{"id":14658,"date":"2019-10-06T08:35:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T12:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=14658"},"modified":"2019-10-07T15:14:19","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T19:14:19","slug":"a-reflection-on-the-theology-underlying-the-instrumentum-laboris-for-the-up-coming-amazon-synod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=14658","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection on the theology underlying the \u201cInstrumentum Laboris\u201d for the up-coming Amazon Synod."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reed Armstrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

This essay is written in reminiscence of the prophet Jeremiah whose warning to the people, priests and kings and princes of Judah went largely unheeded. <\/em>(Jeremiah 1:17-19)<\/p>\n

While much has been written concerning individual aspects or problems with this document, mainly concerning married priests, laymen and women leading liturgical services, the politicization of the Faith and some individual practices of the local tribes, little has been said about the actual theological underpinnings of the synod.<\/p>\n

While Cardinal Walter Brandm\u00fcller<\/a> has labeled\u00a0 the\u00a0 \u201cInstrumentum<\/em>\u201d heretical, if not\u00a0 apostasy, and Cardinal Gerhard M\u00fcller former\u00a0 head of the\u00a0 CDF as well as Athanasius\u00a0\u00a0 Schneider Auxiliary Bishop of Astana Kazakhstan have joined in\u00a0 pointing out individual areas of concern, especially the topics of married priests and the role of women in the liturgy,\u00a0 they do not. however, specify the root cause of the heresy.<\/p>\n

In the following, I will present some facets of these underpinnings that deserve a deeper examination.<\/p>\n

To start, one must look at the official statement of Cardinal Claudio Hummes as reported by Antonio Spadaro, SJ in the May 13th\u00a0 <\/sup>2019\u00a0 edition of La Civilt\u00e0 Cattolica<\/em><\/a> (italics R.A.):<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the risen Jesus Christ is the summit toward which we are all moving, and he is the model that gives a first revelation about how the path we are journeying will be. Humanity does not move in circles, without orientation and without sense. We have to walk. There is a real future. The risen Jesus Christ is the great transcendent point (Omega Point<\/em>) toward which we walk. So integral ecology<\/em><\/strong> is the union of all this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I often say that there is a need to rewrite Christology: St. Paul had referred to this culminating point in a path that continues. Teilhard de Chardin<\/em><\/strong> in turn spoke about it in his studies on evolution. All theology and Christology, as well as the theology of the sacraments, are to be reread starting from this great light for which \u201call is interconnected, interrelated.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is Teilhard de Chardin, more than any other contemporary thinker who changed the course of Catholic theology.<\/p>\n

Prior to Vatican II, \u00a0as presented in the definitive dogmatic constitution of Vatican I, Dei Filius<\/em>: April 24, 1870,”Deus… est re et essentia a mundo distinctus, in se et ex se beatissimus, et super omnia quae praeter ipsum sunt et concipi possunt, ineffabiliter excelsus. <\/em>(“God <\/em><\/strong>… is to be declared as really and essentially distinct from the world<\/u><\/em><\/strong>, of supreme beatitude in and from Himself,\u00a0 except Himself and ineffably exalted above all things which exist, or are conceivable.<\/em>) <\/strong>In an attempt to align contemporary religious thought with the then prevailing scientific theories of Darwinian evolution, Teilhard took it upon himself to invent what he considered a new and better religion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “What increasingly dominates my interests, is the effort to establish within myself and define around me, a new religion (call it a better Christianity; if you like) where the personal God ceases to be the great monolithic proprietor of the past to become the Soul of the World<\/u> which the stage we have reached religiously and culturally calls for.” [i]<\/a> <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>(emphasis added)<\/p>\n

Teilhard’s “God” is no more nor less than\u00a0 the “god” of Pantheism as described (and\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 rejected) by St.\u00a0 Pius IX in his Syllabus of Errors<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 attached to his allocution, Quanta Cura<\/em> issued December 8, 1854:<\/p>\n

“There exists no Supreme Being, perfect in His wisdom and in His providence and distinct, all things are God and have the very substance of God. God is thus one and the same thing as the\u00a0 world and consequently spirit is identified with matter, necessity with liberty, truth with falsehood, good with evil and justice with injustice….” <\/em><\/p>\n

Teilhard was originally censured and exiled by his superiors in 1923 for questioning the doctrines of Original Sin<\/a> and Eternal Damnation. In 1947, upon return from banishment in China, he was once again censured by the Holy Office,\u00a0 Pope Pius XII having called his work a “cesspool of errors,”<\/p>\n

Teilhard, through his denial of original sin and of the consequent need for redemption,\u00a0 tried to inject Christ into his pantheism by naming him the “Cosmic “Omega Point,” Christ” or the “Alpha” and “Omega” of Revelations. He is an emanation of God infused into matter from the beginning<\/u>,\u00a0 evolving, was born into this world, died, rose from the dead (Physically? – unclear) and ascended, not to heaven, but to the “noosphere,” a spiritual level, encircling the earth, where all spirits contained in matter will eventually converge at the “Omega Point\u201d where he awaits us, guiding us on with “unconditional love.” At the “Omega Point,” we, and the entire cosmos,\u00a0 down to the lowliest atom,\u00a0 will be divinized and “God” will be “All in all.”[ii]<\/a> The quote was selectively picked from St. Paul’s First letter to the\u00a0 Corinthians 15:28. Whether this “all in all” will be totally spiritual, as in Hinduism and other Eastern religions with which it shares similarities, (See reference further on) or whether, as others affirm, humans, animals and all matter existent\u00a0 at the end of time,\u00a0 become “transhuman,” filled with the transformative knowledge of the “noosphere”[iii]<\/a> is unclear in the writings of Teilhard.<\/p>\n

Teilhard began spreading his ideas among his fellow Jesuits at the French Theologate, La Forvi\u00e8re, in Lyon via unsigned mimeographed monographs. By the mid to late 1950s his theories were extolled by many, if not most, Jesuits including Karl Rahner, , Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, and Henri de Lubac, who wrote glowingly of Teilhard:\u00a0 “We need not concern ourselves with a number of detractors of Teilhard, in whom emotion has blunted intelligence. (sic.)”[iv]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 By the time of opening\u00a0 of the Second Vatican Council in October 1962, the Society of Jesus had all but abandoned the Neo-Scholastic theology of Francisco Suarez\u00a0 in favor of Teilhardian evolutionary “Cosmogenesis.”<\/p>\n

This is not a “new and better Christianity,” but a negation of the Catholic Faith. Teilhard’s God, the “soul of the world” is identical with nature and consequently subject to change. Teilhard expounded in his book Human Energy:<\/em> “As a direct consequence of the uniative process by which God is revealed to us, he in some way ‘transforms himself’ as he incorporates us.”<\/u> … “I see in the World a mysterious product of completion and fulfillment <\/u>for the Absolute Being himself”[v]<\/a> <\/strong>[God] evolves, via ‘complexification’ and ‘convergence’ to his own perfection, immersed in matter.” “One is inseparable from the other; one is never without the other; … No spirit (not even God within the limits of our experience) exists, nor could structurally exist without an associated multiple, any more than a center can exist without its circle or circumference…. in a concrete sense there is not matter and spirit, all that exists is matter becoming spirit [God].”<\/strong>[vi]<\/a><\/p>\n

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Cardinal Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, an avowed follower of Teilhard, taking part in a ritual of worship of “Pachamama” the Earth Mother, in Argentina on November 29, 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n

Cardinal Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, an avowed follower of Teilhard,\u00a0 taking part in a ritual of worship of “Pachamama” the Earth Mother, in Argentina on November 29, 2014.[vii]<\/a><\/p>\n

For Teilhard and his followers, God is as present in “Mother Earth”\u00a0 as in the Eucharist.<\/p>\n

“My paten and my chalice are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit. Grant me the remembrance and the mystic presence of all those whom the light is now awakening to the new day —<\/em>I call before me the whole vast anonymous army of living humanity; those … who,… through their vision of truth or despite their error, truly believe in the progress of earthly reality<\/u> and who today will again take up their impassioned pursuit of the light…. This is the material of my sacrifice, the only material you desire…. Receive, O Lord, this all-embracing host which your whole creation, moved by your magnetism, offers you at this dawn of a new day … Lord make us one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This quote is taken from Teilhard’s \u201c<\/em>Mass on the World.<\/em>\u201d<\/em>[viii]<\/a><\/p>\n

I would suggest that there is little or no resemblance between Teihard’s “mass” and the traditional Catholic Mass where the duly ordained priest, in Persona Christi <\/em>offers bloodlessly the same sacrifice as Our Lord on Calvary in expiation for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n

Or, in the recent words of Pope Francis:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLa actitud eucar\u00edstica ante el mundo y sus habitantes sabe adoptar el estado de don que cada ser vivo lleva dentro de s\u00ed\u201d.[ix]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (The\u00a0 Eucharistic attitude before the world\u00a0 and its inhabitants\u00a0 is to know how to adopt the type of gift that each living being bears\u00a0 within.)<\/p>\n

Teilhard’s influence goes beyond the official Catholic world and is inextricably tied to the “New Age”<\/a> movement in which he is considered a “patron saint” and is explicitly mentioned in the 2003 Vatican Encyclical, Jesus Christ\u00a0 The Bearer of the Water of Life – A Christian reflection on the New Age<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0 (This encyclical should be read in its entirety) Adherents actually visit Teilhard’s grave\u00a0 site\u00a0 in Poughkeepsie, NY, especially at Halloween.<\/p>\n

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The “New Age”\u00a0 movement\u00a0 takes its roots from, among other sources, 17th century “Rosicrucianism”\u00a0 (Rose – Cross) which sought to rebuild a pre-lapsarion (prior to the division of\u00a0 good and evil) divinized world built on occult knowledge, or in the words of\u00a0 19th century hermetic, diabolical[x]<\/a> French author, Saint- Yves D’alveydre,<\/a> “to bring man back by means of allegory to the glorious kingdom that he inhabited in his primitive estate.” This is, it appears, the aim of the Amazon synod.<\/p>\n

Below\u00a0 to the left is depicted a typical 17the century “Rosicrucian” diagram similar to the diagram drawn by Lutheran “mystic,” Jacob Boehme, <\/strong>who, not formally a Rosicrucian, presents pictorially\u00a0 the same ideological premise:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “light and Dark, Good and Evil, are resolved in the all loving heart of Jesus.”<\/p>\n

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The “Georgia Guide Stones<\/a>” commissioned by one, R. C. Christian, (pseudonym) and built in 1979 atop a hill in Elbert County, Georgia, are a manifestation of\u00a0 Rosicrucian spirituality and politics. (The stones call for a reduction in population to less than a billion “to maintain a\u00a0 perpetual balance with nature.”) Once again, one sees the similarity of goals put forth in the\u00a0 Instrumentum Laboris<\/em> for the Amazon Synod.<\/p>\n

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Although there is no apparent direct link between Teilhard and Freemasonry,\u00a0 “the Craft,” many ideas of the occult Rosicrucian roots of Masonry<\/a> are well established.<\/p>\n

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Image from Secret symbols of the Rosicrucians 1788 displays the two iconic pillars, J & B displayed in virtually every Masonic lodge<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Masonic author Albert Pike (Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, 1859-1891) sets the record straight in his authoritative Morals and Dogma of Freemasonry<\/em>. As Pike explains to the Apprentice Mason, \u201cThe pavement (of the Lodge), alternatively black and white, symbolizes the Good and Evil principles of the Egyptian and Persian creeds. It is the warfare between Michael[xi]<\/a> (fig. 2) and Satan, Light and Darkness, Freedom and Despotism, Religious Liberty and the Arbitrary Dogmas of a Church [Roman Catholic] that thinks for its votaries and whose Pontiff claims to be infallible.\u201d [xii]<\/a> In the final chapter of this book, entitled \u201cPrince of the Royal Secret,\u201d Pike presents the resolution of this conflict: \u201cThe primary tradition of the single revelation has been preserved under the name of the Kabbalah.[xiii]<\/a>\u2026. The Evil is the Shadow of the Good and inseparable from it. The Divine Wisdom limits by equipoise the Omnipotence of the Divine Will or Power, and the result is Beauty or Harmony.\u201d[xiv]<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

Ostensibly, the goal of Masonry is \u201cto take good men and make them better.\u201d In reality, however, the \u201csecret\u201d for the individual Freemason is to work out for himself the balance or harmony of good and evil in his own life to achieve his own \u201cdivine\u201d perfection: \u201cMan is a God in the Making.\u201d[xv]<\/a><\/p>\n

Collectively, the external goal of Masonry is for an emancipated mankind to rebuild \u201cEden,\u201d without heed to the restrictive demands of the Creator and His established Church. The esoteric goal is to incorporate Lucifer (Satan) into the definition of the \u201cComplete God\u201d that includes both good and evil, or the fusion of opposites, the Gnostic Abraxas<\/em> or Kabalistic Ayn Sof<\/em>. [xvi]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the words of Albert Pike\\, the original Sovereign Grand Master of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry:<\/p>\n

1. ‘Illustrious’ Albert Pike 33\u00b0
\nLegendas XIX\u00b0 ~ XXX\u00b0<\/em>
\nPg. 40 – 44.<\/h4>\n

“If the buckler of Satan did not stay the flight of Michael’s lance, the power of the Archangel would be lost in the void, or would necessarily display and manifest itself by an infinite destruction, directed from above to below.<\/p>\n

“And if the foot of Michael did not arrest Satan in his ascent, Satan would go to dethrone God, or to lose himself in the abysses of height.<\/p>\n

“Satan is then necessary to Michael, as the pedestal to the statue; and Michael to Satan, as the brake to the locomotive. “In analogical and universal dynamics we rest only on that which resists. “Wherefore, as we have said before, the Universe is balanced by two forces, which maintain it in equilibrium; and the force which attracts, and that which repels. This is the equilibrium of the mountain of gold, which the Gods on one side, and the Demons on the other, hold tied by the symbolic Serpent of India<\/u>; and its scientific reality is demonstrated by the phenomena of Polarity, and by the universal law of Sympathies and Antipathies….”<\/p>\n

(The “Binary God” of “good and evil” by Elephias Levi \u2013 note that the Serpent\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 encloses this abomination as does the emblem from Helena Blavatsky’s “Theosophical Society.”) The quotes above and below are taken from complete facsimile books downloadable from the internet.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Mysteries of Magic\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Secret Doctrine<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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‘Brother’Eliphas Levi\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“What is more absurd and more impious than to attribute the name of Lucifer to the devil, that is, to personified evil. The intellectual Lucifer is the spirit of intelligence and love; it is the paraclete, it is the Holy Spirit, while the physical Lucifer is the great agent of universal magnetism.” page 428<\/td>\n

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Sister Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 32\u00b0
\nAncient and Accepted Primitive Rite
\nGrand Orient of France<\/h4>\n

“Lucifer represents..Life…Thought..Progress…Civilization…Liberty…Independence…Lucifer is the Logos…the Serpent, the Savior.” (pages 171, 225, 255 (Volume II))<\/p>\n

“It is Satan who is the God of our planet and the only God.” pages 215, 216, 220, 245, 255, 533, (VI)<\/p>\n

“The Celestial Virgin which thus becomes the Mother of Gods and Devils at one and the same time; for she is the ever-loving beneficent Deity…but in antiquity and reality Lucifer or Luciferius is the name. Lucifer is divine and terrestial Light, ‘the Holy Ghost’ and “Satan’ at one and the same time.” page 539<\/p>\n

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This exposition of the “Binary God” is further espoused by the occult psychology of Carl Gustav Jung (who strongly influenced Leonardo Boff, one of the inspirers of the Amazon Synod’s working document):<\/p>\n

“In our diagram, Christ and the devil appear as equal and opposite, thus conforming to the idea of the ‘adversary.\u2019 This opposition means conflict to the last; and it is the task of humanity to endure this conflict until the time or turning-point is reached where good and evil begin to relativise themselves, to doubt themselves, and the cry is roused for a morality \u2018beyond good and evil.\u201d \u2026\u201dIn the Age of Christianity and in the domain of trinitarian thinking such an idea is simply out of the question, because the conflict is too violent for evil to be assigned any other logical relation to the Trinity than that of an absolute opposite.”[xvii]<\/a><\/p>\n

The pre-Vatican II Church knew the pernicious character of Freemasonry and denounced it for what it was and is. According to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, article #2335, to belong to a Freemasonic Lodge was grounds for automatic excommunication Latae Sententiae<\/em> (the act itself bringing the penalty without formal accusation). Pope Leo XIII explained the Church’s position on Freemasonry:<\/p>\n

“The race of man, after its miserable fall from God, the Creator and the Giver of heavenly gifts, \u201cthrough the envy of the devil,\u201d separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from their heart to be united with it, so as to gain salvation, must of necessity serve God and His only-begotten Son with their whole mind and with an entire will. The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God….. At every period of time each has been in conflict with the other, with a variety and multiplicity of weapons and of warfare, although not always with equal ardor and assault. At this period, however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons.”[xviii]<\/a><\/p>\n

All of these religious systems \u2013 Teilhardism, New age, and Rosicrucian Freemasonry \u2013\u00a0 coincide with the Advaita\u00a0 Vedanta<\/em> <\/strong>[xix]<\/a> (Monism \u2013 the unity of being) of Hinduism, which, according to Swami Vivekananda, posits three fundamental precepts:\u00a0 1. That man’s real nature is divine. 2. If in this universe, there is any Reality, a Godhead, then the Godhead is omnipresent. If the Godhead is omnipresent, it must be within each one of us and within every creature and object. Therefore man, in his true nature, is God.\u00a0 3. That it is the aim of man’s life on earth to unfold and manifest his Godhead, which is eternally existent in him, but hidden.<\/p>\n

All in all they all fall under the general category of Gnosis or Gnosticism.<\/p>\n

Gnosis,<\/strong><\/a> or knowledge, as understood in Gnostic religious systems, does not refer to rational understanding of natural or supernatural reality, but “involves an awareness through illumination, intuition, initiation or induced trance that the human spirit is consubstantial with the divine ground of being.”<\/p>\n

Let us consider here the Vatican’s \u201cclimate change\u201d light show<\/a>: The presentation opens and closes with an “eclipse\u201d or conjunction of the Sun (M) and the Moon(F), an occult reference to the union of opposites, of Male and Female elements, as seen in the Rosicrucian\/Masonic\u00a0 pillars\u00a0 J & B\u00a0 shown above, along with matter and spirit, Good and Evil.<\/p>\n

[xx]<\/a><\/p>\n

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On December 8th 2015, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, there occurred a “paradigm shift” in the focus of Catholic theology in the presentation of a projected light show on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica. No longer was it the role of the Church to guide souls to heaven via sacramental incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ, but the new role was to \u201cSave the planet, our common home.\u201d Thus “environmentalism” became the new world religion based on the false science of man made climate change.<\/p>\n

That this environmentalism is a false science can be seen from the authoritative NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)<\/strong><\/a> graph. It becomes obvious that the infamous “Mann Hockey stick” made famous by Al Gore in his doomsday predictions (seen lower right of the graph) is well below the mean temperature changes of centuries and millennia.<\/p>\n

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On the political level, Christiana Figueres<\/a>, executive secretary of the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity, but to destroy the existing capitalist economic order.<\/p>\n

She said: “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution…. This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history.”<\/p>\n

The Amazon document proposed by Pope Francis, as pointed out above, it is not simply the imposition of a Socialist economic order, but a call for what it calls, “Integral Ecology.\u201d<\/p>\n

INTEGRAL ECOLOGY as explained\u00a0 in Pope Francis’s Encyclical Laudato Si’ <\/em>(which was highly influenced by Leonardo Boff): “When we speak of the \u201cenvironment,\u201d what we really mean is a relationship existing between nature, and the society which lives in it. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves, or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it, and thus in constant interaction with it. \u2026 We are faced, not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis, which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and, at the same time, protecting nature (\u00a7139).”<\/p>\n

The most disturbing element of the Instrumentum\u00a0 Laboris<\/em><\/a> (39) is an attitude that effectively teaches that Christianity is not the only salvific religion: <\/strong>\u201cThere is a broad and essential arena of dialogue between the Amazon\u2019s spiritualities, creeds and religions that requires an approach of the heart to the different cultures. Respect for this space does not mean relativizing one\u2019s own convictions, but recognizing other avenues \/ pathways that seek to decipher the inexhaustible mystery of God. Insincere openness to the other, just like a corporatist attitude, that reserve salvation exclusively for one\u2019s own creed, are destructive of that very creed. \u201d Much of the theology contained in the Instrumentum Laboris<\/em> is allegedly based on<\/a> the work of the Brazilian Liberation theologian Leonardo Boff.<\/p>\n

Let us consider here an article<\/a> on this matter written by Professor Roberto de Mattei. He shows that in Boff’s book, The Cry of the Earth and the\u00a0 Cry of the Poor<\/em>, he refers to Teilhard de Chardin, who \u201csaw in the Omega point the great Force of attraction which calls the universe to reach its supreme height in the theo-sphere.\u201d Boff explains, \u201cWe are not talking about placing God and the world each facing each other, as was classically done, but rather of placing God within the process of the world and considering the world within the process of God. \u201cNature is the result of a long cosmic process. It is cosmogenesis.\u201d According to Boff, the majority of the peoples of South America were predominantly panentheist \u2013\u00a0 panentheism is the theological position which maintains that God is immanent in the universe but at the same time transcends it \u2013 as were the ancient cultures of Southeast Asia. \u201cThe universe in cosmogenesis invites us to live the experience that underlies panentheism: in every slightest manifestation of being, in every movement, in every expression of life, of intelligence and of love, we find ourselves dealing with the Mystery of the universe in progress (cosmogenetic process).\u201d Boff\u00a0 is a disciple of Karl Rahner S.J., \u00a0one of the most liberal of the Conciliar theologians who is not far behind Teilhard. As quoted by Bernhard Lakebrink in his book, Die Warheit in Bedr\u00e4ngnis<\/em>, \u201cGod and the grace of Christ are in all things, as the secret essence of each reality…. He who accepts his own existence, and thereby his humanity, even though he doesn\u2019t know it, says yes to Christ.” [xxi]<\/a> Boff is also a disciple of Karl Jung who is cited above. [xxii]<\/a><\/p>\n

However, as St. Paul clearly states in 1 Corinthians 10-21, “You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, you can not partake of the table of the Lord and the table of the demons.”<\/p>\n

As we have shown above, this is exactly what the Freemasons, following the Kaballah,\u00a0 propose: a harmonious balance of Good and Evil.<\/p>\n

As do the Gnostics, the Kabbalah places the origin of evil as belonging to the essential nature of the \u201cunknowable god beyond God\u201d \u2013 the unlimited Ayn Sof.<\/p>\n

Joseph Dan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explains that “the Kaballah often presented the universe as a battleground between satanic divine powers and good divine powers, drawing a parallel world of ‘divine emanations of the left’ which are the enemies of God, yet they are divine in the full sense of the term.” [xxiii]<\/a><\/p>\n

A further\u00a0 explanation or overview of Kabbalah is given by the Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges who tells us that, according to the Kabbalah, \u201cEvil is in the Variety, but variety is necessary for the world\u2026. It is in the doctrine of the Greeks called apokatastasis,<\/em>; that all creatures, including Cain and the Devil, will return, at the end of great transmigrations, to be mingled again with the Divinity from which they once emerged.\u201d[xxiv]<\/a><\/p>\n

While the general thrust of the Synod’s working document follows the Teilhardian theology \u2013 that is to say, that\u00a0 the entire cosmos is evolving toward divine perfection drawn on by the “unconditional love” of Jesus at the “Omega Point” \u2013 one cannot rule out the influence of Freemasonry. Or: to put it another way: while we cannot prove any direct influence of freemasonry on the Amazon Synod’s working document, we can state that it is permeated by ideas that originally stemmed from Freemasonry.<\/p>\n

In October of 1917, St. Maximillian Kolbe witnessed a group of Freemasons marching in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United Grand Lodge, carrying banners\u00a0 showing Satan overcoming\u00a0 St. Michael while chanting: “Satan will rule in the Vatican and the Pope “will be his lackey.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Commemorative medal to celebrate 7 years of Pope Francis pontificate and the implementation of the Amazon Synod.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

[i]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letters to L\u00e9ontine Zanta<\/em>, trans. Bernard Wall (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 114 (letter dated 26 January 1936).<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [ii]\u00a0 “What we call inorganic matter is certainly animate in its own way … Atoms, electrons, elementary particles \u2026 must have a spark of spirit.” (Science and Christ<\/em>, written in the 1920s, published in English in 1968)<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 https:\/\/ieet.org\/index.php\/IEET2\/more\/prisco20090120<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [iv]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J.\u00a0<\/strong> – The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ( New York: Image Books (1967) De Lubac is\u00a0 generally considered the main influence on the Vatican II document, the Church in the Modern World, Guadiam et spes <\/em>) [iv]. De Lubac, first censured by Pope Pius XII, went on to named a Cardinal\u00a0 by Pope John Paul II in 1983.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [v]\u00a0 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, \u00a0The Heart of Matter<\/em>, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jahanovich, 1978)\u00a0 p. 54<\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [vi]\u00a0 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy <\/em>(New York: Harcourt Brace Jahanovich, 1969),\u00a0 pp. 57, 162. Emphasis added.<\/p>\n

[vii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 -cardinal-ravasi-culte-pacha-mama-terre-m http:\/\/reinformation.tv\/forum-gentils ere-39733\/<\/p>\n

[viii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMass on the World\u201d by Teilhard de Chardin<\/a><\/p>\n

[ix]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 https:\/\/www.aciprensa.com\/noticias\/la-destruccion-de-la-amazonia-tendra-consecuencias-a-nivel-planetario-advierte-el-papa-43871?utm_source=boletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=noticias_del_dia<\/p>\n

[x]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 … Quant \u00e0 toi, Lucifer, astre tomb\u00e9 des deux, Splendeur Intelligente aux t\u00e9n\u00e8bres jet\u00e9e, Ange qui portes haut la col\u00e8re indopt\u00e9e, Et gonfles tous les seins de cris s\u00e9ditieux, …On y soufre, il est vrai; l’on jouit quand m\u00eame puisqu ‘on y peut bave sa bile, O Lucifer, Mon bourreau de demain, je t’honore, je t’aime. <\/em>(“… As for you Lucifer, star fallen from the sky, Intelligent Splendor thrown into darkness, Angel who holds on high the untamed rage, Breast inflated with seditious cries, One suffers there, it is true, One enjoys it just as well, as there that one may slobber out one\u2019s bile, O Lucifer, my executioner of tomorrow, … I honor and love you<\/em>.”)(<\/strong>16<\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

[xi]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The angel Michael is, for Freemasons, the \u201cplanetary angel of the Sun,\u201d a solar being, ruler of the \u201cCosmic Fire,\u201d dedicated to the expansion of consciousness and freedom. David Ovason, The Secret Architecture of our Nation\u2019s Capital: The Masons and the building of Washington, DC <\/em>(New York: Harper Collins, 2000), p. 30.<\/p>\n

[xii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry<\/em>, p. 14<\/p>\n

[xiii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Iibid, 844<\/p>\n

[xiv]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid. 846. Emphasis added.<\/p>\n

[xv]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Manly P. Hall, 33\u00b0 The Lost Keys of Free Masonry <\/em>(Richmond: Mason Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., 1976). p. 65<\/p>\n

[xvi]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As do the Gnostics, the Kabbalah places the origin of evil as belonging to the essential nature of the \u201cunknowable god beyond God\u201d \u2013 the unlimited Ayn Sof. \u00a0An interesting explanation or overview of Kabbalah is given by Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges who tells us that, according to the Kabbalah, \u201cEvil is in the Variety, but variety is necessary for the world\u2026. It is in the doctrine of the Greeks called apokatastasis,<\/em>; that all creatures, including Cain and the Devil, will return, at the end of great transmigrations, to be mingled again with the Divinity from which they once emerged.\u201d Seven Nights<\/em> (New York, New Directions, 1984) Cited in The University Bookman<\/em>, Ed. Russell Kirk, Winter 1987 p. 15<\/p>\n

[xvii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carl Gustav Jung, Zur Psychologie der Trinit\u00e4tslehre<\/em>, translated in Vol. 11, 2nd<\/sup> ed. Of his Complete Works <\/em>(Princeton University Press, 1969,\u00a0 p. 174<\/p>\n

[xviii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Humanum Genus<\/em>, April 20, 1884. article 1.<\/p>\n

[xix]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Swami Vivekananda, His Gospel of Man Making<\/em>, revised and enlarged edition, published by Swami Jyotirmiananda, Chennai, August, 2000 for the UN “Millenium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders,” New York, Aug. 28-31, 2000, New York, NY, USA<\/p>\n

[xx]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vatican \u2018climate change\u2019 light show: More than meets the eye? | News | LifeSite<\/a><\/p>\n

[xxi]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Quoted in,\u00a0 Bernhard. Lakebrink, Die Warheit in Bedr\u00e4ngnis<\/em> (Stein am Rhein: Christiana-Verlag, 1986), p. 23. As cited by\u00a0 30 Days, <\/em>No. 4, 1993 p. 61<\/p>\n

[xxii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/48366.Leonardo_Boff<\/p>\n

[xxiii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joseph Dan, \u201cJewish Mysticism and Jewish Ethics,\u201d an interview with the author by Jewish Book News (The Jewish Book Club, Allentown, PA:)<\/em>, May 9, 1996, p. 27<\/p>\n

[xxiv]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Seven Nights<\/em> (New York, New Directions, 1984). Cited in The University Bookman<\/em>, Ed. Russell Kirk, Winter 1987, p. 15<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reed Armstrong is a Catholic artist (sculptor) living in Front Royal, VA whose work is displayed in churches, public spaces and private collections both here and abroad. He is also a writer and lecturer on religion and art, often with a focus on occult, or diabolical influences on art starting in the Renaissance and proliferating in the 19th and 20th centuries. His writings have appeared in Crisis Magazine, Communio, Latin Mass<\/i> and the Journal of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars<\/i>, among others. Some of these essays, along with examples of his sculptural endeavors, may be found on his website www.agdei.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Armstrong This essay is written in reminiscence of the prophet Jeremiah whose warning to the people, priests and kings and princes of Judah went largely unheeded. (Jeremiah 1:17-19) While much has been written concerning individual aspects or problems with this document, mainly concerning married priests, laymen and women leading liturgical services, the politicization …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14658"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14688,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions\/14688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}