Catholic University Cancels Anti-Semites’ Lectures

A lecture series featuring presentations by two virulently anti-Semitic “radical traditionalist Catholics” was cancelled by The Catholic University of America on Monday after Hatewatch contacted the university to ask about the events. Radical traditionalist Catholics (read a major investigation of this theology here) deny certain Vatican teachings, particularly the Second Vatican Council’s reforms of the 1960s, and most hold anti-Semitic views that are rejected by the Roman Catholic Church. Many radical traditionalists have been excommunicated by the church.

E. Michael Jones (right) was scheduled to speak Wednesday at the university’s Edward M. Crough Center for Architectural Studies as part of a lecture series “exploring how to create new communities based on the tradition and teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.” The lectures are sponsored by an off-campus, private group called Building Catholic Communities, which describes itself as “an informal confederation of scholars, architects, religious and lay leaders who are hungry to rediscover the rich history and tradition of community life based on Catholic principals [sic].”

Jones, a former hippie who spent his honeymoon in traffic trying to reach Woodstock, has a long track record of anti-Semitism and his writings run through all the usual anti-Semitic canards — that “Jewish media elites” run the country, that Jews are “major players” in pornography, and that Jews are behind Masonry and the French Revolution. And that’s only the start. Jones also publishes a “continuing series on the Jews,” looking into the various evils Jews have allegedly caused, in his magazine, Culture Wars. The magazine’s cover stories give a flavor of its message: “Judaizing: Then and Now,” “The Converso Problem: Then and Now,” “The Judaism of Hitler,” “Shylock Comes to Notre Dame,” and so on. Jones has also described the Holocaust as “a reaction to Jewish messianism (in the form of Bolshevism).”

According to Victor Nakas, associate vice president of public affairs, the university was unaware of Jones’ anti-Semitic views. Shortly after Hatewatch contacted him to inquire about the lecture series’ sponsorship, Nakas sent an E-mail saying, “The individuals you reference below will not be speaking on our campus.”

Building Catholic Communities, which the university says is run by Tim Ehlen, also had a man named John Sharpe slated to deliver a lecture on April 23. Sharpe, a former public affairs officer on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, is another particularly hardline radical traditionalist. He has attended major white supremacist events and blamed the 9/11 attacks on “Judeo Masonry,” which he considers the “current and historical mortal enemy of Christian civilization.” He runs two hate groups, the Legion of St. Louis and IHS Press, which Building Catholic Communities’ website links to. The legion’s material brims with propaganda from the likes of Ernst Zundel, the neo-Nazi publisher of such books as The Hitler We Loved and Why, along with Holocaust deniers and other Jew-haters.

After Sharpe’s anti-Semitic beliefs were disclosed by the Intelligence Report in 2006, the Navy began an investigation into him, suspending him his post on the aircraft carrier. Officials said last fall that they were in the process of reassigning him.