Blood taken from Pope John Paul II before he died is to go on display at his beatification on Sunday.
One of four small vials of blood removed from John Paul during his final days will be used, the Vatican said in a statement…
More than 50 heads of state and several hundred thousand pilgrims are expected to travel to Rome for the beatification, a step before full sainthood…
The vial will be placed in a “precious reliquary” prepared specially for the occasion by the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations.
After being extracted, the blood was mixed with an anti-coagulant in the container to ensure it remained liquid.
What body parts do we get to worship next?
This is a hold over from Pagan pre Christian and non Jewish thinking.
I find the entire idea revolting and nothing in the old or new Testament supports it. Bodies and body parts are supposed to be buried.
“What body parts do we get to worship next?” – DON’T ASK !!! Catholicism, which consumes “the body and blood of Christ” and worships the Cross, an instrument of Roman TORTURE AND MURDER, has been call a CANIBALISTIC DEATH CULT !!!
Necrotism is still widely practised in many cultures, as a way to perpetuate the “goodness” of a deceased ruler, saint or celebrity. So that their mojo, saintliness and luck will endure. There are a lot of cryogenically frozen heads in storage somewhere in California.
We make fun of, and can’t believe the stupidity of the Mormon Church and Scientology===but its only because we grew up with the equally stupid nonsense of Catholics and Protestants.
And yet good intelligent kind caring people buy into this crap as often as not. Thats the real mystery.
The Church has a loooong history of preserving the remains of saints, and the vessels used are some of the most elaborate created.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliquary
#5 Yes, but the idea came in with the non Jewish converts. The people that Paul converted. The Catholic Church may worship the remains of Peter but Peter was a Christian firmly rooted in Jewish traditions and would have been revolted by the idea.
The same sort of thing applies to Easter/Ishtar Eggs and the Easter Bunny as well as many Christmas/Saturnalia customs. Converted Pagans always bring a little bit of the Paganism with them.
my first response is “Mwuaahahahahahahahaha!”
after that, i’m glad i am an atheist, your religious type are wacko beyond all hope!
Catholic occultist drink the blood of their Saviour every weekend. How is this any different?
Worse than saving the blood and putting it on display is that the whole thing is in preparation for making a saint out of a man who presided over the largest boy rape cult in the history of the world.
The rest of the malarkey of the church not withstanding.
It was one thing to believe all that crap when even a photograph of some far off place or exotic beast was not available to most people. Consider that until 150 years ago, most people rarely traveled much more than a day’s horse ride away from home, had limited access to books, even if they could read, and they had to rely on what they were told about the world around them. If you don’t understand the physics of say lightning, the supernatural makes a reasonable explanation.
As technology permits ever greater numbers to learn about things outside their own village and what their “elders” say is true, religion will slowly die.
Save and worship his blood??? WOW !!!
And we laugh at a town trying to put a woman away for 20 years for sending her son to the wrong school.
I saw Lenin on display in Red Square. There he was, like a wax doll. “How stupid is this” I thought to myself. Same as with almost every hooman ceremony. What does it mean? What do I want it to mean? What does it mean? All is vanity.
I bet its just black currant juice
The stuff the Jew’s do is much more creepy don’t you think?
I was raised a Catholic, and as a kid, didn’t buy into much of it, but I totally missed the insanity of it.
When the Pope visited, a friend remarked how cultlike and just plain WEIRD the Catholic ritual of Mass was, and I noticed myself, finally.
It’s fucking TWISTED! And the whole thing about consuming the Body and Blood of Jesus and the way the Catholics argued about whether or not the bread and wine ACTUALLY WAS the body of Jesus Christ! JESUS CHRIST! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING????
And now THIS? HOLY SHIT! I guess they saved some of the Pope’s shit, too.
Who says mainstream religion is not like a cult?
More than 50 heads of state…
Did Obama get snubbed again?
Maybe it’s only for Christians.
>> bobbo, are we Men of Science, or Devo? said, on April 28th, 2011 at 10:36 am
>> I saw Lenin on display in Red Square. There he was, like a wax doll. “How stupid is this” I thought to myself. Same as with almost every hooman ceremony. What does it mean? What do I want it to mean? What does it mean? All is vanity.
Wow, Bobbo! We think agree on something regarding religion! The Pope’s blood is weird, it’s not for me but it surely is not unique to Catholicism. As you mentioned, the very anti-religious communists displayed that creepy cadaver of Lenin. (or a wax copy. Who knows?)
I can’t think of anything similar in my life although I guess we do take the kids out to the family graveyard, which some people might find spooky. (not at midnight or anything!)
>> jescott418 said, on April 28th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
>> Who says mainstream religion is not like a cult?
I make no such claim. The main difference between cults, sects, schisms and “mainstream” religion is time. And, of course, nearly all matters of faith can seem absurd to the non-believer.
Well thanks Greg. I hope that wasn’t too hard for you. It is “odd” how close we agree on so many social issues yet diverge so completely on a willingness (or not) to believe things that have no evidence and are logically conflicting—aka “faith.”
My Mom was cremated. If she had a grave, I think I would visit every once in a while. Instead, I have a beer and remember the good times and how lucky I was to have her. I had dibs on her ashes and refused them giving them to my sister for eventual disposal/spreading or whatever they want to do. Mom is dead. I accept that, that I will never see her again, that I will die and the Universe will die for me. I don’t see any other way.
If there was a heaven of some sort, and “we” of some sort went there, who would my Mom be? baby/girl/just married/mother/grandmother/all at the same time/with her mother/her mother/and her mother how far back?
No, it just doesn’t make any sense. As to vials of blood, cemeteries, etc–whatever floats your boat. Those kinds of practices don’t hurt anyone else. Its meaningless, but not a hurtful thing otherwise making it, when it comes to religion, a good thing.
>> bobbo, Religious types are constantly LYING about EVERYTHING.
You’ve accused me of lying, as well. I can honestly say that I only very rarely lie, almost always in an un-premeditated moment of confusion.
But I really don’t lie on blogs like this. It’s not a virtue — I just don’t see the point in it.
I’m not saying I’m always right. But, if I’m wrong — I’m honestly wrong.
Well Greg–once again we pimp ourselves in agreement. I don’t lie either as indicated by my general obnoxiousness. YOU however are very nice and genial. Obviously, of the two of us, if one of us is lying, its more likely YOU.
I recall saying you are wrong, or mislead, or blinkered in your view, or stuck in a rut, or too unimaginative to see past your dogma. That being the case, I don’t doubt I have opined on ocassion that you have LIED! to yourself at least? More an effort to motivate you to take a serious second look at whatever we were talking about.
Yes, some tangents from the truth have the moral equivalent of a lie, whether they are or not. On a blog of “ideas” not a terrible thing.
Bobbbo,
Religions, of course, are all over the place on the issue of heaven. As you correctly point out, a highly literalistic interpretation of heaven heads into absurdity.
As for me, I tend towards the mystical view of the afterlife. It’s my understanding that the mystical wings of the religions have a surprising unity in this regard — with the idea that your “energy” (spirit, soul, ghost, whatever) merges back into the greater divine “energy”.
I thought Catholics were somewhere in the middle of the religo-loony curve. This places them much closer to Santaria worship than I thought.
Ha, ha. Yea–“energy.” Its funny that a belief system that makes no sense at all finally has its devotees believing in things they can’t even express an understanding about. If the hereafter doesn’t involve “me” at my intellectual best with the added knowledge that there is indeed an afterlife and whatever other knowledge comes with it, then its not “me” that is in the afterlife. Kinda like a bad teleportation with added fly dna.
Just the logical absurdity of it all “should” make one an anti-theist===should the subject ever realistically come up?
Ha, ha. I crack myself up. What humor has god?
Dallas–of course you do, I do, we all do BECAUSE that is our culture. but go through what you do know of the religion. Prayer, all knowing, 3 entities, virgin birth, resurrection. Its “accepted” without thinking. Or, “put in its own compartmentalized box” and not thought about.
but if you think……….
I love religious death cults run by celibate men wearting skirts and gucci shoes.
Catholics need to stop with all this weird stuff because they are giving normal Christians a bad name.
Benji–I totally agree with you. Kinda burns though when you realize the Catholics accept evolution and don’t kill abortion docs. Who does that? Yes, the Protestors that the money skim lead to Rome rather than locally. Just the same old “I’ve got mine, screw you” mentality at play in a different context.
Always, follow the money. Fiat in USA, Corn in Mexico, puka shells in Fiji, and souls in Heaven.
GregAllen/Bobbo – What the hell is this love fest? You two going steady or something? Geez, Greg, send him some flowers while he goes out and buys adjoining grave sites! Haha.
BTW, Bobbie, Lenin was closed for rewaxing when I was there so I haven’t seen Madame Tussaud’s exhibit in Moscow. But I can take you to a couple of Buddhist temples with very “holy” monls sitting in the lotus position inside glass boxes. Creepy. I somehow lost the digital image I took (and may, someday restage) of a spray can of Pledge sitting on a shelf next to one of the cadavers. I know they were using it on the furniture but it was a wonderful coincidence.
BTW, don;t you have to perfomr something like three miracles for the Catholics to even consider you for sainthood? Other than the miracle of not going to prison for supporting child abuse, and the miracle of continuing to serve as pope for 10 or 15 years after he died, anybody know what “miracles” he performed?
As for cremation – don’t the fundamentalists believe the body has to be intact in order to be resurrected? Funny the restrictions placed on the all-powerful Wizard of … I mean, god.
Animby–wtf? Did you find that bottle of old Scotch that rolled under your wire spring cot?
Just goes to show you have to use the language of the gutter to be understood. Greg as always is being an actual good christian to all those he comes into contact with, a bit naive, not understanding who he is in conversation with. I, due to my own nature, have been ripping at the soft underbelly of his unexamined faith. I’ve never been more insulting to anyone as I am constantly to Greg Allan. Even more insulting than when I corrected you on Obama’s Universal Healthcare Plan. As we are into btw’s:
BTW–I was surprised you admitted to a misstatement. Mellow, drunk, just too busy to keep your guard up? How will you maintain god status yourself if you admit to a misstatement? Surely I’m only quibbling to point out Obama didn’t provide “complete” Universal Care when he did increase the number of insured so dramatically? Heh, heh.
BTW–speaking of love fests, let me say Animby you have shown yourself on this blog to be nothing but the better man than myself in every way I can think of except one. More educated, smarter, more experienced, more successful, more eloquent, kinder, hunanitarian. Should I reveal the one thing? Ha, ha. Given my history of failure and second rung status, I am more pragmatic, more realistic than you. More the Iago to your Othello. Yes, just plotting and planning here in the shadow world of lies and innuendo. first the misstatement—THEN the admission of a personal fault. My plan is slow, but unwinding still.
BTW—geez, I had another btw, but the beer is wearing off. I’m sure that pledge was for the lemon smell, not the yellow skin, but it could be both?
You could be conservative, I haven’t seen it except in the heat of argument when, as you say, you misspeak. But to the degree the Pukes are considered the conservative party, Animby YOU LIE just like a Puke:
I challenge YOU Animby to set forth the argument that the Super Rich need more tax cuts while the poor, working, and middle classes need service cuts. Go ahead: make that argument.
If not, Wake Up Foolish Animby. The Republicans want to Kill America but they can’t do it without your vote. You are no Republican and that throws your claim of conservatism into doubt.
yea, verily. Haiku to follow…….
Animby, he lies.
Conservative, he’s not.
The truth? As defined.