Notes.
http://aronbengilad.blogspot.com/2006/09/khasidic-catholics.html
Instead of reviewing them according to their own terms they were placed in a mixed bag with Sabbatians, occultists and Gnostics. While some later followers of Frank’s ideas did associate with such groups- Frank himself remained true to his Zoharist vision which led him to embrace the Catholic Church in 1760 as that force which would be the foundation and base for a renewed Universal Religion which would unite all the lost sparks found in all religions and philosophies. He was ahead of his time with ideas that later would be accepted by Vatican II. The Jesuits were the only group that could understand such ideas at this time and they were great supporters of the Zoharist Jews. The Jesuits themselves unfortunately were being persecuted by their fellow Catholics and would soon be disbanded.
Frank’s letters and sayings must be evaluated in the light of a Catholic Jewish and Marian reading of the “Zohar”. One needs to contemplate Frank and the Zoharists from a position of perceiving the Kabbalah as authentic Jewish Mysticism rather than a development of Gnostic occultism. When one does this, one comes to different conclusions than most of the writers of the last two centuries of slander. Gershom Scholem is hostile to Kabbalah in general and so is a negatively biased researcher even if very erudite.
One can also perceive that the Frankist insights are the seeds and forerunner of Pope John Paul II’s phenomenological “Theology of the Body” which draws from Polish Frankist sources. Some extremist authors indeed condemn John Paul II and his teachings due to their Frankist origins, which they perceive as evil. Phenomenology itself has roots in the teachings of Jacob Leib Frank who wished to encourage a spirituality that looked at truth from the perspective of man and his life.
The Church of Poland however in 1760 did acknowledge officially that the Frankists were sincere in their Catholic beliefs. The Frankists were sincere believers in the infallible teachings of faith and morals but did not feel bound to the man-made traditions and prejudices of the church of their time just as they didn’t feel bound by the Rabbinic legalistic approach.
They saw a grand vision of what Judaism and Catholicism could be as a Universal uniter of all peoples.