1,600 official links between Alleanza Cattolica and CESNUR  

by Miguel Martinez

There were seven speakers at the CESNUR convention in Foggia, Italy, March 6, 1993. Except for Cardinal Arinze and the local Archbishop, all the others were self-proclaimed members (actually "militants" is the term most frequently used) of Alleanza Cattolica - Introvigne, Father Ernesto Zucchini, Dr Ermanno Pavesi, Father Pietro Cantoni (a former Lefèbvre priest who switched sides in time to avoid excommunication) and his brother Giovanni Cantoni, 'National Regent' of AC.  

This list was taken from the March-April 1993 issue of Cristianità, an almost-monthly which at the time still called itself the "official magazine" of AC. 

There is nothing unusual about this issue: almost the same number of references to CESNUR and/or Introvigne are to be found in every issue of the same magazine. So, taking this as a sample issue, let us see what ties it indicates between the two organizations. 

The issue contains: 

  1. Two pages, each paragraph subdivided by the angry-looking black eagle that is AC's symbol, signed by Introvigne and devoted to a review of the book "Nuova religiosità e nuova evangelizzazione. Lettera pastorale".

    2.  
  2. Two unsigned pages, each paragraph subdivided this time by CESNUR's symbol - a man standing on a book with his arms raised to heaven - on the CESNUR convention we mentioned above. By the way, in his speech, Giovanni Cantoni thanked Mons Giuseppe Casale, archbishop of Foggia, for "mentioning AC's apostolate in the field of new religions". It is hard not to suspect that this apostolate consisted in the establishment of CESNUR. Monsignor Casale at the time was the figure-head president of CESNUR; he was later quietly dropped out.

  3. Two more pages are devoted to a congress on "Masonry, Catholics and Culture", held at Lecce and "organized by Alleanza Cattolica". The speakers were Alfredo Mantovano (mentioned above), "director of Alleanza Cattolica" in Puglia; Massimo Introvigne; Giovanni Cantoni; Elia Sgromo, "director of Alleanza Cattolica in Calabria", whose paper was however read by Giancarlo Cerrelli, "also of Alleanza Cattolica".
 


Each issue of Cristianità carries several pages, significantly entitled "La buona battaglia", "The good fight". We can take at random the November-December 1995 issue. 

"The good fight" is divided into several paragraphs, on such issues as the struggle against abortion, communism, immigration from the Third World and so on. This is not a list of activities by other organizations that AC approves of; it is a list of AC's own activities. Each page has a drawing of what seems to be AC's ideal: a young man, who might be taken by his clothes and gloomy expression to be a Jehovah's Witness, holding high a banner with a black eagle and the words "Alleanza Cattolica" in medieval writing on it.

(click on the picture to get full size) 


The longest paragraph in "The good fight" is always devoted to "New Religious Movements". 

If you are already convinced that there is something unusual about Introvigne's "personal affiliation" with AC, you can skip the following list of activities described under this heading in the Nov-Dec 1995 issue of Cristianità. If not, read on.

a) A meeting in Milan on millenialism, organized by the publisher "Gribaudi Editore and by Alleanza Cattolica", with a speech by "dottor Massimo Introvigne, di Alleanza Cattolica". 

b) A lecture at a parish near Ravenna on new cults, organized with the "co-operation of CESNUR". The speaker "Massimo Martinucci, di Alleanza Cattolica".. 

c) Four lectures in Crotone by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica". 
  
d) A lecture on Mormonism by "dottor Massimo Introvigne, di Alleanza Cattolica" in far away Canada is claimed by Alleanza Cattolica as one of its activities. 

e) A speech on the Solar Temple in Quebec by "dottor Massimo Introvigne, di Alleanza Cattolica". 

f) TV interview on cults by "dottor Massimo Introvigne, di Alleanza Cattolica." 

g) Another lecture by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica" near Ravenna. 

h) A seminar on "New religions" held by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica". 

i) Another lecture at the busy parish near Ravenna, by "Stefano Crapella, di Alleanza Cattolica". 

l) A speech in Washington by "dottor Massimo Introvigne, di Alleanza Cattolica". 

m) A speech in Milan on magic by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica". 
  
n) A lecture in Treviso by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica". 
  
o) A lecture by Father Ernesto Zucchini (who is something of an official chaplain for AC) and "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica", this time at the other end of Italy. 

p) A lecture "organized by Alleanza Cattolica" on new religions. The speakers are Luca Calò "a member of the organizing association", Father Pietro Cantoni, whom we have already met and who is the other official chaplain. 

q) A lesson on new religions by "professor Alberto Maira, di Alleanza Cattolica." 

r) A lecture on the New Age, held by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica"
 

The other heading, on Freemasonry, is very similar:

a) A lecture in Crotone, organized by the diocese "in co-operation with Alleanza Cattolica". The lecturer? You guessed it - "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica". 
b) Another lecture at the usual parish near Ravenna, organized "in co-operation with CESNUR" and held by "PierLuigi Zoccatelli, di Alleanza Cattolica". Zoccatelli also writes on the CESNUR web page. His speciality, by the way, is Hubbard's mentor, Aleister Crowley. 
c) Finally, a lecture near Verona by "Valter Maccantelli, di Alleanza Cattolica"


A thrilling addition took place starting with the June 1998 issue, where "The Good Fight" is provided with a new subheading, Vampires, listing the activities of "Massimo Introvigne, of Alleanza Cattolica, director of CESNUR, Study Centre on New Religions, as well as president of the Italian chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula." Especially interesting the title of one of his lectures: "A never-ending thirst: before and after Dracula".

PierLuigi Zoccatelli, just mentioned, is also director of the magazine Regina Libani Informazioni, "bullettin of the Alleanza Cattolica Regina Libani Commission for Information on the Situation in Lebanon, the Middle East and the Islamic World", which supports various extremist Christian Lebanese and anti-Islamic organizations.

I have no intention of presenting a one-sided picture, so I must spend a few words to dispel two common notions in Italy about PierLuigi Zoccatelli who has become something of Introvigne's right-hand man (quite surprising, he even imitates the Master's voice).

The rumour that he is a practising Satanist is quite untrue, and is due to a mistake: some years ago, PierLuigi plastered the streets of Verona with posters, drawn up in the typical style of Italian funeral notices, simply announcing that "Rosemary's Baby is born"; actually an advertisement for a concert by PierLuigi's favourite rock group, the Crowleyite Temple of Psychick Youth. Unfortunately the local media thought that these posters announced the creation of a new group of Satanists in Verona. 

He is also not even a relation of Palmarino Zoccatelli, militant of a different TFP affiliate who is currently under investigation by a Verona judge for "promoting racist ideas".

 

One last note. Every issue of Cristianità, on its second page, has a booklist, entitled "The battle of ideas". Yes, "la battaglia delle idee". Out of 58 suggested books for idea-battlers, 20 are written or edited by Introvigne. 

Considering that CESNUR was established ten years ago, and Cristianità comes out about eight times a year, this means that about 80 issues of Cristianità carry more or less the same amount of evidence of links between CESNUR and AC.

This single issued contained over 20 quite official links between both organizations; 20 x 80 = 1,600. Although mathematics are hardly the right method for dealing with such matters, there is food for thought in the fact that these are 1,600 times more quite public links than just the "personal affiliation" Introvigne admits to.

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