When a Shrine to Lucifer appeared in a Brisbane Cathedral

Although some us have only recently come to see the influence of the occult underlying the Church’s most serious problems, there are others who saw the dangers years ago and tried to alert fellow Catholics to the danger. One of those faithful pioneers was Tim Pemble-Smith. Through his publication, News From the Pews, he and his colleagues set out to expose Freemasonry and other occult forces with the Archdiocese of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia.

The following is from Issue 24 of News from the Pews, dated 28 April, 2000. It explains the occult meanings behind an art installation which was once placed inside a chapel at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane. At the time, the chapel was dedicated to “The Human Search for God”, but has since been redesigned and dedicated to St. Mary McKillop.

After much public outcry, and largely due to pressure from Mr. Pemble-Smith and his colleagues, the installation was removed. Strangely, no records of this artwork exist online, neither from the indigenous artist, Fiona Foley nor the Cathedral. For copyright reasons, this article contains no photographs from the shrine.

Article begins:

‘Devil’ Shrine in St. Stephen’s

Over the past two years, this newsletter has exposed many hidden demonic messages contained in The Human Search for God shrine in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Yet, the shrine has not been closed down and requests for an enquiry have been ignored….The Church admits that the shrine contains “systems of meaning”, but neither the artist nor the Church has explained those meanings. In this issue, we re-examine the artwork and see how it corresponds with the writings of the ‘devil-worshipper’ Aleister Crowley.

Influence of Crowley

Although he died in 1947, Aleister Crowley was the most influential occultist of the twentieth century. He was a self-proclaimed devil worshipper and sex and drug fiend. His book, 777 and Other Qabalist Writings of Aleister Crowley, sets out a system of elaborate codes to disguise the meanings of references to the occult. For example, the use of numbers is prevalent in much the same way as a codebook shows the disguised meaning of a message. Crowley created his own cult to worship the devil and wrote books setting out the way to practice his religion. Today there are many believers who follow his methods.

Artwork in Shrine

To a person unfamiliar with Crowley’s methods, the artwork presents a series of abstract images. There are seven panels of artwork in all, with four, square, central panels. The panels are all dark. You see a blood moon, a dog, a black luminous disc, and dark blue moon, leaves, pipi shells, fish etc. Certain images are repeated. Perhaps the first thing you notice is panel 1.

The dog in panel 1 stands out. Crowley used the dog as a reference to the Christian God. In Crowley’s system, “dog” is simply “God” spelled backwards. Crowley revelled in the use of wordplay, ie, a play on words. It should be noted that in the Courier-Mail (newspaper) article, Ms Foley is reported to have admitted to using reverse spelling in her art.

A Crowley follower who is familiar with Ms Foley’s other art, will recognise the dog in Panel 1 as the one in Ms Foley’s other work, “The Three-legged dog day.” They would also notice the 7 stars in the left corner in the pattern of a crescent. Cycles of the moon are commonly references to witchcraft. It is a classic Crowleyan reference. As Crowley said, “The best blood is of the moon monthly: then the fresh blood of a child…”

Multiple uses of Images and Shapes

A follower of Crowley will also be looking in the shrine for any repeated images or shapes. Multiple uses of images or shapes could point to Crowley’s codes. The Crowley follower would quickly note the central group of 4 square panels arranged into a larger square – panels 3, 4, 5, & 6.

Functions of Four: Alchemy

The Crowley fan knows that any ‘functions of 4’ are likely to point to alchemy, the ‘black art’ of attaining spiritual union with the devil. In the shrine there are many: the 4, square, central panels arranged to form a larger square, the 4 fish swimming, a group of 4 shells, a 4-part skeletal fish image.

The Crowley follower will know that if these panels relate to alchemy, the four central panels should represent the four elements of alchemy – earth, air, fire and water.

It is clear that panel 4 represents the red earth and that panel 5 represents water. The circular, black disk in panel 3 has a distinctive luminescent quality. It does not reflect light as the moon does, it’s black light comes from within. The Crowley fan will recognise this as Crowley’s vision of a ‘black sun’ – a reference to the abyss (hell) and to the dark angel of the abyss, Lucifer – the light bringer. Panel 3 is the fire panel.

Panel 6 presents the blue moon in the night air. This is the air panel. Air and earth panels are thus, as required, located diagonally opposite each other, as are fire and water. So the four square panels represent the four elements of alchemy, in a way, which – via the black sun – can be referenced to Crowley, the ‘abyss’ and to Lucifer.

Further, panels 3 and 6 present the sun and the moon opposite each other, “in balance”: symbolic of alchemy, as Crowley says.

Fish: Alchemy

Ms Foley presents four fish swimming in panel 5. The number 4 here is symbolic of alchemy. In 777 Crowley also links fish to alchemy. The fish are presented swimming in iridescent water. In 777, Crowley connects iridescence of water and alchemy.

Shells & Leaves

In Crowley’s system, the number ‘777’ itself represents his “world of the shells”, “demon-world” or “abode of the evil spirits” which are called the “shells”. Note that there are 17 shells in panel 4 and 4 more (4: alchemy again) in panel 5 – in total, 21 shells. 21 shells is a way of presenting 7, 7, 7 shells – a reference to Crowley’s codebook 777.

Ms Foley also presents five ‘V’ or heart-shaped, yellow brown leaf images, 3 in panel 4 and 2 more immediately above in panel 3. Reading downwards, this is ‘VVVVV’, Crowley’s signature contraction of the Latin used in reference to himself as ‘Master of the Temple.’ In Crowley’s system, the number 5 corresponds with the heart. Five is also Crowley’s number for sulphur, the yellow brown substance said to be used in alchemy. Crowley linked yellow brown with the ‘earth nature’ of his imaginary ‘camel’, which he says is the ‘means of travelling through the wilderness of the abyss’. As to the heart, Crowley states in 777 in reference to the invocation of his ‘Holy Guardian Angel’ (the devil) that “the human heart is the foundation of the work”.

Foley’s combination of 3 leaves and 17 shells in panel 4 (Remember there were exactly 17 shells in panel 4, for yet another reason; it was not simply coincidence) and 2 leaves in panel 3 immediately above is also significant. In 777, Crowley uses the numbers 2, 3 and 17 to derive a reference to the ‘Angel of Venus’, who is Lucifer.

Is it a shrine to the devil?

This otherwise unexplained shrine speaks for itself. The images and codes it contains correspond all too perfectly with Aleister Crowley’s writings. The parallels are too many and detailed to be mere coincidence. So, is it likely that the reluctant-to-comment Foley “Had never even heard of Crowley”?

HutheMeow, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikicommons, author unknown: Aleister Crowley in the garments of the Ordo Templi orientis (OTO)

The Church of (Anti) Christ

From Emily Mangiaracina at LifeSiteNews

A high-ranking freemason, occultist, and co-founder of the Lucifer Publishing Company 50 years ago predicted key features of a coming one-world government, including a “cashless society” and worldwide socialism. But his blueprint for a new world order is unique in its specific predictions about a one-world religion that is to be led by a “Christ” to come — or rather, the Antichrist.

In the book “Things to Come,” (issued by what is now called the Lucis Publishing Company) Foster Bailey, author of “The Spirit of Masonry” and husband of Alice Bailey, a “godmother” of the new-age movement, gives hints as to what the coming one-world religion will look like and helps the reader to imagine the unthinkable: that a one-world government will indeed promote a new religion, and even be wedded to that religion.

In fact, the one-world religion will be the very heart of the new world order, because the most important conquest of the inner circle of globalists is not your body, but your soul. This is largely why the coming religious deception is generally shrouded in obscurity, unlike the political and economic facets of the NWO.

If anyone were to grasp the plans for the one-world religion, it would be someone like Foster Bailey. As a 33rd degree freemason, he was evidently privy to the secret society’s designs to subvert the Catholic Church and help usher in this one-world religion, which his writings hint at.

His wife, Alice, suggests that freemasonry will help prepare the way for the “Great One” to come, also known as “the Christ,” who Foster describes as a “great spiritual leader” and a “living man today” who “does not come to save us but to help us save ourselves,” and “not from a hell of physical suffering.”

Alice predicted that “mysteries will be restored to outer expression through the medium of the Church and the masonic fraternity,” calling the “Masonic Movement” the “home of the Mysteries and the seat of initiation.” The “Great One,” (read: Antichrist) she says, is working toward the same end as freemasonry: “When the Great One comes with his disciples and initiates we shall have … the restoration of the Mysteries,” Bailey wrote in “The Externalization of the Hierarchy.”

She admitted that freemasonry is, at its core, an occult group, writing that the “masonic movement” “is a far more occult organization than can be realized, and is intended to be the training school for the coming advanced occultists.”

A Luciferian endeavor 

The occult involvement of Alice and Foster give credence to the claim of ex-freemasons that the fraternity is satanic at its highest levels — that the “Great Architect of the Universe” is Satan. As hardcore occultists, the couple openly praised Lucifer, and were literally “plugged in” to demons, through what they describe as “New Age” practices. 

For example, in “Things to Come,” Bailey described a “process of overshadowing” by which “the Christ” (not Jesus Christ as Christians understand Him) or an “ascended Master” renders a “disciple” “much more usable. This suggests that he deliberately opened himself to possession or at least influence by “spirits,” which as many former New Agers can testify, are often demons in disguise.

And Alice claimed to “telepathically” receive messages from a “Master of Wisdom” she labeled “the Tibetan” or “Djwal Khul (D.K.), which she said comprised the majority of her writings. These messages are likewise probably of demonic origin, all the more so because of her esteem for Lucifer/Satan.

We can, therefore, while taking the Baileys’ predictions regarding the “Christ” to come with a grain of salt, understand them as a likely foreshadowing of how the Antichrist will deceptively sugarcoat himself and his evil religion. 

Regarding the “Christ” who will lead the one-world religion, Foster Bailey gives a couple of hints as to what he will be like (expanded on by Alice, as detailed below):

“The word Christ is a name in the Hierarchy for the holder of an all embracing world-wide divine leadership and as so used, transcends orthodox limitations. Christ to the modern mind is an active, intelligent world executive, and a living man today. His vision and his action are for all men. He is not at all limited to Christianity.”

Thus, the Antichrist will deny one of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, which is that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

Foster, by contrast, insists that the idea that Christianity is “the only true religion” makes Christians guilty of the “special sin” of “separatism.” However, such a belief not only conforms to the words of Jesus Christ Himself but to the logical principle of noncontradiction: Two contradictory things cannot simultaneously be true.

Foster signals that this “Christ” to come will not consider necessary the belief in Heaven or Hell, since he wrote, “It is not the function of any religion or any church organization to … try to scare people into a mythical heaven.” 

We can glean more about the nature of the Antichrist and his one-world religion through Foster’s remarks about the major religions. It is telling that Foster’s disdain for Christianity contrasts with his esteem for Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, which are spared criticism entirely (“liberal Jews” get a very brief positive mention, while other Jews, like Catholics, are mentioned to be “excessively separative”).

Catholicism: The supreme enemy of Bailey — and freemasonry

Even more revealing is the fact that Catholicism is the religion most repugnant to Foster, an attitude inherent to freemasonry, which is diametrically opposed to the Catholic faith above all. 

This is because Catholicism is more opposed than any other religion to Foster’s/freemasonry’s idea that we should “be obedient to our own inner spiritual selves.” In other words, Catholicism is most opposed to the “supreme injunction” promoted by the occultist and “magician” Aleister Crowley: “Do what thou wilt.” (It is noteworthy that Crowley, who, it is publicly acknowledged, deliberately summoned demons, said he wrote his seminal work according to the dictations of a disembodied voice, like Alice Bailey.)

It is why freemasons, when they reach the 30th degree, crush under foot a papal tiara, swearing to free mankind from “the thraldom of spiritual tyranny,” according to Father Alex Zenthoefer.

Dr. Taylor Marshall explains in his book Infiltration that a major goal of freemasonry (echoed in Things to Come) is in fact to replace Catholicism: “The strategy of … Freemasonry is to arrange secret societies to subvert the current (Catholic) order and replace it with an enlightened order in which all religions are approximations of the truth — all religions become allegorical and equal. The Catholic Church is the Vetus Ordo Saeculorum — the Old Order of the World. Freemasonry is the Novus Ordo Saeculorum — the New Order of the World.”

Second Vatican Council is evidence of “New Age” influence 

In keeping with his masonic and occult beliefs, while Foster Bailey makes clear that Catholicism is too “dogmatic,” he sees a spark of hope in the Second Vatican Council, which he considers a watershed moment largely because the clergy are distancing themselves from “useless dogmas”:

Increasing numbers of religious leaders are recognizing that the church must abandon useless dogmas and that it is out of step with the development of human intelligence today. There is a ferment arising in the religious field which is forcing reformation of churchianity. Amazing things are taking place in the Roman Catholic Church, for example.

For centuries the Roman Catholic Church has been dominated and controlled by the Curia, a body of ultra-conservative doctrinaires who wielded undisputed power over all cardinals and bishops. Until this control was broken there was little hope for any spiritual change. Pope John XXIII broke it in the first session of the Second Ecumenical Council. 

Today the present Pope is largely free from this shackling influence and a new Collegia is gaining power and great influence as to all Church affairs. This is a far-reaching change in the organization itself, the fruits of which will be startling indeed. 

Foster is not talking about a difference of mere degrees in what the Catholic Church teaches or how, but about a fundamental “break,” a disconnect with its past. He goes on to explain how:

“The Second Session of the Ecumenical Council witnessed the promulgation of the doctrine that every man is free to worship God as he chooses without condemnation of the Church,” Foster wrote, predicting that “This new religious freedom in the Catholic Church, when implemented, will completely change the system by which the Church has controlled its followers for ages.”

The idea of religious freedom is so revered today, even by devout Christians, that it is difficult for people to consider why the Catholic Church long taught that “error has no rights.” This does not mean the Church ever taught that people should be legally coerced into practicing Catholicism. But to teach that a human being has a right to publicly practice a false religion is contrary to the Church’s desire that all men find the truth and be saved.

It is easiest to understand this when considering whether a satanist has a right to erect a Baphomet statue at a state capitol or run a satanic children’s club at a school. Most Christians today will passionately insist that satanists do not have this right. Why? Because it is harmful both to a just society and to souls. But we make exceptions for other religions because they aren’t explicitly or obviously opposed to God, forgetting that other religions harm souls as well and put them at risk, because they reject what Jesus taught — that He is the only way to the Father — and the fullness of the moral law.

We forget that it is because we have embraced this very principle of religious liberty in the U.S., for example, that satanists are able to erect statues and displays before state capitols and start “after school satan clubs.

Many have forgotten that religious indifferentism — the idea that it really does not matter to which religion one belongs — is a masonic idea, something also noted by the traditional Catholic priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. 

While they are much criticized and considered “irregular” by the Vatican for refusing to embrace the entirety of the Second Vatican Council, the SSPX correctly points out that Vatican II’s teaching that no one is “to be restrained from acting in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly,” stems from freemasonry, breaks with the Church’s perennial teaching, and undermines the conversion of souls to the Catholic faith.

Vatican II did in fact greatly weaken Catholic belief and practice, as seen in the dramatic decline in religious vocations and even Church attendance after the Council. The climate of religious indifferentism that it encouraged led to a newfound religious apathy among Catholics, which Foster Bailey noted when he wrote, “Youth no longer fears to disobey the Church.” He predicted that from their “freedom” would emerge a “new attitude toward religion based on reasonableness and cooperation.”

Keeping in mind that the new-age movement was (wittingly or not) demonically inspired, and that freemasonry is inseparable from the occultism at the core of new age practice, we can grasp why Foster Bailey would say that Vatican II showed the influence of “new age spiritual energy”:

“It is significant that the Council has issued no anathemas, condemned no movements, not even communism, and avoided dogmatic declarations, as has been wisely pointed out. Here again we have evidence of the presence of new age spiritual energy affecting religious thought.The whole edifice of law, custom and religious practice that had supported Catholic stability since the Council of Trent was threatened.”

“Satan will rule in the Vatican”

Foster goes so far as to predict: “It may eventuate that the most crystallized, materialistic and dogmatic Church in the Christian world will become the leader in a Christian religious revival.” 

That should seem like a strange remark. What would make Foster think that the religion most opposed to the supremacy of one’s own “inner guidance” would eventually become its biggest champion?

As Dr. Marshall has well documented in his book on the subject, Infiltration, freemasonry has indeed long planned to infiltrate the Catholic Church, even to the point of making one of its own the pope.

This is revealed in the “Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita,” which Dr. Marshall notes was reproduced in the English translation in the lecture by Right Rev. Msgr. George Dillon D.D., in Edinburgh in October 1884. Its author, who writes under the pseudonym Piccolo Tigre or “Little Tiger,” explains the long-term goal of freemasons:

Our final end is that of Voltaire and the Revolution, the destruction forever of Catholicism and even of the Christian idea which, if left standing on the ruins of Rome, would be the resuscitation of Christianity later.

The Pope, whoever he will be, will never come to the secret societies. It is for the secret societies to come first to the Church, with the aim of winning them both. The work which we have undertaken is not the work of a day, nor of a month, nor of a year. It may last many years, a century perhaps, but in our ranks the soldier dies, and the fight continues.

Now then, in order to secure to us a Pope according to our own heart, it is necessary to fashion for that Pope a generation worthy of the kingdom of which we dream. Leave on one side old age and middle life, go to the youth, and if possible, even to the children.

The ultimate goal of freemasonry is the public reign of Satan in the world. St. Maximilian Kolbe testified in his Militia of the Immaculata magazine that in 1917 he had seen freemasons march in St. Peter’s Square flying a banner that read, “Satan will rule in the Vatican.”

In a Japanese November 1935 issue of the magazine, St. Kolbe wrote, “Years later, the Freemasons in Rome began to demonstrate openly and belligerently against the Church. They placed the black standard of the “Giordano Brunisti” under the windows of the Vatican. On this standard the archangel, St. Michael, was depicted lying under the feet of the triumphant Lucifer … Right then I conceived the idea of organizing an active society to counteract Freemasonry and other slaves of Lucifer.”

He elaborated in 1939, “A reckless hand felt no repugnance in writing: Satan will rule in the Vatican and the Pope will serve him … This mortal hatred for the Church of Jesus Christ and for His Vicar was not just a prank on the part of deranged individuals but a systematic action proceeding from the principle of Freemasonry: Destroy all religion, whatever it may be, especially the Catholic religion.”

However outrageous this may seem to some Catholics, this scenario was also predicted by the Blessed Mother in a message to the children of La Salette in 1846. In 1879, the secret of La Salette was published as written by one of the visionaries, Mélanie Calvat, lamenting the corruption of so many priests, and foretelling that “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the antichrist.” [1] 

Now, in 2024, 10 years into the pontificate of Pope Francis, we can finally make sense of Foster Bailey’s prediction that the Church may become a “leader in a Christian religious revival,” as well as the freemasons’ prediction that the pope would serve Satan. Over the past decade, Francis has given sign after sign after sign that he is not really interested in upholding Catholic doctrine and practice, but rather in undermining it in favor of a less “rigid,” more “inclusive,” faith.

He has done this by:

  • Reinforcing religious indifferentism (ex: he has said even atheists can be redeemed, that he is “not interested in converting evangelicals to Catholicism”; Releasing a video promoting his prayer intentions featuring Muslim prayer beads, a Buddha statue, and a Menorah, along with a Baby Jesus (but no cross); saying ‘It’s not right to convince someone of your faith’;) 
  • Promoting impiety and even blasphemy (ex: he has said “God was unjust with His Son” and joked that “Inside the Holy Trinity they’re all arguing behind closed doors”)
  • He has also appointed a slew of prelates to the Synod on Synodality who brazenly defy Church teaching.
  • Most egregious of all, attacking the very foundation of Catholic moral teaching by, for example claiming that one can receive Holy Communion in mortal sin, and that same-sex civil unions are permissible. These claims have been denounced as heretical. 

He has also plainly aligned with the masonic view of religions in his statement that “the most important role of religions is that of promoting the culture of encounter, along with the promotion of true education in responsible behavior in caring for creation.” No mention of God, of Christ, or salvation.

If any doubt remains as to whether Francis has a masonic bent, consider that his election was immediately praised by Grand Master Gustavo Raffi of the Grand Orient Masonic Lodge of Italy, who said, “Fraternity and dialogue are his first concrete words: perhaps nothing in the Church will be as it was before.” 

Is he the long-awaited pope “according to the heart” of the freemasons? 

He checks all the boxes.

Features of the antichrist and his ‘New Age’ deception

Just as naturalism and religious indifferentism are merely means to the end of Lucifer worship for those initiated into freemasonry, so are they in the freemasons’ plan for a one-world religion. 

The Baileys help show that this religion will be packaged in new-age practices and beliefs, which will be embraced by the Antichrist who will lead this religion.

Under Pope Francis, the Vatican has already signaled that it is on board with such new-age religion, as anti-Catholic as it is. In 2018, a Vatican conference on “How Science, Technology and the 21st Century Will Impact Culture and Society” featured a talk by pop star Katy Perry on transcendental meditation as well as a talk by New Age guru Deepak Chopra. Perry is a particularly disturbing choice as a guest speaker because she has included themes of lesbianism and cannibalism in her music.

Alice Bailey, in her 1948 book “The Reappearance of the Christ,” explains some of the features of the “Christ” to come and the one-world religion she says will emerge after his appearance. It is noteworthy that, just as the antichrist is traditionally understood, Bailey describes him as the “second coming” of Jesus Christ who became incarnate 2,000 years ago. However, he will have notable differences, she says.

Alice Bailey claims that “undue emphasis” was laid upon “Jesus Christ’s” divinity, and also that man himself is “divine,” essentially undermining the very meaning and uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. She states that today, “There is a growing and developing belief that Christ is in us, as He was in the Master Jesus.” This is a first huge red flag.

She also explains that, in keeping with religious indifferentism, he will (at least initially) put all religions on the same plane, writing, “The Christ has no religious barriers in His consciousness. It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call himself.” She even calls “the Buddha the spiritual leader of the East, and the Christ, the spiritual leader of the West.”

What will his proclaimed mission be? According to Bailey, it will be essentially world peace and “international cooperation”: “His major task is surely the establishing of right human relations in every department of human living,” going on to state that “when the United Nations has emerged into factual and actual power, the welfare of the world will then be assured.”

“What is that welfare but love in action? What are right human relations but love among men, groups and nations? What is international cooperation but love on a world scale? Those are the things which the love of God in Christ expressed … ”

Thus, the Antichrist’s conception of “love” will emphasize world peace — which is of course a good in and of itself — but this drive for “peace” will be used as a pretext for a one-world government, which both Baileys discussed directly.

Alice Bailey says that unlike Jesus Christ, this man will “not be a ‘man of sorrows’” and “will not be a silent, pensive figure.” Also, “this time, He will play His part, not in obscurity as He previously did, but before the eyes of the entire world … because of the prevalence of the radio, television and the rapidity of communication, His part will be watched by all … ”

But didn’t Jesus say that in his real Second Coming, he would come “in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty?” Alice Bailey attempts to dismiss this Scripture as meaningless in an age of airplanes, writing, “He will come indeed ‘in the clouds of the air’ as the Christian Scriptures say, but of what great interest is that when millions come and go in the clouds each hour of the day and of the night?” It’s a rather weak refutation of Scripture’s real meaning, but it will unfortunately still dupe people ready to embrace the Antichrist.

Finally, Alice Bailey offers a disturbing prediction that suggests that the Antichrist may possess the minds of his followers. She claims that the “Hierarchy” will “impres(s) the minds of enlightened men everywhere by spiritual ideas embodying the new truths” and “by the overshadowing of all world disciples and the New Group of World Servers by the Christ Himself.”

Could this perhaps be through a chip implant without which people will be unable to buy or sell (the “mark of the beast”), as foretold in the Book of the Apocalypse?

Let us remember the words of Christ regarding these times:

“Take heed that no man seduce you: For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ: and they will seduce many.” (Matthew 24: 4-5)

“ … Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand. 

 If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24: 23-27)

REFERENCES

[1] Johannes Maria Höcht, Die Große Botschaft von La Salette [The Great Message of La Salette], Stein am Rhein 2004 (8th ed.), p. 161.

Cardinal Rampolla – the archetypal Freemason cleric

The first significant inroad made by Freemasonry into the heart of the Church was the appointment of the influential Cardinal Rampolla as Secretary of State. Ordained in 1866, Mariano Rampolla was made a bishop by Pope Leo XIII and appointed Apostolic Nuncio of Spain in 1882 for five years. 

It was during this time that Pope Leo released his landmark encyclical condemning Freemasonry, Humanum Genus. Released in April of 1884, this was to be his final official condemnation of the Craft. Only six months later, Pope Leo received his famous vision of the devil ‘conversing’ with God and subsequently wrote the prayer to St Michael. The date of that vision is particularly significant: it was October 13th – precisely 33 years before the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. Some time after this, the Pope decreed that the St Michael prayer and the Salve Regina be recited after every Low Mass.

In 1887, the Pope promoted Rampolla to Cardinal and in the same year, appointed him as his Secretary of State. (16 years)

 It seems strange to think that a Pope who was so opposed to Masonry allowed a character like Rampolla to achieve such prominence. Perhaps Pope Leo’s confidence in Rampolla reflected something of the latter’s character: he has all the hallmarks of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Leo XIII died in 1903 and Rampolla became known as the best potential new pope, or  ‘papabile.” This was despite Rampolla’s liberal tendencies already being widely known. 

In an unusual political intervention, the French Foreign Minister urged the French Bishops to vote for Rampolla, in order to maintain the support given to the French by Leo XIII.

Some of Rampolla’s other supporters at this time were Bishop Pietro Gasparri, Rampolla’s Under-Secretary of State, Msgr della Chiesa, and his private secretary, Eugenio Pacelli. Another supporter, Bishop Rafael Merry del Val, became Pro-Secretary of the conclave. This followed the sudden death of the original Pro-Secretary, Msgr Volpini. The Pro-Secretary plays an important ceremonial role after the election of a new pontiff and is also automatically elevated to the role of Cardinal at the same time as a former Cardinal is elevated to the papacy.

Cardinal Rampolla received the highest tally in the first vote and things appeared to be going his way. Suddenly there was an unheard-of intervention by the Metropolitan of Krakow, Cardinal Puzyna, on behalf of His Imperial Majesty Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary. Franz Josef was invoking a power of veto that had not been used in 400 years to eliminate Rampolla as a candidate. Del Val had tried without success to stop this intervention from taking place.

When Rampolla realised that the request was valid, he asked that his supporters transfer their votes to the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto. The final ballot in fact elected Cardinal Santo and he took the name Pius X.

Pius X abolished the Imperial Privilege soon after his election, possibly due to the common opinion that the Emperor was motivated by political intentions. The true reason behind the intervention was not known until a decade later.

Rampolla was replaced as Secretary of State by Bishop Merry del Val; other progressive prelates, supporters of Rampolla, still held their important posts in the Vatican.  Rampolla became Secretary of the Holy Office in 1908.

The truth behind the Emperor’s intervention was not revealed until 1918, after Rampolla’s sudden demise. Amongst the Cardinal’s private papers were documents that indicated he was a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis,  or OTO, an occult arm of Freemasonry. This cult incorporates elements of Gnosticism, Kabala and Eastern mysticism and is the foundation of Aleister Crowley’s ‘sex magick.’


Of special interest in our own days is one aspect of the initiation ritual of the eleventh degree of the OTO: sodomy. Msgr Jouin believed that Cardinal Rampolla was initiated into the OTO in Switzerland and that he was a Grand Master of the OTO.

INFORMATION FROM THE RITE OF SODOMY V by Dr Randy Engels

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