Better Marxist than Catho-Satanist
The activities of satanic-type sects are nothing new but it is
only in the wake of fateful 1989 that they seem to have spread
attracting large numbers of Catholics, both lay and clergy
by Giovanni Ricciardi
The going price for a consecrated host on the Italian "market" at
the moment is between $30 and $200. The price is high but the
market can stand it, and there's no shortage of customers.
Clearly, many of these customers are to be found among the
participants in satanic rites. And that's not all. Even the clergy
seem to have been involved the case in Catania where the tombs of
monks in the crypt of San Nicolo l'Arena were desecrated, black
masses said and occult rituals and orgies organized. The
phenomenon is more widespread than one might think.
And some people are already taking safety measures. In the Roman
Prenestino quarter the parish priest will no longer leave the pyx
containing the body of the Lord in the tabernacle overnight. He
hides it in a safe place in the presbytery he shares with his
curates. "Not that anything unpleasant has happened," he prudently
explains, "but we want to do our best to prevent anything
happening to the Eucharist."
The crime of profaning the host is known as "real sacrilege" since
according to the Catechism the Lord Jesus Christ is really present
in body, blood, soul and divinity in the sacrament of the altar.
Real sacrilege, therefore, against a reality, a <res>.
A rising tide of groups and sects is now attempting to drown this
reality. The presence of a consecrated host to be profaned is an
essential element in their rites. And curiously, Efrem del Gatto,
the charismatic leader of the most famous satanic "church" in
Rome, the Luciferian Confraternity, has stated that the hosts are
supplied by willing Catholic priests. The point he wants to make
is that they are not stolen.
In <Dominicae Cenae>, the March 18 1980 letter promulgated by John
Paul II on Holy Thursday when the Church solemnly remembers the
instituting of the Eucharist, the Pope wrote: "Reports have
reached us of cases of deplorable lack of respect toward the
Eucharistic species, lack that weighs not only on those culpable
of such acts, but also on the pastors of the Church who may have
been less than vigilant about the behavior of the faithful".
The activities of satanic sects are certainly nothing new. But
only since the fateful year of 1989 do they seem to have moved out
of the restricted circles of middle-class elites and now threaten
to become a widespread phenomenon involving many Catholics, both
lay and clergy. Is this yet another result of the fall of the
Berlin Wall? Odd though it seems it does look likely. As Massimo
Introvigne points out in his <Investigation of Satanism>, satanic
sects have existed in the past. However, the enormous spread of
materialistic ideology of a Marxist kind in the 20th century had
almost eliminated the phenomenon. Re-imported from the United
States in the 1970s, it exploded along with the crisis of
Communism, not least because circles in the US were no longer
concerned to finance organizations that proposed to stem the Red
tide and shifted the targets of their financial aid.
************
Profile: Orphic rituals
WHAT CULTURE CONCEALS
Who on earth was Orpheus? It might look like one of those idle
questions that remain restricted to the confines of scholarly
treatises on mythology or to highschool classrooms. In fact the
legendary harpist of Thrace whose music moved rocks and persuaded
Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, to allow him to attempt to
bring his beloved Eurydice back to the surface, is part of a long
esoteric tradition that has endured to our own day.
In the Greek world Orpheus' descent into the Underworld was
already given a symbolic interpretation in terms of the journey
undertaken by the soul to achieve knowledge of its real divine
nature. The myth gave rise to a religious tradition that saw man
as a principle, a divine spark, that was to be nurtured through a
process of initiation, and which called on the soul to rid itself
of the dross of its "material" element and rise again in its true
nature. This process of coming to awareness was known to the
Greeks as gnosis and gave its name to Gnosticism, the great heresy
that in early Christianity and even more so today - is trying to
hollow out the reality of the Catholic faith from the inside.
And that is not ail. During the Renaissance a great many people
found inspiration and nourishment in the ancient Orphic tradition.
During the 16th century an Orphic theology proper was devised of
the kind to be found in the writings of Johannes Goropius Becanus
into which the bishop of Antwerp, Laevinius Torrentius, was
initiated.
The notion re-emerged powerfully in the Romantic period. Some of
the greatest European poets of the time, Holderlin, Keats, Shelley
and even Goethe, drew on Orphic themes. According to the Romantics
the figure of Orpheus gives backing to a philosophy of the spirit
in which the mythical Thracian bard represents both the poet and
the magician who offers himself as enlightened guide to mankind.
In his 1829 Orphee Ballanche presented the mythical figure as
theologian and pontiff, called to teach the truth to men. It is no
accident that already at the end of the 16th century Bartolomeo
del Bene had set Orpheus at the center of an illustration
representing the Temple of Intelligence in his treatise <Civitas
veri>, which calls to mind Augustine's contrasting City of God and
which was published by his nephew, Alfonso del Bene, bishop of
Alby.
in short, Orphic notions are strongly present in the spirit and
culture of the modern period down to our own day and provide
material and inspiration for the adherents and priests of the
occult. It is possible that present-day satanists and necrophiles
look on the figure who first found a way into the world of the
dead as an illustrious teacher.
One question remains: Is this just a matter of cultural knowledge
or does so much interest in the spirit conceal ritualistic orgies
and associations with power?
This article was taken from the No. 5, 1996 issue of "30Days". To
subscribe contact "30Days" at: Subscriptions Office, 28 Trinity
St., Newton, NJ 07860 or call 1-800-321-2255, Fax 201-579-5541.
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