by starroute » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:41 pm
I was reorganizing some old notes and came across this:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/txt/ces2.htm">www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/txt/ces2.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Not all think tanks of the new international right, however, come from the US. One of them, for example, comes from Italy. It is called CESNUR, the "Centre for the Study of New Religions". It puts itself across as a non denominational and non partisan study centre, whereas actually it is a militant organization, which draws its inspiration from a self-styled "counter-revolutionary" ideology. Although run by Catholic fundamentalists, CESNUR promotes a kind of ecumenism among transnational enterprises which preach global free market; as we can see, CESNUR brings together admirers of the Inquisition and supporters of Scientology, Catholic extremists and esoteric Freemasons. . . .<br><br>CESNUR calls itself an "international network of scholars who study new religious movements" and claims to be "independent from any religious group, movement, denomination or association".<br><br>So it comes as a surprise to see that CESNUR Italy is synonymous with another political-religious organization, Alleanza Cattolica. However, surprises do not end here: Alleanza Cattolica started out as the Italian branch - or "sister organization" - of an extremely controversial and fanatical Brazilian organization, Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). Although Alleanza Cattolica is independent in terms of organization from TFP, it boasts of following the "counter-Revolutionary magisterium" of the eccentric founder of the TFP, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>The article runs through the major figures associated with CESNUR, one or another of whom has or formerly had connections with:<br><br>- Berlusconi's political party<br><br>- Scientology, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Ramtha School of Enlightenment<br><br>- Reverend Moon and the Unification Church<br><br>- the Crowleyite "Temple ov Psychick Youth"<br><br>- Opus Dei<br><br>- the Mormons<br><br>- French esotericism<br><br>- Freemasonry<br><br>The article then goes on:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> The combination of right-wing extremism, Catholic intégrisme and esoteric interests is something typically French; and this world is certainly quite close to the more conservative lodges. According to the usually well-informed magazine Faits & Documents (n. 27, 15.5.97, p. 5), the whole leadership of the French branch of CESNUR - Faivre, Séguy and Edighoffer - are not only scholars who study Masonry, but are also members of the Grande Loge Nationale de France. This mystically minded and conservative lodge is the only one to be recognized by British Freemasonry. Its members are obliged to declare their absolute faith in a "revealed god", and any members who attend lodges accepting atheists or women. The lodge almost disappeared in the 1960's, when the US military personnel left France, but it grew again quickly, also thanks considerable financial help from the USA. At least until many scandals broke out in 1999, the GLNF was the Masonic group with the largest membership. However matters may be, Antoine Faivre was a writer for - and according to Faits & Documents also the director - of the official magazine of the GLNF, Les Cahiers de la Loge Villard de Honnecourt. On his own Internet page, Freemason Patrick Negrier of the GLNF, a scholar of Patristic studies at a Benedictine Abbey (here again we find an unexpected juxtaposition of apparently differing elements), boasts of having organized a conference to commemorate the author and esotericist Serge Hutin, attended by "eminent philosophers, esotericists and Masons", such as Marie-Magdeleine Davy, Antoine Faivre, Roland Edighoffer, Jacques Fabry, Robert Amadou, René Alleau, Jean-Pierre Bayard.<br><br>The third strain of CESNUR has to do with the US neoconservative movement. Introvigne - who has always been very much involved with the US - has for years been indicating the "neo-cons" as a model for creating a European right. This may be a slightly less romantic model than the Crusades dreamed of by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, or the esoteric and Indoeuropean fantasies of certain Frenchmen, but it is definitely far more efficient, being based on close partnership between a large number of religious enterprises and a large number of business enterprises, whose main enemy is the "secular state". <br><br>This explains something which always leaves people confused, at least in Italy: why does the offshoot of an extremist Catholic movement like CESNUR fight so strenuously against all those that Introvigne collectively labels as "anti-cult movements, ranging from the US A.F.F. to the Italian CICAP? Introvigne accuses all such movements of fomenting "religious intolerance", of using barbarous methods ("deprogramming" ) and of basing themselves on "brainwashing" theories. Such accusations are largely false - for example, virtually no "deprogrammings" have ever taken place in Italy, and none have taken place in the US for many years; the term "brainwashing" was invented in the '50s to describe extreme forms of physical coercion, and is no longer used today.<br><br>CESNUR is especially virulent - as we can see in other articles on this website - against the testimony of former members of "cults", in certain cases even deliberately lying in order to discredit them.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>I originally stumbled on this while looking for information on Morton Blackwell's connections with TFP and had no idea what to make of all the other stuff. I still don't know what to make of it -- but it strikes that the folks here might be both interested in the question and prepared to offer clarification.<br> <p></p><i></i>