Alberto Rivera

{{expand}}[[File:Dr. Alberto Rivera.gif|thumb|right|165px|Rivera's ID he uses as evidence of his involvement, and a whole lot of questions as well.]]{{conspiracynav}}{{cquote| "Alberto" is a true and actual account, and I will face a court of law to prove the events actually took place. I hereby challenge anyone who would refute or try to prove the facts and information in this book are untrue. I will defend every statement made regardless of the embarassment it may cause any person or church|||Alberto Rivera, 1980<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200804033750/https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bbmebooks/AlbertoRiveraTheTrueStory-Abridged.pdf ''Alberto the True Story''] by Roy Livesey</ref>}}

'''Alberto Magno Romero Rivera''' {{lived|1935|1997}}<ref>[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7332979/alberto-magno_romero-rivera "Dr" Alberto Magno Romero Rivera] at findagrave.com.</ref> was a [[Spanish]]-[[American]]  fraudster and [[crank]], who found a calling as a [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist Christian]] [[evangelist]] and became popular in the extreme [[anti-Catholic]] wing of [[Protestantism]].

==Life==

Alberto was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands.  He claims to have been born a Catholic, however an investigative report by ''Cornerstone Magazine'' (a Baptist Publication) found that his parents were Protestants.  According to his claim he began studying to be a priest at the age of seven.  In an interview provided, his older sister revealed that he did not attend parochial school of any kind nor did he graduate High School.

According to his friend Bonilla, he began a common law relationship with his first wife in the 1950s while working with the Methodist church in Costa Rica.<ref name="Cornerstone 53">[http://web.archive.org/web/20190723154840/http://www.conspiracyschool.com/alberto-rivera%E2%80%99s-false-anti-catholic-story Metz, Gary ''Alberto Rivera's False Anti-Catholic Story'', Cornerstone Magazine Issue #53. Republished by Conspiracy School, a Conspiracy watchdog website]</ref>  On November 25, 1963 he married Carmen Lydia Torres.<ref name="Cornerstone 53"/> Their first son Juan was born in Hoboken NY in 1964 while working for the Christian Reformed Church.  His supervisor Rev. Edson Lewis indicated that while in New York Rivera was physically abusive to his wife and child.  Rivera had to flee New York to El Paso Texas after writing bad checks. Juan died within a year of his birth.<ref name="Cornerstone 53"/>

==Accreditations==

Rivera claimed to have numerous degrees which include N.D., D.D., Th.D., Ph.D, and a masters in physiology.<ref name="Cornerstone 53"/>  According to Rev. Plutarco Bonilla (a respected Christian leader in Central America<ref name="LUPA Bonilla">[http://www.lupaprotestante.com/blog/entrevista-a-plutarco-bonilla/ Riquelme, Victor Rey ''Entrevista a Plutarco Bonilla''; LUPA Protestante Jan. 18, 2011]</ref>) who had accompanied him from Las Palmas, Alberto enrolled in the Protestant Seminario Biblico Latinoamericano (now Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana) in San Jose Costa Rica in a program designed for those students who had not graduated High School.  He was expelled from the seminary for lying and defiance of authority.<ref name="Cornerstone 53"/> He later admitted that he had obtained these degrees from a [[diploma mill]] in [[Colorado]].

==Claims==

Rivera claimed to have been a former Catholic [[priest]], until he learned of the [[Vatican]]'s plans for world domination.  The story goes like this: Alberto Rivera attended Catholic seminary, where the [[Jesuit]]s trained him to infiltrate [[Protestant]] churches to destroy them.  He also learned the Vatican was responsible for, among other things, the [[Nazi]]s, [[Communism]], Freemasonry, the assassinations of [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]], and the [[Holocaust]], that nuns who got pregnant secretly sacrificed their newborns to [[Mary (Mother of Jesus)|Mary]], and other bizarre beliefs. Upon learning these things he denounced the Catholic Church in 1966, exposing their nefarious plot in front of 50,000 people in a stadium in Guatemala, and was forcibly placed in a mental institution by the Jesuits for doing so. After near death from abuse in the facility, he became born again, and was miraculously healed in an iron lung. A Jesuit priest tried to convince him to return to Catholicism, but Rivera convinced him otherwise, and the priest gave him documents to escape to London in 1967, to rescue his sister from a convent, also near death from self-flagellation (supposedly practiced in the nunnery), and they fled to the United States.<ref name=Alberto>[http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0112.asp Alberto.] chick.com. ''Alberto Part 1. As a Jesuit, Alberto helped destroy churches and ministries. But as he read the Scriptures, he saw that Catholicism couldn't save.''</ref><ref name=Doublecross>[http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0113.asp Double-Cross.] chick.com. ''Alberto Part 2. After his salvation, Alberto is a hunted man. No Jesuit can leave his order alive! He reveals the infiltration of Protestant organizations, and warns of false "brethren" in our midst.''</ref>

Unfortunately for Alberto, some not-so-gullible [[Protestant]] pastors investigated his claims, and found that he fabricated the whole thing.

==The reality==

Rivera's claims to have been a Catholic priest and his other claims have been thoroughly disproven. Indeed, those who checked out his claims found instead that he had a long history of swindling, was wanted in Spain on those charges, and, while in the U.S., had collected money for a Spanish college which never received it.  Nonetheless, in the U.S. he started a "ministry" called the Antichrist Information Center to expose the Catholic Church. His sister was not a nun, but was working in London as a live-in maid. He also blamed the Vatican for things that happened after he allegedly left the Catholic Church, such as the [[Jim Jones|Jonestown]] mass suicide.

==Comics==

Rivera's fraud was popularized by [[Jack Chick]], whose pulp house printed several comic books documenting Rivera's fairy tales.<ref>[http://www.chick.com/reading/comics/0112/albertoinfo.asp Frequently Asked Questions About Alberto's Message.] chick.com.</ref><ref>[http://www.chick.com/catalog/assortments/0931.asp Alberto Series Comic Pack.] chick.com. For good measure, the Alberto Series Comic Pack also includes two additional anti-Catholic comics, including [http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0120.asp Jesuits] ''"like so many things in this world, they are not what they appear to be"'' and [http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0251.asp The Big Betrayal] ''"It will break your heart as you learn how Catholics are being deceived into following a false religion."''</ref> They include:

*Alberto<ref name=Alberto></ref> - The main story.

*Double Cross<ref name=Doublecross></ref> - The sequel where Alberto saves his sister from a coven.

*The Godfathers<ref>[https://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0114.asp The Godfathers.] chick.com. ''Alberto Part 3. Here's how the Roman Catholic Institution, as the "Mother of Abominations" (Rev. 17), caused many wars. This is the book the Catholic press is afraid to mention.''</ref> - Name an atrocity? The Vatican was probably involved.

*The Force<ref>[http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0115.asp The Force.] chick.com. ''Alberto Part 4. This comic reveals how the Vatican is using its occult force to deceive millions. It's the "habitation of devils" described in Rev. 18:2.''</ref> - How Catholicism practices occultism.

*Four Horsemen<ref>[http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0116.asp Four Horseman.] chick.com. ''Alberto Part 5. Here's a clear description of how the papacy fulfills Bible prophecies of the antichrist.''</ref> - How the Catholic Church fulfills the roles of the titular horsemen in [[Revelation]].

*The Prophet<ref name="prophet">[http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0117.asp The Prophet.] chick.com. ''Alberto Part 6. Learn how the papacy helped start Islam, only to have this new daughter rebel against her. You'll understand the Arab's place in Bible prophecy. Muslims have been saved by reading this book.''</ref> - The story of how the Vatican established Islam.

Rivera was a [[King James Only]] advocate, and claimed all other [[Bible]] translations were created by the Jesuits to deceive Protestants or were translated from manuscripts corrupted by the Vatican.  He (along with [[John Todd]], who claimed modern translations were funded by the [[Illuminati]]) appear to be the sources of Jack Chick's own conversion to King James Onlyism. Rivera and Chick also promoted a conspiracy theory linking the Catholic Church to the creation of [[Islam]].<ref>Gary Dale Cearley,
 [https://books.google.com/books/about/Thou_Shalt_Not_Bear_False_Witness_The_Tr.html?id=zCO_wv5ikwAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth About the Vatican and the Birth of Islam.] ISBN 9781847287311.</ref><ref name="prophet" />

In 2022, a [https://youtu.be/zOh30momsIQ single season television show] based upon Chick's comic adaptations of Alberto's story was produced by Brazilian company Univer Video, primarily utilizing the Unreal Engine. The series was produced with the consent of Chick Publications and is [https://www.univervideo.com/pt/serie/alberto-rivera/ available for viewing] on their web streaming service with English subtitles for a cost of R$ 27.90 (approximately $4.75 USD) per month. 

Chick Publications also continues to defend Rivera's fraud, and claims without proof that everything he said was true.<ref>

[https://www.chick.com/information/article?id=who-was-alberto Was Alberto Who He Claimed To Be?] chick.com. "The Lord raised up other Christians who examined the charges against Alberto, and found him to be exactly what he claimed to be."</ref>

==See also==

* [[Walter Veith]], who has been repeating several of Rivera's anti-Catholic claims and cites him by name in his videos

==External Links==
* [https://boolean-union.com/dissections/boolunion/comics/BU.CHICK.C12.PART1.html An commentary on the first Alberto comic by Boolean Union Studios]

==Notes==
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==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera, Alberto}}
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Fundamentalists]]
[[Category:Shysters]]

Categories: Anti-Catholicism, Christians, Fundamentalists, Shysters