Weird Tract Number 61: "God's Plan for Roman Catholics" by Alberto Rivera

Troy Davis writes:

Alberto Rivera (1935-1997) claimed to be a former Roman Catholic priest in the Jesuit Order who left after uncovering treacherous worldwide conspiracies by the Roman Catholic Church. He was Jack Chick's motivation for making Rome the main target of Chick Publications. The evidence is overwhelming that Rivera was a fabulist. Chick wrote of Alberto's exploits and crackpot conspiracy theories in several editions of The Crusaders comic books as well as in many of the regular tracts (my favorite is "My Name? . . . In The Vatican?").

In addition, Alberto started the Antichrist Information Center and published a newsletter and several publications (including the hilariously awful comic book The Great Holocaust I: The Martyr Story of Klark [sic] Butterfield; the book is full of typos and no sequel was ever published). Anyhow, "God's Plan for Roman Catholics" is a four-page pamphlet that mostly tells the reader how to accept Jesus. The last page lists a "Salvation Kit for Winning Roman Catholics To Christ" that consists of 1) three of Chick Publications' Crusaders series: Volume 9 ("Angel of Light"), Volume 11 ("Sabotage?"), Volume 13 ("Alberto"); 2) Priest-turned-Presbyterian-minister Charles Chiniquy's lurid book The Priest, The Woman, and The Confessional; and 3) an audiotape of the testimony of an alleged former nun. 

Note: The museum owns a copy of The Great Holocaust I: The Martyr Story of Klark [sic] Butterfield and it will be featured in the future.

NOTES ON JACK CHICK: In my introductory post, I listed just a few of the many rare and valuable objects from The Museum's extensive Chick-related collection . . . The role of Ralph Rushtoi in the publishing careers of both Jack Chick and another comics-based tract writer Vic Lockman. . . I discuss the role of Bill Bright's prolific tract The Four Spiritual Laws led to a format change in Chick tracts that was a key reason why they have become much more popular since the late 1960s . . . My thoughts on Jack Chick's spreading of the peace symbol/broken cross mythology . . .  Jack Chick's retro-futuristic car in the scarce 48-page version of "The Beast" . . . Chick tract parody "Constitutional Rites" . . . Jack Chick's cold war tract "Ivan The Terrible" . . . Article on Chick by fellow Catholic-baiting Bob Jones University magazine . . .Catholic-bashing tract by Chick's protege Alberto Rivera . . . Knock-off of a Chick by James Lloyd:"Left Behind" . . . Chick tract parody "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist; Prepare for the Rapture!" . . .The 1972 Chick tract "The Last Generation." . . . .The Chick Publications comic book "Jonah" by Chick and Fred Carter . . . The museum's prized cultural artifact, original art by Jack Chick. . . The extremely rare Chick tract "Operation Somebody Cares". . . Artifacts from the museum's collections:all of Jack Chick's high school yearbooks (which include the first published cartoon by Chick) . . . "Closet Witches" by Jack T. Chick (audio-cassette interview with Dr. Rebecca Brown and "Elaine").

The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts is a project of Les Zazous Postmodern Art Galley of Bellaire, Ohio. Read the Welcome Statement of The Museum here.

For more on the gallery, check out the web site here and the gallery's Twitter handle is @ZazousLes.  The Twitter handle for the museum is @WeirdTracts

The index of tracts for the museum's website is here. 

Contributions of weird tracts to the museum can be made by mail: send your weird tracts to Les Zazous Postmodern Art Gallery 3475 Guernsey Street, Bellaire, Ohio 43906.