OZ Catholic Workers Arrested Carrying Out Exorcism in Raytheon's Office

by Takver Sat Apr 26, 2008 04:13 Melbourne, Australia

About 50 cyclists who attended Melbourne Critical Mass on Friday 25th
April, ANZAC Day, were treated to a special history tour on
Remembering war and protesting for peace. While perhaps 30,000 people
attended the dawn ANZAC day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance
War Memorial in Melbourne, an alternative to the jingoism and
nationalistic patriotism was presented at the Melbourne Critical Mass
ride undertaken shortly after dusk.

At each site visited a short talk was given on its significance and
history as part of remembering war and protesting for Peace in
Melbourne. Melbourne has a rich culture and history of
anti-conscription, anti-war and peace protest which the ride attempted
to highlight. Sites visited included:

1. State Library - 14/2/03 200,000 people gather against war on Iraq
2. RMIT - Bowen Street - 20/1/1842 - 2 aboriginal freedom fighters
executed in the frontier war and European invasion
3. RMIT - Guild hall - 1916 - Women's Peace Army - Women such as Vida
Goldstein organise against conscription
4. 171 Little Bourke Street - 1914-1917 - IWW Headquarters - organise
against conscription
5. GPO Elizabeth Street - 9/5/1970 - Jim Cairns leads 100,000 people
to sit down to stop the war in Bourke street in the first Vietnam
Moratorium
6. 330 Collins St - Uranium Information Centre - our link to the
Nuclear Fools cycle that started with Hiroshima and Nagasaki
7. 400 Flinders st - Immigration Museum - 1934 the story of antiwar
and antifascist Egon Kisch
8. Yarra Bank - 1916-1917 Tens of thousands oppose conscription
9. Man and his donkey Memorial - the hidden history of Simpson
Kirkpatrick, radical and socialist.
10. Shrine of Remembrance - 1966 Save our Sons; 1971 - PEACE painted
on the shrine columns; 1980s - Women against Rape in War highlight the
terrible suffering inflicted on women and children in war; 2003 -
Women for Peace attempt a silent Peace Vigil
11. US Consulate 553 St Kilda Road - 2003 - Women for Peace Vigil -
Reta Kaur

A report of the ride has been posted to my blog on Melbourne Cyclist
along with links to the leaflet handed out and photos taken on the
ride by Moz.

http://www.melbournecyclist.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1...10144

Thanks to 'Radical Melbourne 2' for valuable historical background
information

by Ciaron - Catholic Worker/Ploughshares Sat Apr 26, 2008 12:51

In many ways this style of radical pacifist Catholic anti war direct actions have their origins
in the May 1968 draft board raid at Catonsville, Maryland, USA.

Youtube footage of the raid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3SHRc-NTrk

the raid included the hi profile radical priests Jesuit Dan Berrigan and Jospehite (& WW2 combat veteran) Phil Berrigan.Popularly labeled on the anti-Vietnam War landscape in the '60's "the Catholic Left and the "ultra resistance", the movement was responsible for many raids on draft boards.

Praxis matured post-Vietnam with the founding of Jonah House resistance community www.jonahhouse.org by Phil Berrigan and Liz MacAlister and their influence on the Catholic Worker movement (founded in the 1930's by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin). Moving Catholic war resisters from a passive conscientious objection position to a more assertive nonviolence, developing an authentic first world response to the challenges of the third world Libertaion Theoolgy movements. 1980 this gave rise to the plowshares movement www.plowsharesactions.org which spread internationally

the 40th. anniversary of the Catonsville raid approaches and events to mark it are being organised in Baltimore see the Jonah House website www.jonahhouse.org

40 YEARS AND COUNTING...Baltimore remembers the Catonsville Nine - 40
years after their dramatic witness against the Vietnam War. To
remember is to bring back into unity the scattered members and so,
those planning memorial events, see the relevance of their action
today - in spades.

1968 is a year of deep, transforming memories for our nation. On Jan.
30, 1968, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a series of
widespread and coordinated attacks against U.S. and allied forces in
South Vietnam. The assault, known as the Tet Offensive, coincided with
the beginning of the lunar year - an important holiday in Vietnam.
U.S. and South Vietnamese troops inflicted massive casualties, but
what amounted to a military victory became a defeat for U.S. political
goals. Public opinion in the U.S., already against the war, looked at
Tet as evidence that the war in Vietnam was too costly. The media
began a more critical reporting of the war, American public opinion
shifted against it and the political fallout led President Johnson's
to not seek reelection.

As part of the growing critique, The Catonsville Nine - Philip
Berrigan, Daniel Berrigan, David Darst, John Hogan, Tom Lewis, John
Melville, Marjorie Melville, George Mische, and Mary Moylan - two
women and seven men, three in clerical attire, entered the Selective
Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland - Local Board 33 - removed
several hundred draft records, and burned them with homemade napalm in
protest against the war in Vietnam http://c9.mdch.org/page.cfm?ID=2 .
The nine were arrested and, in a highly publicized trial
http://c9.mdch.org/page.cfm?ID=21 , sentenced to prison.

Their act of civil resistance intensified protest against the draft,
prompted debate in households across the nation, and stirred angry
reaction on the part of many Americans. It also propelled the nine
Catholic participants http://c9.mdch.org/page.cfm?ID=36 - especially
priest brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan - into the national
spotlight. The Catonsville action reflected not only the nature of the
Vietnam antiwar movement in 1968, but also the larger context
http://c9.mdch.org/page.cfm?ID=31 of social forces that were reshaping
American culture in the 1960s.

by Ciaron - Catholic Worker? Ploughshares Sun Apr 27, 2008 17:34

In mid-88 I boarded the U.S.S. New Jersey docked in Brisbane with Jim Dowling (arrested in this action) and four others to carry out an exorcism of this death ship that had killed so many children in Vietnam and Lebanon. We passed through the military bag check, carrying blood we had donated to the action in blackcurrent juice bottles, and made our way to the foredeck overshadowed by its enormous guns. On another part of the ship parents and children were taking tours on what had been promoted by all levels of local state and Federal government as a tourist attraction. We poured the blood in a cross, named the ship for what it was and knelt in prayer. We were the arrested.

In late 1994 I accompanied Jim (again) and a heavilly pregnant Lisa (arrested in this recent action at Raytheon, Brisbane) into the offices of Petroz mining company in our hometown of Brisbane. We poured blood from bottles on the boardroom table, pasted photos of East Timorese around the boardroom and prayed. We were arrested. We had named Petroz as coluding with the genocidal Suharto governments crimes in East Timor to exploit the reserves in the Timor Sea.

We had been intoroduced to the political relevance and the radical praxis of exorcism in scripture by the theologian Ched Myers in his work of Mark's Gospel "Binding the Strongman" (Orbis Press).

Now Raytheon, recently arrived in Brisbane, has been named and unmasked. See this link for an essay on political exorcism
http://www.ecapc.org/articles/article-5117.htm

Raytheon, and its works of war, stretches from Brisbane to Derry to Iraq to Lebanon. Our humble resistance community streches over 30 years of sustained nonviolent resistance. I first met Jim in police custody in 1978. Lisa in the mid-80's. My brother Sean (who I have known the longest!) accompanied Lisa & Jim into the Raytheon offices. While companies like Raytheon keep profiting form the killing of children, we'll keep on keeping on.

by catholic Sun Apr 27, 2008 19:11

You are not qualified as an exorcist. You were not given permission by the bishop of the diocese to perform an exorcism. There is no use of blood in Christian ritual and it reminds me at least of Satanic perversion. To spill your blood, or to fake blood or use animal blood whilst mocking the ordained ministries of the church can not be seen as anything else than a Satanic ritual. Does your arrogance in recounting this story cloud your judgement and the proper use of the symbols of the Church and the cross?

by Excommunicant Sun Apr 27, 2008 19:40

So it comes down to the authority of the local bishop? I note that the ultimate catholic authority on the planet does not seem to have any problem rubbing shoulders with the commander-in-chief who is ultimately responsible for the mass bloodletting in Iraq. But then the institutional church has had its hands steeped in blood since its existence, so why would Ciaron have to go cap-in-hand to them for permission to make a protest against war?

by Update Thu May 15, 2008 11:00

Lisa Bridle (mother of three and university lecturer) and Jim Dowling (father of seven and Catholic Worker farmer) are going to Wynum (Brisbane) court on 29th May for their Deliverance rite (exorcism) at the Raytheon offices in Brisbane . A trial date will then be set.

by CAAT Thu May 29, 2008 11:31 Brisbane, Australia

A group of nine people opposing the presence in Brisbane of one of the world’s biggest arms dealers, the Raytheon Corporation, today returned to continue a Rite of Deliverance, (exorcism) at the company’s Murarrie offices.

The group claims that Raytheon, the worlds’ third largest dealer and manufacturer of armaments, has made a literal killing since September 11, 2001. The price of their shares went up 40% in the following month, in anticipation of retaliatory attacks, before any war had been declared.

Two of the “Chrisitians Against ALL Terrorism” group had just been to court at Wynnum to face a charge arising from their first action against Raytheon on the 24th April. On that occasion office staff allowed them to enter the front office where they lit candles, sprinkled holy water, and recited deliverance prayers. They then posted the walls with pictures of victims of Raytheon missiles, and poured human blood on them in the shape of a cross.

On that occasion Raytheon declined to press charges. Instead police charged them with refusing to obey a police direction.

Today, at 10:30 am, members of the group repeated the rite, this time in the foyer in front of the Raytheon main entrance door. Once again they poured blood on the glass door of the company, and pasted photos of children killed and maimed by Raytheon bombs.

Spokesperson, Anne Rampa said, “The word "Raytheon" is from the Greek translating as "light of the Gods. We realize that, as St. Paul said, our battle is against principalities and powers, not flesh and blood. We are all in the grip of a belief system that legitimizes the use of horrific violence in order to maintain the current world disorder. We believe that we will never get the world we all yearn for if we don’t exorcise these sprits of violence, greed, indifference, fear, and deceit from our midst, and the midst of the money-makers, who make a fortune from our obsession with the violent solution.”

The group left the foyer after 20 minutes of praying, and then stood on the footpath with banners. Once again Raytheon executives declined to press any charges when police arrived.

“Obviously, Raytheon are too embarrassed by their war crimes to press charges,” Ms. Rampa said.

by CEE Photo Resizer Thu May 29, 2008 13:00

Raytheon the Light of God

or of the Devil?

by Exorcism 3 Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:24

A group of Christians opposing the presence in Brisbane of one of the world’s biggest arms dealers, the Raytheon Corporation, today returned to the company’s Murarrie offices.

The group claims that Raytheon has made a literal killing since September 11, 2001. The price of Raytheon shares went up 40% in the following month, in anticipation of retaliatory attacks, even before any war had been declared. Their weapons, including cruise missiles and cluster bombs, have been used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan .

This is the third time the group has performed what they call a deliverance rite or exorcism which involves lighting a candle, sprinkling holy water, reciting prayers, as well as pasting the walls with pictures of children killed and maimed by Raytheon weapons on the walls. The group also used human blood to symbolise the blood shed by Raytheon weapons.

Today, at 10:30 am, members of the group repeated the rite, this time in the foyer in front of the Raytheon main entrance door. Once again they poured blood on the glass door of the company, and pasted photos of children killed and maimed by Raytheon bombs. This time Raytheon abandoned their policy of not pressing charges, and asked the police to charge Jim Dowling with damaging property for pouring the blood on their glass doors.

Spokesperson, Anne Rampa said, “We realize that, as St. Paul said, our battle is against principalities and powers, not flesh and blood. We are all in the grip of a belief system that legitimizes the use of horrific violence in order to maintain the current world disorder. We believe that we will never get the world we all yearn for if we don’t exorcise these sprits of violence, greed, indifference, fear, and deceit from our midst. We have made a start with Raytheon, who make a fortune from our obsession with the violent solution.

“The greatest irony is that the name Raytheon is Latin for “Light of the gods”. One of our posters speaks the real truth with the words, “Raytheon, Light of the Devil,” Ms Rampa said.

On 25th July Lisa Bridle and Jim Dowling go to court for their first exorcism.

Jim Dowling will go to court for a mention on 28th July for the latest action.

by Sceptic Tue Jul 08, 2008 19:31

If you ever use a microwave oven you have largely the Raytheon Corporation to thank as they largely developed it. Likewise if you ever fly on a plane it is only possible by the existence of radar the development of which was also pioneered by it.

by A photoshopper - in solidarity with Jan & Jan Tue Jul 08, 2008 23:23

gratuitous unrelated (yet still related) links: http://nonviolence.cz and http://lmv.hu/node/2760

Catholic Workers in Raytheon Brisbane Car Park

Catholic Workers in Raytheon Office

Catholic Worker Jim Dowling Naming Raytheon

Outside Raytheon Brisbane

Catholic Worker Jim Dowling in Police Custody

by Jim - Peter Maurin Catholic Worker Farm Wed Jul 09, 2008 05:21 Daybora, Queensland, Australia

About Raytheon

Since officially setting up offices in Australia in 1998, the Raytheon Corporation has expanded dramatically and now has offices in four states. Raytheon is proud supplier of electronic war fighting equipment, missiles and other “labour saving” devices to all branches of the Australian military.

Raytheon is also the largest civilian employer at Pine Gap, being the sole contractor for the daily maintenance of the facility. Pine Gap is Australia’s most important contribution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing satellite intelligence information used in targeting for much of the bombing. Much of the equipment used at Pine Gap is also made by Raytheon. Raytheon is essentially a war fighting machine, making massive profits from almost every angle. Raytheon workers at Pine Gap tell the US military where to drop Raytheon bombs (cruise missiles, cluster bombs and much more), from planes fitted with Raytheon electronic equipment.

Whilst being only the fifth largest arms dealer in the world, Raytheon is the largest manufacturer of guided missiles, the infamous cruise missiles being their most famous babies. Starting at $600,000 each, more than thirty of these were fired in the first hours of the Iraq war.

But Raytheon have many other toys for killing children.

On 30th July 2006 in Qana Lebanon, Israeli planes killed 63 Lebanese refugees, including 42 children from the same village. While fleeing the fighting, these innocent people were slaughtered with K-84 Laser Guided Bombs made by Raytheon. Each of these missiles weighs nearly a ton.

On March 28th 2003, 60 innocent people were massacred in the AL Shuala (Baghdad) market place by a single missile. Renowned war correspondent, Robert Fisk, retrieved a bomb fragment with a serial number from the scene. It was identified as either a HARM or PAVEWAY missile – both made by Raytheon. My friend Donna Mulhearn walked through that Market place soon after the bombing and still has blood on the boots she wore on that day.

Of course these were just two of many massacres. Two which by shear luck could be traced directly to Raytheon. Use your imagination to guess how many of the thousands have died from Raytheon weapons in the last few years.

Raytheon also make cluster bombs. Most people are familiar by now with these particularly evil devices.

A Response

With all this in mind, a group of people , Christians Against ALL Terrorism, began a series of Deliverance prayers, or exorcisms, at the Raytheon office in Murrarie, Brisbane. Convinced that only the demonic could account for a company which exists to make profit from such death and destruction, we were determined to do our best to rid the Raytheon company of those forces.

On 25th April, 5 of us entered the Brisbane front office, lit candles, prayed and sprinkled holy water. We also pasted the walls with photos of Raytheon massacres, including those massacres mentioned above. We then placed human blood in the shape of a cross in three places on their white walls and glass doors. At last Raytheon could show its true nature to visitors!

On that occasion Raytheon executives declined to press charges. Police then charged two of us (Lisa Bridle and myself) for refusing to leave when asked by police.

On the 29th May, immediately after our first court appearance, Lisa, myself and six others returned to the Raytheon offices and repeated the Deliverance rite. (It is handy that Raytheon is not far from the court house). This time, in front of the glass doors leading to the reception area, we put up the same photos and poured blood. After 20 minutes of reciting the deliverance prayers, we went downstairs and stood with others on the footpath. Three car loads of police arrived, but once again Raytheon declined to press charges, and no-one from the police even bothered to talk to us.

On 7th July we returned to court again and finally got a date for our trial (25th July). Immediately after, we again returned to the Raytheon office and performed the deliverance rite, a virtual repeat of that on 29th May. This time however there were over 20 people present, seven of us taking part in the deliverance rite and the others standing outside with a large banner reading “Raytheon - Merchant of Death”. Coming inside were Brisbane Catholic Workers, folks from Peace Tree Community in Perth, a Christian Anarchist from NZ, a Nimbin anarchist, and an ‘embedded’ journalist and photographer from the local Quest newspaper. The outside group included two Buddhist friends who had travelled all the way from Maleny for the action, and a local resident who saw our banner and stopped by to support the action.

Perhaps finally sensing we were not going to give up easily, this time Raytheon executives did ask police to press charges, and being the one who poured the blood on the doors, I was charged with “willful damage”. Everyone else was allowed to leave. I was taken to the police station and once again released on bail.

We are encouraged by the recent win in court in Ireland of the Raytheon 9. A jury found all 9 not guilty of damaging Raytheon property when they entered their Derry office and threw papers and computers out the window. The 9th person was given a suspended sentence.

In turn, others in Brisbane have been encouraged by our actions and there is talk of a day of action by different groups at all the Brisbane offices of major war profiteers. These include Halliburton, Boeing, General Electric, Honeywell, and others.

The Theme of World Youth Day about to take place in Sydney, is about being empowered by the Spirit.

This is our prayer also, that Christians and others will be emboldened to embrace the non-violent message of Jesus.

Jim Dowling

*Lisa Bridle and Jim Dowling go to trial for the first deliverance rite on 25th July. If you would like to support in any way you can write to Jim Dowling, 2705 Mt Mee Rd, Ocean View, Q 4521, or mmemail;penangke@octa4.net.au or phone (07) 34253003. All are welcome to come to court.

by Killedthecat Wed Jul 09, 2008 19:32

How dos an exorcism prayer go?

by Statin the obvious Wed Jul 09, 2008 20:06

Get the fuck out of here!