Monday, July 30, 2012

By Michael Hoffman
Copyright ©2012 www.revisionisthistory.org

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney did his ritual obeisance in counterfeit “Israel,” propitiating the gods of war and holocaust denial with his former business partner at Boston Consulting Group, Benjamin “the Butcher” Netanyahu. Mr. Romney also placed a note to the Talmudic deity in the supposed “western wall of the Temple,” while wearing the obligatory yarmulke Talmudic head gear.

Of course the American media were complicit in the farce, failing to ask Romney how much a gallon of gas will cost American drivers if “Israel” bombs Iran (around five bucks a gallon). They also ”forgot” to ask him what the bill to American taxpayers will be to fulfill Romney’s scheme to base a U.S. aircraft carrier task force permanently off the coast of Iran, at a time when Republicans say we must drastically cut the Federal budget.

Romney flirted with anti-Arab bigotry from the Ayn Rand school of disembodied  economics, by opining that it was unspecified “cultural differences” which accounted for the huge disparity in Palestinian and Israeli incomes: "As you come here and you see the [Gross Domestic Product] per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality," Romney said, according to a media pool report.

In fact, the Washington Post reports that the difference is far more stark than that. “According to the World Bank, Israel's GDP per capita is actually $31,282. The same figure for the Palestinian areas is around $1,600.”

"Culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference," Romney said, repeating the conclusion he drew from a book by David S. Landes, “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.”


How soon we forget when the holocaust is against people who are not considered holy: during “Operation Cast Lead,” the Israelis used white phosphorus on schools and hospitals in Gaza from December, 2008 to January, 2009. They killed 1400 people, mostly civilians. They destroyed some 4,000 Palestinian homes and flattened 80 Palestinian government buildings.


 Palestinian access to their own farmland and water supplies are routinely restricted, denied or “appropriated” by the Israelis. Palestinian trade and commerce are heavily impeded. In addition to ignoring the Israeli mass murder of Palestinians, Romney did not mention that “Israel” controls all crossings to Palestinian lands. Israelis have imposed a blockade of Gaza since Hamas won an election there in 2007. In the West Bank, the Israelis continue to severely blockade Palestinian trade and movement. Romney has no clue concerning any of these destructive policies which have strangled the Palestinian economy.

Romney has to be a political illiterate or a clown to equate Palestinian workers and managers with Israelis, as if they were both competing on equal terms in the business world. This is what denial of the slow motion holocaust of Palestinians by the Israelis engenders: a make-believe foreign policy that leads America from one foreign war money-pit disaster to another, based not on pragmatic geo-politics, but  a reality twisted and warped by the demands of Israeli supremacy over the Middle East.

The Republican candidate for President of the United States ignores the slaughter of Palestinians and the mass destruction of their housing less than four years after it happened. Romney just can’t factor a little thing like the Israeli subjugation and slaughter of an occupied people when doing his libertarian economic analysis. This is beyond callous. It is merciless. While none of us is allowed to forget the smallest chapter in the Zionist tale of eternal woe from the Middle Ages to the Munich Olympics, the Israeli demolition of Gaza and the human and financial consequences that accrued from that human rights horror are already a will-o’-the-wisp.

It is said by some on the Right that Romney is the conservative alternative to Obama. If Romney was trying to conserve anything resembling western civilization he would have condemned MK (Member of the Knesset) Michael Ben-Ari who, on July 17 in Jerusalem destroyed a copy of the New Testament by ripping out its pages and terming it “garbage,” after it was mailed to him by a missionary. Romney, the tough talking “Republican conservative” had nothing to say in defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ which was traduced three weeks ago by a barbarian who happens to be a member of the Israeli parliament.

If someone in Palestine had ripped out pages of the Babylonian Talmud and called it garbage while tossing it in the trash, Mitt would have thundered denunciations of “this biased hate crime against a holy book.”

Biased hate crimes against Jesus Christ’s holy book don’t register, however.

So which God does Mr. Romney serve, the god self-made from the swamp of Judaic racial pride, or Jesus Christ who, when it comes to Zionist depredations against His Name and Word, seems to have few defenders, though many come preaching “Lord, Lord.”

Michael Hoffman is the author of Judaism’s Strange Gods and Judaism Discovered, and executive editor of Revisionist History newsletter.

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Friday, July 20, 2012


I have expanded my original report on the Dark Knight Rises movie theatre shootings which originally appeared in this blog.


 The enlarged report may now be found in our hard copy Revisionist History Newsletter (see below).


I am maintaining this blog entry to preserve the many interesting comments (see below) which we received on this subject. We hope you enjoyed the ten days of free access to our initial reporting. —Michael Hoffman


Just published:


CONTENTS:

The Quadrennial Return of the 'Lesser of Two Evils’ Meme For the umpteenth time in recent memory, our hidden rulers have given us no choice in the upcoming presidential election. Michael Hoffman analyzes the implications of this lesser of two evils rerun in the 2012 election in terms of Mitt Romney and his criminal politics. We propose an effective alternative to this scam!

Romney’s Masonic Mormonism: Big players at high levels of the Mormon Church are backing Romney's presidency. What is Mormonism? What are its historic links to Freemasonry? Is Temple Mormonism a secret society? Is Mormonism part of the dictatorship of secret societies that rule America? Mormon Temple rituals are secret: we'll penetrate the curtain and reveal them to you, along with the secret history of the "God makers" - the Mormon church in America.

Predictive programming and ritual stagecraft - The Batman movie shooting synchronicities: Hoffman examines the Aurora, Colorado movie theatre shootings: the hidden cryptocracy connections and ritualistic symbolism of yet another spectacular massacre in the American heartland, which the media are blaming on a "lone nut."

Also: A Forgotten Sept. 11 Massacre • Israeli law-maker Michael Ben- Ari tears pages out of the New Testament and calls it "garbage" (Romney and Obama are silent). • The 007 Olympics • Gangster Mickey Cohen, and more

To purchase this issue alone, or a subscription, click here:

(Exclusive subscriber content: Revisionist History Newsletter issues do not appear online)

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

By Michael Hoffman

www.revisionisthistory.org

Here below we reprint a photocopy of a letter from the Iranians last February warning of Israeli black op/ false flag operations. 

At that time it appeared as though Mossad was active in the Far East in attacks on Israelis which were then blamed on Iran by our compliant media. For some reason the Israelis almost always instantly know, a few minutes after an attack, that Iran or its "proxies" are the guilty ones. With clairvoyant police work like that, you'd think they would be able to actually stop the perpetrators, instead of just knowing who they are almost immediately after they commit the crime. 

Now, on the anniversary of alleged Iranian attacks decades ago in Argentina, Israeli tourists have been killed in Bulgaria. Cui bono?

Observe that the important statement from Iran reproduced below had to be published in The Wall Street Journal as a letter to the editor, rather than a news report. 

Notice also that today the terror bombing of high level Syrian officials (possibly with the assistance of the CIA) is not described as a terror attack by the American media. 

"Beware of falling into another Israeli trap"

Letter to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 22, 2012, p. A14 
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The Hoffman Wire is funded by sales of our publications and donations from readers.
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Monday, July 16, 2012

Question: Define what politics means to you - waking people up, or what?

Hoffman: No, politics is not mainly about education or awakening, which is a different process. Politics consists in motivating people to act on what they already know is wrong. If you are an effective politician you are able to rouse people into action; that's politics. It comes down to courage vs. cowadice. Do we have the courage to act, or do we just continue to spectate and talk? There is nothing more contemptible than using the aibi that it is "too late," as an excuse for one's cowardice.

Question: So, are you an educator or a politican?

Hoffman: An educator awakens people and a politician organizes them once they are awake. It is two different roles, often confused. Hundreds of thousands of people in America are awake but they are not organized. As for me, I will do either, educate or organize. There is so much fear and timidity that it is difficult to organize, however. I research, write and teach for the present.

Question: Why the fear and lack of organization?

Hoffman: Because agents of paralysis have told the people that it is too late.

Question: Who are these agents?

Hoffman: Isn't the answer to that obvious?

Question: What is your opinion of Ron Paul?

Hoffman: He's wonderful on foreign policy and issues of war and peace. He's abysmal on capitalism and the economy because even though he wants to abolish the Federal Reserve he would enable usury. His campaign is over now. It seems he's endorsing war-Zionist Romney; a tawdry spectacle.

Question: Was the Ron Paul campaign what you would call politics?

Hoffman: Yes. Certainly Rep. Paul organized people, the question is, to what end? To lead them off a cliff with Romney and the two party system? Paul had millions of followers. I'm not talking about most of them when I refer to the hundreds of thousands of people who are awake. The ones I'm referring to are alert to pure evil. Mr. Paul's followers are awake to symptoms of the evil. There is a huge difference.

Question: What is this pure evil?

Hoffman: This is not a difficult question. It is staring us in the face and if you know your Bible it jumps off the page at you: the love of money is the root of evil. Ron Paul's people mostly don't know that. They want to enable the love of money.

The problem with the hundreds of thousands on my side who do know that greed is the issue, is that they have been targeted and persuaded by the agents of paralysis into thinking "it's too late - go and hide with your guns and ammo, stored food and water and gold and silver hoard."Hence, the battle is lost without a shot being fired. It is through the process of hiding in despair that the gulag is made to function and the police state will hunt us down. Those who know what's wrong should be, as a matter of survival, engaging in politics; organizing, not hiding.

Michael Hoffman's latest book is a study of the rise of the Money Power in Christendom, "Usury: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now Is Not." It will be published when sufficient funding is obtained.

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Monday, July 9, 2012

Informed by the Secret Gnosis of the Renaissance

By Michael Hoffman  www.revisionisthistory.org
Copyright © 2012

As if we needed any more dreary evidence of the extent to which the Roman Catholic Church under the modern popes has publicly allied with the Talmudists of the Synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9), here is more (below), this time focused on Amy-Jill Levine's annotated New Testament, which advances the Ratzinger/Wojtyla theology that Jesus Christ reasoned like a Pharisee and would have been horrified by St. John Chrysostom, St. Vincent Ferrer or Johann Andreas Eisenmenger. 

Note that I have qualified with italics the words "modern" and "publicly" in the preceding sentence. In this writer's estimation, one of the reasons why the "traditional" Catholic movement has been outclassed and out-fought by its enemy is that many traditional Catholics believe the myth that the Judaizing of the Church began with the Second Vatican Council and the popes thereof. 

What began with the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate was the public accommodation and blending of the Roman Catholic Church with Pharisaic Judaism. The sub-rosa hybrid process itself has a long history, beginning in the Renaissance era with Judaizing popes such as Leo X, Sixtus V and Clement VIII. One surmises that this secret truth forms the processing of Vatican initiates who are very likely told in private that traditional Catholicism is hopelessly compromised and double-minded, in that it claims to oppose Pharisaic Judaism and yet ignorantly pledges allegiance to all popes previous to Vatican II, when in fact some of these pontiffs were as much in league with the Talmudic/Kabbalistic order as John Paul II or Benedict XVI. This is partly why we see that when "traditional" Catholics like Bishop Bernard Fellay seek to reintegrate into the Vatican fold, the one area in which the pope will not budge is Judaism, since he knows what "traditional" Catholics don't -- that for the past 500 years a clandestine alliance has been forged between the hierarchy of the Church and the Orthodox rabbinate.

I have written an introductory history of these matters in  Revisionist History Newsletter, in issues such as no. 58:"Tracking The Occult Infiltration of The Roman Catholic Church From The Renaissance To The Present;" issue no. 52: "Judaizing Protestantism' and Neo-Platonic Catholicism in Legend and Reality;" no. 47: On Holocaustianity - "The New Catholic 'Shoah' Theology: Alibi for the Revolutionary Overthrow of the Gospel of Jesus Christ;" and most recently, tracing elements of Judaism's Kol Nidrei rite of oath-breaking in Catholicism: issue no. 62: "Proto-Rabbinic Tactics of Deceit and their Adoption by Churchmen during the Renaissance."

Until Catholics confront the full reality of the panoply of papal compromise and alliance with Talmudic Judaism, they will be fighting a Vatican that cannot take them seriously philosophically, and accords to itself the task of gradually initiating Catholics in the secret traditions of Catholicism from the Renaissance onward  the traditions of the Pharisees — which Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Early Church vigorously challenged and exposed with every fibre of their being.

Imagine what an inside joke it must be in Rome when the “traditional" Catholics come calling and boldly declare that, when it comes to Judaism, they want the Church returned to the way it was before Vatican II. “Boys,” the cardinals and clerics are thinking, “what you wish for is now, and has been, for five long centuries. The only difference is, we went public with it in 1965."

To win in chess one needs to stay three or four steps ahead of one’s opponent. In the game at hand, the Vatican Cryptocracy is three or four light years ahead of “traditional” Catholics.

Catholic-Jewish Dialogues Explore Economics, Education, Religious Freedom And Jewish Take On New Testament

July 6, 2012 (via Maurice Pinay)

WASHINGTON—Gatherings of two different Catholic-Jewish dialogues explored topics including economics, education, religious freedom and even a Jewish commentary on the New Testament.

The semi-annual consultation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/National Council of Synagogues (USCCB/NCS) discussed the publication of Amy Jill Levine and Mark Zvi Brettler's book, The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford, 2012) at their May 22 meeting in New York City. Bishop Denis Madden, auxiliary of Baltimore, and Rabbi David Straus of the Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania co-chaired the meeting.

"The publication of Levine's and Brettler's comprehensive work on the New Testament represents an important milestone in Catholic-Jewish relations," said Bishop Denis Madden, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. "Never before has a group of Jewish scholars made so learned and technical a reading of the New Testament. Clearly, this new effort reflects the progress we have made since the Second Vatican Council in mutual respect for each other's sacred Scriptures."

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of USCCB, joined the meeting to extend his greetings and welcome to all the participants. He made brief remarks on the central importance of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and, in particular, of the work done between the USCCB and National Council of Synagogues. He thanked all of the members present for their continued dedication.

Professor Amy Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University gave a brief overview of her work, co-edited with Professor Marc Brettler of Brandeis University, while Jesuit Father John Donahue, professor of New Testament at Loyola University, Baltimore, offered a Catholic response. Dialogue members then discussed various aspects of biblical studies, as well as how the publication of The Jewish Annotated New Testament marked a deepening of understanding in Catholic-Jewish relations. Levine stressed that it is vital for Jews to study the New Testament to gain respect for their Christian neighbors, even as Christians must do the same with the Hebrew Scriptures.

Rabbi Gil Rosenthal, executive director of the National Council of Synagogues, remarked: "This important volume is testimony not only to the enormous competence of its editors and authors, but to the spirit of dialogue that can allow Jews to read and appreciate the Jewish context of Christian scriptures."

Reports on other dialogue issues, such as continued progress in the implementation of practical aspects of the Vatican-Israeli accord, and updates on the reconciliation of the Society of St. Pius X with the Vatican filled the second half of the meeting. Plans for a two-day October dialogue were considered, centered around the topic of the role of religion in the public square.

On May 25, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America/Rabbinical Council of America (USCCB/OU/RCA) met for their semi-annual consultation to discuss global economics, religious education, religious freedom and the state of Israel. Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Rabbi David Berger, Ph.D., of Yeshiva University co-chaired the meeting.

The meeting began with a discussion of a religious perspective on financial reform and a vision for a just economic order. The group review of the full text of the Bilateral Commission Meeting of the Delegations for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, which took place March 27-29, at the Vatican. Both traditions underscored the need for the moral leadership of religious groups to shed light on ethical considerations in economic systems, their failures and possible reforms.

James Cultrara, director of education for the New York Catholic Conference, and Michael Cohen, New York State political director for the Orthodox Union, updated the group on the funding of religious schools in the state of New York, a topic of shared concerns for both communities. "There is a tuition crisis in both of our communities," Cohen told the group. "The escalating cost of tuition, in some communities it has doubled within six or seven years. We need to find the solution that works."

Thomas Renker, legal counsel for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, updated the group on developments in the federal HHS contraception mandate and the response of the Catholic community. The group discussed the situation at some length with several noting the inherent threat to religious freedom for all faith traditions which the situation presents.

Rabbi Tzvi H. Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the Orthodox Union, gave a brief presentation on current cultural and domestic policy issues in Israel. Bishop Murphy gave a brief report on the new Catholic Catechism for Youth titled "YouCAT." Of specific interest to the group were sections dealing with Jewish people. Some concerns had previously been voiced surrounding the formulation of some parts of the text, initiating a revision.

Additional Jewish participants in the USCCB/OU/ RCA consultation included: Maury Litwack, director of political affairs, OU; Betty Ehrenberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress North America; Nathan Diament, director of public affairs, OU; Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president, RCA; Rabbi Aaron Glatt, Young Israel of Woodmere; and Mr. Avi Schick, an attorney with experience in both government work and interfaith relations.Additional Catholic included: Msgr. Donald Beckman, ecumenical officer of the Diocese of Rockville Centre; Father Robert Robbins, pastor of the United Nations Parish Church of the Holy Family and New York archdiocesan director for ecumenical and interreligious affairs; Msgr. Robert Stern, Catholic Near East Welfare Association; Father John Crossin, executive director, USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (SEIA); Kirsten Evans, program and research specialist, USCCB SEIA.

Jewish participants at the USCCB/NCS consultation included Rabbi Lewis Eron, Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice-president emeritus of the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly; Rabbi Jonathan Waxman, Temple Beth Sholom, Smitonthtown, New York; Rabbi David Straus, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, National Council of Synagogues; Rabbi Daniel F. Polish of La Grangeville, New York; Ruth Langer, Ph.D., of Boston College; Rabbi David Sandmel, Ph.D. of The Catholic Theological Union, Chicago; Rabbi Alvin Berkin of The Tree of Life Congregation, Pittsburgh; Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg of Adas Israel, Washington; Rabbi Jerome Davidson of Temple Beth-El, Great Neck, New York; Judith Hertz of the International Council of Presidents of the World Conferences of Religions for Peace and Betty Ehrenberg, executive director of the North American Division of the World Jewish Congress. Catholic participants at the consultation included Bishop Basil H. Losten, former bishop of Stamford for Ukrainians; Brother of the Christians Schools David Carroll, former associate director at Catholic Near East Welfare Association; Msgr. Robert Stern, former director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association; Father Dennis McManus, USCCB consultant for Jewish Affairs and Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, editor of America Magazine. (End quote).

Michael Hoffman needs your help: he is nearly 70% of the way through his new book on the theological history of the rise of the Money Power in Christendom. Funds to sustain further writing and research, and the actual publication of the book once it is completed, are very much needed. If you feel led to assist, please click on this link. Thank you.

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012


From the European Union:

Working Definition of Antisemitism
http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-draft.pdf

"The purpose of this document is to provide a practical guide for identifying incidents, collecting data, and supporting the implementation and enforcement of legislation dealing with antisemitism."

Working definition: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

In addition, such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.

Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).

Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

Antisemitic acts are criminal when they are so defined by law (for example, denial of the Holocaust or distribution of antisemitic materials in some countries).

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By Michael Hoffman • www.revisionisthistory.org



The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) was founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the 1970s as an international priestly fraternity dedicated to preserving the Catholic Church as it existed prior to the Second Vatican Council, including the official teaching on Judaism. Lefebvre was suspended by Pope Paul VI and later excommunicated, along with four of his bishops, by John Paul II. Lefebvre is deceased. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the four bishops but suspended one of them, Richard N. Williamson, until such time as he recants his publicly expressed doubts concerning the new Catholic "Shoah" theology of the the religion-of-Judaism-for-gentiles, i.e. Holocaustianity; Bishop Williamson has refused to recant. The prospect of the SSPX receiving canonical status within the post-Vatican II Church has led to a pressure campaign on the part of influential rabbis and Zionists (and their media toadies), to cause the pope to either cease and desist in the reconciliation, or to somehow neuter the SSPX witness concerning Judaism before the reconciliation occurs. 



Lately, the pope has enlisted a key ally, the SSPX Superior General, Bernard Fellay, in his crusade to end the independence of the SSPX (which some view as schismatic), and integrate them back into the Vatican sheepfold, supposedly with the right to fully engage in their traditional beliefs and practices without interference from the Vatican. For several years the SSPX under Fellay, despite obtuse media generalizations to the contrary, has softened the SSPX stand against Judaism. Rumors flew in the late spring to the effect that the pope and the SSPX under Fellay were about to forge a historic unity agreement. One suspects that the Israeli lobby ("Jewish circles internationally") went into overdrive at the prospect. The proposed unification is now in limbo. As a result, the thoroughly Talmudic, Bronx, NY-born Archbishop Di Noia has been assigned the job of shaping SSPX theology into one that will not too greatly offend the Holy People, so that the SSPX will agree to submit to the pope, and his continuation of Pope John Paul II's revolutionary doctrine on Judaism (and for that matter, on Islam, Voodoo and Hinduism, all of which the late pope radically altered in the name of ecumenism).


From the website of the Italian newspaper La Stampa:

A new chapter in the Society of St. Pius X saga

Archbishop Di Noia entrusted with role in forging path to reconciliation with Lefebvrians and warding off Catholic-Jewish misunderstandings

By Lisa Palmieri-Billig 

ROME  July 2, 2012 (Excerpt)

...The Archbishop is visibly pleased at the prospect of moving back to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as Vice Director of the Ecclesiae Dei Commission that handles relations Catholic traditionalist groups, including the controversial Fraternity of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). "I am happy to have been shown this level of trust by the Holy Father and to have this opportunity to offer some help in solving these concerns" he says. "My job will be a challenge. I am moved by the flurry of encouraging messages I have received from Vatican, Catholic, and Jewish circles internationally" he says.

What do you see as the major hurdle to overcome in the Church’s dialogue with the SSPX?

Di Noia: Our difficulty with the SSPX is that they isolate passages of Vatican II documents from the context and main message of the Council.  In Jewish terms, the error is similar to trying to interpret a Biblical passage without referring to the centuries of oral and written rabbinical commentaries on its meaning.  The message becomes distorted and problematic.”

(Archbishop Di Noia is making the outrageous assertion that if one doesn't employ the Talmudic and post-Talmudic traditions to analyze Biblical passages, God's Word becomes "distorted and problematic." Jesus Christ and the Church Fathers taught precisely the opposite. -- Hoffman).

The SSPX is reported to have accused Jews of “deicide” and used anti-Semitic stereotypes such as the infamous canard of an international “Jewish conspiracy” on its multilingual sites and in statements by its leaders.  Such concepts are contrary to “Nostra Aetate” and all post-Vatican II Papal positions. The Holocaust-denying Bishop, Richard Williamson, may be the most flagrant example, but apparently he is not alone in espousing retrograde theology and ideology….How will you handle this?

Di Noia: “Regarding Williamson, Pope Benedicts XVIth took decisive actions against him because of his refusal to retract.  He was also disciplined by Bishop Fellay (leader of the SSPX), who dismissed him as Director of their Argentinian Seminary.

 “Anti-Judaism or anti-Semitism form no part of the official position of the SSPX. Clearly, if they manifest themselves in any Catholic Church, anywhere, this must be addressed. They were wrong a  thousand years ago and they are still wrong today.  If I discover such manifestations in the SSPX I will address them as being incompatible with Catholicism. After 3 years of dialogue we still need to understand what the SSPX position is on the Jewish Community and Judaism. 

“The Church’s deep commitment to reconciliation with the Jewish People is personified today by Benedict XVI. The Ecumenical Council wrought a fundamental change. Then John Paul II, above all others, brought home Paul’s message that Judaism and Jews have a unique place in salvation history. Nobody can deny that Karol Wojtyla’s Pontificate marked a major shift in the theological understanding of Judaism within the Catholic Church. Vatican II repudiated anti-Semitism and presented a positive picture of Judaism. John Paul II took us further in recognizing the significance of the Jewish People for Christianity itself. This is a new concept which we know the Traditionalists will not be able to accept immediately. Convincing them will take time, and in this respect we will have to be patient."

Your Excellence, The last sentence in the Note issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announcing your appointment as Vice President of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” states, “…the broad respect that Archbishop Di Noia enjoys in the Jewish community will help in addressing some issues that have arisen in the area of Catholic-Jewish relations as the journey towards the reconciliation of traditionalist communities has progressed.” I believe this denotes both Benedict XVIth’s sensitivity to the importance to both religions of our brotherly dialogue as well as his high consideration for your commitment to this area.  Can you tell us more about your background?

Di Noia: “Well, you know, I was brought up in the Bronx, in a neighborhood with many Jewish people. My older sister Rachel (note the Biblical name!) was actually the person who first inspired me to become familiar with Jewish religious customs, culture,  – and food!  I attended a private Catholic school whereas she went to a public high school and had many Jewish friends to whom she introduced me."

I am sure they appreciate the significance of your nomination.

Di Noia: "I believe so.”

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