Ron Paul to Keynote Catholic Traditionalist Summit with NeoFascist and Overtly Anti-Semitic Speakers
The organization's adherents share the belief of apocalyptic-minded Protestants and secular conspiracy theorists that the United States is being punished for its disobedience to God and descent into Marxism. The Fatima Crusaders believe that the world can be saved from destruction if the request revealed by the Virgin Mary to three Portuguese children in Fatima in 1917 can be fulfilled - a mandate to "consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary." A 64-page publication on the conference explains the Fatima Center's mandate and includes bios of the speakers. One of the speaker's participating in the widely advertised international summit is Roberto Fiore, leader of Forza Nuova or National Front, an Italian far right party. Fiore, a mentor to British National Party's Nick Griffin, is self-described as a neofascist. His party is opposed to immigration, abortion, homosexuality, and capitalism. It's working for the "recovery of Christian religiosity" and to repeal the Mancino and Scelba laws which ban symbols, slogans, and gestures of Italian fascism and Nazism. In the video embedded below, Fiore is rallying a crowd in Budapest against Jews and gays. Fiore had been invited by the HVIM, a racist and nationalist Hungarian organization, to speak at the 2008 commemoration of the anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising against communism. The transcript is below the video. The statements in English by Fiore are repeated by a Hungarian interpreter.
"And these are the same people who are trying to push gay rights, who are trying to push homosexuality, who are trying to push the destruction of the nation. And I here that this year you have opposed the gay march as in 2000 we opposed the gay march in Rome that tried to march near the Vatican, just to insult Jesus Christ and Christian civilization. This is the financial capitalism that is pushing thousands and millions towards poverty but it's led and it's directed from the same people who put Christ on the cross. But it's also fact that as in Italy, as in Hungary, it will be the people who will actually destroy this attempt to kill our nation and our civilization."
Fiore is not the only extremist speaking at the Fatima Center event. Some media sources reporting on the upcoming conference have mistakenly described it as including one anti-Semitic speaker, but the slate is filled with authors of virulent Judeophobic media. The host and leader of the Fatima Center, Father Nicholas Gruner, is described by SPLC as attending Holocaust denial conferences and the center's media has defended Holocaust deniers. Other speakers include:
The host of the conference is the Fatima Center, one of the organizations described as radical Catholic traditionalist groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for their promotion of anti-Semitic and other conspiracy narratives. The SPLC is careful to isolate and distinguish these 12 organizations from the larger body of traditionalist Catholics who reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Most of the Catholic speakers at the conference are affiliated with organizations that are included in SPLC's report on the "dirty dozen" and more information can be found there on many of the speakers. The conference is hosted by Father Nicholas Gruner's Fatima Center, advertised as "the largest Fatima apostolate" in the world, and by the Archbishop Emeritus of Cuddalore and Pondicherry, India. Gruner's standing in the Roman Catholic Church is challenged and he is not considered part of his local Catholic diocese and therefore claims to have legitimacy through Catholic hierarchy in India. The Fatima Crusaders teach that the idea of separation of Church and state "is a falsehood introduced by the enemies of the Church, the Freemasons" and that "no true Catholic can promote the false anti-God idea of separation of Church and state." This is not the first time that Ron Paul and the John Birch Society have teamed up with the Fatima Center's Nicholas Gruner and other radical Catholic traditionalists. Come back to Talk2action.org next week for the rest of the story.
Ron Paul to Keynote Catholic Traditionalist Summit with NeoFascist and Overtly Anti-Semitic Speakers | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 hidden)
Ron Paul to Keynote Catholic Traditionalist Summit with NeoFascist and Overtly Anti-Semitic Speakers | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 hidden)
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