The following is a media release of the Lepanto Institute.
Oakland, CA — A new report from the Lepanto Institute reveals that an organization receiving large grants from the Catholic Church openly admitted to praying to demons — including Baphomet — during a staff meeting. Planting Justice, which has received over $100,000 from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the official anti-poverty program of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has a published article on its own website describing the incident.
With published pictures of an altar adorned with an idol, pentagrams, and books devoted to transgender deities, the author of Planting Justice’s article wrote, “To commemorate this day [International Transgender Day of remembrance], … I asked the Planting Justice staff if I could set up an altar before our meeting. I also read the names of the dead, inviting them to sit in with our staff.”
The author then described what happened at the Planting Justice staff meeting: “I list the names of the dead, with a prayer to the gods preceding and a prayer to the dead themselves following.” Prayers were then offered to demons such as Baphomet (most often identified with satanism), Hoor-paar-kraat (which comes from Alister Crowley’s false religion called Thelema), Ardhanarisvara, Dionysos, Loki, and many other “gods” known for their androgyny or hermaphroditism.
After reading a litany of deceased transgenders, the session ended with this prayer: “Honored and fabulous dead, we breathe you, we eat you, we drink you, in you, we live, we move, we have our being.”
“The CCHD routinely tells the bishops and faithful Catholics that it does not fund organizations that act against Catholic moral or social teaching,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute. “But this incident took place four years before the CCHD would have received a grant application from Planting Justice, and the article about these prayers to demons was readily available on its website. Either the CCHD didn’t vet the organization as it claims, or it doesn’t care if its grantees are worshipping actual demons.”
Hichborn added, “Any organization that would erect an altar with an idol and pentagram on it and publish actual prayers to demons should be on a permanent ban list, perpetually forbidden from Catholic funding.”
The Lepanto Institute’s report also reveals that Planting Justice regularly promotes sexually perverse ideologies. Through articles and social media posts spanning 2013-2023, Planting Justice has promoted “Eco-Queer Movements,” “Gender Justice,” “Pride Month,” “Queer and Trans Farms,” Queer Voices: Intersectionality & the Environment,” and even “Queer and Trans Non-Monogamy.”
“If the CCHD imposes a ‘thorough application process’ that includes ‘close monitoring’ of the grantees as they claim, then the CCHD is 100% complicit in directing Catholic funds to an organization that openly engaged in demon worship, has an ongoing agenda to combine the promotion of sexual perversion with its work in agriculture, and is continuing to promote sexual perversion,” said Hichborn. “It’s time the Catholic bishops of the United States shut down the CCHD. It is giving Catholic funds directly to the enemies of Christ.”
The Lepanto Institute is asking the USCCB to suspend the CCHD until a full independent, third-party investigation of CCHD grants is conducted.
Lepanto Institute’s report on Planting Justice can be viewed here: https://www.lepantoin.org/wp/catholic-funded-organization-prayed-to-demons/
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The Lepanto Institute for the Restoration of All Things in Christ is a research and education organization dedicated to the defense of the Catholic Church against assaults from without as well as from within. Founded in 2014, the Lepanto Institute has exposed several instances of Catholic or Catholic-affiliated organizations being directly involved in events or other matters directly contrary to Church teaching. www.LepantoIn.org
