Monsignor Weninger's Masonic Doctoral Thesis at the Gregoriana

Monsignor Michael Heinrich Weninger, ex-diplomat, priest, Vatican employee, high-level Freemason.

By P. Paolo Maria Siano*

Wisdom. Strength. Beauty. The title of the dissertation by Monsignor Michael Heinrich Weninger, of which I have already written here, is on the reconciliation of the Catholic Church and regular Freemasonry (Tesi Gregoriana – Series Spirituality, GBP, Rome 2019, p. 523). Now I present and comment on some points of this doctoral thesis, which is taken entirely for the regular English (United Grand Lodge of England, UGLE) and Anglophile Freemasonry (e.g. the Grand Lodge of Austria, GLvÖ). Monsignor Weninger reveals an interesting background:

When the then Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University (P. Francois-Xavier Dumortier, 2010–2016) learned that Monsignor Weninger was preparing a book on Freemasonry, he suggested that he come to the Gregoriana as a doctoral student and submit his work as a dissertation at the Institute of Spirituality (p. 5).

Cui prodest? Who benefits?

Monsignor Weninger thanks high dignitaries of the Grand Lodge of Austria (GLvÖ) and the United Grand Lodge of Germany (VGLvD), who have enabled him to consult material for his research. Among these, I would like to refer only to Michael Kraus ("M.K."), former Grand Master of the GLvÖ, Georg Semler ("G.M."), current Grand Master of the GLvÖ, and Christoph Bosbach ("C.B."), Grand Master of the VGLvD. He also thanks Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran for accompanying his work and the spiritual confreres who are also brothers in Freemasonry (p. 5-6). Monsignor Weninger does not explicitly disclose his Masonic membership, which was published on an English Masonic website back in 2014.

Monsignor Weninger asserts the compatibility of the Church and regular Freemasonry against what he calls prejudices and misunderstandings. He considers that the Church was unable to distinguish between regular and irregular Freemasonry (p. 8-9); he wants to show ("objectively") that there are foundations for a complete reconciliation between the Church and regular Freemasonry (p. 10, pp. 451-453); true regular Freemasonry which is of the three degrees (p. 14) such as the UGLE and the GLvÖ; Freemasonry is not a secret society, its rituals are known (p. 27) and have nothing to do with satanic, alchemical, magical or esoteric rites (p. 28, p. 63); and finally Freemasonry is neither a religion nor a religious community and has no dogmas (p. 436).

These statements do not convince me.

Unfortunately, Monsignor Weninger does not publish the rituals of the Grand Lodge of Austria in the appendix, nor does he explain them in more detail. Apart from that, the fact that he published his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Spirituality (and not at the Institute of History) suggests that Freemasonry is after all a form of spirituality. This, in turn, reveals something of the intrinsical relationship between regular Freemasonry-esoteric magic, which the author tries in vain to deny or at least minimize. Nevertheless, he leaves some clues here and there, when he admits, for example:

• The Masonic ritual makes the inner transformation of man experimental and gives no religious or confessional teaching (p. 30).
• 
  

• The Masonic Mystery is the individual and ritual experience of the Freemason in the Masonic Temple (p. 31-32).
• 
  

• Symbolically, the Masonic Lodge extends from east to west, from north to south, from the earth to the sky and from the earth's surface to its center (p. 33).
• 
  

Well, the center of the earth.

Then Monsignor Weninger explains that the Freemason frees himself from the profane world in the ritual and enters the holy place ("into a fanum", p. 33). Every Freemason sees in the formula of the Great Builder of the Universe, the name by which the Freemasons call God, the God of his religion (p. 33, p. 42). From a metaphysical point of view, I observe that the Freemason can contribute through its rituals (as Monsignor Weninger leads us to understand) to the perfection of humanity and to the harmony and preservation of the universe (p. 33) and thus perform sectarian service or of divine or demiurgic (gnotic) action within an initiating, symbolic, symbolic, symbolic framework. Masonic magic?

Monsignor Weninger presents the three degrees from an anthropological point of view as symbolic stages of the improvement of man between brothers and in the world (p. 35–37) and admits that Kant's Enlightenment has to this day influenced the philosophical foundations of The Masonic self-image (p. 84) and that there are Freemasons (also from the GLvÖ) who regard Freemasonry as a daughter of the Enlightenment (p. 85).

Weninger mit dem Großmeister der Großloge von Österreich bei der Vorstellung seines Buches im Februar in Wien

According to the author, pure Freemasonry was infiltrated by occultists in the mid-18th century, but it had nothing to do with Rosicrucians, magic, etc. (Pp. 91-96). Weninger claims that modern Masonic scholars also rule out that it comes from the spirit and from the Rosicrucian, Kabbalistic, Templar tradition (p. 108). According to the author, "esotericism" is an experience and inner cognition about one's self, a process of inner transformation (pp. 109–111) that some Freemasons can also understand in a mystical sense (p. 111). Weninger admits that Masonic rituals are rich in "hermetic thinking" (p. 110). Then he speaks of occultism and magic (pp. 111–112), and that the Catholic Church recognizes legitimate and effective magical acts ("The Catholic Church knows legitimate acts of magical-mysterious and thus magically effective acts", p. 113) such as exorcism and blessing ("exorcisms", "formula of blessings", p. 113), and this "magic was not and is not condemned by the Catholic Church", (p. 113).

The Author Doesn't Succeed in Convincing

If these were true, we would have the paradox that the Catholic Freemason (even a priest) would not conjure if he worked in the Lodge ("The Brotherhood of the Freemasons, on the other hand, knows no magical rituals, it does not practice magic, just as occultism has no place in Masonic work", p. 113), but he would conjure if he participated in special rites or blessings of the Catholic Church (or celebrates if he is a priest)! This is an example of the reversal and unification of opposites that fascinates initiatic circles. Weninger affirms that Masonic rituals "shape a spiritual, intellectual identity, not a free or occult one" (p. 114); that the Masonic initiation is simply the admission of a candidate to Freemasonry and does not refer to the ancient mysteries and has no religious or mystical meaning, although some Freemasons (here the author Quotes G. Imhof, Kleine Werklehre) are convinced of this (p. 178).

Later in the book, the author denies that the Masonic constitutions of Anderson (1723) contain religious relativism or indifferentism (p. 240).

I repeat, on the other hand, that the initiation ritual and the super-confessional religiosity of Freemasonry together represent a special form of magic: the Masonic rites (e.g. enlightenment, death-rebirth) with symbols and invocations to the Great Builder of the Universe (in which every Freemason sees the God of his religious or initiatical "confession") for the purpose of personal communion and universalness, which were neither revealed by the biblical God nor confirmed or proposed by the Catholic tradition (dogmatic, doctrinaire, liturgical and canonical). It is the claim, as in the biblical narrative of the tower building at Babel, which is not by chance at least implicitly praised by English Freemasons of the early 18th century to ascend to heaven. In addition, regular Freemasons, including the German-speaking area, testify to the illuminator and esoteric nature of Freemasonry and make it clear that Freemason mysticism encompasses those "sciences" and "traditions" (hermetics, kabbalah, magic ...) from which Weninger tries to relieve pure Freemasonry. Finally, I am convinced that among the sources of regular Freemasonry cited by the author (p. 497–498) there are some (which are withheld from us "uninitiated") which contain the deeper reasons for the incompatibility between church and Freemasonry.

* Father Paolo Maria Siano is a member of the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI); the doctor of the Church is considered one of the best Catholic connoisseurs of Freemasonry, to whom he has dedicated several standard works and numerous essays. Katholisches.info published by him:

• 
  
• Brother." Peter Stiegnitz of the Grand Lodge of Austria (1936-2017)
• The "Fall Weninger" – ex-diplomat, priest, kurialer, Freemason
  the Freemasonry explained by a Grand Master
• The knockers can expect initiation and gnosis at the Masonic League
• Baron Yves Marsaudon - A High-Level Mason in the Order of Malta
• The Lodge Quatuor Coronati, the Grand Master and a Beggar Brother
• "Catholic who joins Lodge is excommunicated" – Church historian Paolo Siano on church and Freemasonry
• Short answer to a Grand Master of Freemasonry
• Was Karl Rahner A Freemason?

translation: Giuseppe
Nardi Picture: Catholic Church Carinthia/Freemason Wiki (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

The Case of Vatican Employee -- Msgr Weninger, Ex-Diplomat, Priest, Curia Official, Freemason

Book presentation with Msgr. Weninger on February 12 in Vienna; next to him Georg Semler, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Austria, and on the far left the publisher Georg Löcker - fellow lodge brothers.

Von P. Paolo Maria Siano*

[Katholisches] In 1982 Michael Heinrich Weninger (born 1951 in Wiener Neustadt) joined the diplomatic service of the Republic of Austria, where he had a brilliant career. Among other things, he was from 1993 to 1997 head of the Austrian embassy in Belgrade and from 2008 to 2009 in Sarajevo. [1] Weninger, who has been a widower since 2009, was ordained a priest by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn in Vienna on June 24, 2011. Msgr. Weninger is also a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.


In October 2014, the website of the East Lancashire Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons (English masonry was founded by the masters of the United Grand Lodge of England - UGLE) announced that a few days earlier, three ceremonies were held in Austria in the presence of an English Masonic delegation Installation by masters. The ceremonies took place in two boxes of the Mark Master Masons (MMM) [2] - in the St. Margaret's Lodge of MMM and the New Quarries Lodge of MMM, which is the oldest English-speaking Mark Master Mason Lodge in Austria - and in a Royal-Ark-Marine Lodge (RAM) held at the New Shores Lodge of RAM. [3] These three Austrian lodges with English names are associated with English Freemasonry and use rituals in English.

In each of these three lodges the "Brother" Msgr. Michael Weninger ("Bro. Rev. Michael Weninger") as chaplain for 2014–2015, who even celebrated a commemorative Mass on the fifth anniversary of the opening of the New Quarries Lodge and St. Margaret’s Lodge. 500 Freemasons of all obediences were present at the Mass. The Masonic website adds that “Bro. Rev. Michael ”(Bro. Stands for “brother ”, that's how the Freemasons call themselves) is well qualified for the position of lodge chaplain, since he lives in the Vatican and works as a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue:

"Since he lives in the Vatican as a member of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue but works in Rome."

Anyone who knows a little about Masonic matters knows that Msgr. Weninger, in order to be appointed chaplain of a lodge (or rather three lodges), had been initiated as a Mason of the first degree (apprentice) years before, then had to be transferred to the second degree (journeyman) before finally moving to the third degree, the master degree. Then he must have climbed to the higher grades, first as a master mason, then as a Royal Ark Mariner. It cannot be ruled out that he completed other “side degrees”.


It is therefore likely that Msgr. Weninger became a Mason even before he was ordained. I remember years ago someone mentioned the case of a former Austrian diplomat who had joined the Roman Curia as a priest and was considered a member of Freemasonry. It is only now that I have no doubt that this information is factual. And so we come to our days.

On Wednesday, February 12, 2020, Msgr. Michael Heinrich Weninger in Vienna in the presence of Georg Semler, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Austria (GLvÖ), presented his 500-page book “Lodge und Altar. On the Reconciliation of the Catholic Church and Regular Freemasonry.” In it he claims (I summarize):

that the Church's rejection of Freemasonry was motivated more by political than religious reasons;
that the Church was unable to distinguish between regular and irregular Freemasonry;
that the freemasons of regular freemasonry (e.g. the UGLE, the GLvÖ etc.) are not excommunicated
and that you can be Catholic and “regular” Freemason.

Msgr. Weninger even sent his book to Pope Francis, Cardinal Schönborn and various Vatican figures. Grand Master Semler praised the book as an important step towards reconciliation between the Church and Freemasonry. [4]

The Freemasons and Msgr. Weninger hope to meet with the Holy Father or with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. [5]

Dialogue with members of the Catholic hierarchy is not new to Austrian Freemasonry. From 1968 to 1983 the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Franz König, was the protagonist of the dialogues with representatives of Austrian, Swiss and West German Freemasonry, which culminated in the 1970 Lichtenau Declaration in favor of the compatibility of the Catholic Church and regular Freemasonry. It states that the latter is not a danger, which is why excommunication should  be lifted.

Later, the German bishops in 1980 and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981 and 1983 reiterated the incompatibility between the church and the lodge, and that was not for political but for doctrinal reasons, after Masonic writings by members.

Another interesting novelty is that the book by Msgr. Weninger is based on his dissertation, which he submitted to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, with which he received his doctorate and which was published by this university in November 2019. That is its title: “Wisdom. Strength. Beauty. On the reconciliation of the Catholic Church and regular Freemasonry, Tesi Gregoriana (Spiritualità series, 16), PUG 2019, p. 523.

The case of Msgr. Weninger raises a few questions and considerations:

1) Why did this website of the English masonry reveal the Masonic status of Msgr. Weninger, who is so well integrated into the Vatican? Was it an accidental carelessness or a clever display?

2) How long is Msgr Weninger's membership in Freemasonry in the Archdiocese of Vienna and the Roman Curia?

3) How is Msgr. Weninger's canonical position affected by his "coming out"?

4) How do Freemasonic prelates behave towards their subordinates who express amazement and concern about the affiliation of clerics and lay Catholics to Freemasonry?

5) Can the so-called "Masonic regularity" be a criterion for the canonical rehabilitation of Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry? In fact, I find a certain contradiction with the topic of “Masonic regularity.” For example, the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) recognizes the Grand Lodge of Austria (GLvÖ) as "regular", which in turn recognizes the Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) as "regular", which the UGLE does not recognize. Now, what credibility can the Grand Lodge of Austria claim before the Roman Curia, since it recognizes the Grand Orient of Italy as "regular", which is clearly a secular and esoteric Freemasonry with a long anti-clerical tradition?

6) Austrian Freemasonry wants a dialogue with the Pope, the Prefect of Faith and other personalities from the Vatican. Good. I hope, however, that the Austrian Freemasonry will not only talk to Msgr. Weninger's book, but also the rituals of the three degrees of apprentice, journeyman and master; the rituals of the high degree rites to which the masters of the Grand Lodges of Austria have access and the esoteric and initiatic writings that are reserved for the Masonic masters (there are, I know that very well).

Only careful review of such extensive documentation can enable ecclesiastical authorities and Catholic scholars to make a real and objective judgment about Freemasonry.

Finally, for reasons of space, I limit myself to this brief information: Regarding the English Master Mark Masonry (MMM)  and the Royal Ark Mariner (the RAM level is reserved for MMM), which is connected to the above-mentioned United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) I know with certainty that even bricklayers of these degrees, who are apparently "biblical", are able to maintain esotericism. The same thing happens in Austrian Freemasonry. Therefore, the statements by Msgr. Weninger is anything but convincing.

* Father Paolo Maria Siano belongs to the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI); the church historian with a doctorate is considered one of the best Catholic experts in Freemasonry, to whom he has dedicated several standard works and numerous essays.


1] Delicate and responsible missions, since from 1991 to 1995 there was war in the crumbling Yugoslavia. This also applies to operations in Sarajevo, the formal capital of the EU protectorate of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the de facto capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats have been united since 1996.

Austrian diplomacy emphatically supported this compulsory situation, as if trying to force “fraternity” in an experiment.

2]  The Mark Masonry originated in England in 1756. This makes the mark master degree one of the oldest freemason degrees. It was only introduced in Austria in 2009. 

[3] The Royal-Ark Mariner-Logen (RAM) and the Mark Master Masonry (MMM) are part of the Anglo-Saxon high degree system, with the RAM standing above the MMM. Both MMM and RAM degrees accept masters of all creeds, while certain obediences only allow "Trinitarian Christians".

 [4] The Grand Master said: "This book is very important. Even if there is practically no longer any conflict with the Church, we in the Grand Lodge have a vital interest in making a gesture of reconciliation. ”

 [5] A few days ago, the online Freemason encyclopedia Freemason Wiki published a detailed review of the Weninger book and the following note: "How important Weninger's book is taken internationally is shown by two events: Christoph Bosbach, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodges of Germany, on the book presentation" traveled specially from Catholic Cologne ". And more importantly, when the Pontifical Gregorian University learned of his research there, he explicitly encouraged the author to submit the book to her as a dissertation. The Gregoriana is run by Jesuits; the current Pope Francis is also one. "

Baron Yves Marsaudon: A High Ranking Freemason in the Order of Malta

Yves Marsaudon (1899-1985), High-Level Mason and Minister of the Order of Malta.

Edit: doing some housework as it were, and posting up some articles whose information didn't seem to get much circulation beyond Infowars and Alex Jones' resident Freemason, Leo Zagami., who discussed Msgr. Weninger. It sure looks like someone publicly declared that Masons aren't excommunicated and no one said anything about it after, at least not anyone in authority.

Update: Well, Complicit Clergy had an article up on him in February when this first came out., and this from a normie agglomerator site run by "academics".

by Father Paolo M. Siano FFI*

On 2 February 2017, the journalist Riccardo Cascioli summed up the contents of a letter from Pope Francis sent to Raymond Cardinal Burke, Patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta, on 1 December. In it, he issued "a call for vigilance against the affiliation of Members of the Order of Malta to Freemasonry and to take decisive action to stop those responsible for the distribution of contraceptives through aid programmes in poor countries." It seems that the letter does not speak directly of "freemasonry", but of "associations, movements and organizations that are against the Catholic faith or of relativistic imprint". Cascioli would do well to see at least an implicit reference to Freemasonry.

I was asked: "How is it possible for a Freemason to enter the Order of Malta?" I must confess that I have no further knowledge of the current situation in the Order of Malta, to which I wish in any case that they prosper in complete Catholic fidelity to their religious and charitable charism.

Yves Marsaudon, 1926 entry into the lodge, 1946 to the Order of Malta.

What I know with certainty, however, is that, in the distant past, some cases of dual membership in the Order of Malta and Freemasonry have become known. Probably the most sensational case was that of Baron Yves Marie Antoine Marsaudon (1899-1985). Important details to get to know his life and his thinking, are present in his books "L'Ocuménisme vu par un Franc-Maon de Tradition" (The Ecumenism from the Point of View of a Traditional Freemason, Editions Vitiano, Paris 1964), "De l'initiation masonnique l'orthodoxie chrétienne" (From the Masonic Initiation to Christian Orthodoxy, Dervy, Paris 1965) and "Souvenirs et Réflexions. Un Haut Dignitarie de la Franc-Ma'onnerie révéle des secrets" (Memories and Thoughts. A high dignitary of Freemasonry reveals secrets, Editions Vitiano, Paris 1976).

Growing up in a Catholic family, Yves is only vaguely a believer and at the age of 16-17 and falls into a philosophical and religious indifference. In 1926 he was accepted as a Freemason in the Grand Lodge of France (GLDF). At the time, he was a young entrepreneur who worked in trade with South America. In 1936 he received the 33rd and highest degree of the Old and Adopted Scottish Rite (AASR). In 1937 he became a member of the High Council, the highest authority of the AASR in France, to which the Grand Lodge is attached.

As a high-level Freemason, he turned his back on the Catholic Church and converted to the Orthodox Church in France. He described himself as a Freemason of the (Freemasonic) "tradition" and as a "spiritualist".

In 1964, the High Council of the Old and Adopted Scottish Rite (AASR) split. A group of 33rd-degree freemasons established a new High Council of the AASR for France and joined the Grande Loge Nationale Francoise (GLNF), the only Masonic obedience recognized as regular by English Freemasonry. Marsaudon 33° belongs to this group that crosses. Since this year, he has been a member of the new High Council of the GLNF. He is even (perhaps 1976 or earlier) appointed Sovereign Grand Comtur, the highest honorary officer of the High Council of the Old and Adopted Scottish Rite.

In 1946, at a time when Marsaudon was already a 33rd-grade Freemason, he joined the Sovereign Order of Malta. As Magistral Grand Cross Knight in gremio religionis, he was directly under the leadership of the Order in Rome. In the same year he became Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister of the Order in France. He maintained close diplomatic contacts with the then Apostolic Nuncio in Paris, Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII and Saint. In 1951, after criticism of the "integralist party", as the staunch Freemason Marsaudon calls his critics of the Roman Curia, he resigned from his post as Plenipotentiary Minister of the Order of Malta, but remained its Emeritus Minister. This at least until 1976, the year in which his "memoirs" appear in book form (perhaps longer). In this book he revealed that he was not the only Masonic Knight of Malta.

Ecumenism from the point of view of a Freemason

Let's take a quick look at some of the ideas of the Freemason Marsaudon, which he presented in his books. In the aforementioned book of 1976, he describes himself as a pupil of the 33rd-grade Freemason, Oswald Wirth, whom he calls a "Great Initiate". Wirth (1860-1943) is an occult Freemason who had moved from the Grand Orient of France to the Grand Lodge (GLDF). In the same book by Marsaudon 33° there are various esoteric images typical of the books of his master Wirth. Marsaudon is convinced of the Templar and Rosicrucian roots of modern Freemasonry and claims that the Rosicrucian is "Christian" and "cabalistic". In his 1964 book, he praises the thinking of Teilhard de Chardin (p. 60).

Marsaudon writes that the Church is a "prisoner of dogmatic texts". To underline this assertion, he describes the situation of a remarried divorcee in a way that is as exaggerated as it is erroneous, but sentimental: "he must not be admitted to the sacraments and will die without absolution, unless he denies the mother of his children ...". Therefore Marsaudon justifies the divorce and cites as positive examples the Protestant "churches" and the Orthodox Church, while in the Roman Church he sees only dogmatic and inhuman intransigence (p. 63f).

Marsaudon despises the primacy of the Roman Pope and shares the view of André Gide (1869–1951), an aberrosexual Nobel prize winner from Calvinist upbringing: "What counts is not to be Catholic or Protestant, but simply to be a Christian".

Marsaudon makes fun of certain dogmas, such as Hell (p. 65). He rejects the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, as well as the mediation role of Mary and the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith and morality (p. 85f)

Marsaudon sees ecumenism in the Masonic sense as over-dogmatic and relativistic. As late as 1976, he wished that Roman Catholicity would open up to the equality of all Christian denominations ... Marsaudon asserts that "the Orthodox Church is closest to the Gospels, while the Vatican must bow to Freemasonry and take a step towards rapprochement, not the other way around" (p. 363).

Marsaudon considers himself tolerant of philosophical and metaphysical questions. He lets a certain panvitalism seep through when he declares to respect every way of life (environment, oceans, plants, animals) because "life is one". He is against abortion, but accepts contraception. He also reveals esoteric convictions when he claims that the animals are our "unknown superiors", a term typical of the hierarchy of the esoteric movement of Martinism, and that "we must reclaim paradise on earth" (p. 380ff).

The Marsaudon case is indeed irritating: a 33rd-degree Freemason is granted admission to the Order of Malta and given a high dignity that guarantees him diplomatic immunity, while at the same time advocating divorce (and implicitly advocating Communion for the remarried divorcees, until he eventually even transitions to the Orthodox Church) and advocates contraception, which is anti-Catholic and anti-Roman , and who acts as an anti-dogmatic and relativistic ecumenist as well as an esoteric animal and environmentalist.

Whether there is anyone in the Order of Malta today who shares all or part of Marsaudon's heretical beliefs, I do not know. But even if this were the case, I would not be surprised by the current ecclesial situation.

*Father Paolo M. Siano is a priest of the Order of the Franciscans of immaculates. He is considered one of the best Catholic connoisseurs of Freemasonry.

Photo: Corrispondenza Romana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Coronavirus Pretext: Does Spain's Left Dream of Dictatorship and Persecution of the Church?

Cardinal Canizares in the sights of a radical left that many Spaniards suspect are dreaming of dictatorship and persecution of the church – as in 1936.

(Madrid) In Spain, parts of the left yearn for the anti-church Popular Front climate of 1936. The pretext and instrument of Church persecution today is the Corona crisis. The left-wing government effectively repealed parts of the constitution, including the right to freedom of religion, thereby massively incorporating the public, social and private lives of citizens. It took a few weeks, but more and more people are realizing that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (PSOE) and other members of the socialist PSOE and radical left-wing Podemos government have justified the radical measures with absurd claims. Statements that were claimed to have been made by government representatives of other countries. The suspicion of central authorities and hidden puppet masters make the rounds. The result is increasingly vociferous protests throughout Spain, which the media in Central Europe do not report. This selective reporting, too, is increasingly aroused suspicion and mistrust. The lasnt barrel to overflow was brought on by the attack against Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llovera.

Display

The political left has targeted Cardinal Canizares who is being accused of violating the Corona requirements. In 2014, shortly before the first Family Synod, Pope Francis promoted him to archbishop of Valencia and thus away from the Roman Curia. Previously, he was Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments by Pope Benedict XVI. Before Benedict appointed him to the Roman Curia, he was Bishop of Avila from 1992 to 1996, then Archbishop of Granada until 2002, and finally Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain until 2008. As such, he was called the "Blade of Toledo" because of his clear language.

The political left is crying out for an investigation into the Archbishop of Valencia, whose "crime" is to open the gates of a church on 10 May and to have blessed his episcopal See with a merciful image of Our Lady at the threshold.

Hue and cry was made that the Cardinal, called "the little Ratzinger" in his Roman time, had violated the Corona emergency measures imposed by the Socialist government.

The Archbishop's office replied that there had been no injury. Nevertheless, the Archbishop was reported and an investigation was launched by the city government.

Every second Sunday in May, it is a tradition in Valencia to celebrate the feast of the Mare de Déu dels Desamparats, according to the Catalan title under which Our Lady is invoked. In Spanish, the Virgen de los desamparados is  Our Lady of the Abandoned in English. She is the Patroness of the city.

The Cardinal with the festively dressed image of Our Lady on May 10, 2020

The year 1409

This devotion and feast date back to 24 February 1409, when the priest Joan Gilabert Jofré, a Mercedarian, saw children on their way to the cathedral mocking and tormenting a homeless mentally ill man. Father Jofré, who had been ordained a priest in 1375, had spent his life following the charism of his order, with efforts to buy Christians out of Islamic slavery. When he returned to Valencia, he saw another need. He recognized the double need for protection of the man who was harassed by the children. In his homily in the cathedral, he denounced the gratuitous, irrational and cruel persecution of vulnerable, innocent mentally ill people and decided to form a brotherhood to serve people like the man whom the children had mocked as "El loco" before his eyes.

In 2010, the Brotherhood celebrated its 600th anniversary

With his Society, founded in 1410, the Lloable Confraria de la Verge Maria dels Innocents, the "Blessed Society of the Virgin Mary of the Innocents", he established the world's first institution for people with mental illnesses and placed it under the special protection of Our Lady in 1414.

Father Jofré and members of the Society, which consisted equally of women and men, along with some priests, erected a chapel in the hospice in honour of Our Lady of the Abandoned. When the chapel was completed, according to tradition, three young men in pilgrim clothes came and offered to create a picture of Our Lady within three days, if they were given a room for it that no one was allowed to enter. This happened, but there was no noise from the room. When nothing happened on the fourth day, the brothers opened the door and found in it the honored image of Our Lady, at whose feet two innocent children can be seen. But the young pilgrims had disappeared. Then the blind and paralyzed wife of the fraternity member who lived in the hospital and had taken her in, was healed. The image of Our Lady with which Cardinal Canizares blessed the city, is therefore said to be el feren el àngels, it was "made by the angels".

Soon the Society also took care of street children, then also homeless sailors and prostitutes. The Fraternity institution became a model for similar foundations, the first of which was established in the Iberian Peninsula in 1438 in Barcelona and in Spanish America, in Mexico City in 1567. In Valencia, Father Jofré's hospital became the city's general hospital.

In 1489, the image of Our Lady was transferred to the city's cathedral. In 1652, the construction of his own basilica in his honour, which was consecrated in 1667, was established directly adjacent to it. The Basilica of mare de Déu dels Desemparats, a collegiate monastery, is connected to the Cathedral of Valencia by a bridge. In 1923, the image of grace was crowned in the presence of King Alfonso XIII and the Apostolic Nuncio on behalf of Pope Pius XI. In the unofficial anthem of the city, the Mother of God of the Abandoned is sung.

The Basilica of the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats, built for the image of Our Lady

The Rage of the Socialists

On the second Sunday in May, on her feast, a procession from the basilica to the cathedral, a distance of 200 meters, traditionally takes place with the great participation of the people. Because of the coronavirus, it had to be cancelled this year. Cardinal Canizares therefore celebrated the Mass behind closed doors, but at the end of the celebration he stood with the image of Our Lady at the threshold of the basilica and blessed the city, while a canon sang the national anthem of the Autonomous Community of Valencia.

That was enough to turn the left-wing city government against him. It launched an investigation to determine whether the cardinal had violated the Corona regulations. Video footage of the event shows that the cardinal did not leave the basilica with the image of Our Lady. Meanwhile, rumors were spread in the city, which could be refuted by the archdiocese thanks to the direct video transmission. But it was of no use. The Socialist City Councillor Aamen Cano (PSOE), responsible for civil protection [Public Safety?], accused the Cardinal of "fraud" because he had blessed the city, even though he had no "permission" to do so. The Cardinal had acted "irresponsibly" by opening the basilica. This was particularly serious because he acted "with intent and treason."

On the instructions of the city government, the basilica was closed by the city police.

The Cardinal's Opinion

Cardinal Canizares responded with clear words. In a statement, he asked the city council:

"Why are you lying and complaining?"

What law or provision prohibits opening the door of a church?

"In all clarity, truth and firmness, and with the freedom that you seem to want to restrict and suppress, I am sorry to tell you that you are lying without mitigating reasons, while at the same time informing you that legality has been faithfully respected and strictly kept by the Church."

The Cardinal informed the city council and its comrades:

"If you had been in the basilica [what Cano would have been able to do as a city councillor] or if you had watched the broadcast of the Mass on television, you would know what happened and what I said."

And further:

"For my part, you are forgiven, and I am sure that the Virgin will forgive you too, because you did not know what you had done on this occasion, and I ask the Valencians, most of whom are not with you, to forgive you and to ignore your words and gestures. The damage you wanted to do has been done against you, even if in some media the damage and slander persists and the lie is spread: this does not contribute to the common good, which has to be the basis for every policy and everyone in politics. This creates damage and hatred."

And even more clearly:

"I note that Marxist ideology is still at large: lies are a political weapon based on the motto: the worse, the better."

And a serious reminder:

"Do not forget that in the countries of our region and in almost all the countries of the world, an inalienable fundamental right is recognised, which is also guaranteed by our Spanish Constitution: the right to religious freedom, which you seem to disregard because you want to dictate what you can and cannot do in a church. Think about it and learn to respect this inalienable and inviolable right."

Das Year 1936

For those who do not know what happened in Spain in 1936, a brief review: on September 14 of that year, Pope Pius XI received 500 Spanish refugees who had to leave their homeland because of the persecution of the Church by the Popular Front. The Pope expressed his sorrow at the persecution and his admiration for the persecuted and the mistreated, especially for those Catholics who had suffered martyrdom.

Manuel de Irujo, Christian Democrat, Basque nationalist, 1937 Minister of Justice of the People's Front

In order not to let the opposite side of General Franco, who is still hated by the political left today, be quoted as Manuel de Irujo (1891–1981), a Catholic from Navarre, representative of the Basque National Party, who was Minister of Justice of the Republican People's Front government in 1937. On 7 January 1937, in Valencia, because of the struggles at that time in the capital of Republican Spain, he presented a memoir:

"The de facto situation of the Church throughout the pro-government area, with the exception of the Basque Country, is as follows:

– All altars, paintings and cult objects were destroyed with a few exceptions, most in a vile way.

– All churches have been closed for the cult, which is totally and absolutely reviled.

The majority of the churches of Catalonia were set on fire, as if it were a normal thing.

– The institutions and the official organs of the state have confiscated bells, chalices, ciboria, candelabra and other cult objects, and material has been extracted from their melting for war or industrial purposes. 

All monasteries were evacuated and the religious life in them was eliminated. The buildings, the cult objects and goods were looted, burned, occupied or demolished.

The priests and religious were arrested, imprisoned and executed, thousands of them without trial. These are facts that continue to happen today, not only in rural areas where they were hunted and brutally killed, but also in cities. Hundreds of arrests have been made in Madrid, Barcelona and the other major cities for no reason other than being priests or religious.

– An absolute ban was imposed on the private expression of religious representations and cult objects. The police carry out house searches, turn apartments upside down and dig into intimate, personal and family life, destroy statues, pictures, religious writings and everything associated with or reminiscent of the cult with ridicule and violence."

Call against Pedro Sanchez's left-wing government: "No to oppression. No to dictatorship"

Meanwhile, "freedom, freedom" calls are making protests against the government's radical measures, the restriction of fundamental rights, the persecution of the people, and the impression of remote control by the vaccination cartel around Bill Gates. The media in Central Europe do not report on this. In Spain, there is concern that parts of the political left are once again dreaming of dictatorship and the persecution of the Church.

A video of the protests against the government's radical measures:

Text: Giuseppe
Nardi Picture: MiL/Wikicommons/Youtube/Twitter (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG