Catholicism

Ecumenism? Or The Ecumaniacalism Of Insincere Agreement?

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IslamJoseph P. Farrell – Today’s blog is a departure from normal in that it’s about two articles shared by two different people.  That’s a departure in and of itself from my normal routine here, but there’s more of a reason that I’m doing so. The two people who shared the respective articles – N.S. and K.M. – I know do not know each other nor even live in the same area. While the articles seem, on the surface, to be about different things entirely, they are about the same thing, as we shall see. Moreover, oddly, they arrived in my inbox within minutes of each other.

“Something was in the aether,” and that’s why I decided to blog about these two articles, because they’re symbolic of an effort to make betrayal seem O.K., and the articles, arriving how and when they did, seem to be screaming out “we belong together.”   Here’s the first story, shared by N.S.: Continue reading →

Religion: the Oldest Weapon of Mass Destruction in Human History

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religionNed Heiden – Most likely the first human who invented the first god was some smart tribal guy who saw that it was a very effective way to protect himself from bodily harm by the stronger ones if he made them and the less smart members of his tribe believe he had a very strong friend living across the mountains.

A friend so strong that he could make the mountains rumble by stamping his feet on the ground. Others would not dare to attack him fearing the revenge of such a powerful friend and even though no one ever saw this friend it was better to be safe than sorry.

It probably did not take long for this smart guy to discover that his fellow tribesmen were easily led to believe that this thunder ally would make them nearly invincible in battle with rivaling tribes and could even conquer these tribes.

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Wealth Of Roman Catholic Church Impossible To Calculate

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NationalPost  March 8 2013

Pope Francis advocates that rich people give away their money to decrease the imbalance between “have” and “have-not” – raising the standard of living for the majority of earth’s inhabitants. This most noble sentiment would be considerably enhanced if the Pope began by divesting the Most Holy Roman Catholic church of its holdings to ease the burdens of the poor. After all, the best example that can be set is the one you set yourself, Pope Francis. ~G

A painting by artist Michel Angelo Pacetti shows a parade of French troops on St. Peter' Square at the Vatican displayed during an exhibition of papal portraits from the Renaissance to Pope John Paul II in Rome in 2004. The Roman Catholic Church's real estate and art have not been properly evaluated, since the church would never sell them.
A painting by artist Michel Angelo Pacetti shows a parade of French troops on St. Peter’ Square at the Vatican displayed during an exhibition of papal portraits from the Renaissance to Pope John Paul II in Rome in 2004. The Roman Catholic Church’s real estate and art have not been properly evaluated, since the church would never sell them.

It is impossible to calculate the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church. In truth, the church itself likely could not answer that question, even if it wished to.

Its investments and spending are kept secret. Its real estate and art have not been properly evaluated, since the church would never sell them.

There is no doubt, however, that between the church’s priceless art, land, gold and investments across the globe, it is one of the wealthiest institutions on Earth.

Since 313 A.D., when Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire, its power has been in near-constant growth.

The church was able to acquire land, most notably the Papal States surrounding Rome, convert pagan temples and claim relics for itself. Over 300 years, it became one of Europe’s largest landowners.

For the next thousand years, tithes and tributes flowed in from all over Europe. Non-Christians and even fellow Christians were killed and their property confiscated. For example, the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in the early 13th century brought it gold, money and jewels.

But by the beginning of the 20th century, the church had faced several hundred years of turbulence. Protestantism had claimed many of its members. The French Revolution at the end of the 18th century outlawed the church and though Napoleon allowed it to return, his relationship with various popes was stormy. Continue reading →