on
Roman Catholicism
Uhrichsville, Barbour and Company, 1991
You see, the Jesuits influenced people and they started setting up smokescreens during our times, through our theological seminaries, and when that smokescreen came up we started seeing the "Whore of Revelation" in a different light. They said, "Oh, no, this is something coming in the future." Or, "That happened 'way back in the past.'" This is done to confuse the Christians. Today, many people believe this. They have been beguiled like I was when I first listened to some of these people. It was a clever smokescreen. I was confused at first, but now I see the whore in her fullness, and it is scary. http://www.chick.com/reading/books/153/153_01.asp
The move toward the global church is called the "ecumenical movement." Spearheaded by the Roman Catholic Church, it is designed to bring all churches under the influence of the pope. Since the idea of love and unity is very appealing, many Christians have welcomed the idea, without thinking it through. How can an evangelical Christian, saved by faith alone, be in unity with a Roman Catholic who believes in salvation by good works and fully indoctrinated in S U N Worship? The result is always a watering down of the simple, pure gospel.
Smokescreens
by Jack T. Chick © 1983 Jack T. Chick |
The Secret History of the Jesuits
- The Secret History of the Jesuits - by Edmond Paris Click the underline to read. |
Secrets the Jesuits don't want Christians to know
Out of Europe, a voice is heard from the secular world that documents historically the same information told by ex-priests. The author exposes the Vatican's involvement in world politics, intrigues, and the fomenting of wars throughout history. It appears, beyond any doubt, that the Roman Catholic institution is not a Christian church and never was. The poor Roman Catholic people have been betrayed by her and are facing spiritual disaster. Paris shows that Rome is responsible for the two great world wars.
Author Edmond Paris explains why he wrote this book...
"The public is practically unaware of the overwhelming responsibility carried by the Vatican and its Jesuits in the start of the two world wars -- a situation which may be explained in part by the gigantic finances at the disposition of the Vatican and its Jesuits, giving them power in so many spheres, especially since the last conflict."
"In fact, the part they took in those tragic events has hardly been mentioned until the present time, except by apologists eager to disguise it. It is with the aim of rectifying this and establishing the true facts that we present in this and other books the political activity of the Vatican during the contemporary -- activity which mutually concerns the Jesuits."
"This study is based on irrefutable archive documents, publications from well-known political personalities, diplomats, ambassadors and eminent writers, most of whom are Catholics, even attested by the imprimatur."
Table of Contents
Part 1 - The Founding of the Jesuit Order
Chapter 1: Ignatius of Loyola
Chapter 2: The Spiritual Exercises
Chapter 3: The Founding of the Company
Chapter 4: The Spirit of the Order
Chapter 5: The Privileges of the Company
Part 2 - The Jesuits in Europe during the 16th and 17th Centuries
Chapter 1: Italy, Portugal, Spain
Chapter 2: Germany
Chapter 3: Switzerland
Chapter 4: Poland and Russia
Chapter 5: Sweden and England
Chapter 6: France
Part 3 - Foreign Missions
Chapter 1: India, Japan, China
Chapter 2: The Americas: The Jesuit State of Paraguay
Part 4 - The Jesuits in the European Society
Chapter 1: The teaching of the Jesuits
Chapter 2: The morals of the Jesuits
Chapter 3: The Eclipse of the Company
Chapter 4: Rebirth of the Society of Jesus during the 19th Century
Chapter 5: The Second Empire and the Falloux Law - The War of 1870
Chapter 6: The Jesuits in Rome - The Syllabus
Chapter 7: The Jesuits in France from 1870 to 1885
Chapter 8: The Jesuits and General Boulander
The Jesuits and the Dreyfus Affair
Chapter 9: The Years before the War - 1900-1914
Part 5 - The Infernal Cycle
Chapter 1: The First World War
Chapter 2: Preparations for the Second World War
Chapter 3: German Aggression and the Jesuits.
Austria - Poland - Czechoslovakia - Yugoslavia
Chapter 4: The Jesuit movement in France before and during the
1939-1945 War
Chapter 5: The Gestapo and the Society of Jesus
Chapter 6: The Death Camps and the Anti-Semitic Crusade
Chapter 7: The Jesuits and the Colleqium Russieum
Chapter 8: Pope John XXIII removes the mask.
http://www.chick.com/catalog/books/0191.asp
The Jesuits had secretly prepared World War II, and Hitler's war machine was built and financed by the Vatican to conquer the world for Roman Catholicism, Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco were to be the defenders of the faith. They were set up to win and conquer the world, and set up a millennium for the pope. Behind the scenes, the Jesuits controlled the Gestapo. All this is fully documented in THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE JESUITS, published by Chick Publications.
Read what the press of the Spanish dictator, Franco, published on the 3rd of May, 1945, the day of Hitler's death. It said, "Adolf Hitler, son of the Catholic Church, died while defending Christianity." It goes on to say, "Over his mortal remains stands his victorious moral figure. With the palm of the martyr, God gives Hitler the laurels of Victory."
Hitler himself stated, "I learned much from the Order of the Jesuits. Until now, there has never been anything more grandiose, on the earth, than the hierarchical organization of the Catholic church. I transferred much of this organization into my own party."
Walter Schellenberg, former chief of Nazi counter-espionage made this statement: "The S.S. organization had been constituted by Himmler according to the principles of the Jesuit Order. Their regulations and the Spiritual Exercises prescribed by Ignatius of Loyola were the model Himmler tried to copy exactly. Himmler's title as supreme chief of the S.S. was to be the equivalent of the Jesuits' 'General' and the whole structure was a close imitation of the Catholic Church's hierarchical order."
Franz von Papen, another powerful Nazi, who was instrumental in setting up the concordat between Germany and the Vatican had this to say: "The Third Reich is the first world power which not only acknowledges but also puts into practice the high principles of the papacy." If you are not aware of what a concordat is, a concordat is an agreement between the Vatican and a government. As far as the Vatican is concerned, that government that signed the concordat has now become a part of the government of God, and the Vatican fully intends to stabilize that government, give it divine protection, and give it international protection.
Like Italy, Germany signed a concordat with the Vatican in Rome, 1933.![]() The Godfathers, by Chick Publications, pg. 20 Signing the concordat is Cardinal Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII). By 1933 he was the Vatican Secretary of State. Second from left is Franz von Papen, a sinister Nazi and devout Roman Catholic who was Hitler's ace diplomat and the Vatican's agent in helping to bring Hitler to power. Standing at the far right can be seen the little-known Vatican prelate, Montini, later to become Pope Paul VI.
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ADOLPH HITLER SAID:
"I am personally convinced of the great power and deep significance of Christianity, and I won't allow any other religion to be promoted. That is why I have turned away from Ludendorff and that is why I reject that book by Rosenberg. It was written by a Protestant. It is not a Party book. It was not written by him as a Party man. The Protestants can be left to argue with him ... As a Catholic I never feel comfortable in the Evangelical Church or its structures. That is why I will have great difficulty if I try to regulate affairs of the Protestant churches. The evangelical people or the Protestants will in any case reject me. But you can be sure: I will protect the rights and freedoms of the churches and not let them be touched, so that you need have no fears about the future of the Church."
Hitler was also ready to discuss with the Bishop his views on the Jewish question: "As for the Jews, I am just carrying on with the same policy which the Catholic church has adopted for fifteen hundred years, when it has regarded the Jews as dangerous and pushed them into ghettos etc., because it knew what the Jews were like. I don't put race above religion, but I do see the danger in the representatives of this race for Church and State, and perhaps I am doing Christianity a great service."
"The Nazi Persecution of the Churches" by J.S. Conway, Pgs. 25, 26 & 162.
Bison Picture Library & Our Sunday Visitor, March 29, 1981
The pope despised the Russian Orthodox members. They were called Serbians and they were marked for death in Yugoslavia. They were given one choice: to convert to Catholicism, or die.
Why were they killed? Why did the pope have such a vendetta against the Russian Orthodox? As we said in our Crusaders book, THE GODFATHERS, the communist party was created by the Vatican to destroy one of her greatest enemies, the Russian Orthodox church. The communists had double-crossed the pope and refused to destroy the Russian Orthodox church members and at last, Pope Pius XII had created a machine to do what the communists had failed to do - butcher every Orthodox church member and their clergy. Let's see how this was accomplished.
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The Catholic priests changed their robes for the uniforms of the dreaded Ustachi killer squads, and led the most barbaric, brutal raids upon those people and practiced satanic torture never before known in this century. We are not talking 800 years ago. We are talking 1940.
Do you believe this monster is simply a backslidden or apostate church like many of our Christian leaders tell us, or is she the whore of Revelation? Let's look at scripture and check it out for ourselves. We find in chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation the Bible says, "I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:" And, of course, in scripture the reference to many waters means multitudes of people. Today the Vatican boasts almost one billion followers. What's that, almost a quarter of the earth's population?
And it says, "With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." If you look back in history you will see that almost every king has had political, economic or religious ties with the Vatican, starting with Constantine the Great, who was actually the first pope, and presided over the first council. Constantine was never saved. (That was another smokescreen.) Most nations today have diplomatic representatives in the Vatican.
"And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." We have just looked at the madness of World War II and how it was set up by the Jesuits. And the Bible goes on to say, "The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet." These are the official colors of the Vatican. "And decked with gold and precious stones and pearls." Did you know the Vatican is the wealthiest organization on the face of the earth? Later in the book I'll go into this in more detail. The Bible goes on to say, "And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT." Where did Catholicism come from? If you do a little research you'll find it came from the ancient Babylonian mysteries, and you can trace it right back to Nimrod and Semiramis. Only the names were changed to make it look like a Christian organization.
"The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth." Can I name a few abominations that came from Rome? We have the Nazi Party, which was staffed with Jesuits and high ranking Catholics. And then we have the communist party, another offshoot, or branch of the mother of harlots.
Listen to these names: Marx, Engels, Stalin, Lenin, Fidel Castro. All were trained and guided by Jesuits. We are publishing two new books that go into detail on this. So these are her babies. Just a few of them, not to mention some of the spirit cults like voodoo. In the voodoo creed they state that, along with their religion of demon possession, they believe in "the holy Roman Catholic church."
The Bible goes on to say, "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints." The Roman Catholic Institution tortured, maimed and murdered 68 million people during the Spanish Inquisition alone, and many of these were Bible-believing Christians.
Who would you say the whore of Revelation is? Is it something that will come in the future, or are we stuck with it right now? Beloved, it is obvious the whore of Revelation is the Roman Catholic Institution, and God hates it! He wants His people to come out of it so that His love can be manifested. God says, "If you love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
At the end of the Dark Ages, when the popes ruthlessly controlled Europe, God raised up Christian men and women who knew the Bible and loudly proclaimed that the deadly Roman Catholic Institution was the whore of Revelation. http://www.chick.com/reading/books/153/153_04.asp
Hostage to The Devil - The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans - by Malachi Martin
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The Broken Cross - The Hidden Hand in the Vatican - by Piers Compton
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The Vatican Billions - Two Thousand Years of Wealth Accumulation from Caesar to the Space Age - by Avro Manhattan
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The Vatican Mafia - by Monseñor Dr. Rafael Rodriguez Guillen |
Jesuits began arriving in ameriKa
as early as the second group of Pilgrims (1633) .This according to one of their own.
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Secret Instructions of the Jesuits - Revealed
The Secret Instructions were first discovered during the 30 Years' War when the Duke of Brunswick plundered the Jesuit's college at Paderborn in Westphalia and made a present of their library to the Capuchins of the same town. Soon after reprints and translations appeared all over Europe.
The text of the Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus reproduced here was found beneath the pallet on an adobe bed in a cottage in the Andes Mountains of Peru about a century ago. Students of the Incas recall that prior to the expedition of the National Geographic Magazine under Hiram Bingham, in 1911, archeologists from European countries probed the ruins of this people, one of the greatest civilizations in history.
In 1870 a French archeologist slipped unobtrusively into the office of the Secretary of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in San Francisco, California. He had been sent into the remote recesses of the Andes, where Pizarro and his army had conquered the Incas more than three centuries before. He had rented a room in a tiny village. This he used as a base of his operations. To this spot he returned periodically to rest from the dangerously high altitudes and to write his reports for shipment back to France. While he was away, the family frequently rented the same room to overnight guests. One of these happened to be a Jesuit official. On his departure he forgot a little book which he had hidden under the mattress. The French archeologist accidentally found it. It was the Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus—the top classified manual of procedure for the trusted leaders of the Jesuit Order. It was in Latin and bore the seal, signature and attestation of the General and Secretary of the Order in Rome.
For the next few days the Frenchman labored furiously translating the work in stenographic notes into French. He then replaced the book and left. The Jesuit returned in a few days inquiring nervously about his little black packet. He also wanted to know if anyone had occupied the room since his departure. On learning of the archeologist he began a search so relentless that the Frenchman had to leave Peru. He finally reached San Francisco and entrusted his precious but dangerous burden to Edwin A. Sherman, the Secretary of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in California. Mr. Sherman included the Secret Instructions in his book The Engineer Corps of Hell published in 1882. For several years Edwin Sherman was the Masonic Historian of California. He was highly esteemed for his great accuracy and dependability.
Contents
THE MANNER OF PROCEDURE WITH WHICH THE SOCIETY MUST BE CONDUCTED WHEN CONSIDERING THE COMMENCING OF SOME FOUNDATION. |
THE MANNER WITH WHICH THE FATHERS OF THE ORDER MUST CONDUCT THEMSELVES TO ACQUIRE AND PRESERVE THE FAMILIARITY OF PRINCES, MAGNATES AND POWERFUL AND RICH PERSONS. |
HOW THE SOCIETY MUST BE CONDUCTED WITH THE GREAT AUTHORITIES IN THE STATE, AND IN CASE THEY ARE NOT RICH WE MUST LEND OURSELVES TO OTHERS. |
OF THAT WHICH WE MUST CHARGE THE PREACHERS AND CONFESSORS OF THE GREAT OF THE EARTH. |
OF THE MODE OF CONDUCTING THE SOCIETY WITH RESPECT TO OTHER ECCLESIASTICS WHO HAVE THE SAME DUTIES AS OURSELVES IN THE CHURCH. |
OF THE MODE OF ATTRACTING RICH WIDOWS. |
SYSTEM WHICH MUST BE EMPLOYED WITH WIDOWS AND METHODS OF DISPOSING OF THEIR PROPERTY. |
METHODS BY WHICH THE CHILDREN OF RICH WIDOWS MAY BE CAUSED TO EMBRACE THE RELIGIOUS STATE, OR OF DEVOTION. |
UPON THE AUGMENTING OF REVENUE IN THE COLLEGES. |
OF THE PARTICULAR RIGOR OF DISCIPLINE IN THE SOCIETY. |
HOW WE MUST CONDUCT OURSELVES UNITEDLY AGAINST THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN EXPELLED FROM THE SOCIETY. |
WHO MAY COME THAT THEY MAY BE SUSTAINED AND PRESERVED IN THE SOCIETY. |
OF THE YOUTH WHO MAY BE ELECTED TO BE ADMITTED INTO THE SOCIETY, AND OF THE MODE OF RETAINING THEM. |
UPON RESERVED CASES AND MOTIVES THAT NECESSITATE EXPULSION FROM SOCIETY. |
HOW THE SOCIETY MUST BE CONDUCTED WITH THE MONKS AND NUNS. |
HOW WE MUST MAKE PROFESSION OF DESPISING RICHES. |
METHODS TO EXALT THE COMPANY. |
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Constitution Of The Jesuits - Bull of September 27, 1540
- Last Great Inquisition
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Secret Instruction of the Jesuits - Revealed
by Charles Chiniquy
History of the JesuitsExcerpted from the massive 2 vol.History of Protestantism
by Dr. J. A. Wylie LL.D.from Reformation Website Dr. Wylie's massive History was published in 1878. The Jesuits did not self -destruct with the fall of the Papal States in 1870. As a matter of fact, that momentous event spurred them on to greater effort. The highest ranking Jesuit priest ever to escape that system and come to Christ was Dr. Alberto Rivera. He was a Bishop under the Extreme Oath of Induction. Normally, a person of such high rank who wants out knows too much, and always leaves feet first!! God miraculously spared his life for 30 years. He finally succumbed to Jesuit poison in June, 1997. Dr. Rivera authenticates everything that Dr. Wylie says in his book and the half has not been told!!
During the Second Vatican Council, Dr. Rivera was taken deep beneath the Vatican to the Secret Archives, where all the history of the world for the past 2000 years is stored. He was ordered to study the methods of infiltration and extermination used by Nero, Diocletian, Constantine, Dominic, Torquemada, and Loyola etc., in preparation for the Last Great Inquisition!! Dr. Rivera read many top secret documents that linked the Vatican to the creation of Islam and Communism etc.,etc. Contents
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1994 Rwandan Genocide in the Jungle
Go purchase the Video: "Hotel Rwanda"
It openly mocks the stupidity and ignorance of the people!
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Rwanda is a predominantly Christian nation where three out of four people call themselves Catholic after 100 years of intense exposure to white missionaries. In 1994, the country was turned into a vast graveyard. In 100 days, 800,000 men and women, babies and old people were butchered as marauding bands of R.C. Hutu militia hunted and killed every member of the Protestant Tutsi minority they could find. I shall include the not named here genocide of 8,000 S.D.A who were in hiding known only to one, their (SUPPOSED) leader. In reality he was a Jesuit plant. He is alive and in hiding in the United states Today!
At Nyange, Seromba's parish, thousands of Tutsi fled to the church and Seromba, who had been the priest for about six months, for refuge. Instead, they were slaughtered.
Witnesses said Seromba, a Hutu, sided with the campaign to exterminate the Tutsi to an extreme extent. He urged on the militia attacking the church and, in a climax of unimaginable horror, ordered it to be bulldozed, crushing those inside.
Anastase Kinamubanzi, one of the bulldozer drivers, balked at demolishing "God's house." But Seromba told him: "There are many Christians in foreign lands. This church will be rebuilt in three days". Witnesses are quoted as saying he paid the drivers and locals to bury the bodies. Between 2,000 and 2,500 were killed.
Today, a weed-strewn mound of rubble, mixed with bundles of rags that once were people, and four stark wooden crosses are all that remain of the church at Nyange. A lush grassy plain nearby covers a mass grave. The attacks on the Tutsi in the Nyange area began on April 8. Two days earlier, President Juvenal Habyarimana had been killed in a mysterious plane crash near Kigali, the capital. His death was blamed on the minority Tutsi, regarded as the enemy. It unleashed a wave of killings and, as happened everywhere, Tutsi in Seromba's area fled their homes.
Seromba, accompanied by Grégoire Ndaimana, the burgomaster or mayor, and a group of councillors and police officers, toured the villages, urging people to gather in the church for their own protection.
The priest was a reassuring presence in an increasingly frightening world. But he was engaged in a cruel deception. Seromba and the burgomaster were chairing daily sessions of a "special security committee" whose one purpose, according to a police participant, was "the extermination of the Tutsi" gathering at the church.
By and by, hundreds of people had congregated for safety in the church and courtyard. But many Hutu militia, were converging on them as well. Many Tutsi had armed themselves with stones and their own traditional weapons.
Some were hiding in the presbytery, a two-storey building nearby where Seromba had his quarters. Seromba did not like them being there and had them expelled. According to Papias Hategekimana, his cook, he said to an Hutu militiaman who had come to ask permission to let them kill the Tutsi: "Wait, I will tell you when the time comes."
When she entered the church on Sunday, April 10, Virginie Mukabarinda, who was 20, was struck by the pathetic sound of "children crying from hunger and lack of air." She had a daughter and a baby girl and there was nothing to eat. Seromba was heard to say the Tutsi in the church should be left to starve.
On the Tuesday, Bertin Ndakubana, a livestock breeder and now a local councillor, entered with his family and found Seromba there. He heard someone ask the priest to pray for them. "Is the God of the Tutsi still alive?" Seromba replied.
"Someone else said to him, 'Aren't you concerned about these children polluting the altar? Couldn't you allocate some rooms instead of the church,'" Ndakubana recalled. "Seromba answered: `You can go and s--- on the altar if you want to, because I won't be celebrating mass on it ever again' "
The next day, April 13, the gendarmes confiscated the Tutsi's knives, machetes and axes, leaving them almost defenceless except for stones. Charles Kagenza, a member of the local Charismatic Renewal Movement, began organizing prayers. It was at this point that Seromba took away the chalices, communion cups and clerical vestments. Kagenza asked him to leave the monstrance and the Eucharist so that they could hold a service. Seromba said the building no longer functioned as a church.
The decision to kill the Tutsi was taken that evening. According to Adrien Niyyitegeka, a police officer who attended the meeting, Seromba approved. Ndaimana, the burgomaster, went to Kibuye, the nearest big town, to seek ammunition and gasoline to burn them if it was necessary.
The church was attacked on schedule the following day. The refugees, although weak from hunger and thirst, managed to defend themselves at first and repulsed the attackers with stones.
Another high-level meeting was called at which Seromba agreed to use his influence to persuade the refugees to leave the church. At the same time, reinforcements were summoned with drums.
The next day more the Hutu militants, wearing feathers and banana leaves, and chanting, blowing whistles and beating drums encircled the church. Seromba tried to persuade people to leave. The killing began an hour afterward. Seromba was seen firing into the crowd with his gun.
"They killed using machetes, hand grenades, guns, spears and arrows. It was horrific," Ndakubana said. "Children were screaming, women were crying, men were groaning. Some people tried to get out of the church, but were caught and killed immediately, while others were running into the church to get out of the courtyard. Some people even went to the priests' quarters, although anyone who hid there was chased out again by the priests." Another witness described Seromba at one stage standing on the presbytery balcony with the other priests, watching the slaughter "as though they were watching a good film."
Jean-Bosco Safari, 33, a civil servant whose wife was killed, was hiding in the presbytery kitchen with others. When they were discovered, Seromba told them he would ensure their safety.
Then, Safari said, the gendarmes came, lined up those still hiding in the courtyard and shot them. "They went on killing until the evening. The noise was indescribable, the screams, the terrifying sound of grenades exploding.
It was like a scene from hell with the devil dressed as a priest that evening. A young girl begged Seromba to save her. He replied. 'Get lost, cockroach).'" Virginie and Alexis Mukabarinda were also hiding in the kitchen with their baby Apollonia. They had left their elder daughter and Virginie's father in the church, where they later died.
Afraid that Apollonia would cry and give them away, Virginie hid in a cupboard used to store fruit. Alexis and others in the kitchen were dripping blood from their wounds when Seromba came in.
Seromba told them to set an example and be the first to leave. They were given no choice, Virginie said, and trooped out. It was the last she saw of her husband. Seromba believed that everybody had left and went to the sink to wash his hands.
"My heart was in my mouth," Virginie said. "I prayed to God not to let Apollonia sneeze and gave her my breast to suck. God granted my prayer." As she hid she heard Seromba talking to himself at the sink, unaware that he was being overheard. He was saying in a loud voice: "My God, forgive me. I can't do anything else. They have to die. War is a terrible thing."
Seromba brought in two Hutu girls to mop up the blood. One was Epiphanie. Hungry and hoping to find some fruit in the cupboard, she opened the door and found Virginie cowering inside with her baby.
"We'll never get rid of the Tutsi fighters," she exclaimed. "They are too crafty. How could that woman have got in the cupboard?" She ordered Virginie out and criticized Seromba for having Tutsi staff. But he told her not to bother about Virginie. "Why don't you hand her over to the people who will deal with her?"
Virginie was let go but her tragedy was not over. After hiding in yam and manioc fields for two days she took the risk of contacting François Muemezi, a Hutu neighbour, and appealing for his help.
He seemed to take pity on her and agreed to escort her and Apollonia across the Nyabarongo River to safety. "When we got near the river, François seized Apollonia and drowned her. I sat down and could not move."
That evening, Seromba and the burgomaster chaired a meeting to decide on a "final strategy of extermination" of the Tutsi. At 10 a.m. the next day, April 16, after more abortive attacks, the order was given to destroy the church.
Two bulldozers that had already been used to bury the corpses littering the area were ordered back. They simultaneously smashed into the left and right sides of the church. The walls caved in on the people and the militia rushed in, hacking and stabbing at random. But the steeple was still standing.
Charles Kagenza had climbed up it to save himself and, supported by a beam, watched the horror unfold below him. "The church was completely destroyed between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. It made a terrible noise, combined with the victims' cries and moans."
Seromba sipped beer on his balcony and took pot shots at the refugees in the steeple, chatting with the burgomaster as to who was the better shot. Even before that incident, Serumba had allegedly refused help to Tutsis in the first days of the genocide, even turning down requests to buy food on their behalf with their own money.
The Role of the Church
Rwanda is still struggling to come to terms with the genocide. There is no doubt that the Catholic Church abetted the tragedy. It was the single most powerful institution in the country after the government and its clergy were not exempt from the country's pervasive racism.
The church's failure to foster reconciliation remains a hot issue in Rwanda. A bishop is on trial now for genocide, a first in the history of the Catholic church. The Vatican says the trial is an attack on the church. It has helped to organize his legal defence.
In the same way, it also looked after two priests who were Seromba's subordinates at Nyange during the massacre. The Rwandan courts sentenced them to death last year. Contrast this with the Church's protection of Seromba, who remains abroad and free.
Seromba has been in Italy for the past two years with the connivance of his home bishop back in Rwanda who sanctioned his overseas posting. However, the church's protection of Seromba is about to be blown apart. A devastating dossier on his willing participation in the genocide, based on testimonies gathered in Rwanda by survivors, witnesses and accomplices, will be published as a charge-sheet against him by African Rights, the London-based human rights organization. African Rights has been investigating the genocide and its aftermath over the past five years and regards Seromba as one of its worst cases.
"In the light of the testimonies," said Rakiya Omaar, African Rights director, "it is surely impossible for the church in Italy and in Rwanda, the judicial authorities in Italy or the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to allow Fr. Seromba simply to leave his past behind. The grounds for his arrest and prosecution are beyond question."
Omaar also said the London-based group wanted to establish how and where Seromba obtained his visa, who facilitated him, whether his visa had been extended or its nature changed and whether it had been issued in that name or the one he goes by in Italy, Anastasio Sumba Bura. She said African Rights was also asking the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to investigate as well.
The group raised the case of Seromba in a 10-page letter to Pope John Paul last year but Omaar said it had been "summarily dismissed" and she had heard nothing back.
A spokesperson for the cardinal said: "Seromba was presented to us by his bishop and superiors in Rwanda. They asked us to take him for a while so we did. He is here practising as a priest and studying theology and we do not know anything else. But he seems to be a very good man and it is not nice to hear these things."
At the Vatican there was silence. But a leading missionary figure who knew Seromba when he passed through Kenya on his way to Italy was both surprised and dismayed to learn last week that Seromba remains in the priesthood and in Florence.
He said: "In terms of attitude and ideology, I can say he was a Hutu extremist, a deeply un-Christian person and not a genuine priest; most likely he should be conducted before a genocide tribunal." It was the first time anyone in the Church of any authority had dared to give a negative judgment on the Seromba case.
Confronted at his church, Seromba said at first he did not want to talk.
"I do not have the time," he said. Pressed again, he insisted there was nothing he could have done to save his parishioners. He was not going to confess and he was at peace with his God.
A Rwandan court in April 1998 sentenced Serumba's colleagues, Frs. Jean Francois Kayiranga and Edouard Nkurikiye, to death after finding them guilty of crimes against humanity. The driver of the digger, was given a life term. About 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed by Hutu extremists in the
100-day killing spree in 1994.
In a separate case, Bp. Augustin Misago of Gikongoro in southern Rwanda, went on trial in Sept. on charges of collaborating with officials in Tutsi extermination plans.
Nuns involved also
African Rights is going after other alleged genocidal clergy as well. In a 62-page report documenting the alleged involvement of Srs. Gertrude Mukangango and. Julienne Kizito in the deaths of up to 6,000 Tutsis, they called on the Belgian judicial system to prosecute the two nuns.
The group said its report showed that members of the Belgian Catholic clergy had "sought to interfere with the process of justice." African Rights said its findings were based on testimony from 34 witnesses to the slaughter in Sovu, Rwanda, from April to July 1994. These included survivors, other nuns, prisoners accused of genocide and residents of Sovu.
The nuns have been living at the Benedictine order in Maredret, Belgium, since Aug. 1994. The order declined comment on the report. The report said the unquestioning faith of the order alone could not explain why the women remained at liberty when there were so many people prepared to testify to their involvement in the genocide in Sovu.
"The example of the Church's response to the accusations against the Sovu nuns raises... the broader issue of the Catholic Church's political stance, before, during and after the 1994 genocide," it said.
The report said the behavior of some at the Belgian monastery "suggests that at the heart of the Catholic church in Belgium are clergy prepared not only to tolerate genocide suspects, but to work alongside them, and even to do all in their power to cover up for them."
Reuters, 2/28/00, 11/24/99, 11/21; London Sunday Times, 11/21
Late Breaking News:
Blame Shared for Rwandan Genocide
UNITED NATIONS - In a scathing indictment of the failure to halt the worst genocide since World War II, an international panel has blamed the UN Security Council, the United States, France and the Roman Catholic Church for failing to prevent the slaughter of more than 500,000 Rwandans.
The seven-member panel created by the Organization of African Unity called for the international community - especially those countries that failed to prevent or help stop the 1994 genocide - to pay reparations to Rwanda "in the name of both justice and accountability."
The Vatican's UN observer mission said it had no comment on the report.
The panel concluded that France was closer than any other government to the Rwandan regime and knew what was happening, but did nothing to stop the genocide before it began. Like the French government, the panel blamed the Catholic and Anglican hierarchies for failing to use "their unique moral position among the overwhelmingly Christian population to denounce ethnic hatred and human rights abuses."
The UN had a 2,500-strong peacekeeping mission in Rwanda when the genocide began, but governments pulled out all but a few hundred troops after 10 Belgian peacekeepers were killed.
Meanwhile, the trial of Bp. Augustin Misago, 56, the highest-ranking member of over 20 priests and nuns charged in the massacre, was to reach a verdict by June 15. It is not known what the result was. Two priests have already been convicted and sentenced to death.
Prosecutors said Misago sent 3 priests and dozens of schoolchildren to their deaths by denying them shelter. They were hacked to death by a mob.
In mid-May, Pope John Paul II, after hearing the prosecution's request for a death sentence, sent Misago a telegram of solidarity, saying that he was praying for Misago's release.
AP 7/7/2000, Reuters 5/11, 5/10
Ugandan Cult Murders
KAMPALA - A cult leader facing murder charges in Uganda's doomsday massacre was a student priest who attended graduate school at a Jesuit university in Los Angeles, officials said. Defrocked priest Dominic Kataribabo, 32, is one of 6 Ugandans now wanted in connection with the worst cult-related killings in modern history.
So far, police have found 924 bodies, most of them burnt, many strangled and mutilated. More than half were inside the nailed-shut doors of a village church set afire while many followers were still alive. Leaders of the cult slaughtered a child every Friday and drank its blood, a Kampala newspaper reported.
Several people who claimed they had witnessed ritual killings said that the leaders consulted witches in nearby towns who advised them "to kill the opposition leaders and drink the blood of a young slain child to keep off the spirits and government."
Originally thought to have perished in the fire, the cult leaders are now believed to be in hiding, possibly in Kenya. Little had been known about Kataribabo, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who helped lead the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and preached the world would end on Dec. 31, 1999.
P>But church and university officials said Kataribabo earned a 1987 master's degree in religious studies from Loyola Marymount University, one of America's top Roman Catholic colleges. "He seemed to be pretty ordinary," said a university spokesman, reviewing Kataribabo's records.
Police found 81 bodies, 5 of which were children, under a newly poured cement floor in Kataribabo's 10-room house. Another 74 mutilated, strangled bodies, including 28 children, were found in his backyard.
Los Angeles Archdiocese records show Kataribabo was awarded a full Loyola Marymount scholarship in 1985 under a university program benefiting third world priests after being nominated by his local bishop in the Kampala archdiocese. Kataribabo lived at St. Anthony's parish rectory in the coastal city of El Segundo, said archdiocese spokesman Fr. Gregory Coiro.
The archdiocese granted "sacramental ministry" permission to Kataribabo, meaning he could conduct Mass and weddings at St. Anthony's, said Coiro. The ordained priest from Uganda left America on July 10, 1987. "He said he was returning to his own country," Coiro said. "There were no improprieties listed in Kataribabo's file." It was only after he became involved with the cult that he was defrocked.
The warrants name two other of sect's most notorious figures: "The Prophet," Bishop Joseph Kibwetere, titular head of the cult, and charismatic ex-banana beer peddler and former prostitute, Sister Cedonia Mwerinde, 48, known as "The Programmer," the real power behind the cult with her self-proclaimed apocalyptic visions of the Virgin Mary.
Fr Paul Ikazire, a priest who spent three years as one of the cult's leaders before defecting back to the Roman Catholic Church, recalls how Sister Credonia dominated the sect.
"The meetings were chaired by Sister Credonia, who was the de facto head of the cult," he said. "Kibwetere was just a figurehead, intended to impose masculine authority over the followers and enhance the cult's public relations. I perceived her as a trickster, obsessed with the desire to grab other people's property. She told her followers to sell their property but she never sold hers."
Credonia was also responsible for imposing a ruthless daily regimen on the devotees. They would be woken before sunrise to perform religious rites and receive instruction on her apocalyptic teachings, then be forced to toil from dawn until dusk in the fields, with only a cup of porridge in the mornings and a plate of beans in the evenings.
A strict code of silence was also enforced: followers were allowed to speak only to recite prayers or sing hymns. This brutal way of life turned her followers - many of them illiterate peasants when they joined - into a cowed, half-starved, sleep-deprived flock which was ripe for brain-washing.
Both men are described as serene and quiet-spoken; but both were also torn by religious turmoil that made them prey to Credonia's influence. Kibwetere was treated for mental illness in 1998. Although there is no doubt that they also oversaw the killing spree - Kataribabo even bought the sulphuric acid used in the church blaze - they appeared to have believed in their warped visions of Catholicism. Few who knew Credonia believed that she shared their religious conviction.
There has been speculation that the deaths came after predictions of the end of the world failed to come true. Cult members, who were told to sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the movement, had been told that they would enter a new world "free of sorrow and misery".
On Fri., March 17, 600 followers were boarded inside the church and were then incinerated in a fire set from within the building. The previous night, cult members were treated to an unprecedented celebration: 70 crates of Coca-Cola were ordered and a bull slaughtered. The sect had been busily selling off everything from empty jerry cans and old clothes to houses and 200 head of cattle.
It is thought that cult members believed that the boards were to protect them and keep out the unredeemed during the apocalypse. Yet, that does not explain why they did not react to the smell of the gasoline and sulphuric acid that police say was sprinkled around the room. One possibility is that they were given drugged or poisoned communion wine. Once the inferno began, there was no escape. "It was all over very quickly," one detective said.
The blaze, initially treated as mass suicide, turned out to be only the fiery climax of a horrific killing rampage. International arrest warrants have been issued for the leaders. If found and convicted, they could be hanged.
BBC 4/27/2000, Sunday Telegraph 4/6, AP 4/6, 3/28
Oct 22, 2009 by â– Miriam Mannak - 2 comments
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