Spitfire List Web site and blog of anti-fascist researcher and radio personality Dave Emory.
The tag 'Opus Dei' is associated with 42 posts.

“It’s Easier to Develop a Child than to Rehabilitate an Adult”: How Many Child Molestation Investigations Overlap?

How many of the emerg­ing child-molesta­tion scan­dals emerg­ing actu­al­ly over­lap and what sort of pow­er-polit­i­cal inter­ests have been uti­liz­ing those enmeshed in the affairs for black­mail and polit­i­cal and/or eco­nom­ic gain? The Opus-Dei linked GOP sen­a­tor Rick San­to­rum was a pro­mot­er and defend­er of con­vict­ed child moles­ter Jer­ry San­dusky. Is there a Vat­i­can link to the Penn State scan­dal? Dis­graced British Car­di­nal Kei­th O’Bri­an was close to the late Jim­my Sav­ile, a Vat­i­can knight who was an invet­er­ate pedophile.


Keepin’ On Keepin’ On: Will Ratzinger/Benedict Become the Vatican’s “Holy Ghost” (Spook)?

There are numer­ous indi­ca­tions that “fas­cist-friend­ly” insti­tu­tion­al con­ti­nu­ity will be main­tained at the Vat­i­can. The Pope will have the title of “Emer­i­tus Pope.” This will allow him to wield influ­ence behind the scenes. That should be easy to accom­plish. The Pope will con­tin­ue to reside Vat­i­can City, retain­ing diplo­mat­ic immu­ni­ty from future pros­e­cu­tion or lit­i­ga­tion. Ratzinger/Benedict’s suc­ces­sor may well be some­one cut from the same fab­ric as he. The tim­ing of the con­clave that will select the next pon­tiff may be moved up.


Vatican Report and the Pope’s Resignation: “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!”

We’ve post­ed sev­er­al times in con­nec­tion with the res­ig­na­tion of Bene­dict XVI. Media spec­u­la­tion has cen­tered on a report sub­mit­ted to Ratzinger/Benedict detail­ing black­mail of a pow­er­ful “Vel­vet Mafia” of gay prelates inside the Vat­i­can. That scan­dal appears to be over­lap­ping some of the inquiries into the Vat­i­can finances. Appar­ent­ly black­mailed by out­siders over their exten­sive and rel­a­tive­ly vis­i­ble liaisons, the “Vel­vet Mafia” appears to have had deal­ings with the Vat­i­can bank–long a focus of intrigue and covert fas­cist machi­na­tions.


Another “Interesting” Maneuver by Ratzinger/Benedict

Pope Bene­dic­t’s res­ig­na­tion has gar­nered much spec­u­la­tion as to the rea­son why. Less spec­u­la­tion has been giv­en to some of the appoint­ments that the Pope has made just before leav­ing the Vat­i­can. The Vat­i­can offi­cial rep­re­sent­ing the Holy See to Mon­ey­val (over­see­ing mon­ey laun­der­ing and ter­ror­ism inves­ti­ga­tions for the Coun­cil of Europe) has been trans­ferred to Colom­bia. Might this have any­thing to do with the reput­ed rela­tion­ship between late Vat­i­can finan­cial advis­er Rober­to Calvi and Pablo Esco­bar of the Medellin Car­tel?


Parting Shot from “Der Panzerkardinal”: Keeping Scandal Hidden (Under the Rock of St. Peter)

The his­to­ry of the Vat­i­can Bank, the IOR, is inex­tri­ca­bly linked with scan­dal and the his­to­ry of the Holy See’s involve­ment with fas­cism. The out­go­ing Pope has named a Ger­man mem­ber of the Knights of Mal­ta to head that insti­tu­tion. (The Knights of Mal­ta or SMOM is, basi­cal­ly, the mil­i­tary wing of the Vat­i­can.) Ratzinger/Benedict’s selec­tion is Ernst von Frey­berg, a mem­ber of the board of Blohm & Voss, the Ger­man ship­mak­er and man­u­fac­tur­er of war­ships for Hitler and the Fed­er­al Repub­lic of Ger­many.


Ratzinger Leaves the Ship

A care­tak­er Pope, Bene­dict XVI presided over numer­ous inquiries into Vat­i­can malfea­sance. His res­ig­na­tion rais­es the ques­tion as to what will fol­low. Steeped in the Vat­i­can’s long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship with fas­cism, the out­go­ing Pope presided over a white­wash of Pius XII’s involve­ment with the Third Reich and a blunt­ing of inquiries into the molesta­tion scan­dals unfold­ing around the world.


Seymour Hersh: Joint Chiefs of Staff Dominated by Knights of Malta, Opus Dei

“New York Times” jour­nal­ist Sey­mour Hersh main­tains that U.S. Joint Chief­sof Staff are dom­i­nat­ed by offi­cers belong­ing to, or sym­pa­thet­ic to the Knights of Mal­ta and/or Opus Dei.


Gay Theologian Expounds on the Church’s Homophobia and Shift to the Right

Com­ment: A recent Spiegel arti­cle record­ed the obser­va­tions of  David Berg­er, a gay for­mer Catholic priest. Berg­er dis­cussed homo­pho­bia in the Church and among its pow­er­ful sup­port­ers, as well as the Church’s polit­i­cal lurch to the right. Inter­view With Gay The­olo­gian David Berg­er: ‘A Large Pro­por­tion of Catholic Cler­ics and Trainee Priests Are Homo­sex­u­al’ ”; Spiegel […]


Vatican Bank Chief’s Free-Market Ideology and Opus Dei Background

Com­ment: Ettore Got­ti Tedeschi–head of the Vat­i­can Bank–espoused the free-mar­ket ide­ol­o­gy that led to the crash of 2008. Tedeschi has also advised then Car­di­nal Ratzinger and helped him write an eco­nom­ic the­sis. (Ratzinger became, of course, Pope Bene­dict.) Not sur­pris­ing­ly, Tedeschi  is a mem­ber of Opus Dei, the fas­cist lay Catholic order that has been […]


Links Between IHH (the Flotilla Sponsor) and “neo-Ustache” in Croatia

Com­ment: The Balka­ns offices of IHH–the Turk­ish NGO that spon­sored the Flotil­la inci­dent in May–are in Zagreb, Croa­t­ia. In that loca­tionl, the orga­ni­za­tion was able to coor­di­nate the attack against the Serbs with the Croa­t­ian “neo-Ustache” of Fran­jo Tudj­man. Lis­ten­ers are encour­aged to access the vast vol­ume of infor­ma­tion about the Balka­ns wars to flesh […]