for a change in the anti-semitic legislation. He did not intend to ask for its repeal, as had happened in the south and in Sicily where the new Allied military government had completely abrogated all anti-semitic legislation introduced under the old Fascist regime, but merely for the abrogation of three minor provisions of the law which dealt with Catholic converts from Judaism. Maglione agreed. But before Tacchi-Venturi could prepare his petition to the new Minister for Interior Affairs,  he was approached by a group of Jews living in terror of the approaching Nazi sweep through Italy. They begged him to intercede on their behalf.

Tacchi-Venturi reported** back to Cardinal Maglione on August 29 stating that the Jews had asked for:

"...the complete return to the legislation that had been introduced by the liberal regimes  and had been in effect since November 1938."

But Tacchi-Venturi reported that he had rejected their pleas:

"...I limited myself, as I was supposed to, to only the three points specified in Your Eminence's praiseworthy message of 18 August...I took care not to ask for the total abrogation of a law [i.e. the racial law] which, according to the principles and the traditions of the Catholic Church, certainly has some clauses that should be abolished, but which clearly contains others that have merit and should be confirmed."

Shortly afterwards, German soldiers began marching down the Italian peninsula towards Rome...

We will take a close look at the situation of Rome's Jews in future posts.

* Pius XII and the Second World War: According to the Archives of the Vatican, Pierre Blet S.J., Paulist Press, New Jersey, 1999, page 156.

** The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism, David I Kertzer
Knopf, New York, 2001, page 289.

Mussolini's 'Great & Good Friend'

...continued from Black on Black

On 9 February 1923, a few days after his first meeting with Gasparri, Mussolini met with an eminent historian of the Society of Jesus, Father Pietro Tacchi-Venturi. This Jesuit priest, described as Mussolini's Great and Good Friend,`would play a future key role as personal intermediary between the Vatican and Mussolini.

Taking a rather different view of the initial overtures between Mussolini and the Vatican is German historian Karlheinz Deschner:*

"In Italy the collusion between the Vatican and Fascism began as early as 1922, even before the famous 'March on Rome', and continued into the Second World War via the Lateran Treaties and the brilliantly successful rape of Abyssinia which was facilitated by the Italian bishops and the Vatican itself."

Deschner's view is supported by a Time Magazine article of May 1928 which stated that:

"A friend of Signor Benito Mussolini dating from before his rise to power is the learned Jesuit scholar, Father Tacchi-Venturi of Rome. He persuaded Il Duce some years ago to present a State collection of ancient religious books to the Vatican. Generally it is known that Father Tacchi-Venturi has since been the chief intermediary between his Great & Good Friend and Pope Pius XI in recent attempts to negotiate a settlement of the Roman Question."

Another Time Magazine article of September 7 1931, described Father Tachi-Venturi thus:

"Out of the Vatican, across the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele, into the Palazzo Venezia, back to the Vatican hurried a long-skirted Jesuit father last week. As he padded silently by, Vatican attendants and those who watch over Premier Mussolini's household whispered and nodded wisely to each other. "It's the man in black," they said. They further identified him as Father Tacchi-Venturi, a little-known priest without rank or official authority but a trusted confidant of both Pope Pius XI and Il Duce..."

to be continued...

* With God and the Fascists, Karlheinz Deschner, Stuttgart, 1965.

Black on Black

...continued from "The Black Microbes"

Another star appeared in the firmament in the crucial year of 1922. The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, a man whose career seemed to run in tandem with that of Mussolini, was elevated to the Papacy as Pope Pius XI on February 6.

Even though Mussolini had been able to form a coalition Government on 30 October 1922 and by November had obtained from King Victor Emmanuel III a right to rule by decree for a period of twelve months, his political fortunes remained tenuous. His position in his own party was strengthened by the December establishment of the Grand Council of Fascism, all appointments to which were kept in his own hands, but his Government relied on a weak coalition which could rapidly break down and force the King to dismiss him.

If Mussolini were ever to achieve his goal of supreme leader of a totalitarian state, then now was the time to introduce into play his two most valuable cards: the 'black shirt' terrorists and those 'black microbes' of whom he had once so jeeringly spoken.

The focus of the Italian people at that time would have no doubt centred on matters domestic which affected their daily lives, such as those reported by the Fascist newspaper Il Popolo edited by Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo.

But other significant happenings, such as the January 1923 integration of the 'black shirts' [Fasci di Combattimento] into the Italian armed forces [Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale], and an unheralded meeting also that January between Mussolini and Vatican Cardinal-Secretary of State Gasparri, held far more grave ramifications for the Italian people, and for the world at large, than they would have ever imagined.

The Vatican had been ready to open negotiations with the Italian state over the Roman Question as early as the immediate post-war years but had been waiting, as Cardinal Gasparri* said in an interview of 29 September 1921: "for a statesman with whom there could be discussion in the matter."

The first meeting** between Mussolini and Gasparri took place at the home of a Catholic Senator, Carlo Santucci:

"It would seem that the only firm commitment that Mussolini entered into was a promise that his Government would save the tottering Banco di Roma [in which the Vatican had a large stake] from collapse in return for the replacement [as President of the Bank] of Santucci with the philo-Fascist Catholic M.P. Prince Francesco Boncompagni-Ludovise. Thus Mussolini secured his first foothold in the Catholic world..."

to be continued...

PHOTO: Achille Ratti, Pope Pius XI

* History of the Church: Vol 10, Hubert Jedin, Gabriel Adrianyi, John Dolan, Konrad Repgen, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1981, pp 50.
** The Vatican and Italian Fascism 1929-1932 : A study in conflict, John F. Pollard, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp28

The "Black Microbes"

As we saw in A Brief Il Duce, in November 1919, Mussolini had said...

" there is only one possible revision of the Law of Guarantees and that is its abolition, followed by a firm invitation to his Holiness to quit Rome." *

According to D'Agostino,** a youthful Mussolini had further described the clergy as:

"black microbes as fatal to mankind as tuberculosis germs"

and... "the first fascist program in 1919 had called for "the seizure of all goods belonging to religious congregations and the abolition of episcopal revenues." **

But less than a year later, Mussolini had said...

"I believe that Catholicism can be used as one of the greatest forces for the expansion of Italy in the World."

Mussolini abandoned his anti-ecclesiastical rhetoric and began to embrace the papacy even before he was able to form his first coalition Government on 30 October 1922 because the closer he came to attaining real power, the more he realised that without the positive support of the Church, his dream of Empire would remain just that - a dream.

With both Mussolini and the Church pursuing overlapping foreign policies, sharing a hatred of  Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Liberalism, Democracy, and Secular Humanism - precisely those things that the Lady of Fatima in 1917 confirmed that she also hated - any compact he could forge between them promised to be a marriage born in Heaven.

And what manner of creature would this proposed marriage give birth to?

What could Mussolini offer the Church? He could protect them from their worst enemy, Communism; he could make them an offer they couldn't refuse regarding financial reparations for the loss of papal state revenues; he could enshrine into law the Church's teachings on population control and divorce; and, most importantly, he could confirm Catholicism as the official religion of the Italian State.

And what could the Catholic Church offer him? He, Mussolini, would gain respectability both at home and internationally because his would be the first government approved by the Vatican since the establishment of the Italian State fifty years before. He could pursue his expansionist dreams and introduce his economic programs knowing that at his back, immuring him from criticism, stood the enormous moral and spiritual forces of the Roman Catholic Church.

Crucial issues would have to be ironed out, education especially, and the Catholic Church was a hard bargainer. But, then again, so was he...and first, he would have to consolidate his power.

Photo of Mussolini courtesy of WestPlains1 photography collection site

* The Vatican and Italian Fascism 1929-1932 : A study in conflict, John F. Pollard, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 22.

** Rome in America: Transnational Catholic Ideology from the Risorgimento to Fascism, Peter R. D'Agostino, UNC Press, 2004, page 168

The "Cup of Trembling"

A few days before the recent 'pilgrimage' of Pope Benedict XVI to the Middle East, Israel Today  reported that the Pope would demand control of the Holy Places:

"Long-standing Vatican claims to at least five Christian holy sites in Israel are expected to be near the top of the agenda when Pope Benedict XVI visits the Holy Land next week.

"Israel has long rejected the claims, but President Shimon Peres is strongly urging the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to turn the sites over to the Catholic Church in hopes of boosting Jewish-Christian relations."

"The sites include:

• The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth;
• The Coenaculum on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, traditional location of Jesus' Last Supper;
• Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives;
• Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee region; and
• The Church of the Multiplication which lies along the shores of the Sea of Galilee."

To those of us who have been watching the Vatican manoeuvre itself into a position to claim sovereignty over Jerusalem, this prediction by Israel Today will come as no surprise.

But, as reported yesterday in Haaretz,  Netanyahu is obviously no fool and will not be intimidated by so-called "world opinion" voiced by the increasingly shrill posturings of those with anti-Israel agendas:

"Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, a city reunified so as never again to be divided," Netanyahu said at a ceremony to mark Jerusalem Day in the city's Mercaz Harav yeshiva. "Our people's unparalleled affinity to Jerusalem has spanned thousands of years, and is at the basis of our national renaissance. It has united our people, secular and religious people alike."

"Jerusalem Day celebrates the conquest of the city during the 1967 Six Day War, before which Jordan controlled east Jerusalem, while Israel had the western section. Shortly after the war, Israel annexed east Jerusalem.

"Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu said similar things at a state ceremony to mark the day.

"United Jerusalem is Israel's capital. Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned and divided," Netanyahu said.

"Netanyahu said he had made the same declaration during his recent visit to Washington, where he met with United States President Barack Obama over the peace process and Iran's nuclear program.

"Only under Israeli sovereignty will united Jerusalem ensure the freedom of religion and freedom of access for the three religions to the holy places," Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu's total rejection of all spurious claims on Israel's capital will infuriate many. Palestinian negotiator, Saab Erekat, has already responded:

"Mr. Netanyahu, by saying that, he's saying the state of conflict will be eternal."

The Obama administration will not be happy and, make no mistake, the Vatican hierarchy will be positively fuming.

But, as Saab Erekat recognises, it is an eternal battle. Who is to have control over the truly eternal city of Jerusalem? Is it to be Israel? Or is it to be Rome?

There is a very revealing passage in Zechariah about the ultimate fate of Jerusalem, the city where YHVH has put his name:

"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the peoples round about....And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." [Zechariah 12:2-9]

PHOTO:
Israeli youths waving Israeli flags during a march celebrating Jerusalem Day in the streets of Jerusalem.
(AP)   

See especially the permanent post The Holy See and the Holy Places and also the categories Rome and Jerusalem, Rome and the State of Israel, Rome and the Jews.

The 'Pilgrim of Peace'

Evoking the shade of George Orwell, the Pope's 'Peace Pilgrimage' to the Middle East proved to be the very opposite. Pope Benedict XVI larded all his speeches with the cloying sentiments so beloved of his journalistic fan club - sentiments of "love," "peace,"  "justice," expressions of sorrow for the Holocaust etc. Despite pious appearances, however, every one of his statements was formulated to serve a distinctly un-peacelike agenda - the deliberate provocation of the State of Israel and the deliberate fanning of Palestinian religious and political hatred of the same State of Israel.

In The Holy See and the Holy Places, I remarked that the Vatican’s calculated violations of the 1993 Fundamental Agreement between Israel and the Holy See provided an excellent illustration of Roman tactics. Article 11, section 2, reads:

“The Holy See, while maintaining in every case the right to exercise its moral and spiritual teaching-office, deems it opportune to recall that, owing to its own character, it is solemnly committed to remaining a stranger to all merely temporal conflicts, which principle applies specifically to disputed territories and unsettled borders.”

Since the signing of the Agreement, the Vatican or its agents have poured forth a steady stream of inflammatory statements masked by token gestures to Israel, pious platitudes, and faux sincerity.

By decrying the existence of the "separation wall" and by calling for a sovereign Palestinian state and an end to the Israeli embargo of Hamas-led Gaza, this 'Pilgrim of Peace' is now foresworn: he has yet again violated the terms of the Agreement by making comments on "disputed territories and unsettled borders."

Just before leaving for Rome, the Pope seemed to make a concession to Israel by calling for recognition of Israel's right to exist.

"The way toward peace, asserted the Pope, is for it to be "universally recognized that the State of Israel has the right to exist, and to enjoy peace and security within internationally agreed borders" and "likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland, to live with dignity and to travel freely."

And, no prize for guessing who will make the most noise about just where these borders should be. I'll make a prediction that the suggested borders will replicate those of 1948 - borders which rendered Israel totally and permanently vulnerable to a host of enemies. Well, that's the plan anyway, but I'll venture another prediction that there may be some unexpected opposition from a source much held in contempt by modern society, including those red-robed princes of the church.

We have seen in many previous posts that the Holy See has been engaged ever since the Crusades in a relentless war to establish its own hegemony over Jerusalem and Israel's "Holy Places." It is wise to remember that every papal word referring to the Middle East is designed to further this agenda. [See our categories Rome and the State of Israel and Rome and the Jews].

The overall Holy See strategy in the war over Jerusalem is to render the Israelis helpless in the face of an avalanche of sanctimonious mouthings while at the same time striking fear into their hearts by incorporating into papal speeches an undercurrent detectable only to those who keep watch on the relationship between Israel and the Holy See. This river of hate lurks just beneath the surface but is allowed to bubble up out of the darkness when necessary. Papal posturing notwithstanding, perpetual enmity exists between the Holy See and the State of Israel. We will one day investigate why these two entities cannot co-exist - it must be one or the other.

PHOTOS
Top: Pope visits Temple Mount [no Jews allowed anywhere on Temple Mount proper] (Photo by Ziv Koren/GPO via Getty Images)

Middle: Pope places his note to God in the Western Wall [Jews are allowed to stand at the western wall supporting the Temple Mount] (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

Bottom: The Pope apparently can't bend down to this lay wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust* Memorial's Hall of Remembrance. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

* We will perhaps discover more about the Holocaust and the Popes in our continuing series on Rome and 20th Century European Fascism

Extraterrestrials and the Lady of Fatima

As our series on Rome and 20th Century European Fascism promises to be a long, painstaking, but ultimately very rewarding exercise, I have decided to punctuate the pain with some interesting observations which will perhaps whet readers' appetites for what is yet to be revealed.

The cause for canonisation of Pope Pius XII has been underway for the last twenty-five years but is now gathering steam as various apologists for this Pope and his role during World War II are popping up all over the place. Make no mistake, just as with the recent re-communication of the holocaust-denying Bishop of the Society of St Pius X, the cause for canonisation of Pope Pius XII is intended to provoke and distress the Jewish people, sanctimonious papal mouthings notwithstanding. [See The Holy Games : Jew-baiting]

There is a pattern to the canonisation effort and any cursory Google search will reveal that most apologists refer to the same set of statements by the same set of persons, including Jews, lauding Pope Pius XII's efforts to save other Jews from the Holocaust.

Two persons make regular appearances on the apologist show:

GARY KRUPP

Gary Krupp is a Jewish-American gentleman from New York who runs the Pave the Way Foundation, an organisation which works to "promote dialogue between religions."

Last September, Mr. Krupp and the Vatican convened a conference in Rome featuring speakers who defended Pope Pius XII's wartime behaviour. According to the Jewish Daily Forward,  the conference was attacked by a variety of Jewish leaders, liberal Catholics and historians for its pro-Pius XII bent.

"This was a one-sided campaign rally rather than a serious intellectual inquiry," said Michael Marrus, a history professor at the University of Toronto who declined to attend.

Mr. Krupp is certainly an interesting personage who, strangely enough, is also a Papal Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honour bestowed on him by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

MICHAEL HESEMANN

A much-praised associate of Gary Krupp is a certain Michael Hesemann. Mr. Hesemann has been variously described as an "eminent German historian," a "cultural anthropologist,"  an "advisor of the Pave the Way Foundation," a "relic hunter," a "UFOlogist," a "respected religious scholar," a "Vatican insider," and an "accredited Holy See Press Officer."

According to a Catholic News Agency Report, Mr. Hesemann has been given access to that section of the Vatican Archives dealing with the papacy of Pope Pius XI, the immediate predecessor of Pius XII.

"Each time he [Hesemann] enters the archive," Krupp said, "he comes out with an "astounding" document about Pius XII fighting anti-Semitism or saving Jewish lives."

Mr. Hesemann has certainly written some "astounding" books:

• The Cosmic Connection: Worldwide Crop Formations and ET Contacts
• The Fatima Secret
• UFOs: The Secret History
• Beyond Roswell: The Alien Autopsy Film, Area 51, & the U.S. Government Coverup of UFOs
• The First Pope [a work describing the "astounding" story of the discovery of Peter's tomb under St.Peter's Basilica]
• Titulus Crucis [a work claiming authenticity for the relics of the cross of Christ kept in the Roman Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem]
• The Pope Who Defied Hitler
• The Truth About Pius XII

Produced some "astounding" films:

• UFOs: the Secret Evidence
• UFOs: Secrets of the Black World
• Ships of Light: the Carlos Diaz UFO Experience

Made some "astounding" claims:

That warnings give to us by such Marian apparitions as the Lady of Fatima are similar to the warnings received from UFO visitors.

Maintains an "astounding" E-Bay site:

Items for sale include reliquaries containing "relics of the True Cross and the Twelve Apostles."

Truth is indeed stranger and more astounding than fiction, isn't it?

We will hear much more from Papal Knight Krupp and will also have the opportunity to study yet more fruits of relic-hunter Hesemann's "astounding" research as he now claims to have discovered the "Holy Grail" in Spain. He also will no doubt continue to favour us with his insights into yet more Christian Relics, the Lady of Fatima, Miracles, Crop Circles, Extraterrestrial Life, UFO's...

PHOTOS:
Top: Papal Knight Krupp receives a birthday kiss from Benedict XVI
Bottom: Michael Hesemann handing Benedict XVI the fruits of his latest research

The Sisters of Mary

I said in More Marian Madness that:

"by redirecting thought towards Mary as the proposed 'Spiritual Mother' of all humanity, Rome is attempting to draw Islam within her skirts."

Then, in a following post, The Hindu Mary, I drew attention to the fact that because of the prevailing "mother goddess" worship in India, the Hindu communities there were also being targeted as likely candidates to be drawn into Roman Marian worship. As I reported in The Hindu Mary, Cardinal Vithayathil, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference in India said:

"Almighty God is the Lord of history and he can always overcome the effects of disunity caused by human weakness. The Hindu communities in India are extremely open to the concept of 'Mother...'

Cardinal Vithayathil went on to say that a solemn definition of Mary's spiritual motherhood in her roles as co-redemptrix, mediatrix of all graces and advocate [the proposed fifth Marian dogma] would:

"bring more peace built on justice in the world. It will give a new spurt to evangelization. It will bring about greater devotion to Mary and confidence in her intercessory power."

Now, in the latest report from the Union of Catholic Asia News we discover that the Roman campaign to have Mary worshipped as the "spiritual mother of all humanity" is bearing rich spiritual and temporal fruit.

Increasing numbers of Hindus are visiting Marian shrines, worshipping her as "Our Lady of Miracles," pouring oil over her image, and purchasing replica body parts corresponding to their particular ailments which they offer up to her in intercessory hope. Increasing numbers of Catholics are visiting Hindu shrines where are performed such sacrificial practices walking barefoot on hot coals.

It concerns Rome not one iota that  goddess-worshipping HIndus supposedly believe that the "Blessed Mother is a sister of a Hindu goddess..." But why would it? Both sets of devotees perform equally pagan rituals.

According to the report:

"Chandrakant Chodenkar, a Hindu, said his people hold the Blessed Mother "in deep reverence" as they believe she is "one of the seven sisters of our goddess." After the ritual of oil pouring, Hindus also enter the church to kiss the feet of a larger Marian statue kept inside, and pray for favors.

"Hindus believe Our Lady of Miracles to be Mirabai, a sister of the Hindu goddess Lahirai, the presiding deity at a temple in Shirgao-Bicholim, about 15 kilometers north of Mapusa. The temple celebrates its feast on April 29."

As I said in The Hindu Mary:

"...the end-game for the Roman Catholic Church is to lift up their Queen of Heaven to such heights that she will seamlessly merge with all the other "mother goddess" incarnations of paganism so that all the world will come to rest in her shade - and by extension to trust in her most devoted worshipper: Rome.

Photos:
Top: Oil for pouring over Our Lady of Miracles is sold, collected under the grid, then resold.
Bottom: A Hindu woman seeking a grandchild purchasing a wax replica of a baby.