PURPOSE

The purpose of this document is to warn about the deadly error of equating "Tradition" with "The Good Old Days" (of Hitler and Mussolini), and to show that the unsuspecting Faithful, as well as average citizens, are falling into that trap.


BACKGROUND

Last July 4th, 2006, a very significant even took place in the European Parliament when all pan-European political parties, except the Popular Party, condemned Spain's General Franco and his dictatorship during a plenary debate.

Maciej Marian Giertych, a Polish non-attached MEP from the League of Polish Families, a ruling coalition party in Poland, praised the Spanish right-wing powers and in particular general Francisco Franco for stopping the spread of communism to western Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

"The presence of such personalities as Franco, Salazar or DeValera in European politics guaranteed Europe's perseverance of traditional values. We lack such men of action these days", said the Polish deputy.

"Let's not forget that Nazism in Germany and fascism in Italy were also spiced up by socialist and atheist taste", Mr. Giertych added.

His speech was followed by a furious outcry from the German socialist leader Martin Schultz.

"What we have just heard is Mr. Franco's ghost. It was a fascist speech and such a statement has no place in the European Parliament", said Mr. Schultz. (1)


INTRODUCTION by The M+G+R Foundation

We shared the news of that very disturbing event in the European Parliament with some of our readers while adding a few pertinent commentaries to the effect such as:


One of the recipients of our mailing sent to us some research data about this issue. We, in turn, requested Mr. Lee Penn (2), author of False Dawn (3) and Opus Dei and The DaVinci Code (4), an expert in this area, to correct, edit and enhance what we received so that we could share it with others. The final result of his efforts follows: the fine work of said group so that we could share it with our readership and others. It follows:


INTRODUCTION

Conservative Catholic families are searching for tradition and orthodoxy. Many land in the SSPX, Society of St. Pius, the Tenth Chapels, Opus Dei, or Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) among others. While there is much reverence and piety on display, there is a darker side to the traditional and conservative movements. Unfortunately, some of these groups have become known for some un-American and non-Catholic ideologies.

With the internet and numerous conferences, seminars and pilgrimages around the world, Catholic ultra-Traditionalists —numbering as many as 100,000 in the United States alone— form a global network that is infested with religious anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers, Old School fascists, white nationalists, faith-based Third Positionists and anti-democratic clerics.

For greater details see Note (5) to read an article by Mike Reynolds, "Faith-based fascists bridging the waters."


BACKGROUND and DETAILS

Anti-Semitism and Racism

Here's what Richard Williamson, a bishop of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) wrote last November in response to the Muslim riots in France:


For greater details see Note (6) to read Williamson's essay, "Denial of Christ Creates Chaos".

The SSPX affinity for fascism has led its followers to harbor fugitive a Nazi war criminal — as mainstream churchmen had also done.

Paul Touvier the convicted Nazi was discovered hiding in an SSPX monastery in Nice, France. It was revealed that until his arrest, he received a monthly stipend from the Secours Catholique, a French Catholic charity.

A writer for an SSPX magazine in Canada offered this excuse for the movement's aid to the fugitive:


To read the article, see Note (7).

For more details on this particular issue review:


A Dominican writer confirms the ties of Lefebvre and the SSPX to the extreme right:


For greater details see Note (12) to read the article by Anthony Fisher, OP.

The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) —whose stock in trade is Holocaust denial— praised SSPX bishop Williamson in its 1989 newsletter. It claimed that that after he spoke at an IHR conference in Quebec in the late 1980s, Williamson was harassed by the Canadian authorities and...


For greater details see Note (13) to read a June 1995 article from Fidelity Magazine, "No Ordinary Bishop".

Opus Dei appears to foster —or tolerate— racism, as well. A college student reported what he saw when he visited an Opus Dei house on campus:


For greater details see Note (14) to read the student's account.


Distributism (15)

Other Catholic rightist movements are resurrecting Catholic-tinged corporatist and authoritarian ideologies from the pre-World War II era.

Searchlight magazine reported in 2004:


For greater details see Note (16) to read the rest of the Searchlight story.

The following speaker's list confirms the just mentioned network of mutual support among Catholic far right activists:

For greater details see Note (17) to see the list of speakers for the March 2006 "St. Joseph's Forum."


Elitism

Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) is another extreme right Catholic group that is active worldwide. A critic of TFP's collaboration with the pre 1990 apartheid regime in South Africa says:


For greater details see Note (18) to read a 1988 critique of TFP by researchers from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.


Fascism

A critic of Opus Dei says that the founder of Opus Dei was sympathetic to fascism — including the Third Reich:


For greater details see Note (19) to read "The Unofficial Opus Dei FAQ".

The founders of IHS Press, a new Catholic publisher that reprints the works of G. K. Chesterton are —according to other Catholics— tied to far right organizations. An article by Christopher Blosser, reprinted on the Spero News forum, alleges:


Sharpe is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, a former submarine officer and media spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet, and has ties to Legion of St. Louis. The Legion of St. Louis is a traditionalist website which peddles anti-Semitic/anti-Judaic literature such as Henry Ford's International Jew, A.K. Chesterton's The New Unhappy Lords (what Anger describes as "the Mein Kampf of British neo-fascism by A. K. Chesterton, founder the racialist National Front") and Judaism's Strange Gods by Holocaust-revisionist and "white-separatist" Michael Hoffman II.

Sharpe's IHS Press co-founder is Derek Holland, who appears to be presently going by the name of Deric O'Huallachain. Holland is a former International Third Position (ITP) leader with a sympathy for anti-American Arab governments, having traveled to Libya in 1988 in a field trip...
[A Wikipedia entry reports that... ] Holland has received considerable treatment in works on European extremist nationalism, including Fascism: A History by Roger Eatwell (1997) and Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2002). Holland's writings on the Political Soldier are also featured in Fascism: A Reader published by Oxford University Press (1995).

[SSPX bishop] Richard Williamson also has a history of extremist views that mirror those of Sharpe and Derek Holland. While it appears that the publishers' description of Williamson, Chojnowski and McCann could be construed as a willful attempt to conceal their controversial membership in the SSPX, we should also note that, according to Matt Anger, "whether one agrees with the SSPX or not, it is clear that Bishop Williamson has been an extremist and divisive force in Catholic tradition", and that many within the SSPX remain severely critical of Richard Williamson's relationship with Sharpe, Holland, and their involvement in neo-fascism.

For greater detail see Note (27) to read Blosser's entire article about the founders of IHS Press. Also, see Note (28) to read Blosser's findings about the neo-fascist politics of SSPX bishop Richard Williamson.


CONCLUSION

In conclusion, while a façade of holiness may last momentarily, further investigation should always be undertaken when dealing with non-mainstream Catholic organizations. A label of "Traditional or Conservative Catholic" is no guarantee of a community that holds true values, beliefs, and practices. Politics have been intertwined with the Faith as taught by Christ as far back as Constantine. Sadly, few of this generation understand this. Worse yet, many have been victims of revisionist history both within and outside of the church. Few understand what fascism means — and it is even being touted by those who desire a "Catholic" monarchy. These days due diligence is necessary before joining any group especially those making claims for the state and final disposition of your soul.


EPILOGUE

Is Catholic social teaching leading to revolution?

Could the quest for Catholic order and the restoration of "Christendom" lead to —or justify— a revolution against the present international order of political and economic liberalism? Such might be the implication of Catholic Social Ethics, a recently publicized series of lectures supposedly written in 1953-1954 by Karol Wojtyla, almost 25 years before he became Pope John Paul II. As the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) summarized the document:


For greater detail see Note (29) to read the National Catholic Reporter article.


EDITOR'S REMARKS on EPILOGUE

This above analysis could be used as a Catholic basis for anti-capitalist uprisings. Such risings could be communist — or they could be fascist, given fascists' hatred of individualism, political liberalism, and unrestricted capitalism.

The Opus Dei priest Fr. John McCloskey provided a view of why a Catholic-inspired revolution might occur, in his futuristic look back from 2030:


Read McCloskey's entire story at this site: 2030: Looking Backwards (30). And note that as McCloskey explained to the Boston Globe in 2003, he thinks that violence may be inevitable to put America back on the right track. As the Globe's writer Charles Pierce reported:


Such is the polite face of Catholic neo-fascism in the 21st century.

May God have Mercy on His Elect — we pray!









Published on July 22, 2006- Feast of Mary, Mother of Mercy - European Union