Thread by @IsAntifascist

1/ Here’s a thread on traditional catholic group SSPX (Society of Saint Pius X) and its ties to various far-right groups. This might take a while, it’s not quite Christian Identity levels of intersection but it’s a lot.

2/ SSPX has over half a million followers worldwide and there are probably a whole lot of reasons why people get involved with it that have little to do with fascism, but also there’s some that do.

3/ SSPX was started in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre of France in response to modernisation of the Catholic church and the Vatican II reforms. I’m no theologian so I’ll leave that stuff aside. Pic of Lefevbre with Irish President Eamon DeValera.

4/ Lefevbre disliked the liberal reforms of the French Revolution and expressed support for the Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime and the Front National. ncronline.org/news/lefebvre-…

5/ In 1989 former paramilitary and collaborator Paul Touvier was arrested while sheltering at an SSPX priory in Nice. He was later convicted of the murder of seven Jews during the war when he had worked directly for Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon.

6/ Another war-time murderer, SS officer Erich Priebke, was convicted in 1996 for his role organising the Ardeatine massacre near Rome, one of the worst atrocities in Italy during the war when 335 civilians were executed by German troops, many of them left-wing or Jewish.

7/ wantedinrome.com/news/rome-reme…

8/ Priebke had evaded justice for over 50 years and was unrepentant until his death in 2013. In 2006 SSPX priest Fr. Abrahamovicz defended Priebke’s actions. "Priebke was a friend of mine, a Christian, a faithful soldier." Abrahamovicz had previously praised Mussolini’s soldiers.

9/ When Priebke died, the Vatican issued an unprecedented ban on his burial in a Catholic church. An SSPX church near Rome held a funeral service in defiance, and police battled antifascist protestors.
timesofisrael.com/nazi-war-crimi…

10/ Abrahamovicz was expelled in 2009 from SSPX after Holocaust denying comments, made in response to other remarks by Bishop William Richardson.
dw.com/en/british-bis…

11/ Richardson was one of the first four bishops ordained by Lefevbre in 1988, leading to them all being excommunicated. He has a long history of Holocaust denial and has been convicted in Germany for this. His conspiracism goes far beyond this, also involving JFK 9/11 etc.

12/ web.archive.org/web/2018110618…

13/ Mostly it is hatred of Jews he concentrates on and there is a deep theological element to this that is important to bear in mind. Williamson regularly visits Cork and was recorded blaming Jews for Covid-19 as well as manipulating the economy and other antisemitic tropes.

14/ sundayworld.com/crime/irish-cr…

15/ The Cork connection is SSPX Resistance, a splinter group of the main SSPX sect which Richardson now heads up after his expulsion from SSPX in 2012.
southernstar.ie/news/covid-den…

16/ The owner of the property in Cork is Father Ballini who carried out a public exorcism of the Dáil alongside Gxxxa O’Doherty, a notorious Irish conspiracy theorist.
independent.co.uk/news/world/eur…

17/ Andy Heasman is another SSPX Resistance follower. A micro-celebrity on the Irish far-right who films himself getting into confrontations and acting like a gobshite. Heasman was active during the abortion referendum and is also a vocal QAnon follower.

18/ Heasman meeting TD Mattie McGrath who recently earned a rebuke from the @AuschwitzMuseum for comparing Covid restrictions to the Holocaust.

19/ For bonus points here is Heasman with Dee Wall at a murder trial harassing the widow of a Garda who was killed on duty. Ranks as one of the maddest protests I’ve seen IMHO.

20/ Heasman is a member of Siol na hEireann (Sperm of Ireland), a fascist group led by Niall McConnell of Donegal. McConnell is very much trad cath and has protested against a Catholic church in Mayo. independent.ie/irish-news/far…

21/ Heasman and McConnell leading a colour party at the head of a large Covid denial protest in Dublin.

22/ A group of SSPX Resistance Carmelite nuns have appeared regularly on McConnell’s livestreams and other media.

23/ Despite being a plank and derided by most of the far-right, McConnell has extensive European connections, particularly to Italian fascist leader Roberto Fiore a long-time SSPX adherent. More to come on him.

24/ McConnell has connections to the worst of the Euro fash – Golden Dawn, NPD, Noua Dreapta, Kotleba etc. Also very friendly with Jim Dowson and Nick Griffin.

25/ Remember that Pat Sweeney case recently where a guy was involved in a Covid-related custody battle and had his kids removed? Shortly after he had filmed Gardai breaking up a mass in Athlone. Guess what type of mass? SSPX (Crappy link, most media wouldn’t touch the story)

26/ (Crappy link, most media wouldn’t touch the story) insiderpaper.com/man-video-iris…

27/ Sweeney is in with the Covid headbangers. Justin Barrett and the NP were all over the case trying to profit from the outrage before the fundraiser got removed.

28/ Justin Barrett and James Reynolds of the National Party both go to the SSPX church in Athlone. Maybe there are other international connections?

29/ In September 1999 Barrett, then of Youth Defence, travelled to London to meet Roberto Fiore and other leaders of European fascist groups as part of an International Third Position meeting.

30/ Barrett then travelled to Germany to speak at an NPD event alongside William Luther Pierce, author of the Turner Diaries, leader of the national Alliance and all-round genocidal maniac who was very influential in White Nationalist circles for far too many years.

31/ Barrett later went to a number of Fiore run events in Milan. web.archive.org/web/2001061805…

32/ The International Third Position was set up in London by a group consisting of Italian and English fascists. The English mostly came from the Political Soldier faction of the National Front, including Nick Griffin, Derek Holland and Colin Todd.
hopenothate.org.uk/2017/12/15/nat…

33/ The Italians came from a group that had fled Italy following the Bologna train station bombing by fascists that killed 85 people. They included Roberto Fiore, Massimo Marsello and others that managed to avoid extradition in relation to the bombing.

34/ Fiore and some of the other Italians made a lot of money in property and ‘helping’ Italian immigrants find work, accommodation and language skills in London while being convicted in absentia.

35/ Griffin didn’t last long in the ITP as it quickly turned into a trad-cath sect which he wasn’t into. His long history of bullshit and hatred is detailed elsewhere. Failed Fuhrers by @macklin_gd is highly recommended.

@macklin_gd 36/ The ITP put out a magazine called Final Conflict, and a look at the issues at the time of Barrett’s meeting with them reveals a lot.

@macklin_gd 37/ Ads for books from genocidal anti-Semites like Arnold Leese, praise for anti-abortion activists, anti-communist rantings, a lot of white power music and some Irish connections.

@macklin_gd 38/ The Summer 2000 issue an article promoting anti-abortion group Precious Life Scotland appears next to an interview with a notorious German Holocaust denier.

@macklin_gd 39/ Roberto Fiore set up a charity called St. George’s Educational Trust, which was led by Father Crowdy. SGET is an SSPX aligned group which was led by Father Michael Crowdy.
sget.info/about/

@macklin_gd 40/ Crowdy penned an extensive antisemitic article for the SSPX magazine The Angelus titled ‘The Mystery of the Jewish People in History’. It basically says Jews are evil and also anything evil is Jewish.
web.archive.org/web/2006021400…

@macklin_gd 41/ Also on the SGET board was Colin Todd, ex National Front organiser and editor of Candour magazine since 1999. Candour was set up AK Chesterton, founder of the NF and the magazine has been the intellectual backbone of antisemitism in Britain for decades.

@macklin_gd 42/ A Youth Defence article appeared in Candour in 1993, replete with references to (((usury))) and shadowy groups of international bankers controlling governments.

@macklin_gd 43/ The SGET website also shows links to Youth Defence and antiabortion campaigns in Ireland, and also to the Carmelite nuns in Cork. An extensive obituary to an anti-choice campaigner Ted Atkinson strongly links him to another activist Maurice Lewis.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/kopp-…

@macklin_gd 44/ Lewis was a close friend of James Kopp, aka Atomic Dog nytimes.com/2002/09/03/nyr…

@macklin_gd 45/ Kopp was convicted of the 1998 murder of New York doctor Barnett Slepian. Kopp was a well-known activist during the US abortion wars with dozens of arrests and had served time with Lewis in England.

@macklin_gd 46/ Following the murder, Kopp fled to Ireland where he regularly attended mass at an SSPX church in Dun Laoghaire before his arrest and conviction. The FBI have claimed he was aided by anti-abortion groups active in Ireland at the time.
independent.ie/irish-news/sus…

@macklin_gd 47/ The most prominent anti-abortion group in Ireland during the 90’s was Youth Defence led by Justin Barrett. The group attempted to import American style abortion protests to Ireland despite abortion being illegal at the time.
independent.ie/irish-news/you…

@macklin_gd 48/ During the 2018 Irish abortion access referendum, Barrett advocated the execution of doctors who provided abortion services.

@macklin_gd 49/ Another attendee at the London and German meetings alongside Barrett was Derek Holland. Holland was a prominent National Front organiser and propagandist who helped found the International Third Position.

@macklin_gd 50/ Holland’s last known address was in the Irish midlands in 2002 where he was attempting to access funding to help set up IHS books with American John Sharpe. IHS Books and Sharpe’s other venture the Legion of St. Louis distribute SGET material alongside books by antisemites.

@macklin_gd 51/ @splcenter report mentioning Sharpe and others. splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…

@macklin_gd @splcenter 52/ Sharpe in turn cites Irish priest Father Denis Fahey as a major influence and approves of his statement that “every sane thinker must be an anti-Semite”.

@macklin_gd @splcenter 53/ Fahey, from Tipperary, was a close friend of Eamon Devalera and founded the Maria Duce movement. He was a prolific antisemitic propagandist who influenced people like L. Fry and Adrien Arcand and newer Irish activists such as the NP linked Burkean.

@macklin_gd @splcenter 54/ Another member of the London SSPX congregation was Troy Southgate, who moved through several ideological phases, including starting a movement called National Anarchism which attempted to co-opt black bloc tactics, environmental and anti-capitalist ideas into fascist groups.

@macklin_gd @splcenter 55/ And to wrap things up for now, there is a combination of SSPX, child sex abuse, Nazi worship and Ireland.

@macklin_gd @splcenter 56/ SSPX has not been immune to the child sex abuse scandals. One notable case is that of a priest, accused of abusing a child (who committed suicide) in Kansas where he was rector of a seminary.
churchmilitant.com/news/article/t…

@macklin_gd @splcenter 57/ The priest is said to have a strong affinity for Nazi memorabilia and repeatedly tried to watch Triumph of the Will with students.
churchmilitant.com/news/article/s…

@macklin_gd @splcenter 58/ After the abuse allegations came out, the priest was moved to the Irish district. His current whereabouts are uncertain.

@macklin_gd @splcenter 59/ I’ve only seen bits and pieces of this so I’m unaware if anyone has done a proper study. Failed Fuhrers had the most info in one place re. the London connections, the SPLC report was also very useful.

@macklin_gd @splcenter 60/ Tagging a few people who might be interested or have more to add on the intersection of SSPX, antisemitism and the far right. @FFRAFAction @transform6789 @shane_burley1 @hopenothate @MargoKitts

@macklin_gd @splcenter @FFRAFAction @transform6789 @shane_burley1 @hopenothate @MargoKitts 61/ I would love to know more about the US SSPX branch (or other countries not mentioned) and if anyone has info on connections to the abortion wars (@MsEntropy?)or other far-right movements please let me know. /END THREAD