Did you know that Osama Bin Laden is Carefully Watching the U.S. Budget Deficits?
-Did you know that Osama Bin Laden is carefully watching the U.S. budget deficits?
-Did you know that the Taliban terrorists are counting on bankrupting the U.S.using
the very methods the C.I.A. taught them to use against the Soviet Union in
Afghanistan?
Economic Jihad
by Steve Wood
Many families are barely keeping their heads above water financially. Tragically, families are even losing their homes to foreclosures resulting from unexpected layoffs, or unanticipated medical expenses. Financial stress is creating untold marital stress. The cancer of credit card debt, the plague of student loans, and burdensome home equity loans are causing families to overextend themselves at the worst possible moment in history.
The Chinese economic “miracle” and globalization will radically change American family finances. To make matters worse, radical Muslims worldwide are waging an economic Jihad against the United States. Did you know that Osama Bin Laden is carefully watching the U.S. budget deficits? Did you know that the Taliban terrorists are counting on bankrupting the U.S. using the very methods the C.I.A. taught them to use against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan? These men aren’t ignorant camel drivers. They brought the Soviet Union to economic collapse and now they intend to do it again to us. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t even know that the economic Jihad began along with the plane hijacking on 9/11.
While globalization eliminates American jobs and the economic Jihad is in motion worldwide, the U.S. has created the largest debt bubble in human history. You need to know what take steps now before America’s great debt bubble bursts.
What is Giuliani's Real Agenda?
There is evidence that Giuliani could be gay. If he is not homosexual, is he the most gay agenda Republican ever to run for the presidency?
A bigger question is why are so-calling conservative pro-family types such as Pat Robertson, Sean Hannity as well as Fox TV covering up Giuliani's real agenda and homosexual behavior.
Fred
Is Rudy Giuliani Homosexual?
Read the evidence.
Rudy Giuliani dressed as a drag queen doing a skit with Donald Trump for his annual press roast in 2000.
Rudy Giuliani dressed as a drag queen in 1997.
A video slide show. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid626919000http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=78144477
Rudy Giuliani dressed as a drag queen on Saturday Night Live in 1997.
Just The Facts
· Rudy has openly cross dressed as a drag queen on multiple occasions.
· Rudy lived with a gay lovers Howard Koeppel and Mark Hsiao in 2001.
· Rudy told Howard and Mark he would personally marry them.
· Rudy gave Howard and Mark good-bye kisses every morning.
· Rudy is a member of the Stonewall Veterans Association, a club for homosexuals that participated in the violent Stonewall Inn riots of 1969.
· Rudy was a keynote speaker for the gay Log Cabin Republicans group.
· Rudy hosted eight gay pride parties at his NYC mayor's mansion.
· Rudy attended eight gay pride parades in NYC while mayor, including one that included pedophile group North American Man/Boy Love Association.
· Rudy offered to be on the graphic homosexual show Queer as Folk.
· Rudy told his gay roommates he would consider taking up their lifestyle.
See photos(www.isrudygay.com)
Once was weird enough. But if a single transvestite appearance would have satisfied most public officials, it apparently was just the start for Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. This weekend, Mr. Giuliani took his act national, appearing as a hirsute grandmother on SNL.
-Elizabeth Kolbert, Mayor in Drag? There He Goes Again, New York Times, 11/24/97
Giuliani -- who once appeared in fishnet stockings with the Rockettes and dressed up for a press dinner as Marilyn Monroe -- may have a tough time selling himself to conservatives.
-Howard Kurtz, Looking Back to 9/10 Rudy, and Ahead to 11/08, Washington Post, 3/5/07
I ask Mr. Koeppel: Is it unexpected that Rudolph Giuliani would be staying with an openly gay couple? ''I don't know if it's any more unusual than him wearing a dress,'' he says.
-Frank Rich, 1 Mayor, 2 Guys, 1 Shih Tzu, New York Times, 8/4/01
Marital problems force the Republican mayor of New York out of Gracie Mansion and into the apartment of a gay friend and his life partner.
-Jed Heyman, Three's Company, Picking Up After Rudy, New York Magazine, 8/31/04
'He did tell us that if they ever legalized gay marriages, we would be the first one he would do.
-Frank Rich, 1 Mayor, 2 Guys, 1 Shih Tzu, New York Times, 8/4/01
“We always get a little kiss, it’s cute,” says Howard Koeppel, with whom Giuliani has been sharing an apartment since June. When Giuliani was recently knighted, Koeppel tells The Times that he told “Sir Rudy” to call him “Queen Howard.”
-Ken Ervin, The Knight and 'The Queen', Concerned Women for America, 11/28/01
The mayor left for City Hall every morning after giving his two hosts a goodbye peck on the cheek — “a little kiss, it’s cute,” Howard Koeppel, told the newspaper — and how Mr. Giuliani affectionately called Mr. Koeppel “mother.”
-Adam Nagourney, New York Label May Not Fit All in Giuliani Run, New York Times, 3/8/07
Rudy W. Giuliani is a honorary member of STONEWALL Veterans' Association comprised of veterans of the 1969 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Stonewall Rebellion.
-Stonewall Veterans' Association Website, Published 10/31/07, Retrieved 11/20/07
The Log Cabin Web site lists Mr. Giuliani as a model for its brand of Republicanism, and the former mayor spoke to the organization's national convention in 1999.
-Russell Berman, Log Cabin Group Lists Giuliani as Ideal Republican, New York Sun, 3/23/07
Mayor Rudy Giuliani hosted his "8th Annual Gay Pride Celebration" at Gracie [mayor's] Mansion. It was held not as an early morning breakfast but as an evening cocktail party.”
-Stonewall Veterans' Association Website, Published 6/21/07, Retrieved 11/20/07
Giuliani has attended every “gay pride” parade in New York during his eight years as mayor. Giuliani took part in a homosexual “pride” parade that included a contingent of pedophile activists marching behind a banner for NAMBLA.
-Ken Ervin, The Knight and 'The Queen', Concerned Women for America, 11/28/01
Koeppel ribbed Giuliani by saying... Giuliani should agree to appear on Showtime’s controversial Queer as Folk dressed in drag. Surprisingly, Giuliani agreed.
-Ken Ervin, The Knight and 'The Queen', Concerned Women for America, 11/28/01
[http://www.isrudygay.com/]
Is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “a Group that could be the Legal Arm of Al-Qaeda?”
Finding the courage to stand up to the Council on American-Islamic Relations
By Judi McLeod Thursday, November 29, 2007
Where are you Rush?
Where are you Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity?
And what about you, Matt Drudge and Joseph Farah?
The cunning Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Internet writer Selwyn Duke calls “a group that could be the legal arm of al-Qaeda” is out to take down radio talk show host Michael Savage.
Correction: CAIR is out to take down Americans and to stifle freedom of speech—Savage is just the chosen icon.
CAIR activities usually get a free ride from the mainstream media. Even cash rich television networks don’t want the inconvenience of litigation, which is CAIR’s best longsuit.
Look at the path of destruction as CAIR carries out its campaigns safe from the media spotlight. They went after National Review Magazine, the mild and silken-voiced radio personality Paul Harvey who wouldn’t hurt the proverbial fly, the producers of the television program 24, who aren’t even in the news business and anyone else they decide is worthy of their vengeance.
In Canada, it was top-drawer journalist David Frum and author Michael Harris--both of whom stood their ground against them and eventually won.
Even as this is being written CAIR has bestselling author and Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer in its ferocious pitbull jaws.
In a politically correct world where western leaders are terrified to mention the name of the Christian God (Britain’s Tony Blair)—at least while still in office, and where saying “Boo” can find you ostracized, CAIR uses our hard-fought freedoms against us. Free people everywhere must remember that the Freedom of the Common Man’s day in court was never instituted by CAIR.
We cannot stop the ideals that CAIR, in effect, protects such as beheading enemies on public television; the incredibly cruel lashing of rape victims, the IEDs that cut down courageous young troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The enemy is radical Islam not moderate Muslims. And we can’t stop the enemy from using Anglo-Saxon names from getting jobs at airlines such as Andrew’s Air Force Base where Airforce 1 takes off and lands. We can’t keep the enemy from flooding over American and Canadian porous borders to become the Enemy Within.
But even when CAIR spreads its roots into other innocent-sounding organizations, such as the newly-formed, Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition (HHA) that seems able to frighten advertisers into instant capitulation, we can fight them collectively both in court and with our buying power.
A HHA statement released this week said in part: “We have a duty to make sure every person in America is treated with respect and human dignity.
Diversity is what makes this nation so special. The many companies that do not want to be affiliated with Michael Savage’s bigotry and have stopped advertising or refuse to advertise on his show include AutoZone, Citrix, TrustedID, JD Penney, and OfficeMax. Today we are pleased to announce that Wal-Mart and AT&T have joined the growing list of companies that refuse to sponsor Savage’s hate speech.”
The name of the HHA coordinator boasting about advertisers frightened off the Michael Savage show? Sabiha Khan.
Surely it is not HHA’s or CAIR’s “duty”, but ours to ensure that every person in America is treated with respect and human dignity.
“These people know how to use freedom to destroy freedom,” Savage said on his radio show last night. “Let’s pray to God that we’re not destined to relive the Second World War and that we can nip this in the bud.”
We can take courage in this battle that organizations like CAIR and HHA are overlooking one vital detail.
Moderate Muslims everywhere stand against them. Many moderate Muslims now living in the freedom of the United States and in other countries lost family members to radical Islam—and will never, ever forget.
Meanwhile, where are you Rush, Bill, Sean, Matt and Joseph?
If CAIR takes down Michael Savage, they come next for you.
[http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/811]
Why are Liberals and Radical Islam at War with Reason and Transcendent Truths?
Christians and all persons who believe in reason and transcendent truths are at war with liberal theorists and radical Islam.
English professor Louis Markos in his book Lewis Agonistes thinks that liberal theorists and radical Islam are at war with analogy in the arts and literature as well as with “transcendent truths in material images.”
Markos says liberals of the Enlightenment mind set believed only in materially observable “facts” and denied the existence of “transcendent truths in material images” be it art, literature or God.
Postmodernist took it a step forward by proclaiming that not only is God dead, but language is dead. They believe that words have no meaning even materially observable “facts.”
Radical liberal theorists of the postmodernist and Enlightenment mind set showed that this thought lead to violence against human life. Lenin and Stalin were Enlightenment men and Hitler was a follower of the postmodernist Nietzsche. Pro-choicer of the kind that kill unborn babies and homosexual identity gender changers are also followers of Nietzsche’s will to power.
As G. K. Chesterton said when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing - they believe in anything.
Radical Islam showed it association with liberal theorists when they firebombed and shoot bullet holes through Christian churches in West Bank, killed an Italian nun and threatened to bomb the Vatican with a suicide attack when Pope Benedict XVI gave the September 12 called FAITH, REASON AND THE UNIVERSITY. MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS. In that talk he said:
“The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.”
“Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s will, we would even have to practise idolatry.”
The pope in the lecture countered this anti-analogy theories which ultimately deny transcendent truth by saying:
“As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language (cf. Lateran IV).
God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as “logos” and, as “logos,” has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love "transcends" knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Eph 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is “logos.”
Consequently, Christian worship is “spiritual” worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Rom 12:1).”
Hopefully, Benedict began a dialogue with Islam. He hoped, according to George Weigel in God’s Choice, that Muslim reformers can find from their “authoritative text . . . that it is God’s will that we be tolerant of those who have different understandings of God’s will.”
We need to pray that Islam accept reason and liberals accept the existence of “transcendent truths in material images” be it art, literature or God.
Radical Islam will continue violent conversion and killing in the name of an unknowable God. And liberal theorists will continue killing in the name of the unknowable gods of Feminism, Marxism as well as Nazism.
Malcolm Muggeridge said it best:
"When mortal men try to live without God, they infallibly succumb to megalomania or eratomania or both. The raised fist or the raised phallus; Nietzsche or D. H. Lawrence"
Although I would add when mortal men try to live without reason or a knowable God, they infallibly succumb to Homosexualism and/or the will to power of Feminism, Marxism,Nazism as well as radical Islam.
Huckabee Does the Best Against Clinton
Huckabee Does the Best Against Clinton
http://www.lifenews.com/nat3489.html
Hillary Clinton Says She Can Beat GOP, But New Poll Shows Republican Sweep
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Hillary Clinton campaigned in Iowa over the weekend and claimed she was the best of the pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidates to take on a Republican nominee next year.
However, a new poll finds Clinton losing nationally to all of the top five Republican presidential hopefuls. "I believe that I have a very good argument that I know more about beating Republicans than anybody else running," Clinton said.
"They've been after me for 15 years, and much to their dismay, I'm still standing." "I'm leading in all the polls, I'm beating them in state after state after state," she contended. "I think they have looked at the field and figured out who can best beat the Republicans."
However, a new survey released Monday by the Zogby polling firm finds Clinton trailing all of the top five Republican candidates, four of whom are campaigning on a pro-life position.
The Zogby International poll found former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee doing the best against Clinton. Thompson leads her 44-40 and Huckabee leads 44-39. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leads Clinton by a 43 percent to 40 percent margin while Senator John McCain is ahead 42 to 38 percent and even pro-abortion ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani leads 43-40 percent.
More about polls and whether Clinton is or isn't ahead of Republicans
A poll we wrote about yesterday -- Zogby Interactive's online survey of 9,150 "likely voters," has gotten some attention today from Drudge and other sites with similar political leanings. The angle -- that the survey reportedly shows Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton trailing the Republican contenders in head-to-head matchups -- has caught the sites' eyes.
We noted that the methodology raises some concerns among polling experts, because the pool of respondents came from folks who signed up online to be included in Zogby's interactive surveys. That raises questions about how random and truly representative the survey group is.
Gallup has some new head-to-head matchup results from its latest national survey -- which in theory avoids the problem of a "self-selected" pool because respondents are called at random. Gallup's numbers show Clinton's lead either unchanged or slightly wider against four of the GOP's top contenders (Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson). Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is tied with Giuliani in Gallup's latest survey. Obama has a slight advantage over McCain. He has wide leads over Romney and Thompson.[http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/polls/index.html]
Sky Rocketing Huckabee Appears Ready to Win Iowa
New poll in Iowa has Huckabee campaign crowing
"RASMUSSEN REPORTS POLL: HUCKABEE 'VIRTUALLY TIED' FOR SECOND IN IOWA , CLOSING ON ROMNEY."
That's the booming headline from a release sent out in the wee hours of this morning by the presidential campaign of Republican Mike Huckabee.
The news is that the first poll done in Iowa by Rasmussen Reports, which collects its information via automated phone calls, shows the Republican race there lining up this way:
• Mitt Romney, 25%.
• Fred Thompson, 19%.
• Huckabee, 18%.
• Rudy Giuliani, 13%.
• Sen. John McCain, 6%.
• Everybody else: 3% or less.
[http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/polls/index.html]
Is Ron Paul more Pink than Mike Huckabee?
Ron Paul’s statements regarding gay marriage and homosexuality:
Marriage is first and foremost a religious matter, not a government matter. Government is not moral and cannot make us moral. Law should reflect moral standards, of course, but morality comes from religion, from philosophy, from societal standards, from families, and from responsible individuals. We make a mistake when we look to government for moral leadership.
And:
Congressman Paul’s position on gay marriage is that defining and recognizing marriages is not a Federal or constitutional matter, but should be left as the States’ right.[30] In 1999 he voted for H.R. 2587 which contained an amendment that sought to prevent the use of Federal funding for the promotion of adoptions of foster children being used to promote joint adoptions by unrelated, unmarried people. There was no mention of gay adoptions in the bill, but the amendment could have been construed to act negatively upon gay couples adopting children in the District of Columbia, and in any event was not present in the final bill.[31]
And:
I oppose federal efforts to redefine marriage as something other than a union between one man and one woman[.] … In fact, the institution of marriage most likely pre-dates the institution of government!
…
If I were in Congress in 1996, I would have voted for the Defense of Marriage Act[.]
…
I was an original cosponsor of the Marriage Protection Act, HR 3313, that removes challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act from federal courts’ jurisdiction.
If I were a member of [a state] legislature, I would do all I could to oppose any attempt by rogue judges to impose a new definition of marriage on the people of my state.
…
The division of power between the federal government and the states is one of the virtues of the American political system.
…
[I]f federal judges wrongly interfere and attempt to compel a state to recognize the marriage licenses of another state, that would be the proper time for me to consider new legislative or constitutional approaches.
And:
I have not…I’m not as judgmental about that {homosexuality being a sin} probably because of my medical background, so I don’t see it in those simplistic terms; I think it’s a complex issue to decide whether it’s sin or other problems with the way people are born. It’s to me too complex to give an answer as simple as that. I believe a lot of people understand it {God saying homosexuality is a sin} that way, but I think everybody’s God’s child too, so I have, you know, trouble with that.
And:
Looking it in protecting the military {homosexuals in the military} if they are going to perform the services, and they are imperfect — because we’re all imperfect and we all sin. If a heterosexual or homosexual sins, that to me is the category of dealing with their own soul. Since we cannot have only perfect people going in the military I want to separate the two because I don’t want to know the heterosexual flaws, nor the homosexual flaws and that’s why I got in some trouble with some of the civil libertarians because I don’t have any problem with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Because I don’t think that, for the practicality of running a military, I’d just as soon not know every serious thing that any heterosexual or homosexual did, and those flaws have to do with all our flaws because each and everyone one of us has those imperfections.
[http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:V1Tz24hJnjUJ:www.redpills.org/%3Fcat%3D117+Mike+Huckabee+vs.+ron+paul+homosexual&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
"Nothing I Have Ever Investigated Is As Disgusting As What You Are About To Read"
Homosexual "Divine Intimacy" linked to “Seeds of Hope”
Richard Salbato 11-26-2007
Over the last few weeks I have published Newsletters that link so-called apparitions and fake miracles to fake priests, suspended priests, and immoral sexual activity including homosexual and pedophilia activity. Much of this information has come from ex-members and victims of these groups.
Seeds of Hope , Life Teen Catholic Youth Ministry?
, Lying to protect False Apparition , Irrational Apparition Followers , Fake Priest Ryan Patrick Scott , Fake Priest, Fake Miracles in Texas
I am a proud homophobic and think that all child molesters should be shot. 98% of pedophiles and child molesters are homosexuals and all homosexuals are potential pedophiles. That being said as boldly as I can, I also sense that people who use God to molest children are demonic. But nothing I have ever investigated is as disgusting as what you are about to read although it may be difficult to follow.
Let us assume you see pamphlets in the back of your church or spot a web site promoting the “Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament”, “Apostolic Formation center for Christian Renew-All”, “Marians of the Immaculate Conception”, “Holy Trinity Lay Community”, “Apostolate of Eucharistic Renewal and Evangelization”, “Mary, Queen of Apostles” or “Our Lady of Grace Formation Center Inc.”. What would you think? They all sound good, holy and Catholic don’t they?
Not so fast! If you remember me writing about the false apparition and group known as Seeds of Hope and their spiritual director, Father John Szantyr, you know that he was removed as a priest by his bishop for pedophilia and facing criminal charges in civil and criminal courts even today. What I did not know when writing that Newsletter is that Father Szantyr was also associated with other false apparitions even before the Seeds of Hope. People directly involved have sent me this new information.
Apostolic Formation Center For Christian Renew – All
Long before Father John Szantyr tied himself to the Seeds of Hope he was involved with the Apostolic Formation Center for Christian Renew-All, which was founded in 1968 in West Warren Massachusetts by J. Roy Legere.
According to a March 6, 1992 Catholic Observer article by Father Bill Pomerleau, the Apostolics were expelled from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in West Warren in 1973 "when the parish's pastor, Father Gerald Durocher, became concerned that founder J. Roy Legere had "deluded" members with personal revelations he said he received from God and the Blessed Virgin."
According to the same article by Father Pomerleau, "Legere, who died in 1979, led a network of prayer groups in various northeastern states from the parish. Father Durocher acted after Legere told followers to relocate to the area and await the Second Coming of Christ.
The group then moved to All Saints Parish in Somers, a parish of the Connecticut Diocese of Norwich.
The diocese initially took no action against the group, which reorganized under a new name and leader after Legere's death."
This new leader was J. Roy Legere's son, Paul, who was referred to as "the anointed one" by cloistered Dominican nun Sister Marie Louis Bertrand, who served as one of J. Roy Legere's chief spiritual advisors.
Paul Legere functioned as head of the Apostolics until 1983 when Charles Shattuck Jr. took over the leadership of the cult after it was revealed that within this group was an elite inner circle of 24 men who were called "Emissaries" and who secretly practiced a homosexual ritual called the "Divine Intimacy of the Holy Seed."
Things did not improve significantly under Shattuck's leadership, and it was not until the 1985 investigative report by Dan Barry appeared in the Manchester Journal Inquirer that Bishop Daniel P. Reilly asked the late Father John A. Hardon, S.J. to investigate the group on his behalf.
After Father Hardon confirmed that the allegations made against the cult were true, Bishop Reilly expelled the Apostolics from the diocese of Norwich Connecticut.
Charles Shattuck, who also claims to have visions of the Virgin Mary, moved what remained of the group to Heath, Massachusetts and changed the group's name to the Holy Trinity Lay Community. They remain there to this day.
Manchester Journal Inquirer articles by Dan Barry were quoted extensively by Father James LeBar in his book, CULTS, SECTS AND THE NEW AGE.
Father LeBar includes the Pastoral Letter written by Bishop Daniel P. Reilly.
PASTORAL LETTER BY BISHOP DANIEL P. REILLY
CONCERNING THE APOSTOLIC FORMATION CENTER
Sent on December 31, 1985 to the parishes in Norwich, Connecticut, which had been affected by the Apostolic Formation Center and its activity
My brothers and sisters in the Lord:
On this first Sunday of the New Year, I extend to each of you and all of your loved ones best wishes for a blessed, peaceful and happy 1986.
I am writing to you about a matter of importance to the Diocese of Norwich and especially to this area of Tolland County, the Vernon Deanery of our Diocese. Today in many of the Catholic Churches in this area this pastoral letter is being read. It concerns the former Mary, Queen of the Apostles Center which was situated in Somers. Until a few years ago, it was known as the Apostolic Formation Center for Renew-All and also for a brief period of time was apparently called Our Lady of Grace Center. The mission of this Center was the religious formation of lay-Catholics by lay-Catholics.
In recent months articles appeared in the media alleging that some teachings and practices contrary to the Catholic faith had taken place at the Center. I wish to speak to you in the context of those allegations.
Mr. J. Roy Legere was the founder of the Apostolic Formation Center. He came to Somers from Warren, Massachusetts, where he began his apostolate. The original Center and its successor never enjoyed the official approval of the Church. However, over the years of its existence the leaders of the apostolate informed the Bishops of the Diocese of Norwich about their general work listing the number of retreats held and the numbers of people who attended them. The priests who ministered at the Center, although neither invited nor appointed by the Bishop, received the faculties of the Diocese of Norwich when their Superiors and/or Bishops indicated they were priests in good standing.
The sudden death of Mr. J. Roy Legere in December of 1978 was a cause of discord and division among some of those associated with the Center and much angry emotion surfaced. In mid-1980 I appointed a committee of three priests of the Diocese of Norwich to hold a series of public hearings to determine the nature of and reasons for this division. The findings were inconclusive but apparently the death of Mr. Legere had left a vacuum of leadership at the Center. Subsequently, Mr. Charles Shattuck became President of the Center. Its name was changed to Mary, Queen of the Apostles Formation Center in the hope of producing a new sense of unity and purpose. However, the problems continued and on June 1, 1985, I informed Mr. Shattuck that I was withdrawing the privilege of priest and Blessed Sacrament from the Center. This was done. On June 3, 1985, the Board of Directors closed the Center and it was subsequently sold. I informed Mr. Shattuck that he would not be allowed to re-open the Center in the Diocese of Norwich. Shortly thereafter, I also informed the Bishops of seventeen other dioceses where branches of the Center were said to exist that the Center had been closed at my initiative.
Shortly thereafter, a series of articles appeared in the media about practices alleged to have occurred at the former Apostolic Formation Center when Mr. J. Roy Legere served as its President.
I have investigated these allegations from a theological, moral, legal and psychological perspective. I have concluded that moral and theological breaches did occur by a small number of people involved in the former Apostolic Formation Center. Identifying publicly who these people were and what these breaches were serves no valid purpose. However, I have taken steps to insure that these breaches of religious and moral conduct have ceased and will not re-occur. I am very grateful to those who have assisted me and the Diocese of Norwich in this matter. A number of very competent and concerned people have given much time and effort to insure that a proper investigation was made for the welfare of all concerned.
In dealing with this matter, I have a very genuine pastoral concern for those hundreds and hundreds of good and sincere people who came to the Center seeking spiritual nourishment and counsel in the context of Catholic Church teaching. These people have been very disappointed and disillusioned by the adverse publicity which the Center has recently received. They were unaware of any problems at the Center and are incredulous about them today. Many of them have written letters to me and others stressing the good the Center has done for their Christian living.
I would not want this to be harmed in any way.
However, my decision made last June 1, 1985, to withdraw the privilege of priest and Blessed Sacrament from Mary, Queen of the Apostles Formation Center in Somers stands firm and final. Neither it nor its predecessor, The Apostolic Formation Center, will be permitted to re-open in the Diocese of Norwich.
But I do wish to reach out to those people of good will who have found stronger faith and spiritual sustenance at the Center. The Diocese of Norwich stands ready to help any of them needing assistance at this time.
Therefore, I am forming a Diocesan Committee to assist those people who found the Mary, Queen of Apostles Formation Center and the former Apostolic Formation Center for Renew-All to be a positive source of personal growth and holiness in their lives. In the near future an announcement will be made concerning the membership, the purpose, and the program of this committee.
As we begin this New Year, let us pray that the Lord will fill each of us with His love and peace and that together we may do our best for His greater glory and the salvation of His people.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
(Signed:)
Daniel P. Reilly
Bishop of Norwich
This document was taken from "Cults, Sects, and the New Age," by Rev. James J. LeBar, available from Our Sunday Visitor Press, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750. I hope that Bishop Norwich does not really think that people received personal growth and holiness in these groups.
This article describes the history of the Apostolic Formation Center and the homosexual connections.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc2.pdf The following Manchester Journal Inquirer article describes the involvement of two priests; Father Martin Lucia and Father Donald Higgins.
Currently, Father Lucia travels around the world promoting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration.
Father Donald Higgins is a popular retreat master.
Apparently, not too many people are aware of the involvement of Lucia and Higgins with the Apostolic Formation Center and their homosexual activities.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc1.pdf
This two-part Manchester Journal Inquirer article describes the influence of Sister Marie Louis Bertrand on J. Roy Legere, Charles Shattuck and other members of the Apostolics. Please be patient. For some reason, these links take a couple of minutes to download
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc3.pdf
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc4.pdf
In his autobiography, Donald Nohs claims that he personally knew Sister Marie Louis Bertrand and even consulted her himself. See page 19.
http://holyfaceofjesus.com/Srmarieofstpeter_files/My%20Story%20of%20Forgiveness.pdf
Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
The Father Martin Lucia story is a story in its own right. Archbishop (now Cardinal) Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Texas was informed by the Congregation for Clergy about a year ago that the Missionary Society of our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament founded by Father Martin Lucia under the sponsorship of former Ratchaburi Thailand Bishop John Bosco Chuabsamai Manat has been suspended pending an investigation by the Holy See. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston subsequently advised the Office of the General Secretary of the USCCB of the suspension. My question is why has this not received more publicity?
Have all the bishops been informed about this? If not, why not?
Here are some bulletins in which notice of the suspension of the MSOLBS appeared.
This was on the web in the bulletin of St. Michael’s Catholic Church on Sage in Houston. It was written by Msgr. Frank H. Rossi, Pastor:
On another topic, Archbishop DiNardo has instructed each pastor to make known to his parishioners a recent action of the Holy See that has an effect for some Catholics here in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
A priest by the name of Fr. Martin Lucia had founded a community called the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
Though the Society had a most noble purpose, the promotion of perpetual adoration of the Lord in his Eucharistic Presence, there have been some serious concerns surrounding Fr. Lucia and his society. The Congregation for Clergy has notified Archbishop DiNardo (Prot. No. 2006/2161) that the Society has been suspended, pending the results of an investigation by the Holy See.
Fr. Lucia, who has been living in Houston periodically over the years, has no faculties to celebrate the sacraments in the Archdiocese. A suspension is a canonical censure which means that the Society can not function as a Catholic organization. I need to bring this to your attention as over the years many very faithful and generous Catholics in Houston have been asked by Fr. Lucia to offer financial support to him and his Society. It is important for us to be aware of this investigation and to be very cautious regarding the situation of Fr. Lucia and the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=120819&highlight=fr.+martin+Lucia
ALERTS:
MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT: TheArchdiocese of Galveston-Houston has advised the Office of the General Secretary of theUSCCB that the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament has beensuspended from its activities pending the results of an investigation by the Holy See. Ifyou have any contact with this organization or need more information please contact
Father Joseph Binzer at the Chancery 513.421.3131x483.
http://www.catholiccincinnati.org/files/clergy_communications/2007/January/jan07-clergycom.pdf (Page 3 reader)
Advisory: Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
The Congregation for Clergy advises that the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the BlessedSacrament has been suspended from its activities pending the results of an investigation by the HolySee. Two of the founders of this Society, established under the sponsorship of the former Bishop ofRatchaburi, Thailand, live in Houston. Some priests and laity associated with the Society live inseveral places in the United States.
For additional information contact Bishop Joe S. Vasquez, Auxiliary Bishop and Chancellor of the
Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, at 713-659-5461.
http://www.doy.org/Comm/January%202007%20Communique%20pdf.pdf (Page 9 reader)
PLEASE NOTE:
Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo has been informed by the Congregation for Clergy (Prot. No. 2006216), that the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament has been suspended from its activities pending the resultsof an investigation by the Holy See. The information was forwarded by the Secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, His Excellency Archbishop Csaba Temyak. There are members of this Society in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston as well as in other places in the United States. Those associated with this Society should be aware of the investigation by the Holy See.
http://www.stlaurenceparish.com/documents/11_26_06_bulletin.pdf (Page 10 reader)
LETTER FROM THE CHANCELLOR
Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo has been informed bythe Congregation for Clergy (Prot. No. 20062161), that
the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament has been suspended from its activities pending the results of an investigation by the Holy See.This information was forwarded by the Secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, His Excellency, Archbishop Csaba Ternyak. There are members of this Society in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston as well as in other places in the United States. Those associated with this Society should be aware of the investigation.
http://www.hrccr.com/Smart%20Files/Bulletin%2011262006.pdf (Page 3 reader)
And this from Marquette, Michigan.......
Diocesan Communicator
No.12/06 Page 4 of 14
Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament: It has been reported that this society has been suspended from its activities pending the results of an investigation by the Holy See. Two of its founders live in the Houston, Texas area. Some priests and laity associated with the Society live in several places in the United States. They should be aware of the investigation by the Holy See. If you have any contact with these individuals and need further information, please notify Fr. Ben Paris at the Chancery (906) 227-9111 or at (906) 630-5101.
http://www.dioceseofmarquette.org/images/file/DC%202006%2012.pdf ( Page 4)
Notes:
1. If John Szantyr was a member of the Apostolic Formation center for Christian Renew-All, it is very likely that he knew Father Martin Lucia. Father Martin Lucia was a live-in member of the Apostolics, who, along with his confrere, Father Donald Higgins, was one of J.Roy Legere's closest spiritual advisors until the falling out between Father Martin Lucia and J. Roy Legere which led to Father Martin Lucia being expelled by Legere from the Apostolics in 1978. J. Roy Legere died in December of that same year.
Within a year, Lucia was promoting perpetual adoration, but Higgins was still at the center in 1983 when word of the homosexual "divine intimacy" ritual was first leaked to the general membership. Higgins reportedly defended it and justified it.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc1.pdf
2. 1957 - Father John Szantyr was ordained a priest of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception in 1957 and was stationed in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
A native of Waterbury, Conn., Father Szantyr entered the Stockbridge-based Marians of the Immaculate Conception order, and was ordained a priest of that community in 1957. He was assigned to the Marian Fathers novitiate at Eden Hill in Stockbridge.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/spiritualdirector.htm#SpringfieldBishop
3. 1966 - Father Brice Ingelsby, CP dies suddenly. He is a friend of the Nohs family. Donald is asked to serve as an altar boy at Father Brice's funeral Mass in New Jersey.
Szantyr must have also been connected in some way to Fr. Brice Ingelsby because Donald Nohs states that he first met Father John Szantyr at Father Brice Ingelsby's funeral in 1966.
It was after Father Brice Ingelsby's funeral that Szantyr pursued the friendship with Donald Nohs and his family. Szantyr was still stationed in Stockbridge, MA at this time according to Donald Nohs, and had to drive about four hours in order to visit the Nohs family in Long Island.
4. Father John Szantyr's visits to the Nohs family reportedly continued until about 1969.
See Donald Nohs' autobiography, MY STORY OF FORGIVENESS......the chapter entitled "Fr. Brice," p. 12, and "Father J." (a.k.a. Father John Szantyr) p. 29
http://holyfaceofjesus.com/Srmarieofstpeter_files/My%20Story%20of%20Forgiveness.pdf
5. 1968 - The Apostolic Formation Center was founded in 1968 by J. Roy Legere in West Warren, Massachusetts. http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc2.pdf
6. Donald Nohs claims that he knew J. Roy Legere who was a friend of his family. You would have to ask Donald Nohs, but given what I have read I would have to conclude that Nohs' acquaintance with Legere appears to have been through the Passionists.
In fact, the connecting thread between Szantyr, Legere and the Nohs family appears to be the Passionist retreats. Father Brice Ingelsby conducted some retreats at the Passionist Retreat house in West Springfield, Massachusetts - not far from Somers, Ct. where Legere lived. ( the Apostolics didn't move to Somers, Ct until 1973) J. Roy Legere was very much involved with the Passionist retreats as were members of the Nohs family, so it is likely that Legere also knew Father Brice Ingelsby in the years prior to the founding of the Apostolic Formation Center.
7. J. Roy Legere wrote two books entitled BE MY SON and COMMISSIONED BY THE LORD HIMSELF.
8. Note: Donald Nohs when asked point blank if he were a member of the Apostolic Formation Center states unequivocally that he was not:
"I have indeed informed all the bishop's involved about Fr. John's connection with Roy Legere. I sent them all copies of the articles about Roy. I believe I also sent you a copy of the emails. I have also spoken to Fr. Pomerleau, he almost passed out when he found out that Fr. John was close to Roy, he told me that he was one of the priests who investigated Roy and had mountains of paperwork on that particular case. The Catholic Observer did a very good article on Fr. John Szantyr just last week (article attached) and will be doing an article on Neil Harrington Jr. and the Seeds of Hope in the coming weeks.
“I was not a member of that group although I knew Roy and the emissaries. Some of the emissaries came from Long Island, NY and moved to Connecticut for Roy. These men were businessmen and financially supported Roy. They wanted my father to move to Connecticut and be an emissary, but thank God for providing good solid spiritual direction in my families life, we did not go. Our spiritual director told my father that he had ten children to raise and that he had a secure job where he was. My father listened to our spiritual director and stayed in NY. The other men moved to Connecticut and the rest is history. Funny you mention the book written by Roy "Be My Son" , I just came across a copy of it here at home with a dedication to my mother written by Roy. When Roy would come to New York, he would stay at our house.
“The homosexual activity was a development, the men who engaged in the "Intimate or Divine Seed" were not homosexual themselves. They actually struggled with this part of the so-called mission. They truly believed that the second coming of Jesus was going to be manifested through Roy. They truly believed Roy to be the twin of Jesus. They truly believed that this was spreading the Seed of God on earth. The emissaries I knew were in their late forties when they moved to Connecticut." (Donald Nohs)
9. Regarding the length of time Neil Harrington Jr. (Seeds of Hope) knew Fr. John: “I don't know for sure but I believe John Szantyr knew Neil for a much longer period of time. Neil Harrington's family was from Enfield Connecticut, the same town as Roy. It is very possible that Neil Harrington Sr. might have been a member of the Apostolic Renewal Center and knew Roy.” (Donald Nohs)
10. Regarding Sr. Bertrand: “I do indeed believe that Sr. Bertrand was a genuine mystic but was deceived by Roy, so were many Bishops who visited Roy and received a blessing from him. Roy also had a tabernacle in his home with the Blessed Sacrament, approved by the Bishop. Roy himself was not out to deceive anyone, he truly believed that he was Jesus' twin. He was insane and the insanity intensified, it grew worse. St Francis of Assisi is a perfect example of a true Church approved mystic misinterpreting a message from Jesus. Jesus appeared to Francis and said: "Francis, repair My Church". Francis did just that, he raised money, bought material and repaired the Church in town. He then repaired a second Church and proceeded to repair a third Church when it dawned on him that this is not what Jesus meant. Jesus meant; repair My Church interiorly. Genuine mystics can misinterpret messages and be fooled and deceived. Mystics have to be very, very cautious and be obedient to good solid spiritual direction.”(Donald Nohs)
11. Regarding Paul Legere and how old a man (boy?) had to be in order to become an emissary: “Paul in all likelihood probably engaged in the "Divine Intimacy" or "Divine Seed". I don't know for sure. If he in fact did participate, I don't think it was too much sooner than the age of 21. The reason I say this is because my father told me once that Roy yelled at Fr. John in my home one time and it might have been because Fr. John was abusing children. I think Roy struggled and had problems with sexuality but I don't believe he was a pedophile like Fr. John.” (Donald Nohs)
12. 1969 - At this time, Father Szantyr's visits to the Nohs family appear to have ceased with no explanation.
The following morning, we would have breakfast, pray more, have more talks and then Father
would have to leave, usually after lunch. Many called Father John Szantyr a miracle worker. Father John Szantyr would visit my home about once a month. After about a year, he stopped coming around. I do not know
what happened to him.
http://holyfaceofjesus.com/Srmarieofstpeter_files/My%20Story%20of%20Forgiveness.pdf (page 30)
It may have been at this time that the Marians of the Immaculate Conception became aware of Father John Szantyr's sexual misconduct and sent him to New Mexico for treatment. He may have been sent to the Servants of the Paraclete, but Donald Nohs does not specify.
13. In the following letter to Archbishop Mansell, Donald Nohs writes:
“When I was abused by Father John Szantyr I was 12 years old, I am now 54. John continued to abuse many young boys throughout his entire priestly life. When he abused me he belonged to the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. I know they sent him to New Mexico for treatment. He left there after ten months. He told someone that the reason he was sent to New Mexico is that his fellow priests were jealous of his spirituality because the Blessed Mother spoke to him, so they sent him there to get rid of him.”
http://www.worcestervoice.com/archbishopmansell.htm
14. By the end of the 1960s, Father Szantyr was no longer identified as a Marian in the Official Catholic Directory, an annual reference work which lists nearly every diocesan and religious priest living or ministering in the United States.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/spiritualdirector.htm#SpringfieldBishop
15. 1970 - Father Martin Lucia is ordained a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Reverend Martin Lucia was at the time of this writing a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Ordained in 1970, he was first assigned to assist Fr. Francis Larkin, SS.CC., National Director of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Home.
Before founding the Apostolate of Eucharistic Renewal and Evangelization he worked in parishes and was a hospital chaplain. Father Lucia ministry included going from parish to parish establishing perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, beginning by preaching at all the Masses on Sunday. Jesus and Mary. Ordained in 1970, he was first assigned to assist Fr. Francis Larkin, SS.CC., National Director of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Home. Before founding the Apostolate of Eucharistic Renewal and Evangelization he worked in parishes and was a hospital chaplain. Father Lucia ministry included going from parish to parish establishing perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, beginning by preaching at all the Masses on Sunday.
http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=3412
16. 1972 - Murder of Springfield, Massachusetts altar boy Danny Croteau. Father Richard Lavigne is the only suspect in the murder, but there is not enough evidence to indict.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ma_springfield/
17. Note: The Danny Croteau murder Investigation is reopened in 1992 when Charles Shattuck Jr. who succeeded Paul Legere as President of the Apostolics accused Father Richard Lavigne of sexually molesting two of his sons. When the Massachusetts Supreme Court ordered the files for the Danny Croteau murder investigation opened, I discovered the following statement on pages 193 - 195 by Joseph Shattuck in his depostion:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ma_springfield/lavigne_investigation_3f_188_195.PDF
http://www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/news/church/stories/050205church.html
18. 1972 - Father Szantyr moves to Waterbury from Stockbridge - possibly after his "retreat" in New Mexico.
Father Szantyr was hired in 1972 as a religion teacher at Sacred Heart High School, a then-parish run institution in Waterbury, said Msgr. Gerard C. Schmitz, vicar for priests for the Archdiocese of Hartford. Msgr. Schmitz said that no one has ever brought an allegation regarding Father Szantry to his archdiocese
http://www.worcestervoice.com/spiritualdirector.htm#SpringfieldBishop
19. Born in Waterbury, Szantyr graduated from Sacred Heart High School and was ordained in 1957. He is a member of Marians of the Immaculate Conception order. He was first stationed in Stockbridge, Mass., and in 1972, he moved to Sacred Heart High School, where he became head of the department of religion.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/johnszantyr.htm
20. Judge to decide priest's competency
[1986-87 Szantyr (Marians of the Immaculate Conception)] - RCC. Boy/s.
Republican-American, Author Ben Conery, ~ January 08, 2005
A spokesman from the Archdiocese of Hartford said there is no record of Szantyr having ever worked in the diocese, and suggested Szantyr may have been hired directly by Sacred Heart High School.
Father John Blanchfield, the former principal of Sacred Heart High School, couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesperson from the Marian order could not be reached for comment.
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont108.htm
21. 1973 - The Apostolics are expelled from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in West Warren, Mass and move to Somers, Connecticut. Warren is about a half - hour's drive from Springfield, Massachusetts. Somers Connecticut is just over the Massachusetts state line from East longmeadow, Mass, which is adjacent to Springfield.
In 1973, the group was expelled from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in West-Warren, Mass, when the parish's pastor, Father Gerald Durocher, became concerned that founder J. Roy Legere had "deluded" members with personal revelations he said he received from God and the Blessed Virgin.
Legere who died in 1979, led a network of prayer groups in various northeastern states from the parish. Father Durocher acted after Legere told followers to relocate to the area and await the Second Coming of Christ.
The group then moved to All Saints Parish in Somers, a parish of the Connecticut Diocese of Norwich.
THE CATHOLIC OBSERVER March 6, 1992 article by Father Bill Pomerleau
22. 1976 - Szantyr named Police chaplain by Waterbury, Ct. mayor Edward D. Bergin. This is when the Apostolic Formation Center was entering into its heyday.
January 6, 2005
Judge to decide priest's competency - Former teacher and police chaplain accused of molesting boy 20 years ago
Ben Conery Republican-American (Waterbury, CT) 2005 Republican-American
23. Former Mayor Edward D. Bergin named Szantyr, a close friend, police chaplain in 1976. A newspaper report from the time called Szantyr "a close friend of the Bergin family for many years" and the "unofficial chaplain of various Bergin campaign functions." Szantyr was at the center of a political controversy during the 1977 mayoral election because of a song he wrote for Bergin, a Democrat, that leaders of the Republican Party called demeaning to Italian-Americans.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/johnszantyr.htm
24. 1978 - J. Roy Legere has a serious falling out with Father Martin Lucia and expells Father Lucia from the Apostolic Formation Center shortly before his (Legere's) sudden death in December, 1978. the following year Father Martin Lucia began his apostolates to promote Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration.
25. 1979 - Originally known as the Apostolic Formation Center for Christian Renew-All, the group first came to public attention in 1979, when Nella Tate, an heiress to the R.J. Reynolds fortune, charged it with diverting funds from a freight airline she owned. (Catholic Observer, March 6, 1992, by Father Bill Pomerleau)
26. 1980 - Szantyr leaves Waterbury job and is accepted into Diocese of Worcester.
In 1980, Father Szantyr was accepted into the Diocese of Worcester after leaving his Waterbury job. Approximately six years later, he allegedly abused Michael Chesnis at a Diocese of Worcester parish.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/spiritualdirector.htm#SpringfieldBishop
27. January 13, 2005 Lawsuit filed in priest's alleged abuse By Ben Conery, Republican-American
......Szantyr had been a teacher at Sacred Heart High School since 1972, where he became head of the department of religion. Szantyr left Waterbury in 1980, but it is unclear why.
The lawsuit claims Szantyr had a prior incident and that coming to Worcester was his second chance. "That second chance resulted in the rape and sodomy of my child, and others," the man wrote.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/johnszantyr.htm
28. June 21, 2003 Rev. Szantyr to be arraigned July 18
Kathleen A. Shaw, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
Formerly a priest of the Marian Order of the Immaculate Conception, Rev. Szantyr entered the Worcester diocese in 1980 and was assigned to Our Lady Immaculate parish, Athol, where he celebrated his 25th anniversary of ordination in 1982.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/johnszantyr.htm
29. 1983 - "When the word leaks out in the Spring and Summer of 1983 that leading members of the Apostolics had participated in the homosexual "divine intimacy," there was an uproar among the members, estimated then to have numbered about 5,000 in 30 chapters along the East Coast.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc2.pdf
30. "Bishop Reilly is understood to have given the organization another chance after being told in 1983 of the homosexual "divine intimacy" and other doctrinal distortions. Reilly is apparently keeping silent now to spare the group's members and his diocese the embarrassment of admitting they were misled and to try and salvage whatever good the organization produced."
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc2.pdf
31. 1985 - After being informed that irregularities had continued and in the wake of the publication of the award-winning investigative report on the Apostolics by Dan Barry in the Manchester Journal Inquirer, Bishop Reilly asks now-deceased Father John A. Hardon, S.J. to conduct an investigation of the Apostolic Formation Center on his behalf. Father Hardon's investigation reveals that the homosexual rituals and other unacceptable irregularities were occurring. Bishop Reilly expelled the Apostolics from the Norwich Diocese. Father Donald Higgins hooks up with Father Martin Lucia and his Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Apostolate.
In a press conference following Lavigne's indictment, Stern told reporters that the "cult" practiced homosexual rituals and referred to the charges against Lavigne as a "witch hunt." Stern did not name the group, but lavigne's supporters have identified it as the Holy Trinity Lay Community, which was expelled from a Connecticut Catholic Archdiocese in 1986. Since then, 20 to 30 families who are members have moved to Heath, which is near Shelburne Falls, and have been building a chapel on the foundation of an old barn."
Springfield Advocate April 29, 1992
Church begins probe (Morning Union - August 23, 1985)
32. SOMERS, Conn. (AP) - A Jesuit priest, acting on behalf of the Bishop of Norwich, is investigating allegations that members of a defunct Roman Catholic lay organization engaged in homosexual acts in their worship, the bishop said.
Bishop Daniel P. Reilly of Norwich also said the organization, now disbanded, and its successors are no longer permitted to operate in his diocese.
The Rev. John A. Hardon, a Jesuit priest and professor is investigating the teachings and practices of the Apostolic Formation Center, formerly based in Somers, Reilly said Wednesday in a statement released by his office.
"Discord and division among those associated with these programs made it impossible for them even with the best of intentions to establish an apostolate that could serve the church well," Reilly said.
"Former members of both of these groups are exhorted to seek their spiritual assistance and direction in their local parishes and at approved retreat houses and spiritualized formation centers," the statement said.
"It's clear the bishop does not want any of these apostolates in his diocese," Hardon said when contacted at his Georgetown University office in Washington D.C.
Jacqueline Keller, the diocese's communications director, said the investigation resulted from a newspaper story that reported the allegations of homosexual activity. ( That would be the "Manchester Journal Inquirer" report posted on Rick Ross's website)
She said the apostolates "never had official public approval."
More than a dozen unidentified former members and priests familiar with the Apostolic Formation Center said those who participated in the alleged homosexual acts were told it was the ultimate sacrifice in submitting to God, the Journal Inquirer of Manchester reported this week.
33. The center was founded in 1968 by J. Roy legere as a place where people could pray and discuss the Bible. After Legere died in 1978, the apostolate was disbanded, but new groups were formed in its place. Two subsequent groups have been called, Mary, Queen of Apostles, and more recently, Our Lady of Grace Formation Center Inc.
34. The director of the existing apostolate, Charles A. Shattuck, Jr., denies any connection with the Apostolic Formation Center and said he has no knowledge of the alleged homosexual activities.
"I met with him (Hardon) and told him there was a distinction. There's two apostolates involved here," Shattuck said. "He's looking into both of them. I believe he knows there's a separation in the two apostolates. I don't know what's going to come of it, except the apostolate I founded is taking a beating."
Shattuck said he joined the Apostolic formation Center after Legere's death (at the prompting of Sister Louis according to the Manchester Journal Inquirer) He said he decided to form a new apostolate in 1983 to replace the one founded by Legere, because membership was lagging and there was much infighting.
Shattuck said he has sold the apostolate's headquarters and plans to relocate outside of the diocese.
MORNING UNION (AP) - August 23, 1985
35. Here is an exerpt from Father James LeBar's book CULTS, SECTS AND THE NEW AGE from which Bishop Daniel P. Reilly's Pastoral Letter is quoted by EWTN:
"Emboldened by the spiritual support of Sister Louis (Bertrand), Legere began espousing his interpretation of Catholic doctrine which gradually became centered around himself.
”The most startling example of this was a practice that came to be known as the Divine Intimacy of the Holy Seed, in which Legere and certain members of an elite core of followers known as "emissaries," participated in ritualized homosexuality, even though such acts are forbidden by Catholic doctrine.........
”....The usual mind manipulations, controls and fears were used by the leadership to cover up and prevent disclosure. However, former members eventually did disclose this and other practices of the group, and Bishop Daniel Reilly of Norwich issued a condemnation if the group and expelled them from the diocese in 1985.
37. In a letter to his membership dated February 26, 1986, Charles Shattuck wrote:
'Yes, I have heard many stories circulating around of how much I am being disobedient to the bishop. How can one make a judgement without knowing the facts? I would like to quote a paragraph of a letter I wrote last Fall (1985) to the Bishop and to the Pontifical Council of the Laity in Rome: 'As President, to avoid any bitterness, and being in complete obedience to the Church authorities, I humbly submit to you the actions which I am taking at this time. I am dissolving the entire apostolate along with all thirty-eight chapters and all assets will be distributed to Mother Teresa's religious order.' '
”However, they did not disband. According to a front-page article in the Greenfield, Massachusetts paper THE RECORDER dated July 5, 1986, they moved to heath, Massachusetts where they have begun work anew. The Bishop of Springfield ( Most Rev. Joseph F. Maguire - now Bishop Emeritus) in whose diocese the group has moved was quick to establish the fact that they had not come at his invitation, and the group has no connection with the Catholic Church.
”On the civil level, the Connecticut Attorney General's Office has been conducting an investigation to ascertain if all the assets had been distributed properly."
38. CULTS SECTS AND THE NEW AGE by Father James LeBar c. 1989 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division. Imprimatur: Patrick J. Sheridan, Vic. - Gen.,Archdiocese of New York, February 4, 1989 pp. 91-93
1986 - Perpetual Adoration Video pulled by Keep the Faith after Father Martin Lucia and Father Donald Higgins are recognized by former members of the Apostolic Formation Center.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc1.pdf
39. Father Martin Lucia goes bishop-shopping....beginning in Texas.....winding up bishop-shopping in the Philippines and in Thailand. At least two of the bishops with whom he has been involved have submitted 401.2 resignations - with special emphasis on the ".2" But that requires a whole other e-mail!
1987 - Szantyr suddenly leaves Worcester, Massachusetts and returns to Waterbury, Connecticut. He resurfaces around 1992 in Enfield Connecticutat the cenacles held at the home of the Harringtons. These cenacles are begun after the Harringtons pay a visit to Medjugorje. The cenacle is begun as a prayer group inspired by Father Stefano Gobbi's Marian Movement of Priests. It is not until Neil Harrington Jr. and Fr. John Szantyr get involved that "private revelations" and "weeping statues" are reported in Enfield.
Father Szantyr, who was police chaplain in his native Waterbury, Conn., may have gotten a call to leave the state while Mr. Chesnis was at the Worcester police station making a complaint. Mr. Chesnis had said publicly that a call had to have been made because Father Szantyr suddenly disappeared from Worcester and it was right after he visited the police station.
Mr. Chesnis has said he believes Father Szantyr was given the “heads up” about the accusations which is why he removed himself so quickly from the Worcester area and crossed the state line back into Connecticut.
http://www.worcestervoice.com/johnszantyr.htm
49. August 17, 2002 Father, son allege priest sex abuse
Kathleen A. Shaw,Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- The Rev. John J. Szantyr, who had been assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa parish, left the parish 15 years ago after Worcester police were notified he might have molested a boy in the parish.
Richard Chesnis of Worcester, father of alleged victim said he, his former wife and the boy went to the police station and met with officers of the sexual assault unit.
“He fled while we were in the station. I don't know who told him,” Mr. Chesnis said.
District Attorney John J. Conte said yesterday the allegation is under investigation by his office and the Worcester Police Department. He declined to discuss the investigation further.
The statue of limitations may not have expired if it is determined that the priest left the state.
Mr. Chesnis said he believes Rev. Szantyr went to Connecticut, because he is a native of Waterbury. A spokeswoman for the Bridgeport Diocese said Rev. Szantyr is not a priest of that diocese, although his brother is assigned there.
Mr. Chesnis said the subject of the alleged abuse arose when he and his son were driving to Auburn Mall one day. The son asked his father whether it was “OK” for two males to have genital contact.
“It came right out of the blue,” Mr. Chesnis said. “I asked him why he would ask the question and he replied, 'I did it with Father John.' ”
http://www.worcestervoice.com/johnszantyr.htm
41. 1990 - Weekly Cenacle started by Harrington family at their home in Enfield, Connecticut.
1992 - Father John Szantyr and Neil Harrington get involved with cenacle. Szantyr gives Neil Harrington Jr. a Rosa Mystica Statue for his birthday.
http://members.tripod.com/noosphere_2/virgin5.html
42. 1992 - Defense links Father Lavigne's accusers to cult (Catholic Observer, March 6, 1992)
By Father Bill Pomerleau and Observer Staff
SPRINGFIELD - Father Richard Lavigne, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Shelbourne Falls , strongly maintained his innocence after his arraignment on charges of sexual misconduct Feb. 24, while the lawyer linked the priest's accusers to a religious sect that has had past conflicts with religious and civil authorities.
"The people who have leveled charges against me know them to be untrue," Father Lavigne said in a prepared statement following the brief arraignment in Hampshire County Superior Court.
The court procedure, held in Northampton, because there was no sitting judge last week in Greenfield, resulted in two counts of rape and 10 counts of indecent assault and battery on children over a 10 year period. the indictments allege that there are five victims, some under age 14 and some older than 14 at the time of the alleged offenses.
"I just hope to be vindicated and returned to my parish work at St. Joseph's where I belong," Father Lavigne said in the first public comment on the matter since his Oct. 21 arrest.
Max Stern, father Lavigne's lawyer, said that the two rape charges against his client involved children associated with "a cult which was expelled from a Connecticut diocese" for alleged homosexual practices.
Stern added that it was only after the two boys tied to the cult came forward with their accusations that other charges came about.
In fact, Stern said, one of the charges added since Father Lavigne's initial arraignment in Greenfield District Court comes from an alleged victim who "as recently as December had sworn to us" that nothing wrong had ever happened between him and the priest. He added that the new accuser had later been put "under tremendous pressure" to make charges.
Assistant district Attorney Ariane Vuono said that her office had "no knowledge that any of the victims had been pressured," adding that some of the alleged victims have no apparent ties to the cult.
Stern's comments were the first public acknowledgement that at least some of Father Lavigne's accusers are tied to the Holy Trinity Lay Community whose activities were described in an award-winning series of articles in the Manchester (Conn) Journal-Inquirer.
43. good links;
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc2.pdf
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc3.pdf
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc4.pdf
http://www.rickross.com/reference/afc/afc1.pdf
44. Originally known as the Apostolic Formation Center for Christian Renew-All, the group first came to public attention in 1979, when Nella Tate, an heiress to the R.J. Reynolds fortune, charged it with diverting funds from a freight airline she owned.
In 1973, the group was expelled from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in West-Warren, Mass, when the parish's pastor, Father Gerald Durocher, became concerned that founder J. Roy Legere had "deluded" members with personal revelations he said he received from God and the Blessed Virgin.
Legere who died in 1979, led a network of prayer groups in various northeastern states from the parish. Father Durocher acted after Legere told followers to relocate to the area and await the Second Coming of Christ.
The group then moved to All Saints Parish in Somers, a parish of the Connecticut Diocese of Norwich. the diocese initially took no action against the group, which reorganized under a new name and leader after Legere's death. (Note: According to the Manchester Journal Inquirer, this would have been Paul Legere, who was referred to by Sister Marie Louis Bertrand as "the anointed one").
Norwich Bishop Daniel Reilly withdrew diocesan support for the group in 1985 when former members alleged that Legere had participated in homosexual acts called "the divine intimacy of the holy seed" with male members.
Bishop Reilly acted when he became convinced that Charles Shattuck, Jr., the group's leader since 1984, was continuing to defend past sexual abuses, and distorting Catholic doctrine, at the center.
He advised bishops in the Northeast to deny any official ties to the organization.
After Shattuck and two associates later sold the group's Somers headquarters, Connecticut Attorney General Joseph Lieberman ( now Senator Joseph Lieberman) accused them of improperly diverting the proceeds. After reaching an out of court settlement, Shattuck and others bought a 200 acre former dairy farm in the towns of Heath and Rowe, Mass.
Shattuck and his attorney, Michael Wiggins of Boston, have declined to discuss the cult's connection to the charges brought against Father Lavigne.
Springfield Bishop John Marshall urged "all people to withhold judgement and pray for all parties and families involved in these proceedings," in a Feb. 25 statement.
Is Bush's GOP Pink?
It appears that Ron Paul is as pro-life as Mike Huckabee. But Paul is pinker than Huckabee.
Fred
Ron Paul is not a stooge for the Republican Party; Chuck Baldwin, homosexuality and politics
Posted by Gary Shumway under Constitution - U.S. , Ron Paul , Elections , Homosexuality / GLBT , Politics , Chuck Baldwin
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In Chuck Baldwin’s September 7th column he reiterates the obvious. And the obvious is that the GOP (Republican Party for those in Utah County) is trying to paint itself as the “family values” and even “God’s” Party. Baldwin goes on to show that nothing could be further from the truth. People, you must forget Party when voting, and vote for the person…as long as that person, when elected, will not then simply become a Party stooge.
Take for example Ron Paul. He is a trying to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party, yet over and over he has shown that he will not kowtow to the Party’s wishes if they go against the Constitution (which is one reason The Party tries to silence him.) If he did, he would not be known as Dr. No, and he would be just another Republican mouthing one thing and voting another.
I have been writing a series herein entitled, “The Ron Paul Record”. The latest of which is post #3 and from which you are linked to the previous posts. I am endeavoring to show that Ron Paul is not a stooge of for the Republican Party, that he certainly has a titanium backbone (metaphorically), and that he is a man of his word - that is, he walks his talk. Try to say that of the other GOP Presidential candidates. Try to say that about the Republican Party!
If you wish to skip Chuck’s column, I have included, near the end of this post, some of Ron Paul’s statements regarding homosexuality and gay marriage. I have included them because Chuck spends a lot of time talking about homosexuality, politics, and the political parties.
Here then is Chuck’s column for September 7th. Compare what he says about the GOP being corrupt vs. Ron Paul’s record. Ron is from Earth, the GOP is from Venis, er, Venus.
The recent bathroom sex scandal involving Republican Idaho Senator Larry Craig has become a political hornet’s nest. However, to those who are privy to the real-life goings-on among the political elite in Washington, D.C., this comes as no surprise.
Extracurricular sexual activity in Washington, D.C., is about as uncommon as thunderstorms in the summertime. The element igniting the fires of the media and the public in general, however, is that the Craig scandal involves another Republican legislator and homosexuality.
You see, Karl Rove and Company (along with their willingly gullible Christian pastor accomplices) have convinced rank-and-file conservatives, many of whom are Christians, that the GOP is the “family values” party. Some even go so far as to call it “God’s Party.” Obviously, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Vitter, et. al have done much to tarnish this image.
As a pastor for more than three decades, I have witnessed a plethora of sexual failures. Men and women, even Christian men and women, are all weakened with a sinful nature. Some are more vulnerable to certain sins than others, and with a current culture that is awash in sexual promiscuity, temptations of the flesh have never been greater.
The pastor side of me understands the need for redemption and forgiveness. If I was personally acquainted with Senator Craig, I would be more than willing to minister healing to him and his family. Of course, in Senator Craig’s case, he has admitted no wrongdoing and asked for no help. Even God does not help a person who will not ask for it.
That being said, it behooves me to address the underlying problem behind the Larry Craig scandal. The real problem that this scandal unearths is the widespread influence that homosexuality has within the GOP. Ladies and Gentlemen, the GOP elephant is not red; it is pink. That is a fact that rank and file conservatives within the GOP either don’t know or don’t want to know. But it is getting harder and harder to keep that fact a secret.
If anyone really wants to learn the facts about how homosexualists have taken over the Republican Party, I encourage them to read Alan Stang’s blockbuster new book entitled “Not Holier Than Thou,” which is published by Patton House. Here is Alan’s web site:
http://www.alanstang.com/
Alan was one of Mike Wallace’s original writers. He was a business editor at Prentice-Hall. He is a radio talk show host, and has done stints on the American Freedom Network and the Republic Broadcasting Network. He is the author of several books, as well as hundreds of feature articles in national magazines. His book, “Not Holier Than Thou,” is an in-depth look at how homosexualists have taken over the Republican Party in Washington, D.C. It is an eye-opener, to say the least.
Stang notes that as far back as 1989 the Washington Times published a monumental front-page story that began, “A homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and US and foreign businessmen with close social ties to Washington’s political elite, documents obtained by The Washington Times reveal.”
Remember, that was just the first paragraph, and it appeared not in a liberal newspaper, but in the conservative Washington Times.
Stang also points out numerous homosexual prostitutes that have had free access to the White House under Republican administrations, including the current one. Stang also notes that Karl Rove’s father was a homosexual, a fact that may have contributed to his mother’s suicide.
Obviously, everyone on the planet knows that Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, Mary Cheney, is a lesbian. Is it a coincidence that Mrs. Dick Cheney, Lynne, wrote a lesbian novel entitled “Sisters”?
Stang also reminds readers that President G.W. Bush was “a member of Skull & Bones at Yale, which apparently involves bizarre, secret sex rituals including coffins. He has visited the Bohemian Grove in northern California, the site of other secret sex rituals.”
Should we be surprised, therefore, that despite campaigning as a born again Christian, President Bush has not repealed a single pro-homosexual Executive Order given by President Bill Clinton or that he has appointed as many (if not more) openly gay men to high government positions as did Bill Clinton? The list includes high profile homosexuals such as Paul Cellucci, Michael Guest, Stephen Herbits, Scott Evertz, Mark Dybul, Israel Hernandez, Joseph O’Neill, Arthur James Collingsworth, and on and on. According to Stang, “He [Bush] has given organized sodomy considerable control over the federal government.”
Obviously, homosexuals have not been limited to the Republican White House. As the Times stated, the GOP congressional caucus is also shaded in pink. Remember David Dreier and Mark Foley? And please don’t forget the cross-dressing Republican presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani.
Remember, too, that it was the Republican Newt Gingrich who came to the defense of homosexual Democratic Congressman Barney Frank when he was discovered running a homosexual prostitution ring out of his apartment. Of course, Newt has a lesbian sister and has often publicly praised homosexuals in Congress for the “courage” they show by running for office.
The list of this kind of nonsense never seems to end. Get Alan Stang’s book, and read it for yourself. You’ll see how Mitt Romney routinely facilitated the homosexual agenda while he was Governor of Massachusetts and how California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger currently does the same thing.
It is no hyperbole to say that the Larry Craig affair is merely the tip of the iceberg–and it is a very big iceberg.
All of this is not to say that homosexualists do not hold sway over the Democrat Party also. They do. The difference is, conservative Christian voters have been thoroughly duped into believing that the Republican Party in general, and President G.W. Bush in particular, are above it all. They are not. They are in it up to their eyeballs.
Sooner or later, conservatives, Christians, constitutionalists, and other traditionalists must wake up to the reality that both major parties in Washington, D.C., are immersed in all kinds of corruption. We must clean house! And I mean the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the White House. We cannot depend on the two major parties to police themselves or to be faithful to their duties to the American people. We must begin electing independent men and women to public office. Men and women who have not been bought by big money interests. Men and women who truly understand their constitutional obligations. Men and women who adhere to basic honesty and integrity.
Obviously, we have good men and women running in almost every race. The problem is the media (which has its own problems with integrity) will not give such people a fair hearing. Furthermore, most people (conservative Christians included) have bought into the antiquated “they can’t win” mantra, which precludes them from supporting the really good people who accept the challenge to enter a political race. Accordingly, people victimize themselves through self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the meantime, homosexualists will continue to dominate both major parties and we will continue to be subjected to Larry Craig-type scandals. One would think that, sooner or later, the American people would have enough.
(c) Chuck Baldwin
Note that Baldwin’s opinions regarding homosexuality are his and do not necessarily correspond to mine. In my opinion, what you do in your private life is your business, when you make it public and force it on my life then it becomes my business. The conundrum is that what someone is in private life, rightly or wrongly, often spills over to their public life.
Continuing on with Baldwin’s discussion of homosexuality and politics I offer for your perusal, the following Ron Paul’s statements regarding gay marriage and homosexuality:
Marriage is first and foremost a religious matter, not a government matter. Government is not moral and cannot make us moral. Law should reflect moral standards, of course, but morality comes from religion, from philosophy, from societal standards, from families, and from responsible individuals. We make a mistake when we look to government for moral leadership.
And:
Congressman Paul’s position on gay marriage is that defining and recognizing marriages is not a Federal or constitutional matter, but should be left as the States’ right.[30] In 1999 he voted for H.R. 2587 which contained an amendment that sought to prevent the use of Federal funding for the promotion of adoptions of foster children being used to promote joint adoptions by unrelated, unmarried people. There was no mention of gay adoptions in the bill, but the amendment could have been construed to act negatively upon gay couples adopting children in the District of Columbia, and in any event was not present in the final bill.[31]
And:
I oppose federal efforts to redefine marriage as something other than a union between one man and one woman[.] … In fact, the institution of marriage most likely pre-dates the institution of government!
…
If I were in Congress in 1996, I would have voted for the Defense of Marriage Act[.]
…
I was an original cosponsor of the Marriage Protection Act, HR 3313, that removes challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act from federal courts’ jurisdiction.
If I were a member of [a state] legislature, I would do all I could to oppose any attempt by rogue judges to impose a new definition of marriage on the people of my state.
…
The division of power between the federal government and the states is one of the virtues of the American political system.
…
[I]f federal judges wrongly interfere and attempt to compel a state to recognize the marriage licenses of another state, that would be the proper time for me to consider new legislative or constitutional approaches.
And:
I have not…I’m not as judgmental about that {homosexuality being a sin} probably because of my medical background, so I don’t see it in those simplistic terms; I think it’s a complex issue to decide whether it’s sin or other problems with the way people are born. It’s to me too complex to give an answer as simple as that. I believe a lot of people understand it {God saying homosexuality is a sin} that way, but I think everybody’s God’s child too, so I have, you know, trouble with that.
And:
Looking it in protecting the military {homosexuals in the military} if they are going to perform the services, and they are imperfect — because we’re all imperfect and we all sin. If a heterosexual or homosexual sins, that to me is the category of dealing with their own soul. Since we cannot have only perfect people going in the military I want to separate the two because I don’t want to know the heterosexual flaws, nor the homosexual flaws and that’s why I got in some trouble with some of the civil libertarians because I don’t have any problem with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Because I don’t think that, for the practicality of running a military, I’d just as soon not know every serious thing that any heterosexual or homosexual did, and those flaws have to do with all our flaws because each and everyone one of us has those imperfections.
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Canadians don't want the SPP to "absorbed [Canada] into the U.S.[ and Mexico]"
Canadians don't want the SPP to "absorbed [Canada] into the U.S.[ and Mexico]"
Continental integration on the march
Jul 10, 2007 04:30 AM
Linda McQuaig
It's a great irony that, while the United States has probably never been less popular among Canadians than in the era of George W. Bush, plans to integrate Canada more deeply into the U.S. have been proceeding at a brisk clip.
The threat of Canada being absorbed into the U.S. has traditionally provoked strong reactions here, as the pitched electoral battles over the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1980s and '90s attest.
But the issue seems to have largely disappeared in recent years, leaving the impression that the push for deeper integration has stopped or that Canadians no longer care about it. Neither is true.
Rather, what's happened is that those pushing for deeper Canada-U.S. integration – principally members of the corporate elite on both sides of the border – have become more sophisticated in their strategy. Rather than loudly trumpeting their agenda, they've made their push largely invisible.
Their latest vehicle is the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Since it was officially launched by the leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico in March 2005, it's operated largely under the radar, even though it deals with some of the most important issues a nation faces – national security and energy, as well as trade.
Given the centrality of these issues, one would have thought that any changes – especially changes that would make Canada more like the U.S. – should involve wide consultation with the Canadian people.
But exactly the opposite is happening. The public has been completely shut out of the SPP process. The key advisory body in the SPP is an all-business group called the North American Competitiveness Council, made up of 30 CEOs from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
It's fine to have input from business, but why only business? Corporations have interests which are not necessarily the same as the broader public interest; indeed, these two sets of interests are often in conflict.
Take the small example of the harmonization of regulations involving pesticides. This harmonizing of standards – in the interest of removing "trade barriers" – has been underway for more than a decade under NAFTA, but it is now being fast-tracked under the SPP.
So, as the Ottawa Citizen reported in May, Canada is raising the limits on pesticide residue permitted on fruits and vegetables, to bring Canadian standards into line with weaker U.S. standards.
As a citizen and an eater of fruits and vegetables, this alarms me. Canada's standards are already weak enough. For example, both Canada and the U.S. permit the pesticide permethrin to be used at levels 400 times higher than the European Union permits; we allow methoxychlor at levels 1,400 times above the European limit, according to a study by Canadian environmental lawyer David Boyd.
Shouldn't our government be tightening our standards, not quietly watering them down further to make things easier for those in the business of selling these – and other – products?
Regulatory harmonization is just one small area that the SPP is working on. I'll deal with the more contentious issues – security and energy – in a later column, all in the interest of setting the stage for next month, when Bush arrives in Montebello, Que., for what he, Stephen Harper and Mexican president Felipe Calderon are no doubt hoping will be an opportunity to quietly discuss the SPP and weigh the advice of their business council.
No public consultations have been planned for Montebello. Indeed, security measures will ensure the leaders hear as little as possible from the people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linda McQuaig can be reached at lmcquaig@sympatico.ca
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Peek Behind Closed Doors of the Security and Prosperity Partnership
Peek Behind Closed Doors of the Security and Prosperity Partnership
The secrecy surrounding the talks come as no surprise to those who have been following the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP is carrying out a merger of the three sovereign North American nations
A Peek Behind Closed Doors
Recently released documents uncover powerful business influence over SPP process
James Corbett
Corbett Report
July 9, 2007
The Corbett Report has obtained minutes from the highly-secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) Ministerial Meeting held in Ottawa on February 23rd, 2007.
This meeting — attended by political heavyweights from Canada, the United States and Mexico — received much criticism in the Canadian press at the time for being needlessly secretive. This was in fact the main focus of a Canadian Press report from that day headlined "Officials play down criticism that talks too secretive" which noted how "North American ministers deflected criticism that they had consulted only big business for their talks on trade and security rules, suggesting Friday there are 'different venues' for public interest and labour groups to raise their concerns and suggestions." Indeed, the government officials present at the press conference were forced to address issues of secrecy when the press conference was disrupted by protestors who were angry about the secretive nature of the talks. Such criticisms were not without their merit. In attendance were such key government representatives as Peter McKay (Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada), Stockwell Day (Public Safety Minister of Canada), Condoleeza Rice (U.S. Secretary of State), Michael Chertoff (U.S. Homeland Security Chief) and Patricia Espinosa (Mexican Foreign Minister). On their agenda, according to the CP article, were matters traditionally left to elected representatives to debate in legislative settings, including a meeting devoted to "finalizing a North American plan on dealing with a flu pandemic and another on a common regulatory environment in all three countries."
The secrecy surrounding the talks come as no surprise to those who have been following the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP is carrying out a merger of the three sovereign North American nations in what has been euphemistically dubbed a "dialogue" in order to commit an end-run around the legislative process which would have made such a merger politically impossible. The process started when then-Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, then-President Vincente Fox of Mexico and President George W. Bush of the United States announced the creation of the SPP at Baylor University in Waco, Texas on March 23rd, 2005 at a press conference which was heavy on hyperbole and scant on details. Facts coming out of the subsequent leaders summit in Cancun, Mexico on March 31st, 2006 were similarly sparse. The official websites of the SPP from all three countries (the Canadian the American and the Mexican) provide few details of how government representatives are working to carry out the SPP's initiatives.
Indeed, the SPP completely circumvents the democratic process since it is a "dialogue," not a "treaty" or even an "agreement" between the three governments, meaning government representatives can claim they are attending SPP meetings as private citizens. The office of Stockwell Day refused even to confirm Mr. Day's attendance at the secretive North American Forum meeting in Banff, Canada in September 2006, saying it was a "private meeting and generally I don't confirm private meetings of the minister."
The minutes of the Ferbruary 23rd meeting — obtained under the Access to Information Act and released on June 21, 2007 — show a continuing cloak of secrecy around matters of national importance. The most noticeable aspect of the document are the blacked-out passages. There is not a single section of the document that has not had information excised at the behest of the Ministers, citing the sections of the Act dealing with information obtained in confidence and information which could be "injurious to the conduct of international affairs, [and] the defence of Canada." What little information has not been excised proves what protestors feared at the time: that business interests wield a great deal of influence over the entire process while regular citizens are left out of the discussion, permitted even from learning the details of the SPP's implementation.
The most startling passage of the document concerns the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), which the minutes themselves note was a "body created by Leaders in 2006 to give the private sector a formal role in providing advice on how to enhance competitiveness in North America." The idea that business interests are really in control of the process is suggested in the following passage:
Exchanges following a formal presentation of the [NACC's] report uncovered frustration relating to the private sector's seeming inability to influence the pace of regulatory change "from the bottom up."[...]The subtext was clear: in the absence of ministerial endorsement, bureaucracies are unlikely to act on the more challenging recommendations.[...]The complex and far-reaching nature of the recommendations suggest that governments will need ample time to review and consult internally — and trilaterally — but it seems clear that the NACC will be looking for an early commitment to moving forward quickly.
This shockingly candid passage makes it clear that the business interests are actually in charge of the process, giving the politicians marching orders and demanding that these orders are followed, and followed quickly. Perhaps this is not surprising when one discovers that the SPP in fact did not start life as a governmental "dialogue" at all, but rather as an initiative launched by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCOCE) in January 2003. According to the CCOCE's own documents Council members comprise the CEOs of 150 leading Canadian businesses which "administer in excess of C$2.1 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $500 billion" and, it seems, have a number of ranking governmental officials from all three North American nations in their back pocket.
The other worrying news to come out of the meeting minutes is the revelation that Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day proposed at the meeting "the establishment of a coordinating body on Emergency Management" which like all other SPP initiatives will drastically curtail democracy in each of the three countries by leaving vital matters of national security in the hands of unelected foreign nationals and bureaucrats. The effects of such initiatives have already been felt in other areas, as Canada has already announced plans to lower pesticide standards in order to bring Canada's comparatively high standards in line with America's standards, which rank among the lowest in the developed world. One can only imagine what will result of this three-way race to the bottom in this "body on Emergency Management" which will presumably be tasked with coordinating disaster response.
One thing which emerges very clearly from these documents is that secrecy is not only an unnecessary component of the SPP process but is detrimental to our democracies themselves. Without public representation and input, the corruption of the process by business and political elites is a virtual certainty. There is no accountability where there is no transparency. The citizens of Canada will not stand for such a process, and demand representation at the upcoming leaders summit in Montebello, Quebec on August 21, 2007.
Contact your Member of Parliament by clicking here.
Contact the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper.
Email Address: pm@pm.gc.ca
Phone Number: (613) 992-4211
Fax Number: (613) 941-6900
Mailing Address:
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1A 0A2
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