UN: Vatican tortures, rapes children (NPR)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Sylvia Poggioli (NPR, 5-6-14)

Yeah, we molest kids, of course. We even make "sacred" art about it for our churches.

 

UN grills Vatican officials on sex abuse

Maybe I still run things in secret. *Giggle*

A U.N. committee has found that the systematic sex abuse [of children] by Catholic priests in the Vatican's corporate body (the Roman Catholic Church) amounts to torture.

["Torture" is defined by international treaties to which the Holy See is apparently a signatory, or the court might not have any say over their crimes against humanity. 

Small "country" but very, very rich

The Vatican is not only Roman Catholic HQ. It is also a tiny city-state independent of Italy and Rome. Vatican City is its capital. It has massive cash, art, and gold reserves in its own corrupt banking system and private financial institutions. It has a tiny population of roughly 1,000 elite clerics and Swiss guards, and a CEO whose rotating position is popularly called "the papacy," which Pope Francis currently fronts, and which Benedict may still run the way Dick Cheney ran the U.S. while G.W. Bush shook hands and acted a bumbling fool too simple to be much of a threat.]

At the Holy See's first appearance before the committee, experts on the panel peppered the representative with questions. On Tuesday, the Vatican has a chance to respond. LISTEN

News from Russia

A strange, soulless man and his utterly failed presidency

Russian interests not limited to Ukraine alone

Hiding the US-NATO military overkill

Whatever happens, Belarus will stay with Russia - Lukashenko

Canada's Ukrainian borsch has bitter anti-Russian taste

Washington drives the world to war

When the Catholic Saints come marching in!

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR Italy Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli, L. Carol Ritchie (npr.org); Shirley Jahad (SCPR); Harry Cooper (Coast to Coast)

Former Hitler Youth member, former Cardinal Ratzinger, former Pope Benedict I kisses man

.

Vatican (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images)

Hundreds of thousands of people filled St. Peter's Square [in the Holy See] and the streets of Rome on Sunday to witness the extraordinary sight of two popes -- one reigning and one retired -- declaring two of their predecessors as saints.

Fr. Beniof, Our Lady of Angels (Shirley Jahad)

Most Catholics around the world are celebrating the sainthood of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. [Two groups are conspicuously absent from that list, purists who recognize the anti-Catholic violations by the extremely popular Pope John Paul II and victims of child molestation or to put it more palatably "clerical sexual abuse" often involving homosexual rape.] The historic canonization this weekend has stirred controversy for some victims of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Pope John Paul II is widely credited with helping melt down the Iron Curtain, traveling the world, and supporting oppressed people. Officials with the L.A. Archdiocese said he is particularly popular in Los Angeles, where 75 percent of parishioners are Latino. They say Pope John Paul II visited Mexico more than any other country besides Poland, his homeland. Now Pope John Paul II is reaching "sainthood" in record time. But some say he should not be named a saint because of the church sex abuse scandal. LISTEN

 

The ceremony was the first time two pontiffs -- John XXIII and John Paul II -- were made saints at the same time. The AP says:

"Francis recited the saint-making formula in Latin, saying that after deliberating, consulting, and praying for divine assistance 'we declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be saints and we enroll them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such...'"

Pope Francis kisses relic -- like the previous "Nazi" Pope Benedict once kissed a man -- of Pope John XXIII during canonization mass. Above: Red and white Polish flags dot St. Peter's Square for the canonization of Popes John XXIII and Polish John Paul II (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP).

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Beloved Polish pope

It was also the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church that a living and a former pope performed a mass together. Pope Francis was joined by emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who "retired" [or was chased out pending indictment for crimes against humanity and banking irregularities at the Vatican bank under his tenure and his long-time affiliation as head of the Office of the Inquisition under the previous Pope John Paul II] last year.

Hitler survived, moved to Argentina

Hitler in Argentina

It is strange that the "Nazi Pope" Ratzinger, aka Benedict I -- a self-confessed member of the Hitler Youth -- was deposed and replaced by the first Vatican pontiff/CEO from Argentina. Last night George Knapp (Coast to Coast) interviewed author and researcher Harry Cooper (sharkhunters.com), author of Hitler in Argentina who makes the case that Adolf Hitler, "the Fuhrer," did not commit suicide. That was a stand in. He and Eva Braun and enormous riches of top Nazi brass were ferried away to Argentina (and neighboring Antarctica) at the end of WWII to live out a full life. The show began with an hour of Dan Johnson, the founder of PANDA (People Against the National Defense Act) sharing an update on new assaults to our civil liberties. More

 

We made a good choice in Francis I

Many of the faithful had camped in the square to claim spots for the mass. Others prayed in all-night vigils in churches in downtown Rome.

Today, they celebrated under flags and banners bearing the colors of the Vatican and Poland, Pope John Paul's homeland.

I wanted the job longer like Hitler -Ratzinger

"Italy's interior ministry predicted 1 million would watch the Mass from the square, the streets surrounding it and nearby piazzas where giant TV screens were set up to accommodate the crowds eager to follow along," the AP said. More

What about Ukraine, Jon and Barry?

(Daily Show with Jon Stewart) CSI Crimea Scene Investigation on Russian Emperor Putin

• Hellish "Lake of Fire" bubbles like a dragon (livescience.com)
• Alanis Morrisette to bring "Jagged Little Pill" to Broadway

Jesus was married, papyrus shows (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR; ABC News via Yahoo News

ABC News reporting on authentic papyrus referring to Jesus's wife (abcnews.com)

Gospel of Jesus's Wife: "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...' " and "she will be able to be my disciple" written in the Coptic language of Egypt, the fragment contains the phrases.

 

In 2012 [a year of revelations], the discovery of a tattered papyrus fragment rocked the biblical studies community after some alleged its text proved that Jesus was married.

 

Now tests show the fragment is not only likely legitimate -- it's also very old.

 

The controversial fragment known as the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" dates to between the sixth and ninth centuries, and could possibly date back as early as the second to fourth centuries, according to a newly published study in the Harvard Theological Review.

Of course my rabbi son was married

The fragment -- which contains the words, "Jesus said to them, 'my wife'" -- first came to light several years ago.
 
Harvard University Divinity Professor Karen L. King, who announced the fragment's existence at a conference in 2012 [declared by the Vatican to be "fake"..."probably" (NY Times)], was quick to point out that the fragment does not prove that Jesus had a wife. [See below as the eminent religious scholar Princeton University Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels weighs. See also as Bart D. Ehrman (author of How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee), Mark Jordan, and King discuss the god's marriage.]

 

Jesus was not Nordic but African

"The main topic of the fragment is to affirm that women who are mothers and wives can be disciples of Jesus -- a topic that was hotly debated in early Christianity as celibate virginity increasingly became highly valued," King said in a statement.

 

The document first came to King's attention in 2011. She had it examined by Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Bagnall's initial findings were that the fragment was ancient, which lead to more testing.

From Harvard University:

Wait, my lord God made love and everything?!

Over the past two years, extensive testing of the papyrus and the carbon ink, as well as analysis of the handwriting and grammar, all indicate that the existing material fragment dates to between the sixth and ninth centuries CE. None of the testing has produced any evidence that the fragment is a modern fabrication or forgery. More

Mary Magdalene's Secrets (Discovery and other new documentaries)

 
Prof. Elaine Pagels
Robert Siegel, All Things Considered (NPR.org, Sept. 19, 2012)

Revelations (timedoesnotrest)

When the existence of the papyrus was announced in 2012, another scholar of early Christian texts, Princeton's Elaine Pagels was on NPR to saying that the papyrus suggests that at the time it was written "apparently, there were stories going around that [Jesus] may have been" married.
 

More Revelations (Elaine Pagels)

"[It] may also suggest that Jesus is using a symbolic language as he is in other Gospels that we know of from the second century, like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Philip," Pagels told All Things Considered. LISTEN

Does it matter if Jesus was married?
(BDE) Professors Dr. Karen King, Dr. Bart Ehrman, and Dr. Mark Jordan address the question, "Does it matter if Jesus [St. Issa] was married?"

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• VIDEO: "Misquoting Jesus in the Bible" (Ehrman)
• VIDEO: How Jesus became God (Christian radio) 
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Buddhist Ash Wednesday: LENT begins

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Ashes to ashes, monk to monkey, we know Major Tom's a... (Irish Culture Customs)

Yogi "holymen" (sadhus) rub pyre-ashes over their bodies concentrating on forehead tilaks as a religious observance bringing them closer to Brahman (DavidEarlotti/flickr.com).

  

Buddha the Yogi Sage (vgonzalezortiz/flickr)

Ashes?

After the decadence, debauchery, and fattening up of Carnival (the "Goodbye to Meat") and Mardi Gras (Pancake Day) comes the guilt: Ash Wednesday (Ireland's National No Smoking Day) and LENT. It is time to repent of sensuality, excess, and "missing the mark" (Greek sin).

• 7 Greek words for "sin"

So cover the breasts and expose the forehead. Recollecting an ancient Hindu tradition, ashes will be rubbed on it. 

Hindu OM symbol (tizzyhyatt/flickr)

These sacred ashes or vibhuti signify mortality and death as well as the fierceness to play/work against negative forces, obstacles to rebirth in the heavens (sagga) and liberation by ending rebirth and ALL suffering (nirvana).

Vedic (or Vedantic, which refers to the "best of the Vedas") Hinduism has many practices of abstinence. The Buddha contributed various restraints and observations to Indian culture but enjoined them principally on monastics and intensive lay-practitioners.

Catholicism borrowed more from Hinduism -- particularly its tantric Vajrayana arm in Tibet with all its pomp, circumstance, and "pope" -- than any other of the many traditions it has borrowed from. Jesus may even have been a tulku among Tibetan Buddhist lamas who were the actual Three Wise Men from the East who came looking for him when he was reborn from the heavenly plane to Earth. Jesus remembered and later went to India.

 

Shiva's forehead: sacred ashes

Lent, like pilgrimages (yatra-yatra) and other Indian spiritual practices, spread far beyond the subcontinent. People adopted compassionate vegetarianism, ascetic fasting, periods of silence and reflection all to come closer to the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) behind the Illusion (Maya). No formal religion has taken more from other religions and spiritual traditions than Roman Catholicism -- itself an amalgamation of misappropriated beliefs, relics, and remnants. 

Sin on Wed. (blackshapes.com)

"Christ" is a composite character of many great teachers and their teachings all rolled into one bigger-than-life superhero. Religious scholar Prof. Reza Aslan was exactly right to distinguish Jesus of Nazareth, the person, from Jesus the Christ, the mythical figure. The Buddha was christus (xριστός) -- in that he was born an "anointed" kshatriya-caste royal, who spoke of the Maitreya (Messiah), the "spiritual friend," to come. A buddha is the best of all friends.

Catholicism became the biggest religion in the world, dwarfing the more than billion Buddhists (most of them uncounted in officially atheist/communist China), by appropriating all of these ideas and melding them into one Great Vehicle for all, one universal-congregation or super-religion. This all happened in ancient Buddhist Greece, but the ideas were taken from the wisdom of the East and applied to the nascent "West."

 

"Take that, [you Brahmin] temple priest!" (blackshapes.com)

 

"Buddhist Lent"

Vajrayana Buddhas (Buddhist Train Tour)

The period known as "Buddhist Lent" (Vas or Vassa) actually applies directly to monastics and only indirectly to lay Buddhists. It is the three-month "Rains Retreat." In ancient India, the monsoon season was such that it made travel difficult and dangerous to the life of insects, amphibians, fish (spawning in flooded farm fields), seedlings, and sprouts wriggling all over the wet earth. So the Buddha was asked to rein in his followers and have them not travel about. The Buddha agreed and declared a discipline of remaining in one location for a time of intensive practice, study, and teaching.

Buddha Maitreya in Diskit, Ladakh, Himalayan Buddhist India (PaPa_KiLo/flickr.com)

 

Agni chakra, third-eye on ashen yogi, India

Devout "hearers" (dayakas and sāvakas) of the Dharma, themselves lay Buddhists, took advantage of this situation accruing merit by bring food and other requisites for nuns and monks to utilize the remainder of the year then hanging around, hearing the Dharma, and practicing it intensively. For the day, people would adopt Eight Precepts over the normal five. And they might remain in the temple complexes (viharas) overnight memorizing, chanting, and undertaking walking and sitting meditation. 

Buddhist altar (Piyushkumar1/flickr)

It was a great time to access the wandering ascetics, have questions answered, doubts allayed, and great metaphysical matters discussed. Many people flocked to see the Buddha, few of them "Buddhists." But they would return again and again, and when he would travel on as the itinerant teacher he was, he would leave behind ascetics to help and comfort the people.

• CENSORED: the Breasts of Mardi Gras (video)
• Some churches offer "Ashes to Go" for busy New Yorkers
• "Ashes to Go" in Pittsburgh (San Francisco Gate)
• Why Ash Wednesday (Sara Miles, Huff Post)
• Future President Hillary Clinton (unless the Powers That Be want Jeb Bush) calls Russian President Putin a "Nazi" by comparing him to Hitler
• Hillary Clinton in Los Angeles to pick up award from UCLA
• Israeli PM (de facto Dictator) Bibi Netanyahu in L.A. making a mess of traffic

Mardi Gras has Pagan roots
International Business Times

Mardi Gras, New Orleans (Kosmic Frenchmen)

Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is a Christian holiday-cum-pop culture phenomenon that dates back thousands of years to pagan spring and fertility rites. Also known as Carnival, it’s celebrated in several nations across the globe -- predominantly those with large Roman Catholic populations -- on the day before the religious season of Lent [the 40 day run up to Pagan Easter]. When Christianity arrived in Rome, religious leaders decided to incorporate some pagan traditions like the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia [worshiping the God Saturn] and Lupercalia into the new faith -- a far easier task than abolishing them outright. As a result, the debauchery and excess of Carnival season became a prelude to the 40 days of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. More

Remember, sinners, ye are dust and to dust ye shall return! lol (waynestiles.com)

Another real-life DEMONIC haunting (video)

Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Billy Hallowell (TheBlaze.com, Feb. 12, 2014)

Another real-life demonic infestation? Ex-politician says his family waged terrifying battle against "evil entity" in home

Yakkha Krampus, Austria (WB)

A former Pennsylvania politician is set to release details of a story that is sure to stun -- and spook -- his former constituents.
 
Bob Cranmer, a former Allegheny County commissioner, will release a new book later this year titled The Demon of Brownsville Road. But rather than a work of fiction, Cranmer claims the text will take readers through real-life horrors his family faced at the hands of a demonic force inside their home.

Sakka, King of the Devas

Cranmer told TheBlaze that his family was terrorized over a two-year period beginning at the end of 2003 and coming to a close in early 2006.
 
But he said that there was evidence that something wasn’t "right" just weeks after he, his wife, and their four young children moved into the home back in 1988.
 
“We were in the house for a few weeks [when] my wife and I started to experience things that were paranormal,” he said. More

 

Do demons delight in public displays of Christian hatred or would they prefer a cover up?

 

Vatican: C'mon, let us molest kids! (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; DemocracyNow.org, Feb. 6, 2014

Real stained glass window shows apparent homosexual fellatio from child victim of priests.

 

U.N. on Catholic Church's child sexual abuse

Gay priests rape our boys? Who am I to judge?

The United Nations has issued its harshest condemnation to date of the Catholic Church cover-up of child molestations by priests.

 

In a new report, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child says the Vatican has consistently placed its reputation above the welfare of child sexual abuse victims. Panel chair Kirsten Sandberg said the Vatican has enabled a culture of impunity that has wronged tens of thousands of children. Kirsten Sandberg:

C'mon, all popes cover-up for child molestaters.

"With regard to child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, that is, clerics who have been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide, the main finding of the committee was that the Holy See has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators. The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests."

The U.N. report calls on the Vatican to hand over alleged or known abusers to law enforcement worldwide and release its entire archive on child sex abuse cases.