Nightmare on Third Avenue: Palm Sunday Puppet Madness at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis

Creepy masquerade mayhem…

Nightmare on Third Avenue: Palm Sunday Puppet Madness at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis

If you’re ever in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and want to check out a parish that is in “full communion” with the Vatican II Sect, we recommend you try “Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community” at 4537 Third Avenue South. It’s one of those dynamic and vibrant social justice parishes where all are welcome, and it combines everything that is wrong with the Novus Ordo religion in one place. The Jesus Christ that is preached there is a sorry caricature of the Incarnate Son of God. It is a Counterfeit Christ!

Never is this more visible than on Palm Sunday, when immediately preceding its regular Novus Ordo worship service, St. Joan’s presents a 30-minute puppet extravaganza named “The Heart of the Passion”. It is so beyond obnoxious that words really fail to describe it. You have to witness it:

In case the above video won’t play, or will be removed, here are some screenshots of the abomination, taken from a more recent performance of the same:

The Counterfeit Christ enters Jerusalem giving the hippie V Sign.

Following the False Christ is the horned idol Moloch, or whatever this is supposed to be.

The Counterfeit Christ proclaims himself the “Lord of the Dance”.

Everyone and everything attends the “Last Supper”…

…with Moloch watching in the background.

The Fake Christ dies after being beaten with bands of cloth signifying our sins.

The “Night Puppet” converts the day into night.

Sweet dreams, children!

The woman narrating this horror show is Julie Madden, who holds the title of “Peace and Justice Ministry Director” at St. Joan’s, according to the parish web site. In another video available on YouTube, she talks about “the Christ in us.”

Now, whereas some people might quickly brush this theater of the absurd aside as simply the product of whacko liberals being, well, whacko, we cannot help but suspect that there is a much more sinister side to it, and we have good reason to think so.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is one thing for a parish to hold a Passion play; but what St. Joan of Arc puts on every year is of an evidently different character. Let us not be naive. This is obviously not the result of people getting together trying to figure out a way to represent the Passion of Christ. What we see above is simply not the product any sane person would come up with. At best, it is a sorry mockery of the sacred. However, we have reason to fear that it is much worse.

Animal Masks: Connections with the Occult

The puppets and masks used in this “Heart of the Passion” travesty are entirely inappropriate for depicting the sacred, and most of them are simply frightful. This is the stuff of nightmares, especially for children, whose young minds are very susceptible. In fact, the whole play reeks of occultism and paganism. To show that we’re not exaggerating, let’s look at a few concerete examples.

First, it is no secret that the wearing of masks, especially animal masks, is tied to occultism and outright Satanism. Such practices have entered the consciousness of popular culture through such well-known but very immoral movies as The Wicker Man (1973) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The following still shots demonstrate that:

Scene from The Wicker Man – source: memphisflyer.com

Scene from The Wicker Man – source: 3brothersfilm.com

Scene from Eyes Wide Shut – source: imdb.com (cropped)

…Not that much different from St. Joan’s “The Heart of the Passion”, eh?

In The Wicker Man, the masks are worn as part of a pagan May Day procession; in Eyes Wide Shut, they are worn as part of an occult ritual.

Moloch — Hiding in Plain Sight?

The creepy pagan/occult connection becomes even more evident when we look at the horned bovine puppet specifically. What purpose could such a puppet serve in a performance that supposedly represents the Passion of our Blessed Lord?! It is difficult not to notice a striking similarity to the pagan god Moloch, sometimes called Baal, who was adored by the apostate Israelites:

But why would St. Joan of Arc’s “Catholic community” have a Moloch puppet in a play mainly by and for children?

Here we must point out that, as The Catholic Encyclopedia notes, the “chief feature of Moloch’s worship among the Jews seems to have been the sacrifice of children…” (s.v. “Moloch”).

Human sacrifice to Moloch – source: shutterstock.com

Sacrificing of children to Moloch – source: Wikimedia Commons

18th-century rendition of the idol Moloch – source: Wikimedia Commons

And then there is Satanism. The following chilling video documentary exposing Satanism at a Belgian castle shows images of people wearing masks that immediately remind one of the madness that goes on at St. Joan’s on Palm Sunday:

What purpose do animal masks and costumes serve for a play that is supposedly centered around the Passion of Christ? None, obviously. The only animals that play any role in the last week of our Blessed Lord’s earthly Life are the donkey and the foal on which Christ rode (see Mt 21:5), as well as the cock that crowed after Simon Peter’s betrayal (see Mk 14:72).

The Name of the Beast

Who is responsible for these puppets, anyway? Who comes up with these nightmarish masks? This is where the occult connection could not be more obvious.

The company that provides the basics for this repulsive extravaganza is called — make sure you’re sitting down — In the Heart of the Beast [!] Puppet and Mask Theatre, often abbreviated as HOBT. Yes, that is their official name! It is a non-profit organization that is local to Minneapolis, and its name is a prime example of “truth in advertising”. Let no one say they’re trying to hide what they’re about!

Their web site tells you all you need to know about what sort of “values” they’re into, and it’s not difficult to guess. Among their regular annual projects is — wouldn’t you know it! — a pagan May Day Festival, which corroborates the occult/pagan connection further.

The Lord of the Dance

At some point in the “Heart of the Passion” performance at St. Joan of Arc, the Counterfeit Christ performs an odd dance while the congregation is singing Lord of the Dance, a 1963 hymn written by Sydney Carter (1915-2004). At Carter’s passing, The Telegraph reported regarding the origin of the song:

Carter himself genially admitted that he had been partly inspired by the statue of [the Hindu god] Shiva which sat on his desk; and, whenever he was asked to resolve the contradiction [to Christianity], he would declare that he had never tried to do so. However, he admitted to being as astonished as anyone by its success. “I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord…”

(“Sydney Carter”, The Telegraph, Mar. 16, 2004)

In another place, Carter stated:

I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus.

(Sydney Carter, Green Print for Song; quoted in “Lord of the Dance”, Stainer & Bell)

So once again we have a very clear pagan connection.

Neo-Pagan Apostasy Rising

All this is much worse, then, than the usual “liturgical abuse” so prevalent throughout the Vatican II Sect. It is pagan and demonic, and that is no accident.

In our day, Paganism is on the rise once again, and it’s much worse than the original, “classic” kind. The original Pagans had no knowledge of the Gospel — they were infidels whom our Blessed Lord mercifully came to deliver. Today’s Paganism, on the other hand, is apostate; that is, it’s a post-Christian Paganism, one that has known and rejected the Gospel and returned to its vomit:

For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than the former. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: The dog is returned to his vomit: and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.

(2 Peter 2:20-22; see also Hebrews 6:4-6)

How quickly the Western world is returning to its ancient Paganism can be seen in Europe: The Norse gods are being worshipped again in their own temples in Iceland and in Denmark.

As horrific and heartbreaking as it all is, let us take comfort from the fact that we are merely seeing the fulfillment of prophecy. Today’s apostates may foolishly think that they have overcome and triumphed over our Lord, when in reality they are unwittingly fulfilling Christian prophecy: “Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God” (2 Thess 2:3-4).

That “revolt” is now in full swing, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the Counterfeit Church of Vatican II, which eclipsed the true Church and took the Pope “out of the way”, once again in fulfillment of prophecy (see 2 Thess 2:6-11 and Cardinal H.E. Manning’s The Pope & the Antichrist).

A Pedophilia Connection?

Alas, we must return again to the puppet theater performed at St. Joan’s. Since we are dealing with a matter that directly involves and affects children more than anyone, and since we have reasonably established some association with paganism, the occult, and possibly even with Satanism and Moloch, an idol to which children were sacrificed, it is not unreasonable to ask whether there might also be some kind of remote connection with pedophilia or pederasty.

On Jan. 31, 2007, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) internally published an unclassified but law-enforcement-sensitive intelligence bulletin entitled “Symbols and Logos Used by Pedophiles to Identify Sexual Preferences.” This document was made available to the public on Nov. 22, 2007 by Wikileaks and can be accessed in full here.

The logo the FBI identifies as “BLogo aka ‘Boy Lover'” is this one:

We sounded the alarm in 2019 when clear depicitions of this very symbol showed up on clerical vestments made for World Youth Day in Panama, which were worn even by “Pope” Francis himself.

The FBI intelligence bulletin also shows an alternate logo that is intended to convey perverted attraction specifically to little boys and is called, accordingly, “LBLogo”:

This sickening stuff isn’t made up, and the threat is real. The following two mainstream news sites have published articles warning people of these (and other) symbols and what they really stand for. But be careful, as these two sites are very secular and tend to have immodest photos and lewd advertisements on them:

• “Parents warned over innocent-looking symbols used by paedophiles to indicate their sexual preferences” (Mirror)
• “Revealed: The symbols that pedophiles use to signal their sordid sexual preferences on social media” (Daily Mail)

Anyone who has, has the care of, or cares about children and their safety ought to be familiar with these logos and what they represent.

Do we find these symbols in the “Heart of the Passion” performance?

Not really. One has to be careful not to go overboard in these matters and begin “seeing hidden messages” everywhere. The closest thing to a twirly symbol we could find was what’s shown inside this sun made of papier-mâché:

Moloch has some twirly things on his outfit, but they look like badly-written 6’s more than anything. Of course the number 6 does play a role in occultism as well… as in “666”. A hidden message? Probably not. It’s not necessary — the overt message is clear enough.

Unfortunately, we are not quite done yet with the revolting topic of pedophilia. Whereas we have seen no certain evidence of such symbols at the “Heart of the Passion” horror, alas, the same cannot be said about a different production put on by Heart of the Beast Theater. We are talking about their Minneapolis May Day Parade of 2007, which featured this “thing”:

Notice the hand on the very right. Here is a close-up:

image credit: Jonner Jongsma at Wikimedia Commons (license: CC BY-SA 2.0)

It seems like we have a winner, doesn’t it? The arms of this puppet are outstretched just like Moloch’s are, and just as are the night puppet’s arms at the end of the “Heart of the Passion” play.

Although we do not accuse any particular individual of anything, we can remark quite generally that things like a puppet theater would seem to be a desirable place for pedophiles precisely because they are frequented especially by children. Furthermore, dressing up in costumes and masks allows such perverts to attract kids’ attention and get close to them, perhaps even gain their confidence, without having to reveal their face.

This is horrific to contemplate, but sadly, the threat is real and not new. For example, over 20 years ago, Peter and Rochelle Schweizer exposed pedophiles working at Disney World in their book Disney: The Mouse Betrayed: Greed, Corruption, and Children at Risk. Besides, it makes sense that such people would use secret symbols or logos and variations thereof in order to communicate with one another, since it is too dangerous for them to operate openly.

So, again, we are not accusing anyone at HOBT of anything. We are merely noting that one of their puppet carts used for May Day bears a symbol that is incredibly similar to what the FBI has identified as a pedophile logo. The pattern is not natural, so it is definitely not accidental — it is contrived and was placed there deliberately. There is really no reason why it should be found on the inside of a palm except if someone placed it there, presumably to send a message.

The “Making Of”: A Revealing Documentary

There is one final source from which we can draw to understand more about the puppet abomination at St. Joan of Arc’s. The parish actually produced a professional “making of” documentary that is available on YouTube. It is entitled “The Heart of the Passion: A Family Journey through Lent.” You can watch it here:

This film sheds much more light on this unholy extravaganza and the “Catholicism” of the people behind it.

The documentary begins with Gabrielle Dane, who holds the position of “Family Liturgy Director” at St. Joan’s. Dane says that for the parishioners, this Palm Sunday play marks “an important milestone in their faith journey”, which is a very scary thought. She claims that the play is something “for all ages” and that its content is a “true” representation of what took place in the last week of the earthly Life of Jesus Christ. The former assertion is silly; the latter is a barefaced lie.

Dane reveals she preaches a Counterfeit Christ when she says that our Blessed Lord led “a glorious life that ends in a horrible death.” A glorious life? Our Lord’s time on earth was most humble and filled with untold suffering from the very beginning. We need only to think of His most poor and humble birth in a cave, His painful circumcision, His dangerous journey to Egypt, His hidden life in that not-so-glorious town of Nazareth (cf. Jn 1:46), His arduous work as a carpenter, His life of extreme poverty, and so on. But it gets worse.

The “Family Liturgy Director” underscores her belief in a Counterfeit Christ when she shares what she teaches the children about the reason why Christ came to earth to begin with: “And we talk about how when we take up Jesus’ work, when we try to work to solve the world’s problems, Jesus lives. …Why did He come? He came for us to take on the sorrows of the world, us to change the world with our love, to bring about the kingdom.” In other words, Christ came to show us how we can save the world. That is Naturalism, that is apostasy, that is Antichrist!

Dane is only being consistent when she reveals that she tells children about Christ that “His life is what matters” — His death, apparently, not so much. As though His Death, you know, had just been an unfortunate and abrupt end to that otherwise “glorious life”. That is a totally false gospel! This reduces the Good News to a Naturalist social justice gospel that aims primarily at ushering in an earthly utopia rather than bring about the salvation of souls from sin and eternal death so they can attain the Beatific Vision. Not surprisingly, that is exactly what “Pope” Francis has been preaching:

• Francis hints at “Messianic Future” of Naturalist Heaven on Earth

St. Paul warned us almost 2000 years ago: “For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Tim 4:3-4).

Also shown in the video is Laurie Witzkowski, an associate artist with In the Heart of the Beast, who mentions that she “grew up in the Catholic Church when we were still using Latin in the Mass.” Now she is happy that puppets bring everyone into “an open spiritual space.” It’s too bad that such unfortunate souls as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Alphonsus Liguori never had that opportunity!

A few times in the documentary an attempt is made to explain why the children are wearing masks. This is where it gets very interesting because the explanations make no sense whatosever, which shows that they are obviously not the real reason why masks are worn.

For example, we are told that “the mask is a reflection of God’s love in the world” — a completely puzzling assertion that does not deserve to be taken seriously. Obviously, the reason is another, but we are not told what it is. A child parishioner named Emma explains that what the masks represent “is our love and our will to be peaceful and follow Jesus” — another lousy excuse some adult must have drilled into the sweet girl.

Witzkowski adds that the mask madness is to signify “kind of your best self, the essence of spirit living through you in the world”, and this may be getting a bit closer to the true purpose of what they’re doing there. That some spirit is operating through these creepy masks and costumes is quite possible — we just know what Spirit it is not.

Witzkowski further shows her true colors when she speaks of “a space of creativity and art which is sort of divine, sort of spiritual”. She relates that she believes this project is “seeking the true expression of the divine in our everyday lives”. No wonder it is she, Witzkowski, who plays the Counterfeit Christ in the “Heart of the Passion” travesty.

At some point during the performance, almost all of the children take their masks off. What is the significance of that? Dane claims that “the community basically denies Jesus by taking off their masks”. That’s not exactly intuitive either, since taking off a mask is normally a good thing, and there is no conceivable reason why taking off a mask might be equated with denying Jesus Christ. Quite the contrary!

Towards the end of the play, the children hold their masks into the air. A child participant explains: “When we take off our masks, we’re telling Jesus that we don’t want to follow Him anymore because He disappointed us. But when He dies, we show Him our masks and we tell Him that we’re sorry and that we’re willing to be loving again.”

Those poor children! What a disgusting attack on these sweet, innocent souls! “And whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me; it were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck, and he were cast into the sea” (Mk 9:41).

Ladies and gentlemen, it is obvious that what goes on during this creepy puppet mayhem has absolutely nothing to do with the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, and it is not meant to. Rather, commemorating the last week of our Blessed Lord’s earthly Life is simply taken as a pretext for involving these children in a sinister masked theater of the absurd. To what true purpose? We don’t profess to know, but it’s definitely not for teaching them the Roman Catholic religion or bringing them otherwise closer to their Lord and Redeemer.

A Most Notorious Parish

Before we conclude, a little bit of background on St. Joan of Arc parish is in order.

This “Catholic faith community” has long been a top contender for being the worst Novus Ordo parish in the United States. The pastor is “Fr.” Jim DeBruycker, and he is assisted by “Fr.” James Cassidy, the parochial vicar. One only needs to read the “pastor’s 2 cents” column on the Ascension in their parish bulletin of May 16, 2021 to see that there is no love of God there. No fear of God. No piety. No reverence. No Faith. Nothing supernatural. Contrast that with how a real Catholic cleric speaks about the Ascension of the Son of God!

Recently St. Joan’s parish celebrated 25 years of alphabet soup ministry (i.e. LGBTQ), so you can see that they were pioneers in accepting and promoting sins that cry to heaven for vengeance while claiming to be a Roman Catholic church. A commemorative page on their web site states: “This group has been a steadfast presence in our parish, keeping us focused on the ultimate message of God’s presence and our purpose: Love. Love. Love.”

Those parishioners who aren’t interested in rebuilding Sodom and Gomorrah may want to check out St. Joan of Arc’s eco-spirituality ministry. After all, the earth is “sacred”, as their “Pope” says.

The chief honcho ultimately responsible for all that goes on at St. Joan of Arc church is Mr. Bernard Hebda, the “Catholic Archbishop” of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. In case you’re ready to go sign some petition, don’t bother. “Abp.” Hebda loves St. Joan’s, as is clear from his visit on Trinity Sunday, 2018:

At the 7:28 min mark, he expresses his gratitude to the parish community “for its ability to welcome people into the love of the Trinity.”

At the 2:15 timestamp, he “jokingly” says that more heresy is preached on Trinity Sunday than on any other Sunday of the year because the Trinity is such a difficult dogma — and then manages to do that very thing, namely, preach heresy about the Trinity. For around the 5:50 mark, he says that God cannot “contain” the Love shared by the Three Divine Persons and that it therefore overflows. By saying this Hebda implies that God did not create or redeem us freely out of His goodness but more or less “had to” on account of His Essence. That is heresy against Vatican I, which anathematized all those who “shall have said that God created not by a volition free of all necessity, but as necessarily as He necessarily loves Himself…” (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, Ch. 1; Denz. 1805; cf. Denz. 1783).

Heresy at St. Joan of Arc church in Minneapolis? Say it ain’t so!

By the way: In case you’re wondering if the Counterfeit Christ and all the other sinister characters of the “Heart of the Passion” play return on Easter Sunday, we must tell you that as a matter of fact they do. The last four minutes of the following video show what that looks like:

Enough said. St. Joan’s is a despicable Novus Ordo hellhole in every sense of the word.

No wonder they’re in “full communion” with Francis and his Counterfeit Church.