Tag Archive: Vatican


Spotlight on the case. Holy shit! Hold the front page!

Filed under: Movies, Politics — Leave a comment
March 13, 2016

SPOTLIGHT directed by Tom McCarthy (USA, 2015)

 oscarometro2016spotlightHoly shit! Never has this exclamation carried more significance.

Based on actual events (isn’t everything?), the shit uncovered by the Spotlight team of fearless reporters of the Boston Globe at the turn of the Millennium indeed had the holiest of stenches.

The Roman Catholic priests in Boston who molested and abused young boys and girls turned out the be the tip of a dung heap of global proportions. As the credits roll, the printed list of subsequent cases found in parishes around the world is enough to make Jesus and the rest of us mere mortals weep.

Anything which widens the scope of the negative publicity against the hypocritical church establishment is welcome but I doubt that the Pope is quaking in his satin slippers after seeing this lackluster movie. In toning down the sensationalist elements of the story, it becomes more of a celebration of investigative journalism than a full-blooded indictment of this holy disorder. Continue reading →

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NO CROSSES TO BEAR

Filed under: Italy, Parenting — Leave a comment
November 3, 2009

God is watching!

I applaud The European court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for ruling against the use of crucifixes in Italian schools. In their judgement they stated that: “The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by the public authorities… restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions.” Continue reading →

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JESUS WEPT

Filed under: Music — 1 Comment
March 8, 2009

A familiar theme on this Blog is the inhumanity and reactionary dogma at the heart of the Catholic church.

Another  reason to continue this comes with the case of the nine year old Brazilian girl who became  pregnant with twins as a result of being repeatedly raped by her stepfather.

Doctors carried out an abortion saying that the girl’s uterus did not have the ability to contain one child, let alone two. In other words,if  the pregancy had not been terminated there was a strong possibility that the girl would have died.

Abortion is illegal in Brazil but is permitted in cases involving rape or if the woman’s life is at risk, both conditions which applied in this instance.

In typically blinkered fashion The Catholic Church cannot see further than the ‘abortion is murder’ line – Brazilian archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said that the law of God was above any human law. The doctors and the girls mother have therefore been excommunicated, a decison that has subsequently been endorsed by The Vatican.


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PAPAL PROTEST IN ROME

Filed under: Italy, Politics — Leave a comment
January 17, 2008

Fifteen years ago Pope John Paul II officially conceded that in fact the Earth is not stationary and that Copernicanism was not a heresy after all. No one can accuse the Catholic Church of acting hastily when it comes to admitting mistakes.

Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) doesn’t even seem to think the inquisition acted that badly – he called their verdict against Galileo (in a speech made in 1990) “rational and just”.

The Vatican should hardly be shocked at the wave of protest at Rome’s la Sapienza University about the fact that the rector invited Ratzinger to inaugerate the University’s new academic year.

An editorial in La Republicca deemed it a step backwards for Italy’s world image -personally, I think it shows a healthy disrespect towards the all things Papal. Usually speaking out against the Vatican is as taboo as public criticism of the Queen in England.

President Georgio Napolitano called the protests “incompatable” with free expression. Presumably ‘compatability’ would involve staying silent on this issue!

The problem is that politicians and the mass media are likely to make a meal of this affair and use what National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini called the “anti clergy atmosphere” to launch a conservative backlash against Academia.

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