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Legal experts discuss possibilities ahead of September visit

April 4, 2010 For Immediate Release

New Zealand researchers claim that what remains of the Bible's real origins, finds for its source material actual events from within the lands of Great Britain, and not Palestine! Their dramatic conclusions are largely based on writings that were produced from the scriptoriums at Jarrow and Wearmouth, in region of Northumbria – S.E. Scotland. In the late seventh century it was at Jarrow where the Venerable Bede wrote about the life of its abbots Coelfridas and Benet Biscop, and the journeys Benet undertook for compilation of the Codex Amiatina. Which, they say, had for its authority the Oracles of God – a work that emerged around time of Constantine the Great’s purported first Council of Nicaea (C.E.325)? Doubts raised about any meeting occurring at Nicaea, when connections with the Roman Church's false Donation of Constantine are examined! 

Their research suggests that the churches literal acceptance of the Bible Land's location is unsupportable by the evidence and holds very little historical substance. It is further understood that both English and Roman Churches colluded with royal families in order to usurp Druidic Britain's Celtic/Culdee inheritance and traditions, who were in times past the guardians of unique ancestral knowledge.

In their treatise, they explain, it was manuscript versions of these Druidic traditions that were later discovered at Rennes-le-Chateau in 1886, and reveal the connections that led to a dramatic revision of the 1611 King James I Bible. The sale of these exceptional writings is what made their discoverer, the Catholic priest Berenger Sauniere, a very rich man!

View Full Treatise - Freelance Articles (available as pdf. file)

Rome - Experts have unveiled a previously unknown portrait of Leonardo da Vinci showing the artist and inventor as a middle-aged man with piercing eyes and long, flowing hair.

The painting, displayed in Rome yesterday was discovered in December in a collection of a family from Italy's southern Basilicata region. Experts have ruled out it being a self-portrait.

Medieval historian Nicola Barbatelli, who found the painting, said carbon-14 analysis of the wood supporting the canvas dated the material in the late 15th or 16th century, when Leonardo (1452-1519) was alive.

 Associated Press  

In his book The Christ Scandal Tony Bushby recounts how information was received from a British Professor of Theology regarding the origins of Christianity. Where a part of that source material made reference to the writings of Josephus and what took place at the hands of a Jewish apologist in the fifteenth century. The appropriate section (p.464) reads:

The heirs of the Knights Templar have launched a legal battle in Spain to force the Pope to restore the reputation of the disgraced order which was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago.

The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legenary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 million euros (79 million pounds).

They claim that when the order was dissolved by his predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties as well as countless pastures, mills and other commercial ventures belonging to the knights were appropriated by the church.

But their motive is not to reclaim damages only to restore the "good name" of the Knights Templar.

"We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our Order", said a statement issued by the self-proclaimed modern day knights. The Templars was a powerful secretive group of warrior monks founded by French knight Hughes de Payens after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem.

They amassed enormous wealth and helped to finance wars waged by European monarchs, but spectacularly fell from grace after the Muslims reconquered the Holy Land in 1244 and rumours surfaced of their heretic practices.

The Knights were accused of denying Jesus, worshipping icons of the devil in secret initiation ceremonies, and practising sodomy.

Many Templars confessed to their crime under torture and some, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were burned at the stake.

The legal move by the Spanish group come following the unprecedented step by the Vatican towards the rehabilitation of the group when last October it released copies of parchments recording the trials of the Knights between 1307 and 1312.

The papers lay hidden for more than three centuries having been "misfiled" within papal archives until they were discovered by an academic in 2001.

The Chinon parchment revealed that contrary to historic belief, Clement V had declared the Templars were not heretics, but disbanded the order anyway to maintain peace with their accuser, King Philip IV of France.

Over the centuries, various groups have claimed to be descended from the Templars and legend abounds over hidden treasures, secret rituals, and their rumoured guardianship of the Holy Grail.

Most recently the knights have fascinated the modern generation after being featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. 

The Telegraph    

Israeli archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of a Roman temple beneath the foundations of a church. 

The building which dates to the second century AD, was found during an excavation at Zippori, the capital of Galilee during the Roman period.

The temple walls were plundered in ancient times and little more than its foundations now remain.

Coins minted in the town suggest Roman god Jupiter and goddess Fortuna may have been worshipped at the site.

The building is located south of the "decumanus" (east-west road) which ran through the town and served as the main thoroughfare in Roman and Byzantine times.

Religious life

The 24m by 12m (80 x 40ft) temple was located within a walled courtyard and once had a decorated facade.

No evidence remains of rituals once carried out at the site, but some Roman coins minted in Diocaesarea (Zippori), depict a temple to Jupiter and Fortuna (Greek equivalents: Zeus and Tyche).

Exactly when the building ceased to function is still unclear. A large church, the remains of which were uncovered by the excavation team during previous seasons, was built over the temple during the Byzantine period.

Team members said the discovery would shed light on religious life in the city.

During this summers excavation, Professor Weiss and his colleagues partially ecavated a monumental building north of the decumanus.

Its role is not yet known, although its nature and size indicate that it served an important role.

A courtyard with a well-preserved stone pavement of rectangular slabs was uncovered in the centre of the building.

Unknown function

On top of these, archaeologists found a pile of columns and capitals that had collapsed - probably as a result of an earthquake. These showed traces of decorative work with colourful, geometrical mosaics.

Zippori was a thriving urban centre in Roman and Byzantine times.

The first archaeological digs there were begun by an American team in 1930.

Excavations since 1990, mostly carried out by the Hebrew University, have reavealed a well planned city that hosted a basilical hall, bath houses, a theatre, two churches, and a synagogue.

The site is one of the most important for mosaics in the eastern Roman empire. More than 40 mosaics have been found dating from the 3rd to 5th Centuries AD. 

A pre-Christian Hebrew text shows that the idea of a Messiah rising from the dead after three days was already in Jewish tradition before the birth of Jesus, a prominent biblical scholar was to argue today.

The controversial theory of Professor Israel Knohl, citing his new reading of a tablet inscribed in the 1st century BC and discovered nearly 10 years ago, is expected to trigger a new Judaeo-Christian debate over the meaning and origin of the most central tenet of Christianity, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Knohl, a professor of biblical studies at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, was to unveil his interpretation of the text at an Israel Museum conference of scholars, saying that it quotes the Archangel Gabriel telling an earlier "Prince of Princes" that: "In three days you shall live, I Gabriel, command you."

Using other lines in the text that refer to blood and slaughter as routes to righteousness, with the overall context of the Jewish revolt against the Romans at the time, Knohl suggests it refers to the death and resurrection of Jewish leader.

The tablet, known as Gabriel's Vision of Revelations because it contains an apocalyptic text ascribed to the angel, has attracted the intense interest of scholars.

It came to light after it was bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss collector, David Jeselsohn, who kept it in his Zurich home. The location of the original discovery is not clear, though it may have been in Jordan on the eastern shore of the dead sea.

Two Israeli scholars, Ada Yardeni and Binyamin Elitzur, published a detailed analysis of the Hebrew script last year, dating it towards the end of the first century BC. But when it came to the crucial line 80, which begins "in three days", the scholars concluded that the next word was illegible.

Knohl argues that the word is "Hayeh" or "live" in the imperative. He goes on to outline his view that the Messianic figure could be a rebel leader against the Roman-backed monarchy of Herod named Shimon, who historian Josephus says was killed by one of Herod's commanders.

He will claim that the interpretation vindicates a theory he had already expounded in a book in 2000, namely that the idea of a suffering Messiah existed before Jesus.

Claiming the idea that Jesus died to redeem the sins of all mankind was in large part generated by St. Paul, who wanted Jesus to be a Messiah "of the Gentiles", Knohl said the earlier Jewish tradition would have seen his death as necessary "to cause God to defeat the enemy, to liberate Jerusalem from the Roman occupation".

Not all scholars at the conference are likely to be convinced. Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, said a single detail of "phenomenal" text was being used to create a "media experience".

He said the text was being restored to say something which it may not say and that Jesus was always the "victim of sensationalism".                                   

Independant                  

The head of the Catholic Church in Australila was embroiled in a sex abuse controversy yesterday, only days before Pope Benedict arrives in Sydney for a visit that could see abuse victims staging protest.

Cardinal George Pell denied he misled a man complaining of sexual abuse by a Sydney priest when he wrote him a letter in 2003 saying his abuse claim was rejected because there were no other complaints against the same priest.

Australian television reported that Pell wrote another letter on the same day to a different man saying his claim of sexual abuse by the same priest was upheld.

"Cardinal Pell misrepresented the truth. It destroyed my faith," Anthony Jones told the ABC's Lateline programme.

"He had to know that there was other complaints because he wrote to the man who as an 11-year-old boy was assaulted by Father Goodall on the same day," said Jones.

Priest Terence Goodall was convicted in 2005 of indecently asssaulting Jones in 1982.

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and brothers are calling on Pope Benedict to apologise when he arrives in Sydney on Sunday for World Youth Day, July 15-20. The Pope confronted the issue of sexual abuse in the Church during a visit to Washington in April, meeting victims and vowing to keep paedophiles out of the priesthood.

Broken Rites, which represents abuse victims in Australia, has a list of 107 convictions for church abuse, but says the real number of cases is far greater as only a handful go to court.

Pell said in a statement yesterday that "there was no attempt at a cover-up" in dealing with Jones' abuse case. "I apologise for the confusion caused to Mr. Jones. The letter to Mr. Jones was badly worded and a mistake - an attempt to inform him there was no other allegation of rape."

President of Broken Rites, Chris McIsaac, said the Catholic Church's system of reviewing allegations of sexulal abuse was internal and had no transparency.

"We have complaints all the time about the Church's process. But this case shows the great weakness of the process," McIsaac told ABC television.

"We're asking for a papal apology that's absolutely meaningful, meaningful with further action, that will bring process into play that will allow for transparency," said McIsaac.

*Rail workers last night called off plans for a 24-hour strike during World Youth Day after a breakthrough in pay talks with the NSW Government.  

Reuters, AAP

A senior Vatican official was accused yesterday of ordering the murder of a teenage girl who disappeared 25 years ago.

Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, was fifteen when she vanished after a flute lesson in Rome. She was last seen at a bus stop on her way home June 22 1983.

The investigation into her dissappearance was reopened this week after new evidence from the former girlfriend of Enrico De Pedis, a Roman mobster.

Sabrina Minardi, a recovering drug addict, told Italian police that De Pedis had kidnapped Emanuela, put her in a sack and thrown her into a cement mixer in Torvaianica, on the coast near Rome.

Minardi said the girl had been seized and killed on the orders of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the then head of the Vatican Bank.

Marcinkus died in 2006 in Sun City, Arizona. He was investigated by the United States Justice Department after they found a request for US$950 million of counterfeit bonds made on Vatican notepaper.

In 1982, Marcinkus was implicated in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and the death of Roberto Calvi, the head of the bank whose body was found hanging from Black Friars Bridge, London.

The archbishop, alledged to have had ties with mafioso Michele Sindona, was forced to stand aside as head of the Vatican Bank in 1989.

Emanuela was killed "to send a message to someone", said Minardi, without revealing more. She also said she sometimes took girls to meet Marcinkus, and bags of money as well for the cash to be laundered.

Telegraph Group LTD