Charles Chaput – I love FOX NEWS and Franco too?

Culture warrior Charles Chaput got into full Burkite (Ray Burke) cult propaganda mood and attacked the Media at the recent World Youth Day in Madrid – namely CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times as being “untrustworthy” in reporting religious stories.  (They are not as pure as FOX NEWS which is fair and balanced towards Tea-Vangelism and Fascism???)

God, what a hypocrite!  The Media gave the buggers in that church a free, don’t report it in the press, pass for decades until the media changed and it was no longer as simple as in the past to threaten to pull advertising from the press by businesses owned by Catholics, like in the long standing silence of the NYT and Cardinal Spellman’s openly gay life style and non-stop party with all the chorus boys on Broadway.  Christ, we heard about that all the way in Philly about Franny boy without any newspapers reporting it.

Charlie boy better get his attitude in check and his history facts in order before he takes over in the most historic city in the U.S., Philadelphia.

It is a good thing the cathedral there is built like a fortress, no windows on ground level and parapets along the roof to reflect the age in which it was built in the period of the “Know-Nothing” politics and riots of the 1840s.

I doubt that the builders ever imagined that somebody as hateful and ignorant as Archbishop Chaput would be defending the fort and defending Medieval superstition and ignorance over knowledge and tolerance in the twenty first century.

World Youth Day and Religious Freedom

I want to start by sharing a story. 

Once upon a time, a student at one of the world’s oldest universities took a break from her studies to visit the Catholic chapel on campus. As she sat there in silence—praying for a sick relative or trying to settle her nerves before a test—the chapel suddenly filled with noise. A mob of about seventy fellow students charged in chanting anti-Christian slogans. They shouted obscenities against the Church and insults about the Pope.

Two females in the mob climbed on top of the altar. Then, according to the student who was trying to pray, the women stripped off their shirts and boasted about their homosexual tendencies. The young Catholic student, and several others, left the chapel in fear.

People tend to think of Spain as a Catholic country. But this example of anti-Catholic bigotry happened right here, in this beautiful city, at the Complutense University of Madrid. And it didn’t happen in the 1930s, or even in the 1960s. It happened earlier this year—in March 2011. So today is a good time to talk about religious freedom. And Madrid is a good place to do it.

Once upon a time Spain had free elections and the right wing did not like freedom so they took power and ignited the Spanish Civil War to preserve the wealthy status quo and the church.  Half a million people died.  Small price to pay for "religious freedom" and fascist dictatorship bringing stability to the nation for another forty years. 

Complutense University in Madrid was on the front line of fighting for much of that civil war. In the end the Fascists under Franco and the Catholic Church won.  Priests were put back on the state payroll. Ain't nothing as sweet as Franco style, state sponsored, corporate welfare. 

On the devastated land in the middle of campus, Franco did some rebuilding…


Complutense University of Madrid

… It was eventually decided, however, that the area should be restored and rehabilitated as a symbol of the new regime, albeit with some alterations - chief amongst them the new plans for a monumental main building with a Sistine Chapel-type interior, and a large church. While those two particular plans never came to fruition, the direct involvement of Franco in the rebuilding of the University meant that, though the original plans were largely followed, chapels were now incorporated into each of the buildings. Today, this creates a curiously contradictory situation, whereby one has certain buildings, such as the School of Philosophy, with streamlined architecture that epitomizes the liberal spirit of the 1920s and borrows heavily from Weimar Germany, and yet features a first-floor chapel which, fitted into a highly art-deco setting, seems implausible as a place of serious spiritual reflection.

Franco's influence on-campus was not limited to the imposition of his Catholic ideals. As a result of the war, as could be expected, the staff was purged of all liberals and Republican sympathizers, and replaced with members of the Falangist movement. What's more, the University charters were altered to compel all students to reside either in government-sanctioned dormitories or personal family homes. The dormitories staffed with members of the falangist movement, the regime aspired to be able to oversee all aspects of the student's lives, hoping to mold them into devotees of the "nationalist movement".

If a bunch of secular students in a supposedly secular university want to protest injustices generated by the RC church in one of General Franco’s personally ordered five state chapels on campus, built on blood soaked land,  maybe these symbols of fascism are a good place to start.

Charles talks about “Religious Freedom” but it always seems to come down to being free to impose Catholic Sharia Law aka Humanae Vitae etc. on the subjugated population.  Can’t you keep your members in line?  Can’t they refuse to have an abortion without outlawing abortion for everybody else on the planet – oh fan of Franco?

Was it disrespectful what these protestors did in this state chapel?  Yes.

Anti-Christian?  Absolutely not!     


(The protest in one of Franco's Blood Chapels, Capillas de Sangre, "Stasi" HQ on campus was the result of a recent attack on students and faculty on campus by ultra-catholic thugs who seem to have disappeared into the woodwork afterwards.  The university and the civil authorities did not investigate or seem to care.  They, the civil authorities, pressed charges against four protesters for violation of sacred territory, a strange concept to me in America where secular universities are just that and not privileged remnants of dictator regimes and their largess to the RC church.)

But Charles seems more concerned with tits being exposed in public and lesbians’ natural right to exist than he is really concerned with just another chapel, paid for by the state.  If the RC church had to pay rent and electricity on campus, that space would have been turned in a Starbucks a long time ago.

Philadelphia is a Quaker city and can remember when one of a few legal  Roman catholic churches in the whole English speaking world existed down a dark alley in the colonial town and only on the say so of the Quaker founders and by their charter and mega capacity of tolerance.

Archbishop Chaput, you are coming to Philadelphia with the wrong mindset and attitude.  That your worldview is 1957 Kansas when you entered the junior seminary at age 13 is perhaps not a worldview needed in this desperately needing humanity over dogma global culture.

I give you eighteen months before you become such an embarrassment to even the Vatican with your unproductive zeal and empty sound bites (tinkling cymbal, sounding brass) that they are forced to hand out a "promotion" to Rome and hide you appoint you as Cardinal Burke’s assistant.

Have a nice day. 

911 - World Trade Center - Memories and Reflections

ghosts of 911 - reflections and memories of September 11, 2001

Reflections and memories of the events leading up to and following 911, by a resident of Staten Island working in mid-town Manhattan. Dealing with the immediate consequences of a city brought to a standstill by an act of war and living in and traveling through the war zone for months to come. This includes memories of the old World Trade Center before its destruction as well as points of views from different communities and their dealing with the tragedy.

There is also a tribute to Father Mychal Judge, Fire Department Chaplain, listed as casualty number one of a long list of victims on that day. There is hope in the building of a Peace Garden in Snug Harbor Gardens in Staten Island, which had the highest percentage of Fire Department deaths of any of the five boroughs of the City of New York
.
There is a poem Opede rededicated to the spirit of rebuilding which the author originally wrote in 1978 and rededicated to the spirit of that building of a New World Trade Center out of the ashes of the old.

All in all, this is a series of short stories and reflections on various real people and unknown heroes of that infamous day in September 2001. I think your reading of this will help in the healing process and contribute to awareness of what some would label the beginnings of a New Global Culture. 


Available on Amazon Kindle:

Papal Bull “Laudabiliter” - Adrian IV- Ireland

Today, August 23, 2011, marks to 841^st anniversary of the British occupation of Ireland.

It is a date when Norman ne’er do well William Strongbow landed in Waterford in what would be the final victory of the invaders from England over the Irish island, people and culture to this day.  The invaders still occupy the north of that island.

Strongbow was so successful that Henry II of England beat a path to Ireland to demand loyalty of his vassal Strongbow who got shafted by Henry in the aftermath of the long civil war or monarchial dispute between usurper King Stephen and Henry’s mother Matilda. 

Twenty odd years of civil war back and forth and Henry succeeded Stephen under his mother’s rightful claim to the throne. 

Strongbow had backed Stephen over Henry and so Henry treated him like dirt until he pulled off the near impossible and put the conquest of Ireland within grasp of the English crown.

Henry II fell back, on what some say was a forgery, the Papal Bull “Laudabiliter” of Pope Adrian IV, oddly enough the last English pope.

 

The document supposedly gave Henry Ireland in exchange for the destruction of the non-Latin Celtic Church in favor of the Church of Rome.  The Celtic Church, centuries old since the introduction of  Christianity by Saint Patrick, had never aligned itself with Rome and among its practices was the ordination of women to the priesthood.

So, in essense, the poltical destruction of Ireland began on this date in 1170 C.E. along with the cultural rape and elimination of the organic Irish Christian church.  The penis rules both in politics and religion from that point on in real time in Ireland.

A united Ireland shall overcome one day the sexist evil forced on it by the Church of Rome.

Bishop Lahey – Guilty in Jail – awaiting final sentence

Canadian bishop sentencing hearing begins

“ -- Lahey pleaded guilty in May to importing child pornography in a rare case of a high-ranking Canadian Church official facing charges over sexual misconduct.

He waived his bail and was taken into custody even though he had not been formerly sentenced. His lawyer Michael Edelson had said Lahey wanted to start serving time now to get credit after sentencing.

Lahey is scheduled to return to court in December. His lawyer, Michael Edelson, has asked the judge to reschedule that appearance for an earlier date.

At the time of his guilty plea, the Vatican said the church would impose its own disciplinary or penal measures, but it did not elaborate on what punishment Lahey could face. Prelates who sexually abuse minors can be defrocked; lesser punishments include being forbidden from celebrating Mass publicly.

Last year, in the midst of the clerical abuse scandal, the Vatican made acquiring, possessing or distributing child pornography one of the most serious canonical crimes that are handled by the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Lahey was charged in 2009 with possessing and importing child pornography after border agents examined his laptop at an Ontario airport on his return home from London, England.

According to court documents, Lahey became nervous when a border agent asked him if he had a laptop and ordered a second inspection when they discovered his passport contained stamps for Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Germany — countries that can be sources of child pornography.

Thompson told the court some content on Lahey's laptop ranked among the worst he has seen in scores of investigations into child pornography allegations.

"They're right up there," he said. "I mean, it doesn't depict infants, but the explicit images of torture are disturbing."--“

(No comment.)

100 Italian Priests Blackmailed In Internet Sex Ring

Blackmailed Italian Priests

Up to 100 priests in Italy were blackmailed by two men who used Facebook and Messenger to snare them, according to a police investigation. The men, who were arrested on suspicion of blackmail on 26 July, demanded up to €10,000 (£8,000) from priests in return for keeping quiet about erotic webcam sessions and real sexual encounters, reported Italian weekly Panorama citing judicial sources… 

The priest paid Trementino regular sums of money and bought him a car but eventually reported him to the police. 

In the meantime, Trementino said a second priest contacted him through Facebook and invited him to spend three days in a hotel in Rome with him, offering him a train fare and €300 to buy cannabis, alcohol and condoms. 

Trementino claims he then began to receive requests for erotic webcam sessions from "tens" of priests. He added: "I would get up to five requests per day from all over Italy, even one from France. I felt I had ended up in a net of perversion."

La Dolce Vita de Celibacy!  Oh those crazy I-talians.  Whatever.