Pretty fascinating article from the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC in its December edition: How the Virgin Mary became the most powerful woman in the world..
Along with the article: A map of the world and every location where the Virgin Mary was spotted or sighted, or where she was said to appear to give a message.. places like Rwanda.. places like
Medjugorje..
People in my local area in Pennsylvania think she even appeared on a garage door in 2007. Which I assume made the map.
Jesus Christ was an inside job.
So why not hacking being inside, too..
Only 59% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($62.9 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($7.7 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($28.8 million), support for offenders ($15.4 million), and other costs ($4.2 million), according to the 2014 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”
These expenses brought the total cost of the clerical abuse scandal to American dioceses and religious institutes between 2004 and mid-2014 to $2,895,629,230, according to the data in the current report and previous reports.
The report added that dioceses, eparchies, and religious orders spent an additional $31,667,740 for child protection efforts in 2013-14.
65% of accused diocesan clergy “had already been identified in prior allegations,” and 75% “were deceased, already removed from ministry,already laicized, or missing.”
75% of those who alleged abuse by diocesan clergy and 87% of those who alleged abuse by religious-order clergy were male, and abuse typically took place between the ages of 10 and 14. Most of the allegations involved incidents that took place between 1960 and 1989, particularly the 1970s.
The faithful never leave us without something to do, unless we hide in our offices or go out in our cars wearing sun glasses. There is a good and healthy tiredness. It is the exhaustion of the priest who wears the smell of the sheep… but also smiles the smile of a father rejoicing in his children or grandchildren. It has nothing to do with those who wear expensive cologne and who look at others from afar and from above. Do I know how to rest by accepting the love, gratitude and affection which I receive from God’s faithful people? Or once my pastoral work is done, do I seek more refined relaxations, not those of the poor but those provided by a consumerist society? Is the Holy Spirit truly ‘rest in times of weariness’ for me or is he just someone who keeps me busy?
Welcome to the lavish gold covered house of God. Where Bishops enjoy all the worldly possessions .. hypocrites ..
Pope launches strongest papal attack on organised crime since Pope John Paul in 1993 in impromptu comments about southern Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta crime group
A big wow on this story.
Pope Francis says that the mafia adores evil and they are excommunicated..
Will there be a horse head in the Vatican bed?
It’s Catholic foot fetish time.
The ‘holy week’ goes into high gear with Holy Thursday, the night when priests unwrap the feet of the congregation and wash them. And often kiss them.
Just like Jesus.
I sure hope your feet don’t look like this if you’re a chosen one:
The Lord Jesus, after eating with his friends, washed their feet and said, “I don’t think I’ll ever do that shit ever again”
WHISKEY IN THE JAR-O
The Queen meets the Pope.. and the Queen actually was 20 minutes late! But I suppose her gift smoothed things over: A bottle of whiskey..
Get ready Vatican.. a whiskey-enthused Pope may soon legalize female priests!
Get ready.
The box office will be Bible thumping this weekend.. holy times are high, movie theaters will be filled with the faithful, praising Jesus and fearing the almighty, who flooded the world and forever promised not to with a rainbow. And then flooded the world OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Forget the actual ‘story’ of Noah for a second, or anything factual, or anything scientific, or any reality of it at all.. Instead. It’s TIME FOR NOAH. Brother Noah.. And his Ark.
We know this so far: The movie NOAH cost a lot of cold, hard cash to create. It faced a steady stream of criticism from the hardest of hardcore Christians, those hell-bent (no pun intended) on making sure Noah stayed true to the ‘real’ story from the Bible. It’s not in box offices around the world, and America.. And now Darren Aronofsky’s movie is making big inroads with the faithful, doing especially great with Catholic Hispanics and any town USA that has a strong Christian population.. You can read more about those Friday night facts from the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER..
Experts who get paid to run numbers on these types of things figure that NOAH will earn about $40 mil for the week—far less than it cost to make. But then again.. Sunday afternoon sales could be ALMIGHTY higher than expected. Just imagine if Father NamethatPriest rants and raves from the pulpit about this film.. The fervent will be filled with the holy ghost, enough perhaps to go streaming into theaters with friends and families instead of roast beef dinners at the family diner. Most movies have a date night like Friday or Saturday registering that largest numbers.. But just like PASSION OF THE CHRIST, NOAH could be huge on Sunday, bloody Sunday..
But for now, we only know this: NOAH is being released in 3,567 theaters strong. SABOTAGE is next with 2,486. And just judging from early numbers, Arnold Schwarzenegger will not ‘sabotage’ NOAH, but instead bomb huge at the box…
Germans seize a massive cocaine shipment on its way to the VATICAN!
Say it so Bergoglio!
We know the Pope was once a bouncer.
Maybe he hired on some of the folks he bounced..? But even more on that cocaine shipment story: The package sent to the Vatican from a South American country (yes the Pope is from there) contained 14 condoms filled with the coke..
And while no one is accusing Bergoglio of doing anything nefarious, clearly something nefarious is being done by someone..
Anyone have a Cardinal with the sniffles lately?
I was born into the Catholic guilt ..
I distinctly recall being a child and thinking I’d burn in hell because I accidentally ate a chicken finger on a Friday in lent. I think I even tearfully told a priest at my Catholic school mandated confession in my early grade school years.
Since then, it obvious became less and less of an important matter.
However, I finally found an article from a Catholic site that claims to explain WHY Catholics are told not to eat meat on Fridays.
Is it because of the fishing industry needing business? Popes not liking mutton? God declaring that fish rocks the casbah?
No. It’s all because—yet again—of sex.
Basically this: Hot blooded animals, AKA meat, can be equated to to hot sex. And for that reason you should steer clear. Seriously. Saint Thomas’ own words:
Fasting was instituted by the Church in order to bridle the concupiscences of the flesh, which regard pleasures of touch in connection with food and sex. Wherefore the Church forbade those who fast to partake of those foods which both afford most pleasure to the palate, and besides are a very great incentive to lust
Now I remember George Constanza equating sex and eating, in one episode even using food during his promiscuity.. But I myself have never had any sexual experience because of steak, chicken, or any ‘other white meat.’ A friend of mine once told me eating hot dogs was phallic.. But I don’t know.
Apparently St. Thomas never saw me eat Shrimp Scampi, which if made with Dry Sherry, becomes an gratifying sexual experience for me.
FISH. IT’S WHAT’S FOR DINNER.
I get a feeling that if alien life is going to be announced, it will be coming from religious leaders before the government. That way it would sink in better with people if they heard it from God-like men as opposed to devil-like whores..
And in that regard: The Vatican Observatory is co-hosting a conference in Arizona this week on the search for life beyond the solar system.. I always think back to the priest who said he’d love to baptize an alien.. Maybe the Vatican knows disclosure will lead to a surge in numbers. But what will the aliens donate in the weekly collection basket?
My Daily Doodle for Ash Wednesday.. inspired by a few things.. First off, it’s inspired by some of my funniest times in life, Catholic High School in the late 1990s. Which explains, perhaps, why my priest image looks a little but like former President Bill Clinton. Slightly.
Also, the joke of having a nice Ash was one used heavily back in the former school Cardinal Brennan High .. Hopefully, if you chose to keep up with this old tradition of wearing your faith like a badge of honor on your head, your ash was as fine as you expected it to be.
Here’s something controversial to ponder while you sit indoors during a snowstorm.. allowing sick children to opt to kill themselves.
I’d add in the ole ‘slippery slope’ argument..
I’d also say, if you’re for assisted suicide for adults, how do you make a distinction based on age?
There are so many moral implications and question.. so many reasons to argue.. And so many sick children …
On that note, if you’re for assisted suicide for children, what limit would you impose.. only sick? or sick and tired..
So many issues and so many problems with this.
Sounding the alarm to my Catholic and atheist readers alike: What say you all!?
Police in Italy remove the “Super Pope” graffiti..
Way to ruin some good clean Catholic fun, Italian police.
A good way to start a weekend: Pope John Paul’s blood has been found by police.
Reuters reports:
Officers told a news conference in L’Aquila, east of Rome, that they found the fragment in the garage of two men who were detained for having stolen the reliquary last week.
Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole told the same news conference he had pieced together the reliquary and the cloth after police found them in bits on successive days.
And this
"I think John Paul has forgiven them. I think we have to do the same," D’Ercole said of the men, believed by police to be drug addicts.
Well at least they weren’t male strippers with parrots, I guess…
First the Pope’s peace doves were attacked by crows, and now this: Pope Francis blessed a male stripper and erotic actor’s parrot..
The parrot’s name is Amore.
And Francesco Lombardi, the stripper, said,
"A sort of mixing of the holy and the profane."
Indeed..
Now appearing in Vatican City! SUPER POPE GRAFFITI!
Now appearing on the ROLLING STORY: SUPER POPE!
