Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Céline Dion sings Ave Maria for St. Kyle Brennan, Martyr to Scientology


On February 16, 2007, 20-year-old Catholic college student Kyle Brennan from Charlottesville, Viriginia, was discovered dead from a gun shot wound to the head in Clearwater, Florida, under highly suspicious circumstances. 


Kyle was visiting his Scientologist father Tom Brennan after a trip of two months that had taken him to visit schools in Iowa, relatives in California, and a vacation in Maui. He was on his way home to Charlottesville and to rest up and visit his father in Clearwater. 


Tens of millions still believe that Scientology is some weird but harmlesss space alien cult. Far from it. It is one of the most abusive organizations ever to claim religious legitimacy in the US. It maintains an intelligence agency that carried out the largest known infiltration of the US government in Operation Snow White.


Scientology's leading Jewish critic for the last 40 years is Paulette Cooper. She was subject to the horrendous Operation Freakout designed to drive her to permanent psychosis coupled with a frame up for writing bomb threats which the intelligence agency forged on her stationery. They filed 19 lawsuits against her.


This went on for 15 years. You can read Paulette's account of her terrorization here. Her crime was writing the first book by an investigative reporter exposing Scientology abuses, The Scandal of Scientology.


Hubbard wanted to destroy Paulette. He also wanted to silence book publishers. Very few books were published. until the rise of the remarkable student led Anonymous anti-Scientology movement which arose in January 2008 as a revolt among high school and college students against Scientology's suppression of free speech on "their" internets.


The Anonymous anti-Scientology movement is also known as Project Chanoglogy or Chanology for short. It is quite simply the greatest achievement of the Millennial Generation. They have sustained for four years an international and politically cross-ideological alliance of everyone from stone socialists to Tea Partyes and every shade of political ideology in between. They have caused Scientology to implode and have marked the beginning of its end.


It is to be sharply distinguished from the post-Chanology groups that arose in the wake of the arrest of Julian Assange of Wikileaks in the Fall of 2010. These groups are the ones that get an enormous amount of press because they are basically gangs of cyberthugs and cyberfascists. 


They represent the leftist politicization of Anonymous. They have simply co-opted and exploited the symbolic capital created by Chanology subjugating it to New and Old Left ideologies.


Journalists, typically, have concocted the false and defamatory meme that Anonymous is a hacktivist collective. It is false because Chanology has from the outset been committed to non-violence and abiding by the law on and off the internet. It has explicitly disavowed DDoSing and hacking and every form of illegal activity on the internet.


As for being a collective. This is rubbish. Anonymous is a herd of cats that self-organizes, has no leaders, and makes decisions by loose consensus. It is no sort of collective. Anonymous has set thousands free of Scientology and made it safe to criticize it. In the Fall of 2008 Paulette wrote that Anonymous had done more in nine months than she had in 15 years.


Had Kyle Brennan lived just a year longer he would have been an anon for he knew first-hand how Scientology had deformed his father.


Thanks to Anonymous there has been a flood of books. Janet Reitman is only the second journalist after Paulette since 1971 to write a book, and her Inside Scientology is an excellent contemporary account.


Paulette is also a survivor of the Holocaust. Only recently has she discovered the remarkable story of her rescue as a new born infant. Tony Ortega has written it up beautifully in the Village Voice. 


Nancy Many is a Catholic who left the Catholic Church to join Scientology. She was an assistant to Hubbard himself, was thrown into a Scientology punishment camp five months pregnant. Scientology's intelligence agency interrogated her for three weeks and drove her to a psychotic break.


She left Scientology and returned to the Catholic Church and is studying to be a pastoral minister. She is the most outspoken Catholic critic of Scientology in the United States. Her excellent book My Billion Year Contract is essential reading.


Tony Ortega is the major source in the US for Scientology news and welcomes additions to his email list for alerts on his new articles. Just email him at tortega@villagevoice.com. 


Scientology's true hatred is most apparent in its War on Psychiatry. It aims at nothing less than the destruction of not only psychiatry but all branches of psychology including for example Catholic pastoral counseling psychology, and all the social service professions, and their replacement with Scientology practices.


Scientology is essentially a form of pseudo-psychotherapy known as auditing. Auditors receive no standard professional training. This core practice which may cost as much as $1,000 an hour. 


Scientology views all psychiatrists as Enemies of Humanity whose destruction is an urgent task because Scientologists believe that psychiatry is destroying the human race. 


Not only are psychiatrists a target but their patients as well. Kyle Brennan was a psychiatric patient and died because he was targeted by his own father as an Enemy of Scientology in collusion with his auditor, Denise Miscavige Gentile (b. 1960), who is the twin sister of David Miscavige, "ecclesiastical leader" of Scientology.


Miscavige has been exposed by the Tampa Bay Times as a brutal leader given to assaulting his executives and staff. It is Miscavige who decreed in 1986 that every pregnant woman executive and middle level manager must abort her child under threat of punishment. See the Tampa Bay Times, No Kids Allowed.

Kyle was diagnosed with moderate depression in January 2006 and put on the anti-depressant Lexapro. He turned 20 in April. Tom and Victoria Brennan had separated and divorced when Kyle was when Kyle was 12. The separation was amicable and phone calls were frequent. 


When Kyle's older brother Sean finished his tour of duty in the US Army, he and Kyle spent an extended period of time in 2005 with Tom when he lived in Lehigh Acres in Florida. The following year he moved to Tampa and then to Clearwater, the Scientology Mecca.


When a Scientologist like Tom is in a close personal relationship with a psychiatric patient like Kyle he is forbidden to undergo auditing sessions and Scientology training. His path to Scientology salvation is blocked.


The only remedy would be for Tom to interfere in Kyle's psychiatric therapy and medication and coerce him in to terminating both.


Just by being a psychiatric patient Kyle was an enemy of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard decreed that the enemies of Scientology may be "tricked, lied to, sued, and destroyed." Tom did just that to Kyle.


In August 2006 he lured Kyle to take a semester off and live with him in Clearwater and offered him a job at $10/hour. It was a trick. There was no job. Tom lured him to Clearwater with the sole purpose of "handling" him as the Scientology term has it. It means reducing opposition to Scientology and its doctrines to zero by whatever means necessary.


He told Kyle that his mother Victoria Britton was killing him with psychiatrists and psychatric medications. He trashed Kyle's desire for education saying all he needed was Scientology.


Kyle resisted. And he resisted from his deepest motivation as a Catholic for his greatest hero was St. Michael the Archangel ,who leads the angels and forces of good against Satan and his evil spirits who propagate evil through spiritually destructive organizations like Scientology.


Kyle was a prolific artist and talented artist and did this lovely drawing of St. Michael pwning Satan.







The Catholic Church has made it unmistakably clear the dangers Scientology poses to Catholic families. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the present head of the powerful Congregation of Bishops made three statements about Scientology when he was the leader of Canadian Catholics. He is frequently mentioned as a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.


Archbishop Robert Rivas denounced Scientology invasion of the island of St. Lucia in his Easter homily in 2010.


One of the tragedies of the death of Kyle Brennan is the neglect of the Catholic Church to include catechesis on the dangers of cults and particularly Scientology in in its education programs for Catholic children and their parents.


Had it been part of his formation as a Catholic he would not have underestimated the viciousness of Scientology and would probably be alive today.


Had his mother and his brothers been educated they never would had let Kyle go to Clearwater in August 2006. In fact, they would not have let Kyle anywhere near Clearwater under almost any circumstances.


Kyle resisted the evil of Scientology imposed on him by Tom Brennan and his auditor Denise Miscavige Gentile. When Tom attempted to "handle" him he vehemently resisted and told him only an idiot would believe in Hubbard. Later Tom threatened him with physical violence, and Kyle fled home in terror. 


Tom's attempt to "handle" Kyle was a despicable act of parental abuse, and it left a deep psychic wound. Kyle had being doing fine on his Lexapro and therapy with his psychiatrist for 8 months. Now it addition to his moderate depression he bore the burden of profound parental betrayal and post-traumatic stress.


Kyle began his last days when he arrived in Clearwater on Feb 7, 2007. He died nine days later on the night of Friday, Feb 16, found shot in the head with a bullet from his father's .357 Magnum.


The police didn't find the bullet. There were no fingerprints anywhere. There was no suicide note. Three notes were found. None of them are in Kyle's handwriting.


There are many other such evidences that suggest that Kyle did not commit suicide, but was the victim of a homicide in which were involved at minimum, Tom, Denise, and her husband Jerry. 


The detective despite all this declared Kyle's death a run of the mill adolescent suicide with no possibility of homicide. He went on to write a report in which he deliberately falsified Kyle's diagnosis from moderate depression to paranoid schizophrenia. 


He falsified the reports of every person Kyle interacted with on his two-month journey to support this falsified diagnosis. All of this to support the thesis that Kyle was crazy and Scientology bore no role in his death. In short, the probable homicide was covered up.


Victoria Britton filed a wrongful death suit which is now on appeal and will be heard in Atlanta over the coming months. The history of the case is complex, and I refer the reader to the excellent article on the appeal by the superb Jonny Jacobsen at Infinite Complacency.

His last week in Clearwater Tom and Denise attempted to "handle" Kyle to stop him taking his Lexapro on no fewer the four occasions. Kyle resisted them all. On the day before his death Tom seized his medication and locked it in the trunk of his car. The next night he was found shot through the head.

A Dominican priest at the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas, which serves students from the University of Virginia and other colleges in Charlottesville in his homily at the Mass of Resurrection at Kyle's funeral proclaimed to Kyle's family and friends that Kyle had died a martyr.

In Catholic tradition those are considered to be saints who die as martyrs for the faith like the seven Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, whose story is told in the beautiful film Of Gods and Men.

Kyle did not die because he was a Catholic. It goes deeper than that. He died for what all Catholics, Christians, and men and women of decency and good will from every authentic faith tradition and none all stand for - the sacred uniqueness of each individual, compassion, and passionate thirst for justice, healing, and liberation of underdogs and victims.

This young man was by all measures a martyr and because a martyr, a saint. In the final days of his sufferings and passion he descended into the abyss of dark powers, like Jesus alone, cut off, and accompanied at an aching distance by a sorrowing mother.

Illumined by the power and beauty of St. Michael’s Church in Bamberg Kyle said of another totalitarian regime:



No one said anything? No one spoke up for them? What kind of people would send children and babies to their death?


If one individual had spoken up, it could have given the weaker the courage to do so. It was easier to stay silent.

Kyle didn’t stay silent. He spoke up. What kind of people indeed would send a young man such as this to his death?

Kyle’s mother Victoria Britton has created a moving site in memory of Kyle. You can read stories about him and see his pictures. This is my favorite. His friend Katie Rudd remembers him as “a sweet-faced boy with a shy smile.”





Kyle’s favorite hymn was the Ave Maria as set by the Austrian Catholic composer Frantz Schubert. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”

This is the prayer our Catholic mothers and fathers taught us as children. It is in the heart, mind, soul, and affections of every Catholic. Every Catholic composer wants to compose an Ave Maria before he dies. It is the prayer we say most often in our need, which is like always.

In memory of Kyle and for his mom Victoria I am posting this video of Celine Dion singing the Ave Maria. I like Celine’s version best of all because first, I totally love Celine. 



Second, Kyle was part French Canadian because his maternal grandmother is from Montreal.
Third, Celine Dion is a French-Canadian Catholic from Quebec where David Love and Anonymous are pwning Narconon and where Cardinal Ouellet made his momentous statements warning Catholics about Scientology.

The hymn is mainly known in its Latin version. However, the original text Frantz Schubert set was a prayer to Mary by Walter Scott.

Here Celine sings a version with part of the Latin Ave Maria and verses from Scott. You can read background and full texts. here. I have placed Celine’s lyrics below the video.
Warning: Your monitor may go blurry watching this video.


Ave Maria,
Ave Maria,
Maiden mild!

Oh, listen to a maiden’s prayer
For thou canst hear amid the wild.
T’is thou, t’is thou canst save amid despair.

We slumber safely till the morrow,
Though we’ve by man outcast reviled,
Oh, maiden, see a maiden’s sorrow,
Oh, mother, hear a suppliant child!

Ave Maria,
Ave Maria, gratia plena!
Maria, gratia plena,
Maria, gratia plena,
Ave, Ave!!! Dominus, Dominus tecum.

The murky cavern’s air so heavy
Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled
Oh, maiden, hear a maiden pleading!
Oh, mother, hear a suppliant child!

Ave Maria, Ave Maria!






Mary, Softener of Evil Hearts, and Her Son



Hail Mary! The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now at at the hour of our death.

Amen.



Victoria Britton is engaged in a difficult legal legal struggle with the wrongful death suit she has filed since there are so few lawyers willing to take cases involving the Church of Scientology.



Please keep her in your prayers. You can find her contact information here to let her know of your support and that you are praying for her.


By the prayers of the Mother of God, St. Michael and the Angelic Warriors, and all the saints of heaven may justice be done for God's beloved son, Kyle Brennan.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet's Three Momentous Statements on Scientology


Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has spoken out strongly in criticism of the Church of Scientology and warned Catholics about it on three occasions over the last two years including his last two annual press lunches in 2009 and 2010 before taking up his present post as head of the powerful Congregation for Bishops in the Vatican. He is regularly cited as a leading candidate to succeed Pope Benedict.

We are proud that Light In The Darkness and For Great Justice have been the only places that Cardinal Ouellet’s momentous remarks have been reported outside the French-language media in Quebec.

The assistance of researchers and translators from Anonymous Quebec has been indispensable. The Cardinal’s statements deserve to be widely-known throughout the Catholic and secular worlds.

Cardinal Ouellet is by far the highest-ranking hierarch in the Catholic world to warn Catholics about Scientology and to publicly criticize it. He has repeatedly posed the question of what the criteria are that tax authorities in Quebec extend tax exemptions to religious organizations.

He raises sharply what the distinctions are in society and government between organizations like the Catholic Church and the great world religious traditions of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism and organizations like the the Raelians and the Church of Scientology.

We have previously reported his remarks at an ecumenical retreat in 2010 when he stated flat out that Scientology is not a church, followed one week later by his annual press lunch in which he took note of Scientology’s penchant for suing its critics for libel and government action in other countries, by which he undoubtedly referred to moves of the French, German, and Belgian governments to investigate and curb Scientology’s harmful activities in those countries.


The other major hierarch in the Western Hemisphere and the only prelate to speak out against Scientology has been Archbishop Robert Rivas of Castries in St. Lucia. He devoted the last third of his Easter Homily last year to denouncing infiltration of the island by The Way To Happiness International, a Scientology front group that promotes Hubbard's booklet of moral maxims of that name.

The following is a translation of an article on his remarks at his 2010 annual press lunch from the Quebec City newspaper, Le Soleil.

Scientology: Cardinal Ouellet Serves A Warning

(Québec) Cardinal Marc Ouellet served a warning against the Church of Scientology inviting Catholics to be cautious and again asking the Quebec government for clear criteria for an organization to be recognized as a religion.

Even in a country where people respect the pluralism of opinions, the archbishop of Quebec said that he does not want prohibition, but recalls that some countries like France and Belgium consider Scientology as a cult.

"In Quebec, there should be a clearer definition of what constitutes a religion," he declared at its annual meeting with the press of Quebec, Thursday morning, taking care to point out he does not know enough the foundation of Scientology to criticize.

"There are historical religions, he says, but we should not forget that there are cults and all religions cannot be treated equally."

The Cardinal mentions the excesses of the Solar Temple and the mass suicides due to other sects, stressing that the vigilance of the State and citizens was necessary to protect the public against abuse of all kinds.

To the journalists emphasizing that the first apostles of Christ were only a dozen in the Jewish world, the cardinal admitted that strict rules could be wrong for emerging groups. However, the Cardinal stresses that techniques of manipulation and the use of money are things that should motivate people to be vigilant.

In Belgium, Scientology could not meet the criteria for the status of religion. In France, Scientology is also regarded as a cult, not a religion.

Source - Scientologie: Le Cardinal Ouellet sert une mise en garde by Yves Thierrien, Le Soleil, Quebec City, 04 February 2010. http://tinyurl.com/ye7g2mb


Thursday, April 23, 2009

Christ is Risen!!!

***


Christ is risen from the dead
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life.


- Byzantine Easter Troparion

Christos anesti!

al- Masih Qam!

Khristos voskresye!













Christ is risen from the dead



trampling down death by death,



and upon those in the tombs



bestowing life.






- Byzantine Easter Troparion






Christos anesti!






al- Masih Qam!






Khristos voskresye!















Friday, April 10, 2009

Sad Friday

***

Sad Friday





Grünewald: The Crucifixion


Today the son of Love has become a hate criminal.
Today the insurgent is whipped.
Today the apostate is spit upon.
Today the terrorist is crucified.
Today the criminal is destroyed.

Today blood-love softens every evil heart.
Today the suppression of the kingdom of darkness is shattered.

Today a disconnected mother weeps for her son.

Ida Camburn, Susan Talbot and children disappeared by a totalitarian regime.

Claire Headley, Laura DeCrescenzo, Bea Kiddo, and generations that could have been.

Today we stand with the Martyrs Lisa McPherson, Uwe Stuckenbrock, and Patrice Vic.

Today we stand with the Confessors who were light in the darkness.

Today we ask for brave hearts to follow the criminal of love to the pits of Hell and empty it until not one prisoner remains.

Today the earth quakes.
Today the kingdom of death trembles.
Today its power is overthrown.
Today prisoners awake, for tonight he dines in Hell.



***

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Cardinal Ouellet speaks critically of Scientology a second time; defends Anonymous right to free speech

Three days after Anonymous delivered its letter to Cardinal Ouellet, at his annual press lunch, spoke critically of Scientology for the second time in eight days and defend the right to free speech of Anonymous Québec in its demonstrations against Scientology.

Details are found at For Great Justice:

Cardinal speaks on Scientology a second time; defends Anonymous' right to free speech

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

How old is Anonymous and where does it go to church?

***

The press release and letter of Anonymous Québec to Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet applauding his critical remarks on Scientology has stirred curiosity about the relationship of Anonymous to religion and the involvement of religious people in the movement.

Basically, Anonymous consists of a majority of twenty-somethings and equal pluralities of atheists, religious people, and the religiously non-identifying.

The most significant fact is that Anon is of the generation born into the internet and is creating new Web 2.0 forms of culture, community, and activism. If the Church wants to get a clue about contemporary society and culture, it needs to understand Anonymous.

Anon is the vanguard of the anti-Scientology movement, which before Anon was obscure to the point of public invisibility. Anon has given it Web 2.0 cutting edge activism, and its only, and lulzy, symbols and icons: Headless Guy and the Guy Fawkes Mask.

Anonymous is also on the cutting-edge of creating internet communities of distinctively internet culture and activism, which is just beginning to come into existence. Teh Church needs to understand all this.

There are no statistical demographic data on Anonymous except for two polls on the Anonymous forum Why We Protest. One is on age and the other is on religion. Because the voters are self-selecting rather than randomly selected it does not have strict statistical significance. Nonetheless, the polls are a good general demographic indicator for analysis and reflection.

Here is where they stand today, which happens to be the birthday of Lisa McPherson, iconic martyr to organized Scientology's medical quackery, and anniversary of the first Anonymous protests one year ago.

On February 10, 2009, 7,000 anons from Project Chanology poured off the internet and into the streets to say " Happy Birthday!"to Lisa and to tell L. Ron Hubbard and organized Scientology, "GTFO!" They have been raiding Scientology orgs around the world every month for a year now.

Age:

Poll: Age Poll

Voters: 1411

0 - 17: 15.45%
18 - 25: 47.98%
26 - 35: 18.43%
36 - 45: 10.35%
45 - 60: 6.17%
60+: 1.63%

Religion

Poll: YOUR Religion

Voters: 66

I have collapsed some categories for clarity.

Atheist: 33.33%
Agnostic: 10.61%
Great traditions: 29.28%
Other: 26.78%


Comments on the age poll:

Half of Anonymous is college/immediately post-college age. The next largest group are the late 20/early 30-somethings who form nearly 20% of Anon. Thus 70% of Anon are college to early thirty-somethings. Add in the 36 - 45 age group, and Anon is 80% twenty and thirty- somethings.

What is significant is that over half of Anon was born after 1980. They form what author Chuck Underwood in the Generational Imperative calls, "The Millennials", successors as a social and cultural cohort to Generation X, the Baby Boomers, the Silents, and the G.I. Generation among the five living generations. (See Meet America's Five Living Generations)

I don't agree with many of Underwood's characterizations, but the differences in outlook of distinct groups are real and important to understand, particularly in a movement like Project Chanology, Anon's "large scale plan to take down the Church of Scientology in its present form."

What is significant about the millennials is that they were born into the internet. Anonymous with its image board roots and culture are truly "the children of the internet" and "the internet incarnate" as one of them proclaimed in The State of the Insurgency Address", which remains one of the most powerful manifestos of the essential internet nature of Anonymous, its revolution, and Project Chanology.

The State of the Insurgency is essential reading to understand why Chanology is foremost a free speech movement and secondarily a human rights protest movement. It is true that in a sense all human rights abuse is a genre of suppression of free speech: human trafficking, coerced abortion, false imprisonment, disconnection, and working conditions abuses all involve some degree of suppression of free speech.

However, the victims of all these are individuals. When Scientology suppresses freedom of speech on the internet it oppresses society. No one has seen this as clearly as the original unrelenting anon insurgents from 4chan who launched Project Chanology and were joined by channers from the image board underworld of the internet.

The millennials of Anon launched the first Web 2.0 internet free speech insurgency. They may be starting something less splashy but equally significant, the creation of communities of their own internet culture. In fact, this may be Anon's most important challenge in 2009 to sustain Project Chanology.

The Anonymous local cell site in San Francisco began as We Are Legion, a planning site for Project Chanology activism. It has now morphed into Uplink, a center for internet culture and activism. (Registration required). It is built on a ning platform as are the sites of Anonymous Québec and Anonymous Hamburg, which are among the most active cells in Anon.

Anons don't use the internet. They live on it. What an Anon site like Uplink is doing is experimenting and edging towards the creation of community for people who live on the internet and whose culture is their own, and more importantly, their own creation. Here is how they are doing it

megaphonebitch: How to build an uber planning site for free in under 30 minutes.

There was a wonderful exchange on Why We Protest recently. I can't find the link so I will paraphrase [Update: see original quotes below]

Older cranky anon: Anon culture is the culture of teenagers.

Wise Anon: No. It is the culture of the internet. There are thousands of older people who share this culture, particularly among Information Technology professionals.

Indeed. Pay attention, Cardinal Ouellet.

Comments on the religion poll:

Basically, a third of Anonymous is atheist; another third belong to the great world religious traditions, primarily Christianity; and a third consider themselves "other". This poll has fewer respondents than the age poll and so is somewhat less statistically significant.

A few things strike me. Though atheists are the largest single group, they do not appear to be militant about it any more than religious anons are militant about their beliefs. My impression is that Anon has a more tolerantly agnostic flavor. Agnostics and atheists alike on Why We Protest applauded Cardinal Ouellet's dissing of Scientology.

I have grouped the great religious traditions together because many of the issues regarding Scientology's status in society and law turn on whether it is a New Religion or a religion at all. Christians are the largest group here, with Buddhists and Jews following. And yes, there are Muslim anons. I personally know two, one of whom is a Sufi. This third of Anon forms an important asset in rallying the churches in the work of bringing organized Scientology to accountability in the eyes of society.

In addition, thousands of anons, particularly in the UK and Europe are culturally Lutheran, Catholic, or Anglican. Though personally agnostic or functionally agnostic, many were raised in religious families and attended religious schools. They have social relationships and an understanding of religion's social and political functions which is also an important asset to Chanology.

Special mention should also be made of Jewish anons, particularly for the lively presence of Anon Tel Aviv who collaborated recently with German anons to produce the Hebrew sub-titled version of their interview with a high-ranking German Scientologist Holocaust denier. ( See For Great Justice - Scientology: Holocaust Denial or Just Anti-Semitic?)

For more see Anonymous Tel Aviv and their videos on the channel of Anon Imouse at vimeo.

We have zero information on how Cardinal Ouellet decided to take on Scientology. It is difficult to believe that Anon was not part of that process, if only because he may have asked his assistant one day, "Who on earth are those young people in masks and what are they doing?" Perhaps a reporter should ask him to what extent Anon piqued his interest.

An anon in Germany told me that he hadn't been to church for years but would go back if it would help Chanology. Yesterday, an anon from Anonymous Québec went to meet with his parish priest to speak to him about Chanology and give him a copy of their letter to the Cardinal.

It turned out it was a day off for the curé, so today he is going to the Cardinal's office to personally deliver a copy of the letter there.

I hope the Cardinal or his assistant reads this and invites him in for a chat someday.

In closing, I want to recommend Jeff Jacobsen's illuminating paper We Are Legion: Anonymous and the War on Scientology. It is the most serious sociological treatment of Anonymous that has yet appeared. Significantly, Jeff is a Christian and former Scientology Lisa McPherson Trust staff member [Thanks for the correction Jeff.], who was a member of a Pentecostal church that turned into a cult and who returned to Christianity after he left Scientology. The Cardinal, and anyone else interested in understanding Anonymous needs to read Jeff's paper.



Oh hai. Thx 4 teh infoz!!11unum

Update

Update: a commenter here pointed me to the original post by Anoniemert in the thread "What do Scienologists do for fun? The older cranky anon is, in fact, a former Scientologist newly acquainted with Anonymous culture. Anoniemert is the wise anon:
Arsolycus:
Michael stop trying to be a culture imitator; recovery is important for ex-Scientologists but not to the point where you feel it necessary to imitate the culture of teenagers.

Anoniemert:

I would like to point out, as neutrally as possible, that this is a slightly incorrect view of the culture.

I am not a teenager and have been actively following the culture for years.
The anonymous culture is not the culture of teenagers, it is the culture of the internet.

Due to it's nature the participants of anonymous are mostly teenagers and students.
It also includes many professionals (mostly IT) of any age.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Lettre d'Anonymous Québec sur la Scientologie au Cardinal Marc Ouellet

***

This is the original text of Anonymous Québec's letter to Carinal Marc Ouellet regarding Scientology. It has been cross-posted to For Great Justice.

For background see: For Great Justice - Canadian Cardinal on Scientology: It's not a church.

_____________________________________________________________

9 février 2009


Monsieur le Cardinal Marc Ouellet
Archevêque métropolitain de Québec
Primat du Canada

Éminence,

Anonymous Québec et les participants d'Anonymous de par le monde, qu'ils soient religieux ou non, vous félicitent pour vos propos concernant la Scientologie, publiés dans le journal Le Soleil le jeudi 5 février 2009.[1]

Nous sommes tout à fait d'accord avec vous que la Scientologie n'est pas une religion. Comme l'ancien délégué apostolique de Hongrie, Mgr Karl-Joseph Rauber, nous affirmons que la Scientologie est une entreprise multinationale dirigée selon des méthodes totalitaires.[2]

Nous applaudissons votre recommandation au gouvernement du Québec d'enquêter sur la nature et les activités de la Scientologie, à l'instar des gouvernements de la France, de la Belgique et, surtout, de l'Allemagne. Merci d'avoir lancé cette discussion parmi les Églises chrétiennes et les communautés religieuses authentiques. Nous appuyons votre volonté d'éveiller la conscience de nos concitoyens de toutes confessions, en particulier chez les jeunes, la cible préférée de la Scientologie.

Nous souhaitons attirer l'attention de Votre Éminence sur les atteintes à la liberté d'expression et sur quelques-unes des nombreuses violations des droits humains dont la Scientologie est responsable:

  • La Scientologie applique une politique de fair game (loi du gibier de potence) qui bâillonne tant les individus que les grandes institutions de la société, y compris les gouvernements, les médias et les Églises.[3]

  • La Scientologie attaque sans cesse la liberté d'expression sur internet.[4]

  • L'avortement est obligatoire quand une femme membre de la Sea Org (Organisation maritime) est enceinte, faute de quoi la femme perd son emploi. La Sea Org englobe la hiérarchie supérieure de l'Église de scientologie et «l'élite» de son personnel, autrement dit ses hauts dirigeants et son soi-disant clergé.[5] [6]

  • L'exorcisme des «mauvais esprits» est au coeur des niveaux avancés de la Scientologie (grades Operating Thetan III à VIII). En plus d'être dispendieuse, cette thérapie intensive est dangereuse aux plans psychologique et spirituel.[7]

  • Les adeptes de la Scientologie sont systématiquement obligés de révéler leurs secrets les plus intimes, en particulier leur vie sexuelle, et ces informations sont consignées dans des dossiers. Certains ex-scientologues affirment que la Scientologie utilise ces renseignements comme moyen de chantage.[8]

  • La Scientologie cherche ouvertement à se substituer à tous les soins de santé mentale. Son organisme de façade appelée «Commission des citoyens pour les droits de l'homme (CCDH)» préconise l'anéantissement mondial de la psychiatrie.[9]

  • L'histoire de la Scientologie est parsemée de morts suspectes et de suicides liés à sa pratique illégale de la médecine et de la psychologie.[10]

  • La Scientologie cache du public le fait qu'elle oblige ses adeptes qui aspirent à traverser «le pont vers la liberté totale» à renoncer à tout ce qui n'est pas Scientologie, y compris au plan religieux. Une ancienne religieuse catholique embrigadée en Scientologie a été punie pour avoir parlé de la Bible. Un autre scientologue a été puni pour avoir dit du bien au sujet de certains livres chrétiens. [11] [12]

  • La Scientologie détruit les familles par sa cruelle politique de «déconnexion» et des milliers de parents et de familles n'osent pas parler, de peur que la Scientologie punisse leurs proches qui sont toujours en Scientologie.[13]

  • Au fil des ans, la Scientologie a été condamnée de maintes offenses, y compris d'abus de confiance (R. v. Church of Scientology of Toronto). Elle a de plus été reconnue coupable de diffamation sur la personne du procureur de la couronne en charge dudit procès (Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto). [14] [15] [16] [17]

  • À l'heure actuelle, la Scientologie fait l'objet de poursuites judiciaires pour les abus que nous dénonçons. La France poursuit la Scientologie pour «escroquerie en bande organisée». Aux États-Unis, Marc et Claire Headley poursuivent la Scientologie pour esclavage, trafic humain, et avortement forcé.[18] [19] [20]

  • La Scientologie maintient un programme de rééducation et de camps de travaux forcés connu sous le nom de RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force), que ses anciens prisonniers comparent à des goulags.[21]

  • La Scientologie pratique délibérément le camouflage religieux (religious cloaking) de ses opérations commerciales et c'est par cette imposture qu'elle a convaincu le fisc américain (US Internal Revenue Service) de la reconnaître, à tort, comme organisation religieuse.[22]

  • La Scientologie prêche ouvertement son objectif de rendre la planète «claire», c'est-à-dire d'assujettir l'ensemble de l'humanité à la Scientologie, tout en détruisant la psychiatrie et en remplaçant toutes les connaissances psychologiques, académiques et morales par les pratiques et «technologies» de L. Ron Hubbard.[23]

Toutes ces questions nécessitent un urgent débat public, en particulier parmi les communautés religieuses authentiques, dont certaines, manipulées par le faux irénisme de groupes interreligieux que des scientologues ont infiltrés, prêtent un appui tacite à la Scientologie.

Respectueusement, nous vous demandons d'envisager les mesures suivantes:

  • Alerter les primats, les diocèses de rite latin, les éparchies de rite oriental, ainsi que les médias, à la nécessité d'une campagne d'information sur la Scientologie.

  • Informer les institutions et associations catholiques oeuvrant dans le domaine des soins de santé, ainsi que toute organisation catholique préoccupée par la violence psychologique, la destruction des familles et les avortements forcés.

  • Doter tous les diocèses de personnes ressources, tels les commissaires aux sectes des diocèses luthériens et catholiques d'Allemagne, qui pourraient conseiller les familles et amis aux prises avec la Scientologie. Les adeptes de la Scientologie ont souvent besoin de soutien moral quand ils quittent la secte car ils risquent de se trouver dans le dénuement complet.

  • Encourager la publication des récits des rescapés de la Scientologie et exiger qu'ils soient lus par les personnes qui occupent des postes de responsabilité dans la primauté. Quelques exemples: The Complex par John Duignan; The Psychiatrist Who Cured The Scientologist par Aaron David Gottfried; Counterfeit Dreams par Jeff Hawkins; Devoted to the Cult - Book 1: An Orphan With Parents par Bea Kiddo, excellent livre électronique «bilingue» (jargon scientologue-anglais); La scientologie, facile d'y entrer, difficile d'en sortir ainsi que Les coulisses de la scientologie par Jean-Paul Debreuil. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29]

  • Militer pour l'exclusion de la Scientologie des associations interreligieuses.

  • Établir une commission de juristes catholiques pour analyser les allégations de Marc et Claire Headley au sujet d'esclavagisme, de traffic humain et d'avortements forcés et évaluer s'il y aurait lieu de porter des accusations semblables au Canada.

  • Établir une commission d'étude sur l'opportunité de déposer une plainte à la Commission des droits de l'homme des Nations Unies.

  • Convier les Églises, les responsables des différents paliers de gouvernement et les acteurs d'organisations sociales à une conférence où des ex-scientologues bien renseignés et éloquents pourront exposer leurs connaissances, comme à la conférence du 4 septembre 2008 à Hambourg, organisée par le Groupe de travail sur la Scientologie du ministère de l'Intérieur de Hambourg.[30] [31]

  • Désavouer les propos diffamatoires de la Scientologie envers les personnes qui la dénoncent et condamner le harcèlement moral et juridique perpétré contre ces personnes.

  • Condamner la Scientologie pour sa persécution (fair gaming) des personnes qui critiquent ou protestent de façon légale et pacifique, en particulier les étudiants de niveau secondaire et post-secondaire qui sont membres d'Anonymous.

  • Aider au financement d'une traduction en français du documentaire Der gesäuberte Planet (il en existe une traduction anglaise sous-titré intitulée The Cleared Planet) et encourager son visionnement dans les écoles, comme l'a fait l'Église luthérienne en Allemagne.[32] [33]

  • Demander au gouvernement du Québec de déclencher une enquête sur la Scientologie en collaboration avec la Mission interministérielle sur la vigilance et la lutte contre les dérives sectaires de France (MIVILUDES) et demander au gouvernement fédéral de se prononcer sur la compatibilité des objectifs et des intentions de la Scientologie avec la Constitution du Canada.[34]

Depuis un an, Anonymous s'efforce de faire connaître la vérité sur l'Église de Scientologie en jetant la lumière sur ses activités. Les moyens que nous utilisons sont strictement pacifiques et nous estimons que c'est la façon la plus efficace d'enrayer l'influence néfaste de la Scientologie.[35] [36]

Anonymous se met à votre disposition pour renseigner les Églises et le public sur la Scientologie, dont le vrai visage se cache loin derrière le masque des célèbres vedettes scientologues.

Nous vous invitons, de même que tous les catholiques concernés et le public, religieux ou non, à se joindre à nous lors des manifestations internationales qui auront lieu samedi prochain, 14 février 2009.Pour de plus amples détails, voir les sites internet des cellules d'Anonymous au Québec. [37]

Nous serions honorés si Votre Éminence nous accordait sa bénédiction dans nos efforts pour amener la Scientologie à assumer la responsabilité de ses actes et en rendre compte devant la société et ses institutions.

Nous vous prions d'agréer, Éminence, les assurances de notre très respectueuse considération.


Anonymous Québec



Références :

[1] Scientologie: «Ce n'est pas une Église» - Mgr Ouellet

[2] Light In The Darkness: Scientology organization is a totalitarian business - Hungarian Papal Nuncio

[3] Scientology's "Fair Game" doctrine

[4] Scientology Launches New Censorship Attack on Internet

[5] Marc Headley: Formerly Fooled and Finally Free From The Deceptive Cult Called Scientology: Scientology is 'Clearing the Planet', One Unborn Child at a Time.

[6] Coerced Scientology Abortions

[7] NOTS Scholarship Page: Demonic Possession in Scientology

[8] Scientology's Auditing

[9] For Great Justice: Katharine Mieszkowski: Scientology's War on Psychiatry

[10] Scientology associated deaths

[11] Operation Clambake Message Board: Scientology Orgs: Interfering with religion?

[12] Scientology Critical Information Directory: Michael Pattinson's Experiences with Scientology - Part 11

[13] Scientology Disconnection - Personal stories, current practices, official policies, public relations

[14] Scientology Conviction In Court: The Globe and Mail Report

[15] R. v. Church of Scientology of Toronto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[16] CanLII - 1996 CanLII 1650 (ON C.A.)

[17] Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto

[18] L'Eglise de Scientologie devant la justice pour escroquerie - Actualité France - Justice - Radio Europe1

[19] Scott Piliutik: Marc Headley v. Church of Scientology International

[20] Scott Piliutik: Claire Headley v. CSI, RTC

[21] Prof. Stephen A. Kent: Brainwashing in Scientology's RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force)

[22] Lawrence Brennan: The Brennan Affidavit

[23] Scientology expert on 'Taking over our government'

[24] John Duignan: The Complex

[25] Aaron David Gottfried: The Psychiatrist Who Cured The Scientologist

[26] Jeff Hawkins: Counterfeit Dreams

[27] Bea Kiddo, livre électronique «bilingue» (jargon scientologue-anglais):Devoted to the Cult - Book 1: An Orphan With Parents

[28] Jean Debreuil: La scientologie, facile d'y entrer, difficile d'en sortir

[29] Jean Debreuil: "Les coulisses de la scientologie

[30] Death By 1000 Papercuts Church of Scientology and Anonymous: Guess Which Group Didn't get Invite to German Seminar

[31] Conférence du ministère de l'Intérieur de Hambourg, 4 septembre 2008 à Hambourg: Vidéos

[32] Refund and Reparation - The Cleared Planet - A journey into Scientology

[33] Light In The Darkness: Scientology - The Forgotten Danger?

[34] Mission Interministérielle de VIgilance et de LUtte contre les DÉrives Sectaires [MIVILUDES]

[35] Jeff Jacobsen: We Are Legion: Anonymous and the War on Scientology

[36] Anonymous Québec

[37] Le Soleil - Scientologie: manif devant les locaux du mouvement