Disinformation » Catholic Church

Speculative Fictions: Scientology’s Tin-Pot Real Estate Empire and the Real Owners of the World

dp1974 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:30:03 +0000

Yippee! We'll never have to pay tax on this building! Photo: Scientology Media (CC)

Business Insider pulls the veil aside a little on the vast global real estate portfolio of The Church Of Scientology, with 10 examples from the over 8,500 Scientology Churches, Missions and affiliated groups buildings in 165 countries around the world.

Still, Scientology is way behind the top five largest landowners in the world: Queen Elizabeth II (legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non ocean surface, valued at £17,600,000,000,000); the Russian state (4,219 million acres); the Chinese state (about 2,365 million acres); the Federal Government of the United States, which owns about one third of the land of the USA (760 million acres); and the King of Saudi Arabia (553 million acres).

And not even in the same class as the more venerable Catholic Church, but of course Scientology hasn’t been able to take advantage of tax exemption for as many centuries …

Vatican.xxx

majestic — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:25:21 +0000

Let’s hope the buyer intends to (further) blow the lid off sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. From Reuters:

The Vatican said on Wednesday an unknown buyer had snapped up the internet address vatican.xxx, a domain combining its name with an extension reserved for pornographic content.

“This domain is not available because it has been acquired by someone else, but not the Vatican,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Vatican radio.

It was not clear from his statement if the Vatican had tried to acquire the domain in order to prevent future misuse and had been beaten to the punch by the unknown buyer…

[continues at Reuters]

Why Should ‘Catholics Come Home’?

bluemana — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:23:01 +0000

New ad campaign:

Pope Benedict Peace Message Calls For Wealth Redistribution

Liam McGonagle — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:31:45 +0000

Wait a second — does this make Paul Ryan and Newt Gingrich a couple o’ them “Cafeteria Catholics”? From Francis X. Rocca at the Huffington Post:

VATICAN CITY (RNS)— Noting a “rising sense of frustration” at the worldwide economic recession, Pope Benedict XVI said that a more just and peaceful world requires “adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth.”

The pope’s words appeared in his message for the World Day of Peace 2012, released on Friday (Dec. 16) at the Vatican.

The message laments that “some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity.”

Authentic education, Benedict writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with “respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one’s own.”

Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’

Join Or DIE — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:19:19 +0000

Philip Pullella reports in Reuters:

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.

It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.

More: Reuters

Pope Sends His First Tweet Via iPad

Pelliciari — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:59:09 +0000

Pope Benedict XVI has posted his first tweet! The pope has gone digital, announcing the launch of the new site www.news.va, so the world can keep up with what’s going on at the Vatican.

Catholic Church Officially Blames Hippies for Their Child Abuse Scandals

bluemana — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:16:17 +0000

Via the LA Times:

Blame the flower children. That seems to be the chief conclusion of a new report about the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal. The study, undertaken by John Jay College of Criminal Justice (PDF) at the request of America’s Catholic bishops, links the spike in child abuse by priests in the 1960s and ’70s to “the importance given to young people and popular culture” — along with the emergence of the feminist movement, a “singles culture” and a growing acceptance of homosexuality. It also cites crime, drugs, an increase in premarital sexual behavior and divorce.

The problem with this conclusion isn’t that it absolves molesting priests of responsibility. Even the study’s authors wouldn’t go that far. Rather, the flaw with the theory is that it’s unsupported by any data or evidence. It thus detracts from the report’s other findings, which are based on empirical research. Indeed, aside from its implausible indictment of the ’60s counterculture, the report is an enlightening analysis of an abominable chapter in the Roman Catholic Church’s history.

Jesus Christ is the Greatest Hippie (Rock Star) of Them All (Video)

ralph — Fri, 20 May 2011 06:28:48 +0000

Quick response to this story, Jesus is actually our greatest “rock star”/”hippie”/countercultural figure of them all (according to this musical), but there is a lot of debate here which I welcome based on the post below. Catholic Church, in my humble opinion, you f-ed up, but I ain’t the Pope.

BTW, if you could bring Carl Anderson back from the dead to play Judas, I would go every week to church again. This man is awesome:

The Vatican Takes on Climate Change

bluemana — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:29:29 +0000

Eric Bangeman writes on ars technica:

The Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences has just released a strongly worded report (PDF) on global climate change demanding in the strongest possible language that humans act decisively to avert a coming crisis. “We call on all people and nations to recognize the serious and potentially reversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants,” says the report. “If we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us.”

The report was not authored by the Pontifical Academy itself; rather, the Vatican convened a group of scientists with relevant experience, along with a few Nobel Prize winners. The group’s focus was on increasing evidence of glacier retreat, and the report ended up focused on its causes. The group’s co-chair, Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, used a somewhat controversial name for the “man-made” geologic era in which we are now living: the “Anthropocene.”

Hundreds Of Chinese Christians Arrested At Easter Congregation

Pelliciari — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:22:35 +0000

Holy Trinity Church in Singapore. Photo: BertholdD (CC)

The New York Times reports:

The authorities stepped up a three-week campaign against an underground Christian church on Sunday, detaining hundreds of congregants in their homes and taking at least 36 others into custody after they tried to hold Easter services in a public square, church members and officials said.

The church, Shouwang, an evangelical Protestant congregation that was evicted from its rented quarters this month, has been at loggerheads with the government since announcing plans to gather outdoors rather than disband or return to worshiping in private homes. The authorities have repeatedly stymied Shouwang’s efforts to lease or buy space for its 1,000-member congregation, one of the largest and most prominent so-called house churches in the capital.

The Chinese Communist Party tightly manages religious activity, requiring the faithful to join state-run churches, mosques or Buddhist temples. Until the most recent crackdown on Shouwang and a handful of other unregistered churches, such congregations had enjoyed relatively wide latitude from the authorities.

[Continues at The New York Times]

Louis CK Learns About The Catholic Church

Good German — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:47:20 +0000

Louis CK’s 2007 investigative report about the religion he was raised in:

Catholic Church To Launch Exorcism Reality TV Series

majestic — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:11:06 +0000

Giotto's depiction of St. Francis exorcising demons.

The Catholic Church must be truly desperate in its quest to engage young people — it’s now resorting to creating a low-brow reality TV show in which its priests perform exorcisms. I promise I’m not making this up — here’s the story from Entertainment Weekly:

Discovery Channel is teaming with the Vatican for an unprecedented new series hunting the deadliest catch of all: Demons.

The Exorcist Files will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican’s case files, as well as interviews with the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television.

“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think,” says Discovery president and GM Clark Bunting.

Bunting says the investigators believe a demon can inhabit an inanimate object (like a home) or a person. The network executive says he was initially skeptical when first meeting the team but was won over after more than three hours of talks…

[continues at Entertainment Weekly]

Catholic Church Says Virgin Mary Appears In Wisconsin

majestic — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:05:16 +0000

The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. Photo: Royalbroil (CC)

It must be silly season for religion — this story made the front page of the New York Times today:

CHAMPION, Wis. — In France, the shrine at Lourdes is surrounded by hundreds of hotels and has received as many as 45,000 pilgrims in a single day. Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico, draws millions of fervent worshipers a year.

Now, a little chapel among the dairy farms here, called Our Lady of Good Help, has joined that august company in terms of religious status, if not global fame. This month, it became one of only about a dozen sites worldwide, and the first in the United States, where apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been officially validated by the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1859, the year after Mary is said to have appeared in Lourdes, a Belgian immigrant here named Adele Brise said she was visited three times by Mary, who hovered between two trees in a bright light, clothed in dazzling white with a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of stars above her flowing blond locks. As instructed, Ms. Brise devoted her life to teaching Catholic beliefs to children.

On Dec. 8, after a two-year investigation by theologians who found no evidence of fraud or heresy and a long history of shrine-related conversions, cures and other signs of divine intervention, Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay declared “with moral certainty” that Ms. Brise did indeed have encounters “of a supernatural character” that are “worthy of belief.”

Lourdes-like hordes have not yet gathered, but since the weighty decree a growing stream of visitors, some driving several hours, has found its way here to pray and revel in what many say is the palpable presence of Mary. Calls are coming in from as far as New York from church groups that want to visit by the busload, and local church officials are wondering whether they thought too small when they built a new parking lot — planned well before this month — with 75 spaces.

Debbie Banda, 46, and her mother, Mary Young, 75, who live nearby, learned of the shrine and the bishop’s decision from the news, and came for the first time on Wednesday.

“It’s incredible — she’s here, you just feel it,” Ms. Banda said after praying in the crypt chapel, said to be on the spot of the apparitions. As they passed a statue of Mary in white, just as described by Ms. Brise, Ms. Banda was overcome with emotion, weeping and hugging her mother. The two of them went back to pray some more…

[continues in the New York Times]

Vatican Bank Investigated For Money Laundering – Again.

voxmagi — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:24:22 +0000

I wonder which banking official will suddenly die during this investigation? Victor L. Simpson and Nicole Winfield report for AP:

VATICAN CITY – This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.

Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it’s under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led police to seize euro23 million ($30 million) in Vatican assets in September. Critics say the case shows that the “Vatican Bank” has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal.

The Vatican calls the seizure of assets a “misunderstanding” and expresses optimism it will be quickly cleared up. But court documents show that prosecutors say the Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-laundering laws “with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital.” The documents also reveal investigators’ suspicions that clergy may have acted as fronts for corrupt businessmen and Mafia.

The documents pinpoint two transactions that have not been reported: one in 2009 involving the use of a false name, and another in 2010 in which the Vatican Bank withdrew euro650,000 ($860,000) from an Italian bank account but ignored bank requests to disclose where the money was headed.

The new allegations of financial impropriety could not come at a worse time for the Vatican, already hit by revelations that it sheltered pedophile priests. The corruption probe has given new hope to Holocaust survivors who tried unsuccessfully to sue in the United States, alleging that Nazi loot was stored in the Vatican Bank…

[continues at AP]

Pope Says Condoms Sometimes Permissible to Stop AIDS

ralph — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 19:49:32 +0000

Philip Pullella reports in Reuters:

VATICAN CITY — The use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS may be justified in certain cases, Pope Benedict says in a new book that could herald the start of sea change in the Vatican’s attitude to condoms.

In excerpts published in the Vatican newspaper on Saturday ahead of the book’s publication next week, the pope cites the example of the use of condoms by prostitutes as “a first step toward moralization” even though condoms are “not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection.”

While some Roman Catholic leaders have spoken in the past about the limited use of condoms in specific cases to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS as a lesser of two evils, this is the first time the pope has mentioned the possibility himself in public.

The Vatican newspaper unexpectedly published significant excerpts from the book on Saturday night, days before extracts were initially due to be made public.

The pope’s words appeared to be a major shift in the Vatican’s attitude. While no formal position existed in a Vatican document, the majority of Church leaders have been saying for decades that the use of condoms was not even part of the solution to fighting AIDS.

Catholic Church Seeks Exorcists

majestic — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:15:21 +0000

Giotto's depiction of St. Francis exorcising demons.

Apparently America is overwhelmed by demons and a Catholic bishop says “each diocese should have its own” exorcist. Facing a shortage, the Church held a special training workshop in Baltimore this past weekend to teach clerics the esoteric rite, reports Reuters:

The church has signed up 56 bishops and 66 priests for the two-day workshop that began on Friday, seeking to boost the small group of just five or six American exorcists that the church currently has on its books.

“There’s this small group of priests who say they get requests from all over the continental U.S.,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, was quoted as saying.

“Actually, each diocese should have its own” exorcist, he added.

Paprocki did not say why there was increased demand for exorcisms, which he noted were rarely performed.

While solemnly regarded by the Catholic Church, exorcism is a staple of Hollywood fright films — most notably the 1973 film “The Exorcist” — and regarded by many as superstition that lends a chill frisson to festivals like Halloween.

Catholic Church law stipulates that only properly trained priests can perform the rite — and then only with the permission of their bishops…

[continues at Reuters]

Homer Simpson Is Catholic

phunkychic666 — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:53:05 +0000

Jill Serjeant reports for Reuters via Yahoo News:

“The Simpsons” just got a blessing from the Vatican.

The official Vatican newspaper has declared that beer-swilling, doughnut-loving Homer Simpson and son Bart are Catholics — and what’s more, it says that parents should not be afraid to let their children watch “the adventures of the little guys in yellow.”

“Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it’s true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic”, the Osservatore Romano newspaper said in an article on Sunday headlined “Homer and Bart are Catholics.”

The newspaper cited a study by a Jesuit priest of a 2005 episode of the show called “The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star”. That study concludes that “The Simpsons” is “among the few TV programs for kids in which Christian faith, religion and questions about God are recurrent themes.”

[continues at Reuters via Yahoo News]

Belgian Archbishop Calls AIDS ‘Inherent Justice’

majestic — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:01:11 +0000

What is it with Catholic clergy? These guys just don’t know when to zip it! From Reuters:

Belgium’s Roman Catholic Church, already reeling from allegations of sexual abuse, faced a new scandal Friday after its primate wrote that AIDS was “a sort of inherent justice.”

Many lawmakers condemned Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the head of the Belgian church, for the remarks in a new book and Belgium’s center for equal opportunities received a series of complaints, including one by a lawyer who said his comments were incitement to hatred.

The Church is struggling to recover from the resignation of the Bishop of Bruges in April after he admitted sexually abusing a nephew.

In his book “Monseigneur Leonard – Conversations,” the archbishop referred to a remark by the late Pope John Paul II who said, when asked whether AIDS was a punishment from God, that it was difficult to judge God’s will.

“I would not at all think in such terms. I do not see this illness as a punishment, at most a sort of inherent justice, a bit like how we are presented with the bill for what we do to the environment,” Leonard said…

[continues at Reuters]

Vatican’s Chief Exorcist Publishes His ‘Confessions’

phunkychic666 — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:17:40 +0000

By Lounge Daddy at Dateline Zero:

A new book is out from Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist. The title is Confessions of an Exorcist.

It’s in paperback, and … in French. This is a bummer; but I hope it’s only a temporary bummer. (Of course it’s in Italian as well, titled Memoirs of an Exorcist.)

For now the lucky French have this latest book to go alongside the first two Fr. Amorth titles that record his experiences with, and thoughts on exorcism. Good for them, those jerks.

However, I’ll be anxiously awaiting an English translation. If it sounds like I am committing the sin of envy, it is because I am.

This newest title is in an interview format; which sets it apart from the other two; which are more short essays, stories, and commentary on various points regarding his experience. (As I understand it however, this book is not in a Q&A format like Interview with an Exorcist, by Father Jose Fortea.)…

[continues at at Dateline Zero]

Atheists and Agnostics Know More About Religion Than Protestants and Catholics

majestic — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:16:34 +0000

Photo: David Ball (CC)

Makes sense to me! From the Telegraph:

Many professed Christians questioned in a survey showed a lack of knowledge even of their own faiths.

Forty-five per cent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn’t know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.

More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation.

The survey conducted for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history.

Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.

Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15…

[continues in the Telegraph]

Deaf Catholic Sex Abuse Victim Sues Pope

majestic — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:30:01 +0000

Father Lawrence C. Murphy

Why did he wait 50 years though? From CNN:

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – Terry Kohut has kept a dark secret for nearly 50 years. Now he is breaking his silence, becoming a key figure in the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the growing controversy over what Pope Benedict XVI did about it.

When Kohut was barely a teen, and for years afterward, he says, he was sexually molested and assaulted by the headmaster and priest of the school where he lived, St. John’s School for the Deaf, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What occurred there is one of the most notorious cases of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

Kohut was not alone. From 1950 to 1974 the headmaster of St. Johns, Father Lawrence C. Murphy, raped and molested as many as 200 deaf boys, according to court and church documents.

Kohut has now filed the first sex-abuse lawsuit against the Vatican actually naming Pope Benedict, previously known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as a defendant.

Ratzinger was once head of the Vatican’s powerful CDF, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, charged in certain circumstances with investigating the sexual abuse of minors by priests. And though church records show the abuse by Father Murphy was brought to the attention of Ratzinger and the CDF years ago, a church trial against the headmaster was stopped and he was allowed to remain a priest.

The Vatican’s “policy of secrecy” in abuse cases, and its “directives to conceal the sexual abuse of children” by priests, the lawsuit says, helped bring about the abuse of Kohut and others by Father Murphy.

Kohut has never before gone public or spoken about what Father Murphy did to him. He has remained anonymous in the suit, listed only as “John Doe 16,” one of dozens of men alleging abuse.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Kohut, 60, spoke with his hands and through a deaf interpreter, describing how the abuse by Father Murphy started.

“I went into his office, the door was closed,” he said. “And Father Murphy said, ‘Take your pants down. And so I did… you know, he was always in his black attire with a white collar, and you know … I was questioning why he would ask me to do that. Here he is, a priest, and – I have to obey him. And he proceeded to touch me.”…

[continues at CNN]

Vatican Astronomer: Aliens Have Souls, Can Be Baptized

JacobSloan — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:25:35 +0000

One of the most important cosmological questions has been answered, with word coming directly from the Vatican. The Guardian reports:

Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope’s astronomers, said he would be “delighted” if intelligent life was found among the stars. “But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it’s probably not a practical question.”

Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul.” Would he baptise an alien? “Only if they asked.”

Vatican Bank Under Criminal Investigation

majestic — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:36:47 +0000

Not much of surprise really, although the Vatican issued a statement saying, “The Holy See is perplexed and astonished by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors.” Presumably they mean they can’t believe that the police had the balls to question the Vatican’s dodgy activities! From the BBC:

The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say. Prosecutors also seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) from the bank’s accounts with another smaller institution. The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported to tax police in Rome.

The Vatican said it was “perplexed and astonished”, and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi. The Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops and priests.

Police intervention

Rome magistrates are looking into claims that Mr Gotti Tedeschi and the bank’s chief executive Paolo Cipriani violated laws that require banks to disclose information on financial operations.

The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says the Bank of Italy’s financial intelligence unit tipped off Italy’s tax police last week, after two suspicious transactions were reported between the Vatican Bank and two different Italian banks.

The tax police seized 23m euros that the Vatican Bank had tried to transfer from a small Italian bank called Credito Artigianato. Some 20m euros was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino…

[continues at the BBC]

Pope Says Religion Has Been Marginalized Around The World

majestic — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:38:14 +0000

Photo: Fabio Pozzebom/ABr (CC)

I, for one, wouldn’t argue with Herr Ratzinger on this point. The BBC reports on his speech during his unwelcome UK visit:

The Pope has warned that religion – and Christianity in particular – is “being marginalised” around the world.

His comments came in his keynote speech to UK MPs, senior members of British society, and religious leaders at Westminster Hall in central London.

Pope Benedict XVI warned that there were some people who wanted to see “the voice of religion be silenced”.

He returned to the subject in a service at Westminster Abbey, asking Christians to speak out about their faith.

BBC correspondent Peter Hunt described the speech at Westminster Hall as “a rallying call, and a plea – for religion not to be squeezed out by secular society”.

The Pope was speaking as a sixth man was arrested as counter-terrorism detectives investigate an alleged threat to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit.

In his speech at Westminster Hall, the Pope called on those in attendance to seek ways to promote faith “at every level of national life”.

He added: “I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalisation of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance.

“There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere.

“There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.”…

[continues at the BBC]

The Banned Pregnant Nun Ice Cream Ad Photo

majestic — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:05:07 +0000

Pregnant nuns? It’s not like it’s unheard of, but as the UK government tries to pretend it really wants the uber-expensive Papal visit this week, its Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ad. The ice cream maker couldn’t have asked for a better marketing coup!

The Daily Show on Obama’s “Wisdom” in the “Ground Zero Mosque” Media Circus

ralph — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:41:04 +0000

“Yes we can … but should we?” — Jon Stewart

Politics is often defined as the “art of the possible.” However it should also be defined as “you can’t please all the people all the time.” Especially the ones being idiots on the “ground zero mosque” media shitstorm.

Thankfully The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart (who recently George Lucas made a Stormtrooper) is on the money again about President Obama’s mixed public comments regarding this non-story.

I could not complete this post without mentioning the great Jon Oliver’s commentary:

“There is a difference, Jon, between what you can do and what you should do. You can build a Catholic Church next to a playground. Should you?”

The Skateboarding Priest Video

majestic — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:06:38 +0000

“Come on kiddies, you’re safe with me — I can skate!” … Hmmm, I’m not sure this Hungarian priest looks like someone I want my kids to skate with, but believe it or not Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on Hungary’s border with Slovenia, has become a YouTube sensation!

Anne Rice: ‘Today I Quit Being A Christian’

majestic — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:44:33 +0000

Anne Rice tells NPR why she has rejected organized religion:

On July 28, bestselling author Anne Rice officially left the Roman Catholic Church.

The writer has had a fairly tumultuous religious history. Although she was raised Catholic, Rice rejected the church for the first time when she was 18.

But in 1998, Rice — who’s famous mostly for writing steamy, gothic, decidedly un-Christian novels such as Interview with the Vampire — had a religious awakening. She converted to Catholicism and began to write exclusively Christian-themed novels, like Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

In July, Rice decided she had had enough. She announced her decision on her Facebook page:

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

But, the decision wasn’t an easy one.

“It was very painful,” Rice tells NPR’s Michele Norris. “But I’ve always been public about my beliefs, and I’ve always been public about wanting to make a difference.”…

[continues at NPR]

12 Evilest Photos Of The Pope

JacobSloan — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:02:24 +0000

Why is the Pope so terrifying? And that’s even without taking the latest round of pedophilia scandals into consideration. Via Buzzfeed, some of the most horrifying, dream-haunting pictures of the current Pope:

Freaky…

Jesse Ventura Discusses Alternative Voting, Prosecuting the Catholic Church Under RICO Laws, Marijuana Legalization and More With Bill Maher

ralph — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:01:46 +0000

Jesse Ventura appeared on the April 16, 2010 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher to discuss a number of issues, including third-party politics and alternative voting. Ventura also called for the Catholic Church to be prosecuted under the “Federal RICO laws of organized crime” for its involvement in covering up child molestations. Ventura also said he wants to see pot legalized in America, which of course Bill Maher very much agrees with.