Aug 28, 2011

Spiritual Integrity - What it Really Looks Like


Aug 21, 2011

Death of a Hidden Gay Icon





See below for article detailing new evidence into the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjold

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the UN, seen here boarding a plane at Elizabethville, Congo 1961. He died in a plane crash not long after.

The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.
Dag Hammarskjold  
 
One of the remarkable figures of the 1960's, Dag Hammarrskjold is now widely known to be gay, but during his lifetime he kept his orientation hidden except to his closest friends. After his death, his diary was published as Markings, which became an instant spiritual classic and shocked his most intimate friends, who had no idea of the spiritual depths of this enigmatic figure. His death (by assassination) puts him in the company of such figures of the 1960's  as JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, with the same dark powers responsible for all.

"Hammarskjöld's death appears to have been part of an attempt (by the CIA and MI5) to prevent Katanga's mineral wealth from falling under communist control." Mail & Guardian




Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment. 


NEW evidence has emerged in one of the most enduring mysteries of United Nations and African history, suggesting that the plane carrying the UN secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjold, was shot down over Northern Rhodesia - now Zambia - 50 years ago, and the murder covered up by British colonial authorities.

A British-run commission of inquiry blamed the 1961 crash on pilot error and a later UN investigation largely rubber-stamped its findings. They ignored or played down witness testimony of villagers near the crash site that suggested foul play.

But residents on the western outskirts of the town of Ndola, Zambia, have described Hammarskjold's DC-6 being shot down by a second, smaller aircraft. They say the crash site was sealed off by Northern Rhodesian security forces the next morning, hours before the wreckage was officially declared found, and they were ordered to leave the area.

Aug 18, 2011

Pope In Spain: Good Catholics Use Condoms

No, Pope Benedict didn't really say that, but there are really interesting developments coming out of this trip for World Youth Day. Thanks to Bridget Mary's blog for alerting us to these developments. 

The poster below was to have appeared on billboards and buses across Spain, until municipal authorities, bowing under pressure from the Cardinal of Madrid, rescinded the permission.

 

Maybe it's just me, but there is something amusing about the way Catholics for Choice have taken Benedict's quite timid and tentative statement last year (If condoms are not "a real or moral solution ... in this or that case, they can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.") and run with it all the way to the goal post. Maybe this is the way change always comes to the church, timidly at first, with many reversals, fits and starts. Of course, as you can see from the press release below, Catholics for Choice's ingenious plan to place their slogan - Good Catholics Use Condoms - on billboards and buses throughout Spain during the Pope's visit, first met with approval, then censorship, thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Antonio Ruoco of Madrid.

 From Catholics For Choice Blog

Pope Arrives in Spain Amid Censorship Controversy

International Youth Coalition Seconds Archbishop’s Affirmation of Freedom of Expression
The World Youth Day 4 All coalition welcomed the remarks from Archbishop Braulio Rodriguez of Toledo, Spain, who pointed out that the Catholic World Youth Day celebration is taking place in a country where freedom of expression is protected. 

“Spain’s openness to freedom of expression is something Catholics for Choice took for granted when we arranged, months in advance, for the display of our Condoms4Life ads in Madrid’s transit system to coincide with World Youth Day,” said Marissa Valeri, a lead organizer of the coalition. “We were surprised, then, when the message ‘Good Catholics Use Condoms’ was deemed too offensive for Madrilenos. In reality, the best interests of the public was not the issue. Instead, it was a move made by ultraconservatives to stifle the many diverse voices of Catholics at World Youth Day, which should be a place where, as Archbishop Rodriguez affirmed, ‘we can all say what we want to say.’

The municipal authorities did a disservice to all visitors and to all Spaniards by stepping between the life-giving message that condoms save lives, on the one hand, and the individual’s right to make up his or her mind about that message, on the other.”

Condoms are apparently not the only topic that is too hot to handle in Madrid this August. Patrons at the Madrid public library have allegedly complained they were unable to access Web sites providing information on protests being organized against World Youth Day. 

One of the hallmarks of the Catholic tradition is unity in diversity. Like the World Youth Day 4 All coalition, the event itself is made up of participants from all over the world, people who may speak different languages and come from different cultures, but who find kinship on the level of faith. The church hierarchy obviously feels that Spain’s respect for freedom of expression gives them room to express their viewpoint—Archbishop Rodriguez even decries those who think that certain points of view are “more right than others.” Spain’s civic freedoms should be able to include the voices of the Catholic people—including those who support the use of condoms—as well as the perspectives of non-Catholics. Otherwise, the “world” part of World Youth Day goes missing, and those from a tiny, easily ruffled minority within the Catholic hierarchy and the Spanish authorities are the only ones celebrating. 

Luckily, diversity is not so easily squelched—the Condoms4Life message has been making headlines all week (see the blog, and pilgrims have encountered stickers and projections on walls around the city.

Aug 16, 2011

The Ascension of Sophia and the Mystery of our own Assumption



Just back from a very quiet 3 days in the country. School begins tomorrow. Here is  a photo of the lovely church of the Assumption in the small town of Bled, outside of Ljubjana, Slovenia.
Panorama of Church of the Assumption, Bled, Slovenia

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Bled: Part I




And here is a lovely gnostic meditation on the archetypal significance of the Assumption.




Rising into the Light


August 15th is the traditional date for the feast of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church and the Dormition of Mary in the Orthodox Church. The feast commemorates the assumption of Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. It was not until the year1950 that the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was made a dogma in the Roman Catholic Church, yet her feast goes back to the middle ages. According to C.G. Jung the proclamation by the Pope was accompanied by visionary revelations of the Blessed Virgin to himself and others. This suggests that the image of the Assumption of Mary relates to a phenomenon of the archetypal feminine in successive experiences of a revelatory nature. The story of the Ascension of Sophia, originating in the fourth century, predates the Feast of the Assumption by many centuries, and yet its imagery seems to be the archetype upon which later revelations about Mary are patterned. For this reason, it seems apt  as Gnostics, to celebrate the Ascension of Sophia, on the Sunday nearest the feast day of the Assumption. The story of Sophia in many ways prefigures the Marian myth that has grown throughout the history of Western civilization. Her image is the archetypal mystery that is closest to us in our terrestrial existence.

The story of Sophia is the story of our own soul. Her ascent follows her descent, but like our own journey, it is not an easy climb. The descent is like a lightning flash, but the ascent is a slow and winding path, like that of the Serpent of Wisdom on the Tree of Life. The Logos does not reach down and immediately pull Sophia out of the chaos of the lower worlds. Her assumption back into the Pleroma is a gradual and incremental process. The Redeemer raises her just a little at the first. She is aware that things are better, that her tormenters, the archons are farther from her, but she does not know who her helper is, nor can she see him. Eventually, after several incremental steps out of the chaos of matter, the Helper is revealed to her. She sees the Logos revealed in all his dazzling glory. At first she feels ashamed and covers herself with a veil, but when she sees the virile emanations of his light-power, she can hold back no longer and  rushes to his embrace. In their ecstatic reunion, a fountain of light-sparks pours forth between them, which showers the world with its redemptive seed to empower all of the exiled light of Sophia to return to the Height. With their reunion so consummated in the bridechamber of light he brings her finally into the Height and back to her aeon in the Pleroma.


Aug 14, 2011

Encouragment for those disappointed with the Church


 reposted from the blog of Leonardo Boff (most of the articles are in Spanish)



There is great disappointment with the institutional Catholic Church. A double emigration is happening: one is exterior, persons who simply leave the Church, and the other is interior, those who remain in the Church but who no longer feel that she is their spiritual home. They continue believing, in spite of the Church. 

It’s not for nothing. The present pope has taken some radical initiatives that have divided the ecclesiastic body. He chose a path of confrontation with two important episcopacies, the German and the French, when he introduced the Latin Mass. He articulated an obscure reconciliation with the Church of the followers of Lebfrevre; gutted the principal renewal institutions of Vatican Council II, especially ecumenism, absurdly denying the title of «Church» to those Churches that are not Catholic or Orthodox. When he was a Cardinal he was gravely permissive with pedophiles, and his concern with AIDS borders the inhumane. 

The present Catholic Church is submerged in a rigorous winter. The social base that supports the antiquated model of the present pope is comprised of conservative groups, more interested in the media, in the logic of the market, than in proposing an adequate response to the present grave problems. They offer a «lexotan-Christianity» good for pacifying anxious consciences, but alienated from the suffering humanity. 

It is urgent that we animate these Christians about to emigrate with what is essential in Christianity. It certainly is not the Church, that was never the object of the preaching of Jesus. He announced a dream, the Kingdom of God, in contraposition to the Kingdom of Caesar; the Kingdom of God that represents an absolute revolution in relationships, from the individual to the divine and the cosmic.

Christianity appeared in history primarily as a movement and as the way of Christ. It predates its grounding in the four Gospels and in the doctrines. The character of a spiritual path means a type of Christianity that has its own course. It generally lives on the edge and, at times, at a critical distance from the official institution. But it is born and nourished by the permanent fascination with the figure, and the liberating and spiritual message of Jesus of Nazareth. Initially deemed the «heresy of the Nazarenes» (Acts 24,5) or simply, a «heresy» (Acts 28,22) in the sense of a «very small group», Christianity was acquiring autonomy until its followers, according to The Acts of The Apostles (11,36), were called, «Christians». 

The movement of Jesus is certainly the most vigorous force of Christianity, stronger than the Churches, because it is neither bounded by institutions, nor is it a prisoner of doctrines and dogmas,founded in a specific cultural background. It is composed of all types of people, from the most varied cultures and traditions, even agnostics and atheists who let themselves be touched by the courageous figure of Jesus, by the dream he announced, a Kingdom of love and liberty, by his ethic of unconditional love, especially for the poor and the oppressed, and by the way he assumed the human drama, amidst humiliation, torture and his execution on the cross. Jesus offered an image of God so intimate and life-friendly that it is difficult to disregard, even by those who do not believe in God. Many people say, «if there is a God, it has to be like the God of Jesus». 

This Christianity as a spiritual path is what really counts. However, from being a movement it soon became a religious institution, with several forms of organization. In its bosom were developed different interpretations of the figure of Jesus, that were transformed into doctrines, and gathered into the official Gospels. The Churches, when they assumed institutional character, established criteria of belonging and of exclusion, doctrines such as identity reference and their own rites of celebration. Sociology, and not theology, explains that phenomenon. The institution always exists in tension with the spiritual path. The ideal is that they develop together, but that is rare. The most important, in any case, is the spiritual path. This has a future and animates the meaning of life. 

The problem of the Roman Catholic Church is her claim of being the only true one. The correct approach is for all the Churches to recognize each other, because they reveal different and complementary dimensions of the message of the Nazarene. What is important is for Christianity to maintain its character as a spiritual path. That can sustain so many Christian men and women in the face of the mediocrity and irrelevancy into which the present Catholic Church has fallen.

Ted Gunderson Former FBI Chief - Most Terror Attacks Are Committed By Our CIA And FBI

This video speaks for itself. Scary.

For even scarier (and more fascinating) stuff, see the Ted Gunderson Files.

Ted Gunderson passed away two weeks ago.
"Gunderson's former comrades in the FBI have long ago turned their back and shunned him because he's been willing to tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may. He's more interested in the truth, the welfare of the American people, and the saving of innocent lives than in being a comfortable retiree with Club Fed. His dedication to the principles of righteousness and justice has cost Gunderson dearly, more than the public will know. "

Aug 10, 2011

Penny Red: Panic on the streets of London.

Great read from young UK journalist Penny Red - for the context that is being left out of most media coverage of the UK Riots. USA - welcome to your future.


Penny Red: Panic on the streets of London.: "I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and..."

Aug 4, 2011

Gay Catholic Priest Breaks Silence Over Church Abuse of Power

Back from Switzerland and getting ready for new school year. Just received the following message/article from gay Catholic priest, Richard Wagner, about his newly published book, which looks like a 'must read.' I've just ordered it from Amazon.




Gay Catholic Priest Breaks Silence Over Church Abuse of Power

Richard Wagner, Ph.D., is the only Catholic priest in the world with a doctorate in human sexuality. He is a gay man and the author of the seminal work - Gay Catholic Priests; A Study of Cognitive and Affective Dissonance. The media firestorm that erupted after its publication and the backlash within his religious community because of its publication eventually destroyed his public priesthood.

Now Richard speaks out again. His latest book, SECRECY, SOPHISTRY AND GAY SEX IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH; The Systematic Destruction Of An Oblate Priest, provides an intimate and disturbing look into the unseemly inner-workings of the Catholic Church. It is a story of how this institution deals with dissent in its midst, and to what lengths it will go to silence a whistle-blower. It involves the highest levels of the Vatican bureaucracy, secret documents, corporate incompetence, canonical corruption, and institutionalized homophobia on an epic scale.

His account of ecclesiastical malfeasance is both timely and in sync with current trends in the popular culture, from the gay marriage debate to the revelation of rampant clergy sexual misconduct.

Richard's story reveals Church corruption, criminality and abuse of power that was once cloaked in secrecy to avoid detection. His is a story of a religious institution that will even violate its core principles to protect its public image. In other words, this is a story of a Church out of control.

At the same time Richard's story is unfolding an unimaginable scandal, involving hundreds of Catholic priests across the globe, is also brewing. Cardinals, bishops and provincials worldwide are furtively shuffling pedophile priest from one crime scene to another. Plus they are involved in a massive corporate cover up of their own crimes and those of their brother clergy.

While Richard is being singled out for 13 years of Church vitriol, public character assassination and communal shunning these same Church leaders and others are lying, prevaricating and sabotaging any effort to uncover the burgeoning clergy sexual abuse scandal that now rock the front pages of newspapers all over the world.

The public panic, among Church officials, exhibited toward Richard-a single up-front gay priest in their midst-is in stark contrast to their apathetic and anemic response to the systemic clergy sexual misconduct and abuse that engulfs them.

Richard has first-hand knowledge of this clergy abuse. He was repeatedly sexually molested by his superior as a 14-year-old boy in an Oblate seminary in southern Illinois.


Product Description from Amazon

For centuries homosexuals have been vilified and persecuted by the Catholic Church, but throughout all of its history the Church has had a very inconvenient secret. Many of its clergy and religious men and women, even those in the highest echelons of the Church, were and are homosexual. Little was known of the lives these religious people live until the publication, in 1981, of the groundbreaking, Gay Catholic Priests; A Study of Cognitive and Affective Dissonance.

I am the author of that study and I am a gay priest. But the media firestorm that erupted after its publication and the backlash within my religious community because of its publication eventually destroyed my public priesthood. The story of my 13-year battle with the Church to save my ministry exemplifies the spiritual isolation, emotional distress and ecclesiastical reprisals every gay priest most fears.
   
Secrecy, Sophistry And Gay Sex In The Catholic Church provides an intimate and disturbing look into the unseemly inner-workings of the Catholic Church. It is primarily a story about how this institution deals with dissent in its midst, but it also shows to what lengths the Church will go to silence a whistle-blower. What I am about to recount happened between 1981 and 1994. It involves the highest levels of the Vatican bureaucracy, secret documents, corporate incompetence, canonical corruption, and institutionalized homophobia on an epic scale.

From the Inside Flap

The publication of my dissertation broke the seal on the Vatican's gay secret. The press dubbed me "The Gay Priest," but my research and what it implies made patently clear that I wasn't the only gay priest. In fact, there is a sizable segment of the clergy population that is gay and these men are forced to live duplicitous lives of repression in secret.
  
The Church's single-minded effort to quash the emerging story and silence me showed that I needed to be "dealt with" in the most severe fashion; an example had to be made of me. If other priests started coming out of the closet, demanding to be treated with dignity and respect it would certainly undercut the entirety of Catholic sexual moral theology--there is no place for non-reproductive sexuality in that paradigm.
  
The irony is that at the same time my story was unfolding an unimaginable scandal, involving hundreds of Catholic priests across the globe, was also brewing. Cardinals, bishops and provincials worldwide were, and still are, furtively shuffling pedophile priest from one crime scene to another. They were, and still are, involved in a massive corporate cover up of their own crimes and those of their brother clergy.
  
While I am being singled out for 13 years of Church vitriol, public character assassination and communal shunning--my superiors claim that they are simply trying to protect the Church from scandal--these same Church leaders and others are lying, prevaricating and sabotaging any effort to uncover the burgeoning clergy sexual abuse scandal that would soon rock the front pages of newspapers all over the world.
  
The public panic, among Church officials, exhibited toward me--a single up-front gay priest in their midst--is in stark contrast to their apathetic and anemic response to the systemic clergy sexual abuse that engulfs them.
  
I am confident making the comparison between my struggle and the clergy sex abuse scandal, because I have first-hand knowledge of this abuse criminality. I was repeatedly sexually molested as a 14-year-old boy in an Oblate seminary in southern Illinois.
  
My story is the story of a Church that will go to any length, even to violate its core principles--Gospel values that form the fundamental tenets of faith--to protect its public image. In other words, this is a story of a Church out of control.