by Laurene Conner
August 05, 2004
from
ConspiracyArchive Website
A movement of vital proportion,
ignored by the major media, kept off-limits from the general public,
has been on
the United Nations (UN) drawing board for well over ten
years.
This movement would nullify our Constitutional structure with
its freedoms
and prerogatives enshrined in the Bill of Rights,
including our unhampered right to religious freedom.
It masquerades
behind the facade of 'sustainable development.'
MRS. LAURENE CONNER is one of the
co-founders of the Wanderer Forum Foundation with her husband,
the
late Stillwell J. Conner and Alphonse J. Matt Sr., in 1965.
She
served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Foundation until 1995
and has
been co-editor and research director for Forum Focus since its
origin.
Mrs. Conner also has written many articles and reported on
many Church conferences for The Wanderer newspaper.
Marshfield,
Wisconsin, is her home and the center of her current research
and
writing activities.
The Wanderer Forum Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 542, Hudson, WI
54016-0542 |
A movement of vital proportion, ignored by the major media, kept off-limits
from the general public, has been on the United Nations (UN) drawing board
for well over ten years.
This movement would nullify our Constitutional
structure with its freedoms and prerogatives enshrined in the Bill of
Rights, including our unhampered right to religious freedom. It masquerades
behind the facade of "sustainable development."
In December 1983, Javier Perez de Cuellar, UN Secretary-General, asked Mrs.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway, to chair a World Commission on Environment
and Development (UNCED) focusing on,
"long-term environmental strategies for
achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond." 1
Previously
she had been Prime Minister of Norway and had served on other UN Commissions
- the Brandt Commission on North-South Issues and the Palme Commission on
security and disarmament.
Now she was asked,
"to help formulate a third and
compelling call for political action on environment and development." 2
Here a one-world pattern begins to emerge:
-
the Brandt Commission bore the
title "Program for Survival and Common Crisis"
-
the Palme Commission "Common
Security"
-
the Brundtland Commission, "Common Future"
3
There is also a
political cord common to the chairmen:
-
Willy Brandt, former Prime Minister
of Germany, was until his death president of the Socialist International.
-
Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, was a socialist leader and Chairman of
the Social Democratic Party who was assassinated in Stockholm.
-
Gro Harlem
Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway was also a "member of the
Socialist International."
These chairmen shared the bond of socialism, a
bond at variance with both the U.S. Constitution and the Social Doctrine of
the catholic church.
The Resolution adopted at the UN General Assembly in 1983 directed the chair
and vice-chair of the new UNCED to,
"jointly appoint the remaining members of
the Commission, half of whom were to be selected from the developing
world." 4
Members of the Brundtland Commission came from 21 "very different
nations" and included Jim McNeill and Maurice Strong from Canada and the
American, William D. Ruckelshaus, the first head of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). He is also a member of the Business Council for
Sustainable Development launched in 1990 by Maurice Strong.
The Business
Council called for,
"new forms of cooperation between government, business
and society to achieve sustainable development." 5
What Is Meant By Sustainable Development?
The Brundtland Commission describes Sustainable Development as,
"Development
that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs." 6
It is further defined:
"...Sustainable Development can only be pursued if demographic developments are
in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem." 7
And
again,
..."at a minimum Sustainable Development must not endanger the
natural systems that support life on Earth - the waters, the soils, and the
living beings"
The pattern that begins to surface here becomes more
pronounced in the body of the Commission's report which was presented to the
UN General Assembly in 1987.
The thrust of the "unanimous report" after three years of hearings held on
five continents appears in the Chairman's Foreword in comments such as,
"the
rights of people to adequate food, sound housing, safe water, to access to
means of choosing the size of their families" (xi)
"...survival issues
relating to uneven development, poverty and population growth" (xii)
"the
need for 'major changes'... in attitudes and in the way our societies are
organized" (xiii) 8
Following the Chairman's Foreword, an "Overview By The Commission Members"
becomes more specific:
"... Sustainable Development is not a fixed state
of harmony, but rather a process of change... We do not pretend that the
process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices have to be made. Thus in
the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will."
9
"Governments that need to do so should develop long-term multifaceted
population policies and a campaign to pursue broad demographic goals to
strengthen social, cultural and economic motivations for family planning,
and to provide to all who want them the education, contraceptives and
services required." 10
Dispersed throughout the 400 pages of Our Common Future are so many
references to population:
-
"Population and Human Resources"
-
"The Population
Perspective"
-
"Managing Population Growth",
...as to suggest a pre-conceived
agenda.
At the conclusion of its final meeting held in Tokyo in 1987, the
Commission recommended,
"principles to guide their policy actions" including
Principle #4 to "Ensure a Sustainable Level of Population".
"Population
policies should be formulated and integrated with other economic and social
development programs... Increased access to family planning services
is itself a form of social development that allows couples, and women in
particular, the right to self-determination." 11
A
Brundtland Commission recommendation that the UN General Assembly prepare
a "Universal Declaration on environmental protection and sustainable
development" resulted in the
Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The Canadian, Maurice Strong, a radical environmentalist who had served on
the Brundtland Commission, was selected secretary-general.
"According to an
Associated Press report, Strong declared: 'the United States is the greatest
threat to the world's ecological health... In effect, the United States
is committing environmental aggression against the rest of the world.'"
12
At the opening session of the UN Conference on Environment and Development
(The Earth Summit) Maurice Strong, the UNCED Secretary-General, bemoaned the
world's,
"explosive increase in Population" and warned "we have been the most
successful species ever; we are now a species out of control. Population
must be stabilized and rapidly." 13
Sustainable America - A New Consensus
A few months after his inauguration as President of the United States, Bill
Clinton, June 23, 1993, created by
Executive Order #12852, the President's
Council on Sustainable Development which identifies with the Brundtland
Commission.
The Council's We Believe Statement,
"is a set of fundamental
beliefs the members share that provide the foundations for its
recommendations."
Statement #11 is concerned with population:
"The United
States should have policies and programs that contribute to stabilizing
global human population; this objective is critical if we hope to have the
resources needed to ensure a high quality of life for future generations."14
This emphasis continues under "U.S. Population and Sustainability":
"A sustainable United States is one where all Americans have access to
family planning and reproductive health services..."
"Population growth will make the objective of sustainable development more
difficult"15
"Continued population growth in the United States steadily makes more
difficult the job of mitigating the environmental impact of American
resources and waste production patterns."16
"As recognized at the
International Conference on Population and Development
in Cairo in 1994 all nations have responsibility for managing population
growth. The United States must provide leadership by setting an example."17
"Involving as it does difficult issues as personal childbearing decisions,
contraceptive methods, teenage sexual behavior and the high rate of abortion
in the United States... the Council believes these issues... must be
addressed... in a way that is consistent with the various religious and
ethical values and cultural background of the American people... The
Council has not discussed nor do its recommendations relate to or take a
position on the issue of abortion."18
"The nation's family assistance efforts must provide education and outreach
to prevent unintended pregnancies... An effective way to reduce the
number of unintended pregnancies and births in the United States is to
expand access to family planning education and related reproductive health
services...
Family planning is highly cost-effective compared with the
social and public costs of unintended pregnancy, and it helps assure that
every child is a wanted child."19
The President's Council Acknowledges Gore's Role
The leadership role Vice President Al Gore has acquired in promoting the
environmental picture is recognized in the President's Council on
Sustainable Development's (PCSD) Building On Consensus - Progress Report on
Sustainable America.
It declares that sustainable development is "both
urgent and important" and "will be a foundation for both domestic and
foreign policy."21 Gore is given credit for "champion(ing) the cause of
sustainable development at the Earth Summit" in Rio.22
As Vice President,
Gore created an Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development which
provided the President with,
"the raw material needed to ensure that the
goals and principles of sustainable development (were) integrated into (his)
second term agenda."23
Upon receipt of the PCSD report, Clinton requested among three items "that
the Vice President lead the effort to implement recommendations with the
administration."24
In 1992 Gore had authored the book Earth In The Balance: Ecology And The
Human Spirit. In the chapter "Environmentalism of the Spirit" he questions
whether God "when giving us dominion over the Earth... chose an
appropriate technology."25
Gore wrote:
"that monotheism was once useful
because it was a profoundly empowering idea" However, he says "
'empowerment' must now be obtained by consulting 'the wisdom instilled by
all faiths.'"
"This panreligious perspective" he continues, "may prove
especially important where our global civilization's responsibility for the
earth is concerned."26
"We must all become partners in a bold effort to change the very foundation
of our civilization... We must make the rescue of the environment the
central organizing principle for civilization."27
These are disturbing
statements.
The use of the word "must" should not be dismissed lightly
especially in the context of changing the very foundation of our
civilization.
"THE FAMILY - THE HEART OF THE CULTURE OF LIFE"
- John Paul II
John Paul II, has on numerous occasions directed
attention to the church's constant teaching on the dignity of the human
person and the assault on that god-given dignity by national governments and
the United Nations.
In 1991, four years after the publication of the Brundtland Commission
report, Pope John Paul II commemorated the Hundredth Anniversary of
Rerum
Novarum by promulgating the encyclical Centisimus Annus. This doctrinal
teaching is also relevant to the President's Council on Sustainable
Development which identifies with the Brundtland Commission report.
Centisimus Annus teaches:
"Although people are rightly worried... about
preserving the natural habitat of the various animal species... too
little effort is made to safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic
'human ecology' "
(n. 38 emphasis in original).
"The first and fundamental
structure for 'human ecology' is the family... Here we mean the family
founded on marriage... But it often happens that people are discouraged
from creating the proper conditions for human reproduction and are led to
consider themselves and their lives as a series of sensations to be
experienced rather than a work to be accomplished"
(n. 39)
"... In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the
heart of the culture of life. Human ingenuity seems to be directed more
towards limiting, suppressing or destroying the source of life - including
recourse to abortion... The encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
denounced systematic anti-child-bearing campaigns which on the basis of a
distorted view of the demographic problem (forces the parties involved)... to submit to new form(s) of oppression"
(n.39)
In June 1997, the holy see was represented at a UN General Assembly
reviewing that body's commitment made at the 1992 Rio Summit on Environment
and Development.
Archbishop Jean-Louis Taurant, Vatican Secretary for
Relations with States, speaking at the plenary session, directed attention
to the,
"reservations and interpretations made by
the holy see at the time of the recent international conferences of the
United Nations which let us not forget - are included in the same
conference reports"
"I am thinking specifically of the interpretation of terms such as
'reproductive health,' 'sexual health,' and 'family planning' which we find
in this meeting's document."28
Science And Religion - An Ecological Alliance
Beginning in 1982, plans were crafted to draw religious leaders into the UN
orbit on the environmental issue, using a series of UN-sponsored committees
and meetings.
A UN Global Committee of Parliamentarians on Population and
Development was created,
"to provide information on global survival issues to
parliamentarians, spiritual leaders and the media, and to fund network
meetings at national, regional and global levels"
This committee was funded
by the UN Population Fund and a special trust fund established by the
UN
Development Fund.29
A Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders On Human Survival
formed in 1988 was cosponsored by the Temple of Understanding and the
above-mentioned UN Global Committee.
The president of the
Temple of
Understanding (located at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
New York City) is the Very Reverend James Parks Morton, former Dean of the
Cathedral and co-chair of the Council of the Global Forum of Spiritual and
Parliamentary Leaders for Human Survival. This Global Forum held meetings at
Oxford, England (1988) and in Moscow (1990).
The principal speaker at Oxford,
James Lovelock, a Fellow of the
Lindisfarne
Association (a New Age group headquartered at the Cathedral) had authored
the book
The Ages of Gaia.
He told his Oxford audience,
"on Earth she (Gaia)
is the source of everlasting life and is alive now; she gave birth to
humankind and we are part of her"30
Lovelock believes,
"Orthodox Christianity
properly understood is a distortion of the pure forms of religious truth"
and that "we must immediately return to the worship of the Earth goddess if
we are to save ourselves from destruction."31
The Moscow Forum in 1990 featured Mikhail Gorbachev and the then-UN
Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar. It was sponsored by the Supreme
Soviet and the International Foundation for Survival and Development along
with the UN Global Committee of Parliamentarians on Population and
Development.32
Gorbachev called for,
"each nation to produce state of the
environment reports at the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development in
Rio de Janeiro and he reiterated his earlier call for a UN 'Green Cross...'"
"The primary thrust of this Forum was to explore the role the news media
could play in promoting global survival 'and especially sustainable
development'."33
An appeal was also launched for "science and religion to 'join hands' in a
new ecological alliance."
The Rev. James P. Morton, former Dean of the
Cathedral and co-chair of the Forum said,
"We welcome the scientists' appeal
and are eager to explore as soon as possible concrete, specific forms of
collaboration and action. The Earth itself calls us to new levels of joint
commitment."34
Among religious leaders who signed the appeal document were (the late)
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, and the Rev. Theodore
Hesburgh. President Emeritus of Notre Dame University.
Religious Leaders Targeted To Create Consensus
Following the Moscow Forum Joint Appeal, a conference was held in May of
1990, in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the North American Conference on
Religion and Ecology.
"Designed to help the religious community enter into
the environmental movement," an elaborate program took place at the
Episcopal Washington National Cathedral and the Omni Shoreham Hotel under
the banner "Caring for Creation."
One of the stated goals was "to develop
leadership networks for a regenerated Earth Community."
A special attraction was the appearance of Prince Philip of Edinburgh.
The
keynote address was delivered by Brian Swimme billed as "an expert on
science and creation spirituality." Swimme, an associate for many years of
the former priest Matthew Fox, has collaborated with the self-styled "geologian"
priest Thomas Berry. The Director of the UN Environment Program was a
speaker and the subject of another address was "Science and Religion Joining
Hands to Save the Environment"
Thus, links were established with the Moscow
and Oxford Forums, the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders
for Survival, and the Temple of Understanding.35
The official program quoted both Thomas Berry and Gro Harlem Brundtland,
chairman of the UN Commission that produced the report Our Common Future.
A
"reception honoring environmentally-concerned elected officials" was also an
attraction:
Senator Al Gore one of the two so honored...
Again in 1990, a coalition of 200 environmental organizations following the
guidance of the Director of the Temple of Understanding's Joint Appeal,
invited the,
"then-Senator Al Gore to a breakfast symposium... before he
delivered a Sunday sermon at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. And in
October, Senator Gore and three other senators arranged a Congressional
breakfast that resulted in a decision to expand the Joint Appeal to initiate
environmental programs; to measure interest in grassroots religious
environmental activity; and to facilitate formal consultation between
religious leaders and scientists."36
In June 1991, at a meeting of religious leaders, scientists, and members of
Congress a conclusion was reached:
"We believe a consensus now exists at the
highest levels of religious tradition that the cause of environmental
integrity and justice must occupy a position of utmost priority for people
of faith."37
And thus the National Religious Partnership for the Environment came to be.
This Partnership is a "formal agreement" among four of the nation's largest
religious organizations:
-
U.S. Catholic Conference
-
National Council of Churches of Christ
-
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
-
Evangelical Environmental Network
The Union of Concerned Scientists enjoys a "special consultative
relationship" with this National Partnership.
This Partnership is in the process of mailing "education and action kits to
53,000 congregations" estimated to "reach 100 million church goers"
Paul
Gorman, the Executive Director of the Partnership (and the 1990 Director of
the Temple of Understanding's Joint Appeal) is quoted as saying,
"how people
of faith engage the environmental crisis will have much to do with the
future well-being of the planet and in all likelihood with the future of
religion as well."38
A 1993 press conference that followed the formal announcement of the
National Religious Partnership for the Environment featured Vice President
Gore who said this Partnership,
"will trigger the beginning of grassroots
activity in tens of thousands of religious congregations across the
country."39
Dignitaries attending this announcement included Bishop James Malone,
Youngstown, Ohio, and Dean James P. Morton who praised Gore,
"for the role he
played in bringing the Partnership to life."40
"Every Catholic parish plus every Reform and Conservative Synagogue in the
nation is to receive Partnership kits, as well as teleconference and videos
for Catholic dioceses, parishes and schools."41
NCCB/USCC Endorse Sustainable Development
The U.S. Catholic Bishops, in November, 1995, approved a program prepared by
the USCC Department of Social Development and World Peace titled, "Let The
Earth Bless The Lord: God's Creation And Our Responsibility."
A cover letter
included in this "parish resource kit" expressed gratitude,
"for the
essential interfaith collaboration made possible through our membership in
the National Religious Partnership for the Environment".
It was signed by
Most Rev. Theodore E. McCarrick, Chairman of the International Policy
Committee and Most Rev. William S. Skystad, Chairman of the Domestic Policy
Committee.
Although "sustainable development" appears repeatedly in this USCC "parish
resource kit," no mention is made of the 400-page UN book Our Common Future,
which the World Commission On Environment and Development published in 1987
which popularized the concept "sustainable development."
The title given the USCC article, "The Flourishing Of The Human Family -
Protecting The Environment: the Sustainable Development Model," is itself a
misnomer, a misconception.
It fails to document that population control is
the objective of the international body.
This is an incredible lack of
scholarship and a disservice to the laity which reflects poorly on the
oversight responsibilities of the two archbishops who chair the
international and domestic committees involved.
(Note: See Section titled,
"What Is Meant By Sustainable Development" above.)
Targeting Catholic Religious Orders For Consensus Building
In this unfolding documentation, religion emerges as an important factor in
consensus building. A key-note actor in this development is 25-year-old,
New-York-City-based Global Education Associates (GEA); Patricia M. Mische,
president.
In 1973,
"when many religious orders sought GEA help in
revisioning their charisms, missions and constitution in light of Vatican II
mandates for bringing religious life into the Modern World," a GEA
Partnership was formed.
GEA recognized,
"that religious orders with their dedicated members committed
to global spirituality and a more humane and ecologically responsible world
order represent(ed) a unique and providential fiber for the work of global
systemic change... The GEA Religious Orders Partnership provide(d) the
forum through which the charism of religious life can address the global
agenda and serve the global community."42
Today, 150 religious orders
comprise this group.
The role Partnership plays in furthering the goals of GEA is shown in its
Board of Trustees and its International Advisory Council.
The 1997 Board of
Trustees includes:
-
Patricia Mische, President
-
Sharon Frisch, C.S.J.,
Secretary-Treasurer
-
Dr. John Healey, Fordham University
-
Miriam Therese MacGillis, O.P., Director of Genesis Farm, Blairstown, N.J., a center for
education in Earth stewardship.
Among the many names listed on GEA's International Advisory Council are
Catholics usually identified as of the "left":
-
Joan Chittister, O.S.B.
-
Robert Drinan, S.J.
-
Thomas Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Detroit
-
Rev.
Theodore Hesburgh, President Emeritus Notre Dame University
-
Fr. Thomas
Berry, who has stated:
Berry, "a long-time friend," co-authored the 1992 book The Universe Story
with Brian Swimme who teaches at the Institution on Creation Spirituality,
Oakland CA, under the leadership of the former Dominican (now Episcopalian)
priest, Matthew Fox.
Donna Steichen in her landmark book,
Ungodly Rage,
finds a common bond between Fox and Berry in that both hold that,
"a
post-Christian belief system is taking over - one that sees the earth as a
living being - mythologically, as Gaia, Earth Mother - with mankind as her
consciousness."
Steichen remarks:
"Such worship of the universe is properly
called cosmolatry."44
Berry, who also authored The Dream Of The Earth, commented recently:
"Earth
is a mystical presence' an illuminated presence; a sacred Presence. That's
the way divinity works. We return to our Mother the Earth."45
This remark
gives substance to Steichen's observation.
"Thomas Berry's wisdom has been foundational in educating toward Earth
literacy... Through the insight of The Universe Story... students at
Genesis Farm have gained a self-identification that is Earth-centered."46
Genesis Farm founder, Sr. Miriam Therese MacGillis, O.P., is a close
associate of Berry and promoter of his work, and is on the Board of Trustees
of GEA as mentioned above.
At the 1997 GEA Religious Orders Partnership annual meeting, the keynote
address was given by Nancy Sylvester, I.H.M., who for many years directed
NETWORK, the Catholic Social Justice Lobby.
Other Catholic speakers
mentioned were:
-
Ethel Howley, S.S.N.D., a NGO representative
-
Monica McGloin,
O.P., associated with Earth Centers
-
Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., who gave an
analysis of religious life as a "social movement." 47
The 1997-1999 Partnership for Action includes the following:
-
To "promote and foster Earth
spirituality and engage in activities that are ecologically
responsive"
-
To "initiate, facilitate and maintain
communication between and among religious congregations who are
responding to ecological concerns"
-
To "collaboratively promote a UN Earth
Charter"
-
To "foster learning about global
citizenship"
-
To "promote support for the United Nations"
48
Promoting Partnership Between Un Agencies And Religious Groups
During May 3-7, 1997, GEA held a Religion and World Order Symposium
co-sponsored by Fordham University Institute on Religion and Culture and the
Center for Mission Research Study at Maryknoll.
This was a,
"program of the
Religious Council of Project 2000," which in turn is a "partnership between
UN agencies and secular and religious nongovernmental organizations (NGO)."
Initiated by GEA in 1990, the Symposium carries the endorsement of UNESCO's
program on the Contribution of Religion to a Culture of Peace, 40 scholars
from different religious traditions' approved recommendations that:
-
A People's Assembly be established; The
Security Council be restructured and the veto power be abolished
-
An Economic Security Council be
established with democratic representation of the world's nations in
addition to the G-7
-
The World Court of Justice be
strengthened and all members of the United Nations accept its
jurisdiction
-
New and reliable sources of financing be
found
-
The establishment of a World Court on
the Environment: an Earth Charter to complement the UN Charter; full
support for and strengthening of the United Nations Environmental
Program and full support of the 'Education For All' project of
several UN agencies
-
We urge our religious leaders to give
full support to the non-governmental organizations, (NGOs)
This statement was signed by:
-
Dr. Patricia Mische, President of Global
Education Associates
-
Dr. John Healey, Director of Fordham University
Institute on Religion and Culture
-
Dr. Anne Reissner, Director of Study,
Center for Mission Research and Study, at Maryknoll.49
Both these sets of recommendations illustrate how GEA has used its
Catholic
Religious Orders Partnership as an instrument to promote "global systemic
change"; to restructure and strengthen the UN; and through its "Earth
Covenant" initiative to create worldwide support for the Earth Charter, all
the while enhancing its own stature at the UN edifice on the East River.
Inasmuch as Global Education Associates is a UN accredited NGO, its
influence in that body is substantial. Mische was one of seven NGO leaders
invited to address the Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental
Organizations (DPI/NGO) conference at the United Nations September, 1996.
She recommended strengthening the role of NGOs in order "to advance a more
effective and democratic United Nations." 50
The GEA Partnership agenda involving catholic religious orders as well as
the United States Catholic Conference (USCC), in association with the
National Religious Partnership for the Environment (documented previously),
should be matters of grave concern for all Catholics - laity, clergy and
hierarchy.
This Forum Focus issue highlights one of the significant factors
contributing to the demise of religious orders in the United States.
It
reveals a virus infecting the life blood of our religious orders, namely,
entanglement in advancing the UN political agenda.
The Earth Charter For Gaia And The Cosmos
GEA describes its 1998 Earth Covenant as a "Citizens' Treaty"; as a
"process" for "building a broad-based movement for ecological security,
sustainable development and systems of responsible global governance..."
Putting UN-speak aside, the objective of this consensus building is to give
the impression of widespread public support for a UN Earth Charter.
This Earth Charter initiative was launched in 1994.
"Backed by a grant from
the Netherlands government, two international non-governmental
organizations" spearheaded the "process: the Earth Council chaired by
Maurice Strong, and Green Cross International headed by Mikhail
Gorbachev."
The final step will lead "to the
proclamation of a binding Earth Charter by January of the year 2000."
Gorbachev's "Green Cross International, Global Education Associates and
Project Global 2000 are working in partnership to achieve this goal"
51
Should the, "promoters of the Earth Charter" succeed, their "notion of
sustainable development would become a matter of international law... It
is "presented as a holistic concept - the UN conferences held during the
1990s... have been aimed at building a global consensus.'"
As noted
throughout this documentation, in all these conferences,
"the top priority
is accorded to curbing population growth, since the expansion of world
population is deemed the root cause of world poverty and the greatest threat
to global security."52
Maurice Strong insists that this Earth Charter should set out the,
"basic
principles for the conduct of nations and of peoples with respect to the
environment and development, to ensure the future viability and integrity of
the earth as a hospitable home for humans and other forms of life."
As the
Catholic World Report points out, it is intended to be a "historic
document," a "new code of conduct," a "New Social Contract" aimed at
imposing new standards on the activities of governments and even religious
organizations.53
The introductory words of the Earth Charter (Benchmark Draft of March 18,
1997) read:
"Earth is our home and home to all living beings. Earth itself
is alive. We are part of an evolving universe"54
There is a noticeable similarity here to comments made by the English
scientist, James Lovelock, author of the book, The Ages of Gaia. He told his
audience at the 1988 Global Forum at Oxford, England:
"On Earth she (Gaia)
is the source of everlasting life and is alive now; she gave birth to
humankind and we are part of her"
(Note: See section titled, "Science and
Religion: an Ecological Alliance" above)
In like manner, Gorbachev has stated:
"We are part of the Cosmos...
Cosmos is my God. Nature is my God... I believe that the 21st century will
be the century of the environment, the century when all of us will have to
find an answer to how to harmonize relations between man and the rest of
Nature... We are part of Nature..."55
And Maurice Strong, addressing the Rio Earth Summit called attention "to the
declaration of the Sacred Earth" which had been part of the pre-Summit
ceremonies:
"The changes in behavior and directions called for here must be
rooted in our deepest spiritual, moral and ethical values" The declaration
states: "We must... transform our attitudes and values, and adopt a
renewed respect for the superior laws of Divine Nature."56
Francis Cardinal Stafford, while Archbishop of Denver, Co., writing in 1993
on "The New Age Movement" specifically mentioned paganism as a basic quality
of this theosophy:
New Agers "find their ideological allies in the 'Gaia'
variant of the ecological movement... The characteristic feature of the
various expressions of (this movement)" he notes, "is their common reversion
to the ancient pagan morality of responsibility to the cosmos."57
The accuracy of the Archbishop's analysis is confirmed in the
Gaia Peace
Atlas, a radical socialist New Age publication which argues,
"We need a
radical change of direction - to global self-governance, decentralized
societies and a partnership between human and Gaian ecosystems, leading to a
peaceful world that encourages social justice through sustainable
development."58
In his Foreword to this Gaia Peace Atlas, the then UN Secretary
General
Javier Perez de Cuellar stated:
"A consensus has emerged during the past
forty years" that "a reliable system of international security, progressive
disarmament and sustainable economic growth are acknowledged goals of all
peoples of the world" He expressed the "hope that this fine document will
make a significant contribution to knowledge of these goals both urgent and
achievable."59
The Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, during the
tenure of Dean James Parks Morton, is well-known for its earth-bound
spirituality.
Each year it offers a "Winter Solstice Whole Earth Christmas
Celebration" which "puts the event in the church, but takes the church out
of the event," as succinctly stated in the New York Times (Dec. 26, 1992).
He also commissioned a Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) which is performed each year
for the Feast of St. Francis, replete with singers, dancers, pets galore and
as a high point, an elephant, camel and llama are paraded up the center
aisle for a blessing.
Widely known as the "green dean" Morton, founder of
the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, retired in January,
1997, but remains active in ecological matters.
New Age Spirituality At Baca Grande
Maurice Strong, a shrewd millionaire capitalist "with a passion for
socialist one-world causes, is a radical environmentalist and New Age
devotee."60
As the result of a business deal, Strong acquired ownership of a,
"200,000 acre ranch called Baca Grande in Colorado. Now a 'New Age' center
run by his wife Hanne" it attracts, "Zen and Tibetan Buddhist monks, a
breakaway order of Carmelite nuns and followers of a Hindu guru..."61
Both the New Age Aspen Institute and the
Lindisfarne Association are part of
the Baca Grande spiritual center located in this San Luis Valley. Maurice
Strong, the Director of Finance of the Lindisfarne Association, is on its
Board of Directors as was James P. Morton, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine. Lindisfarne, it should be noted, is patterned after New Age
Findhorn in Scotland.
Strong and his wife see,
"the Baca serving as a model for the way the world
should be - and they say - must be - if humankind is to survive."62 Hanne
Strong "supports her husband's work on the Earth Charter by promoting
'spiritually based environmental education.'"
She founded the Wisdom Keepers
which convened for the first time at the Rio conference, then again at the
UN Istanbul Habitat II conference in 1996.
The Earth Charter, Hanne Strong maintains, must,
"come to terms with the very
concrete question of how we can develop the basis for sustainable life on
earth." The Earth Charter therefore, must "articulate a new relationship
between people and the earth."63
The exemplary analysis in the Catholic
World Report discloses that Hanne Strong's Wisdom Keepers authored the
Declaration of Sacred Earth.
A key sentence in that declaration,
"explains
that the global crisis 'transcends all national, religious, cultural,
social, political, and economic boundaries.'"
The Catholic World Report
observes:
"If the crisis transcends religious
boundaries, it follows that religion must bow before the solution to the
crisis. If necessary, religions must sacrifice their own particular
principles."64
In Maurice Strong's April 8, 1997 speech introducing the Earth Charter to
the UN, he said:
"There is a need to address the fundamental ethical
imperatives of sustainable development."
And what are these ethical
imperatives?
Strong "spoke of 'ethics of participation'... and 'ethics of
inclusion'... in order to 'foster a healthy balance between quality of
life and quality of environment - because development must henceforth be in
balance with 'Mother Earth.' It will 'develop a sense of belonging to the
universe.'" 65
Thus the Earth Charter and sustainable development are part of
the same package, which it should be repeated includes population control.
The tenets of the New Age Movement are threaded throughout this
documentation.
World Goodwill, New Age Theosophy Permeate The United Nations
The proposed Earth Charter melds neatly with the 1980 UN report. The New
International Economic Order: A Spiritual Imperative which clearly was
influenced by
Alice Bailey.
The 1980 report states
"... Today a new
understanding of spirituality is emerging which recognizes that all efforts
to uplift humanity are spiritual in nature.
Alice Bailey said,
'That is
spiritual which lies beyond the point of present achievement'...
Given
this new understanding of spirituality, the work of the United Nations can
be seen within the entire evolutionary unfolding of humanity.
The work of
the UN is indeed spiritual and holds profound import for the future of
civilization."66
Alice Bailey, a theosophist along with her husband Foster, established much
of what is now known as the New Age Movement.
Originally, they founded the
Lucifer Publishing Company but shortly thereafter, discretion dictated the
name change to
Lucis Trust (cf. Forum Focus, Oct. 1991 issue The New Age
Movement).
It has served as a catalyst for a number of New Age organizations
including World Goodwill.
One of Goodwill's stated objectives is,
"to support
the work of the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies as the best hope
of a united and peaceful world"; another is "to make available up-to-date
information on constructive current conditions in the main areas of human
life through publication of a quarterly newsletter."
It also publishes
Occasional World Goodwill Papers.
As an accredited UN non-governmental Organization (NGO) it maintains
relations with a wide range of national and international NGOs. The World
Good' Will Newsletter which highlights UN addresses also featured excerpts
from Alice Bailey's writings.
A few examples will suffice:
-
A 1988 Newsletter
on Global Survival held at Oxford to which World Goodwill was a media guest
featured James Lovelock speaking on "Gaia and the Reintegration of Religion
and Science." In addition. Dean James P. Morton was interviewed about the
Oxford conference in regard to ways in which "parliamentary and spiritual
leaders" could work together "for the salvation of the planet."
-
A 1989 Occasional Paper presented "A Cosmo-logical Vision of the Future" an
address given by Robert Muller, who had served in the UN bureaucracy for 38
years and was an Assistant Secretary-General from 1982 to 1985. He now heads
the United Nations University in Costa Rica. In his remarks he mentioned the
Gaia hypothesis. ". . . We are part of a living planetary organization...
When we die we return to the Earth... We are Earth alive... All over
the world a kind of Earth democracy is taking shape" He mentioned Fr. Thomas
Berry's book. The Universe Story, and the need for a "world of cosmic
spirituality."
-
A 1991 Occasional Paper contained the address given at Cambridge, England,
by Gro Harlem Brundtland on "Environmental Challenges of the 1990's: Our
Responsibilities Toward Future Generations" which echoed the UN book. Our
Common Future, the report of the commission she had chaired. (Note: On Jan.
27 of this year, Gro Harlem Brundtland was appointed chairman of the UN
World Health Organization which places her in a key position for the
implementation of sustainable development on a worldwide basis.)
-
World Goodwill interviewed Maurice Strong for another 1991 Newsletter which
concentrated on the Rio Summit conference. He repeated his position that "... the earth is incapable of supporting a global population of
approximately twice today's numbers that demographers predict...
Sustainable development implies a balance between our personal aspirations
and a consideration of the ecosystem on which our survival depends."
-
A 1995 Newsletter under the caption "Recommended Reading" mentions a 1995
book co-authored by Patricia Mische titled, The United Nations In An
Interdependent World. This report from a six day symposium organized by GEA
with the support of 15 UN agencies and 10 NGOs reveals where GEA's interest
really is.
-
A 1996 Newsletter on Universal Ethics includes "Reflections" by Mikhail
Gorbachev who comments on conditions for preserving life on Earth: "Honouring
diversity and honouring the Earth create the basis for genuine unity."
Patricia Mische states:
"We do not need a return to the external facades of
religiosity. But we do need to resume the spiritual journey... with new,
global parameters"
All these UN supporters speak with the same voice - the
voice of theosophy that rejects christianity.
Patricia Mische's earlier
Catholicism is alluded to in the September-December, 1997, issue of GEA's
Breakthrough News in regard to the death of Bishop Joseph Francis, auxiliary
of Newark, NJ, who had confirmed her three daughters in his private chapel.
An example of the unity of purpose that pervades much of this documentation
is the announcement GEA will present the 1998 Jerry Mische Global Service
Award to Thomas Berry.
The United Nations Association of the US (UNA-USA),
"the premier pro-UN
lobby group in America claims... a 135 member Council of Organizations and
operates in New York and Washington, D.C... and is now 'creating a
powerful national constituency for an even better UN/ Some of the 135 member
groups include the American Humanist Association, Planned Parenthood
Federation and the U.S. Catholic Conference."67
The willingness of the USCC (the civil arm of the Bishops' Conference) to be
"politically correct," as mentioned previously in regard to its membership
in the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, and its
incredible endorsement of "sustainable development" is indicative of a lack
of scholarship.
John Paul II's Address to UN General Assembly
In contrast, the Pope's message of October, 1995, delivered to the
United Nations General Assembly imparts profound wisdom and encouragement
for American Catholics.
He stated,
"The United Nations Organization needs to
rise more and more above the cold status of an administrative institute and
become a moral center where all the nations of the world... develop a
shared awareness of being, as it were, a 'family of nations'"
(n. 14).
"The politics of nations, with which your organization is principally
concerned, can never ignore the transcendent spiritual dimension of the
human experience and could never ignore it without banning the cause of man
and the cause of human freedom"
(n. 16).
"We must overcome our fear of the future... The answer to that fear is
neither coercion nor repression, nor the imposing of one social 'model' on
the entire world. The answer to that fear... is the common effort to
build the civilization of love..."
(n. 18).68
George Weigel writing in Crisis magazine December, 1995, noted:
"The pope knows full well that the UN bureaucracy and its functional agencies... are shot through with corruption.
Then there was the attempt by the
international lifestyle Left, aided and abetted by the UN bureaucracy, to
highjack the 1994 UN population conference at Cairo, the 1995 Copenhagen
'Social Summit,' and the Beijing world conference on women... the Pope
knew to whom he was talking at Turtle Bay.
And as one who believes that his
own peacemaking efforts in the Balkans have, at times, been obstructed by
the UN, John Paul knows all about the organization's deficiencies in
fulfilling its charter's basic mandate..."
"Thus the Pope's call to the UN to develop a shared awareness of being...
a 'family of nations' should be taken as a polite demur on the UN's
grandiose plans to turn the UN into a world government..."69
His stirring words to catholics of America are a beacon and a challenge in
countering the UN concept of "sustainable development" that has penetrated
our Church and society:
"Always be convincing witnesses to the truth. Stir into a flame the gift of
God... Light your nation - Light the world - with the power of that
flame. Amen"70
- Laurene Conner
President's Council Policy Recommendations
-
Action 1. "Congress should authorize and sufficiently fund national family
planning services to ensure that all women and men, regardless of income,
have access to family planning and related reproductive health care
options."
-
Action 2. "...access to appropriate services should be provided to
adolescents who are sexually active."
-
Action 3. "...The public and private sectors can reform health insurance
coverage to insure that all recipients are afforded choices among the
broadest range of safe, voluntary reproductive health services. The Medicaid
program also should be reformed..."
-
Action 4. "...Congress should fund- federal medical research
laboratories, public-private partnerships, and other innovative
arrangements. . .to expand the range of medically safe contraceptives
available to women and men."20
End Notes
1- Our Common Future - World Commission on Environment and Development,
Oxford University Press, printed in Great Britain in 1987 (reprinted 6
times, 1987; 3 times 1989), Chairman's Foreword, p. ix.
2- Ibid., p.x.
3- Ibid., p.x.
4- Our Common Future, Annex 2, From One Earth to One World, p. 352.
5- A Report from the Business Council for Sustainable Development, Changing
Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development And The Environment
(MA: MIT Press, 1992). p. xi quoted in Global Tyranny... Step By Step,
The United Nations and the Emerging New World Order, by William F. Jasper,
Western Islands, Appleton, WI. 1992, p. 186.
6- Our Common Future. From One Earth To One World, An Overview. by the World
Commission On Environment And Development, p. 8.
7- Ibid., p. 9.
8- Our Common Future. Chairman's Foreword, e.g., p. xi, xii, xiii.
9- Op. cit., p. 9.
10- Ibid., p. 11.
11- Our Common Future, Annexes, p. 364, 365.
12- Global Tyranny... Step By Step, by William F. Jasper, Western Islands
Publishers, Appleton, WI, 1992, p. 10.
13- Ibid., p. 168.
14- Sustainable Development - A New Consensus, a 189 page Report of the
President's Council on Sustainable Development, 730 Jackson Place N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20503, Feb. 1996, p.vi.
15- Ibid., Chapter 6, US Population and Sustainability, p. 141, 142.
16- Ibid., p. 143.
17- Ibid.,. p. 144.
18- Ibid., p. 145-146.
19- Ibid., p. 146.
20- Ibid., p. 147.
21- Building On Consensus: A Progress Report on Sustainable America, "Letter
to the President," from President's Council on Sustainable Development, Jan.
10, 1997, p.i.
22- Ibid., p. iii.
23- Ibid,, p. iii-iv.
24- Ibid., Introduction, p. 1.
25- Freedom on the Altar - The UN Crusade Against God and Family, by William
Norman Grigg, American Opinion Publishing, Inc., Appleton, WI, 1995, p.
173-174 (Quoting the book. Earth in The Balance: Ecology and the Human
Spirit, by Al Gore, Houghton Mifflin, 1992, p. 238.
26- Ibid., p. 174.
27- Ibid., p. 174.
28- L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly Edition. Rome, Italy, Aug. 27, 1997, p.6.
29- Update published by The Global Committee of Parliamentarians on
Population and Development, 345 East 45th St., New York , 10017, 1988,
quoted in "The Rise of Global Green Religion," by Henry Lamb, ECO-logic
Special Report, Environmental Conservation Organization, P.O. Box 191,
Hollow Rock, TN 39342, Feb. 9, 1997, p.3.
30- Shared Vision, Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders for
Human Survival, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1989, p. 3. quoted in ECO-logic Special
Report, p. 4.
31- "What On Earth Is Gaia?" by Karen Kurth. Free World Research, Iowa
Report. Box 4633, Des Moines. IA 50306, Dec. 1992, p.3.
32- "The Rise of Global Green Religion," ECO-logic Special Report, Feb.
9,1997, p. 4.
33- Ibid., p.4.
34- Shared Vision, Vol. 4, 1990, quoted in ECO-logic Special Report, p. 4.
(see Note 31 above)
35- Program "Caring For Creation - A Call To Become Involved In Environmental
Action" May l6-19, 1990 (on file).
36- "The Rise of Global Green Religion," ECO-logic Special Report. Feb. 9,
1997, p.4-5.
37- Ibid., p. 5.
38- Ibid., p. 3.
39- Ibid., p. 5.
40- Ibid., p. 5.
41- Statement of Goals. National Religious Partnership on the Environment. NRPE. P.O. Box 9105. Cambridge, MA 02238, quoted in "The Rise of Global
Green Religion," ECO-logic Special Report. Feb. 9. 1997, p.5-6.
42- Breakthrough News, May-August 1997, "We Are Leaders; Why Are We Waiting?"
published by Global Education Associates, 475 Riverside Dr. Suite 1848, New
York, p.4-5.
43- Ibid., back page.
44- Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism, by Donna Steichen,
St. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, 1991, p.237.
45- Homily delivered at concelebrated funeral Mass for his brother James F.
Berry, Death Notices, The News Observer, Raleigh. NC. Sept. 12, 1997, p. 6B.
46- Breakthrough News, GEA, May-August, 1997, p. 13.
47- Ibid., p. 5.
48- Ibid., p.4-5.
49- Ibid., p. 9.
50- Breakthrough News, GEA, January-April, 1997, p. 5.
51- Breakthrough News. GEA, Fall, 1994, p. 11.
52- "A New Social Contract" by Marguerite A. Peeters, Director of Social
Studies for the Center of New Europe, a Brussels-based Policy Institute,
Catholic World Report, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, July, 1997, p.
40-41.
53- Ibid., p. 40.
54- "The Earth Charter." ECO-logic, Environmental Conservation Organization.
P.O. Box 191, Hollow Rock, TN 38342, May-June, 1997, p. 11.
55- "The Rise of Global Green Religion," by Henry Lamb, ECO-logic Special
Report. Environmental Conservation Organization, Hollow Rock, TN, 38342,
Feb. 9, 1997, p. 9.
56- "A New World Religion," by William F. Jasper, The New American, American
Opinion Publishing, Inc., Appleton, WI 54914, Oct. 19, 1992, p. 26.
57- "The New Age Movement - Analysis of a New Attempt to Find Solutions Apart
from Christian Faith" by Archbishop J. Francis Stafford, L'Osservatore
Romano. Italy, Jan. 27, 1993.
58- The Gaia Peace Atlas - Survival Into the Third Millennium, Gaia Books
Limited, London, published by Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, New York,
1988, p.216.
59- Ibid., p. 8.
60- Global Tyranny... Step by Step, by William F. Jasper, Western Islands
Publishers, Appleton, WI, 1992, p. 123.
61- "Who Is Maurice Strong?" by Ronald Bailey, National Review, New York,
10016, Sept. 1, 1997, p. 33.
62- Op. Cit., p. 227.
63- "A New Social Contract," by Marguerite A. Peeters, Director of Social
Studies for the Center for New Europe, a Brussels-based Policy Institute,
Catholic World Report, July, 1997, p. 42-43.
64- Ibid., p.43.
65- Ibid., p.43.
66- Now the Dawning of the New World Order, by Dennis Laurence Cuddy, Ph.D.,
Hearthstone Publishing Ltd., P.O. Box 815, Oklahoma City, OK, 73101, 1991,
p. 255-256.
67- Global Bondage, the UN Plan to Rule the World, by Cliff Kincaid,
Huntington House Publishers, Lafayette, LA 70505, 1995, p.35.
68- "Building the Culture of Freedom," The Pope In America, Crisis Books,
Notre Dame, IN, 1996, p. 9-24.
69- Ibid., p. 151.
70- Ibid., p. 157.