And now some reeking, steaming gibberish cranked out by one of the Miami Herald's

[Judi Lynn]

best crapmeisters:

Chávez-linked church decried
A new church in Venezuela is earning criticism from Roman Catholic leaders over its links to Hugo Chávez.
Posted on Sun, Jun. 29, 2008

BY CASTO OCANDO
El Nuevo Herald

A church modeled in part after one in Miami but with a ''revolutionary'' spirit that praises Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is now at the center of a religious and social controversy in Venezuela.

Although it has adopted many of the symbols and rites of Roman Catholicism, the new Reform Catholic Venezuelan Church departs from traditional belief in some key ways.

DIVORCE ALLOWED

For example, reformists consider that ''homosexuality and bisexuality are not sins in and of themselves.'' Divorce is allowed and priests do not take vows of chastity.

The church, which was publicly announced last week, also lines itself up squarely behind Chávez's ''Bolivarian Revolution'' and its socialist agenda.

Venezuelan Catholic leaders, who reacted sharply to the new church, claim Chávez is bankrolling it with petroleum proceeds.

But whether that's true or not, Reform Catholic leaders line up squarely behind the Venezuelan president.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/587067.html

[struggle4progress]

1. This might be a weird one

First, from El Universal:

Bishops rebut Chávez-supporting Catholic Church
Caracas, Friday June 27 , 2008

... "We are learning to view the lower class as Chávez does. He has worried about meeting their needs; we are fighting against exploitation and the US empire," Leornardo Marín Saavedra, the church primate on Thursday told reporters.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/06/27/en_pol_art_bishops-rebut-chavez_27A1732041.shtml

The name "Leonardo Marin-Saavedra" occurs in other contexts:

Celtic Anabaptist Ministries
Intercommunion ...

Latin American Anglican Church
+ Leonardo Marin-Saavedra, Primate Archbishop
Bishop Roger Hurtubise

Bishop Hurtubise told me that they were particularly impressed by our "Statement of Principles" and felt a very close spiritual kinship with the CAC.

I am including a link here to the Latin American Anglican Church; The material on the site is in Spanish ...

http://www.celtic-anabaptist-ministries.com/intercommunion.html

But following the link to the "Latin American Anglican Church" lands a tripod page http://anglicanhispanic.tripod.com/ which is titled MISIONEROS ANGLICANOS DE SAN LORENZO

From there one navigates to:

MISIONEROS ANGLICANOS DE SAN LORENZO ...
FUNDACION
FUNDADOR

The Most Rev.
LEONARDO MARIN-SAAVEDRA
Arzobispo Primado IAL
202-136 Alber Street
London, Ontario, N6A 1M2
Canadá.

Teléfono: 1 <519> 615-1231 ...

Si usted desea comunicarse con el Arzobispo Primado escriba a: [e-mail]

http://anglicanhispanic.tripod.com/id1.html

I'd guess "Leornardo Marín Saavedra" is one and the same with "Leonardo Marin-Saavedra" who apparently lives in Canada, where he holds forth as founder and Primate Archbishop of the "Latin American Anglican Church," though he now appears also as the Primate Archbishop of the "Reformed Venezuelan Catholic Church," when he isn'y enjoying his role as "The Most Reverend Primate Archbishop Leonardo Marin-Saavedra," recipient of the "Knight Grand Cross of The Imperial Teutonic Order" from the "The Imperial Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem," indicated at http://www.imperialteutonicorder.org/_wsn/page3.html

On the other hand, a yahoo 360 webpage simply identifies "Leonardo Marin-Saavedra" as "Male from Canada. Writer and dramatist" http://uk.360.yahoo.com/profile-mD10Uz84eqriUnWAuvNG7QQ-?cq=1

"Leonardo Marin-Saavedra" probably thinks he is playing a clever joke, though both the Miami Herald and El Universal play the story as if it were evidence of bad behavior by Chavez. But it may simply be evidence of their incompetent reporting of a silly fad or a deliberate disruptor tactic: it is my impression that a number of people today are calling themselves the "Archbishop" of this or that bogus church, existing primarily or only as a website

[Judi Lynn]

2. Truly confounding! The church sounds too obscure to be real.

Teutonic? Celtic? Reformed Venezuelan Catholic? Help.

The Venezuelan Catholic church has always been completely attached to the oligarchy, unlike the powerful Catholic leaders in Latin America who followed the teachings of Christ, some of them paying for it with their lives at the hands of fascists. Some of them have been absolutely heroic in their support and involvement in the struggles of the people.

It has to be the same guy. Miami Herald and El Universal are truly joined at the hip, playing to the same constituency. They'll never look beyond the surface.

[struggle4progress]

3. With stunning self-contradiction, the fellow sometimes styles himself "Presbyter"

From: "Rev'd Canon Erich A. Zwingert, SSC" <ezwingert@...>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 07:59:42 -0500

David+

We have received 3 or 4 messages at the APA Offices from this person. The
message is always repeated verbatim and always addressed precisely as names
are listed on our website. Our hunch is that it is a "begging" letter and so
we have not acted on it.

Blessings,
Erich+

----- Original Message -----
From: <FrDavidLReagan@...>
To: <FaithandLife@...>
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:48 PM
Subject: <FaithandLife> Does anyone know?

> Does anyone know of a "Presbyter Leonardo Marin Saavedra?" I received a
message from him today. He had my name and e-mail correctly spelled.
>
> DLReagan+
>

http://freegroups.net/groups/faithandlife/0::920read.html

This is odd because "presbyter" is typically used for a non-hierarchical church model, governed by church elders rather than by a hierarchy of bishops

[struggle4progress]

4. Oh, look: The "Old Catholic Orthodox Church" also recognizes his "consecration"

http://www.oldcatholicorthodoxchurch.net/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2

[struggle4progress]

5. It seems Saavedra sometimes identifies himself as a Colombian

Leonardo from Canada [phone]

I was born on 17th December 1955 at Puerto Nare, Antioquia, Republic of Colombia (Continent of America). I am single. I gave my life to Christ in 1975. I went to a Christ School and Christ University, I iniciated of The Anglican Missinaries of San Lorenzo in 1985. I was ordained Deacon (on August 6, 1988) and I was ordained priest (on December 8, 1988). I was consecrate Bishop in 2003 in USA and I was elevated Archbishop (on December 10, 2006, Canada) by The Anglican National Church of Dominican Republic. They name my Archbishop of Americas and Caribbean Territories by The Most Rev. Lic. I. Canot. I have Diploma's Philosophy, Theology, Literature, Business Administration and dramaturgy. I am Spanish writer and Spanish Literature Professor. I love that friendship of everybody. I am Anglican Primate Archbishop Missionarie of The Latin-American Anglican Church: http://www.ial.galeon.com http://www.anglican.es.tl

http://obispoleo7.multiply.com/


The Latest Challenge
Storefront "Catholic" Churches Draw Latinos
By Jonathan Fierro
<2003>

... Leonardo Marin-Saavedra, an Anglican bishop from Colombia (belonging to a group that broke from the Episcopal Church), who officiates at Mass at San Miguel and at other independent parishes, says that many Latino Catholics go to these churches because they find that they don't have to show endless, hard-to-get documents, or put up with grouchy rectory secretaries ...

http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2003/0903jf.htm


This is interesting because his yahoo 360 page says simply:

Places I've Lived:
London, Ontario
Canada N6A1M2 From 1967 to 2007

http://uk.360.yahoo.com/profile-mD10Uz84eqriUnWAuvNG7QQ-?cq=1

[Judi Lynn]

6. Mysterious, isn't it? That article, "Latest Challenge,Storefront "Catholic" Churches Draw Latinos"

is very interesting.

Never have heard of these guys. That's easy to understand, considering the big business churchiness is, around the world. Churches that DON'T put the material world first stay small and people don't notice them, apparently.

Thanks for running this down. That link does put things in a different light, and makes it all FAR, FAR, FAR different from the clattertrap about it the traditional Catholic clergy are passing around in Venezuela, and, apparently, Miami.

Just found another one:

Venezuela priests open pro-Chavez church
June 30th, 2008 @ 8:37pm
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A fledgling church that openly backs President Hugo Chavez is raising the ire of Venezuela's Roman Catholic hierarchy, preaching the Gospel alongside socialism.

Founders of the newly created Reformist Catholic Church of Venezuela, based in the western city of Ciudad Ojeda, say that supporting Chavez's socialist ideals goes hand-in-hand with Christian aims of helping the poor.

"We don't side with any political banner, but we cannot fail to recognize and support the socialist achievements of this government," Enrique Albornoz, a former Lutheran minister who helped start the church, said in a telephone interview on Monday. "We back the social programs of this revolutionary government."

A group of dissident Catholic priests, Lutherans, and Anglicans quietly formed the church several years ago, but its first three bishops were sworn in last weekend, Albornoz said.

The church has five sanctuaries in Venezuela and about 2,000 parishioners _ most of them in the oil-rich western state of Zulia, he said. An iron-shuttered, concrete house of worship in a working-class neighborhood of Ciudad Ojeda serves as headquarters for the movement, which borrows heavily from liberation theology and Martin Luther's Book of Common Prayer.

More:
http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=883119&r=1

[struggle4progress]

7. There are quite a variety of long-established churches, and many of the

large older churches have fairly diverse histories. The Catholic hierarchy, for example, has often been rather conservative at the Vatican level but parish priests in the underdeveloped world have often been interested in real people and real problems, as one learns from the cases of Aristide, D'Escoto, Lugo (all of whom left the Catholic hierarchy after the Vatican tried to silence them)

Frankly, I'm somewhat suspicious of Saavedra and his crowd: they seemingly talk a good line, but the only role they actually seem to be playing is to add colorful quotes anti-Chavez propaganda. Saavedra apparently travels to Colombia; the "church" then supposedly consecrates its first three bishops, and voila! one has pieces in the press describing Chavez's alleged financing of an attempt split the Catholic Church. This is in itself odd, because one should not typically expect any international coverage at all if a tiny church sent a few missionaries to Latin America

The piece on "Storefront Catholic Churches" may sound good on first reading, and may reference real sociological phenomena -- but it seems to involve this glaring inconsistency: it claims Saavedra officiates at one of those churches, while his yahoo page apparently says he's a dramatist lived in Canada since 1967. Elsewhere the Saavedra web-biographies suggests that he was "consecrated Bishop" in California about the time the "Storefront Catholic Churches" story was written. My suspicion is that he's something of a scammer, for fun or profit, and that the whole church thing, as well as the Teutonic order stuff, is mere role-playing; so I might guess Saavedra visited California, picked up the "Bishop" title, appeared in a story about storefront churches and skeedattled back to Canada. Perhaps the fascination with titles such as "Archbishop" and "Knight Grand Cross of The Imperial Teutonic Order" supports such an interpretation

"Enrique Albornoz" claims to be a "former Lutheran" but searching for his name merely produces a few hits like this webpage:

http://www.ilflutheran.org/page7.html

Most of the links from that page are broken, as are most links from the parent directory

http://www.ilflutheran.org

which says "While we are reconstructing our site, due to changes in the host's capabilities and policies, please GOOGLE the International Lutheran Fellowship Apostolic Succession." But at present, searching "International Lutheran Fellowship Apostolic Succession" leads only back to the page which suggested the search

I'm a Lutheran. I have never ever heard of "International Lutheran Fellowship." Searching did lead to the following

A Little Lecture on Little Little-Known Lutheran Synods
<Metropolitan North Pastoral Conference 1983, Milwaukee, WI>
by: E. C. Fredrich
... To round off this report, mention could be made of an International Lutheran Fellowship with an imposing name but not so imposing statistics. Three pastors serve some 300 members in three congregations. Beyond this, little information about the International Lutheran Fellowship is available ...
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:mn3sBjLfaoIJ:www.wlsessays.net/authors/F/FredrichLittle/FredrichLittle.rtf+%22International+Lutheran+fellowship%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us
<original rtf file:> http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/F/FredrichLittle/FredrichLittle.rtf

So as of 1983, there was an essentially unknown group, which maintained no definite ties with any more traditional Lutheran group, styling itself "International Lutheran Fellowship" and claiming 3 pastors and 300 members. The claims should be regarded as unverified and hence the membership is likely to be inflated. The situation presumably has not improved much since then: the webpages I cite says The International Lutheran fellowship has approximately 70 ordained clergy in North America, South America, Singapore, India, and Africa. The roster of congregations and clergy is currently under revision. Please contact the Central Office for information. Listings for "Priest" may also be interpreted as "Presbyter or Pastor" The individuals listed below are rostered church workers, ordained or lay. List does not include clergy who have not maintained contact or who have asked not to be listed on the roster at this time, followed by a list beginning with "Enrique Albornoz" (who, however, now apparently describes himself as "former Lutheran"); contact information is provided for none of them

Something is screwy here

[Judi Lynn]

8. They have "70 ordained clergy in North America, South America, Singapore, India, and Africa."

Considering how FEW there are of them, you'd expect them to be a little more concentrated, wouldn't you?

Maybe they have unmentioned "helpers" contributing resources, etc. filling out the ranks.

Do you recall a couple of years ago a group of "missionaries" were arrested in Africa, found travelling with heavy artillery and munitions? I think they went to prison, as it looked as if they were doing something far different from "spreading the word of Gawd."

There are two different Protestant missionary groups which have been working everywhere who have gone into their target areas and worked to destroy their victims' cultures, and doing work for business groups back in the States in the process.

Here's one example:

John Perkins provides an example of the criticism, he notes rumors of SIL perfidy, and cites the Ecudorian president's criticism, he wrote:

Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), an evangelical missionary group from the United States, of sinister collusion with the oil companies. I was familiar with SIL missionaries from my Peace Corps days. The organization had entered Ecuador under the pretext of studying, recording, and translating indigenous languages.

SIL had been working extensively with the Huaorani tribe in the Amazon basin area, during the early years of oil exploration, when a disturbing pattern emerged. Whenever seismologists reported to corporate headquarters that a certain region had characteristics indicating a high probability of oil beneath the surface, SIL went in and encouraged the indigenous people to move from that land, onto missionary reservations; there they would receive free food, shelter, clothes, medical treatment, and missionary-style education. The condition was that they had to deed their lands to the oil companies.

... Rumors abounded that SIL missionaries used an assortment of underhanded techniques to abandon their homes and move to the missions. A frequently repeated story was that they had donated food heavily laced with laxatives — then offered medicines to cure the diarrhea epidemic. Throughout Huaorani territory, SIL airdropped false-bottomed food baskets containing tiny radio transmitters; receivers at highly sophisticated communications stations, manned by U.S. military personnel at the army base in Shell, tuned into these transmitters. Whenever a member of the tribe was bitten by a poisonous snake or became seriously ill, an SIL representative arrived with antivenom or the proper medicines — often in oil company helicopters." (John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, p.142)

(The president of Ecuador, Jaime Roldós,) openly accused the Summer Institute of Linguistics of colluding with the oil companies, and then, in an extremely bold — perhaps reckless — move, he ordered SIL out of the country. <…> He died in a fiery helicopter crash on May 24, 1981. <…> Osvaldo Hurtado took over as Ecuador’s president. He reinstated the Summer Institute of Linguistics and their oil company sponsors." (op. cit. p.156f.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIL#External_links

"New Tribes" missionaries, and "Wycliffe Bible Translators" have a ridiculous history. I'm wondering if this guy is working for some kind of CIA front group like that, then.

There are, after all, too many non-transparent aspects to this outfit. I've seen small religious groups, and the straight ones are crystal clear: completely readable from a mile away, very simple, with VERY modest ambitions, loosely organized, no overriding agenda of any kind.

Here's New Tribes, from Wikipedia:

New Tribes Mission (NTM) is an international, theologically evangelical Christian mission organization based in Sanford, Florida. They have approximately 3,200 missionaries in more than 18 nations, second only to Wycliffe Bible Translators/SIL International. David Hesselgrave, Executive Director of the Evangelical Missiological Society, has said of NTM, "New Tribes Mission is in the vanguard of Christian missions. NTM sends out trained missionaries; they send them to the most needy peoples and places on earth; and they send them equipped with a missionary strategy that is second to none."<2>

~snip~
Political Controversy in Venezuela
In October 2005, the BBC reported that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez had announced his intention to expel New Tribes Mission from Venezuela. He accused New Tribes Mission of imperialism, of collaborating with the US CIA, of violating Venezuela's national sovereignty, and of violating the country's laws by making unauthorized flights into and out of the country. He also attacked the group for building lavish camps in which to live next to poverty-stricken villages. <38><39>

Responding to the allegations, NTM said, "Any kind of air travel we do, we always do within the guidelines of what the government allows. We always file reports." With respect to "luxury" living, they "live in homes that make it possible for them to continue the work that they do. The homes that they live in are very simple." <40>

On November 3rd, 2005, hundreds of Venezuelan indigenous people marched in Puerto Ayacucho protesting against the expulsion of NTM. Although the Venezuelan constitution recognized their collective ownership of ancestral lands in 1999, "poverty remains acute among many Indian communities and many protesters said the missionaries were the only people who have tangibly improved their lives." <41>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Tribes_Mission

Wycliffe Bible Translators:

Wycliffe Bible Translators is a nonprofit organization with its international headquarters in Dallas, Texas, USA. It is dedicated to making a translation of the Bible in every living language in the world, especially for cultures with little existing Christian influence. Wycliffe was founded in 1942 by William Cameron Townsend. There are currently branches in over 50 countries (see Wycliffe International websitefor a list). The organization is named after John Wycliffe, the first person to initiate a translation of the whole Bible into Middle English.

~snip~
Controversy and criticism
Wycliffe Bible Translators has come under criticism from anthropologists and Third World Nationalists. American ethnologist William Vickers comments,

The conspiracy theorists who believe that is a simple front for the CIA will find little support for their views {...} It is true, however, that has influential ties to capitalist enterprise, politicians, and military figures in the United States and in the developing countries in which it works. is not an "empire" per se, but foreign missions such as are part of the larger political process in which powerful nations export political, economic, social, and ideological patterns to the relatively weaker and poorer regions of the world. Today, people in many developing countries are debating whether some aspects of this process should be limited or controlled. (Vickers, 1984:201)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe_Bible_Translators

In light of the kind of destabilization we see can be undertaken from groups like this, knowing all previous efforts to destabilize the Chavez administration have failed, it would seem so likely new ones will be devised over and over in expectation of finally hitting the jackpot.

It's not impossible we'll be hearing more about these guys.