Rick Santorum has embraced Opus Dei

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I saw this and thought of Reinhardt.

Is he still around ?


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Rick Santorum has embraced McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts. Dude is getting fat.

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Excerpt from article: Rick Santorum
Wikipedia [link to en.wikipedia.org]

[...] Rick Santorum traveled in 2002 to Rome to speak at a centenary celebration of the birth of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei. He and his wife were invested as Knight and Dame of Magistral Grace of the Knights of Malta in a ceremony at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on November 12, 2004. [...]
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Excerpt from article: The Battle for the Catholic Church
Christian Century magazine, 1989 [link to www.religion-online.org]

[...] The Knights of Malta arose as a medieval chivalric order. All its members are of the Catholic elite, either through blood or wealth. In this century Knights have been involved in such unsavory activities as helping Nazis escape justice at the end of World War II and participating in a secret Mafia-connected terrorist lodge in Italy called P-2. American Knights have included the late CIA director William Casey, Alexander Haig, William Buckley, Claire Booth Luce and William Simon, to mention some recognizable names. Lernoux describes in some detail the numerous pursuits of Knight J. Peter Grace, the millionaire heir and executive of W. R. Grace and Company. In 1984 while visiting New York’s Cardinal O’Connor, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Managua made contact with a Grace representative and would have obtained $30,000 had revelation of the funding not proved too embarrassing. According to Lernoux, Grace used Knights of Malta privileges and contacts to send the contras in Honduras supplies worth millions of dollars. While activities such as Grace’s are relatively independent of Vatican policies -- and hence this section could be seen as a digression from the author’s theme -- the Knights are headquartered in the Vatican and have connections with powerful members of the hierarchy like O’Connor and Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.

At a deeper level Lernoux notes the parallels between John Paul II’s papacy and Ronald Reagan’s presidency: both men are right-wing populists whose few powerful ideas derive from experiences of three or four decades ago. Hence it is not surprising that for different reasons their visceral anti-communism has led to similar stances, especially toward Nicaragua.

Opus Dei is a highly secretive organization founded in 1928 by Josemaría Escriváde Balaguer, a Spanish priest. The organization seeks to attract young professionals and give them an intense formation so that they may influence society. The highest members of the organization take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Descriptions given by those who leave Opus Dei make it sound rather like a religious cult whose members lose personal autonomy. In keeping with its origins in traditionalist Spain, Opus Dei is quite rigidly classist and sexist; thus, university-trained people are segregated from others and men are segregated from women, who are given essentially housekeeping jobs. The organization is so secret that its constitution is known only to a small circle. [...]
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Related
Thread: 'Black Pope' to stand down - a battle has been fought between the Jesuits and the conservative Opus Dei

Isnt he supposed to be in the LDS?
I dont know wether him being Opus Dei is agood thing or a bad thing.

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Excerpt from article: Opus Dei
Wikipedia [link to en.wikipedia.org]

[...] In the English-speaking world, the most vocal critic of Opus Dei is an internet-based blogging website called the Opus Dei Awareness Network (ODAN). ODAN describes itself as an organisation that exists "to provide education, outreach and support to people who have been adversely affected by Opus Dei." ODAN is headed by Diane DiNicola, mother of a former member, Tammy DiNicola. Other major critics include Maria Carmen del Tapia, an ex-member who was a high-ranking officer of Opus Dei for many years, liberal Catholic theologians such as Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit writer and editor, and supporters of Liberation theology, such as journalist Penny Lernoux and Michael Walsh, a writer on religious matters and former Jesuit. [...]
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Excerpt from article: Their Will Be Done
Mother Jones magazine, 1983 [link to motherjones.com]

[...] Opus Dei powerbrokers have gained enormous influence inside the Vatican since they helped install the current pope. The courting of John Paul II began when he was still the archbishop of Krakow. He was asked to speak at Opus Dei colleges and at the group's international headquarters in Rome. In an effort to enhance Wojtyla's image as papabile, these speeches were printed by Opus Dei in book form and circulated among members of the Vatican hierarchy. When Karol Wojtyla became pope, he returned the favor by elevating Opus Dei to the unique status of a "personal prelature." Critics of Opus Dei fear that the pope's edict will allow its members to elude the authority of local bishops in special circumstances, thereby strengthening the order's tendency to function as a "church within a church." This was an important victory for Opus Dei, which had been rebuffed on previous occasions by both Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI.

The decision to upgrade the status of Opus Dei appears to be part of an over-all strategy to counter the influence of Jesuits and other progressive clerics active in the liberation theology movement.

Pope John Paul II's feud with the Jesuits came to a head in October 1981, when he suspended the order's constitution and replaced its ailing superior general, Father Pedro Arrupe, with a Jesuit of his own choosing. Many Jesuits have caused turmoil in the Vatican by questioning papal pronouncements on birth control, priestly celibacy, the barring of women from the priesthood and, most significantly, clerical involvement in politics. [...]
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Related
Thread: The Pope on Liberation Theology (Marxism) in his Church

LOL!!

The republican party doesnt want you little ricky. you , your movement, the way you think and the rest of the little religiously righteous fucktwats can...............

just go home. it is time to shut your mouths and go home.
the country has spoken.

What is wrong with Opus Dei? I know two men who are Opus Dei and they are two of the greatest persons I've ever met. Wish the main stream catholic church was more like them

The issue is the inner core

And at the next Senatorial election in 2006 he was thrown out of office. I've heard it was for official corruption. Was this a part of it?

Anyone who thinks religious conferences are official duties of Senators wasn't paying attention in Civics class.

Slick Ricky is "insane in the membrane"

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Excerpt from article: Santorum Hails Ave Maria’s Religious Warriors
Right Wing Watch, 2008 [link to www.rightwingwatch.org]

[...] Addressing faculty and students Ave Maria University late last month, Former Senator Rick Santorum hailed the right-wing school for producing class after class of warriors for God who are desperately needed in order to win the “spiritual war” that is threatening to destroy America: [...]
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Excerpt from article: Ave Maria University
Wikipedia [link to en.wikipedia.org]

[...] Tom Monaghan, Ave Maria's founder, has been criticized in the press for proposing that contraceptives, abortion, and pornography be banned from the university and the town itself. In 2007, Monaghan drew criticism from Catholics both inside and outside the university when he removed [Jesuit] theologian Joseph Fessio as provost. [...]
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Excerpt from article: Tom Monaghan
Wikipedia [link to en.wikipedia.org]

[...] Mr. Monaghan is reputed to be a member of Opus Dei and has been aligned with a number of other conservative Catholic organizations and causes.

Monaghan is a donor to Priests for Life, a Roman Catholic pro-life organization. He is a knight of magistral grace in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. [...]
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Excerpt from article: Catholicism's new cold war: the church militant lurches rightward
The Humanist magazine, 1993 [link to www.thefreelibrary.com]

[...] Monaghan has long used his vast financial resources to fund conservative (especially conservative Catholic) causes. During the Reagan years, he was an outspoken supporter of the Nicaraguan contras and was also heavily invested in Honduras. In 1987, he founded Legatus, an organization of like-minded Catholic corporate CEOs, which opened its first chapter in Honduras. [...]
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The U.S Gov't - Catholic Church, two different things. If Rick wants to run for papal office that's okay. The pope does not run the USA.

Rick and Bill O'Rielley could be brothers.

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Excerpt from article: Santorum Defends Illegal Coup In Honduras
Political Correction, 2012 [link to politicalcorrection.org]

[...] From the January 26, 2012, CNN GOP presidential primary debate in Jacksonville, Florida: [...]
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Excerpt from article: Probe Links Opus Dei with Honduran Coupists
Inside Costa Rica, 2010 [link to insidecostarica.com]

[...] A group of the Honduran Catholic Church known as Opus Dei participated actively in the coup against constitutional President Manuel Zelaya, said a study published here Monday.

According to the investigation, named "Opus Dei in Honduras, The Catholic Church in the Coup" by sociologist Marco Burgos, active members of this clan are making intromissions in the Honduran national politics, despite Honduras is officially considered a secular country.

The text said that Opus Dei is headed by Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez, spiritual leader of the Honduran Catholics, who has not denounced the violation to the Constitution that the coup was, and has instead blessed it. [...]
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Related
Thread: Coup d'Etat in Honduras

Now when he stops doing this selectively, and embraces "absolute truths," that Jesus IS the Prince of Peace, we might even consider support when he stops the warmongering.

"Blessed be the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God," would be a good start from his cognitive dissonance regarding an authentic faith.

Last Edited by SpaceCommand on 04/04/2012 10:34 AM

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Excerpt from article: Rick Santorum Exposed: Knights of Malta Member, Warmonger, and Long History of Corruption
The Intel Hub, 2012 [link to theintelhub.com]

[...] Rick Santorum, now a leading GOP candidate for president, has a long history of corruption and is a member of the secret society, the Knights of Malta.

In a recent transmission of Down the Rabbit Hole with Popeye of FederalJack.com, Popeye and special guest Steve Stars spent two hours dissecting Santorums disgusting, warmongering history. [...]
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Excerpts from article: Their Will Be Done
Mother Jones magazine, 1983 [link to motherjones.com]

[...] And who are the American Knights? Mother Jones managed to obtain part of the secret membership list. On it we found some familiar names: Lee Lacocca of Chrysler; Spyros Skouras, the shipping magnate; Robert Abplanalp, the aerosol tycoon and Nixon confidant; Barren Hilton of the hotel chain; John Volpe, former U.S. ambassador to Italy; and William Simon, who served as both treasury secretary and energy czar in the 1970s. At least one former envoy to the Vatican, Robert Wagner (the ex-mayor of New York), and the current emissary to the Vatican, William Wilson, are also members of the Knights of Malta. But there is one institution that stands out as the center of the SMOM in the United States—W.R. Grace & Company. J. Peter Grace, the company chairman, is also president of the American section of SMOM. No less than eight knights, including the chancellor of the order, John D.J. Moore (who was ambassador to Ireland under Nixon and Ford), are directors of W.R. Grace.

J. Peter Grace has a long history of involvement with CIA-linked enterprises, such as Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, which was the brainchild of General Reinhard Gehlen. He is also the board chairman of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), which has collaborated with multinational corporations and their client dictatorships in Latin America to squelch independent trade unions. Up to $100 million a year of CIA funds were pumped into "trustworthy" labor organizations such as AIFLD, whose graduates, according to AIFLD executive director William Doherty, were active in covert operations that led to the military coup in Brazil in 1964. During the early 1970s, Francis D. Flanagan, the Grace representative in Washington, D.C., was a member of ITT's "Ad Hoc Committee on Chile," which was instrumental in planning the overthrow of Salvador Allende. AIFLD's National Workers' Con-federation subsequently served as the chief labor mouthpiece for the Pinochet junta.

There are many other knights with CIA connections. Clare Boothe Luce, for example, the grande dame of American diplomacy, served as a U.S. ambassador to Italy in the 1950s and is now a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversees covert operations. William Buckley, Jr., a former CIA operative and the editor of the National Review, is a member, as is his brother James, a former senator from New York and now undersecretary of state for security assistance. [...]

[...] The CIA was quick to recognize the "subversive" potential of liberation theology and mounted an extensive campaign to undermine the new movement. The agency's strategy, formulated during the late 1960s and early '70s, when Richard Helms was director, was to exploit the polarization between the activist clergy and those who still identified with the established order (the holdovers from the Cold War era, when missionaries were routinely employed as agents and informants). Toward this end, as Penny Lernoux documents in her book Cry of the People, the CIA used right-wing Catholic organizations in Latin America to harass outspoken prelates and political reformers. [...]

[...] Under [CIA Director William] Casey, the CIA has continued its attack on progressive elements within the church. Casey is also a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Of all the groups that are engaged in the U.S.-sponsored campaign against liberation theology, none has played a more significant role than Opus Dei ("God's Work"). A fast-growing Catholic lay society whose political activities are shrouded in secrecy, Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, a young Spanish priest and lawyer. Escriva espoused complete obedience to church dogma. Today, there are more than 70,000 members of the order in 87 countries. Only a small percentage are priests. The rest are mostly middle and upper-class businessmen, professionals, military personnel and government officials. Some are university students. The members contribute regularly to the group's financial coffers and are encouraged to practice "holy shrewdness" and "holy coercion" in an effort to win converts.

Much of what is known about Opus Dei comes from ex-members such as John Roche, a professor at Oxford University in England, who broke his oath of secrecy after leaving the order. According to Roche, self-flagellation with whips and spiked chains is a normal part of the rigid spiritual discipline that Opus Dei imposes on its full-time members, including college-age recruits of both genders. "Personal identity suffers a severe battering: some are reduced to shadows of their former selves, others become severely disturbed," writes Roche in a paper called "The Inner World of Opus Dei." "Internally, it is totalitarian and imbued with fascist ideas turned to religious purposes, ideas which were surely drawn from the Spain of its early years. It is virtually a sect or cult in spirit, a law unto itself, totally self-centered, grudgingly accepting Roman authority because it still considers Rome orthodox, and because of the vast pool of recruits accessible to it as a respected Catholic organization."

In recent years, Opus Dei has emerged internationally as one of the most powerful and politically committed of the Catholic lay groups. Detractors have likened the organization to a "saintly Mafia," for its members control a large number of banks and financial institutions, including Rumasa, the largest conglomerate in Spain's private sector. In the latter stages of the Franco regime, ten out of 19 cabinet officers belonged to or were closely allied with Opus Dei. Despite the active political role the order plays wherever it exists, Father Malcolm Kennedy, an American spokesperson for Opus Dei, insists it is "inconceivable...that Opus Dei leaders in any country would try to influence political decisions."

The tentacles of "Octopus Dei," as it is sometimes called, stretch all the way to the U.S., where David Kennedy, former chairman of Continental Illinois Bank and treasury secretary under Richard Nixon, is said to be a "conspicuous friend" of the conservative religious order, despite the fact that he is a Mormon. Continental Illinois owns shares of an Opus Dei bank in Barcelona.

Opus Dei also controls a wide range of media assets (600 newspapers, 52 radio and TV stations, 12 film companies and 38 news agencies) and sponsors educational and social programs in various countries. These efforts have been endorsed by members of the American section of the SMOM such as William Simon (Citicorp) and Francis X. Stankard (Chase Manhattan Bank), who have spoken at Opus Dei seminars and other functions of the group.

"One of the problems that Opus Dei runs into," says Sargent Shriver, a cooperating (not full-time) member of the order and a former Democratic candidate for vice president, "is that a lot of Catholics join the organization, and they're doing this, that and the other thing, and Opus Dei becomes tainted because of them."

This is particularly true in Latin America. In Chile, for example, Opus Dei elicited support from Chilean bishops for the overthrow of President Salvador Allende and worked closely with CIA-funded organizations such as the Fatherland and Liberty goon squads, which subsequently merged with DINA, the dreaded Chilean secret police. In 1971, the CIA began financing the Chilean Institute for General Studies (IGS), which has been described as an Opus Dei think tank. [...]
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Related
Thread: US CIA engineered coup that brought General Pinochet to power in Chile

without Santorum as president the biblebelt will start a war

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Excerpt from article: Rick Santorum has embraced Spanish priest behind devout Catholic group Opus Dei
The Washington Post, 2012 [link to www.washingtonpost.com]

[...] Less well known is Santorum’s embrace of the Catholicism of Opus Dei, a relatively small yet influential group within the church that is defined by the intensity with which followers are urged to live out church doctrine — in Escriva’s words, to “seek holiness” in all realms of life.

The group encourages “unity” between followers’ personal and public lives as Catholics, the rigorous practice of church sacraments and, to some degree, gestures of self-denial. Its most devoted members follow a daily two-hour ritual of wearing a spiked metal chain on their thighs to recall Christ’s suffering — a practice followed by Mother Teresa.

Santorum, whose campaign declined several requests for comment, is not a member of Opus Dei, according to the group, and it is not clear to what degree he adheres to its tenets.

But Opus Dei, whose name is Latin for “Work of God,” has become a significant presence in his life. Santorum has for years attended a church with a number of Opus Dei followers and other affiliations with the group, and he has sent two of his sons to a school run by Opus Dei members. Among his family friends is the Rev. C. John McCloskey, an Opus Dei priest who is a spiritual mentor to many prominent Washington conservatives. McCloskey traveled to Rome with Santorum, led him on a retreat with the group and baptized one of his children. [...]
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Excerpt from article: C. John McCloskey
Wikipedia [link to en.wikipedia.org]

[...] C. John McCloskey, III is a Catholic priest and member of Opus Dei. He is the former director of the Catholic Information Center of the Archdiocese of Washington. He worked on Wall Street - Citibank and Merrill Lynch - for some years before becoming a priest, being ordained in 1981 by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray.

Fr. McCloskey is perhaps best known for having helped many people convert to Catholicism, including Newt Gingrich, Sam Brownback, Lawrence Kudlow, and Dr. Bernard Nathanson [...]
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Excerpt from article: Converting Capitol Hill
Beliefnet, 2003 [link to www.beliefnet.com]

[...] McCloskey is credited with facilitating the conversions of such luminaries as failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, "Crossfire" co-host Robert Novak, Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, conservative book publisher Alfred Regnery, economist and commentator Larry Kudlow, and one-time New York gubernatorial candidate Lewis Lehrman. Abortion doctor-turned-pro-lifer Bernard Nathanson was tutored by McCloskey, as was indicted Tyco International counsel Mark Belnick. [...]
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Excerpt from article: An Opus Focus on SCOTUS?
Talk To Action, 2007 [link to www.talk2action.org]

[...] Justice Clarence Thomas may have the closest ties to Opus Dei. His conversion was handled by Opus Dei priests John McCloskey, the highly visible American face of Opus Dei as well as Father Paul Scalia (Opus Dei priest and son of the Supreme Court Justice [Antonin Scalia]). [...]
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Related
Thread: High-ranking members of US military part of ‘Knights of Malta,’ ‘Opus Dei,’ reporter claims

Wikipedia stated he was also knighted by the Knights of Malta in the Vatican. Brings back memories of the Godfather . . . .

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Mae Brussell - Opus Dei, Knights Of Malta & Vatican Death Squads - (12-24-84)



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