Declassification Of Federal Secrets Committee holds hearing on JFK Assassination Files

Associated Press

Published: May 20, 2025 at 2:23 PM

Updated: May 20, 2025 at 4:51 PM

Tags: Washington news, Robert F. Kennedy, Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets held a hearing Tuesday on “The JFK Files: Assessing over 60 Years of the Federal Government’s Obstruction, Obfuscation, and Deception.”

About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released in April, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate “must be disposed of” and acknowledged an obsession with killing him.

Many of the files had been made public previously, while others had not been digitized and sat for decades in federal government storage facilities. Their release continued the disclosure of historical investigation documents ordered by President Donald Trump.

Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving a speech celebrating his victory in California’s presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.

The files included pictures of handwritten notes by Sirhan.

“RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,” read the writing on the outside of an empty envelope, referring to Kennedy’s older brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. The return address was from the district director of the Internal Revenue Service in Los Angeles.

The National Archives and Records Administration posted 229 files containing the pages to its public website.

The release comes a month after unredacted files related to the assassination of President Kennedy were disclosed. Those documents gave curious readers more details about Cold War-era covert U.S. operations in other nations but did not initially lend credence to long-circulating conspiracy theories about who killed JFK.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy, commended the release.

“Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” the health secretary said in a statement.

Documents include interviews with assassin’s acquaintances

The files surrounding Robert Kennedy’s assassination also included notes from interviews with people who knew Sirhan from a wide variety of contexts, such as classmates, neighbors and coworkers. While some described him as “a friendly, kind and generous person” others depicted a brooding and “impressionable” young man who felt strongly about his political convictions and briefly believed in mysticism.

According to the files, Sirhan told his garbage collector that he planned to kill Kennedy shortly after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The sanitation worker, a Black man, said he planned to vote for Kennedy because he would help Black people.

“Well, I don’t agree. I am planning on shooting the son of a bitch,” Sirhan replied, the man told investigators.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century,” said there have always been conspiracies surrounding Robert Kennedy’s assassination. He believes the rollout of documents Friday would be similar to the JFK documents released earlier this year.

He cautioned that a review needs to be done carefully and slowly, “just in case there is a hint in there or there is an anecdote” that could shed more light on the assassination.

“I hope there’s more information,” Sabato said. “I’m doubtful that there is, just as I said when the JFK documents were released.”

Some redactions remained in the documents posted online Friday, including names and dates of birth. Last month, the Trump administration came under criticism over unredacted personal information, including Social Security numbers, during the release of records surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Trump, a Republican, has championed in the name of transparency the release of documents related to high-profile assassinations and investigations. But he has also been deeply suspicious for years of the government’s intelligence agencies. His administration’s release of once-hidden files opens the door for more public scrutiny of the operations and conclusions of institutions such as the CIA and the FBI.

Trump signed an executive order in January calling for the release of government documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King, who were killed within two months of each other.

Lawyers for Kennedy’s killer have said for decades that he is unlikely to reoffend or pose a danger to society, and in 2021, a parole board deemed Sirhan suitable for release. But Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the decision in 2022, keeping him in state prison. In 2023 , a different panel denied him release, saying he still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot Kennedy.

RFK still stands as a hero to American liberals

Kennedy remains an icon for liberals, who see him as a champion for human rights who also was committed to fighting poverty and racial and economic injustice. They often regard his assassination as the last in a series of major tragedies that put the U.S. and its politics on a darker, more conservative path.

He was a sometimes divisive figure during his lifetime. Some critics thought he came late to opposing the Vietnam War, and he launched his campaign for president in 1968 only after the Democratic primary in New Hampshire exposed President Johnson’s political weakness.

Kennedy’s older brother appointed him U.S. attorney general, and he remained a close aide to him until JFK’s assassination in Dallas. In 1964, he won a U.S. Senate seat from New York and was seen as the heir to the family’s political legacy.

___

Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, Eric Tucker in Washington, Juan Lozano in Houston, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, Corey Williams in Detroit and Haya Panjwani in Washington contributed to this report.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/politics/2025/05/20/live-declassification-of-federal-secrets-committee-holds-hearing-on-jfk-assassination-files/

AI Overview

Kennedy Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of ...

The surname Kennedy is an Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic surname Cinnéidigh. It means "helmeted chief" or "leader," derived from the Gaelic words "ceann" (head) and "éidigh" (armour, or sometimes translated as ugly). The name has been used as both a surname and a given name.

Here's a more detailed look at the etymology:

Gaelic Origin:

The surname Kennedy is a direct anglicization of the Gaelic surname Cinnéidigh.

Meaning:

The name is often translated as "helmeted chief" or "leader". The "ceann" part means "head" or "chief," and "éidigh" originally referred to armor, but has also been interpreted as "ugly".

Possible Origins:

Some scholars suggest the name could also be derived from "O Ceannéidigh," meaning "grandson of Ceannéidigh". Others propose a Scottish Gaelic connection, with "Mac Cinnèidigh" meaning "son of Cinnéidigh".

Famous Families:

The name is associated with a prominent Irish-American family, including former President John F. Kennedy. The name has also been used as a given name, becoming increasingly popular for girls in the US.

AI responses may include mistakes.

In the second prelude, for Chief- Gene ral read highest Leader, and for captain read leader. For the first Leader the Spanish Autograph has Captain General, and for the second (leader), caudillo ; the former title expressing, as Father Rothaan remarks, a Commander-in-Chief of lawful warfare, the latter designating rather the leader of a faction, and being often used in a bad sense, as of a captain of robbers or malefactors. In order to express in some measure this distinction, he has made use of the terms Dux Generalis (LeaderGeneral) and CAPUT (HEAD) in his literal Version. The Common Version makes no distinction ; and hence, in order to render this Version with strict faithfulness, must read, both here and in the next two paragraphs, leader instead of captain, although (as the reader will already have perceived) this latter is the term which erceived) this latter is the term which corresponds the more nearly with the Spanish original. In all three places Father Rothaan has caput : in the third prelude he has again Dux instead of Imperator : see above. In the first point, in order to be strictly with the Common Version, readier?/ and smoky chair in stead of chair offire and smoke ; although this latter is what the Autograph has, a certain great chair of fire and smoke, " in which", observes Father Rothaan, there is no solidity, no true glory, but mere agitation and perpetual disturbance joined with thick darkness"; And this image", he adds, " exhibits the evil spirit such as he is, but not such as he offers himself to men's minds."

The Spiritual Exercises of Loyola

https://ia801306.us.archive.org/8/items/a588350800loyouoft/a588350800loyouoft.pdf

Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt is a best-selling NES cartridge combining the games Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.[1] The player would select which game to play on the first menu. It was a best selling game, largely due to the fact that it was packaged with the NES Action Set. That package also included the Zapper Light Gun for Duck Hunt. This game cartridge was developed and published by Nintendo and was released in November 1988.

In December 1988, another combination pak was packaged with the NES Power Set. This compilation was titled 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet and included the Power Pad for World Class Track Meet.

Contents

1 Super Mario Bros.

2 Duck Hunt

3 Game Model No.

4 References

5 External links

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. is the best-selling Mario game and it was the selling video game of all time due to it being bundled with every NES bundle ever made (except the Deluxe Set and Basic Set). You play as Mario and Luigi on their adventure to save Princess Toadstool from the evil King Bowser.

Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt is one of 16 licensed NES games that use the NES Zapper . You and your trusty dog go hunting for ducks and try to shoot them after the dog chases them out using as few bullets as possible (you are allowed 3 tries per duck). An alternate game setting is Clay Pigeon, where you shoot at clay pigeons, but it is different from real life because you don't yell "pull" (as it's a video game), they just fire and you shoot them while the discs fly out of a launcher off-screen.

Game Model No.

NES-MH-xxx (depends on which region)

References

Craig Majaski. "Nintendo Announces New NES Configurations" (in English). Nintendo Times. https://www.nintendotimes.com/1988/01/08/ces-nintendo-announces-new-nes-configurations/. Retrieved on 13 December 2022.

https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/2-in-1_Super_Mario_Bros._/_Duck_Hunt

Pope Francis[b] (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[c] 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until his death on 21 April 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a family of Italian origin, Bergoglio was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958 after recovering from a severe illness. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March 2013. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis was known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors by, for instance, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes. In addition, due to both his Jesuit and Ignatian aesthetic, he was known for favoring simpler vestments devoid of ornamentation, including refusing the traditional papal mozzetta cape upon his election, choosing silver instead of gold for his piscatory ring, and keeping the same pectoral cross he had as cardinal.

Throughout his papacy, Francis was noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility, commitment to interreligious dialogue, and concern for the poor, migrants, and refugees. Francis believed the Catholic Church should demonstrate more inclusivity to LGBTQ people, and stated that although blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, individuals in same-sex relationships can be blessed as long as the blessing is not given in a liturgical context.[2] Francis made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[3][4] Francis convened the Synod on Synodality, which was described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[4][5][6]

Concerning global governance, Francis was a critic of trickle-down economics, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[7] he made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[8] He viewed capital punishment as inadmissible in all cases,[9] and committed the Catholic Church to its worldwide abolition.[10] Francis criticized the rise of right-wing populism and anti-immigration politics, calling the protection of migrants a "duty of civilization".[11] Francis supported the decriminalization of homosexuality.[12] In international diplomacy, Francis helped to restore full diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, negotiated a deal with the People's Republic of China to define Communist Party influence in appointing Chinese bishops, and encouraged peace between Israel and Palestinians, signing the Vatican's first treaty with the State of Palestine. In 2022 he apologized for the Church's role in the cultural genocide of Canadian Indigenous peoples in residential schools. From 2023 he condemned Israel's military operations in Gaza, calling for investigations of war crimes. Francis made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday before dying on 21 April 2025, Easter Monday.[13][14] The 2025 papal conclave elected Leo XIV as Francis's successor on 8 May 2025. Leo XIV became the second Pope from the Americas, after Francis.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

Robert Prevost was ‘the pride and joy of every priest and nun’ at St. Mary’s on Chicago’s South Side

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of...

Chicago Tribune reporter Caroline Kubzansky on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

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Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

UPDATED: May 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM CDT

Catholics across the region celebrated the historic announcement Thursday that the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the church was born and raised in the Chicago area and marveled that the faithful will now be led by a relatable local boy who grew up in the south suburbs, cheers for the White Sox and hits up Aurelio’s pizza when he comes back home.

In his first words as Pope Leo XIV, 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost proclaimed “Peace be with you,” invoking a message of dialogue, unity and care for those in need from Vatican City.

“When I heard the news of the new Holy Father at that moment, at least here in Chicago, the sun came out,” said the Rev. Greg Sakowicz, rector of Holy Name Cathedral.

Some would say the sunny weather was just a coincidence, Sakowicz acknowledged.

But “a coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,” he added.

Prevost, a longtime missionary and member of the Augustinian religious order, made his first appearance on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy.

“God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail,” he told the world in his first message as pope. “We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward.”

While growing up in the Chicago area, Robert Prevost often played “pretend priest,” his older brother John Prevost recalled after the announcement.

The younger brother would set up a table draped in a white cloth and recite prayers.

“He did that all the time. He took it totally serious, it was not a game,” John Prevost said Thursday outside his home in New Lenox.

John Prevost, brother of new Pope Leo XIV, holds a portrait of the three Prevost brothers from 1958 while answering reporters' questions outside his home on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

John Prevost, brother of new Pope Leo XIV, holds a portrait of the three Prevost brothers from 1958 while answering reporters’ questions outside his home on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

John Prevost described his brother as someone with a natural calmness and deep patience, a person who was always drawn to others. He believes these qualities have shaped his path to becoming pope.

His younger brother embodies the spirit of a “second Pope Francis,” particularly in his compassion for immigrants and the poor.

John Prevost acknowledged that the role will have its challenges but said his brother is ready.

“It’s awesome, it’s a great responsibility, but he will be scrutinized left and right,” he said. “I think it will be a lot. But he has the patience of a saint.”

And most importantly, at least in terms of the new pope’s South Side credentials, John Prevost confirmed that his brother has “always” been a White Sox fan.

Local roots

Prevost was born on Sept. 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, and his Catholic roots were planted in the south suburbs, where he lived in Dolton with his parents and two brothers. He grew up in St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the Far South Side, attending school, singing in the choir and serving as an altar boy.

Marianne Angarola, 69, who was in the same class as Prevost, remembers him as a good singer who “cared about people” and “looked for the good in things.”

Undated childhood photographs of new Pope Leo XIV are laid out on a kitchen table at the home of his brother, John Prevost, on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary’s closed years ago and went into a state of disrepair, but Angarola and others have kept up with his career, following along on the Internet for updates as he rose through the ranks of the church.

“He was the pride and joy of every priest and nun in that school,” Angarola said. “Everybody knew he was special.”

Another St. Mary’s classmate, Peggy Wurtz, remembered Prevost singing at midnight Mass with his mother, who was also a talented vocalist. Wurtz said she was intimidated by his intelligence, even in grade school. During their fifth-grade science fair, Wurtz recalled being embarrassed to answer a question about her tooth decay project in front of Prevost, who was more deft in explaining his work.

“He won first prize,” Wurtz said.

The class of 1969 has an annual reunion, and she hopes they can see him at one down the line.

“I figure we should have a class reunion in Rome so he gets us all at once,” Wurtz said.

Family, childhood home, legacy

Prevost’s father, Louis, was an educator who led Glenwood School District 167 and served as principal of now-defunct Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights. He died in 1997, according to his obituary.

The elementary school closed in 1990 around the same time as its parish’s church, St. Rocco, during fiscal restructuring within the Archdiocese of Chicago. After a push from some of the parish’s fiercely loyal members, St. Rocco Oratory — housed in a new yet smaller building in Chicago Heights — reopened, holding its first Mass on Christmas Day in 1998. It’s now called San Rocco.

Pope Leo XIV: What to know about Chicago-born Robert Prevost

While the Rev. Michael Gilligan, the church’s priest since 2000, didn’t personally know Prevost or his late father, he was “flabbergasted” that a “local boy” is the new pope.

He said he believes Prevost was elected because he’s a “kind, good, pastoral man.”

“All the experts said an American will never be elected,” Gilligan said. “And to have an American who comes from the town where I live, the parish that I serve in Chicago Heights — it’s really amazing.”

A post on the Mendel Catholic Prep Alumni Association website recounts that as a child Prevost’s “family’s life centered around St. Mary of the Assumption Church, located on 137th Street at the Chicago-Dolton border, where young Robert served as an altar boy and attended the parish school.”

Sisters Vivian, left, Lucia, and Isabel Fitzgerald stand in St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago's Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The Fitzgeralds are members of St. Cajetan Parish in Beverly, another church located near St. Mary. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Sisters Vivian, left, Lucia, and Isabel Fitzgerald stand in St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The Fitzgeralds are members of St. Cajetan Parish in Beverly, another church located near St. Mary. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago's Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to church at St. Mary's. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to church at St. Mary’s. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Prevost’s mother, Mildred, was a librarian who worked at Holy Name Cathedral, Von Steuben High School on the North Side and Mendel Catholic Prep. She died in 1990 after decades of service to St. Mary’s Church.

The street where Prevost grew up, just off Indiana Avenue in Dolton, is lined with small brick cottages similar to the one in which he was raised.

On Thursday afternoon, Courtni Porter stood with a pair of real estate agents in the home’s backyard. Porter, 44, of Chicago said the home was “beautiful inside, though I’m sure it’s not like how it was when he grew up in it.”

The house was recently renovated and is listed for $199,900, according to agent Sebastian Regium.

On the front sidewalk of the house, Regium, 24, pulled up a picture of the new pope on his phone. Porter and a neighbor, Donna Sagna, peered over his shoulder to see what he looked like. Porter cocked her head and mused that the house had been a strong candidate for sale, but news that the pope had grown up there might be a sign to move ahead with buying it.

The childhood home of the newly selected Pope Leo XIV in Dolton on May 8, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

“That value (is) about to go up when they find out,” Regium said, laughing.

Education, formation and priorities

After graduating from St. Mary’s in 1969, Prevost attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan. Then he briefly lived at the now-shuttered Tolentine seminary in south suburban Olympia Fields before attending Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

John Merkelis, president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, recalled befriending Prevost at St. Augustine Seminary in 1970. The two connected because they both came from south suburban communities, and Merkelis said Prevost, who was a year ahead, served as almost a religious mentor to him.

“He’s the one who kind of told me what an Augustinian is,” Merkelis said. “I thought ahead of time that he would have been a great pope. He is remarkably intelligent. He always has been humble. He’s very, very faith-filled.”

Merkelis said he and other school staff members were in Providence’s faculty lounge watching the news intently when they heard Prevost would succeed Francis as pope. He said those in the lounge “screamed and hugged each other” and that he immediately hopped on the schoolwide PA system to say a prayer for his longtime friend.

“He’s not a guy who just lives in an office,” Merkelis said. “He’s personally relatable. So I see him as falling right in line with the example of (former Pope) Francis.”

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic grammar school in Chicago's Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to grammar school at St. Mary's. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic grammar school in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to grammar school at St. Mary’s. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Robert Prevost in 8th grade at St. Mary School in Riverdale, class of 1969. (Marianne Angarola)

Jim Priestley attended high school and Villanova with Prevost. The two saw each other last summer, Priestley recalled, after Prevost came to the area to speak with parishioners at St. Jude Catholic Church in south suburban New Lenox. During his visit home, Prevost met with some old friends at the Aurelio’s pizza place in Homewood, where they ate and caught up.

Afterward, Priestley recounted talking with Prevost for half an hour in the parking lot, commending him on his career.

“I just kind of said, ‘Bob, congratulations, but I just can’t imagine having that much stress at our age. It seems more like a young man’s thing.’ But he’s one of these guys who can deal with it,” Priestley recalled. “Maybe it’s not stressful for him. He must’ve said ‘OK, I’m willing to be pope.’ I’m sure there were people who said no way, because it’s a tremendously responsible position.”

But, Priestley said, Prevost is “the type of guy who likes a challenge.”

Mike Greco, who also attended St. Augustine with Prevost, called him “a devout priest” and perhaps “the most intelligent, talented and sincere guy I’ve ever known.”

“We’ve been lifelong friends,” Greco added. “I was at his ordination in Rome. He baptized my son.”

Prevost went on to earn a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He was ordained a priest in Rome and studied there until 1984, shuttling between church leadership positions in Chicago and Peru until 2023.

A picture of new Pope Leo XIV when he was ordained as a priest is laid out on a kitchen table at the home of his brother, John Prevost, on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (Photo courtesy John Prevost)

He returned to Chicago in 1998 to lead the order’s Midwest province and later as its worldwide leader. During that time, he came under fire for his handling of two sex abuse cases involving Augustinian priests in the area. Survivors organizations have accused him of allowing the Rev. James Ray, a priest accused of abusing minors and whose ministry had been restricted since 1991, to live at the Augustinian’s St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park in 2000 despite its proximity to a Catholic elementary school. The Vatican previously has denied Prevost approved the accommodation.

Prevost also has been criticized for the order’s handling of allegations against the Rev. Richard McGrath, the former president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox. McGrath served for 32 years as principal and then president of the school before retiring amid complaints that he had abused a student and had pornography on his phone. The order settled one accuser’s lawsuit for $2 million in 2023. McGrath was never criminally charged. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests filed a complaint against Prevost with the Vatican in March.

James Egan, a spokesperson for SNAP from Chicago, said the nonprofit was “disappointed” that Prevost was selected as pope.

“It certainly does not give us a lot of hope right now. It hurts,” Egan said. “We have serious questions about his commitment to actually protecting children and giving victims of child abuse by Catholic clergy the justice that they deserve.”

Despite these worries, Egan said he hopes SNAP can collaborate with Prevost to end abuse.

“We can get to a post-abuse church, and we really hope we can work with Robert Prevost on that,” Egan said.

Prevost was head of the Augustinians from 2001 to 2013, based in Rome. In 2014, he was named apostolic administrator and then bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru in a region where the Chicago Augustinians have long had a presence.

Then newly elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, right, receives his biretta from Pope Francis as he is elevated in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023. (Riccardo De Luca/AP)

Then newly elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, right, receives his biretta from Pope Francis as he is elevated in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023. (Riccardo De Luca/AP)

In 2023, his predecessor, Pope Francis, named Prevost to take over the Vatican’s powerful bishops’ office that vets nominations around the globe from a retiring Canadian who had recently been accused of sexual misconduct. The crucial Holy See office also investigates allegations of abuse or negligence against bishops.

“This is a historic day,” said Robert Orsi, professor of religion at Northwestern University. “Robert Francis Prevost was a favorite of Pope Francis, who made him cardinal only two years ago.”

The new pope’s namesake, Leo XIII, was known for his outspoken defense of the rights of working people to a living wage, Orsi added.

“By taking this name, Pope Leo XIV clearly signals his priorities. Pope Leo XIII was also profoundly wary of nationalists, especially those who would divide the church over political disputes. The Pope Leo of the early 21st century, who spent most of his 69 years outside the United States, appears already to be calling Catholics back to a truly global, truly open-hearted faith.”

Politics and faith

As word trickled in about the new pope with local ties at the Illinois State Capitol on Thursday afternoon, state Rep. Norine Hammond took a moment in the House chamber to beam with pride that the new pontiff was originally from the state.

“We have a pope from Chicago, Illinois,” Hammond, a Republican from Macomb, said to a big applause in the chamber that lasted about 15 seconds. “We are so excited and praying for (Pope Leo XIV) that he is able to guide the entire world in a peaceful manner.”

That pride was more localized for state Rep. Will Davis, a Democrat from south suburban Homewood whose district includes Dolton, where the new pope was raised.

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Wheaton church group witnesses Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV greeting the public in Rome

Pope Leo XIV’s family: What to know about his parents and their deep Chicago ties

Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass as pope and calls his election both a cross and a blessing

“There’s a desire that he will continue to acknowledge the poor people in the world, the people who need help, who need guidance, and will work to try to bring people together as popes often do,” Davis said.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also acknowledged the momentous occasion.

“This is one of the biggest moments in the modern history of our city,” Johnson said in a statement. “Pope Leo XIV will be a champion for workers all over the world. It’s only right that he was born and educated in the most pro-worker city in America. The Catholic Church has a strong tradition of standing up for the poor and the vulnerable, and I know that Pope Leo XIV will continue that tradition. This is a tremendous moment for our Catholic community and for all Chicagoans.”

An account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, seemingly belonging to Prevost has posted many times about political issues for more than a decade, and as recently as this year.

“JD Vance is wrong,” one of the most recent posts from the account said, quoting an opinion piece from National Catholic Reporter that criticized the vice president’s comments about how to prioritize loving others.

The account also retweeted posts criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies and one tweet from Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut calling for action over “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Prevost also seemingly reposted an article from Catholic News Agency in 2017 about calls for a veto of a state abortion funding bill, which then-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, later signed into law.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the firebrand pastor of St. Sabina church in Chicago, said he was encouraged by Prevost’s selection, believing he will continue the late Pope Francis’ legacy of tending to the poor and caring for social justice.

Pfleger said Prevost’s politics are a counterpoint to other trends in American life where some people are “refining what Jesus was and what the scriptures are to beat up people.”

“He’s going to be conservative on doctrine, like Francis was. Francis wasn’t for women priests,” Pfleger said. “But I think Prevost’s heart for people and heart for justice and his experiences in Peru are going to be very, very important to the future of the Catholic Church.”

Local Catholics rejoice

Close to 100 people were at noon Mass at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on Thursday. Near the end of the service, the rector announced who the pope was — an American-born from Chicago.

The crowd erupted in applause.

Rev. Greg Sakowicz, of Holy Name Cathedral, right, claps along with the mass attendees about the news of new pope's election at Holy Name Cathedral on May 8, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Rev. Greg Sakowicz, of Holy Name Cathedral, right, claps along with the mass attendees about the news of new pope’s election at Holy Name Cathedral on May 8, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Julie Bartholomae from Lincoln Park stepped outside to take a call from her sister, who was telling her the name of the pope.

Her eyes lit up when she found out the new leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide was from Chicago.

“I think this is so exciting — a U.S. pope and he’s from Chicago,” she said.

The announcement of a new pope brought Katherine Gehl, a parishioner at Holy Name, tears of happiness. She was walking home from the gym when she heard the news and ran to Holy Name.

“It was extraordinary to be here, you know, in the presence of other Catholics,” she said. “All I can say is, I’m just praying that this pope brings a call for unity. That’s what we need, because we have so many challenges worldwide and in division, we shall not solve them. They will only be solved in unity.”

During a news conference at the cathedral Thursday, Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, said, “The most important thing is that a successor of St. Peter has been elected.”

“So while there’s a sense that we’re proud he’s from Chicago …. But Pope Leo XIV is first and foremost, a child of God,” Sullivan said. “And that means he is here to serve all of God’s people.”

Cardinal Robert Prevost stands and prays with students from St. Rita High School, an Augustinian-run school on the South Side, in the St. Rita Shrine Chapel in 2014. Prevost was a substitute teacher at the school about 50 years ago. (St. Rita High School)

When administrators at St. Rita of Cascia High School, an Augustinian-run school on the South Side, announced the news of the appointment over the intercom, the school erupted in cheers, students recalled.

Classes turned on the livestream from Rome.

“We just stopped class,” said St. Rita student Nick Herman, 18. “It felt like he blessed us.”

Prevost was a substitute physics teacher at the school about 50 years ago, said the Rev. Tom McCarthy, St. Rita’s director of community outreach.

McCarthy said the next pope was 10 years ahead of him in the Augustinian order. He had been sending Prevost emails over the past week and praying for him. He had told his students to do the same.

“I could imagine St. Augustine smiling down from heaven,” McCarthy said. “I could only imagine how proud he is that one of his sons is now the pope.”

McCarthy said Prevost took a risk by naming him principal of St. Rita High School in 1999 when he was just 35.

“I think he’ll be a guiding light to the church and to the world. I really do,” McCarthy said.

The Associated Press contributed. Reporters Olivia Olander, Kori Rumore, Jonathan Bullington and Rebecca Johnson contributed.

Originally Published: May 8, 2025 at 1:45 PM CDT

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/08/robert-prevost-chicago-pope-xiv/

Survival of Templars Through Other Orders

Direct lines of successive generations of initiatory cultural and chivalric Templars survived into the modern era, preserving and continuing the original Templar missions. In addition to the immediate and primary survival plan originally established by Saint Bernard, during the decades after the French Persecution, living Templars and their descendants continued Templar Chivalry through joining several other Orders.

Specifically, surviving Templars joined the following Orders (indicating dates of joining, with date range of continuation):

Franciscan Sacred Order in England (1307-present), Franciscan Vatican Order (1307-present), Ancient Celtic Churches (1307-present), German Teutonic Order (1312-1929), Spanish Montesa Order (1317-1587), Portuguese Knights of Christ (1319-1789), and Rosicrucian Mystical Order (1407-present).

Franciscan Sacred Order – The surviving Knights Templar in England and Western Europe successfully followed the survival plan established by Saint Bernard, and pre-arranged with the Franciscan Sacred Order:

The Templar Order primarily continued through the “Sacred Order of Saint Francis of Assisi”, established in England in 1212 AD, which was already dedicated to that purpose as a “Secular Franciscan Order” since 1221 AD, as Guardians of the “Templar Lines” of Sovereign Succession through the Independent Church Movement [73].

When the French Persecution began 86 years later in 1307 AD, nothing further needed to be done, and the Templars simply traded their chivalric tunics for Franciscan brown monastic robes. “Mission Accomplished”.

In 1520 AD Pope Leo X, a Templar revivalist, supported Templar survival through the Franciscan Sacred Order by expanding the Independent Church Movement, granting the Papal Bull Debitum Pastoralis to the Bishop of Utrecht, who was a Teutonic Knight promoting surviving Templarism [74].

Franciscan Vatican Order – From 1307-1312 AD, many Templars throughout Western Europe either joined the autonomous Franciscan Sacred Order in England, or it facilitated to arrange them joining the Franciscan “Tertiary (Secular) Order” of the Vatican, somewhat analogous to the role of Knights and Dames.

However, the Vatican Franciscan Order does not carry the “Templar Lines” of Apostolic Succession which are unique to the independent Anglican Sacred Order.

As a purely monastic Order, it does not grant knighthood or damehood. The modern Tertiary Order under the Vatican has almost 600 Clergy and 300 Secular members [75].

Ancient Celtic Churches – From 1307-1312 AD, many Templars in Scotland, Ireland, and throughout Western Europe joined Ancient Celtic Churches within the Independent Church Movement (founded 1145 AD).

These Celtic Churches originated from Ancient Celtic Priesthoods of England, Scotland and Ireland, which became an Apostolic “Celtic Catholic” line (from Saint Mark in 336 AD, through Saint Silverius in 536 AD, and Saint Nicholas I in 858 AD), and “Celtic Anglican” line (from Saint David, first Celtic Bishop of Mineva in Wales in 519 AD, through Celtic Archbishops of Canterbury).

In 1520 AD Pope Leo X, a Templar revivalist, supported Templar survival through the Ancient Celtic Churches by expanding the Independent Church Movement, granting the Papal Bull Debitum Pastoralis to the Bishop of Utrecht, who was a Teutonic Knight promoting surviving Templarism [76].

As individual autonomous Churches, not yet consolidated to act collectively through a unified independent Sovereign Pontificate established under Canon law in customary law, they could not create any Orders of Chivalry [77] [78] [79], and thus could not grant nor arrange knighthood or damehood.

Teutonic Vatican Order – Starting in 1312 AD, many Templars in Germany or Eastern Europe joined the Order of Teutonic Knights of the Vatican (founded 1190 AD), which was already an official but autonomous branch of the Templar Order [80] [81].

The Teutonic Order continued as such for 739 years, until it was “reformed” in 1929, “re-established” in 1957, and “restructured” in 1965, becoming the “Order of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem”. The modern Order of Mary has about 300 Clergy and 700 secular “Familiares” in a role analogous to Knights [82], but does not grant knighthood or damehood.

Surviving Templars from the Teutonic Order, after 1929, joined the Franciscan Sacred Order in England, Franciscan Vatican Order, Ancient Celtic Churches, or Rosicrucian Mystical Order (all continued to the present day).

Spanish Montesa Order – In 1317 AD, King James II of Spain “obtained from Pope John XXII… the possessions of the Templars in his Kingdom”, to create the “Military Order of Montesa… established… to take the place of the Order of the Temple… [as] the continuation.” The Order of Montesa was placed under the Cistercian Rule, and based upon the Templar Order. [83]

Thus in 1317 AD, Pope John XXII, a Templar revivalist, supported Templar survival through the Order of Montessa by granting it Vatican Patronage.

Starting in 1317 AD, many Templars in Spain or Western Europe joined the Order of Montesa.

The Order of Montesa (from 1317 AD) operated for 270 years, until it was “united with the Crown” in 1587 AD, thereby dissolving it [84].

Surviving Templars from the Order of Montesa, after 1587 AD, joined the German Teutonic Order (until 1929), Portuguese Knights of Christ (until 1789), or joined the Franciscan Sacred Order in England, Franciscan Vatican Order, Ancient Celtic Churches, or Rosicrucian Mystical Order (continued to the present day).

Portugal Knights of Christ – In 1319 AD, in Portugal the Knights Templar were cleared of all charges, and Pope John XXII, a Templar revivalist, supported Templar survival by merely renaming the Portuguese branch of the Order to “Knights of Christ”, allowing to keep their assets.

Starting in 1319 AD, many Templars in Portugal or Western Europe joined the Knights of Christ.

In 1740 AD Pope Benedict XIV, a Templar revivalist, supported Templar survival as the “Knights of Christ” by granting the former headquarters of the Knights Templar to the King of Portugal for the renamed Order.

The Knights of Christ (from 1319 AD) operated for 470 years, until it was dismantled in 1789 AD: It was reduced to an “honourary decoration of merit” by Queen Maria I in 1789 AD, fully “extinguished” with the end of the Portuguese Monarchy in 1910 AD, and later “reformulated” and “reinstated” in 1918 only as an “honorary award” under the President of the modern Republic of Portugal [85] [86].

A doctrine of customary international law holds that a “new government” of a modern secular “Republican State” does not have legal capacity of “rights of Fons Honourum” for the “exercise of heraldic jurisdiction” to maintain, revive nor even recognize Orders of Chivalry [87] [88] [89] [90]. Therefore, the modern Knights of Christ is not an Order of Chivalry, and thus does not grant knighthood or damehood.

Surviving Templars from the Knights of Christ, after 1789 AD, joined the German Teutonic Order (until 1929), or joined the Franciscan Sacred Order in England, Franciscan Vatican Order, Ancient Celtic Churches, or Rosicrucian Mystical Order (continued to the present day).

Rosicrucian Mystical Order – In ca. 1407 AD, the surviving Knights Templar in Portugal (renamed “Order of Christ” since 1319 AD) helped establish the Rosicrucian Order, named after the trademark Templar Red Cross, or “Rose Cross”, thus “Rosa-Cruz” (Portugese) or “Rossi-Croce” (Italian).

This is evidenced by the fact that the Portuguese Templar headquarters, the “Convent of the Order of Christ”, features three artifacts of a Rose at the center of a Cross in the initiation room, dated ca. 1530 AD [91] [92]. This establishes that many surviving Templars helped create and develop the Rosicrucian Order from 1407-1530 AD.

Starting in 1407 AD, and even more after 1530 AD, many Templars throughout Western Europe joined the Rosicrucian Mystical Order.

In 1740 AD Pope Benedict XIV, a Templar revivalist, supported Templar survival through the Rosicrucian Order by restoring “Templar Rosicrucian” lines of Apostolic Succession, “reinstating” those lines in the Vatican [93], and also by establishing the first Vatican “Academy of Antiquities” [94] to continue the Templar mission of exploring ancient origins of Christianity.

The Rosicrucian Order, as an esoteric society, was never established with sovereign authority, and thus by customary international law, it is not an Order of Chivalry [95], and thus does not grant knighthood or damehood.

Results Through Other Orders – In the end result, Templars from the original Order of the Temple of Solomon survived through other Orders, actively continuing Templar missions and living the Templar life of Chivalry, directly into the modern era.

After the other Orders of Chivalry which could grant knighthood and damehood ended, in 1587 AD (Spain), 1789 AD (Portugal) and 1929 AD (Germany), surviving Templars continued Templar missions through the Franciscan Sacred Order, Franciscan Vatican Order, Ancient Celtic Churches, and Rosicrucian Mystical Order.

However, none of these remaining institutions of Templar survival were Orders of Chivalry, and thus could not grant knighthood or damehood.

Also, only the Sacred Order of Saint Francis of Assisi in England (since 1212 AD) preserved and carried the rights of Templar Sovereign Succession, through the rare and unique “Templar Lines” of Apostolic Succession.

Therefore, from 2007-2013, the Franciscan Sacred Order completed the original plan from Saint Bernard, by reunification with surviving cultural and chivalric Templars from Ancient Celtic and Rosicrucian branches of the Old Catholic Churches, to restore and reestablish the Templar Order to full legitimacy.

https://knightstemplarorder.org/templar-order/survival-lineage/

Ignatius of Loyola: Apostle to the Muslims

Posted on: 26th July 2016 |Author: Damian Howard SJ

Category: The Jesuits

Tags: Feast of St Ignatius, Ignatius, Islam, interreligious, Jesuit history

To educate the youth of Europe? To fight the spread of Protestantism? While many people would guess that one or both of these ambitions drove Ignatius of Loyola to found the Jesuits, he actually had something else in mind: a mission to the Muslim world. For the feast of St Ignatius, Damian Howard SJ considers how ‘Islam haunted Ignatius’s understanding of his calling’ and celebrates the fruitful work of the many Jesuits who have tried to realise Ignatius’s vision in their engagement with Muslims.

Ask the average Catholic why St Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus and they will likely say one of two things. First, remembering the Jesuits as bastions of the Counter-Reformation they might assume that Ignatius, militant Catholic that he was, had set out with a dream of a new religious order capable of defeating Protestantism. But whilst it was the case that the Jesuits would be active in efforts to reform the Catholic Church from within and to take on the growing power of Protestant theology and culture as it spread across Europe, this was never Ignatius’s underlying vision. Second, they might suppose that Ignatius had planned from the start a vast network of new schools which would revolutionise education throughout the continent. It’s true that this is indeed what Jesuit schools ended up doing, earning the order’s members the epithet of the ‘schoolmasters of Europe’, but this huge and innovative project came about as the result of a proposal made to Ignatius after he had already become Superior General of the new order; it was never education per se that he saw as its prime mission.

So the following claim may be unexpected: Ignatius’s original apostolic orientation was actually defined in relation to the Muslim world.

This shouldn’t be entirely surprising given the state of Europe at that time in history. Ignatius was born in the Basque country in 1491. Just one year later, the Reconquista reached its conclusion with the Catholic Kings finally ousting the last Muslim rulers from their vestigial Andalusian states, giving Christian princes possession of the whole Iberian Peninsula. The year 1492 was also notable for another major geopolitical event involving Spain: the European discovery of the New World. It was all but impossible to avoid the thought that America was the reward for Spanish triumph against the Moors. Now, the energy which had propelled the Spanish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula would be released outwards; the colonial age of conquest and exploitation was dawning for a new Catholic Spain and it was to be a golden age for Spanish Catholicism. We may rightly harbour ambiguous feelings about this aggressively Christian state but this was a moment when Spanish Catholics must have felt like masters of the world.

But Spain was the exception in Europe. The rest of the continent cowered under the threat of imminent Muslim invasion, not from the South but from the Ottoman Turks in the East. The sixteenth century was to see the high-water mark of Ottoman interest in Central and Eastern Europe. Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan from 1520-1566, would personally lead the push all the way into Hungary as well as taking control of Mediterranean islands like Rhodes and swathes of North Africa. With Turkish armies besieging Vienna, no-one on the continental mainland could feel confident that Christianity would retain indefinitely its hegemonic grip. It’s worth remembering that part of the urgency of the Reformation itself lay in its apocalyptic fear of the Turkish menace. Luther thought that the Muslim invaders were to be God’s chastisement for a Europe mired in the ‘horrible abomination of the papal darkness and idolatry’.[i] He wanted his Protestant Christians to die martyrs of the true faith rather than fighting in some allegedly holy war blasphemously prosecuted in Christ’s name.

The Reformation can be better understood within the context of this much larger clash, dare I say, of civilisations. And Ignatius wanted to play his part in it. How can one be confident of such a claim? Because, right from the start, Ignatius’s stated apostolic impulse was towards the Muslim world.

You can see it most obviously in the account given in his Autobiography of the conversion experience he went through as he was convalescing in his ancestral home in Loyola. He had suffered a severe cannon wound in the leg during military action in Pamplona. His moment of conversion came about when he noticed the subtlest of differences between the after-effects of two daydreams:

When he thought of worldly things it gave him great pleasure, but afterward he found himself dry and sad. But when he thought of journeying to Jerusalem, and of living only on herbs, and practising austerities, he found pleasure not only while thinking of them, but also when he had ceased.

He took that difference between his affective responses to be indicative of the way God was leading him on his life journey. Judging that the enduring good feelings associated with the journey to Jerusalem showed it to be God’s will for him, he undertook to follow the second programme, going on pilgrimage and living the ascetical, penitential life of a mendicant. The journey to Jerusalem, then, was what he presented to the outside world as his earliest apostolic desire. Its association with his conversion experience also makes it, surely, something of a touchstone of his on-going spiritual discernment.[ii]

But what exactly did pilgrimage to Jerusalem signify? Pilgrimage to the Holy Land had been the most potent form of devotion available to medieval Christians and, for Ignatius, it is clear that proximity to the site of the incarnation was a central attraction; at one stage, he would go to extravagant lengths to work out the precise direction in which the Lord must have been looking at the moment of his Ascension. But at the time, the Holy City was also under the rule of the Ottoman Turks, the Crusades having failed to win back for Christian Europe the territory once held by the Roman Empire. To visit Jerusalem was, thus, to enter the House of Islam.

If we look at the Spiritual Exercises, especially the ‘Call of the Eternal King’ (93), we might surmise that the trip had a crusading flavour to it. But Ignatius wasn’t planning to travel as a soldier. Instead, in addition to visiting the holy places, he intended to stay in Jerusalem permanently, if the Lord was pleased to allow him, so as to preach Christian doctrine to the infidel (probably Jews as well as Muslims), this, even though European Christians had long found such missionary work to be not particularly fruitful.[iii] There is clearly a penitential streak to Ignatius’s intentions at this stage and so perhaps we should also allow for the possible presence of a darker scenario: a veiled desire here to win martyrdom. We are reminded of the martyrs of Córdoba, a group consisting principally of Franciscan friars who, in spite of St Francis’ directive to live as silent witness among the Muslims, had sought to goad their Muslim governors into executing them by making overtly blasphemous statements about Muhammad. It’s a repeated trope in the early Middle Ages and it is possible that Ignatius felt himself drawn to act after their example.

Whatever Ignatius was up to, this pilgrimage project came to encapsulate his self-understanding, certainly for the first few years after his conversion and, arguably, for the rest of his life; moreover, it gave him the epithet of ‘the Pilgrim’ which he uses in his Autobiography to designate himself in the third person. When he finally made it to the Holy Land in 1523, he desired to remain there but the Provincial of the Franciscans told him that others in the past who had had the same idea had either died or ended up in a Turkish prison. Ignatius was stubborn. The Franciscan, knowing trouble when he saw it, threatened him with excommunication and so the Basque Pilgrim finally relented. But the longing to return to and remain in Jerusalem was strong enough in Ignatius’s heart that it survived fifteen years of studies and apostolic activities; for when as late as 1538 he finally managed to assemble the group of Companions who would go on to form the core of the new Society of Jesus, he was still intent on their heading back to the Holy Land. It was only the impossibility of travelling that year, thanks to the activity of the Turks themselves, which led him finally to give up on Jerusalem and turn his sights to Rome.

It was a fateful shift. Gradually, the dream of Jerusalem would be side-lined and a new apostolic orientation would move centre stage. Italy, as Pope Paul III put it, would be Ignatius’s Jerusalem. And so it was that the young Jesuit order placed itself at the disposal of the universal Church directly under the Roman Pontiff where it would be best placed to meet the various needs that would present themselves. ‘The infidel’ still manages an appearance in the ‘Formula of the Institute’ which founds the Society of Jesus but it looks like an afterthought. So much, you might think, for Ignatius’s apostolate to the Muslims…

There are good reasons, nevertheless, for believing that Islam continued to haunt Ignatius’s understanding of his calling. A curious incident early on in the pilgrimage narrative gives us a clue. It is an encounter between the Pilgrim and a Moor whom he meets as he makes his way through the Spanish countryside. Here is how he tells the story with hindsight in his Autobiography:

As he continued on his way a Moor riding on a mule caught up with him, and in their conversation they began to speak about our Lady. The Moor said that it certainly seemed to him that the Virgin had conceived without the aid of man, but he could not believe that in giving birth she remained a virgin. To substantiate his opinion, he offered the natural reasons that occurred to him. Though the pilgrim countered with many arguments he could not alter the Moor’s opinion. The Moor then went on ahead in great haste so that he lost sight of him; being left behind, he reflected on what took place between him and the Moor. Various emotions welled up in him and he became disturbed in soul, thinking that he had failed to do what he should have done. Filled with anger against the Moor and thinking that he had done wrong in allowing the Moor to utter such things about our Lady, he concluded that he was obliged to restore her honour. He now desired to search out the Moor and strike him with his dagger for all that he had said. This conflict in his desires remained with him for some time, but in the end he was still uncertain for he did not know what was required of him.

As well as giving a precious insight into Christian-Muslim relations in the early sixteenth century, this cameo tells us much about how Ignatius looked back in later life over the winding journey that had brought him to Rome. He wants his readers to be shocked by the spiritual ineptitude which characterised his early years. His confusion is resolved in rather a worrying manner: he leaves it to his mule to decide whether or not to take a human life. The sage beast, seemingly much more attuned to the promptings of the Spirit than the saint-to-be, rejects the path of violence and the rest, as they say, is history. What is significant for our purposes is that Ignatius’s story suggests an association in his mind between startling spiritual immaturity and a violent, confrontational approach to Muslims. He may not have drawn any solid conclusions about what a more mature response might look like but the doubt must have niggled.

Ignatius definitely did not give up on his ideas of a mission to Muslims, even if they take a back seat: during his tenure as General he set up a Casa dei catechumeni in Rome for Jews and Muslims wanting to convert to Christianity, an Arabic-speaking house in Messina, a college for the study of Arabic in Monreale and a study programme in Islamics in Malta. He had further plans for projects aimed at the mission to Muslims in Beirut, Cyprus and Djerba in modern Tunisia.

We also have two letters, written in August 1552 by his secretary, Juan de Polanco, to Jerónimo Nadal, in which Ignatius advocates the raising of a European fleet to fight off the Ottoman Turks. As Philip Endean points out, even if the older Ignatius had learned to be suspicious of his earlier, irascible impulses towards a Muslim, still, when it comes to thinking of the Turks, it is purely as an

enemy to be conquered, the enemy menacing Christendom. Any full statement of mission at the frontiers had to include them, but in immediate practice they were simply an unknown and destabilising threat, one perhaps that it was often impolite to name.[iv]

A Challenging Legacy

Ignatius’s Islamic itinerary leaves us with bewildering questions rather than a coherent vision and it may or may not be significant that all these grand endeavours vis-à-vis the Muslims either did not get off the ground in the first place or did not last. If there is, indeed, a palpable sense of unresolved business here, Islam had, nevertheless, lodged itself as a constituent part of the Jesuits’ DNA, as we can see with the benefit of hindsight. For Ignatius’s sons (along with members of other religious orders, not least the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the White Fathers) have demonstrated consistent and persistent interest in the Muslim world.

Jesuits were present in Istanbul by 1582 and by 1650 had set up a presence in Izmir, Aleppo, Damascus, Sidon and Lebanese Tripoli. Their most iconic engagement with the Muslim world was the series of missions sent to the court of the Mogul Emperor Akbar in late sixteenth century India. Fr Jerome Xavier (1549-1617), the great-nephew of St Francis Xavier, was to be the principal protagonist in a bold engagement with Persian-speaking Islam. His most significant literary work was an explanation of Christianity aimed at the Emperor and other Muslims, the so-called Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-Quds) (1602).

Actually meeting Muslims in their own countries may not instantly have changed the way Jesuits thought theologically about Islam but it did help them slowly to develop an accurate understanding of the religion rather than rely on the polemics and distortions which had been the medieval default position. And that did bear fruit quite quickly: back in the Jesuit colleges of Europe, lessons on Islam were an integral part of Antonio Possevino’s great Ratio Studiorum (1593), a standard text which deals with Islam at some length and in a surprisingly sympathetic manner.

For most of their history, Jesuits were not allowed to converse about matters religious with Muslims in Muslim-majority countries for fear that in doing so they might jeopardise their freedom to act in those territories. This did not prevent them from chatting to them on their holidays. Tirso González (1624-1705), a future Jesuit General himself, wrote his Manductio ad conversionem mahumetanorum out of his personal experience preaching to Muslims in the coastal towns of Spain during his vacation. A huge volume at nearly 900 pages, it shows a surprisingly accurate knowledge of Islam, of typical Muslim objections to Christianity, of tafsir (Qur’anic commentaries) and hadith. For a polemical text it is also disarmingly sympathetic to Islamic beliefs and practices.

A French Jesuit, Michel Nau (1633-1683) had travelled to the Holy Land and engaged in conversation with Muslims there. His Religio christiana contra Alcoranum per Alcoranum pacifiche defensa ac probate stands out from similar texts as a refreshing defence of respectful interreligious encounter. Written as a fictional dialogue, it assumes a startlingly modern mood of respect, humility and friendship. Perhaps such openness is down to the fact that he was operating outside Europe and knew he could not proselytise openly. More likely, it is part of that Jesuit tradition of generous engagement with the religious other that can be found in a number of early Jesuits, including Ignatius’s Letters, the ministry of St Pierre Favre to European Protestants, and the approach advocated at various times by Jerónimo Nadal and Diego Laínez. The denouement of Nau’s dialogue must have been shocking at a time when Christianity thought of itself as being in the ascendant: the Muslim protagonist agrees that Christianity is a legitimate expression of monotheism (no mean concession given traditional Muslim hostility to the doctrine of the Trinity) but he does not accept Christianity as the only way to salvation and refuses to convert.

A moment of great significance in the evolution of the Jesuit mission to Muslims occurs in 1937 when Fr General Ledochowski sends a letter to Jesuits around the globe appealing for a new generation of missionaries to be trained with the explicit task of converting the Muslim world. Ledochowski was a strong personality of markedly right wing views and his letter is far from betokening an enlightened vision; during his time as General, he seems to have been behind a move to bolster anti-Semitic sentiment in Rome. Behind his letter can be traced the influence of an energetic Frenchman, Christophe de Bonneville, regional superior in Egypt at a time when the domination of that great Muslim country by European powers seemed to open up new missionary possibilities. The idea of Jesuits explicitly setting out to convert Muslims in Muslim-majority lands represented a fundamental break with previous practice.

This opportunistic ploy, which relied on raw European power, never took off in the way Ledochowski had intended, thwarted by the outbreak of war. By the time the dust had settled, the world had moved on. Newly independent Muslim-majority nations, having flung off the yoke of their former colonial masters, would make such blatant missionary work all but impossible; already in the offing was a freshly assertive Islam. As things turned out, the one practical outcome of the General’s letter was the establishment of a course in Islamics at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.

But Ledochowski’s idea of training a generation of Jesuits as specialists in Islam lingered on, even if the style of their engagement would turn out not to be polemically confrontational but dialogical. A group of inspiring Catholics would now come to the fore whose example instilled into this new generation a genuine desire to study the Islamic tradition in depth: the Cistercian Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), the great French Islamicist, Louis Massignon (1883 – 1962) and the Spanish priest and expert in Islamic spirituality, Miguel Asín Palacios (1871-1944).

By the latter half of the twentieth century, the fruits of this new engagement were already palpable. Some Jesuits had studied Sufism. Paul Nwyia’s work on the mystic Ibn Abbād of Ronda stands out as a fine example, consummated in a remarkable book on Qur’anic exegesis and the language of mysticism, published in 1969. Still very much alive is an Australian Jesuit, Paul Jackson, who has spent the latter half of his life in India working on the letters of a Sufi saint, Sharfuddin Ahmed Yahya Maneri, whose splendid shrine can be seen in Biharsharif.

Others have explored the question of the reform of modern Islam. The German scholar, Christian Troll, was inspired by a plea from a Dutch Jesuit, J.J. Houben, calling for Islamic renewal and suggesting that Catholics were in a position to help. His experience of the Second Vatican Council’s inner tensions between conservatives and reformers led him to look at the inner dynamics at work in the Muslim world. Troll’s book on the Indian reformer, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, remains the standard text on his theology. Alongside him is an Egyptian Jesuit, Samir Khalil Samir, who has worked for decades on the patrimony of Eastern Christianity and so finds himself regularly writing about Islam with a particular concern for its engagement with modern values.

https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/ignatius-loyola-apostle-muslims

The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the fall of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after the Third Crusade in 1192.

The original Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1099 to 1187 before being almost entirely overrun by the Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin. Following the Third Crusade, it was re-established in Acre in 1192. The re-established state is commonly known as the "Second Kingdom of Jerusalem" or, alternatively, as the "Kingdom of Acre" after its new capital city. Acre remained the capital for the rest of its existence, even during the two decades that followed the Crusaders' establishment of partial control over Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade, through the diplomacy of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen face to face the Ayyubids.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Jerusalem

The Priory of Sion is an initiatory Order of chivalry, founded on July 15 1099 in Jerusalem, by Godfrey of Bouillon, at the Abbey "Our Lady of Mount Sion" as "Order of our Lady of Mount Sion."The Order, after being registered for the first time in history, in 1956, and then being dissolved in 1993, was newly registered in 2015, perpetuating the legitimate Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair's lineage, through the actual Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti.The Priory of Sion is characterized by a gnostic and rosicrucian influence, who sets himself the task of supporting and nurturing personal growth, moral and spiritual, with respect and in harmony with the personal objectives that each of us, by nature, has to carry through in life experience.It's also our purpose the esoteric research as the study and experience related to the transcendent and mystical in an environment of communion with our Brothers and Sisters, Members of the Order.The Priory of Sion today inherits a tradition of esoteric, philosophical, spiritual and cultural legacy, which favors the cultivation of values and principles that offers the way to live a more aware and noble personal dimension.We work through symbols, ancient rituals, theurgic practice and traditions, in order to live a personal and collective sprirituality in communion with our Brothers and Sisters.The Order is apolitical and forbids its members to be made a place of political debate, or even worse, to be exploited for such purposes."

http://www.prieure-de-sion.com/

The origins of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem date back to the First Crusade, when its leader, Godfrey de Bouillon, liberated Jerusalem. As part of his operations to organize the religious, military and public bodies of the territories newly freed from Muslim control, he founded the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. According to accounts of the Crusades, in 1103 the first King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I, assumed the leadership of this canonical order, and reserved the right for himself and his successors (as agents of the Patriarch of Jerusalem) to appoint Knights to it, should the Patriarch be absent or unable to do so.The Order’s members included not only the Regular Canons (Fratres) but also the Secular Canons (Confratres) and the Sergentes. The latter were armed knights chosen from the crusader troops for their qualities of valor and dedication; they vowed to obey Augustinian Rule of poverty and obedience and undertook specifically, under the command of the King of Jerusalem, to defend the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Places.Very soon after the First Crusade the troops – including the Knights of the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre – began to return to their homelands. This led to the creation of priories all over Europe, which were part of the Order as they came under the jurisdiction of the noble knights or prelates who had been invested on the Holy Sepulchre itself and who, although they were no longer in the direct service of the King of Jerusalem, continued to belong to the Order of Canons.The Order first began to fail as a cohesive military body of knights after Saladin regained Jerusalem in 1182, and completely ceased to exist in that format after the defeat of Acre in 1291. The passing of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem left the Order without a leader, though it continued to survive in the European priories thanks to the protection of sovereigns, princes, bishops and the Holy See. The priories kept alive the ideals of the Crusader Knights: propagation of the Faith, defense of the weak, charity towards other human beings. With the exception of events in Spain, it was only rarely that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre ever took part again in military action to defend Christianity.In the 14th century, the Holy See made an extremely high payment to the Egyptian Sultan so that he would grant the right to protect the Christian Sanctuaries to the Franciscan Friars Minor. Throughout the whole period of the Latin Patriarchate’s suppression, the right to create new Knights was the prerogative of the representative of the highest Catholic authority in the Holy Land: the Custos.In 1847 the Patriarchate was restored and Pope Pius IX modernized the Order, issuing a new Constitution, which placed it under the direct protection of the Holy See and conferred its government to the Latin Patriarch. The Order’s fundamental role was also defined: to uphold the works of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, whilst preserving the spiritual duty of propagating the Faith.In 1949, Pius XII decreed that the Grand Master of the Order should be a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and assigned the position of Grand Prior to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 1962 Pope John XXIII and, in 1967, Pope Paul VI reorganized and revitalized the Order by adding more specific regulations to the Constitution with the intention of making the Order’s activities more co-coordinated and more effective.In February 1996, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II enhanced the Order’s status. Today it is a Public Association of faithful with a legal canonical and public personality, constituted by the Holy See under Canon Law 312, paragraph 1:1.

https://eohsjeastern.org/a-brief-history/

Horses: the extent to which they can be possessed in our houses [575, 576]; the extent to which they can be used on missions [574, 625]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

The Prieuré was cited by name in references extending from the twelfth to the early seventeenth century. Then, in documents dating from 1619, it was stated to have incurred the displeasure of King Louis XIII of France, who evicted them from their seat at Orléans and turned the premises over to the Jesuits.5 After that, the Prieuré de Sion seemed to vanish from the historical record, at least under that name, until 1956, when it appeared again, registered in the French Journal officiel. And yet the present-day Order had repeatedly cited certain of its activities between 1619 and the twentieth century, certain historical events in which it had played a role, certain historical developments in which it had some sort of vested interest. When we examined the events and developments in question, we found indisputable evidence attesting to the involvement of an organised and coherent cadre working in concert behind the scenes, sometimes using other institutions as a façade. This cadre was not named specifically, but everything indicated that it was indeed the Prieuré de Sion. What was more, it proved to involve precisely the same network of interlinked families claiming Merovingian descent. Whether it was the intrigues and the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century, the insurrection known as the Fronde in the seventeenth century or the Masonic conspiracies of the eighteenth century, successive generations of precisely the same families were implicated, operating in accordance with a single consistent pattern."

The Messianic Legacy

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UV7FwghOOhdkp4fdk2SzG7oem2nRleW0/view?usp=sharing

The Counter-Reformation (Latin: Contrareformatio), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival,[1] was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It is frequently dated to have begun with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and to have ended with the political conclusion of the European wars of religion in 1648, though this is controversial.[2] The broader term Catholic Reformation (Latin: Reformatio Catholica) also encompasses reforms and movements within the Church in the periods immediately before Protestantism or Trent and lasting later.

Initiated in part to address the challenges of the Protestant Reformations,[3] the Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort arising from the decrees of the Council of Trent. The effort produced apologetic and polemical documents, anti-corruption efforts, spiritual movements, the promotion of new religious orders, and the flourishing of new art and musical styles. Such policies (e.g., by the Imperial Diets of the Holy Roman Empire) had long-lasting effects in European history with exiles of Protestants continuing until the 1781 Patent of Toleration, although smaller expulsions took place in the 19th century.[4]

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.[1] It also involved political activities and used the regional Inquisitions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Reformation

The Order of Assassins (Arabic: حَشّاشِین, romanized: Ḥaššāšīyīn; Persian: حشاشين, romanized: Ḥaššāšīn) were a Nizari Isma'ili order that existed between 1090 and 1275 AD, founded by Hasan al-Sabbah.

During that time, they lived in the mountains of Persia and the Levant, and held a strict subterfuge policy throughout the Middle East, posing a substantial strategic threat to Fatimid, Abbasid, and Seljuk authority, and killing several Christian leaders. Over the course of nearly 200 years, they killed hundreds who were considered enemies of the Nizari Isma'ili state. The modern term assassination is believed to stem from the tactics used by the Assassins.[1]

Contemporaneous historians include ibn al-Qalanisi, Ali ibn al-Athir, and Ata-Malik Juvayni. The former two referred to the Assassins as batiniyya, an epithet widely accepted by Isma'ilis themselves.[2][3]

Overview

The Assassins were founded by Hassan-i Sabbah. The state was formed in 1090 after the capture of Alamut Castle in the Alborz mountain range of Persia, which served as the Assassins' headquarters. The Alamut and Lambsar castles became the foundation of a network of Isma'ili fortresses throughout Persia and Syria that formed the backbone of Assassin power, and included Syrian strongholds at Masyaf, Abu Qubays, al-Qadmus and al-Kahf. The Western world was introduced to the Assassins by the works of Marco Polo[4] who understood the name as deriving from the word hashish.[5][6][7]

While Assassins typically refers to the entire group, only a group of disciples known as the fida'i actually engaged in conflict. The preferred method of killing was by dagger, nerve poison or arrows.[citation needed] The Assassins posed a substantial strategic threat to Fatimid, Abbasid, and Seljuk authority. Over the course of nearly 200 years, they killed hundreds – including three caliphs, a ruler of Jerusalem and several Muslim and Christian leaders.[8]

Notable victims of the Assassins include Janah ad-Dawla, emir of Homs, (1103), Mawdud ibn Altuntash, atabeg of Mosul (1113), Fatimid vizier Al-Afdal Shahanshah (1121), Seljuk atabeg Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi (1126), Fatimid caliph al-Amir bi-Ahkami’l-Lah (1130), Taj al-Mulk Buri, atabeg of Damascus (1132), and Abbasid caliphs al-Mustarshid (1135) and ar-Rashid (1138). Saladin, a major foe of the Assassins, escaped assassination twice (1175–1176). The first Frank known to have been killed by the Assassins was Raymond II, Count of Tripoli, in 1152. The Assassins were acknowledged and feared by the Crusaders, losing the de facto King of Jerusalem, Conrad of Montferrat, to an Assassin's blade in 1192 and Lord Philip of Montfort of Tyre in 1270. The Ismaili Assassins were created to revive the Shi'a Ismaili Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt, which had been destroyed by the Sunni Seljuks. Their primary tactic was to kill the Sunni leaders in as public a place as possible - usually at Friday prayers.

Accounts of the Assassins were preserved within Western, Arabic, Syriac, and Persian sources where they are depicted as trained killers, responsible for the systematic elimination of opposing figures. European orientalists in the 19th and 20th centuries also referred to the Isma'ili Assassins in their works, writing about them based on accounts in seminal works by medieval Arab and Persian authors, particularly ibn al-Qalanisi's Mudhayyal Ta'rikh Dimashq (Continuation of the Chronicle of Damascus), ibn al-Athir's al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh (The Complete History), and Juvayni's Tarīkh-i Jahān-gushā (History of the World Conqueror).

The Order would finally come to an end during the rule of Imam Rukn al-Din Khurshah when the Isma'ili State was eventually destroyed as Khurshah surrendered the castles after the Mongol invasion of Persia. Khurshah died in 1256 and, by 1275, the Mongols had destroyed and eliminated the order of Assassins.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Assassins

Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس, romanized: al-ʾAndalus)[a] was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim[1][2] states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula[3][4][5] as well as Septimania under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista,[1][2][6][7][8] eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus

1236

June 29 – Siege of Córdoba: Castilian forces under King Ferdinand III (the Saint) capture Muslim Córdoba from Emir Ibn Hud, as part of the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.[2]

July – At a diet (princely convention) in Piacenza, Emperor Frederick II proclaims his wish to recover all Italy for the Holy Roman Empire.[3]

Pope Gregory IX condemned the links that both the Knights Templer and Knights Hospitaller have with the Assassin fighters in the Middle East. He issues a bull, a formal proclamation issued by the pope, preventing further contact with the Assassins.

May 6 – Roger of Wendover, English Benedictine monk and chronicler, dies at St. Albans Abbey. His chronicle is continued by Matthew of Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1236

Atheism: resisting it with all our forces is a special mission given to the Society by the supreme pontiff, 253 2°; a mission which should permeate all forms of our apostolate, 254; our efforts are to be directed toward nonbelievers, ibid.; toward that end, an experience of God must be fostered in ourselves, 223 §§3-4, 224, 247

1° 2° 3° 6°;

and also in others, by means of the Spiritual Exercises, 271

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

The idea of uniting the Templars with the Hospitallers was first argued publicly in a book published in 1305 by Raimon Llull, a renowned illuminatus from Majorca. Llull’s book, Libre de Fine, (“Free At Last”) appeared in the midst of a raging controversy between the French monarchy and the Roman papacy over who held jurisdiction over the Templars. That is the subject of our next chapter.

Rulers of Evil

by F. Tupper Saussy

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/rulers-of-evil-f.-tupper-saussy/Rulers%20of%20Evil%20-%20F.%20Tupper%20Saussy.pdf

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The alumbrados of Castile were a movement that caused much trouble during the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Their ideas were represented by the “Big Three” beatas who, under noble patronage, for at least a decade previous to the arrest in 1524 of the “mother” of the movement (Isabel de la Cruz) had successfully proselytized and spread their ideas throughout Old and New Castile.1

The alumbrados certainly were a charismatic bunch; they enjoyed success with the elites of Castilian society, comuneros, but above all with women and conversos. As a religious movement led by women the alumbrados were part of a growing trend of individual, charismatic female piety. By the time of Cardinal Cisneros’s death in 1517, however, the era of the alumbrados and their grassroots converso spirituality was nearing its end. While the actual heyday of their movement was short-lived the alumbrados made a huge impact upon the minds Prospering in the environment of Catholic spiritual exploration fostered by the personal theological interests of the Archbishop of Toledo Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros the alumbrados presented an interiorized approach to Christianity. Equipped with the meditational practice of dejamiento the alumbrados stressed the importance of an individual, pseudo-mystical “abandonment” to God and His will. They also emphasized the insignificance of external rituals and works, calling them ataduras or “shackles” to the material world, ties that only served to hinder one’s abandonment to God.

of the Inquisitors who prosecuted them and upon the Spanish religious imagination, an impact that would last across seas and time."

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

JAVIER A. MONTOYA

http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041385/montoya_j.pdf

Alumbrado, (Spanish: “Enlightened”, ) Italian Illuminato, plural Illuminati, a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works, and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those who had received the “light.” The Alumbrados came primarily from among the reformed Franciscans and the Jesuits, but their doctrines seem to have influenced all classes of people. The extravagant claims made for their visions and revelations caused them to be relentlessly persecuted. The Inquisition issued edicts against them on three occasions (1568, 1574, and 1623)."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Alumbrado

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Pali Buddha (“the Awakened One, the Enlightened One”), from buddha (“awakened, enlightened”), from Sanskrit बुद्ध (buddha, “awakened, enlightened”), past participle of बोधति (bodhati, “to wake, to awaken”). Distantly related to English bid and bede. Also cognate with Russian будить (buditʹ, “to wake up”)."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buddha

Gautama

surname of the Buddha, from Sanskrit Gotamah, properly a patronymic, literally "descendant of the greatest ox," from superlative of gauh "ox, bull, cow."

https://www.etymonline.com/word/buddha

Unam Sanctam

One God, One Faith, One Spiritual Authority

Pope Boniface VIII - 1302

Bull of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins, as the Spouse in the Canticles [Sgs 6:8] proclaims: ‘One is my dove, my perfect one. She is the only one, the chosen of her who bore her,‘ and she represents one sole mystical body whose Head is Christ and the head of Christ is God [1 Cor 11:3]. In her then is one Lord, one faith, one baptism [Eph 4:5]. There had been at the time of the deluge only one ark of Noah, prefiguring the one Church, which ark, having been finished to a single cubit, had only one pilot and guide, i.e., Noah, and we read that, outside of this ark, all that subsisted on the earth was destroyed.

We venerate this Church as one, the Lord having said by the mouth of the prophet: ‘Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword and my only one from the hand of the dog.’ [Ps 21:20] He has prayed for his soul, that is for himself, heart and body; and this body, that is to say, the Church, He has called one because of the unity of the Spouse, of the faith, of the sacraments, and of the charity of the Church. This is the tunic of the Lord, the seamless tunic, which was not rent but which was cast by lot [Jn 19:23- 24]. Therefore, of the one and only Church there is one body and one head, not two heads like a monster; that is, Christ and the Vicar of Christ, Peter and the successor of Peter, since the Lord speaking to Peter Himself said: ‘Feed my sheep‘ [Jn 21:17], meaning, my sheep in general, not these, nor those in particular, whence we understand that He entrusted all to him [Peter]. Therefore, if the Greeks or others should say that they are not confided to Peter and to his successors, they must confess not being the sheep of Christ, since Our Lord says in John ‘there is one sheepfold and one shepherd.’ We are informed by the texts of the gospels that in this Church and in its power are two swords; namely, the spiritual and the temporal. For when the Apostles say: ‘Behold, here are two swords‘ [Lk 22:38] that is to say, in the Church, since the Apostles were speaking, the Lord did not reply that there were too many, but sufficient. Certainly the one who denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter has not listened well to the word of the Lord commanding: ‘Put up thy sword into thy scabbard‘ [Mt 26:52]. Therefore, both are in the power of the Church, namely, the spiritual sword and the material. But indeed, the latter is to be exercised on behalf of the Church; and truly, the former is to be exercised by the Church. The former is of the priest; the latter is by the hand of kings and soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.

However, one sword ought to be subordinated to the other and temporal authority, subjected to spiritual power. For since the Apostle said: ‘There is no power except from God and the things that are, are ordained of God‘ [Rom 13:1-2], but they would not be ordained if one sword were not subordinated to the other and if the inferior one, as it were, were not led upwards by the other.

For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power: ‘Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms‘ and the rest. Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: ‘The spiritual man judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man‘ [1 Cor 2:15]. This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven‘ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02yfhYosmvgxFGv9yNcQ8jXcu59WeLJLqmYKkSciQKLdFg4deCp4ax1ybGdZfw8pBJl

Countdown to the Messiah

Daniel 9:24 gives the Hebrew Nation a 483 year countdown to the year that the Messiah would arrive on the scene (column 2 row 3 of our next table). Luke records that Jesus began to be about 30 years old when he was revealed as the Messiah at the Jordan River baptism.

Three and a half years later the Messiah is crucified, by no coincidence it is forty years before the total Desolation of the Temple and the Nation by the Roman army, the people of the prince that shall come, as foretold by Daniel and Jesus. If any period of time deserves the title, “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” it would be this forty years. And if those days had not been shortened no flesh (Jacob) would have been saved, but for the Elect's sake (those obedient Hebrew's who would spread the gospel) those days of persecution were shortened to prevent the annihilation of even the elect. Many try to apply this verse to the days preceding the return of Messiah but this is not logical because the elect will all be resurrected at that time so those days will not need to be shortened for their sake. Because first century Christians were a sect of the Jews it was necessary for the Elect to survive the desolation of the Hebrew Nation at the end of that century.

The Rapture Will Be Cancelled

by Nicklas Arthur

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hwvsMLXT7Z35KlbSdXw6x5EH0VLHPZsM/view?usp=sharing

1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1989th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 989th year of the 2nd millennium, the 89th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1980s decade.

1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December; the movement ended in December 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Revolutions against communist governments in Eastern Europe mainly succeeded, but the year also saw the suppression by the Chinese government of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.

It was the year of the first Brazilian direct presidential election in 29 years, since the end of the military government in 1985 that ruled the country for more than twenty years, and marked the redemocratization process's final point.

F. W. de Klerk was elected as State President of South Africa, and his regime gradually dismantled the apartheid system over the next five years, culminating with the 1994 election that brought jailed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela to power.

The first commercial Internet service providers surfaced in this year,[1][2] as well as the first written proposal for the World Wide Web and New Zealand, Japan and Australia's first Internet connections. The first babies born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis were conceived in late 1989.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989

Note: Inauguration Day, January 20, 2029, falls on a Saturday. Federal employees in the Washington, DC, area are entitled to a holiday on the day a President is inaugurated on January 20th for each fourth year after 1965. Only employees scheduled to work on Saturday, January 20th, may be excused from duty and provided with paid holiday time off. In this instance, Inauguration Day is not observed on another day. There is no in-lieu-of holiday for employees who are not regularly scheduled to work on Inauguration Day (5 U.S.C. 6103(c)). Employees who are required to perform work on a holiday are entitled to holiday premium pay.

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/#url=2029

The other 9/11: George H.W. Bush's 1990 New World Order speech

Out of these troubled times, a new world order can emerge.

By George H.W. Bush|Contributor

12:41 PM on Sep 8, 2017 CDT

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt of George H.W. Bush's speech before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 11, 1990, in which he describes his vision of a new world order amid the Persian Gulf crisis. Read the full speech here.

We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era — freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony.

A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. Today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we've known. A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak. This is the vision that I shared with President Gorbachev in Helsinki. He and other leaders from Europe, the Gulf, and around the world understand that how we manage this crisis today could shape the future for generations to come.

The test we face is great, and so are the stakes. This is the first assault on the new world that we seek, the first test of our mettle. Had we not responded to this first provocation with clarity of purpose, if we do not continue to demonstrate our determination, it would be a signal to actual and potential despots around the world. America and the world must defend common vital interests — and we will. America and the world must support the rule of law — and we will. America and the world must stand up to aggression — and we will. And one thing more: In the pursuit of these goals, America will not be intimidated.

President George Bush and first lady Barbara Bush welcomed Soviet President Mikhail...

President George Bush and first lady Barbara Bush welcomed Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, for a state dinner at the White House in May 1990. (File Photo/The Associated Press)

Vital issues of principle are at stake. Saddam Hussein is literally trying to wipe a country off the face of the Earth. We do not exaggerate. Nor do we exaggerate when we say Saddam Hussein will fail. Vital economic interests are at risk as well. Iraq itself controls some 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Iraq plus Kuwait controls twice that. An Iraq permitted to swallow Kuwait would have the economic and military power, as well as the arrogance, to intimidate and coerce its neighbors — neighbors who control the lion's share of the world's remaining oil reserves. We cannot permit a resource so vital to be dominated by one so ruthless. And we won't.

Recent events have surely proven that there is no substitute for American leadership. In the face of tyranny, let no one doubt American credibility and reliability. Let no one doubt our staying power. We will stand by our friends. One way or another, the leader of Iraq must learn this fundamental truth. From the outset, acting hand in hand with others, we've sought to fashion the broadest possible international response to Iraq's aggression. The level of world cooperation and condemnation of Iraq is unprecedented. Armed forces from countries spanning four continents are there at the request of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to deter and, if need be, to defend against attack. Moslems and non-Moslems, Arabs and non-Arabs, soldiers from many nations stand shoulder to shoulder, resolute against Saddam Hussein's ambitions. ...

I cannot predict just how long it will take to convince Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. Sanctions will take time to have their full intended effect. We will continue to review all options with our allies, but let it be clear: We will not let this aggression stand.

George H.W. Bush was the 41st president of the United States.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230306211151/https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/09/08/the-other-9-11-george-h-w-bush-s-1990-new-world-order-speech/

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet"[1][2] – while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests. The SDGs highlight the connections between the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. Sustainability is at the center of the SDGs, as the term sustainable development implies.

These goals are ambitious,[according to whom?] and the reports and outcomes to date indicate a challenging path. Most, if not all, of the goals are unlikely to be met by 2030. Rising inequalities, climate change, and biodiversity loss are topics of concerns threatening progress. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to 2023 made these challenges worse, and some regions, such as Asia, have experienced significant setbacks during that time.

There are cross-cutting issues and synergies between the different goals; for example, for SDG 13 on climate action, the IPCC sees robust synergies with SDGs 3 (health), 7 (clean energy), 11 (cities and communities), 12 (responsible consumption and production) and 14 (oceans).[3][4]: 70 On the other hand, critics and observers have also identified trade-offs between the goals,[4]: 67 such as between ending hunger and promoting environmental sustainability.[5]: 26 Furthermore, concerns have arisen over the high number of goals (compared to the eight Millennium Development Goals), leading to compounded trade-offs, a weak emphasis on environmental sustainability, and difficulties tracking qualitative indicators.

The political impact of the SDGs has been rather limited, and the SDGs have struggled to achieve transformative changes in policy and institutional structures.[6] Also, funding remains a critical issue for achieving the SDGs. Significant financial resources would be required worldwide. The role of private investment and a shift towards sustainable financing are also essential for realizing the SDGs. Examples of progress from some countries demonstrate that achieving sustainable development through concerted global action is possible. The global effort for the SDGs calls for prioritizing environmental sustainability, understanding the indivisible nature of the goals, and seeking synergies across sectors.

The short titles of the 17 SDGs are: No poverty (SDG 1), Zero hunger (SDG 2), Good health and well-being (SDG 3), Quality education (SDG 4), Gender equality (SDG 5), Clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), Affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), Industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), Reduced inequalities (SDG 10), Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), Climate action (SDG 13), Life below water (SDG 14), Life on land (SDG 15), Peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG 16), and Partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals

2030-2031 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

Another general rule for predicting oppositions of Mars is from the following: the planet has an approximate 15.8-year periodic opposition cycle, which consists of three or four Aphelic oppositions and three consecutive Perihelic oppositions. Perihelic oppositions are also called "favorable" because the Earth and Mars come closest to each other on those occasions. We sometimes refer to this as the seven Martian synodic periods. This cycle is repeated every 79 years (± 4 to 5 days) and, if one were to live long enough, one would see this cycle nearly replicated in approximately 284 years. The 2031 Mars apparition is considered Transitional (between Aphelic and Perihelic) because the orbital longitude at opposition will be 68.4° from the aphelion longitude of 70° Ls and 111.6° Ls from perihelion (250° Ls).

NOTE: Ls is the planetocentric longitude of the Sun along the ecliptic of Mars’ sky. 0° Ls is defined as that point where the Sun crosses the Martian celestial equator from south to north, that is the planet’s northern hemisphere vernal equinox. The other Ls values that define the beginnings of Martian northern hemisphere seasons are: summer, 90° Ls; autumn, 180° Ls; and winter, 270° Ls. For Mars’ southern hemisphere these values represent the opposite seasons. Distance (A.U.) - Distance from Earth to Mars in astronomical units, where one (1) A.U. equals 92,955,807.267 miles or 149,597,870.691 km.

Opposition occurs 11 months after conjunction when Mars is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. At that time, the two planets will lie nearly in a straight line with respect to the Sun, or five weeks after retrogression begins. Opposition will occur at 1157 UT on May 04, 2031 (138.4° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.7 arcsec. Mars will remain visible for more than twelve months after opposition and then become lost in the glare of the Sun around May 31, 2032 as it approaches the next conjunction (July 11, 2032). The cycle is complete in 780 Earth days.

Closest approach occurs at 0350 UT on May 12, 2031 (142.1° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.9 at a distance of 0.5533578 astronomical units (AU) or 51,437,823 miles (82,781,152 km). During closest approach in 2031 the apparent diameter of Mars will be 2.4 arcsec larger than it was at the same period in 2029; however, it will be 17.1 degrees lower in the sky - not quite as good for observing the Red Planet for observers in the northern hemisphere. It should also be noted that closest approach between Earth and Mars is not necessarily coincident with the time of opposition but varies by as much as two weeks.

https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2031_MARS.htm

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

Eric Berger – Jan 3, 2025 9:28 AM | 1.1k

Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years.

For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program. Rather, Musk, who has long preferred Mars as a destination for humans, has more or less been a team player when it comes to the space agency's lunar-focused plans.

This is understandable from a financial perspective, as SpaceX has contracts worth billions of dollars to not only build a Human Landing System as part of NASA's Artemis Program but also to supply food, cargo, and other logistics services to a planned Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon.

But privately, Musk has been critical of NASA's plans, suggesting that the Artemis Program has been moving too slowly and is too reliant on contractors who seek cost-plus government contracts and are less interested in delivering results.

Silent on policy no longer

During the last 10 days, Musk has begun airing some of these private thoughts publicly. On Christmas Day, for example, Musk wrote on X, "The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed."

Then, on Thursday evening, he added this: "No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction."

These are definitive statements that directly contradict NASA's plans to send a series of human missions to the lunar south pole later this decade and establish a sustainable base of operations there with the Artemis Program.

It would be one thing if Musk was just expressing his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a significant part in the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has assumed an important advisory role for the incoming administration. He was also partly responsible for the expected nomination of private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become the next administrator of NASA. Although Musk is not directing US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.

So what does this mean for Artemis?

The fate of Artemis is an important question not just for NASA but for the US commercial space industry, the European Space Agency, and other international partners who have aligned with the return of humans to the Moon. With Artemis, the United States is in competition with China to establish a meaningful presence on the surface of the Moon.

Based upon conversations with people involved in developing space policy for the Trump administration, I can make some educated guesses about how to interpret Musk's comments. None of these people, for example, would disagree with Musk's assertion that "the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient" and that some changes are warranted.

With that said, the Artemis Program is probably not going away. After all, it was the first Trump administration that created the program about five years ago. However, it may be less well-remembered that the first Trump White House pushed for more significant changes, including a "major course correction" at NASA.

"I call on NASA to adopt new policies and embrace a new mindset," then-Vice President Mike Pence said in May 2019. "If our current contractors can't meet this objective, then we'll find ones that will." (Speaking of the vice president, it's unlikely that the National Space Council will be reconstituted under JD Vance).

To a large extent, NASA resisted this change during the remainder of the Trump administration, keeping its core group of major contractors, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in place. It had help from key US Senators, including Richard Shelby, the now-retired Republican from Alabama. But this time, the push for change is likely to be more concerted, especially with key elements of NASA's architecture, including the Space Launch System rocket, being bypassed by privately developed rockets such as SpaceX's Starship vehicle and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Not one, but both

In all likelihood, NASA will adopt a new "Artemis" plan that involves initiatives to both the Moon and Mars. When Musk said "we're going straight to Mars," he may have meant that this will be the thrust of SpaceX, with support from NASA. That does not preclude a separate initiative, possibly led by Blue Origin with help from NASA, to develop lunar return plans.

Isaacman, who is keeping a fairly low profile ahead of his nomination, has not weighed in on Musk's comments. However, when his nomination was announced one month ago, he did make a germane comment on X.

"I was born after the Moon landings; my children were born after the final space shuttle launch," he wrote. "With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place. We will inspire children, yours and mine, to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth."

In short, NASA is likely to adopt a two-lane strategy of reaching for both the Moon and Mars. Whether the space agency is successful with either one will be a major question asked of the new administration.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars (Latin: Mārs, pronounced [maːrs])[4] is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome.[5] He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.[6]

Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares,[7] whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature.[8] Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome; in Republican times it was a focus of electoral activities. Augustus shifted the focus of Mars' cult to within the pomerium (Rome's ritual boundary), and built a temple to Mars Ultor as a key religious feature of his new forum.[9]

Unlike Ares, who was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father (pater) of the Roman people.[10] In Rome's mythic genealogy and founding, Mars fathered Romulus and Remus through his rape of Rhea Silvia. The wolf was the sacred animal of Mars, with the she-wolf nursing the two founders as children. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, credited by Vergil as an earlier founder of Rome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(mythology)

Elon Musk Breaks Twitter Silence to Post Photo of Himself and 4 of His Sons with Pope Francis

Elon Musk said he was "honored" to meet Pope Francis as he shared a snap featuring four of his sons after 10 days off Twitter

By Nicholas Rice Published on July 2, 2022 01:24PM EDT

Elon Musk is back on Twitter.

After last sharing a tweet on the social media platform on June 21, the Tesla CEO, 51, returned to the site on Friday, writing in a message, "Feeling … perhaps … a little bored?"

In a follow-up tweet, Musk then shared a photograph of himself with his sons - including Griffin, and triplets Kai, Damian, and Sax – whose mother is his first wife, Justine Wilson, posing beside Pope Francis.

"Honored to meet @Pontifex yesterday," Musk wrote alongside the photograph, which saw each of the Musk men standing beside the Pope in suits.

In a later tweet, Musk shared a throwback image of himself and his ex-wife Talulah Riley in Italy.

"Venice, a site of Great Remembrance," he captioned the shot, which sees him and Riley, 36, posing in black and white attire with face masks covering their eyes.

Musk also shared one other Twitter message on Friday — a tribute to Technoblade, a YouTube gamer who recently died of cancer at 23.

"Popular Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade with 12 Billion subscribers recently passed away at the age of 23 due to cancer, and this made [me] realize that cancer is [an] absurd piece of literal garbage and death, but also try to live your best life with people who know," he wrote, alongside a quote from video game character Sonic the Hedgehog.

Added Musk: "They could die the following day, and you would regret not doing things with them."

Musk's most recent 10-day break from Twitter is the longest one he has taken from the social media platform since October 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The SpaceX CEO previously hadn't gone more than six days without tweeting Since January 2018, the outlet reported.

The WSJ reported that Musk, who is currently looking at a billion-dollar deal to purchase Twitter, has taken shorter days-long breaks from the site, however, including one this past January.

https://people.com/human-interest/elon-musk-poses-with-4-of-his-sons-and-pope-francis/

Gigafactory Texas (also known as Giga Texas, Giga Austin, or Gigafactory 5) is a Tesla, Inc. automotive manufacturing facility in unincorporated Travis County, Texas, just outside of Austin. Construction began in July 2020,[2] limited production of Model Y began before the end of 2021,[3][4] and initial deliveries of vehicles built at the factory took place at an opening party called "Cyber Rodeo" on April 7, 2022.[5]

The factory produces Model Y cars for the Eastern United States and is also the main factory for the Cybertruck and the company's next-generation vehicle.[3][6][7][8] It also serves as the site of Tesla's corporate headquarters.[9] Tesla employs over 20,000 people at the factory and expects to eventually have a staff of 60,000 as production ramps up.[1] It is the country's second biggest factory by size as well as the second-largest building by volume in the world after the Boeing Everett Factory.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_Texas

Austin

surname (also Austen) and masc. proper name, from Old French Aousten, an abbreviated form of Latin Augustine. St. Augustine of Canterbury is Austin in Layamon's "Brut" (c. 1200).

Entries linking to Austin

Augustine(adj.)

c. 1400 in reference to members of the religious order named for St. Augustine the Great (354-430), bishop of Hippo. The name is Latin Augustinus, from augustus "venerable, majestic, magnificent, noble" (see august (adj.)) + name-forming element -inus (see -ine (1)). Related: Augustinian.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Austin

Pope Leo XIV[a] (born Robert Francis Prevost;[b] September 14, 1955) is head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected in the 2025 papal conclave as the successor to Pope Francis.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in a nearby suburb, Prevost became a friar of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained as a priest in 1982. His service includes extensive missionary work in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, where he served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. Elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, he returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and made him a cardinal the same year.

As a cardinal, he emphasized synodality, missionary dialogue, and engagement with social and technological challenges. He also engaged with issues such as climate change, global migration, church governance, and human rights, and expressed alignment with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

A United States citizen by birth, Leo XIV is the first pope to have been born in North America, the first to hold Peruvian citizenship (having been naturalized in 2015), the second pope from the Americas (after his predecessor Francis), and the first from the Order of Saint Augustine. His papal name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who developed modern Catholic social teaching amid the Second Industrial Revolution. Leo XIV believes the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, poses "new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor".[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIV

Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Leo is a given name in several languages. In European languages, it is usually a masculine given name and it comes from the Latin word leo, which in turn comes from the Greek word λέων meaning "lion". It can also be used as a short form of other names that begin with Leo-, such as Leonard, Leonardo, Leonidas or Leopold, and occasionally Llywellyn. In Japanese, Leo or Reo (怜央) is usually a masculine given name.

The name can refer to:

People

Religious figures

Pope Leo (disambiguation), 14 popes

Pope Leo XIV, incumbent pope

List of saints named Leo

Leo of Constantinople (fl. 1134–1143), Patriarch of Constantinople

Leo Rajendram Antony (1927–2012), 4th Bishop of Trincomalee

Leo Baeck (1873–1956), German rabbi, scholar, and theologian

Leo Zhedenov (1883–1959), member of the Russian apostolate

Rulers

Emperor Leo (disambiguation), six Byzantine emperors

King Leo (disambiguation), various kings and monarchs with the ruling name Leo

Leo I, Prince of Armenia (died 1140)

Scientists

Leo Esaki (born 1925), Japanese physicist and Nobel laureate

Leo Kadanoff (1937–2015), American physicist

Leo Stodolsky, physicist

Leó Szilárd (1898–1964), Jewish Hungarian-American physicist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_(given_name)

Lyon Family History

Lyon Surname Meaning

Scottish English and French: from the personal name Middle English Lyon, Old French Leon (from Latin leo ‘lion’ or the cognate Greek leōn; see Leon). Compare Lyall. Scottish and English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Lyons-la-Forêt in Eure, Normandy. It is unlikely to be from the better-known southern French city of Lyon (see 5 below).

English and French: nickname from Middle English lioun ‘lion’ (Old English Latin leo) Old French leon perhaps applied to a brave, fierce, or proud person or one with a shaggy mane of hair. Compare Lion.

Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Laighin (see Lane). French: habitational name from the city of Lyon in south central France (or in some cases from the commune of Lyons-la-Forêt in Eure, Normandy; compare 2 above).

The name of the city of Lyon is recorded in the 1st century BC as Lugdunum and is from the name of a Celtic god Lug (or this as a personal name from a word meaning ‘brightness’) + dunon ‘hill fort’.

Altered form of Dutch De Leeuw.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022

Similar surnames: Leon, Lynn, Low, Lion, Moon, Lydon, Elton, Yon, Luton, Lio

https://www.ancestry.com/last-name-meaning/lyon?geo-lang=en-US

1 Peter 5:8

1599 Geneva Bible

8 [a]Be sober, and watch: for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Read full chapter

Footnotes

1 Peter 5:8 The cruelty of Satan, who seeketh by all means to devour us, is overcome by watchfulness and faith.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20peter%205%3A8&version=GNV

The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492.[1] The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image.

The layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles B. Atwood.[2][3] It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux-Arts principles of design, namely neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades, white staff, gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 "great buildings". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition.

The exposition covered 690 acres (2.8 km2), featuring nearly 200 new but temporary buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from 46 countries.[1] More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of emerging American exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.

Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871.[1]

On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $1.5 million (equivalent to $52.5 million in 2024).[4] Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag.[5]

History

Planning and organization

An advertisement for the Exposition, depicting a portrait of Christopher Columbus

Thomas Moran – Chicago World's Fair – Brooklyn Museum painting of the Administration Building

The regional vote breakdown of the eighth World's Fair location selection ballot in the United States House of Representatives

Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab,[6] Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn, and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson, among many others.[7][8]

The fair was planned in the early 1890s during the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines.

The first American attempt at a world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876 drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York financiers J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes, Marshall Field, Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick, Jr., offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker Lyman Gage, who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer.[9]

Chicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative Thomas Barbour Bryan argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were "abundant supplies of good air and pure water", "ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors". He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around the city where there was "not a house to buy and not a rock to blast" and that it would be located so that "the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of "vital interest" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of a successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements.[10]

The location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107.[11]

The exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on Jackson Park and an area around it as the fair site. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds.[1] The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate neoclassical style and painted white, resulting in the fair site being referred to as the "White City".[9]

The Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the Rand McNally Building on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of G. Brown Goode of the Smithsonian. The Midway was inspired by the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition, which included ethnological "villages". [12]

Civil rights leaders protested the refusal to include an African American exhibit. Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Irvine Garland Penn, and Ferdinand Lee Barnet co-authored a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, "when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery."[13] Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India.[13]

The exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, a painting exhibit by scientist George Washington Carver, and a statistical exhibit by Joan Imogen Howard. Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as Nancy Green's portrayal of the character Aunt Jemima for the R. T. Davis Milling Company.[14]

Operation

An aerial view of the exposition at Jackson Park in Brockhaus' encyclopedia

The fair opened in May and ran through October 30, 1893. Forty-six nations participated in the fair, which was the first world's fair to have national pavilions.[15] They constructed exhibits and pavilions and named national "delegates"; for example, Haiti selected Frederick Douglass to be its delegate.[16] The Exposition drew over 27 million visitors.[17] The fair was originally meant to be closed on Sundays, but the Chicago Woman's Club petitioned that it stay open.[18][19] The club felt that if the exposition was closed on Sunday, it would restrict those who could not take off work during the work-week from seeing it.[20]

The exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres (2.5 km2) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn. Charles H. Wacker was the director of the fair. The layout of the fairgrounds was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Beaux-Arts architecture of the buildings was under the direction of Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the fair. Renowned local architect Henry Ives Cobb designed several buildings for the exposition. The director of the American Academy in Rome, Francis Davis Millet, directed the painted mural decorations. Indeed, it was a coming-of-age for the arts and architecture of the "American Renaissance", and it showcased the burgeoning neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles.

Assassination of mayor and end of fair

Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison III delivers a speech to crowd during "American Cities Day" at the exposition on October 28, 1893. Harrison would be assassinated later that day.

"Columbian Exposition" of 1892 book cover art

The fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison III was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the fair's closing.[21] Closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service.

Jackson Park was returned to its status as a public park, in much better shape than its original swampy form. The lagoon was reshaped to give it a more natural appearance, except for the straight-line northern end where it still laps up against the steps on the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts/Museum of Science & Industry building. The Midway Plaisance, a park-like boulevard which extends west from Jackson Park, once formed the southern boundary of the University of Chicago, which was being built as the fair was closing (the university has since developed south of the Midway). The university's football team, the Maroons, were the original "Monsters of the Midway." The exposition is mentioned in the university's alma mater: "The City White hath fled the earth, / But where the azure waters lie, / A nobler city hath its birth, / The City Gray that ne'er shall die."[22]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition

What is the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy?

Answer

In October 1978 the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) sponsored a conference in which several hundred Christians representing forty-one churches and thirty-eight Christian denominations met to study, pray, and deliberate over an essential doctrinal issue: the inerrancy of Scripture. The delegates formulated the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Over 300 Evangelicals, including John F. MacArthur, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, and Josh D. McDowell, signed the document.

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was written to address the inerrancy of Scripture, the doctrine that the Bible is free from error. The statement includes a preface, a short statement, and nineteen articles, each affirming a position and denying a falsehood regarding inerrancy. The preface establishes that “the authority of Scripture is essential for the Christian Church in this and every age.” The short statement following the preface outlines five major points regarding the doctrine of inerrancy and the significance of the issue. The articles then detail issues such as divine inspiration through human writers; progressive revelation; manuscripts and translations; infallibility; unity of Scripture; witness of the Holy Spirit to Scripture; interpretation of Scripture; and the centrality of biblical authority, infallibility, and inerrancy to the Christian faith, confession of which should result in a life increasingly transformed to the image of Christ.

Divine inspiration is addressed first. The drafters of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy agreed that the Holy Scripture is the authoritative Word of God because it is inspired by God in order to reveal Himself to humanity. If the Bible did not have divine origins, it could be argued that Scripture receives its authority from the Church, tradition, or any other human source. It is because the Bible is the inspired Word of God that it is free from error. Furthermore, the statement affirms that the Scriptures are God’s communication to us. God made us in His image and chose to relate to us using our language; we do not have to worry that language is inadequate for divine revelation. Neither do we have to be in a heightened state of consciousness to receive or understand the Word.

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy also discusses the reliability of the biblical text. Several of the articles confirm that the Bible is true and reliable in all matters it addresses and that Scripture exhibits unity and internal consistency. As a result, we can use Scripture to interpret Scripture. Scripture should also “be interpreted by grammatico-historical exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices.” When we study Scripture, we should keep it in context, understand its original meaning, and not make the truths relative, based on human understanding or lack thereof. God further provides understanding through the Holy Spirit. As believers read the Bible, the Holy Spirit establishes the truth in believers’ hearts and minds and reminds them of what they have read and heard.

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy is a concise and helpful description of the components of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy and its importance to the Christian life. The signatories affirm that belief in biblical inerrancy is not necessary for salvation but warn that there are serious consequences to doubting the veracity of the Bible, both for the individual and the church at large.

The doctrine of biblical inerrancy is foundational for every believer. We can trust what the Bible says. We can allow God’s Word to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness so we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17). If the Bible is God’s inspired Word, then it is true. If it is true, we should follow it. Blessed are those who hear the Word and keep it (Luke 11:28; Proverbs 19:16; Revelation 1:3).

https://www.gotquestions.org/Chicago-Statement-Biblical-Inerrancy.html

Cardinal Dolan describes Pope XIV as 'citizen of the world,' will build bridges with Trump

Pope Leo XIV hails from Chicago and is the first American pontiff

Michael Dorgan By Michael Dorgan Fox News

Published May 9, 2025 1:31pm EDT

Several prominent U.S. Catholic bishops and cardinals recalled the spiritual process of electing Pope Leo XIV this week, with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York hailing the new pontiff as a "citizen of the world" who will seek to build bridges with President Donald Trump and other global leaders.

The six clergymen gave some insights into how they see the Pope Leo XIV papacy and said the quick conclave showed unity among the cardinals. They were speaking at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the Pontifical North American College in Rome on Friday.

"It should not startle us that we would look to Pope Leo as a bridge builder. That's what the Latin word ‘pontiff’ means, he's a bridge builder," Dolan said after being asked by a reporter if the pontiff would be a "counterweight" to Trump.

"Will he want to build bridges to Donald Trump? I suppose, but he would want to build bridges with the leader of every nation. So I don't think at all my brother Cardinals would have thought of him as a counterweight to any one person."

Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost, is the first American pope, and much emphasis has been made of his Chicago roots, with speakers blasting songs including "Born in the U.S.A." and "American Pie" as the cardinal electors gathered on stage. The stage was also decorated with Old Glory and a Vatican flag.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop emeritus of Galveston-Houston, conveyed his pride that they elected an American pope, the first in history.

"[Pope XIV] is really a citizen of the entire world, since he has spent so much of his ministry missionary work and zeal for Christ in South America in life in missionary work and zeal for work," DiNardo said. "Yes, he’s American and yes, he represents the big picture of the church."

Dolan agreed, noting the new pontiff is also a citizen of Peru, having spent three decades there as a missionary.

"He's a citizen of the world. He reminds us that we all have our true citizenship in heaven. As St. Paul taught us, and that is his role as universal pastor, where he comes from is sort of now a thing of the past," he said.

Several bishops likened Pope Leo XIV to a fusion of Popes Francis and Benedict, noting his blend of intellectual rigor and pastoral warmth while highlighting his Augustinian background and canon law expertise.

His choice of the name "Leo" was seen as significant, referencing both Pope Leo the Great and Leo XIII, signaling an intent to emphasize both strong leadership and social teaching.

DiNardo said that Leo the Great was pope in the fifth century when the church was "truly a mess" but he managed to save the city of Rome.

"He preached Christ crucified, and he preached him as truly Son of God," DiNardo said. "I think Pope Leo [XIV] is a wise, wise man, and he picks up one whose name has multiple figures from Leo the Great to Leo the 13th, all of whom can speak to us both on terms of social doctrine and in terms of doctrine of who Jesus is."

The bishops emphasized the spiritual, emotional and symbolic significance of the conclave. They described it as a deeply prayerful and unifying experience. The U.S. had 10 voting cardinals in the conclave, the second-highest number of any country.

Other speakers included: Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark; Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington; Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington; and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.A.

Asked about the reported simplicity of the meals the cardinals were served during the conclave, Dolan joked: "Let's just say it was a good, good, good impetus to get this over with."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cardinal-dolan-describes-pope-xiv-citizen-world-build-bridges-trump

Who was Timothy in the Bible?

Answer

Timothy, the recipient of the two New Testament letters bearing his name, was the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. He joined Paul during one of Paul’s later missionary journeys. Paul addresses Timothy as "my true son in the faith" (1 Timothy 1:2). He was probably no older than late teens/early twenties when he joined Paul but had already distinguished himself as faithful, and the elders noticed him. He probably heard and responded to the gospel when Paul came through the area of Derbe and Lystra on his first missionary journey, but we don’t know for sure. Timothy served as Paul’s representative to several churches (1 Corinthians 4:17; Philippians 2:19), and he was later a pastor in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). Timothy is also mentioned as being with Paul when Paul wrote several New Testament letters—2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon.

Paul says Timothy had a “genuine faith,” the same as that which lived in his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:1–5). Eunice and Lois prepared Timothy’s heart to accept Christ by teaching Timothy the Old Testament Scriptures and preparing him “from infancy” to recognize the Messiah when He appeared (2 Timothy 3:15). When Paul came preaching Christ, all three accepted his teaching and committed their lives to the Savior. We, too, must prepare our children to be ready when Christ moves in their hearts. They must know how to recognize that pull on their spirits as coming from the Savior, and the only way to do that is to follow the example of Eunice and Lois and teach our children the Word of God.

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he gave him instructions and advice for leading the church. He also exhorted Timothy not to let others look down upon him due to his youth, but to set an example for other believers "in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12). Paul told Timothy to be devoted to reading Scripture, exhorting, and teaching, and to not neglect the gift that he had been given. Paul also counseled Timothy to keep a close watch on himself. These instructions remain pertinent to believers today. We, too, are called to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:11–12).

It seems that Timothy had a chronic illness that required some attention (1 Timothy 5:23). Paul counseled him on a change of diet to aid the relief of his condition. From this example we learn that it is not always God’s will to heal a person miraculously; sometimes, healing comes through more “natural” means, if it comes at all.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul warned Timothy about the false teachers that he would encounter and tells him to continue in the things he has learned because he knows the character of those he learned them from, namely Paul himself and his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 3:14–15). The truths Timothy was taught from infancy—truths about sin and our need for a Savior—were able to make him “wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). As parents, we are to prepare our children to distinguish truth from error. And as believers, we are to stand firm in the truth we have learned, not being surprised or swayed by opposition and false teachers.

Paul also told Timothy, to "do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). This advice is crucial for all Christians. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Paul counseled Timothy, his "dear son" (2 Timothy 1:2), from a heart of love, wanting Timothy to stand firm in his own faith and to lead the other believers well. Timothy certainly seems to have been faithful; we should follow his example.

https://www.gotquestions.org/life-Timothy.html

The 1989 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1989 season. The 86th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Oakland Athletics and the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants. The Series ran from October 14 through October 28, with the Athletics sweeping the Giants in four games. It was the first World Series sweep since 1976, when the Cincinnati Reds swept the New York Yankees.

This marked the fourth World Series matchup, and first since 1913, between the two franchises. The previous three matchups occurred when the Giants were in New York and the Athletics resided in Philadelphia. The then New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series four games to one, the Athletics defeating the Giants in the 1911 World Series four games to two, and then again in the 1913 Fall Classic four games to one. The series would be historic in other ways as well: the 76-year gap between matchups was the longest in World Series history, a record this World Series would hold until 2018 when the Red Sox and Dodgers met for their first World Series meeting in 102 years; it also marked the first time two franchises had faced off in the World Series after having once played each other when both were based in a different city.

Fay Vincent, who had just taken over as the commissioner of baseball after the sudden death of his predecessor Bart Giamatti in September, presided over his first World Series and dedicated it to his predecessor's memory.[1]

This Series was also known as the "Bay Bridge Series," "BART Series," "Battle of the Bay," and "Earthquake Series"; the two participant cities lie on opposite sides of San Francisco Bay, connected by the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred before the start of Game 3. It was the first cross-town World Series (involving two teams from the same metropolitan area) since 1956, and only the third such series that did not involve New York City (the 1906 and 1944 World Series, which featured matchups between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns respectively, were the others). Until 2023, this marked the last time that consecutive championships were won by different teams from the same state.

Prior to the start of Game 3 on October 17, at about 5:04 PM PDT, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, damaging Oakland and San Francisco (particularly the Cypress Street Viaduct in the former and the Marina District in the latter) as well as the Bay Bridge's upper deck. Candlestick Park in San Francisco suffered damage to its upper deck as pieces of concrete fell from the baffle at the top of the stadium and the power was knocked out. The game was postponed out of concerns for the safety of everyone in the ballpark as well as the loss of power. The series resumed on October 27 and finished the next day.

At the time, October 28 was the latest end date ever for a World Series, surpassing the 1986 World Series by one day, even though the 1986 series went the maximum seven games and the 1989 series only lasted the minimum four games.[2] Had the Series run the full seven games, a Major League Baseball game would have been played in November for the first time in history.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_World_Series

On March 27, 1980, a series of volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows began at Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States. A series of phreatic blasts occurred from the summit and escalated until a major explosive eruption took place on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am. The eruption, which had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 5, was the most significant to occur in the contiguous United States since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California.[2] It has often been declared the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens

Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojty?a (18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005), known as Blessed John Paul II since his beatification on May 1, 2011, reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of The Holy See from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at 84 years and 319 days of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted 26 years and 168 days; only Pope Pius IX (1846–1878) who served 31 years, has reigned longer. Pope John Paul II is the only Slavic or Polish pope to date, and was the first non-Italian Pope since Dutch Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II

On 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck twice and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Pope_John_Paul_II

It's hard to see how the fishing industry will pick itself up again. Takeshi is moving away from the coast as is his neighbor and fellow fisherman. His wife has refused to return here since the tsunami hit. At the age of 77, he is unlikely to be able to start from scratch. But he picks up any remnants of his fishing gear he can find, just in case. What is left intact barely fills one small basket. His neighbor finds his clock. It has stopped at 3:22pm -- the exact moment his life changed and countless others ended." Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village by Paul Hancocks

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/japan.tsunami.village/index.html

Skull and Bones, The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut."

There is a secret that binds the two men who would be the next leader of the free world. President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry both spent a portion of their youth laying bare their sex lives in Gothic rituals presided over by a human skull and the skeletal remains of various other animal species in a windowless building known as the Tomb. They also formed an unusual attachment to the number 322, which holds a special resonance for the club's members." Skeletons in the closet

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/20/usa.internationaleducationnews

It is perhaps worth noting, in light of George W.'s controversial episode at Bob Jones University and the specter of anti-Catholicism, that at one point in the proceedings every initiate kisses the slippered toe of the "Pope." At last the initiate is formally dubbed a Knight of Eulogia. Amid more raucous ritual he is cast from the room into the waiting arms of the patriarchs."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/george-w-knight-of-eulogia/304686/

A major landslide occurred 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014 (3/22/2014), at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, engulfing a rural neighborhood, and covering an area of approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2). Forty-three people were killed and 49 homes and other structures destroyed."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_mudslide

Published: 10 October 1996

Russian documents Set out 'tectonic weapon' research

Carl Levitin

Moscow. The first official details have emerged in Moscow of ambitious research into 'tectonic warfare' carried out by the former Soviet Union and subsequently by the government of Russia, and involving atte mpts to stimulate 'artificial' earthquakes as weapons of destruction. According to documents obtained by the newspaper Moscow News, two research programmes, the first known as ' Mercury ' and the second as ' Volcano', were aimed at creating new earthquake epicentres by using underground nuclear explosions . Geophysicists are aware that impending earthquakes may be triggered by underground nuclear explosions . But Western geophysicists remain sceptical about tectonic warfare and have all but abandoned research after two unsuccessful phases of activity in the 1960s and 1980s, says Roger Clark, a lecturer in geophysics at the University of Leeds. Clark is not at all surprised that th e Russians tried to create earthquakes and control their location electromagnetically, however. "This sort of science is very much part of their heritage. We don't think it is impossible, or wrong , but past experience suggests it is very, very unlikely. "

The programme , which was secretly launched by the Communist rulers of the former Soviet Union in 1987, and has been unofficially known to Western geophysicists for several years, is now believed to have been abandoned. It would certainly contravene the terms of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Russia signe d at the United Nations in Geneva last month . The Mercury project was launched in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, but came to a halt when the republic became independent. It was superseded by the Volcano project. Three underground nuclear tests are believed to have taken place at sites in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the documents, the Mercury project was launched by a secret decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. The objective was to "develop a methodology for remote operation on an earthquake epicentre by using weak seismic fields and research possibilities of transferring the seismic energy of an explosion ".

The documents say that the Mercury project involved 22 scientific and industrial organizations, including the Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in Baku. The remit extended to developing the electronic equipment to be installed aboard space satellites that would control the tectonic weapon. The scientists were given three years to complete research, with testing planned for 1990.

During the research phase, Azerbaijani scientists grew increasingly confident and, according to the documents, were sure that " after [a] nuclear explosion, subterranean energy may accumulate at huge distances from the epicentre and reach massive capacity, after which the next directed explosion can release it all ".

Underground testing began at the town of Batken in Kyrgyzstan, and was directed by lkram Ke rimov , of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The documents say that scientists detonated an underground nuclear charge and tried to control the direction of seismic energy release d using British-built equipment known as 'system 9690 ' .

A report prepared by the Mozhaisky Military Engineering Institute concluded that the test had been a success. But progress slowed considerably following Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union. At about this time , Russia embarked on a more comprehensive tectonic warfare programme known as the Volcano project. The Earth Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) became the project headquarters .

https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0

UPI Archives Aug. 10, 1989

Family: Jealousy drove baseball coach to shoot pitcher

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A star teenage baseball pitcher who was shot in the head by her Little League coach was in serious condition Thursday as family members speculated that jealousy drove him to attack her, then commit suicide.

The girl, Susanna Jacobs, 16, was attacked Tuesday evening during rush hour along Interstate 80 about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Her condition was upgraded Thursday from critical to serious but stable, said a spokeswoman at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento.

The ponytailed North Highlands athlete was semiconscious after doctors removed a bullet Wednesday that had lodged near her left eye.

Jacobs was shot by Jesse Aguilar, 42, her longtime coach and close friend, minutes after she jumped out of his speeding pickup truck, Placer County sheriff's homicide detective Dave Harris said.

As motorists and two law officers treated Jacobs along the side of the highway for scrapes and bruises, Aguilar returned and shot her in the back of the head with a borrowed handgun, Harris said.

Aguilar then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, Harris said.

Jacobs' father, Roger Jacobs, said he believes Aguilar was obsessed with his daughter and jealous that she recently became friends with another teenage girl. Over the last two weeks, Aguilar had been following Jacobs.

'He had been her only true friend for four years,' Roger Jacobs told the Sacramento Bee. 'He just didn't want Sue to have any other friends.'

Aguilar also may have been despondent because Jacobs had recently started a new job at a hamburger stand and had less time for baseball, sheriff's investigators said.

Aguilar, who had a reputation as a highly competitive coach, taught Jacobs how to strike out batters and made her a star pitcher in the North Highlands Little League. She played both girls' softball and baseball with boys.

'She had a knuckleball, fastball and a bit of a curveball, and Jesse taught her how to do it,' the girl's father said.

Nate Harris, a softball coach at Highlands High School who knew both Jacobs and Aguilar, said the girl played high school softball as a freshman and sophomore, but did not play last spring because of 'personal' problems.

'She was real good. We sure could have used her last spring,' Harris told the Sacramento Union. 'There weren't too many guys who could outplay her.'

Aguilar was formerly president of the North Highlands Little League but resigned after he suffered a heart attack two years ago. His wife, Gail, took over the position.

He worked for AT&T and coached Jacobs' Little League 'Big League' team for 16- to 18-year-olds. Harris said Aguilar had coached Jacobs for about four years.

Sheriff's investigators said Aguilar had borrowed a handgun from a friend earlier this week, telling the man he was going camping and fishing with his family and needed the gun for protection.

Aguilar had picked up Jacobs from her home shortly before the shooting and told her parents he was taking her to a softball game. Investigators had not determined what caused the girl to leap from his car.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/08/10/Family-Jealousy-drove-baseball-coach-to-shoot-pitcher/8454618724800/

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974[1]) is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender rights and sexuality issues, with a focus on transgender fertility and reproductive rights.[2]

Beatie came out as a trans man in early 1997. Beatie had gender-affirming surgery in March 2002 and became known as "the pregnant man" after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007.[3] Beatie chose to be pregnant, with donated sperm,[4][5] because his wife Nancy was sterile.

The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Beatie

Tracing boards are painted or printed illustrations depicting the various emblems and symbols of Freemasonry. They can be used as teaching aids during the lectures that follow each of the Masonic Degrees, when an experienced member explains the various concepts of Freemasonry to new members. They can also be used by experienced members as reminders of the concepts they learned as they went through the ceremonies of the different masonic degrees.[1]

History and development

Floor and table designs

In the eighteenth century Masonic lodges met chiefly in private rooms above taverns, and the symbolic designs used in catechesis were chalked on the table or floor in the centre of the hired room, usually by the Tyler or the Worshipful Master.[2] Evidence suggests that a simple boundary was drawn (usually a square or rectangle, or sometimes a cross) within which various Masonic symbols were added, often of a geometric type (such as a circle or pentagram). In many lodges the boundary shape may have been drawn by the Tyler, with the Master adding the symbolic detail. Later various symbolic objects were incorporated, examples including a ladder, a beehive, and an hourglass, and sometimes drawings were interchangeable with physical objects.[3] At the end of the work a new member was often required to erase the drawing with a mop, as a practical demonstration of his obligation of secrecy.

Though the various Grand Lodges were then generally hostile to the creation of any physical representations of the ritual and symbols of the Craft, the time-consuming business of redrawing the symbols at every meeting was gradually replaced by keeping a removable "floor cloth" on which the various symbols were painted. Different portions might be exposed according to the work being executed.[4] By the second half of the eighteenth century the Masonic symbols were being painted on a variety of removable materials ranging from small marble slabs to canvas, to give a more decorative and elaborate symbolic display.

Painted boards

During the nineteenth century there was a rapid expansion of the use of permanent painted tracing boards, usually painted on canvas and framed in wood. Many artists produced competing designs, and most lodges commissioned sets of bespoke boards which were therefore of a unique design, despite following common themes. Some designs became particularly popular, leading to some repetition of favoured design features. Boards by John Cole and Josiah Bowring were examples of popularly recurring designs.[5]

The English artist John Harris was initiated in 1818 and produced many different series of tracing boards, including a miniature set of 1823 which became popular after Harris dedicated the design to Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).[6] Eventually the Emulation Lodge of Improvement sought to bring a measure of standardisation in tracing board design, and organised a competition in 1845, to which many different designs were submitted. Harris himself submitted at least two different sets to the competition, but one of his designs was the winner. Harris revised the designs in 1849, and these "Emulation" tracing boards are today considered a definitive design within British and Commonwealth Freemasonry.[7]

Contemporary use

In lodges under the UGLE, and many jurisdictions derived from English Freemasonry, tracing boards are an essential part of lodge furniture, sometimes displayed flat on the floor, and sometimes vertically against a pedestal or on the wall. Sets of three boards, usually of older designs, may often be found in special cases for storage and display within lodge rooms. There are sometimes tracing boards in other degrees.[8] The Royal Arch tracing board has fallen into disuse in most places, and examples are now rare. In the Mark Master Mason and Royal Ark Mariner degrees as administered from London, the tracing boards have experienced a great revival in popularity from the end of the twentieth century, and official rituals for the explanations of these tracing boards are again in regular use in English lodges.

As different Masonic jurisdictions established official, or standard, degree rituals the creation of new tracing boards by artists waned, and has since largely disappeared in favour of standard designs. Nonetheless, some masonic artists have experimented with very modern designs for the twenty-first century.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_board

Early Female Transgender Identity after Prenatal Exposure to Diethylstilbestrol: Report from a French National Diethylstilbestrol (DES) Cohort

by Laura Gaspari 1,2,3,†,Marie-Odile Soyer-Gobillard 4,5,†ORCID,Scott Kerlin 6,Françoise Paris 1,2,3 andCharles Sultan 1,*

Unité d’Endocrinologie-Gynécologie Pédiatrique, CHU Montpellier, University Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France

INSERM 1203, Développement Embryonnaire Fertilité Environnement, University of Montpellier, 34295 Montpellier, France

CHU Montpellier, University Montpellier, Centre de Référence Maladies Rares du Développement Génital, Constitutif Sud, Hôpital Lapeyronie, 34295 Montpellier, France

Laboratoire Arago, Observatoire Océanologique, Sorbonne University, CNRS, 75016 Paris, France

Association HHORAGES-France, 66100 Perpignan, France

DES International Information and Research Network, Livermore, CA 94551, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

J. Xenobiot. 2024, 14(1), 166-175; https://doi.org/10.3390/jox14010010

Submission received: 28 November 2023 / Revised: 8 January 2024 / Accepted: 10 January 2024 / Published: 12 January 2024

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in the Human Health)

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Abstract

Diagnostic of transsexualism and gender incongruence are terms to describe individuals whose self-identity does not match their sex assignment at birth. A transgender woman is an individual assigned male at birth (AMAB) on the basis of the external or internal genitalia who identifies and lives as a woman. In recent decades, a significant increase in the number of transgender people has been reported. Although, its etiology is unknown, biological, anatomical, genetic, environmental and cultural factors have been suggested to contribute to gender variation. In XY animals, it has been shown that environmental endocrine disruptors, through their anti-androgenic activity, induce a female identity. In this work, we described four XY individuals who were exposed in utero to the xenoestrogen diethylstilbesterol (DES) and were part of the French HHORAGES cohort. They all reported a female transgender identity starting from childhood and adolescence. This high prevalence of male to female transgenderism (1.58%) in our cohort of 253 DES sons suggests that exposure to chemicals with xenoestrogen activity during fetal life may affect the male sex identity and behavior.

Keywords: sexual identity; diethylstilbestrol (DES); prenatal exposure

1. Introduction

Gender identity defines each individual’s deeply held personal sense of their own gender as male or female or something else [1]. Moreover, gender diversity and variance are umbrella terms used to describe the wide range of gender identifications outside the conventional gender categories [2]. Gender dysphoria [3] relates to the distress and unease experienced by individuals who are discontent with their assigned gender and identify with a gender other than the one associated with their birth sex [4]. A transgender man or woman is a person born phenotypically female or male, assigned female or male at birth on the basis of their external or internal genitalia, who identifies and lives as a male or a female. Actually, for many experts [5] this definition should be enlarged to Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) individuals, people with disorders of sex development (DSDs) and people assigned male (AMAB) or female at birth (AFAB) [6].

All studies on secular trends have reported a dramatic increase in the number of transgender people in recent decades [7]. A temporal change in the age of presentation is another notable phenomenon [8]. Quoting Hassler et al. [8] in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5), signs of transgender in children include: “A repeated desire to be the other sex or an assertion that they are the other sex; a belief that their assigned sex will change on its own (e.g., thinking they will grow a penis or that their penis will come off when they get older); wanting to change their name to a name typically associated with another gender, or a gender-neutral name; a preference for presenting as another gender (e.g., a child assigned male at birth who prefers long hair and wearing dresses, or a child assigned female at birth who prefers short hair and wearing gender-neutral clothing); resistance or distress when made to present as a gender they do not identify with (such as a ‘girl’ throwing a tantrum over having to wear a dress or a ‘boy’ crying after having to get a haircut); assuming the role of another gender in fantasy games or make-believe; an intense desire to participate in the games and activities typical of the other gender (such as an assigned-male child playing with Barbie and an assigned-female child playing contact sports); a preference for playmates of another gender”.

Hassler et al. also wrote [8]: “In adolescence, signs of transgender includes: feelings of panic or severe discomfort concerning puberty and body changes (e.g., refusing to acknowledge or admit that changes are occurring, refusing to look at their body, or becoming distressed or uncomfortable with body development, menstruation, or ejaculation); discomfort or distress with certain forms of gender presentation, such as disliking long hair or certain types of clothing; increased bullying at school due to differences in acting out one’s perceived gender or lack of self-confidence; isolation from peers due to lack of connection or fear of bullying; depression and/or anxiety as a result of confusion over gender identity or not fitting in with peers; be aware that some adolescents may try to repress their true gender due to outside pressure, such as from family and peers, even if they previously expressed their true gender as a child”.

The literature on the prevalence of transgender people is heterogeneous, depending on the geographic area, inclusion criteria and age at presentation [9]. Specialized centers that manage transgender people estimate a prevalence between 17 and 33/100,000 individuals [10]. Actually, people who identify as transgender represent a sizable proportion of the general population, from 0.1% to 2% [11,12].

Although the biological basis of transgenderism/incongruence is unknown, biological, anatomical, genetic and environmental factors have been suggested to contribute to gender identity [13,14]. The role of sex hormones and genetics in sexual development was described by studies published between 1948 and 2019, and the implication of endogenous steroids in brain sexual differentiation has been widely studied [14,15,16,17,18]. According to the accepted dogma, high levels of fetal testosterone organize the brain towards a male phenotype [19]. Any exogenous chemical that can reduce testosterone action during fetal life can affect the differentiation of genitalia and sex behavior.

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is a molecule that has strengthened the concepts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and the fetal basis of adult diseases [20]. It is well known that in utero exposure to DES, a compound with estrogenic and anti-androgenic activity, induces a wide range of reproductive tract/function abnormalities in the so-called ‘DES daughters’, e.g., alterations to Müllerian duct development, fertility problems, ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, premature births and cancers, especially clear cell adenocarcinoma (CCA) of the vagina and cervix in girls and young women [21]. In ‘DES sons’, epididymal cysts, hypospadias, cryptorchidism, hypoplastic testes and micropenises have been observed [22,23,24,25,26]. In addition, although less studied, in utero exposure to synthetic sex hormones, particularly DES, can cause psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, eating disorders and suicidal behavior [27]. Interestingly, some studies in patients exposed in utero to DES with psychotic disorders identified methylome changes that affect the expression of ZFP57 and ADAMTS9, two genes implicated in neurodevelopment regulation [28], with potential multigenerational and transgenerational effects [29,30].

In this work, we first describe four transgender women identified among the 253 sons exposed in utero to DES included in the HHORAGES-France cohort (a French National patient association). This high prevalence of male-to-female transgender individuals among DES sons (1.58%) strongly suggests that exposure of male fetuses to this xenoestrogen during fetal life may affect future male sex identity and behavior.

2. Patients and Methods

This study was based on a French national retrospective cohort of DES-treated women (HHORAGES-France Association) (n = 1200) and their families. Detailed standard questionnaires were obtained from all DES mothers when they joined the HHORAGES-France Association and all DES children were already adults at this time. The answers to this online questionnaire were used to select women who met the following inclusion criteria: (1) at least two pregnancies with two viable male babies (same father) among whom the first child was not exposed in utero to DES (pre-DES), followed by one or more children with fetal exposure to DES (DES); (2) confirmed data on the total DES dose (health record or physician’s observation). The cumulative dose D administered to the French pregnant mothers was 4050 mg < D < 7300 mg. This is considered a medium-low-dose cohort, in accordance with the observations by Tournaire et al. [31] and compared with the higher doses administered in the United States (7550 mg < D < 12,742 mg). The answers to the questionnaires were also used to identify women with a DES son who presented female gender variance. We then contacted all DES sons with female gender variance and we carried out an individual interview with them.

The local university hospital ethics committee approved this study (ID IRB No. 202301531), and all patients gave their informed consent through the HHORAGES-France Association (CNIL: J B/EM/DC042793, N° 1006460).

All DES sons who identified as transgender women underwent karyotyping at their local hospital at the moment of transition.

https://www.mdpi.com/2039-4713/14/1/10

98 Rock

Saturday, May 24, 2025 at 10:13 AM ·

Come on down today! The Elk Grove Kia in the Elk Grove Automall. They have an incredible Memorial Weekend Sale happening. Great inventory, top dollar for your trade in, and can get you into a new car for as low as $199 a month! - Myki Angeline

https://www.facebook.com/98Rock/videos/1030224932628797

Myki Angeline is a Broadcaster & Podcast Producer

Award-winning MXL Microphones Artist Myki Angeline is a broadcaster at 98 Rock, and Podcast Producer for Audacy, Inc. in Sacramento. She is the creator of The Bad Filipino podcast and blog (on Medium). She enjoys working with the youth as well, volunteering her time for the Stairway To Stardom program, and Girls Rock Sacramento Music Camp. As a respected journalist, with a passion for philanthropy and music, Myki has interviewed some of the largest, influential, pioneers in the music industry. in June 2022 she was the recipient of the She Rocks "Warrior" Award during the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

Endorsed by: MXL Microphones:

http://www.mxlmics.com/artists/mykiangeline.php

On Air Talent at 98 Rock:

https://www.audacy.com/krxq/hosts/myki

Blogger on Medium:

https://medium.com/@mykiangeline

Podcast on Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/myk-angeline

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MykiAngeline

Instragram:

https://www.instagram.com/myki.angeline/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mykiangeline

PRESS:

Contributor for 'Writing and Reporting the News for the 21st Century: The Speed at Which We Travel by Yumi Wilson, Gina Baleria, and Grace M. Provenzano, First Edition', San Francisco State University

https://titles.cognella.com/writing-and-reporting-the-news-for-the-21st-century-9781516526789

Lady Boss Blogger Feb 2017:

http://ladybossblogger.com/myki-angeline-mentors-upcoming-media-personalities/

Be The Change by Myki | NOH8 Campaign 2015:

http://www.noh8campaign.com/article/be-the-change-by-myki

The WiMN Front and Center: http://www.thewimn.com/front-center-m-n-founder-myki-angeline/

Interview with IndieBlush May 2015:

https://issuu.com/christinamarie49/docs/may2015_magcloud/21?e=11214268%2F12604778

MY WORK:

Blogger on Medium:

https://medium.com/@mykiangeline

The WiMN:

http://www.thewimn.com/

Soapbox! TV:

Sept 9, 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovVXB-K_Go&t=9s

August 22, 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUz90WIJZw&t=7s

July 4, 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfcExCefJyw&t=1050s

June 27, 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2G-rRYkI5Q&t=591s

June 20, 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qJzqDbaRGQ&t=1340s

She Rocks Awards Red Carpet 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNWUWz2Qepc

Big AMP Sacramento and NAMM 2015 video interviews: http://www.esm7.org/namm-2015/

CMS NAMM 2015 video interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8rkKsMDnx52UG1Evz6vQqQ

She Rocks Awards 2016, Part 1:

https://youtu.be/P_IentSok_M

She Rocks Awards 2016, Part 2:

https://youtu.be/LYw_5Q5z2Ic

"Today Angeline is a champion for local artists in the Sacramento, CA area, and a true ambassador of the city’s music scene. " ~ The Women's International Music Network, L.A. Nov 2014

"Nowadays I use my gift of networking and compassion to stand up for equality and encourage people to follow their hearts, chase their dreams, and love unconditionally. It's time for everyone to 'be the change'." ~ Official NOH8 Campaign July 2015

"...the feeling of 'Ohana' I get whenever I'm around her. Her interests are just as diverse as her heritage, and her easy way of speaking had me at 'Hello'" ~ Indie Blush Magazine May 2015

https://www.facebook.com/mykiangeline/about_details

Michael,[a] also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch[6] is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.[7] The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second-century BC Jewish works, often but not always apocalyptic, where he is the chief of the angels and archangels, and he is the guardian prince of Israel and is responsible for the care of the people of Israel.[8][9][10][11] Christianity conserved nearly all the Jewish traditions concerning him,[12] and he is mentioned explicitly in Revelation 12:7–12,[13] where he does battle with Satan,[14] and in the Epistle of Jude, where the archangel and the devil dispute over the body of Moses.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel)

The Carolingian dynasty (/ˌkærəˈlɪndʒiən/ KARR-ə-LIN-jee-ən;[1] known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD.[2] The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious until the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants, Charlemagne's death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Name

The Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of multiple Frankish kings including Charlemagne and Charles Martel.[3] Incidentally, the US states of North and South Carolina are also based on the name Charles, having been named after King Charles II of England. The name originates from a common Germanic word, rendered in Old High German as Karl or Kerl,[4] meaning 'man', 'husband', or 'freeman'.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_dynasty

Pope Alexander VI[Note 2] (born Rodrigo de Borja[Note 3]; 1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503) (epithet: Valentinus ("The Valencian")[6] was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. Born into the prominent Borgia family in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain), Rodrigo studied law at the University of Bologna. He was ordained deacon and made a cardinal in 1456 after the election of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III, and a year later he became vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church. He proceeded to serve in the Curia under the next four popes, acquiring significant influence and wealth in the process. In 1492, Rodrigo was elected pope, taking the name Alexander VI.

Alexander's papal bulls of 1493 confirmed or reconfirmed the rights of the Spanish crown in the New World following the finds of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the second Italian war, Alexander VI supported his son Cesare Borgia as a condottiero for the French king. The scope of his foreign policy was to gain the most advantageous terms for his family.[7][8]

Alexander is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. As a result, his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI

Francis Borgia SJ (Valencian: Francesc de Borja; Spanish: Francisco de Borja; 28 October 1510 – 30 September 1572) was a Spanish Jesuit priest. The great-grandson of both Pope Alexander VI and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, he was Duke of Gandía and a grandee of Spain. After the death of his wife, Borgia renounced his titles and became a priest in the Society of Jesus, later serving as its third superior general. He was canonized on 20 June 1670 by Pope Clement X.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Borgia

Borja (Borgia)

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Zaragoza province named from Arabic burj ‘tower’. See also Borgia .

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=borja

One World Trade Center, also known as One WTC and erroneously as the Freedom Tower,[note 1] is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world. The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. It is bounded by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.

The construction of below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the new building began on April 27, 2006. One World Trade Center became the tallest structure in New York City on April 30, 2012, when it surpassed the height of the Empire State Building. The tower's steel structure was topped out on August 30, 2012. On May 10, 2013, the final component of the skyscraper's spire was installed, making the building, including its spire, reach a total height of 1,776 feet (541 m). Its height in feet is a deliberate reference to the year when the United States Declaration of Independence was signed. The building opened on November 3, 2014;[12] the One World Observatory opened on May 29, 2015.[13]

On March 26, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) confirmed that the building would be officially known by its legal name of "One World Trade Center", rather than its colloquial name of "Freedom Tower".[15][16][17] The building has 94 stories, with the top floor numbered 104.

The new World Trade Center complex will eventually include five high-rise office buildings built along Greenwich Street, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located just south of One World Trade Center where the original Twin Towers stood, and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub to its east. The construction of the new building is part of an effort to memorialize and rebuild following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center

Pope John XXIII's coat of arms.

Of gules, a silver sash, a silver tower mazonada and clarified with sable especially, accompanied chiefly by two fleurs-de-lis of the same, a silver chief with a winged leopard lion, holding a gospel with the front right leg open with the text "PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS", all in gold and saber letters.

https://br.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restr:C_o_a_John_XXIII.svg

New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 3, also known as Ladder 3, is a fire company and one of two ladder companies in the New York City Fire Department's (FDNY) 6th Battalion, 1st Division. It is housed at 108 E. 13th St., along with Battalion Chief 6, and has firefighting stewardship over a several square block area of Manhattan’s East Village. The company was created on September 11, 1865, and is one of New York’s oldest ladder companies.[1]

During the September 11 attacks, the company reported to the North Tower of the World Trade Center.[2] As the time of the attacks coincided with the morning tour change, both tours remained on duty, and the company arrived at the World Trade Center carrying more men than usual. Captain Patrick J. Brown and his men were last known to be on the 35th floor of the tower before the North Tower collapsed. Ladder Company 3 received some of the heaviest casualties of any fire company in the FDNY.[3]

Ladder Company 3’s apparatus, a Seagrave rearmount ladder truck placed in service in 1994, shop number SL9413,[4] was parked on West Street next to Six World Trade Center and damaged beyond repair by the collapse of the Twin Towers. It spent ten years housed at Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

In 2011, ten years after the September 11 attacks, the ladder truck was made part of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The flag-covered, 60,000-pound truck was lowered by crane 70 feet below ground and observed by firefighters, victims’ families and other bystanders, as the FDNY Emerald Society performed "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes as they would at the funeral of a fallen FDNY member. It is intended to represent the members it lost on September 11 as well as all FDNY casualties.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Fire_Department_Ladder_Company_3

Protocol 17: The King of the Jews will be the real Pope of the Universe, the patriarch of an international Church.

But, in the meantime, while we are re-educating youth in new traditional religions and afterwards in ours, we shall not overtly lay a finger on existing churches, but we shall fight them by criticism calculated to produce schism....

Notice that "The King of the Jews" will replace the Pope. Jews would not be concerned with replacing the Pope. They do not even recognize the Church. On the other hand, the Priory of Sion used the Catholic Church to build its empire. It was subject to the Roman Church for centuries, but withdrew during the Reformation, and through Free-masonry became adversarial to the Church. Naturally, the Priory would want to call their king "the real Pope of the Universe."

Also, notice the reference to New Age religion. Before the New Age can be perfected, the Protocol states that "criticism" must first divide the Church. This "criticism" is likely the new "Biblical criticism," the sources of which Orthodox Rabbi Marvin Antelman has revealed to us. In his book, To Eliminate The Opiate, he devotes a whole chapter entitled "The Birth of Biblical Criticism" to the subject. He lays Biblical Criticism at the feet of the Frankist-Reform Jews who were protected by illuminated Masonic lodges in Germany. Rabbi Antelman confirms that Biblical criticism did not originate with Orthodox Jews, but rather; was orchestrated by apostate Jews bent on the destruction of Jude~ Christian religion.

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

Lucky 17, Q and the 'tippy top' White House: How conspiracy theories are being turbo-charged in Donald Trump's America

Donald Trump

World

Thursday 22 November 2018 at 12:01am

Robert Moore

ITV News Correspondent

There are some riddles about America that I never imagined I would have to unravel.

In fact, there are many conspiracy theories that exist in the dark recesses here that I never knew about, even after reporting from the US for more than a decade.

Until recently, I was blissfully unaware of the significance of the number 17 to many Americans.

I had never pondered the letter Q as a political force.

I would have struggled to tell you why thousands of people were exhilarated when Donald Trump used the phrase “tippy top” from the White House balcony.

Today, having spent a month researching and filming American conspiracy theories for a documentary for ITV’s Tonight programme, I feel more informed and more confused at the same time.

I have a better grasp, certainly, of why Americans are drawn to the idea of conspiracies and secret plots.

But as these theories are turbo-charged by the internet, talk radio and social media, I don’t know where it ends.

Does America become increasingly paranoid and suspicious, seeing shadows and threats everywhere, or does it eventually rediscover its equilibrium and return to a belief in reason and science?

Let me explain those riddles.

Q is the name that many Trump-supporting Americans give to the secretive figure they believe exists inside the government, who is helping the president defeat his enemies.

They believe that Q will not only ensure Trump’s survival but that he - or she - will turn the tables and destroy the Democrats and the Deep State.

And since Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet, his followers attach special significance to that number.

In the eyes of Q believers, his credibility was enhanced when a follower asked Q to get President Trump to say “tip top”.

Sure enough, Trump did use those words, although he had used the phrase before and there is no evidence of a link between the president and the Q conspiracy theory.

America has always been awash with such ideas.

From the hysteria of the 17th century Salem witch trials, through to the paranoid McCarthy era, to the JFK assassination and 9/11, there is a direct connection.

All have fuelled Americans’ obsession with conspiracies and raised doubts about whether official explanations are accurate.

But today something much more remarkable has occurred.

Suddenly, the conspiracy theorist-in-chief is on the inside.

He works from the White House. He is the President of the United States of America.

Donald Trump has weaponised conspiracy theories for his own political benefit.

Indeed, he came to political prominence by riding on the back of the Birther Movement, the pernicious lie that claims that Barack Obama was born in Africa and therefore was an illegitimate president.

Whether it is believing votes have been deliberately miscounted in the mid-term elections, or that there is a Deep State conspiracy against him, Trump is playing to the anxiety of millions of Americans who already have a profound distrust of the government and mainstream sources of news.

Many recent acts of violence have been triggered by those who believe in wild conspiracy theories, including most recently the gunman who murdered 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

So there is grave danger ahead if the battle for truth is lost.

In our film, we speak to those who believe passionately in the existence of Q; we hear from those who have been traumatised by conspiracy theorists; and we speak to scientists and intellectuals who are fighting back.

Besieged by talk of Fake News, with a president who portrays much of the media as the Enemy of the People, America is at a crossroads.

https://www.itv.com/news/2018-11-22/lucky-17-q-and-the-tippy-top-president-how-conspiracy-theories-are-being-turbo-charged-into-donald-trumps-america

Louis Farrakhan (/ˈfɑːrəkɑːn/; born Louis Eugene Walcott; May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI), a black nationalist organization.[2][3] Farrakhan is notable for his leadership of the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C., and for his rhetoric that has been widely denounced as antisemitic and racist.

Prior to joining the NOI, Farrakhan was a calypso singer who used the stage name Calypso Gene. Early in his career, he served as the minister of mosques in Boston and Harlem and was appointed to the post of National Representative of the Nation of Islam by then-NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. He adopted the name Louis X before being named Louis Farrakhan.

After Warith Deen Mohammed reorganized the original NOI into the orthodox Sunni Islamic group American Society of Muslims, Farrakhan began to rebuild the NOI as "Final Call". In 1981, he officially adopted the name "Nation of Islam", reviving the group and establishing its headquarters at Mosque Maryam. In October 1995, Farrakhan organized and led the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.. Due to health issues, he reduced his responsibilities with the NOI in 2007.[4] However, Farrakhan has continued to deliver sermons[5] and speak at NOI events.[6] In 2015, he led the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March: Justice or Else.

Farrakhan is known for antisemitic statements and racist remarks directed at white people. His antisemitic statements and views have been condemned by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL),[7][6] and other organizations.[8] Farrakhan's views and remarks have also been called homophobic.[9] He has denied assertions that he is antisemitic, racist, or anti-gay.[10][11][12] Farrakhan was banned from Facebook in 2019 along with other public figures considered to be extremists.[13][14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Farrakhan

416 Finally, those means that are proposed by our holy father Saint Ignatius in Part X of the Constitutions for the preservation and development not only of the body or exterior of the Society but also of its spirit, and for the attainment of the objective it seeks, which is to aid souls to reach their ultimate and supernatural end, [10] are to be observed eagerly and diligently by all, with a truly personal sense of responsibility for its increase and development, for the praise and service of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, and the help of souls.[11]

L. D. S. "

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Clovis is the modern conventional French (and thence English) form of the Old Frankish name ᚺᛚᛟᛞᛟᚹᛁᚷ (in runic alphabet) or *"Hlōdowik" or "Hlōdowig" (in Latin alphabet), equivalent to the modern forms Louis (French), Lodewijk (Dutch), Lewis (English), and Ludwig (German).

Etymology

The name *Hlōdowik or *Hlōdowig is traditionally considered to be composed of two elements, deriving from both Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz ("loud, famous") and *wiganą ("to battle, to fight") respectively, resulting in the traditional practice of translating Clovis' name as meaning "famous warrior".

However, scholars have pointed out that Gregory of Tours consequently transcribes the names of various Merovingian royal names containing the first element as chlodo-. The use of a close-mid back protruded vowel (o), rather than the expected close back rounded vowel (u) which Gregory does use in various other Germanic names (i.e. Fredegundis, Arnulfus, Gundobadus, etc.) opens up the possibility that the first element instead derives from Proto-Germanic *hlutą ("lot, share, portion"), giving the meaning of the name as "loot bringer" or "plunder (bringing) warrior". This hypothesis is supported by the fact that if the first element is taken to mean "famous", then the name of Chlodomer (one of Clovis' sons) would contain two elements (*hlūdaz and *mērijaz) both meaning "famous", which would be highly uncommon within the typical Germanic name structure.[1][2]

Frankish royalty

Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler

Clovis II (637 – c. 658), king of Neustria and Burgundy

Clovis III (reigned 675–676), the king of Austrasia

Clovis IV (682–695), the sole king of the Franks from 691 until 695

Clovis (died 580), son of Chilperic I and Audovera, assassinated by his father and stepmother

Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, King of Aquitaine from 781 and sole ruler of the Franks 814–840, but counted as "Louis I of France" even though West Francia (the nucleus of the later kingdom of France) was formed only after his death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_(given_name

The Carolingian dynasty (/ˌkærəˈlɪndʒiən/ KARR-ə-LIN-jee-ən;[1] known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD.[2] The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious till the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Name

The Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of multiple Frankish kings including Charlemagne and Charles Martel.[3] The name originates from a common Germanic word, rendered in Old High German as Karl or Kerl,[4] meaning 'man', 'husband', or 'freeman'.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_dynasty

THE CONFLICT: PRIORY OF SION VERSUS KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

Secret societies by virtue of their very secrecy have often kept historians at bay, and the historians, reluctant to confess their ignorance, prefer to diminish the consequence of their subject. Freemasonry.. is of vital importance to any social, psychological, cultural or political history of eighteenth-century Europe, and even to the founding of the United States; but most history books don't even mention it. It is almost as if an implicit policy obtained: If something cannot be exhaustively documented, it must be irrelevant and thereby not worth discussing I at all. Investigators of the Holy Grail' Freemasonry, French and English, as we know it today, finds its loots in two organizations of the Middle Ages - the Priory of Sion and the Order of the Knights Templar. What follows is the fascinating, if sometimes complicated and obscure history, of how these two modern, anti-Christian secular secret societies - English and French Freemasonry - developed from two groups that themselves had roots in the occult. We will see how the Priory of Sion desired to rule the world from the throne of David in Jerusalem through its counterfeit Jewish Merovingian bloodline, and how its own creation, the Knights Templar, moved beyond its role as police and protector of Sion to financial masters of medieval Europe. We will trace the alliance of Sion and the Templars, their dispute over the discovery of Solomon's treasures, and the terrible intrigues which followed that led to the undoing of the Templars in their struggle over wealth, power, and politics. We will reveal the beliefs of these two groups: that Jesus fathered children by Mary Magdalene; that a spiritual god of good (Satan) battles a material god of evil; that Lucifer, not Jesus, deserves worship; that a "Spear of Destiny" (later sought and possessed by Hitler) allows the holder to rule the world. We will also present data about the whereabouts of King Solomon's wealth, the plan to one day return it to Jerusalem, and reveal that the ultimate goal of these two groups is world government, and that their descendants, English and French Freemasonry, desire the same. The Historical Trail: The Priory of Sion and the Holy Grail In 1982 and 1986 three secular revisionist authors, Michael Baigent~ Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln published Holy Blood, Holy Grail followed by The Messianic Legacy. These two books dramatically reveal a secret order structured in the manner of Freemasonry, and founded in Europe twelve centuries before the Grand Lodge was officially formed in 1717. This order protects both the Holy Grail and the Merovingian bloodline, which bloodline carried Mystery Babylon into the Catholic Church in 496 A.D. 56 The Holy Grail, of course, is the so-called cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. The Merovingians, owners of the Holy Grail, teach that Jesus fathered children by Mary Magdalene. The Merovingians claim to be the offspring of that "holy" union, and as such, assert they are Jews of the Davidic line.

In Revelation 17:3-5 the apostle John describes a vision, which Rev. J. R. Church in Guardians of the Grail believes is fulfilled in the Grail legend. The Whore of Babylon is holding in her hand a golden cup full of blasphemy. Church believes the cup is the blasphemous Holy Grail Another element of the Grail legend is the spear supposed to have pierced the side of Jesus, also known as the Spear of Longinus or the Spear of Destiny. Whoever possesses this spear, so the legend goes, will rule the world. The Merovingians, whose descendants are the Habsburg pretenders to the Austrian throne today, are in possession of the spear. It is on display in the Habsburg museum in Vienna, Austria~ No one, however, knows the location of the Holy Grail. At least no one is telling. Although heretical, this secret society should not be discounted, for it is alive and well today. In fact, in 1956, an Order calling itself the Prieure de Sion, or Priory of Sion, registered itself publicly for the first time with the French government. (Sion is French for Zion.) It is from this Order that the legend of the Holy Grail originated five centuries after Christ's death. Rev. Church remarks of this organization: This mysterious group is presently made up of over 9,000 men, including Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Moslems. The members of this secret sect should be considered unfaithful to their respective beliefs, for in reality they are neither Christian nor Catholic, they are neither Jew nor Moslem. Their doctrine sidesteps the basic tenets of those beliefs and replaces them with the teachings of their greatest prophet - whom they believe to be Buddha.2 From this secret order J. R. Church believes will come the Anti-Christ, for he writes, "Their ultimate goal is world government!'"

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zCd0nFuvnM4OYWuVW5QUBCpsTfBv5bYx/view?usp=sharing

Pope John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes XXIII; Italian: Giovanni XXIII [dʒoˈvanni ventitreˈɛːzimo]; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Italian: [ˈandʒelo dʒuˈzɛppe roŋˈkalli];[a] 25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 1963.

Roncalli was among 13 children born to Marianna Mazzola and Giovanni Battista Roncalli in a family of sharecroppers who lived in Sotto il Monte, a village in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy.[8] He was ordained to the priesthood on 10 August 1904 and served in a number of posts, as nuncio in France and a delegate to Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In a consistory on 12 January 1953 Pope Pius XII made Roncalli a cardinal as the Cardinal-priest of Santa Prisca in addition to naming him as the Patriarch of Venice. Roncalli was unexpectedly elected pope on 28 October 1958 at age 76 after Pope Pius XII's death. Pope John XXIII surprised those who expected him to be a caretaker pope by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the first session opening on 11 October 1962, which is now his feast.

John XXIII made many passionate speeches during his pontificate. His views on equality were summed up in his statement, "We were all made in God's image, and thus, we are all Godly alike."[9][10] He made a major impact on the Catholic Church, opening it up to dramatic unexpected changes promulgated at the Second Vatican Council and by his own dealings with other churches and nations. In Italian politics, he prohibited bishops from interfering with local elections, and he helped the Christian Democracy party to cooperate with the Italian Socialist Party. In international affairs, his Ostpolitik engaged in dialogue with the communist countries of Eastern Europe. He especially reached out to the Eastern Orthodox churches.

His overall goal was to modernize the Church by emphasizing its pastoral role, and its necessary involvement with affairs of state. He dropped the traditional rule of 70 cardinals, increasing the size to 85. He used the opportunity to name the first cardinals from Africa, Japan, and the Philippines. He promoted ecumenical movements in cooperation with other Christian faiths. In doctrinal matters, he was a traditionalist, but he ended the practice of automatically formulating social and political policies on the basis of old theological propositions.[11]

He did not live to see the Second Vatican Council to completion. In September 1962, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and died eight months later on June 3, 1963. His cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by his successor, Pope Paul VI, who declared him a Servant of God. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000. On 5 July 2013, Pope Francis – bypassing the traditionally required second miracle – declared John XXIII a saint, based on his virtuous, model lifestyle, and because of the good which had come from his opening of the Second Vatican Council. He was canonized alongside Pope John Paul II himself on 27 April 2014.[12][13] John XXIII today is affectionately known as "the Good Pope" (Italian: il papa buono).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XXIII

Facade of St. Peter's

On February 10, 1608 the first stone was laid and on July 21, 1612 most of the work was completed. It took another two years for the ornamentattion.

The inscription (1m high) states: "Paul V Borghese, Roman, Pontiff, in the year 1612, the seventh of his pontificate, [erected] in honour of the Prince of Apostles".

From the central balcony, called the Loggia of the Blessings, the new pope is announced with "Habemus Papum", and gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing. The relief under the balcony, by Buonvicino, represents Christ giving the keys to St. Peter.

https://www.stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Facade/Facade.htm

Pope Paul V (Latin: Paulus V; Italian: Paolo V) (17 September 1550 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries.[2] In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Robert Bellarmine to inform Galileo that the Copernican theory could not be taught as fact, but Bellarmine's certificate allowed Galileo to continue his studies in search for evidence and use the geocentric model as a theoretical device. That same year Paul V assured Galileo that he was safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, should live. Bellarmine's certificate was used by Galileo for his defense at the trial of 1633.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_V

Borghese

Recorded in many forms including Bourges, Bourgaize, Bourgeois, (France), Burgess, Burges and Burgis (England and Scotland), Borghese, Borgesio and Burgisi (Italy), and others, this interesting surname is of pre 8th century Old French origins. It derives from the word "burgeis", meaning inhabitant and FREEMAN of a fortified town, one which could apply municipal rates, taxes, and duties. A burgeis generally had tenure of land or buildings from a landlord by "burgage", which involved the payment of a fixed money rent. In Scotland, the position of burgess required not only the making of payments, but to be availble to take part in guarding the town. The surname is one of the earliest recorded anywhere in the world. These recordings are from England because this country was the first to adopt both hereditary surnames and to make the necessary registers in which to record them. France was several centuries later, and Italy, not until the 19th century in most areas. Early recordings showing the influence of the Norman-French in England after the Invasion of 1066 include: Ralph le Burgeis, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Sussex in 1195, and Philip Bourges in the cartulary of Oseney Abbey, Oxford in 1197. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Burgeis, which was dated 1115, in the "Winton Rolls" of Hampshire. This was during the reign of King Henry 1st, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Over the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Borghese

Petite bourgeoisie (French pronunciation: [pətit(ə) buʁʒwazi], literally 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a term that refers to a social class composed of small business owners, shopkeepers, small-scale merchants, semi-autonomous peasants, and artisans. They are named as such because their politico-economic ideological stance in times of stability is reflective of the proper haute bourgeoisie (high bourgeoisie or upper class). In ordinary times, the petite bourgeoisie seek to identify themselves with the haute bourgeoisie, whose bourgeois morality, conduct and lifestyle they aspire and strive to imitate.[1]

The term, which goes as far back as the Revolutionary period in France, if not earlier, is politico-economic and addresses historical materialism. It originally denoted a sub-stratum of the middle classes in the 18th and early-19th centuries of western Europe. In the mid-19th century, the German economist Karl Marx and other Marxist theorists used the term petite bourgeoisie to academically identify the socio-economic stratum of the bourgeoisie that consists of small shopkeepers and self-employed artisans.[2][3][4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_bourgeoisie

FREEMASON

Encyclopedia Masonica

One who has been initiated into the mysteries of the Fraternity of Freemasonry. Freemasons are so called to distinguish them from the Operative or Stone-Masons, who constituted an inferior class of workmen, and out of whom they sprang (see Stonemasons and Traveling Freemasons). The meaning of the epithet free, as applied to Mason, is given under the word Free. In the old lectures of the eighteenth century a Freemason was described as being "a freeman, born of a freewoman, brother to a king, fellow to a prince, or companion to a beggar, if a Mason," and by this was meant to indicate the universality of the Brotherhood.

The word Freemason was until recently divided into two words, sometimes with and sometimes without a hyphen; and we find in all the old books and manuscripts Free Mason or Free-Mason. But this usage has generally been abandoned by writers, and Freemason is usually spelled as one word. The old Constitutions constantly used the word Mason. E et the word was employed at a very early period in the parish registers of England, and by some writers. Thus, in the register of the parish of Astbury we find these items:

1685. Smallwood, Jos., fils Jos. Henshaw, Freemason bapt 3 die Nov. 1697. Jos. fil Jos. Henshaw, Freemason, buried 7 April.

But the most singular passage is one found in Cawdray's Treasurie of Similies, published in 1609, and which he copied from Bishop Coverdale's translation of Werdmuller's A Spiritual and most Precious Perle, which was published in 1550. It is as follows:

As the freemason heweth-the hard stones . . . even so God the Heavenly Free-Mason buildeth a Christian church.

But, in fact, the word was used at a much earlier period, and occurs, Steinbrenner says in his Origin and Early History of Masonry (page 110), for the first time in a statute passed in 1350, in the twenty-fifth year of Edward I, where the wages of a Master Freemason are fixed at 4 pence, and of other Masons at 3 pence. The original French text of the statute is "Mestre de franche-peer." "Here," says Steinbrenner, "the word Freemason evidently signifies a free-stone mason?one who works in free-stone, the French franche-peer, meaning franche-pierre, as distinguished from the rough masons who merely built walls of rough, unhown stone." This latter sort of workmen was that class called by the Scotch Masons cowans whom the Freemasons were forbidden to work with, whence we get the modern use of that word.

Ten years after, in 1360, we have a statute of Edward III, in which it is ordained that "every Mason shall finish his work, be it of free-stone or of rough-stone," where the French text of the statute is file franche-pere ou de grosse-pere." Thus it seems evident that the word free-mason was originally used in contradistinction to rough-rruson. The old Constituitions sometimes call these latter masons rough layers.

https://www.universalfreemasonry.org/en/encyclopedia/freemason

In 1754, near Paris, Chevalier de Bonneville established the Chapter of Clermont. The Chapter resided in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence the name. It is said to have been created to honor the Duc de Clermont, then Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of France.

The Chapter of Clermont was a “Chapter of the Advanced Degrees” and initially entailed six degrees and was later extended to 25 known degrees. The six initial degrees were 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ St John’s Masonry, 4˚ Knight of the Eagle, 5˚ Illustrious Knight or Templar, 6˚ Sublime Illustrious Knight.

Interestingly enough historically, prior to the time of the Rite’s creation, James II had been in residence at Clermont in exile from Britain from 1688 to his death in 1701. As noted by German Masonic historian, Lenning… “whilst in exile, James II residing at the Jesuit College of Clermont in France, allowed his closest associates to fabricate certain degrees in order to extend their political views.” Lenning believed this to have been an attempt on the part of James and his associates to regain control of the British throne for the House of Stuart. If Lenning is right, this places the origins of the “Rite of Perfection” in the hands of James II and the Jacobite (Stuart) Freemasons who at the time were in exile from Great Britain throughout France and Italy. Lenning also contends that these degrees were introduced into French Freemasonry under the name of the Clermont System.

James II died in exile in 1701. His son James III is said to have continued his father’s Masonic legacy and later created further higher degrees.

Perhaps James II saw in the Jesuit morality plays of the College of Clermont a vessel for passing on a set of moral lessons. Some of the world’s greatest playwrights had emerged from Clermont. Jesuit tutelage had previously produced great writers such as Lope de Vega, Moliere, Racine, and the Corneille brothers. Ensconced in exile, I believe James II did find the inspiration and the training to help produce what would later become the first six degrees. From out of the darkness… comes light.

To be continued… (Author’s note… An in depth look at the Templar influence in Scottish Rite masonry’s origins can be found by visiting the Rosslyn Templars’ website.)"

https://web.archive.org/web/20190615041607/http://www.traversecityscottishrite.com/scottish-rite-history.html

PART VI 1THE PERSONAL LIFE OF THOSE ALREADY ADMITTED AND INCORPORATED INTO THE BODY OF THE SOCIETY

SECTION 1: THE APOSTOLIC CHARACTER OF OUR VOWS IN GENERAL

143 §1. Our consecration by profession of the evangelical counsels, by which we respond to a divine vocation, is at one and the same time the following of Christ poor, virginal, and obedient and a rejection of those idols that the world is always prepared to adore, especially wealth, pleasure, prestige, and power. Hence, our poverty, chastity, and obedience ought visibly and efficaciously to bear witness to this attitude, whereby we proclaim the evangelical possibility of a certain communion among men and women that is a foretaste of the future kingdom of God.[1]

§2. Our religious vows, while binding us, also set us FREE:

FREE, by our vow of poverty, to share the life of the poor and to use whatever resources we may have, not for our own security and comfort, but for service;

FREE, by our vow of chastity, to be men for others, in friendship and communion with all, but especially with those who share our mission of service;

FREE, by our vow of obedience, to respond to the call of Christ as made known to us by him whom the Spirit has placed over the Church, and to follow the lead of all our superiors.[2] [1] See GC 32, d. 4, no. 16; see GC 31, d. 16, no. 4; d. 17, no. 2; d. 18, no. 3. [2] GC 32, d. 2, no. 20. 215

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions

The Crowns of America

So often one hears politicians quoting the British Constitution as if it actually exists by way of adocumentary privilege — but it does not. It is simply an accumulation of old customs and precedents concerning parliamentary sanctions, together with a number of specific laws defining certain aspects. Since Scotland's 1320 Declaration of Arbroath was nullified by England's Treaty of Union in 1707, the oldest Written Constitution now in force is that of the United States of America. It was adopted in 1787, ratified in 1788, and effected in 1789. In that same year began the French Revolution, which abolished feudalism and ‘absolute’ monarchy in France, thereby influencing politics in much of Europe. In close to 200 years since the Revolution, France and other European States (with Britain as a noticeable exception) have adopted Written Constitutions to protect the rights and liberties of individuals — but who champions these Constitutions on behalf of the people? A popular alternative to absolute monarchy or dictatorship has been found in Republicanism. The Republic of the United States was created primarily to free the emergent nation from the despotism of Britain’s House of Hanover. Yet its citizens tend still to be fascinated by the concept of monarchy. No matter how Republican the spirit, the need for a central symbol remains. Neither a flag nor a president can fulfil this unifying role, for by virtue of the ‘party system’ presidents are always politically motivated. Republicanism was devised on the principle of fraternal status, yet an ideally classless society can never exist in an environment that promotes displays of eminence and superiority by degrees of wealth and possession. For the most part, those responsible for the United States’ morally inspired Constitution were Rosicrucians and Freemasons, notable characters such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Charles Thompson. The last, who designed the Great Seal of the United States of America, was a member of Franklin’s American Philosophical Society — a counterpart of Britain’s Invisible College. The imagery of the Seal is directly related to alchemical tradition, inherited from the allegory of the ancient Egyptian Therapeutate. The eagle, the olive branch, the arrows, and the pentagrams are all occult symbols of opposites: good and evil, male and female, war and peace, darkness and light. On the reverse (as repeated on the dollar bill) is the truncated pyramid, indicating the loss of the Old Wisdom, severed and forced underground by the Church establishment. But above this are the rays of ever-hopeful light, incorporating the ‘all-seeing eye’, used as a symbol during the French Revolution.

In establishing their Republic, the Americans could still not escape the ideal of a parallel monarchy — a central focus of non-political, patriotic attachment. George Washington was actually offered kingship, but declined because he had no immediately qualifying heritage. Instead he turned to the Royal House of Stuart. In November 1782 four Americans arrived at the San Clemente Palazzo in Florence, the residence of Charles III Stuart in exile. They were Mr Galloway of Maryland, two brothers named Sylvester from Pennsylvania, and Mr Fish, a lawyer from New York. They were taken to Charles Edward by his secretary, John Stewart. Also present was the Hon Charles Hervey-Townshend (later Britain’s ambassador to The Hague) and the Prince's future wife, Marguerite, Comtesse de Massillan. The interview — which revolved around the contemporary transatlantic dilemma — is doctimented in the US Senate archives and in the Manorwater Papers. Writers such as Sir Compton Mackenzie and Sir Charles Petrie have also described the occasion when Charles Edward Stuart was invited to become ‘King of the Americans’. Some years earlier, Charles had been similarly approached by the men of Boston, but once the War of Independence was over George Washington sent his own envoys. It would have been a great irony for the House of Hanover to lose the North American colonies to the Stuarts. But Charles declined the offer for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his lack of a legitimate male heir at the time. He knew that without a due successor the United States could easily fall to Hanover again at his death, thereby defeating the whole Independence effort. Since those days, many other radical events have taken place: the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, two major World Wars, and a host of changes as countries have swapped one style of government for another. Meanwhile, civil and international disputes continue just as they did in the Middle Ages. They are motivated by trade, politics, religion, and whatever other banners are flown to justify the constant struggle for territorial and economic control. The Holy Roman Empire has disappeared, the German Reichs have failed, and the British Empire has collapsed. The Russian Empire fell to Communism, which has itself been disgraced and crumbled to ruin, while Capitalism teeters on the very brink of acceptability. With the Cold War now ended, America faces a new threat to her superpower status from the Pacific countries. In the meantime, the nations of Europe band together in what was once a seemingly well conceived economic community, but which is already suffering from the same pressures of individual custom and national sovereignty that beset the Holy Roman Empire. Whether nations are governed by military-style regimes or elected parliaments, by autocrats or democrats, and whether formally described as monarchist, socialist or republican, the net product is always the same: the few control the fate of the many. In situations of dictatorship this is a natural experience — but it should not be the case in a democratic institution based on the principle of majority vote. True democracy is government by the people for the people, in either direct or representative form, ignoring class distinctions and tolerating minority views. The American Constitution sets out an ideal for this form of democracy ... but, in line with other nations, there is always a large sector of the community that is not represented by the party in power. Because presidents and prime ministers are politically tied, and because political parties take their respective turns at individual helms, the inevitable result is a lack of continuity for the nations concerned. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is no reliable ongoing institution to champion the civil rights and liberties of people in such conditions of ever-changing leadership. Britain does, at least, retain a monarchy, but it is a politically constrained monarchy, and as such is ineffectual in performing its role as guardian of the nation. The United States, unlike Britain, has a Written Constitution — but has no one with the power to uphold its principles against successive governments who determinedly pursue their own politically vested interests. Is there an answer to the anomaly — an answer that could bring not just a ray of hope but a shining light for the future? There certainly is, but its energy relies on those in governmental service appreciating their roles as ‘representatives’ of society rather than presuming to stand at the head of society. Alongside the political administration, an appointed Constitutional champion would be empowered to keep check on any potential disparities and infringements of the Constitution that might occur. This can be achieved in the manner first envisaged by George Washington and the American Fathers. Their original plan was for a democratic Parliament combined with a working Constitutional Monarchy bound not to Parliament or the Church but to the people and their Written Constitution. In such an environment, sovereignty would ultimately rest with the people, while the monarch (as an operative Guardian of the Realm) would pledge an ‘Oath of Fealty to the Nation’ — not the reverse, as in Britain’s case, whereby the nation pays homage to the sovereignty of Parliament and the monarchy. The unfulfilled ambition of the American Fathers was that government ministers should be elected by the majority vote of the people, but that their actions be directed within the boundaries of the Constitution. Because that Constitution belongs to the people, its champion — as George Washington perceived — should be a monarch whose obligation is not to politics or religion but to the sovereign nation. Through the natural system of heredity (being born and bred to the task), such a Constitutional guardian would provide an ‘ongoing continuity’ of public representation through successive governments. In this regard both monarchs and ministers would be servants of the Constitution on behalf of the Community of the Realm. Such a concept of moral government lies at the very heart of the Grail Code, and it remains within the bounds of possibility for every civilized Nation State. A leading British politician recently claimed that it was not his job to be popular! Not so—a popular minister is a trusted minister, and holding a deserved electoral trust facilitates the democratic process. No minister can honestly expound an ideal of equality in society when that minister is deemed to possess some form of prior lordship over society. Class structure is always decided from above, never from below. It is therefore for those on self-made pedestals to be seen to kick them aside in the interests of harmony and unity. Jesus was not in the least humbled when he washed his Apostles’ feet; he was raised to the realm of a true Grail King — the realm of equality and princely service. This is the eternal ‘Precept of the Sangréal’, and it is expressed in Grail lore with the utmost clarity: only by asking ‘Whom does the Grail serve?’ will the wound of the Fisher King be healed, and the Wasteland returned to fertility.

pages 438-443 "The Sangreal Today"

Bloodline of the Holy Grail

by Laurence Gardner

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zsH4O_ls0IgWEYXLXWCo7I3IUi32FJhq/view?usp=sharing

Pope Leo XIV[a] (born Robert Francis Prevost,[b] September 14, 1955) is head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected in the 2025 papal conclave as the successor to Pope Francis.

Prevost was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the nearby suburb of Dolton. He became a friar of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained as a priest in 1982. His service includes extensive missionary work in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, where he served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. Elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, he returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and made him a cardinal the same year.

A citizen of the United States by birth, Leo XIV is the first pope to have been born in North America, the first to hold Peruvian citizenship (having been naturalized in 2015), the second pope from the Americas (after his predecessor Francis), and the first from the Order of Saint Augustine. His papal name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who developed modern Catholic social teaching amid the Second Industrial Revolution. Leo XIV believes the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, poses "new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor".[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIV

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02iAMXQuXsZrAxcHPXEXpYnV8ZYm4DarahVJVjpXBcR2Bm9a7bYk47DV6mcH99eieMl

The magisterium of the Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition".[1][2][3] According to the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, the task of interpretation is vested uniquely in the Pope and the bishops,[4] though the concept has a complex history of development. Scripture and Tradition "make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God, which is entrusted to the Church",[5] and the magisterium is not independent of this, since "all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is derived from this single deposit of faith."[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magisterium

295 In the elaboration and expression of our theogical views and in our choice of pastoral options, we must always actively seek to understand the mind of the hierarchical Church, having as our goal the Society s objective to help souls. At the same time we must try to articulate the sensus fidelium and help the magisterium discern in it the movements of the Spirit in accord with the teaching of Vatican II.[125]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judicial and executive powers. In other parts of the world, such as China, magistrate is a word applied to a person responsible for administration over a particular geographic area. Today, in some jurisdictions, a magistrate is a judicial officer who hears cases in a lower court, and typically deals with more minor or preliminary matters. In other jurisdictions (e.g., England and Wales), magistrates are typically trained volunteers appointed to deal with criminal and civil matters in their local areas.

Original meaning

In ancient Rome, the word magistratus referred to one of the highest offices of state. Analogous offices in the local authorities, such as municipium, were subordinate only to the legislature of which they generally were members, ex officio, often a combination of judicial and executive power, constituting one jurisdiction. In Rome itself, the highest magistrates were members of the so-called cursus honorum, 'course of honors'. They held both judicial and executive power within their sphere of responsibility (hence the modern use of the term "magistrate" to denote both judicial and executive officers), and also had the power to issue ius honorarium, or magisterial law. The Consul was the highest Roman magistrate. The Praetor (the office was later divided into two, the Urban and Peregrine Praetors) was the highest judge in matters of private law between individual citizens, while the Curule Aediles, who supervised public works in the city, exercised a limited civil jurisdiction in relation to the market.[1] Roman magistrates were not lawyers, but were advised by jurists who were experts in the law.

The term was maintained in most feudal successor states to the western Roman Empire. However, it was used mainly in Germanic kingdoms, especially in city-states, where the term magistrate was also used as an abstract generic term denoting the highest office, regardless of the formal titles (e.g. Consul, Mayor, Doge), even when that was actually a council. The term "chief magistrate" applied to the highest official, in sovereign entities the head of state and/or head of government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magistrate

The heptagram became a traditional symbol for warding off evil in Catholicism. The symbol is also used in Kabbalist Judaism. In Islam, the heptagram is used to represent the first seven verses in the Quran. The heptagram is used in the symbol for Babalon in Aleister Crowley's occult system Thelema."

"The heptagram is known among neopagans as the Elven Star or Fairy Star. It is treated as a sacred symbol in various modern pagan and witchcraft traditions. Blue Star Wicca also uses the symbol, where it is referred to as a septegram. The second heptagram is a symbol of magical power in some pagan spiritualities."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptagram

“Battle Born” is Nevada’s state motto. The state’s origins are framed by the Civil War. Nevada became a territory in March 1861, a month before the war began, and achieved statehood on October 31, 1864. No actual battles were fought here, but the state has an intriguing relationship with the war because of the legislation the war fostered.1 The social and cultural meaning of the Civil War has strong resonance in Nevada because of two modern groups: the Southern Nevada Living History Association and the Nevada Civil War Historical Society. Both of these groups participate in Civil War demonstrations and reenactments at the Old Mormon Fort in downtown Las Vegas and at Spring Mountain Ranch, about 30 minutes outside of town.

https://ncph.org/history-at-work/public-history-in-the-battle-born-state/

The Sheriff of Nottingham is the main antagonist in the legend of Robin Hood. He is generally depicted as an unjust tyrant who mistreats the local people of Nottinghamshire, subjecting them to unaffordable taxes. Robin Hood fights against him, stealing from the rich, and the Sheriff, in order to give to the poor; it is this characteristic for which Robin Hood is best known. The Sheriff is considered the archenemy of Robin Hood, as he is the most recurring enemy of the well-known outlaw.

It is not known whom this character is based on. The legend of Robin Hood (which is at least as old as the 14th century), traditionally referred to the Sheriff of Nottingham only by his title. There has in fact never been a Sheriff of Nottingham, as such. However, there was from very early Norman times been a High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests, appointed by the king. The character in the legend could therefore have been based on the notional royal appointee responsible for law enforcement in the Royal Forests (which included Sherwood Forest). If, on the other hand, one treats the legend as having had its origins in real events (despite the fact that the earliest known version of the legend appears 200 years later), the character could have been based upon one of (or a composite of multiple of) the real life people who occupied the post of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests at the relevant time. If, as in many versions of the Robin Hood legend, the action of the story is placed during the absence of King Richard I of England in 1190–1193 during the Third Crusade and his subsequent holding to ransom in Austria, the character could be identified with the little-known William de Wendenal, who was High Sheriff from 1191 to 1194. In some versions, the Sheriff is identified with Philip Marc, who held the office of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests from 1209 to 1221, during the later years of the reign of John, King of England (who ruled from 1199 to 1216).[1] However, the Sheriff usually remains either anonymous or pseudonymous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff_of_Nottingham

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a 1991 American action-adventure film based on the English folk tale of Robin Hood and loosely set in the 12th century. Directed by Kevin Reynolds and written by Pen Densham and John Watson, the film stars Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, Morgan Freeman as Azeem, Christian Slater as Will Scarlett, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Marian, and Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing $390.5 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1991. Rickman received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as George, Sheriff of Nottingham. The theme song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" by Bryan Adams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and it won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood:_Prince_of_Thieves

The Holyrood or Holy Rood is a Christian relic alleged to be part of the True Cross on which Jesus died. The word derives from the Old English rood, meaning a pole and the cross, via Middle English, or the Scots haly ruid ("holy cross"). Several relics venerated as part of the True Cross are known by this name, in England, Ireland and Scotland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyrood_(cross)

To sum up: men crucified to the world, and to whom the world itself is crucified[7] such would our Constitutions have us to be; new men, I say, who have put off their affections to put on Christ;[8] dead to themselves to live to justice; who, with St. Paul in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, show themselves ministers of God[9] and by the armor of Justice on the right hand and, on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, by good success finally and ill success, press forward with great strides to their heavenly country. This is the sum and aim of our institute."

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

MAGA Make America Great Again: a presidential campaign slogan used by Donald J. Trump.'

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/maga

These are the individuals who act as spokespersons for the philosophy of the Church of Satan, which include the titles of “Priest”/“Priestess,” “Magister”/“Magistra,” “Magus”/“MAGA.” Members of the Priesthood make up the Council of Nine, which is the ruling body of the organization, appointed by and responsible to the High Priest/Priestess. The Order of the Trapezoid consists of the individuals who assist in the administration of the Church of Satan. Members of our Priesthood are people of accomplishment in the real world—they have mastered skills and have won peer recognition, which is how they have attained their position—“as above, so below.” They are “movers and shakers” who are the core of our movement. While expected to be experts in communicating our philosophy, they are not required to speak on our behalf and they may even choose to keep their affiliation and rank secret, in order to better serve their personal goals, as well as those of our organization. Thus, you may (even as a member), encounter members of our Priesthood and never know it." Hierarchy in the Church of Satan

Hierarchy in the Church of Satan - Church of Satan

https://www.churchofsatan.com/hierarchy/

On March 17, 1970, a curious article appeared in the Oakland Tribune. It was a report of an interview with Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder and "High PRIEST" of the "Church of Satan" in San Francisco, and the author of the Satanic Bible. Members of the Church of Satan wear an inverted pentagram, or pentacle (a well-known 'Satanic' symbol) with a a goathead on the inside of the circle. The cover of The Satanic Bible also bears an inverted pentagram, or satanic pentacle.

The Oakland Tribune article reported that LaVey had become " a favorite speaker at the University of San Francisco." When asked about his engagements at that university, LaVey proudly replied, "the Jesuits are my greatest audience." In case the reader was not already aware, the University of San Francisco is a renowned Jesuit institution of higher learning.

The statement by Satanist Anton LaVey about his work at this Jesuit University is no mystery. We invite the reader to give attention to this most audacious passage found in the writings of the Jesuit scholar Anthony Escobar. In his Secret Instructions, Escobar treats to what is perhaps the most innovative principle of Jesuitism (Roma Catholicism): "IT IS LAWFUL... TO MAKE USE OF THE SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL., PROVIDED THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE DO NOT DEPEND UPON THE DEVIL, FOR THE KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD IN ITSELF, AND THE SIN BY WHICH IT WAS ACQUIRED HAS GONE BY." Such is the effrontery of the Jesuits; such are their nostrums-my, my, what intriguing doctrines these Jesuits have-these men will sell their souls on eBay."

pages 73-74

"SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL"

Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/730632681220167

I began by attending Fordham University in the Bronx, mostly because I wanted to be close to home. I got along very well with the Jesuits who ran the school, but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in. At the time, if you were going to make a career in business, Wharton was the place to go. Harvard Business School may produce a lot of CEOs—guys who manage public companies— but the real entrepreneurs all seemed to go to Wharton: Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder, Ron Perelman—the list goes on and on."

Donald Trump The Art of the Deal

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden

The university has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in red and blue lights.

Author: WNEP Web Staff

Published: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

Updated: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

SCRANTON, Pa. — In preparation for President Joe Biden's visit, a university lit up their lights in his honor.

The University of Scranton has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in blue and red with the number 46 prominently displayed to welcome the 46th president."

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden | wnep.com

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/university-of-scranton-welcomes-president-biden-gateway-lights/523-cdba68b1-822b-4747-94be-4cd7e4de9d67

"His son, Hunter Biden, 38, is a longtime federal lobbyist for the Jesuit university located in his father's hometown, Scranton PA. According to federal disclosures, Hunter Biden has been earning about $80,000 a year since 2006 to lobby for this university. Senator Biden himself has lectured at the Jesuit University of Scranton, and received an honorary degree from the same university, in 1976."

Codeword Barbelon

by P.D. Stuart

The Temple of Set recognizes several stages or degrees of initiation. The degrees indicate the individual Setian's development and skill in magic.[96] The degree structure is based on that of the Church of Satan, which in turn was based on the degrees of a nineteenth-century occult group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.[97] The Temple terms the progression through degrees as "recognitions", because the organization's philosophy sees that the individual member initiates themselves and that the Temple merely acknowledges this by granting the degree.[98] These degrees are:[99]

Setian (First Degree)

Adept (Second Degree)

Priest / Priestess of Set (Third Degree)

Magister / Magistra Templi (Fourth Degree)

Magus / Maga (Fifth Degree)

Ipsissimus / Ipsissima (Sixth Degree)

The priesthood of the Temple of Set consists of members holding the third degree or higher; those in the first and second degrees are considered "lay members" of the Temple.[100] The first degree serves as a space for mutual evaluation, in which the Temple assesses whether the individual is appropriate for the group, and the individual decides whether they wish to further their involvement with it.[101] Full membership comes with recognition to the second degree.[98] Many members do not advance beyond the second degree, nor is this expected of them, as while the first and second degree members use the organization's teachings and tools for their own development, the priesthood involves greater responsibilities towards the organization, such as being its official representatives.[102]

Recognition is performed by members of the priesthood.[98] The fourth degree, which is acknowledged by the high priest/priestess, entails that the individual is so advanced in their magical skills that they are able to found their own school of magic, represented in the different orders of the Temple.[98] The fifth degree can only be awarded by the unanimous decision of the Council of Nine and by the approval of the Temple's high priest/priestess.[98] A fifth degree member has the power to utter and define a concept which somehow affects the philosophy of the organization, such as the concept of Xeper defined by Aquino in 1975.[98] Only a handful of members have attained this degree and most "fifth-degree" concepts defined in such a manner are no longer studied in the organization.[98] The final sixth degree represents a Magus "whose Task is complete".[98] This degree is held by a very select few in the Temple, although any fifth-degree member can assume the sixth degree based on their own assessment.[98]

Leadership

The organization is led by a high priest/priestess, who is also the public face of the Temple.[89] The high priest is chosen among fourth or higher degree members by the chairman of the Council of Nine.[89] This ruling council has nine members chosen from the priesthood (third degree or higher), whose mandate lasts for nine years with a new member being elected every year.[89] The chairman of the council is chosen from among the council members each year.[89] The council has the ultimate ruling power in the Temple and even the high priest is responsible to it.[89] The Temple also has an executive director, whose task is to deal with administrative issues.[89]

Since its founding in 1975, the temple has had the following high priests/priestesses:[89]

Michael A. Aquino (1975–1979, 1982–1996, 2002–2004)

Ronald K. Barrett (1979–1982)

Don Webb (1996–2002)

Zeena Schreck (2002)

Patricia Hardy (2004–2013)

James Fitzsimmons (2013–present)

Pylons, elements, and orders

Setian groups, or pylons, are named after the fortified gateways to ancient Egyptian temples (pictured here at the Isis Temple on Philae Island)

In addition to the international organization, the Temple sponsors initiatory Orders and Elements and local groups called Pylons. Pylons are intended to facilitate the initiatory work of the Temple's members by conducting meetings where discussions and magical works take place.[97] The purpose of a pylon is to provide a space in which the Setian can focus on their religion, aided by like-minded individuals.[103] Pylons typically meet in a member's home.[103] Members usually join the Pylon located geographically closest to them.[97] Correspondence- or Internet-based Pylons also exist,[97] with Harvey noting that this online networking is more common than in-person interaction.[71] A Pylon is led by a second-degree (or higher) member who is called a Sentinel.[97][103] The term pylon derives from the architectural features which served as fortified gateways to ancient Egyptian temples.[104] One Finnish Setian informed Granholm that the relationship between the orders and the temple was like that of different departments in a university.[97]

Elements are loosely structured interest groups, where specific themes and issues are addressed.[97] They can be open for non-members and are commonly in operation only for short periods.[97] Topics of interest include, for example, animal rights, which was the subject of the Arkte element operated by Aquino's wife Lilith.[97]

There are sections of the Temple known as Orders, each of which focus on a particular theme, for instance ancient Egypt, Norse culture, Tantric Hinduism, or vampirism.[105] Others focus on a particular skill, for instance the Order of Uart focuses on the visual arts and the Order of Taliesin on music.[106] Orders can be understood as schools of different aspects of magic providing different paths of initiation.[97] Orders are led by grand masters, who will usually be the founder of the order.[97] In longer-lived orders the founder may have a successive grand master.[97] Orders are founded by members of the fourth degree.[98] When members reaches the second degree of initiation, they are expected to join an order of their own choosing.[97] In normal circumstances, a Setian is only permitted to join one order, however special dispensation can be obtained for a practitioner to join two.[5]

Setians also hold annual International Conclaves. First Degree Initiates who obtain sponsorship by a member of the Priesthood are permitted to attend the International Conclave and Regional Gatherings.[107]

Demographics

In 2000, the Temple had thirteen pylons, which were operating in the United States, Australia, Germany, and across Sweden and Finland.[72] The extent of the Temple's membership has not been publicly revealed by the group;[103] however, in 2005 Petersen noted that academic estimates for the Temple's membership varied from between 300 and 500,[9] and Granholm suggested that in 2007 the Temple contained circa 200 members.[108] The Temple's members come from a variety of racial backgrounds.[109]

In 1999, the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine suggested that in Britain there were 100 members of the Temple at most, and possibly "considerably fewer".[110] In 2001 the scholar Gareth Medway posited that the group had 70 to 80 members in the United Kingdom, adding that it was the largest Satanic group then active in the country.[111] In 2009, Harvey concurred with La Fontaine's assessment, although still believed that it was the largest Satanic group in the United Kingdom.[112] He noted that most members were male, between the ages of twenty and fifty, and that—despite his expectation that they might be political extremists—they endorsed mainstream political positions, with all those whom he communicated with stating that they had voted for either the Conservative Party, Labour Party, or Liberal Democrats.[71]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Set

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02FpweNs694qdzfoEuv7jXLSHZ5wLvDDhFARD3Wv9WwrdoPJwJPP5ZfKnDBGho1jBEl

The term “Protestant,” as the Jesuits understand it, includes all believers in the

Lord Jesus Christ who reject both the Spiritual Power and the Temporal Power of

the Pope of Rome, while believing and teaching the Biblical doctrines proclaimed

during the Protestant Reformation, championed by Martin Luther, John Calvin and

John Knox (“Knox with the Sword of Just Defense”) in particular. Protestants are

“heretics” and must be “exterminated from the face of the whole earth.”

The term “Liberal,” as the Jesuits understand it, includes all Catholics who

concur with the Protestants in rejecting the Temporal Power of the Pope of Rome.

Liberals both believe and teach that governments are best when they serve the

people, and when their powers are expressly limited by written Constitutions.

Liberals, like both the Protestant and Baptist Calvinists, further believe that if

governments become absolute tyrannies, they have the right and duty to formally

withdraw their allegiance and resist those tyrannies with armed force, called by John

Knox “the Sword of Just Defense.” It is for this reason the Black Pope’s fascistcommunist

military dictatorships forbid gun ownership by the peoples they rule. It is

for this reason “The Jesuit Conference” within the United States seeks to abolish

gun ownership through their agents within their Council on Foreign Relations,

thereby destroying the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution—that

“heretic” document created by condemned “Protestants and Liberals.”

In addition to the Oath, the Jesuits have a guidebook entitled Secreta Monita.

It has only been disclosed to the world a few times, beginning in the early 1600s

(openly published in Cracow, Poland in 1612) and extending through the late 1800s:

“. . . but it has been made to disappear as has the most of all other

books against the Jesuits.” {25}

Because of the magnitude of its contents as it relates to our subject, Secreta Monita or

Secret Instructions of the Jesuits {26} has been incorporated in its entirety, in the form

of an attached CD within this volume’s cover, as it was republished in 1857. The

Secret Instructions are no forgery, as we again recall a portion of the famous letter

from Juan de Palafox, Bishop of Los Angeles, Mexico (for which letter and

continued resistance he was relentlessly persecuted by the Order until he was forced

to flee to Europe for his life), to Pope Innocent X dated January 8, 1647:

“. . . what other Religion has a secret constitution, hidden privileges, and

concealed laws of its own? And what other order has all those things which

relate to its government involved in so much mystery? There is suspicion

in mystery. The rules of all other orders are open to all; . . . BUT THE

SUPERIORS OF THE JESUITS DO NOT GOVERN THEM BY THE

RULES OF THE CHURCH, WHICH ARE KNOWN TO ALL, BUT BY

CERTAIN SECRET RULES WHICH ARE ONLY KNOWN TO THOSE

SUPERIORS.” {27} [Emphasis added]

Edwin A. Sherman encourages us:

“Read them all, omitting nothing, and say afterward if these precepts are a

dead letter. Having ceased to care for the widow, to capture the

inheritances, to rob the children from their families, of intriguing near the

great, of influencing in the politics of the nations, of working to the last

with but one object, that is . . . the engrandisement of the ‘Company of

Jesus’ and the establishment of its dominion in the earth.” {28}

[Emphasis added]

G. B. Nicolini adds:

“Now, examine well these instructions, and you will find that the true Jesuit

must be crafty, insinuating, deceitful, and you will at once perceive the

extent of the Jesuit immorality, and the artful way in which, in the name of

the most sacred of all things—religion, they accomplish the most heinous

offences.” {29}

Dear truth-seeker, after reviewing your CD containing the Secret Instructions

of the Jesuits, notice the last page where the Jesuit is permitted to commit high

treason—the greatest of crimes worthy only of public execution—against a non-

Roman Catholic government he has sworn to destroy. This high treason has been

committed against the Constitution and people of the United States for the last two

centuries. “And why doth treason prosper? Ah, for none dare call it treason!”

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The Jesuits, in resisting the Biblical teachings of the Reformers, guided the

Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563. The twenty-five sessions of that Council

condemned all the “doctrines of grace” held by the Reformers, accursing all peoples

who maintained those beliefs. The Fourth Session condemned freedom of

conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. We read and marvel:

“The Fourth Session . . . was one of the most important sessions of the

council. In this session, a decree was passed which placed tradition upon an

equality with the Scriptures—declared the books of the Apocrypha to be a

part of the word of God—elevated the Latin translation of the Scriptures

called the Vulgate, to an authority superior to that of the inspired Hebrew

and Greek originals, and exacted severe penal laws against the liberty of the

press . . . The right of private judgment in reading the Scriptures was

prohibited, its exercise punished and the liberty of the press was

authoritatively forbidden.” {30}

The Fourth Rule of the Congregation of the Index of Prohibited Books enacted by

the Fourth Session of the Council of Trent and approved by Pope Pius IV in a Bull,

issued on the 24th of March, 1564 regarding the Bible reads:

“Inasmuch as it is manifest from experience, that if the Holy Bible,

translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one,

the temerity of men will cause more evil than good to arise from it . . . But

if any one shall have the presumption to read or possess it without such

written permission, he shall not receive absolution until he has first

delivered up such Bible to the Ordinary . . . But Regulars shall neither read

nor purchase such Bibles without a special license from their superiors

[evidencing the Papacy’s fear of the Bible].” {31} [Emphasis added]

The Council concluded with the cry,

“Accursed be all heretics! Accursed!! Accursed!!” {32}

This wicked and evil Council of Trent—the backbone of the Counter-

Reformation—would embody the religious and political maxims the Jesuit Order and

its “infallible” Pope would follow for the rest of the millennium. Trent would

become the foreign policy of nations under Jesuit control, further extending the

Temporal Power of the Pope. The nation whose foreign policy has been the Council

of Trent for the last one hundred years is Fourteenth Amendment America, as she

financed the Second Thirty Years’ War including the Bolshevik Revolution, which

introduced the bloodbath of Communism into the Twentieth Century. Under the

absolutism of Communism the Bible is a forbidden book—pursuant to the Council of

Trent! President William Jefferson Clinton, that Jesuit-trained tool of the Pope,

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while displaying the morality of King Charles II, continued the policies of Trent with

the mass-bombing of Rome’s old enemy, Orthodox Serbia, during the late 1990s.

The Jesuit General is an “absolutist.” Today we would call him a “fascist

military dictator.” His absolute, unlimited power is supreme—even over the Pope no

later than 1836! We read:

“The general has usually stood towards the Pope much as a powerful grand

feudatory of the Middle [Dark] Ages did towards a weak titular lord

paramount. . . . and the shrewd Roman populace have long shown their

recognition of this fact by styling these two great personages severally the

‘White Pope’ and the ‘Black Pope’. In truth the society has never, from

the first, obeyed the Pope [as proven by its Napoleonic Wars], whenever its

will and his has happened to run counter to each other.” {33}

[Emphasis added]

The General of the Jesuits, intending to set up a Universal Paparchy

controlling the people and princes through “education [indoctrination] and

diplomacy,” is without question the most powerful man in the world. He is the

Sovereign over the Society of Jesus and his Provincials are the masters of the Pope’s

Cardinals, who are in turn the visible or invisible political masters over every

government of every nation. The Cardinals always promote or enforce some form of

absolutism be it Monarchialism, Socialism, Nazism, Communism, Fascism or Labor

Sabbatian Zionism. Of the General’s power over the Society of Jesus, also called

“the Company,” we read from the pen of an ex-Jesuit, Andrew Steinmetz, in 1848:

“The General possesses the secrets of every member—a terrible fulcrum for

the lever of influence. He knows the character, the inclinations of every

member; he knows these facts, or may know them, for he has them in

writing. He is made acquainted with the consciences of all who must obey

him, particularly of the provincials and others [his Assistants], to whom he

has entrusted functions of great importance. He must have, like each

Superior, a complete knowledge of his subjects; their propensities, their

sentiments, the defects, the sins to which they have been or are more

inclined or impelled . . .

Every year, a list of the houses and members of the Society, the names,

talents, virtues, failings of all are there recorded. It was such a list,

doubtless, that suggested to a General of the Society that proud

exclamation, when, having exultingly alluded to his philosophers,

mathematicians, orators, etc., he cried . . . ‘and we have men for

martyrdom, if they be required.’

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In effect, from this minute list of mental and bodily qualities, he can

compute his power and direct his plans, adapt his commands and ensure

success to his delegated functions . . .

The simple Jesuit is to possess for himself neither power, nor office, nor

credit, nor riches, nor will, nor sentiments: the concentrated authority

belongs to the general. His commands, his desires, are the law: his power

flows from his hands as from its source, on the heads whom he chooses: it

extends as far as he pleases; it stops when he wills . . .

His qualifications, according to the Constitutions, must be great piety, and

the spirit of prayer: he must be exemplary in all the virtues; calm in his

demeanor, circumspect in words. Magnanimity and fortitude are most

essential attributes. He must have extraordinary intellect and judgment;

prudence, rather than learning; vigilance, solicitude in his duties: his health

and external appearance must be satisfactory. He must be middle-aged; and

a due regard is to be had to recommendations of nobility, or the wealth and

honors he may have enjoyed in the world.” {34} [Emphasis added]

It is this polished gem of a gentleman, thee masterpiece of Satan, this proven

warrior cool under fire, who, with the adroit advice of his assistants, wields THE

POWER in the earth. Of the General overseeing the Novices we observe:

“The Jesuit novice . . . may some day have kings and princes kneeling at his

feet, and have the power to direct the destinies of nations. He may regulate

the policy and frame the laws even for nations which are not of his own

faith, through the members of his Church who now take places in the

councils of Protestant nations. If the process of the “making of a Jesuit” is

hard to flesh and blood, he is reminded that he aspires to belong to the only

body of men in the world who can boast of almost universal domination,

who wield a sword with the hilt in the hand of their general in Rome and

the point everywhere . . . Obedience is the one end of all this training—

unmasking, unthinking, unreasoning obedience.” {35} [Emphasis added]

Of the General’s authority over the Jesuits we read:

“It is true that the Jesuit has his General to whom he gives the obedience of

a slave, but the Jesuit believes his General to be as God, so that if the dead

voice of God, so to say, in Scripture, seems to conflict with the living voice

of God which comes through the General, the authority of the living voice

must prevail.” {36} [Emphasis added]

For the Jesuits are:

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“. . . a phalanx . . . bound to their General-in-chief by the chain of entire

submission—obedience prompt, enthusiastic, blind—and scattered, without

division, on the face of the earth. . . . In this mighty family all subscribed to

the same articles of faith, whatever might be the tendency of their particular

inculcations. That was their uniformity:—whilst theory is respected,

practice will be allowed for: if you leave the former untouched, the latter,

to a vast extent, may riot unmolested. The Roman and the Greek, the

Portuguese, the Brazilian; the Irishman, the Russian; the Spaniard and the

Frenchman; the Belgian and Englishman—all worked as one man, the

individual tastes and inclinations were merged in the general object of

appetence: they were a multitude in action, but in will a single, naked soul

[a uniform, disciplined, Satanic secret society without equal in all the

earth].” {37} [Emphasis added]

Dear truth-seeker, the great French playwright, Alexandre Dumas—the

mulatto son of one of Napoleon’s greatest generals and the friend of anti-Jesuit

Eugene Sue, King Louis Philippe (1830-1848) and Italy’s great anti-Jesuit and lowlevel

Freemason, Giuseppe Garibaldi—accurately portrayed the Jesuit General in

The Count of Monte Cristo. Of the Count, rich, well-born, cultured and taking

vengeance on his enemies via an extensive intelligence network, he writes in 1845:

“ ‘This devil of a fellow . . . I said at the time he would create a sensation

here, and I measure his effect by an infallible thermometer. My mother has

noticed him, and he must therefore, perforce, be remarkable.’ ” {38}

Indeed he is! In command of this family of traitors swearing allegiance to

only the Pope of Rome, the General is an absolute Monarch over the Order. And

when the Order has conquered a nation, the government installed is always in fact

absolutist. That is, the powers of the chief executive have no absolute limitations. In

a letter to the king of Naples from a Jesuit Provincial written in 1854 we read:

“SACRED ROYAL MAJESTY —

[We] . . . have always inculcated respect . . . for . . . absolute monarchy.

This we have done, not only from conviction, but also because the doctors

of the company, who are Francisco Suarez, the Cardinal [Robert]

Bellarmine [the creator of Ultramontanism, the foundation for Jesuit Nazifascism],

and many other theologians and publicists of the same, have

publicly taught absolute monarchy to be the best form of government.

This we have done, because the internal economy of the company is

monarchial, and therefore we are by maxim and by education devoted to

absolute monarchy . . . Majesty . . . absolute monarchy is the best of

governments . . . In so much, we who sign this are a full guarantee for their

devotion by all proof to the absolute monarchy. [Emphasis added]

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GIUSEPPE MARIA PALADINI

Provincial of the Company of Jesus

November 21, 1854.” {39}

Dear truth-seeker, do you value freedom of conscience, freedom to say what

you honestly believe and the freedom to print the Bible in your own language? These

are liberties championed by the LORD’s Protestant Reformation, secured by the

Baptist-Calvinist Bill of Rights to the Protestant United States Constitution,

condemned by the Jesuits’ Council of Trent and destroyed by absolutist forms of

government maintained by the far-reaching power of the Jesuit General.

REGICIDE

To the abhorrent Jesuit doctrine of Regicide (the killing of Kings), we must

now direct our attention that we may understand an established policy calculated to

obtain or maintain the mastery of all nations following well-planned assassinations.

In the past, the Order’s assassins were either Jesuits, like Jacques Clement, or killers

easily connected to the influence of the Company, men like John Wilkes Booth.

Today these professional “terminators” are cleverly distanced from their Masonic

master, the Black Pope, and given deceptive titles by the Pope’s internationally

controlled Press corps, jurists and historians; such titles as “anarchists,” “nihilists,”

“rogue agents” within intelligence agencies, or just “lone nut assassins.” Sometimes

these individuals, in fact, do the killing, consciously and unconsciously (as do the

programmed “Manchurian candidates”): they sacrifice themselves, die in the act or

are punished for their crimes. But for the last fifty years a “patsy” is usually groomed

to be “the fall guy,” the biblical “scapegoat,” men like Lee Harvey Oswald (John F.

Kennedy’s supposed assassin), James Earl Ray (Martin Luther King’s supposed

assassin), Sirhan Sirhan (Robert F. Kennedy’s supposed assassin), and Yigal Amir

(Yitzhak Rabin’s supposed assassin). If the Order is seeking to ignite anti-Jewish fury

within a nation, its press will blame an innocent Hebrew as being responsible for, or a

co-conspirator in, the committed murder or high treason; Jews like Alfred Dreyfus,

Emma Goldman, and Julius and Ethel Rosenburg. Meanwhile, a condemned,

“liberal” statesman has been secretly eliminated, or a “heretic” government has been

usurped by the Order through Jesuit-controlled “technicians.” Dear truth-seeker, we

are examining “a most dangerous game;” a game in which the ubiquitous Great

Secret Society is the worldwide, undisputed master. For in order to annihilate whole

“heretic and liberal” populations of nations, as was done during the Pope’s Second

Thirty Years’ War (1914-1945), their leaders must be “kissing the slippered toe of

the Pope,” by appointing secret or open ambassadors to the Vatican (as did FDR), the

Black Pope ensuring a unity of action on both sides of his agitation, revolution or

world war. This rule being a maxim of Jesuit policy and invisible power in furthering

the Temporal Power of the Infallible Pope, we therefore shall cite the Order’s

weightiest “Moral Theologians” from whose approved texts there is no appeal:

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“[Jesuit Alphonse] Salmeron writes:—‘A king, on receiving Baptism, and

in renouncing Satan and all his works [as did Michael Coroleone in the

Order’s Hollywood movie The Godfather, evidencing the submission of his

Mafia power to the Jesuit General], promises tacitly never to abuse his

royal power by acting against the Church; he is understood to consent to be

deprived of his kingdom, if he acts otherwise; and in fact does not a king

render himself unworthy of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist [of which

“sacrament” the “evangelical” President George W. Bush partook in a

Roman Catholic Cathedral in Florida on November 2, 2004, the Sunday

prior to his “reelection” on the ensuing Tuesday], if he refuses to use his

power for the good of the Church and the destruction of heretics? . . .

At the present time the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Saint Peter, may,

for the good of his flock, when he cannot use any other remedy, by a word

take away corporeal life, provided, that he does it by word of mouth, and

not by the outward action of his hand. He may even make war on heretics

and on schismatics, and cause their death by the means of Catholic princes:

for Jesus Christ in commanding him to feed his sheep, gave him power to

drive away the wolves and to kill them, if they hurt his flock; . . .

In temporal things God has only given to St. Peter and his successors an

indirect dominion over temporal kingdoms and over all the empires in the

world. In virtue of that dominion he might (if the glory of Jesus Christ and

the advantage of the Church demanded it) change them, transfer them, and

make them pass into other hands.’

[Jesuit Robert Cardinal] Bellarmine says:—‘We maintain that the Pope

for the sake of spiritual good, has a sovereign power to dispose of temporal

good to all Christians. . . . The Pope may then change empires, take the

crown from one to give it to another, as being the sovereign spiritual

prince, if he judges that necessary for the salvation of souls [driving non-

Roman Catholics into the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction of the Pope].

[In the words of the Pope], ‘When the temporal obedience, which you pay

to a king, endangers your eternal salvation, then I am completely superior

to your king, even in temporal things; you are the sheep of my flock, and

your kings are its leaders; and as your kings remain sheep I permit them to

govern you and lead you; but if they become wolves instead of sheep, am I

to allow my Master’s flock to be ruled by wolves? You must not

acknowledge as kings, those who lead you away from the path of life,

either by menaces or caresses, or any other means—those, whom I have

condemned to be banished from the company of just men [the Company of

Jesus], and to be deprived of their sovereignty; . . . ’

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[Jesuit Louis] Molina writes:—‘The spiritual power of the Pope for

supernatural purposes, comprehends, dependent on those causes, the most

ample and extensive powers of temporal jurisdiction over all princes, and

over all the faithful in the church, precisely as often as this requisite for the

supernatural purposes, for which the spiritual power is established; for this

reason, if the supernatural object requires it, the Pope may depose kings and

deprive them of their kingdoms [as in the case of Louis Philippe, France’s

Citizen-King]. . . . And it is not only by censures, that he may oblige

compliance with his commands; but by pains and penalties, and by force of

arms, like secular princes; though in general it is found more suitable, that

the Pope should not make war himself; but that he should use outward force

by means of secular princes [as the Order secretly used the economic and

political might of the historic Protestant British and American Empires to

overthrow the “accursed,” anti-Pope, Orthodox Christian, Tzarist Russian

Empire (the Romanovs having battled with the Papacy for the entire

Nineteenth Century including the “Crusades” of the Crimean War (fought

over the control of Jerusalem’s holy sites) and the Russo-Japanese War),

via the Black Pope’s socialist-communist Bolshevik Revolution].

For these reasons the Pope, is recognized as the possessor of two swords—

one spiritual, and the other temporal. Most certainly Jesus Christ would not

have sufficiently provided for the maintenance of His church, if He had not

made all Christian secular princes subject to the Pope, and given the

Sovereign Pontiff ample power to oblige and constrain them to do

whatever, he deemed necessary, for supernatural objects [even as the

Jesuit-controlled, pro-Pope, “Christian princes,” President George W.

Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, have obliged their master, Pope

John Paul II, in waging a Crusade against Islam for the “supernatural

object” of destroying the most sacred Islamic mosques in the Middle East,

including those in Baghdad, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem]. The Pope

may depose kings if the preservation of the faith of the Church, or the

spiritual good of the public requires it,’ etc. ‘If a prince should become a

heretic or a schismatic, ‘the Pope may use the temporal sword against

him;’ and furthermore, ‘he may depose him, and drive him from his

kingdom;’ ’. . .

[Jesuit Francisco] Suarez says:—‘The Pope has a power coactive and

coercive over kings, even to the extent of depriving them of their thrones,’ if

there is cause for it. We have shown in the third book, Chap. 23rd, No. 10,

that the power of the Pope may extend itself to coerce kings, even by

temporal penalties and the privation of their kingdoms, ‘if it is necessary.’

‘This power is more essentially necessary in the Church with respect to

kings, in order to govern them, than in respect to subjects.’

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A shepherd has not only the power to punish his erring flock, to recall them

to the fold; but to drive away the wolves, and defend his fold lest his sheep

should be forced out of it and killed.

Then the Pope, as sovereign shepherd, may deprive any prince of his

dominions, and banish him for fear that he should injure his subjects. He

may release their subjects from their oath of fidelity, or declare that they

need not take such oath; for this condition is always supposed in such

oaths. For that purpose he may make use of the swords of other princes

[even as Pope John Paul II used the “sword” of the American military

commanded by Jesuit-trained “Prince” Bill Clinton, to make war on

“heretic” Orthodox Serbia for attempting to drive the Islamic Albanians

out of Bosnia]; thus the secular sword [of President George W. Bush] is

subjected to the spiritual sword [of Edward Cardinal Egan], that they may

assist each other to protect and defend the Church [throughout the world].

It is permitted to an individual to kill a tyrant in virtue of the right of selfdefence;

for though the community does not command it, it is always to be

understood, that it wishes to be defended by every one of its citizens

individually, and even by a stranger. Then if no defence can be found

excepting the death of the [disobedient, anti-Papal, “heretic and liberal”]

tyrant, it is permitted to every man to kill him. Whenever a king has been

legitimately deposed, he ceases to be a king or a legitimate prince, and that

can no longer be affirmed of him, which may be said for a legitimate king:

he thenceforth should be called a tyrant. Thus, after he has been declared to

be deprived of his kingdom, it becomes legal to treat him as a real tyrant;

and consequently any man has a right to kill him.’ [We now know the

source, the inspiration, of Lincoln’s assassin when John Wilkes Booth

cried “Sic semper tyrannis”—“In such manner, always, to tyrants.”]

[Jesuit Juan] Mariana writes:—‘He (Jacques Clement) suffered joyfully

blows and mortal wounds [his public execution], because by the loss of life

he gave liberty to his country [France] and the nation [by murdering the

pro-Protestant King Henry III]. Murder was expiated by murder, and the

manes of the Duc de Guise, unjustly killed, were avenged by the effusion of

royal blood. He (Jacques Clement) did a really noble, admirable,

memorable action. . . . by which he taught earthly princes that their impious

enterprises [resisting the Papacy’s quest for universal Temporal power]

never remain unpunished [as in the public assassination of President John

F. Kennedy]. Every individual has the same power’ (i.e., that of declaring

the sovereign a public enemy, and consequently of killing him by the

sword), ‘if he has the courage,’ (i.e., to undertake to assist the republic at

the risk of his own life without hope of escaping from capital punishment.)

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‘It would be very advantageous’ (for men) ‘if many men would be found,

who by the sacrifice of their own lives, would undertake so courageous an

action for the liberty of their country; but most men are deterred by a

disordered care for their own preservation, which renders him incapable of

great enterprises; thence it is so few of the [anti-Pope] tyrants we read of

in former ages, have suffered violent deaths by the hands of their subjects.

Nevertheless, it is well that princes should know, that, if they oppress their

people [by permitting and promoting Biblical, Protestant preaching and

politics among the populace to the detriment of Romanism], and render

themselves unsupportable by their vices and misdoings [which behavior is

completely tolerated in pro-Jesuit rulers such as King Louis XIV, Prince

Metternich, Mao Zedong, Josef Stalin, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton],

they live on the condition, that not only they may be killed righteously and

justly, but that it is a ‘praiseworthy and glorious action to kill them.’

No one doubts that a ‘tyrant may be killed overtly by force of arms,’ either

by attacking him in his palace [as in the case of William I of Orange], in

giving battle to him [as in the case of King Gustavus Adolphus], or even

by deceit [as in the case of the poisonings of Oliver Cromwell and George

Washington] and ambush [as in the cases of Thomas “Stonewall”

Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and John F. Kennedy].

It is true, it is more magnanimous and generous to declare your hatred, and

to assail the enemy of the state openly; but it is no less laudable to seize

some favourable occasion, and to use deceit and ambuscades in order to

perform the act without occasioning much agitation [via the poison cup],

and with less peril, both to the public and to individuals [as in the murders

of Masonic Presidents Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt; of

Generals George S. Patton and the German Erwin Rommel].’ . . .

[The writer now proves that according to the Constitutions of the Jesuits, the power of

assassination of kings and princes as claimed by the Pope, as well as all papal power

over the Roman Hierarchy and over all the other Orders within the Papacy, resides

entirely in the hands of the Jesuit General, which power no nation can tolerate.]

I have said that the constitutions of the Jesuits are founded on two

principles; the absolute power of the Pope, and his communication of an

absolute power to the Society. You will see, that the system of the Society

and its government, both interior and exterior, and the particular regulations

of the constitutions, flow naturally from those two principles, i.e., that the

[Infallible] Pope has absolute [spiritual as well as temporal or political]

power, and that he has communicated it to the Society [meaning that the

Black Pope’s militia is the power behind ALL Papal designs]. . . .

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The second fundamental principle of the Constitution of the Jesuits is, that

the Pope, as the rightful sovereign over all things, both spiritual and

temporal, has communicated his absolute power to the Society of Jesuits in

the person of their General, for the preservation and propagation of the

spiritual and temporal good of the Society [the ex-Jesuit Pope Gregory

XVI having put forth a Brief in 1836 by which he surrendered the office of

the Pope and the entire Vatican Empire to the control of the Jesuits]. . . . I

have proved that regicide is the ancient and received doctrine of the

Society, and how dangerous it is to states to leave sovereign and

independent power in the hands of any single man.” {40} [Emphasis added]

REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION

The Great Secret Society had now been founded by the Devil to not only

restore all lands lost to the risen Son of God’s Bible-based, Protestant Reformation

through the Order’s education of the nobles, preaching, propaganda, intrigue,

agitations, assassinations, revolutions and its Inquisition, but the long-range goal was

to be an all-encompassing universal monarchy under the abject tyranny of the

supposed successor of “St. Peter,” “the Vicar of Christ,”—the Pope of Rome. Of this

greatest of keys to the understanding of the last five centuries of history, we read:

“We have now seen the nature of the organization called into existence to

arrest the progress of the Reformation. We observe that in the early stages

of their existence as an Order, the Jesuits gained brilliant victories over

their foes. . . . They have . . . shown a spirit of devoted obedience to the

Pope, being ready when he commanded them to go through difficulties and

dangers to the limits of the world. The Inquisition aided them in their

work; the Jesuits rallied the scattered forces of the Church, disheartened by

the rapid victories of the Reformers; they disciplined them by precept and

example; they inspired them with a superhuman courage; they animated

them to go forward in their victorious career until they wrestled from the

Reformers many of the territories which they had conquered, compelling

the inhabitants, often by persecution and fire and sword, to cast in their lot

with the obedient vassals of the Papacy. . . . We are thus led to contemplate

the tremendous war, which the regenerated Papacy waged with new

weapons for the recovery of her lost ascendancy over the nations. . . . Every

passion, which stirs the human frame, was pressed into that warfare.

Profound politicians, great captains, fierce demagogues, and desperate

assassins were enlisted in it. We believe that the pontificate of Sixtus V is

the period of the great crisis in the history of the Papacy, the turning point

in the endangered fortunes of the Roman Catholic system. Sixtus V had,

indeed, other objects for the promotion of which he had collected his

treasure. He hoped to combine all Northeastern and South-western Europe

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for the annihilation of the Turkish Empire [brought to pass via the Brits

during World War I]. He hoped also to effect the conquest of Egypt

[accomplished with the Order’s Napoleonic Wars]. . . . the union of the

Mediterranean and the Red Sea by means of a canal [using Napoleon III to

build the Suez Canal], and a new Crusade for the recovery of the Holy

Land [again, brought to pass via the Brits during World War I]. . . . But the

grand vision, which presented itself to him, was Rome as the religious

capital of the world. After a certain number of years, all the nations were to

come, even from America, to Rome [the Jesuit Pontiff ruling all nations

from Rome and ultimately, from Jerusalem].” {41} [Emphasis added]

Miss Cusack, the brilliant and renowned converted Catholic nun of the late

Nineteenth Century having warned the English of the Jesuits’ plot (already successful

by 1800) to take over the British Empire, properly concludes:

“. . . thus was established an Institution, which as we shall see from

undisputable evidence, has done more than any other so-called religious

order to ruin the peace of families, to check the growth of human progress,

and to enslave the souls of men, and yet all this was done in the name of

religion.” {42} [Emphasis added]

Finally, and most relevant for today, is the fact that Loyola was the father of

what became the Nineteenth Century’s British-based, Freemasonic, Fabian Socialist,

political movement known today as “Zionism.” Governing the banking and politics

of London via The Roundtable Group, the Order would use its pro-Irish Catholic

British Labor Party to promote its Rothschild-financed “Labor Zionism.” Its secret

quest, using expendable ethnic Jews having survived Pope Pius XII’s Eurasian

Jewish Holocaust, was to take Jerusalem from the Moslems and make the city the

Order’s political and religious capital of the world. Of Loyola’s trip to Jerusalem

eleven years prior to his creation of the Society of Jesus, we read from the pen of one

of the Reformation’s greatest Protestant historians, James A. Wylie:

“AMONG the wonderful things shown to Ignatius Loyola by special

revelation was a vision of two great camps. The centre of the one was

placed at Babylon; and over it there floated the gloomy ensign of the prince

of darkness. The Heavenly King had erected his standard on Mount Zion,

and made Jerusalem his head-quarters. In the war of which these two

camps were the symbols, and the issues of which were to be grand beyond

all former precedent, Loyola was chosen, he believed, to be one of the chief

captains. He longed to place himself at the centre of action. The way

thither was long. Wide oceans and gloomy deserts had to be traversed, and

hostile tribes passed through. But he had an iron will, a boundless

enthusiasm, and what was more, a Divine call—for such it seemed to him

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in his delusion. He set out penniless (1523), and begging his bread by the

way, he arrived at Barcelona. There he embarked in a ship which landed

him on the shore of Italy. Thence, traveling on foot, after long months, and

innumerable hardships, he entered in safety the gates of Jerusalem. But the

reception that awaited him in the ‘Holy City’ was not such as he had fondly

anticipated. His rags, his uncombed locks, which almost hid his emaciated

features, but ill accorded with the magnificence of the errand which had

brought him to that shore. Loyola thought of doing in his single person

what the armies of the Crusaders had failed to do by their combined

strength. The head of the Romanists in Jerusalem saw in him rather the

mendicant than the warrior, and fearing doubtless that should he offer battle

to the Crescent, he was more likely to provoke a tempest of Turkish

fanaticism than drive back the hordes of the infidel, he commanded him to

desist under the threat of excommunication. Thus withstood, Loyola

returned to Barcelona, which he reached in 1524.

Derision and insults awaited his arrival in his native Spain. His

countrymen failed to see the grand aims cherished beneath his rags; nor

could they divine the splendid career, and the immortality of fame, which

were to emerge from this present squalor and debasement. But not for one

moment did Loyola’s own faith falter in his great destiny. . . .

On the 15th of August, 1534, Loyola, followed by his nine companions,

entered the subterranean chapel of the Church of Montmartre, at Paris, and

mass being said by [Jesuit Peter] Fabre, who had received priests orders,

the Company, after the usual vow of chastity and poverty, took a solemn

oath to dedicate their lives to the conversion of the Saracens, or, should

circumstances make that attempt impossible, to lay themselves and their

services unreservedly at the feet of the Pope. . . . In sublimity of aim, and

strength of faith—using the term in its mundane sense—it wielded a power

before which nothing on earth—one principle excepted [the true gospel of

the Lord Jesus Christ as given in the Protestant Reformation’s New

Testament]—should be able to stand. . . .

The war in which Loyola and his nine companions enrolled themselves

when on the 15th of August, 1534, they made their vow in the Church of

Montmartre, was to be waged against the Saracens of the East. They

acted so far on their original design as to proceed to Venice, where they

learned that their project was meanwhile impracticable. The war which had

just broken out between the Republic and the Porte had closed the gates of

Asia. They took this as an intimation that the field of their operations was

to be in the Western world [against the Reformation]. Returning on their

path they now directed their steps towards Rome.” {43} [Emphasis added]

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Dear truth-seeker, could it be that Ignatius Loyola, in obedience to his master

the Devil, sought to move the Holy Roman Empire’s religious and political capital of

Rome, surnamed “Babylon,” to Jerusalem? Is not “Babylon” of Revelation 17

situated on seven “mountains” or seven “hills” (both words having been translated

from the same New Testament Greek word, oros) in fact Rome? But before the move

could be effected, must not he first rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, the identical quest

of the crusading Knights Templars and dream of today’s high Freemasons? And if

that Temple is to be rebuilt, must not both Jerusalem mosques be removed from the

Temple Mount? Further, if both mosques are to be destroyed, must not the Order

foment a world war to bring them to ruins? Must not millions of Moslems be killed

so as to prevent a wild mass-murder of Israeli Jews secretly deceived by the Company

into merely serving as a human buffer for the Order’s rebuilding of the Temple—in

the “last days” to be a Temple of SET via “the abomination of desolation?” Further,

must not there be a nation of Israel in which Jews may dwell, Jerusalem no longer

being exclusively in Jordanian hands? If Israel must be, was not the end of the

Ottoman Empire a necessity? If Jews are to be driven out of Eurasia into Israel, must

not “Palestine” first be secured by British mandate? Finally, if Zionism was to be the

cry for a return to the land of Israel, was not the subsequent “Jewish State” created by

Jesuit duplicity and intrigue through the notorious Drefyus Affair? Indeed, Jesuit

Labor Zionism will bring all these events to pass: Loyola was its first inspiration!

Having examined the true purpose, oaths, constitutions and devilish doctrines

of the Society of Jesus, we pause to reflect on the dying words of Ignatius Loyola,

the Order’s founder and thus the father of the Counter-Reformation:

“ ‘I have done much good to the Church of Rome—I have seen many

provinces of our men, many colleges, houses, residences, and wealth

belonging to our Society; but all these things desert me now, and I know

not whither to turn!’ At length he expired in a fit of trembling, and his face

turned black, according to an eye-witness, the Jesuit Turrianus.” {44}

In contrast, the dying words of Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation

bringing freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of the press with the

German Bible and his noble defender, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, were:

“O my Father, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all consolation, I

thank Thee for having revealed to me Thy well beloved Son, in whom I

believe, whom I have preached and acknowledged, loved and celebrated,

and whom the Pope and the impious persecute. I commend to Thee my

soul. Jesus Christ my Lord, I am quitting this earthly body, I am leaving

this life, but I know that I shall abide eternally with Thee.” {45}

Dear truth-seeker, whose dying words will you repeat in your final moments of

ebbing strength as you begin your journey to Heaven or to Hell?

Vatican Assassins Wounded In The House of My Friends

Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/eric-jon-phelps-vatican-assassins-3rd-edition_202101/Eric%20Jon%20Phelps%20-%20Vatican%20Assassins%203rd%20Edition.pdf

What is liberal theology?

translate

liberal theology

Answer

Liberal theology is a theological perspective that reinterprets Scripture according to modern science and ethics. It emphasizes reason and experience over strict adherence to doctrinal authority, positioning itself as an alternative to conservative theology. Liberal theologians view conservative theology as “old,” “outdated,” or, worse, “oppressive.” Liberal theology takes the position that Christians must “get with the times.”

Liberal theology rose to prominence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with its acceptance of Darwinian evolution, application of modern biblical criticism, and involvement in the social gospel movement. During this period, liberal theology witnessed its greatest influence within Protestantism, though it experienced a decline with the rise of neo-orthodoxy in the 1930s and liberation theology in the 1960s. Despite the decline, liberal theology persisted into the twenty-first century as a movement within both Protestantism and Catholicism.

In the nineteenth century, liberal theology developed as a reaction to the prevailing intellectual milieu; most notably, the theory of evolution and natural selection. The acceptance of Darwinian evolution made it difficult to defend traditional interpretations of the creation account in Genesis. Influenced by the Enlightenment, liberal theologians grounded faith not in Scripture or the person of Jesus Christ, but in reason and human experience. A reasonable faith, they concluded, is one that fits a modern worldview.

For conservative theologians, Scripture is the authoritative Word of God. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV). Scripture is not the product of human imagination; it is the inspired Word of God. As such, it is authoritative and true (John 8:31; 14:15).

Liberal theologians rejected the doctrines of biblical infallibility and inerrancy, opting instead to apply higher criticism to the biblical text. In doing so, they concluded that Scripture is not the first and final authority on matters of faith and practice. In its place liberal theologians set human reason and religious experience.

Once the authority of Scripture has been undermined, every essential Christian doctrine crumbles as well. For instance, liberal theologians rejected the doctrine of original sin (Romans 5:12), the virgin birth of Christ (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23), the Trinity (Luke 3:22), the deity of Christ (John 1:1, 14), the bodily resurrection of Christ (Luke 24:39), and so on. For liberal theologians, Jesus was nothing more than an exemplary moral teacher who taught us how to love God and our neighbors.

Jesus was an exemplary teacher precisely because He was the eternal and pre-existent Word of God made flesh (John 1:1, 14). As such, He perfectly obeyed the Father’s will, including death on a cross for the sins of humanity (Philippians 2:5–11). After His death, He physically rose from the grave, defeating the powers of Satan, sin, and death. In Christ, there is forgiveness for sins and the hope of eternal life. This is biblical doctrine. This is apostolic doctrine. Liberal theology is neither of these things; it is the product of Satan, who is “the father of lies” (John 8:44, ESV).

https://www.gotquestions.org/liberal-theology.html

2 Corinthians 9

1599 Geneva Bible

9 1 Why, albeit he think well of their ready wills, 3 yet earnestly exhorteth them, 4 he yieldeth a reason: 6 He compareth alms to seed sowing, 10 which God doth repay with great gain.

1 For [a]as touching the ministering to the Saints, it is superfluous for me to write unto you.

2 For I know your readiness of mind, whereof I boast myself of you unto them of Macedonia, and say, that Achaia was prepared a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked many.

3 Now have I sent the brethren, lest our rejoicing over you should be in vain in this behalf, that ye (as I have said) be ready.

4 Lest if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we may not say, you) should be ashamed in this my [b]constant boasting.

5 Wherefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to come before unto you, and to finish your benevolence appointed afore, that it might be ready, and come as of benevolence, and not as of [c]niggardliness.

6 [d]This yet remember, that he which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth liberally, shall reap also liberally.

7 As every man [e]wisheth in his heart, so let him give, not [f]grudgingly, or of [g]necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

8 And God is able to make all [h]grace to abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in [i]every good work,

9 (As it is written, He hath sparsed abroad and hath given to the poor: his benevolence remaineth for [j]ever.

10 Also he that findeth seed to the sower, will minister likewise bread for food, and multiply your seed, and increase the [k]fruits of your benevolence.)

11 That on all parts ye may be made rich unto all liberality, which causeth through us thanksgiving unto God.

12 [l]For the ministration of this service not only supplieth the necessities of the Saints, but also abundantly causeth many to give thanks to God,

13 (Which by the [m]experiment of this ministration praise God for your [n]voluntary submission to the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution to them, and to all men.)

14 And in their prayer for you, to long after you greatly, for the abundant grace of God in you.

15 [o]Thanks therefore be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Footnotes

2 Corinthians 9:1 He wisely meeteth with the suspicion which the Corinthians might conceive, as though the Apostle in urging them so carefully, should doubt of their good will. Therefore he witnesseth that he doeth it not to teach them that they ought to help the Saints, seeing that he had become surety for them to the Macedonians, but only to stir them up which were running of themselves to the end that all things might both be in a better readiness, and also be more plentiful.

2 Corinthians 9:4 The word which he useth, signifieth such a stayedness and settledness of mind, as cannot be moved with any terror or fear.

2 Corinthians 9:5 As from covetous men.

2 Corinthians 9:6 Alms must be given neither niggardly, nor with a loathful mind, or hardly: But as frank and free alms is compared to a sowing which hath a most plentiful harvest of most abundant blessing following it.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Determineth and appointeth freely with himself.

2 Corinthians 9:7 With a sparing and niggardly heart.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Against his will, as loath to be evil reported of.

2 Corinthians 9:8 All God’s bountiful liberality.

2 Corinthians 9:8 To help others by all means possible, in doing them good in their necessities.

2 Corinthians 9:9 Is everlasting: Now David speaketh of a man that feareth God, and loveth his neighbor, who shall never want (saith he) to give to others.

2 Corinthians 9:10 There is none so good an inheritance to the godly, as bountifulness is.

2 Corinthians 9:12 Another excellent and double fruit of liberality towards the Saints, is this: that it giveth occasion to praise God, and that our faith is also thereby made manifest.

2 Corinthians 9:13 By this proof of your liberality in this helping and succoring of them.

2 Corinthians 9:13 In showing with one consent, that you acknowledge that only Gospel which you have willingly submitted yourselves unto, declaring thereby, that you agree with the Church of Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 9:15 Lest by his great commendation and praise, the Corinthians should be puffed up, he shutteth up this exhortation, with this exclamation.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%209&version=GNV

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