By Randy Engel
Focus on Crux, Archbishop Gómez and Bishop DiMarzio
Who’s Carrying Water For Crux and Allen In 2020?
Now that the Knights of Columbus have cut off their financial support of Crux, who has picked up the financial slack for John L. Allen, Jr.? The answer is the same – Opus Dei. In the case of the Knights, Opus Dei was able to control and finance Crux without paying the bill by acting through Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, a high level operative of Opus Dei. Today, however, the major funding apparatus for Crux and Allen has shifted from the Knights to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and its clueless pewsitters under Opus Dei Archbishop José Gómez, and the Archdiocese of Brooklyn under Opus Dei Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, and its likewise clueless pewsitters.
If the reader scrolls down to the bottom of the current Crux website, he will see a list of Crux’s current financial sponsors. There are six sponsors listed as of March 1, 2020: (1) The Tablet (2) DeSales Media Group in the Diocese of Brooklyn (3) Angelus News (4) The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM (5) Catholic Standard and (6) Catholic TV. There used to be more, but the list of sponsors has shrunk since 2019.
The Catholic TV Network is a long-term enterprise of the Archdiocese of Boston under Cardinal Sean O’Malley, for whom Allen has always played the adoring publicist. This writer remembers the buzz that Allen created when reporting for the NCReporter back in February 2013, that O’Malley was a serious contender for the papacy.[i] Allen’s obvious fawning and adulation over O’Malley was embarrassing. In any case, the funds provided by O’Malley to sustain Crux may be substantial, but they are not determinant.
Lesser amounts have been forthcoming from the Archdiocese of New York under Timothy Dolan. The Archdiocese funds the Sirius XM Catholic Channel and The Catholic Standard, the diocesan paper of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. under Archbishop Wilton Gregory. Neither can be labeled as primary donors.
This leaves just two other sources – the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Angelus News) under Archbishop José H. Gómez and the Diocese of Brooklyn (The Tablet, and the DeSales Media Group) under Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. Both are Opus Dei bishops – Gómez was a numerary and priest of the Work, and DiMarzio is an Associate of the Work.
A Biographical Sketch of Archbishop José H. Gomez
Archbishop José Horacio Gómez Velasco of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the United States, is the first Opus Dei numerary to be consecrated a bishop in the United States.
Archbishop Gómez is also the current President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop (USCCB) in Washington, D.C., which makes him one of the most influential and powerful Hispanic bishops in the world today. Indeed, his appointment to the USCCB, represents a significant paradigm shift of Catholic Ecclesiastical Power from the East Coast New York and Boston Archdioceses to the West Coast and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with its burgeoning Hispanic population.
Born on December 26, 1951, in the Archdiocese of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, he was groomed and recruited at an early age by Opus Dei, although he was not formally accepted as a celibate numerary and committed to “the Fidelity” until he reached the age of 23 years. He attended the Monterrey Institute of Technology before entering the National University of Mexico, where he earned a BS in Accounting (1974) and a BA in Philosophy in 1975. That year, he was selected by the reigning Opus Dei Council to enter the priesthood to serve the Work, which necessitated his travel to Spain to attend the University of Navarra, where he earned his BS in Theology (1975-1978).[ii]
Gómez Ordained by Cardinal Franz König of Austria
The ordination took place August 1, 1978, at the Marian Shrine of Torreciudad in Aragon, Spain, built by Escrivá and “entrusted” aka owned and operated by the Opus Dei Prelature. That the 26-year-old Gómez was ordained to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross by Cardinal Franz König, a 1st class Modernist, should come as no surprise to anyone who has studied Opus Dei as a creature of the Second Vatican Council. After all, the very concept of Opus Dei as a Personal Prelature was a jurisdictional configuration proposed by Vatican II and Opus has always promoted the active participation of the laity in the Liturgy and the integration of priests and laymen in Church life.[iii]
As an advocate of Church “reform,” König played a decisive role in the declaration on non-Christian religions, Nostra aetate, and was a dissenter from Humanae Vitae.
König first met Fr. Escrivá at the Second Vatican Council and was impressed with the concept of Opus Dei, especially the novel (anti-Scriptural) idea that Opus members are both in the world and of the world.[iv]
In 1980, after his ordination to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, Gómez returned to the University of Navarra to complete his Doctorate in Theology.
Gómez Grooms and Recruits for the Work
For the next 7 years, from 1980 until 1987, Gómez became an important promoter and recruiter for Opus on college and high school campuses in Spain and Mexico. Then, in 1987 his life took a decisive turnabout. His Opus superiors in Rome sent him to the United States. He became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1995.
Gómez’s early years in this country were spent with family and relatives in San Antonio, Texas, which had long been a second home to the young man. Here he also assisted at Our Lady of Grace Church and later at St. Bartholomew Parish in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston.
Moving up the Opus corporate ladder, Father Gómez became the State Vicar Delegate of the Texas Prelature of Opus Dei, a post he held from 1997 until his consecration as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Denver, in 2001.
In 1998, Gómez was named to the Steering Committee of the Encuentro 2000 Movement promoted by Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, the Ordinary of Galveston-Houston, who was also serving as the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). Called a “process” as opposed to a singular “event,” Encuentro was organized in 1972 by the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs of the NCCB to encourage “diversity,” “inculturation” and multicultural liturgies in the Catholic Church. According to Bishop Fiorenza, the major themes of Encuentro (Encounter) are “Recognition, respect and institutional acceptance of discrete cultural, ethnic, and racial identities within the Catholic Church.”[v]
Possessing shades of Saul Alinsky, breakout sessions of Encuentro 2000 included programs devoted to community organizing, networking and advocacy of “a transformational experience offered by the [pro-abortion/pro-contraceptive] Catholic Campaign for Human Development entitled ‘Journey to Justice.’” [vi]
Pope John Paul II Appoints Gómez an Auxiliary Bishop
On January 23, 2001, Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., consecrated the former Opus Dei numerary and priest, Father José Gómez, as an Auxiliary Bishop for the Denver Archdiocese. Chaput was assisted by Bishop Fiorenza and Bishop Javier Echevarria, Prelate of Opus Dei at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Denver, where Gómez served as pastor for the next three years. In 2004, Chaput brought Gómez into the Diocesan Chancery as Moderator of the Curia and Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Denver.
On December 29, 2004, Pope John Paul II named Gómez the new Archbishop of San Antonio following the mandatory retirement of Archbishop Patrick Flores.
Six years later, on April 6, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Gómez Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles with right of succession and the following March 1, 2011, Gómez succeeded Cardinal Mahony as the Archbishop of Los Angeles, which is where we find him today.
Archbishop Gómez’s Astounding List of Associations
One of the operative features of cults like Opus Dei is the infiltration of organizations which can be of service to them by various means including financing and recruitment.
Archbishop Gómez’s primary agenda for the Los Angeles Archdiocese has thus far centered on (1) Immigration Reform (2) the New Evangelization of Pope John Paul II (3) Vocations in the Contemporary World (4) the Role of Women in the Church and (5) Pro-Life Issues. Conspicuously absent from Gómez’s leadership role in AmChurch is bringing the Homosexual Collective, inside the Church and out, to heel and extinction.[vii]
The following list is a sample of Archbishop Gómez’s memberships:
- Episcopal Moderator of La Red – National Catholic Network Pastoral of Juvenil Hispana.
- Board Member of the John G. and Marie Stella Kennedy Memorial Foundation.
- Advisory Board Member Instituto Fe y Vida.
- Ecclesial advisor to NET Ministries, Inc.
- Member of the Mexican American Cultural Center.
- Member, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
- Episcopal Moderator of the National Association of Hispanic Priests, (Regional Representative 1991, President 1995, Executive Director 1999—2001).
- National Catholic Council of Hispanic Ministry.
- CALL – Catholic Association of Latino Leaders.
- Ecclesiastical Advisory Board Member to the Napa Institute.
- Board member Catholic University American
- Ecclesiastical Advisor to Legatus – “The world’s premier membership organization for Catholic business leaders.
- Advisory Board Member National Conference of Diocesan Vocations Directors
- Board Member – The Papal Foundation
- Member of the St. John Paul II Foundation
- Committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Committee on migration; Subcommittee Hispanic affairs; Committee priestly formation; Committee priestly life & ministry; Committee doctrine; Ad hoc committee on Spanish language Bible for the Church in America; Committee catechesis; Subcommittee on Hispanics and liturgy; Chair of Committee for Cultural Diversity
- Consultant to the Vatican Pontifical Commission for Latin America in the Roman CuriaMember –
- Special Council for America of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.
- Member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
- Founding member with Archbishop Chaput of ENDOW – Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women, originally an “apostolate” of Regnum Christi (Legionaries of Christ).
- Advisory Board Member – “Rome Experience, “ Opus Dei’s program for diocesan priests.
- Board member of EWTN
- Board Member of Relevant Radio
- Board Member – Spanish/Catholic TV Channel El Sembrador Nueva Evangelizacion (ESNE)
- Archbishop Gómez has established his own top-grade, sophisticated, bilingual website on immigration at https://thenextamerica.org/.
Archbishop Gómez Still Connected to Opus Dei
When Gómez was appointed to head the San Antonio Archdiocese, he told the Catholic press that he was no longer affiliated with Opus Dei because once a priest becomes a bishop he reports exclusively to the pope as is the case when a member of a religious order becomes a bishop.[viii]
In April of 2010, when Gómez was appointed the Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles, Opus toady John Allen, reporting for the National Catholic Reporter, informed his readers that “Gomez says he is not a ‘member’ of Opus Dei, but rather that he was ordained a priest in Opus Dei and that his spirituality reflects that background. If he’s a ‘member’ of anything now, he says, it’s the diocese he leads.”[ix]
Despite these attempts of Archbishop Gómez to disassociate himself publicly from the Work, I think the record will clearly demonstrate that Gómez is as attached to Opus Dei as he was as a celibate numerary and a member of the Society of Priests of the Holy Cross – perhaps even more due to his growing influence and power in the Catholic Church today.
That he reports to the Pope at least once every five years during an ad limina visit to Rome does not preclude Gómez from regularly communicating with Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz Braña, the Prelate of Opus Dei, nor Opus Council officials at Opus’ headquarters in Rome, or from having an Opus confessor and spiritual director or from running various “apostolates” for the Prelature or recruiting potential members of the Prelature or from using archdiocesan monies to fund projects near and dear to Opus Dei’s heart and pocketbook, which brings us full circle to John Allen and Crux.
Proof that there is no mandate of any kind that a bishop automatically severs his known connections to Opus Dei comes directly from Opus Dei Bishop Robert Finn, formerly of the Archdiocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, in an interview he did with the National Catholic Reporter on May 12, 2006.
According to Finn, he first became acquainted with Opus Dei through days of recollection for priests in the mid-1990s. In January 2004, shortly before he was named Coadjutor of the Archdiocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph by Pope John Paul II, he said he was going to apply to be an (Associate) member of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. When the appointment was confirmed, Finn said he asked Father Jay Alvarez, his Opus Dei spiritual director if he should pursue membership and was told “Do you want to continue?” Finn replied, yes, that he “needed spiritual direction now more than ever,” and became a member of the Work. According to Finn, he traveled 125 miles twice a month to Columbia, MO to meet with his Opus Dei spiritual director.[x]
Is it reasonable to assume, then, that Gómez, who spent much of his youth and decades as a numerary and priest of Opus Dei, is going to forsake his “vocation” to the Work, and give up his “membership” in Opus, when it is not required either by Opus Dei’s Bylaws or Constitution or by Canon Law?
I think not.
Archbishop Gómez Underwrites Allen and Crux
In keeping with Opus Dei’s 4th charism of communications and public relations, in 2016, Archbishop Gómez undertook a major multi-million dollar campaign designed to modernize the entire L.A. Archdiocesan media and communications system on a scale comparable to that of Opus Dei’s Vatican Press Officer, Navarro Valls’s, complete overhaul of the Holy See’s communications network under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.
The stunningly beautiful and unique portrait of Archbishop Gómez that accompanies his official biography found at https://www.archbishopgomez.org/about-archbishopi is characteristic of the heavy financial investment in new and sophisticated means of public relations that the pew sitters of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (and the Tidings Corporation[xi]) have been funding since Archbishop Gómez took office.
On June 29, 2016, just about four months after the Knights of Columbus had announced that they were entering into a “partnership” with John Allen’s Crux, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles issued a press release announcing the launching of a new multimedia platform, Angelus News, designed to serve “millions of Catholics and non-Catholics, not only in the Archdiocese, but around the world.”[xii] The L.A. Archdiocese is also publishing a Catholic Spanish newspaper Vida Nueva.
Missed by most journalists who were critical of the Knights/Crux “partnership,” including myself, was a key addendum to the Gómez’s L. A. Archdiocesan media empire’s press release stating that it also would serve as the “print home of renowned Vatican reporter John Allen and his Crux colleague (Opus Dei) Inés San Martin.”[xiii]
The same day, Crux issued an almost identical press statement to that of the tax-exempt L.A. Archdiocese confirming that Angelus News would coordinate and produce the digital publication of Allen’s profit-making Crux news service.[xiv]
What this announcement, in plain brown paper language, meant was that at the same time that Opus Dei Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, got his fellow Knights to financially underwrite Allen and Crux, Opus Dei’s Archbishop Gómez was also planning on backing Allen and Crux via the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Adding more fuel to the fire, both press releases stated that “in addition to having Crux feature writers Allen and San Martín (Opus Dei), Angelus News would also employ other “top nationally known Catholic journalists” including Ruben Navarrette (pro-abortion); Kathryn Lopez (Opus Dei); Mike Aquilina (Opus Dei), Scott Hahn (Opus Dei) and Russell Shaw (Knights of Columbus and Opus Dei who joined the Angelus News team later).[xv]
The Ties That Bind – Opus Dei –Knights –Crux–Allen– Gómez
Two years later, on June 3, 2018, in an “Open Letter” from John Allen to Crux readers and contributors, Allen announced that Crux was “entering into a deeper relationship with Angelus News… led by my old friend David Scott, now the Vice Chancellor for Communications in L.A.” (emphasis added). [xvi]
According to Allen, “Under the agreement, Angelus will supply original reporting and other content for use on Crux as well as support for Crux’s social media operations (at no cost to Crux).” On the other hand, the profit-making Crux will deliver original work for use in Angelus, and be compensated for it by Angelus, the L.A. Archdiocese and L.A. pewsitters (emphasis added). “The arrangement is editorial in nature only, meaning both Crux and Angelus retain their full independence, journalistically and financially[?],” said Allen.[xvii]
Apparently, L.A. Archdiocesan employee, David Scott didn’t seem troubled by the obvious one-way financial discrepancy of the new arrangement between Crux and Angelus because he wrote:
We admire and share John Allen’s vision for a Catholic journalism that is smart, independent, and free of ideology and bias. We are honored to be able to offer Angelus readers exclusive original reporting on the global Church every week from John and his collaborators, including Inés San Martin, Christopher White and Claire Giangravè. [Note: All of whom have Opus connections. – RE] (emphasis added).[xviii]
Gómez and DiMarzio Hold Crux’s Money Bag
On September 24, 2019, months after the Knights of Columbus pulled their financial rug out from Crux, the Archdiocese of L.A.’s Newsroom issued its final statement to date that Angelus News was being “redesigned,” to accommodate Archbishop Gómez’s “courageous vision for Catholic journalism here in LA (emphasis added).”
The L.A. Newsroom release indicated that the new and revised Angelus would continue to feature “contributors loved by its readership…” including “the respected Catholic writers John L. Allen, Jr. …”
Today’s Angelus/Crux contributors include John Allen’s present wife, Elise Harris Allen, Opus Dei supernumeraries Russell Shaw, Mike Aquilina, and Scott Hahn, as well as Kathryn Lopez, Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, and Inés San Martin reporting from her home base in Argentina, and, of course, Archbishop Gómez.
Bishop DiMarzio Closes the Opus Dei Media Circle
While Archbishop Gómez was building Opus Dei’s media empire on the West Coast, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio was building up the DeSales Media Group, the communications and technical arm of the Diocese of Brooklyn. DeSales properties, that is, the properties of the Brooklyn Diocese, include NET TV cable network, New York’s Catholic news program, Currents News; The Tablet, the only weekly Catholic newspaper in the Archdiocese of New York under Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Nuestra Voz monthly Spanish-language newspaper, and the Catholic Telemedia Network, which provides instructional Media resources. A long-time guest columnist for The Tablet has been John Allen of Crux.
Bishop DiMarzio, a priest of the Newark Diocese was consecrated an Auxiliary bishop by then Archbishop Theodore McCarrick in October 1996. When Bishop James T. McHugh, a homosexual protegee of McCarrick was appointed Coadjutor bishop of Rockville Centre, N.Y. on December 7, 1998, DiMarzio replaced him on June 22, 1999. On October 3, 2003, DiMarzio was appointed by Pope John Paul II to oversee the Diocese of Brooklyn, long dominated by homosexual and sexual abuse.
The reader may recall that the St. Matthew Community, the first Roman Catholic religious community of homosexual men for homosexual men was established in late 1978, in the Brooklyn Diocese, under homosexual Bishop Francis Mugavero, author of “Sexuality – God’s Gift,” a pastoral apologia for sodomy.[xix]
Not surprisingly, DiMarzio had been a leading opponent of the recently passed “Child Victims Act” which opens up the statute of limitations in New York State for sex abuse survivors. The Brooklyn Diocese already has received valid ex abuse complaints against 100 of its priests and there are many more abuse survivors prepared to file lawsuits in 2020.
On November 13, 2019, the New York Post broke the story that Bishop DiMarzio had himself been accused of repeatedly molesting a young altar boy at St. Nicholas Church in Jersey City between 1974 and 1975. A second priest, the late Rev. Albert Mark, was also accused of participating in the criminal acts by the same alleged victim, Mark Matzek, now 56.
DiMarzio publicly denied the accusation and said he was confident that he would be fully vindicated.
On January 18, 2020, the Post reported that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had notified Carinal Timothy Dolan of the New York Archdiocese that he (Dolan) was to begin an “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” investigation of the allegations against Bishop DiMarzio.[xx]
Bishop DiMarzio – An Associate Priest of Opus Dei
The first time this writer heard that DiMarzio was associated with Opus Dei was on September 30, 2005 when the blogger of Vaticanisti “outed” all four American Opus Dei Bishops.[xxi] Among those whose Opus affiliations were well known or at least publicly known (and identified by John Allen in his Opus Dei book) were Archbishop Gómez of the San Antonio Archdiocese, and Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark. However, there were two bishops who had managed to keep their affiliation “very private.” One was Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri. The other was Bishop DiMarzio of Brooklyn.
It wasn’t until five years later, in April 2010, that Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service, the official media outlet of the USCCB, mentioned DiMarzio as an Opus Dei Bishop in connection with Archbishop Gómez’s appointment to the L.A. Archdiocese. Even though Bishop DiMarzio is known to celebrate Mass to mark the feast day of Opus Dei founder, Josemaría Escrivá, recent press releases on the DiMarzio sex abuse investigation have not mentioned his Opus Dei connections.
A Review and Concluding Remarks
- Part I of this series focuses on the controversial role of the Knights of Columbus’ bailout of John L. Allen’s news service Crux and the semi-secret withdrawal of its financial support in 2019. There are still many unanswered questions surrounding the Knights Executive Board actions with regard to this latest misadventure. I trust the rank and file members of the Knights will demand an answer to these questions.
- Part II of this series zeros in on the Man of the Hour, so to speak, John L. Allen Jr. and his long and friendly relationship with Opus Dei – the hidden hand in the Crux affair. Whatever the media hype, the terms “smart, wired and independent” is surely not an honest description of the Opus Dei – dominated news service.
- Part III provides evidence on the concrete connections between Crux key staff and contributors and Opus Dei.
- Part IV provides further information on Crux’s two current primary financial backers – the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The bottom line of this series is short, but not very sweet.
With Opus Dei’s control of Crux by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under the new USCCB King Maker Archbishop José H. Gómez and to a much lesser degree the Diocese of Brooklyn under Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the Prelature has pretty much completed its take over of the Catholic media not only in the United States but in Rome and at the Vatican and most of the Spanish-speaking World.
Catholic religious orders and organizations still have their publications, but they generally serve a select readership, and pose no threat to Opus Dei’s dominance of the Catholic media.
It also looks like Opus Dei’s only real competitor from the past, Catholic News Service, the official and liberal voice of the USCCB in Washington, D.C., has fallen under the Angelus spell as more and more dioceses are trading in their diocesan newspapers for electronic versions of their weekly communications.
In any case, today, most Catholics, outside the Traditionalist Movement, get their religious news electronically from Opus Dei’s popular and free Catholic News Agency (CNA) or Crux.
Some Traditionalists still cling to once truly Catholic newspapers like Our Sunday Visitor or the National Catholic Register, both of which were scooped up by Opus Dei years ago.
This leaves Michael Matt’s The Remnant, Catholic Family News (Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Brain McCall), that has supported the League of St. Peter Damian from day one, and the newest kid on the Catholic media block, The Catholic Inquisitor, publisher and editor Louie Verrecchio.
Obviously, the reader knows I write regularly for Louie’s The Catholic Inquisitor and AKA Catholic. This series is my way of thanking both Louie and the readers of The Catholic Inquisitor and AKA Catholic for their support over the years.
To paraphrase Mr. John Allen, “Yes, you can still get ‘smart, wired and independent’ Catholic news.” Just subscribed to The Catholic Inquisitor!
The End
____________________
FOOTNOTES
[i] https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/buzz-grows-rome-bostons-omalley.
[ii] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Horacio_Gómez \.
[iii] See https://opusdei.org/en/article/bishop-echevarria-thank-you-cardinal-konig-for-your-help-and-your-friendship/.
[iv] Vittorio Messori, Opus Dei, Regnery Publishing, Washington, D.C., 1994, p. 126.
[v] See https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3121. Christopher Cummings’s critical article, “Encuentro 2000–Something For Everyone?” offers an excellent summary of the organization.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] See https://josephsciambra.com/catholic-dissenters-on-homosexuality-take-center-stage-at-2017-la-congress/ and LA Catholic Ministry with Lesbians & Gay persons at https://lacatholics.org/departments-ministries/catholic-ministry-with-lesbian-gay-persons/.
[viii] Joan Fawley, “New L.A. Leader’s Focus Is on Evangelization,” NCRegister, April 8, 2010 at https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/archbishop_gomez.
[ix] John L. Allen, Jr., “Four points to make about Gomez and L.A.,” National Catholic Reporter, April 9, 2010.
[x] Dennis Coday, “Finn one of four Opus Dei bishops in SA,” NCReporter, May 12,2006. Finn said he kept his association with Opus Dei secret until the Kansas City Star broke the story in October 2005.
[xi] The Tidings Corporation, created in 1895, is the publishing firm of the L.A. Archdiocese. It became Angelus/ Angelus News in July 2016.
[xii] “L.A. Archdiocese Launches New Multimedia Platform,” Angelus News, To Serve Millions of Catholics,” L.A. Archdiocesan Press Release, June 29, 2016.
[xiii] Ibid.
[xiv] Crux Staff, “New L.A. media platform to feature Crux writes,” June 29, 2016.
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] John Allen, “An open letter from John Allen to Crux readers,” Crux, June 3, 2018.
[xvii] Ibid.
[xviii] Ibid.
[xix] Randy Engel, The Rite of Sodomy,” Export, PA, pp. 665-668.
[xx] http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/motu_proprio/documents/papa-francesco-motu-proprio-20190507_vos-estis-lux-mundi.html.
[xxi] “American Opus Dei Bishops Outed!,” Vaticanisti, September 30, 2005.
When one reads the earliest Christian literature, you often find they saw the world as the enemy’s domain, and Christians were saved out of and from the world…
…..
Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
Correct mpoulin !
“Not surprisingly, DiMarzio had been a leading opponent of the recently passed “Child Victims Act” which opens up the statute of limitations in New York State for sex abuse survivors. The Brooklyn Diocese already has received valid ex abuse complaints against 100 of its priests and there are many more abuse survivors prepared to file lawsuits in 2020.”
We had front row tickets to DiMarzio’s takeover of Mater Ecclesia TLM parish in Camden Diocese. The extreme evil maneuverings of the Chancery were a wonder to behold !
DiMarzio’s predecessor sent in his toady Chancelor Checchio now Bishop of Metuchen Diocese to harass Carol A Cook (RIP)
into turning over her portion of the deed for the property.
According to Ms Cook, who died only days afterward, “I did not know priests used such filthy language !”
McHugh got the property and installed his fairy good friends . The clueless pew sitters are delighted because they have the TLM. Meanwhile, Checchio went off the Rome to run a seminary , returning to his reward as Bishop of Metuchen.
As an aside, Metuchen is where a ten year old child is buried after committing suicide having been sodomized by the Eastern Catholic HIV positive priest , Danilak. Danilak was discovered dead on his kitchen floor when the police finally went to arrest him.
God have mercy on NJ Catholics. They live under rainbow illusions.
Fantasy worthy of Dan Brown. Truly a remarkable weaving together of innuendo, misunderstandings, over-statements, and utterly unsubsubstantiated assertions.
Happy , how so?
Clueless is more like it.
Are you calling me or Mrs Engel , or both liars?
The Vatican ordered an investigation of DiMarzio.
Not holding my breath at any rate.
Anderson isn’t a member of Opus Dei.
Gomez’s spirit and formation may influence by his past relationship with Opus Dei, but no evidence is shown that MONSIGNOR Ocariz has any sway with him.
This badly written, poorly organized article is an embarrassment for any high school educated Catholic. Its scholarship is beneath the Church’s standards of truth, charity and about 6 other virtues.
Just because you have some difficulty in comprehension , does not mean this is “poorly written.”
If you read her references below the essay you might just find it is pieced together quite well as is her voluminous book Rite of Sodomy” , which boasts something like four hundred references.
But alas, either working in an Opus Dei institution or becoming a fringe supporter i.e. ‘Cooperator’ feeds personal pride enough to make you believe your are happy and special.
Sins against charity? How about Opus Dei hosting a reporter who promotes abortion and contraception. The greatest sin against charity is to lie to the Faithful for mammon’s sake and that Mr Happy is EXACTLY what Opus Dei does. It equates with stealing Jesus and His Truth from poor souls.
Taylor Marshall encourages everyone to attend Opus Dei nights of recollection with him. Read the blog piece here on his hypocrisy.
” Local Catholics are in an uproar because the Catholic Information Center is hosting a book signing tomorrow for Cokie Roberts, a notorious dissenter against Catholic moral teaching on abortion, birth control and homosexuality. The TV commentator attacked the partial-birth abortion ban as “cynical game-playing” by pro-lifers and criticized Pope Benedict XVI for “lacking in the theological virtue of charity.”
The Catholic Information Center, a bookstore and chapel run by Opus Dei on K Street in downtown Washington, long has been a haven for neocon Catholic types looking for a lunchtime liturgy or to buy religious books for curious friends. Opus Dei is a religious organization that enjoyed enormous privileges under moderate Pope John Paul II but has seen its star fade under the much more traditional new pontiff. ”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/16/opus-dei-sells-out/
Dear HappyCatholic49
Maybe you could explain how a Catholic who loves their faith could be “happy” knowing that the “church” (as the world sees it) is corrupt, perverted and faithless.
Perhaps it is because “happy” Catholics are immune to Truth.
Facts are facts. Anderson isn’t a member. And Gomez doesn’t report to a Monsignor. So why can’t Randy accept reality, and you too?
Not facing realities causes problems not just in your comprehension, but elsewhere in your life.
Seek real truths and you’ll start to feel less moody and the interior complaint within you will begin to quiet down.
Opus Dei “doesn’t support” anyone. A member or cooperator in their own freedom may “support” someone or not, but that doesn’t mean “Opus Dei supports”.
You’re being foolish.
You’ll never see any such official statement from Opus Dei. Ever.
You understand NOTHING about Opus Dei. It exists to provide formation. It doesn’t hold “positions” other than that the Church teaches.
Prove me wrong with data and not innuendo.
The Catholic Information Center is an archdiocesan resource – only currently run by Opus Dei – and as such doesn’t veto archdiocesean-wide outreach and formation efforts.
So, in addition to being wrong about Anderson, Gomez, you’re also wrong about the CIC.
Please continue to embarrass your tattered opinion, and low intellectual capacity.
As Randy stated in the footnote of the 2nd part of this series –
“[xxxiii] Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei, Doubleday, New York, 1997, pp. 360, 361, 398. This writer followed up on the references to Anderson with Mr. Hutchison by phone several months after the publication of his book . Evidence validating Anderson’s membership in Opus Dei will be presented by this writer in an upcoming separate study on the Knights of Columbus and Opus Dei.”
So you’ll just have to sit tight…
And given how it’s well documented how Opus Dei operates, there’s plenty of reason to suspect that Gomez’s past with Opus Dei alone is enough to cast suspicion on him.
“You understand NOTHING about Opus Dei. It exists to provide formation. It doesn’t hold “positions” other than that the Church teaches.”
This alone suggest that you are a conditioned cult member. The fact that they are embroiled in and funding several suspiciously liberal organizations to put it extremely mildly… makes it an organization to be wary of.
You want the data, refer to Randy’ previous articles on this site.
“You understand NOTHING about Opus Dei. It exists to provide formation. It doesn’t hold “positions” other than that the Church teaches.”
The fact that Opus Dei are involved with a fund several suspicious liberal organizations, to put it mildly, alone makes it a suspect organization, or at the very least infiltrated by bad actors to a suspicious degree.
And if it’s data you’re looking for, refer to Randy’s previous articles on this site.
She re-pukes these same spurious references every few months when she can find a venue for her bilge water.
She’s troubled. Sad.
What is the connection between Opus Dei and EWTN? Did Opus Dei purchase the station and National Catholic Register? Do you have a link for that information? Thank you.
“Please continue to embarrass your tattered opinion, and low intellectual capacity.”
Your quote above is typical of an Opus Dei member’s gross lack of humility .
In fact , Robert Hanssen , a member of Opus Dei and historically our nation’s worst spy in service to the Communist KGB , was infamous for his narcissistic intellectual self importance .
He apparently learned quite a bit at the CIC also as it was one of his favorite haunts. Yes Hap , great catholic formation!
Opus Dei doesn’t purchase anything, other than Opus Dei Centers!
An individual member of Opus Dei in his or her own freedom may choose to buy anything… a ceramics company, a hot dog stand, perhaps a newspaper.
Always the same example.
Like damning all Germans because of Hitler.
You’re a fool.
She re-winds the same points, few examples, every few months.
She’s addled.
That doesn’t clarify the connection between Opus Dei and EWTN, if there is one. Maybe the author has further information.
This “fool”noted the Postulator General for Escriva’s
canonization was none other than Cardinal Ugo Poletti a card carrying Propaganda Due Lodge member whom Escriva considered his “good friend” . The ecclesiastic list was first published by the Italian secret police after they raided the Lodge. Poletti obtained for Opus Dei the St Appolinaire basilica in Rome , notorious for Poletti’s permission to bury the Head of the Magliani Mafia in it’s crypt ( more recently removed after his coffin was open gone through by the Italian legal authorities and moved).
They were searching for the remains of the kidnapped Emmanuela Orlandi . Her family believes Opus Dei may
be involved.
https://www.complicitclergy.com/2019/03/07/was-missing-teen-emanuela-orlandi-a-vatican-sex-slave/
LOL…………..as long as they give a good portion of their earnings to the Opus cult ! If they work in an Opus house as a housekeeper .cook, laundress and cleaning lady 17 hours a day ( opus slave) and then decide to leave , they have testified to the fact all their earnings over the years they were there, were confiscated by Opus.
https://odan.org/tw_how_opus_dei_is_cult_like
https://culteducation.com/group/1086-opus-dei/15639-the-vaticans-own-cult.html
happycatholic49: Your tireless trolling on behalf of Talmudic Opus Dei and your blissful insouciance with respect to Opus Dei’s embrace of Modernism and its decades long internal subversion of the Catholic Church leading up to the heterodox Second Vatican Council and the hellish-Conciliar-last-60 years simply typfy the Apocalyptic apostasy that hallmarks the Church worldwide with very few exceptions. Your ad hominem carping ad nauseam while never addressing the core issues relating to the failure of Opus Dei to uphold Catholic Tradition and it MIA refusal to pass on the Catholic Magisterium codified in the Council of Trent speaks volumes as to its Marrano legacy of subverting what the Catholic Faith is and what it means to be Catholic. You never once justify and explain the horrendous stewardship of Archbishop Gomez in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Any Catholic layman, who is still Catholic, can see that Archbishop Gomez is a one man wrecking ball – – his sponsorship of his annual conference on supposedly Catholic education speaks volumes as to his Opus Dei formation (that you avowedly esteem) and his advanced apostasy. What Archbishop Gomez is sponsoring is not remotely Catholic and has nothing to do with the salvation of souls which is the Catholic priority. If it pains you to look at the travesties of Opus Dei in the United States of America, you have only to look at the Opus Dei involvement in the sell-out of the underground, persecuted Catholics in Communist Red China. Opus Dei numerary Greg Burke repeatedly and publically defended this betrayal of Chinese Catholics by the likes of Cardinal McCarrick, Cardinal Parolin and the current occupant of the papacy. Just in case you did not keep up with that scandal, see here: https://zenit.org/articles/breaking-statement-on-china-made-by-greg-burke/ That Opus Dei scandal that exemplifies its Modernist embrace of the Secular Humanist World is nothing new. A little research reveals the same traitorous pattern in the Judas-like betrayal of the Catholic City in Europe and South America – – to say nothing of the betrayals in the United States of America, but you apparently are either blind to those or they strike too close to home. Your mantra about Opus Dei formation is laughable, since the trail of compromise by Opus Dei numeraries and super numeraries worldwide is one of its biggest scandals – – when the going gets tough in defense of the Catholic Faith, count on the Opus Dei members to have prepared in advance what they call a fall-back position. This cowardly compromise boils down to their notorious advice: “Pay no attention to the Papal Encyclicals pre-dating the Second Vatican Council.” This embrace of Modernism (the synthesis of all heresies) coupled with Opus Dei’s full endorsement of the Vatican Council II Document Gaudium et Spes situates Opus Dei in competition with the Society of Jesus for total acceptance of secular humanist world government as exemplified in the Luciferian United Nations. Opus Dei like the Society of Jesus openly espouses Laicism, political naturalism, and in the United States of America (pardon my mention of it) of boiled over Americanism — another condemned heresy. The Opus Dei crowd has the unfounded conviction that the American political experiment as codified in its founding documents is compatible with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. In other words, We The People replaces recognition of the Holy Trinity from which all Power on Heaven and on earth originates. Any novice Catholic scripture student can pull chapters and verses from both the Old and the New Testaments that demonstrate this to be a heresy, to be a lie.
Opus Dei is opposed to the instauration of the Social Reign of Christ the King, to any mention of a Catholic confessional state. Opus Dei never acknowledges and defends the Rights of God, the Rights of Our Lord Jesus Christ which are His by His Divine Nature and by His Incarnation, Passion, Death & Resurrection. Pope Pius XI issued his monumental Encyclical Quas Primas on December 11, 1925, a seminal document which I encourage you to read anew. I challenge you to read carefully Article 19 of this encyclical which states that civil rulers are called to be the vicegerents of God or in our idiom the Lieutenants of God (to acknowledge, to defend and to avenge His Rights) and I further challenge you to show me any Opus Dei document anywhere in the world that vindicates this primal obligation of Catholics in public life. The emptiness of Opus Dei formation is demonstrable worldwide by the perfidious witness of Opus Dei members who run away from His Vexilla Regis instead of rallying around it. And why is that? For many reasons, some of which are alluded to here already, but primarily because the Masonic-like secret of Opus Dei is to so morph the Catholic Church that Our Lord Jesus Christ founded on Saint Peter into a Judaic/Talmudic chaplaincy of World Religions in which humanity is divinized. In this Luciferian agenda Opus Dei is not alone, the apostate members of the Society of Jesus share the same goal. We earthlings have entered into the tribulations of the Latter Days; for the sake of your eternal salvation I strongly encourage you to reconsider your covenant with the worldwide Opus Dei business enterprise whose scandals reak of the Anti-Christ and sincerely repent and convert before you get caught in the fiery wrath of God that will cleanse the earth of those men who blaspheme Him by their obdurate and pertinacious sins against the Holy Ghost. Fraternally yours, Montejurra
Shar , Opus Dei operates in a pyramid style like the Freemason Lodges .The directives come down from the top without the lower joiners knowing who is directing their actions and forming their opinions below.
EWTN’s “Board of Governors” includes big donors who belong to Opus Dei.
Opus dei Spiritual directors do not operate under the seal of confession when advising their charges. This means that the Spiritual Director often passes along discussions with his charge to his own Director and so on up the pyramid and then down as advice given by the so called spiritual director.
You can read how this spiritual director betrayal played out against Michael Voris of “Church Militant” by reading …..
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Behind-Curtain-Michael-Homosexual-ebook/dp/B01IAIIOE2
and then you will understand Mrs Engel’s excellent investigational response here….
http://www.newengelpublishing.com/all-the-men-behind-the-opus-dei-curtain/
Back to the EWTN /opus dei connection……..
“Libertarian love-fest”
“In addition to its slanted political coverage, EWTN and its affiliate journalistic enterprises also have connections to economic libertarian ideologues, including EWTN governors’ board member and major donor Timothy Busch, who has said he supports anti-union “right to work” laws, opposes minimum wage increases and advocates for free market capitalism as a tool for raising people out of poverty.
Busch is an attorney, wealth manager, real estate investor (including hotels and resort/spas), winery owner and philanthropist based in Southern California. He and his brothers also own a chain of upscale food markets cofounded by their late father in Michigan.
He also is behind the Napa Institute, which combines conservative theology and libertarian economics, and its new co-organization, the Napa Legal Institute, which has made health care a priority.
Two months after Trump’s inauguration, Busch used the occasion of an opening Mass for a conference at the Catholic University of America business school that bears his name to praise the new presidency.
Speaking at the beginning of Mass — televised by EWTN — from the sanctuary of the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Busch called the moment “a time when many of us as Catholics saw it as a time of darkness and now we see a time of light.”
“We will in the next day learn more in our hearts and our minds where this next term will take us, and we pray it will be for greatness to restore our country,” Busch said, according to NCR reporting.
The business school, named for Busch after his $15 million gift to the university, also previously hosted outspoken libertarian Charles Koch at an event co-sponsored by the Napa Institute.
In addition to Napa and EWTN, Busch is involved in other conservative Catholic organizations and causes, including as a “cooperator” for Opus Dei, a conservative lay and clerical organization, and a longtime member of Legatus, an organization for wealthy Catholic business leaders. He also co-founded and chairs the board of the Magis Center, which describes itself as a faith-and-reason institute.
Magis (and its partner apologetics organization Credible Catholic — both ministries of former Gonzaga University president Jesuit Fr. Robert Spitzer) is headquartered on the Christ Cathedral campus, just one floor above the EWTN studios, leading one publication to call the building a “Catholic Super Center.”
Other neighbors in the Tower of Hope include the Colorado-based Augustine Institute, an organization dedicated to the “new evangelization” and founded by several graduates of Franciscan University of Steubenville at the request of then-Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput.
“When religion links itself to political causes, it always turns out badly for religion.”
Jesuit Fr. Mark Massa”
Substitute “Opus Dei” for the word “religion” above because Opus Dei itself is NOT a religion , it IS a business and it is a cult.
It is very much involved in politics but it plays both sides as long as it courts the wealthy into becoming Super Numeraries.
Hey Hap………..
“Knights of Columbus Headed by Opus Dei
There IS a connection between Opus Dei and the Knights of Columbus. In fact, the
Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, is high up in Opus Dei.According to Robert Hutchi-
son on pg. 429 of his book, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of
Opus Dei, amongst the other dignitaries at the Opus Dei Founder’s canonization to
Sainthood was, “Dr Carl A. Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of
Columbus and senior American member of Opus Dei.”