The After Shocks of Benedict Sixteen's Papacy – Election of the Next Igor Clone as Pope

Pope Igor II (2013 -      )

There are turning points in the journey of life. I see this resignation of a power ranger, Benedict XVI, as just one after shock of Karol Wojtyla aka John Paul II. While the official view of JPII was one of media darling and or religious rock band like superstar, he was after all only a politician.

The office of pope and or bishop of Rome is a man-made position.  You just have to do some diligent and sincere research to find out that most of what exists today and aka as Christianity went through a Pagan filter and or sieve when Constantine followed through on Hadrian’s and many other Roman emperors' desire to have one homogenized Roman Religion to unite the Roman Empire over and above its roads, commerce and politics.

That much of what Catholicism is today is a surviving remnant of that Roman Pagan Religion thingy officially sanctioned by the Emperor/god Constantine the great.

Surprisingly, Catholicism did not die out with the Reformation. 

Successful businesses have a tendency to continue to stay in motion with cash flow and then stop or die with extinct cash flow. 

The Reformation in a small way resurrected something of the early Christian essence, pre-Constantine Catholic spin, in the form of some of the Protestant sects.

What Vatican II opened up in the way of a window was a thought or way of looking at what exactly Christianity was all about or could be. And maybe every region can its own traditions, can have a niche, but the overall product needs a unity to succeed. A unity yet to be invented by the many many sects of that old religion. 

Getting back to the media superstar John Paul II, he was without a doubt the premier Cold War Warrior or so his publicist sold him as.  And he did use money funneled, Laundered through his church to fund internal dissent in his native Poland.

Problem is that no man can serve two masters.  Render unto Caesar and Render unto God. I think that men who have immense power get confused as to who or what their original mission statement in life was when they started out on their journey through life, before they hit lotto and got power, power, power.

While the Vatican has always been a political animal as much as a religious one over the centuries, John Paul II with his connections to the West and CIA etc. seemed to lock the water faucet on full with dollars and military and political decisions coming out of the stone talking Oracle at Delphi like mask of Christ, whoever or whatever he was two thousand years ago.

John Paul II and this faithful surviving servant Igor aka Benedict XVI burned out the religious motor of the Vatican religion thing and now the business of the Vatican is simply bu$ine$$ no matter what the press releases claim or say.

In a way too, Reagan merged conservative politics with conservative fundamentalism religion and the resulting GOP mess is neither political nor religious but something nobody can or wants to use in the modern global culture based on the sacred high technology of the moment.

No matter what clone a bunch of John Paul II or Benedict XVI appointed stooge bishops/cardinals elect as the next pope, he will not have any real agenda to fall back on except the present existing Bu$ine$$ Model.

As such, below is a except from a writer Garry Wills, on the Colbert Show acting as a person, one of the people of God, the Church, that does not need a Vatican or a priest to commune with the divine.

The soul and spirit of Vatican II lives on!

Whatever.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423715/february-11-2013/garry-wills


.

“Catholicism” the Movie - Independent Film - and the Attention Deficit Mindset of the New Evangelism??? - Father Robert Barron

Against a backdrop of art, architecture and past history, Father Robert Barron, a protégé of Chicago Cardinal George has compiled a bootlegged style schlock imitation piece of Sir Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation series but on "religion" - what religion I was unable to decipher. 

"Catholicism" is a series of segments of art film, travelogue and incoherent religion lectures that ramble all over creation’s time line and imagination.

BUT - Where is the real Roman Catholicism Father Barron?

I ran into two episodes of Robert Barron’s “Catholicism” on PBS on one of those raising cash on a rainy Sunday afternoon deals and offering a full five DVD set of ten episodes for a $250 tax deductible contribution to the local PBS station.

Media expert Barron’s independent, independent film which has no traceable roots in IMDb (Internet Movie Data base) that I can compare the credentials of people using terms and titles like Director or Cinematographer to see if Cardinal George and or his cronies got their three million dollars worth in this vanguard media vehicle of “the New Evangelism” and or “Getting the old MoJo Nostalgia Thing going for the pre-Vatican II Medieval Church”. 

Father Robert Barron is a polished articulate wordsmith but a third rate theologian as any PC theologian in the RCC is these days. Though he wears glasses and a wristwatch, I guess the appearance of intelligibility is allowed on occasion with permission in its certified authorized theologians mixing with the little people through the firewall of the media. Is allowable to a certain extent in the desperate marketing and sale of this “New Evangelism” thing? 

Walks like a duck.  Sounds like a Duck. It must be the New Evangelism thingy. Frozen concentrated grape juice in a frozen concentrated orange juice container I fear.  What’s the difference? Catholicism – one size fits all. Right?  One fruit juice is as good as another. Whatever. Enough on tangents.

Three million bucks does not go very far these days even in terms of a non-union made film.

I will say that most of what I have seen could have been shot with stock footage and much of it with scenes of happy heterosexual couples holding hands in the streets and parks and all the running happy children in these parks added to strike a “I want that too” chord in the viewer – the illusion of temporary happiness at least.

Viewing these two propaganda pieces on PBS I wanted to learn something I did not already know about Catholicism. Many of the PBS series I have seen illustrating topics such as Baseball, the Civil War or even Judaism have been informative and thought provoking.

Not once in these two episodes do I once hear what the Roman Catholic Church is all about or what it believes in.

I did watch these two episodes:

“Amazed and Afraid: The Revelation of God Become Man”

“That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought: The Ineffable Mystery of God”

The first episode is a pile of 10, 15, 30 second sound bites against a backdrop of the all the art of churches, the Sistine Chapel ceiling paint job etc. And while it is sometimes exquisite to encounter a sixteenth century Spanish cathedral alter piece covered in icons and gold, one like me after one too many shots of such decadence and with a Protestant conscience, I  am reminded of all the slave labor and ruined lives of millions of enslaved peasants and Indians in South and Central America that went into the creation of this “art”.

It is here where the sound bites and the 90 second and two minute polished homilies struck me of the whole disjointed mess of this propaganda film. That beyond art, the RCC is idolatry and love of the idol – the thing – its own thing.  That an ignorant illiterate serf in medieval Europe may have learned his bible stories from the stained glass of the Cathedrals.

I thought I recognized the style of Barron’s polished 90 second and two minute focused homilies which remind me of the finishing punch line statements after many long agonizing boring religion classes I remember in catholic high school.  I also feel for his seminary students mucho.

But looking at and listening to Father Barron blather on with so many rambling, disjointed, bunch of little phrases, thoughts, opinions, against the backdrop of medieval art, happy couples in parks etc. that I am reminded of the possibility of some drunken monk in some medieval theology class in a cathedral pointing to a stained glass picture of Noah’s flood and then telling the story of Adam and Eve. Some serfs may have gone to their graves confused on the finer subtle points of that theology lesson etc.

The second episode mentioned continues the rambling sound bites against the backdrop of stock footage. The drunken medieval monk acting gig in the cathedral medieval theology class gets more polished and starts into an alphabet soup of disconnected ideas without any spellable words produced in the consumer’s spoon.  

But defining or understanding God is a really big subject and I have heard better explanations of the vastness and mystery of God from Muslims on video tape and filtered through a coarse sieve of translation.

One very disturbing scene in this second episode has Father Barron doing his theology schtick against the backdrop of Auschwitz and rambling about how evil can be done in life etc. How can God let that happen?

He even concedes that the idea that God letting evil happen for a greater good is a tad bit too much for human understanding.

He slips into a story about the old testament story of Job and rambles on a bit. Jumps to a Seurat pointism painting in a museum. And finally ends on a cute story of the American Philosopher William James and his dumb dog who cannot read.

Then he slips back to the Auschwitz scene without an answer to the mystery of God letting the Shoah happen.

No apology for what so many Catholics in the Nazi Party did to the Jews.  I guess by episode eight or nine Father Barron will be explaining why God’s intentions at Auschwitz were so obtuse and why it is perfectly clear why the Jew hating(?), Jew/humanity ignoring Pius XII must be made a modern saint according to the new, modern, retro-Medieval “New Evangelism”

Being the hack seminary teacher and dog trainer that Barron appears to be and in grand favor of his mentor and patron Cardinal George of Chicago, I think that no intelligent person has anything to fear from this waste of three million dollars that disappeared off the ledgers somewhere. No threat I think to any higher order of primates here at least.

This new untried Attention Deficit, all over the map non-map, approach to the heart of Christianity that the RCC has become, much like a millstone tied around the rest of Christianity’s legitimate attempt to follow the simple teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, is sad.

No doubt like Fox News which attributes its high ratings to being the only channel playing in most nursing homes in America, the canned Catholicism DVD treasury will appeal to the long term only memories of the inmates there who hopefully still have control over their estates before they part this earth and leave their wealth to the “New Evangelism” of the Roman Pagan Catholic Church.

No hidden Picasso here. Perhaps though just another encounter with a resurrected Elvis painted on velvet kind of decorative art thingy.

Sir Kenneth – rest in peace. Your reputation on art history remains safely intact.

Etc.

Have a good day.

.

.

Why Catholicism Does Not Matter – The Growing Vatican Meltdown

The embarrassing end of Christianity also known as Catholicism is melting down around its potentate idol king in the city of Rome.

The struggle for power in the waning months of Benedict the German’s administration revolves about scurrying around the hallways and ferreting away blackmail documents about the closeted sexuality of a celibate clergy army. Celibate means “not married”.  It does not mean “chaste” and or “honest”.

The attempt by Joe the Pope to rig the next papal election and give it to his official stooge for decades Secretary of State Bertone is in
question.  A moot point?

One recent rumor coming out of damage control central, Cardinal Bertone’s office, is the banning of all mobile cell phones in the Magic Kingdom and their ability to photograph documents and record conversations and sex sessions among the “celibate” clergy of the Vatican.  


Who needs the Swiss Guards to protect dirty little sex trafficking secrets anymore?  Quite impossible anyway in the age of Internet.


Blackmail and promotions among closeted Vatican clergy is in great question in this modern technical age, like at no other time in the history.

Marriage equality however will empty the Catholic Church of it closeted gay clergy in the next decade.  The truth will set you free and Catholic free as well.

That is why Catholicism Does Not Matter. 

It is based on an obsolete labor force much the same as the antebellum South’s economy was based on the obsolete and inefficient labor force of slaves. 

Christianity will evolve back along the path that Jesus envisioned and will no longer stray along any roads falsely leading to Rome.

Time Marches On!

.

For Sale - RC Cemeteries - Cheap ?

I received an article sent to me about how archeologists were searching for “mass graves containing hundreds of unbaptized babies and infants buried by the Catholic Church” in Belfast, Ireland. The person who had sent me the article was curious about the many and perhaps bizarre rules of the operating Catholic Church in the past.

Archeologists search for unbaptized babies' grave

The article made it sound like some Catholic families wanted closure as to infants who got dumped outside the gates of the catholic cemetery in unconsecrated ground. Considering the state of decay and the time frame being decades, it is unlikely that any identifiable remains will be uncovered. The real concern I think was that the Catholic cemetery in Belfast wanted some property lines redrawn regarding national conservancy land nearby.

Cemeteries are the only thing left that the RC church has not sold in a big way in their fire sale of schools, churches, hospitals. Their going out of business sale, hiding assets, give a few coins to the Altar Boy Fund is the preoccupation of an aged and literally dying hierarchy. Pass the oxygen mask boys!

This, before the façade of the dead RC church comes crashing down. Nobody, including the paid for media, will be able to mask the presence of and or stench of the big RC corpse rotting away in front of them. My real concern and I do not have prophetic vision is that "What will happen to Christianity?" with the RC church as a permanent side show going out of business permanently?

What does Christianity look like in fifty years with the seeming rise of Islam and the seeming death of the RC church right before our present eyes. What is left of the RC faith? Does it merely look and act like Wall Street after all the assets of the faithful have been completely plundered. These assets are gone.

These now depleted cash assets and more importantly the human faithful assets, are not being taught in Catholc Educaton that used to be taught from kindergarten to University, who used to pray in great beautiful churches and who were once healed in many many Catholic hospitals.

Of course this cemetery story is in Europe. I doubt any American RC cemeteries are likely to be sold for condo foundations but one never knows, does one? This Belfast cemetery story is perhaps a probe or pilot project for the hierarchy to learn more about cemetery property laws in various countries.

Far fetched? Crazy? Kelo vs. City of New London 2005, Supreme Court precedent, that states that private development that creates jobs, taxes and turns around urban decay can be mandated through eminent domain sanctioned by located authorities.

I think the American landscape is ripe in these tragic economic times and with trillions of taxpayers' money more than ready willing and able to replant grandmom and granddad not just in RC cemeteries but secular ones as well in prime downtown real estate locations clogged with those old time cemetery things.

The times they are a changing. Just what American cities need, a new taxpayer financed Football or Baseball Stadium to replace the obsolete ten year old one down the road - and built where some family members had recently been pushing up daisies.

Putting this secular grubby business aside and my cynical spin on things, let us look at the concept of baptism as an entrance requirement to the after life.

Infants in the past who did not make it to a physical baptism missed the boat. Tough luck etc. They could not go to heaven and they could not go to Purgatory or Hell either. Hell and Purgatory were special places that a sinner doing bad things got to go to in the after life. Heaven was for the goody goodies, the ones with a trillion bought and or earned indulgences and or good works and of course having been baptized.

These infants mentioned above could not be buried in the family plot in the consecrated ground of the RC cemetery. Where did their souls go after dying? Let’s invent a mythical place called Limbo to put the kiddies. Anyway, Limbo got decommissioned back around two years ago. Why. I don’t know why. Were they still refusing burial to unbaptized infants? I don’t think so. As far as I know non-catholics can be buried with their spouses and children in Catholic cemeteries these days in the USA.

And where do these unwanted children from the past go if they have been suddenly evicted from the Limbo property? Apparently, theologians say that infants, innocent and unbaptized just get automatically drawn into the Beatific circle of God and his plan for salvation for humankind. This is I think a free “get out of Limbo” card just like the free “get out of hell” card passed out after Vatican II regarding the relaxing of the No Meat on Friday rule.

But don’t hold your breath, Limbo may come back like No Meat on Friday or some other peculiar medieval or superstitious beliefs or rituals like indulgences. With the present regime in Rome and administrating to a very, very, very small practicing flock in Rome, anything is possible considering the fact that the media treats the Bishop of Rome like a rock star. An easy media sound bite – bling!

It is too bad that when the present aged monarch slips and slides over things like anti-Semitism, he seems rather unfocused. Perhaps he is more comfortable counting gelt than souls. That, and figuring out a way to get a bigger cut of all the RC cemetery property on the planet. Somebody has to support RC church institutions, the few that are still left unsold and standing.

P.S. read the fine print on your RC cemetery plot contracts just to be on the safe side of heaven. Don’t be disappointed at the last possible moment.

Early Remembrances of Religion

I don’t remember the exact moment how or when religion got introduced into my life. I was aware of my older brother and sister going to Mass on Sunday at the children’s Mass at 9:00 A.M...

I would be going to mass every Sunday when I entered the first grade. School at six was more of a concern to me than the church thing.

My mother did the 6 A.M. mass and then came home to start cooking breakfast. In those days you had to fast from Saturday midnight from both food and water if you wanted to receive Communion. Brushing your teeth was a no-no etc. Rituals had their demands.

I did go to church with my mother in the first grade. Mandatory attendance for school children did not start until the second grade.

The people going to mass at 6A.M. were working class who had to go to work on Sunday. No Saturday evening masses back then. The attendees were working people or other mothers who would go home to tend to household duties.

My memory of the first grade was that there was something like 103 students in the class. That rounded down to about 99 after the first week and more or less stayed at that number. The old wood and cast iron desks were bolted together and sometimes you got to sit three in a row. God forbid you got sick and stayed out a day or two. Not only did you lose your desk and seating arrangements but you were likely to lose your pencils, books and boxes of cardboard letters and numbers.

I’ve told people that I started in first grade with 99 kids and graduated in eighth grade with 66 children. I don’t think that they believe me. More about Catholic education in another article.

I didn’t have a clue what was going on when I first attended services in first grade with my mother. There was Father Dougherty who taught at a high school but was in residence at the rectory and helped in the warehouse factory schedule of the 6.7.8.9.10.11 and 12:15 masses. Father Dougherty empathized with people who were going to be late for work on Sunday because they felt an obligation to attend. He would race through the mass in something like fifteen to twenty minutes. No sermon and diction that sounded like it was fueled by five cups of coffee.

The nuns in first grade started the religion thing with topics about angels, saints, Jesus, the Blessed Mother, the devil, Protestants and Communists.

In second grade you memorized a lot of boilerplate Catechism and received Holy Communion. I never liked the stepping into a dark space of a confessional and waiting to talk to the small screen and priest beyond. This fear touched something primal within.

Confirmation was more of the same with questions and answers but this time a bishop got to rub some sacred oil on your forehead and you got to wear a red robe, symbolic of the blood of martyrs for the faith.

I was an altar boy and got to see things at a closer range than the congregation. I did accept what was ever handed to me in the text of faith and never questioned anything.

There was high school and in freshman religion class they made you carry around a bible the size of a cigar box. The reading of the bible was in keeping with the PR freshly put out by church management and conforming to the mission statements of Vatican II etc.

I am certain that the awkward size of the bible and the physical pain in carrying it every day to class had to do with the deal or price offered by the publishing company. I doubt that the size of the book discouraged anybody from reading it. Of course there is the old joke about “you’ve never read the bible, you’re a catholic”. It was something I would hear many years later and understand.

After high school, I stopped attending church. It would be something like fifteen years before I started to read the bible and after I read it, something remarkable happened. I had always thought that the New Testament would explain everything. I expected that the gaps in the Catholic religion thing would be filled in and explained in black and white. I expected a boost to my spirituality among other things.

What happened after I read the New Testament from cover to cover was that I realized that I was no longer a catholic. I had become more or less Protestant.