"The Black Lives Matter Global Network, founded in 2013 after the death of Trayvon Martin, says little about religion on its website, but it takes a number of positions that are at odds with traditional Christianity, including a call to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” and “dismantle cisgender privilege.”

"The Movement for Black Lives, which counts BLM as a partner, is avowedly “anti-capitalist.” BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a 2015 interview that she and co-founder Alicia Garza are “trained Marxists.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/15/black-lives-matter-protesters-turn-rage-churches-r/

'No place for God': Left-wing protesters turn focus to churches as vandalism, arson escalate

By Valerie Richardson

It would be quite a stretch to blame churches for George Floyd’s death, police brutality or Confederate memorials, yet houses of worship and religious statues are coming under attack in the protest mayhem.

Last weekend, at least four Catholic Church-affiliated buildings and statues from Boston to Los Angeles were set on fire or vandalized. A blaze that gutted the 249-year-old San Gabriel Mission, once led by Father Junipero Serra, is being investigated as possible arson.

“Given that there were four attacks on Catholic churches nationwide over a 48 hour period, from July 10 to July 12, suspicion, obviously, turns toward the left wing extremists who have been toppling statues of Saint Junipero Serra and attempting to remove a statue of Saint Louis,” Catholic Action League Executive Director C.J. Doyle said in an email.

The focus on church institutions also has bolstered the contentions of those who say the protests are no longer about Floyd or even defunding police, but rather a radical reordering of American society fundamentally at odds with the U.S. religious liberty tradition.

“These folks have an agenda, which is to fundamentally transform America,” said Ken Blackwell, a board member of the conservative American Civil Rights Union and a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. “If you think about it, Black Lives Matter has an affiliation with the advancement of an ideology and program of action that is closely associated with the Marxist ideology, and it has no place for God.”

The four incidents cited by the Catholic Action League left out one: the beheading of a Virgin Mary statue found Sunday at St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Tennessee Republican, called it a “disturbing attack on Catholicism and religion.”

“Sadly, it is among a series of attacks on Catholic churches that have happened in recent days,” Mr. Fleischmann tweeted Wednesday. “I hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, but I also pray that they will find their way to God as well.”

On June 20, Black Lives Matter protesters in Los Angeles tore down and spilled red paint on a statue of the Franciscan friar canonized in 2015. A Father Serra statue was pulled down in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park that same weekend.

St. Louis police on Tuesday arrested a person accused of assault during a June 27 protest over the statue of King Louis IX, or Saint Louis, the city’s namesake and the only king of France to be canonized by the Catholic Church.

Protesters accused Father Serra of human rights abuses against American Indians in 18th-century California and St. Louis of anti-Semitism for presiding over public burnings of the Talmud and the expulsion of Jewish subjects. The Vatican has said Father Serra tried to protect local tribes from Spanish authorities.

“The Serra statue represents mass incarceration,” community activist Jose Garcia told ABC7 in Los Angeles. “It’s important that folks know that mass incarceration as it exists now started with the mission system.”

Church vandals also have targeted protesters. A Black Lives Matter banner in front of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Auburn, New York, was replaced last week after the word “Black” was cut out, according to Syracuse.com.

Attacks ‘dramatically escalating’

No explanation was given for the destruction last weekend, which included fire set to the plastic flowers held by the Virgin Mary at St. Peter’s Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts; the spray-painting of a Virgin Mary statue with the word “idol” at Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary in Queens, New York; and a vehicle crash into the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala, Florida.

Steven Anthony Shields, 24, was charged with deliberately driving into the front doors, pouring gasoline inside the church and setting it on fire. Marion County sheriff’s deputies said he specifically targeted the Catholic church and that he had schizophrenia, according to the Ocala-News.

Since 2016, Massachusetts has had 17 incidents of church vandalism, a 400% increase from the previous four-year period. Although many cases have gone unsolved, “those that were solved frequently involved mentally ill persons or alcohol-fueled teenagers,” Mr. Doyle said.

“So, no matter how suspicious the timing, we cannot yet be sure of the motive or identity of the perpetrators,” he said. “Whatever the motive, attacks on Catholic churches and religious symbols are dramatically escalating, at least in secularized New England.”

Eric Metaxas, a conservative Christian author and radio host, said he doubted that the timing is coincidental.

“I think a lot of the nastiness that’s being directed at these statues, it really has to do with something deeper,” Mr. Metaxas said on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “You saw this with the French Revolution. There was a hatred at the bottom of it of God, of any kind of authority, and these people are drunk with the idea that they can somehow be an authority themselves, they can seize power.”

In that case, why stop with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee? “If you really want to cut to the chase, you forget about generals and things, you go right for God, you go right for the Virgin Mary, my goodness, you go for churches,” Mr. Metaxas said.

Black Lives Matter has become a popular rallying cry at social justice protests, but it is also a decentralized movement that includes community groups lobbying for criminal justice reform and national leaders seeking the “radical,” “sustainable” transformation of society.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network, founded in 2013 after the death of Trayvon Martin, says little about religion on its website, but it takes a number of positions that are at odds with traditional Christianity, including a call to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” and “dismantle cisgender privilege.”

The Movement for Black Lives, which counts BLM as a partner, is avowedly “anti-capitalist.” BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a 2015 interview that she and co-founder Alicia Garza are “trained Marxists.”

“We actually do have an ideological frame,” Ms. Cullors told Real News Network. “Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on sort of ideological theories.”

At the UrbanCURE’s rally in defense of the Emancipation Memorial, pastor Marc Little said that “we are witnessing a Marxist takeover supported by members of Congress” and “fighting a new religion disguised as racial justice.”

“What we’ve seen since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis is the unveiling of what has been percolating against the church,” said Mr. Little, UrbanCURE board chairman. “Make no mistake: The body of Christ is the target of the Marxists, for it cannot succeed when morality stands in the way.”

He blasted those “defacing murals and monuments of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary while the former head of the DNC, [Howard] Dean, calls Christianity a religion of hate.”

The former Vermont governor drew both applause and condemnation for his July 11 tweet: “Unfortunately Christians don’t have much of a reputation for anything but hate these days thanks to Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell and other Trump friends.”

Progressive activist Shaun King called last month on activists to take down “the white European they claim is Jesus,” saying that such statues are “a form of white supremacy,” noted David Closson, director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council.

“So, there probably is a connection with the current movement to topple statues and monuments (including Washington, Grant, Lincoln, and abolitionists) and churches being burned and statues of the Virgin Mary getting vandalized,” said Mr. Closson in an email. “An anti-authority, anti-American impulse links them.”

Floyd, 46, had a criminal record but was active before moving to Minneapolis in Resurrection Houston, a ministry focused on Houston’s rough 3rd Ward, where he grew up. His funeral services in Minneapolis and Houston were held in Christian churches and featured sermons, Scripture readings and gospel music.

“Any Christian leader who doesn’t understand that this is a Marxist, violent organization — this has nothing to do anymore with George Floyd,” said Mr. Metaxas. “They’ve hijacked this, and they want to burn down everything that has been built by good people over centuries, most of whom, of course, were Christians.”

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SHAME ON US

Wreckovation is a portmanteau term coined by some Catholics to describe the style of renovations which historic Catholic cathedrals, churches, and oratories have undergone since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II)... - Wikipedia

Iconoclasts ‘on the job’. Coloured engraving by Frans Hogenberg (1566)

There is much outrage over the current defacing and destruction of Catholic churches and statues. However, the first defacers and destroyers of Catholic churches and statues were our own bishops. 

After Vatican II, and in it's so called "spirit," Catholics my age saw the absolute "wreckovation" of their sacred spaces and images.

Church of Our Savior - New York City. Today. 

In the parish I grew up in near Los Angeles, most of the statues were immediately removed after the promulgation of the "new Mass" in 1969, especially statues of Mary. 

The motivation was soon evident. 

After the destruction or hiding of the statues of Mary, our (Los Angeles) parish began hosting ecumenical prayer meetings in our church and we did not want to offend the protestants.

Heck! it was 1970 and it was, in the words of a popular book of the time (which we were required to read in our Catholic high school religion class), "I'm Okay. You're Okay." 

However, given that our parish was in the Los Angeles area and there was a strong Mexican presence, the then-pastor figured that it would be dangerous to alienate "the brown people" (he disdained Mexicans), so he built a little side chapel into which he stuffed a framed picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe which could be entered from outside the church - sort of a "Mexican chapel" - so as to appease "the brown people," because brown people - of which I am one - apparently don't "matter." 

I remember my pastor actually detesting the reforms wrought by the "spirit of Vatican II," but such was the pressure from the "head office" that our parish church was immediately "wreckovated." 

In the spirit of Vatican II...Many historic and irreplaceable works of art have been discarded or destroyed during these renovations. - Wikipedia

While the above quote from the Wikipedia article notes "citation needed", no citation is needed for most Catholics (my age) who lived through the iconoclast destruction of our sacred spaces and sacred images before our very eyes in the wake of Vatican II, which were not just sanctioned, but urged by our mitre'd and well-supplied "shepherds."

(I am referring to the very "groovy digs" of certain "pastors" at the time - and probably still. Best booze I ever had. Not complaining - but knew when to leave.)

Vatican II issued no instruction to do this nor did it even issue an instruction to change the liturgy. In fact, Vatican II's instruction was that there should be NO INNOVATIONS. 

"...there must be no innovations..." - Sacrosanctum Concilium 

However, the real "value" of Vatican II - to those who hijacked it - was the loopholes deliberately inserted into the Vatican II documents that were large enough to "drive a truck through" (as one author put it), and, laid there (like time bombs) so said "time bombs" could be "exploded" a la "post-conciliar." And that is exactly what happened.

In almost every document, the revolutionary fathers of Vatican II, while authoring no new doctrine and only restating traditional Catholic teaching and practice, these same "revolutionary fathers" inserted a caveat into almost every document, permitting local bishops (the same "fathers") to functionally do (Alinsky-esque) whatever they wanted under the guise of "the good of the Church..."

e.g. "...there must be no innovations UNLESS (emphasis mine) the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them..." - Sacrosanctum Concilium 

This is the secular equivalent of saying that the speed limit is 35mph UNLESS you don't want it to be. In that sense, Vatican II meant nothing but a license to drive as fast as you want. And so they did. 

AOA STICKS IT IN OUR FACE. AGAIN. AND AGAIN.

Why is the Chancery Giving Prominence to Two NCW Priests Serving in New Jersey? 
By David Sablan President, Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc. 

Founder of the NCW

Why is leadership of the Archdiocese of Agana placing a lot of emphasis and prominence in reporting that two men, originally from Guam, were ordained to the priesthood in New Jersey after completing their studies at a Neocatechumenal Way Redemptoris Mater Seminary? Could it be that there are still NCW sympathizers in the Chancery and in the clergy? 

These two men started their “Way” to ordination by attending the fake seminary at Yona. One even stated in the Pacific Daily News (03 July 2020 issue, page 5) that he received a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology at the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania on Guam. Really? Who was or were the professors who taught sacred theology at that fake seminary? There was never a bonafide faculty at that fake seminary. 

I was shocked at what this same man said was the reason for his becoming a priest! With the help of a priest, probably an NCW-oriented one, he found that the Lord was offering him a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter into an ADVENTURE” (my emphasis) that would take him to places that he never thought he would see or visit. Wow! Later in the interview, he did state that his mission as a priest “is to bring others closer to God.” The latter should be the only reason to be a priest. And by bringing people closer to God through the administering of the holy sacraments, a priest is saving souls for God. That is his duty. 

Typical of the NCW to make things sound big and intimidating to the common Catholic, the "Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania in Guam" sounds quite impressive till you see that the “Institute” is an unfinished hotel building project whose owners defaulted when they went bankrupt. 

Oceania is a huge region in the Pacific that includes, Australia, New Zealand, the islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia. So that fake seminary in Yona was training seminarians from “Oceania” which in total has a population of about 41 million people. Really? 

The fact is, there were only 10 seminarians from Samoa and American Samoa who came to attend that fake seminary, and then later were withdrawn by their respective bishops. There were several from Guam and Saipan. That was the entire enrollment from “Oceania”. Clearly, the bishops of Samoa and American Samoa did not believe their seminarians were getting the education and formation necessary to be good and qualified priests. 

In 2017, Archbishop Byrnes closed that fake “seminary” in Yona because it was not sustainable. I also believe it was not up to training and education standards necessary to prepare men for the priesthood. Archbishop Byrnes knows what curriculum is needed to form men for the priesthood and the seminary in Yona was a scam. Archbishop Byrnes should know because he was Vice Rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. 

This closure made those two men from Guam enroll at a Redemptoris Mater Seminary in New Jersey. Maybe it has more credentials than the one Archbishop Byrnes closed in Yona. But I would question, why go there; why not go to a proper seminary to train for the priesthood and then return to Guam to serve the faithful here?

Back to the Communications Office of the Archdiocese giving prominence to the two men who were originally from Guam and who were ordained recently to be priests in a New Jersey Archdiocese for the Neocatechumenal Way. Bear with me as I go through some historical events and facts leading up to my point about the Communications Office of the Archdiocese of Agana emphasizing the ordination of two men originally from Guam (though one was born in California and raised in Guam), now serving in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey as NCW priests. 

Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc. (CCOG) with the “Laity Forward Movement” have been watching and studying the activities of the Neocatechumenal Way in Guam for many years now to determine if their hierarchy is truly capable and worthy to teach Adult Catholic Catechesis and the Magisterium of the Church as interpreted by the Pope and the bishops through Scripture and Tradition. 

Archbishop Byrnes had requested to see the NCW’s Catechetical Directory (their Catechesis teaching manual basically) since early 2018. He has not received it as of this date to the best of my knowledge. WHY? Because their teachings are contradictory to the Magisterium of the Church, that’s why. 

Excerpts from their directory have been gathered and studied by others who shared the information with CCOG. Archbishop Byrnes is responsible for what goes on in the Archdiocese of Agana, but these NCW leaders defy his authority. 

Archbishop Byrnes should EXPEL them from Guam. 

There is enough documented evidence and first-hand accounts of the NCW’s activities that CCOG has gathered to prove this organization—as Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan has said, “is a Trojan Horse within the Church.” He should know. He worked with the NCW in Karaganda, Kazakhstan for several years by order of his Archbishop. 

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Bishop Schneider back in March 2016 which highlights the deceit of the NCW operating within the Catholic Church, thus, the analogy to the “Trojan Horse.” 

“I know them very well because I was an episcopal delegate for them for several years in Kazakhstan in Karaganda. And I assisted their Masses and meetings and I read the writings of Kiko, their founder, so I know them well.  

“When I speak openly without diplomacy, I have to state: The Neocatechumenate is a Protestant-Jewish community inside the Church with a Catholic decoration only (my emphasis).  

“The most dangerous aspect is regarding the Eucharist, because the Eucharist is the heart of the Church. When the heart is in a bad way, the whole body is in a bad way. For the Neocatechumenate, the Eucharist is primarily a fraternal banquet. This is a Protestant, a typically Lutheran attitude. They reject the idea and the teaching of the Eucharist as a true sacrifice. They even hold that the traditional teaching of, and belief in, the Eucharist as a sacrifice is not Christian but pagan. This is completely absurd, this is typically Lutheran, Protestant.  

“During their liturgies of the Eucharist they treat the Most Holy Sacrament in such a banal manner, that it sometimes becomes horrible. They sit while receiving Holy Communion, and then they lose the fragments because they do not take care of them, and after Communion they dance instead of praying and adoring Jesus in silence. This is really worldly and pagan, naturalistic.” 

– Bishop Athanasius Schneider, March 2016 Interview at the John Henry Newman Center of Higher Education, Hungary. 

The NCW has been here in Guam since mid 1990’s at the invitation of Fr. Adrian Cristobal, now a fugitive from the Archdiocese of Agana, who has broken his vow of obedience to Archbishop Byrnes who ordered him to return to Guam on at least two occasions. No one knows where Cristobal is now; as is Bishop Anthony Apuron, disgraced former Archbishop of Agana, who deceived us to support the fake seminary in Yona financially to the tune of about $1 million annually among other things he did in abusing the trust we placed in him. He told us the seminary was to train, educate and ordain priests for Guam. 

As many news reports stated several years ago, the property the seminary sat on in Yona was secretly deeded to the NCW for free and was controlled by the NCW hierarchy. Their articles of incorporation clearly stated they were training men in the Neocatechumenal Way. They were not for Guam. 

They were bringing in men from South America, Central America, and the US. And the people of Guam were subsidizing their stay at that fake seminary! There are still some NCW-ordained priests on Guam, who celebrate their own mass with their NCW followers only. 

They do not follow the Rubrics as found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the law governing the sacramental rite of the Roman Catholic mass. As Bishop Schneider stated, they dance at their mass; they sit for communion; and forget about the crumbs of the Eucharist that falls to the floor. They have testimonials from their followers when the sermon or homily should be presented to the congregation at mass by the celebrant.

So, now to my point. Why, with all the sweat, tears, protests, and prayers in public that the faithful on Guam have gone through to remove Apuron from his seat as the Archbishop of Agana because of all that he did to deceive the people of Guam in addition to the boys he sexually abused and their families whom he has traumatized; for the efforts the faithful of Guam has done to bring attention to the abuse of the assets of our Archdiocese by Apuron and all his cohorts, some who have left the island, would the Communications Office and the Chancery give public media prominence to two individuals from Guam who deserted Guam to serve as priests elsewhere? 

They had a choice to go to a seminary in California and thereafter return to Guam to serve our people. Instead they chose to go to an NCW seminary and serve somewhere else. 

This is an insult to all the people who worked to clean up our Church these past several years and who continue to do so, because the people behind these two priests are the NCW organization, which, along with Apuron and his cohorts, have severely harmed our Church in Guam! 

And the Chancery and the Archdiocese of Agana’s Communications Office is effectively sticking it in our face! 

I would not put it past the NCW leadership to be behind this effort to “stick it to us” for taking two of Guam’s sons to serve their organization instead of serving the people of Guam. 

I learned also there are a few other men from Guam who are studying for the priesthood at an NCW seminary in the US. They are free to choose where they want to be formed for the priesthood, of course, as long as we do not pay for their training and education. 

The four seminarians we have now studying at St. Patrick’s seminary are to be commended and supported by us and promoted with prominence by us and our Archdiocese at every opportunity during the course of their formation. 

They need to know we are praying for them to be good priests to serve our people on Guam, to conquer this evil and remove the stench of evil that Apuron and his ilk have left on Guam. 

To the Communications Office director, Tony Diaz, stick to stories of the sons of Guam who are studying for the priesthood to serve the Catholics of Guam, not some neocat deserters. 

I urge you to remove the stories of these two NCW priests from the Archdiocese of Agana’s Facebook page and wherever else you have the story presented. We do not condone anything related to the NCW on Guam because of what they have done to our Church. And our Chancery and Archdiocese should not promote anything they do. We should be working together to expel this heresy from Guam, officially and “by the book.” 

And please don’t say that we do not have a voice in this matter because we are not an official or an organization of the Archdiocese. We do! Because this is our Church too! And we are doing what is right to protect our Church from charlatans infiltrating it at high places and throughout to take it over for their own purposes. 

Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc. is not an organization of the Archdiocese by design. So we can be critical of your directives and actions if we see it going down the wrong path. Keep your guard up; scrutinize anything coming from the NCW. In fact, throw it in the trash can. 

We do not need to promote them or what they are doing to divide our Church, even if you think we should be trying to “get along.” 

Sorry, the NCW leadership is deceitful, and we should be strong enough in our faith to see the Truth. 

Please get this through your noggins up there at the Chancery 

THEY ARE RIGHT NEXT DOOR: A DEEP LOOK AT THE DEEP STATE IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA

A few days ago, Tony Diaz, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Agana, released a statement relative to the discontinuance of Apuron's stipend. 

There was an immediate backlash on social media indicating that there are many who do not understand why - more than two years after Apuron was found guilty of the sexual abuse of minors by the Vatican - that Apuron has continued to receive a stipend via the "collection plate" of the Catholics who have already been burdened with paying for the bankruptcy wrought by the same Apuron. 

Typical of this archdiocese's historic treatment of the laity, there was a "none of your business attitude" in the release. 

That's too bad. The release was a wonderful opportunity to heal the wounds at many levels. 

First, there was the opportunity to explain that the current archbishop was bound by canon law to continue Apuron's stipend given that the Vatican stopped short of laicizing ("defrocking") Apuron. 

Second, there was the opportunity to demonstrate that we can trust the current archbishop in demonstrating that more than likely there was "good cause shown" to the Vatican big boys (i.e. the CDF* and even the pope), that - due to the bankruptcy - it would be immoral to continue to pay Apuron his stipend when us "lowly" lay Catholics are already being made to foot the bill to keep our parishes and schools open because of what Apuron did.

*CDF is Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which was ultimately the Vatican authority which pronounced Apuron "guilty." It is also noteworthy that this is the first time in Church history wherein a bishop was found guilty in a trial before a Vatican tribunal. 

And, third, it was an opportunity to educate everyone about what happens when church law and civil law come into conflict, something all of us need to know more about these days. 

However, none of this was done. And it remains to be seen whether or our current archbishop (via "Fr. Ron" and "Tony") will tell us "the rest of the story." 

As far as JungleWatch Nation (and specifically Tim Rohr, the author of this post) is concerned, the real issue is WHY?, several years hence, the leadership of the NCW, i.e. David Atienza* - "arch" NCW "catechist" for Guam, is permitted to continue to defy Archbishop Byrnes at almost every level: 

(1) Atienza's refusal to provide Archbishop Byrnes a copy of the NCW Catechetical Directory - so AB Byrnes can perform his canonical due diligence inquiry into the NCW doctrine; 

(2) why the NCW (via Atienza) is continuing to "celebrate" their "Eucharist" according to their own - and mostly prohibited - rubrics right under the new AB's nose; and  

(3) whether or not the NCW's (i.e. Atienza's*) continued "black trash bag" collections - or a portion thereof - are being routed to Apuron. 

We encourage Archbishop Byrnes to take a "deep look" at the "deep state" which still runs what is left of this archdiocese and which led us into bankruptcy in the first place. Hint: They are right next door.

*According to this, Atienza is being sustained and supported by the tax-payers of Guam. 

COURAGE.

P.S. Do not think that we are not aware of the "rest of the story."