In a forum I proposed the following debate to find out what Roman Catholics and Orthodox think of the title “one holy catholic church”. Who owns that title? Here’s the proposed debate:

First debate

Resolve that the Orthodox church is the one holy catholic church.

Affirmative: Orthodox church
Negative: RCC

Resolve that the Roman Catholic church is the one holy catholic church.

Affirmative: RCC
Negative: Orthodox church

Second debate

Resolve that the Orthodox church is heretical by not submitting to the primacy of the Pope, Bishop of Rome

Affirmative: RCC
Negative: Orthodox church

Resolve that the RCC is heretical by adding the Filioque to the Nicene Creed

Affirmative: Orthodox church
Negative: RCC

Sad to say not one Roman Catholic nor Orthodox was willing to participate.  Knowing maybe that with the topics are they are now they both know neither will win and both will lose and proving at the same time that they are now the church that Christ built?

“The Council (of Nicaea) could not agree and after two years, impatient at the delay, the Emperor Constantine appeared and addressed the assembly, ordering them to agree on the divinity of Christ”

Challenge of a Liberal Faith
George N Marshall
page 60

info courtesy of Ang Tamang Daan/Gemnet.tv

A pagan emperor! Not even remotely connected to the Apostles forced a doctrine to a church that is totally opposite the Apostles and the Lord Jesus himself preached about himself, and God. Look at these verses and be astonished.

I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man

Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God;

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

It cannot be any clearer or plain. People and churches who believe that there is a God other than the Father in heaven are sadly mistaken.

CBCP to P. Noy: Abandon ‘contraceptive mentality’
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 07/15/2010 11:45 PM | Updated as of 07/15/2010 11:45 PM

MANILA, Philippines – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) wants President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to abandon the “contraceptive mentality” as a response to fighting poverty.

In a statement made after the CBCP’s 101st Plenary Assembly, CBCP President and Tandag Bishop Nereo P. Ondimar said “poverty cannot be solved by promoting contraceptive education and programs. Education does not merely deal with knowledge and skills; rather it must promote values that are inherent to us as Filipinos.”

He added “parents have the primary right to educate their children and sex education is properly to be done in the family.”

CBCP has always been vocal about its opposition to the use of contraceptives and the implementation of the sex education program.

This time, the CBCP is pinning its hopes on the new administration.

“With the new government, we, Bishops, join the Filipino people in the hope that there will be changes that will truly bring good governance to the country,” Ondimar said.

The 2-day plenary assembly was attended by around 90 archbishops and bishops.

Among those who attended the plenary assembly were Archbishops Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales of Manila, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu, Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato and Fernando Capalla of Davao.

These are bad times. The economy is in a downturn and business are suffering. All kinds of business endeavor are suffering including the oldest among them, the Roman Catholic church. Business newspaper reported the church is running a deficit!

Vatican Reports $5.1 Million Deficit on Communication Costs

July 10, 2010, 11:32 AM EDT

By Lorenzo Totaro

July 10 (Bloomberg) — The Vatican reported a budget deficit of 4.2 million euros ($5.1 million) last year as expenses to fund its radio station and other media projects more than offset revenue from investments and donations.

The Holy See, the central administration for the Roman Catholic Church, had revenue of 250.1 million euros and expenses of 254.3 million euros, its press office said today in a statement. While the Vatican didn’t publish year-earlier figures today, it reported a 2008 deficit of 911,500 euros in July 2009.

The Holy See relies on earnings from investments in stocks, bonds and real estate to supplement donations from Catholics around the world. Its main expenses last year related to communication costs, including running the Vatican Radio, the statement said. The Vatican, home to Pope Benedict XVI and located across Rome’s Tiber River, has 2,762 employees

source:businessweek.com

And it even protects itself the way business do! By committing fraud, that is claiming and filing for bankruptcy when it has millions in the bank!

Multi-Billionaire church hides money to avoid paying victims!

---

‘Dan Rather Reports’ Exposes Coordinated Effort by the Catholic Church to Protect Assets From Abuse Victims

* Posted by Rosalie Makar on June 24, 2010 at 5:32pm in Atheist News

‘Dan Rather Reports’ Exposes Coordinated Effort by the Catholic Chu…

Next week, “Dan Rather Reports” investigates how the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding and shielding assets from victims of priest abuse. Some say the Church is behaving more like a big corporation than a sacred institution.

From the Vatican on down, the church has vowed to make peace with hundreds of victims of a decades-long epidemic of sex abuse by its priests. But “Dan Rather Reports” found evidence that the church has done just the opposite: Wealthy U.S. Dioceses from California to Delaware have claimed to be broke and have filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying damages; Bishops have exploited arcane corporate laws to shield church assets from liability; and, in San Diego, parish priests have been caught literally hiding money in safes, according to court records.

“If you or I did what the Diocese of San Diego did in that bankruptcy, we’d be charged with bankruptcy fraud, and we’d probably be in prison,” said attorney John Manly, who has represented dozens of priest abuse victims in lawsuits across the country.

“Dan Rather Reports” found evidence that some high in the church hierarchy have provided guidance.

“One of the comments that came from one of the bankruptcy attorneys is that, ‘These guys make Enron look like altar boys.’ Pardon the pun,” said Don McLean, who was abused as a 10-year-old altar boy, and sought damages from the San Diego diocese.

And there you go. Your friendly neighborhood catholic church is just another one big failing business.

Catholic church dragged into public works scandal that has sent shockwaves through Italian government

* Tom Kington in Rome
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 June 2010 22.24 BST

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe The archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, delivered a fiery sermon after hearing of the investigation. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

A senior Vatican cardinal is under investigation for corruption, dragging the Catholic church into a public works scandal that has sent shockwaves through the Italian government.

Italian media reported today that Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the archbishop of Naples, was suspected of striking cosy deals while head of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Vatican congregation that uses proceeds from a property empire including 2,000 Rome apartments to fund missionary efforts.

Sepe allegedly oversaw the sale in 2004 of a building in Rome to the then transport minister, Pietro Lunardi, for the suspiciously low price of €4.16m, newspapers reported, adding that magistrates wanted to know why Lunardi then freed up €2.5m in state funding the following year for the congregation to create a museum in its headquarters, and why that museum never opened.

Magistrates are reportedly looking into Sepe’s links to builder Diego Anemone and former public works official Angelo Balducci, both suspected of being at the centre of a web of alleged kickbacks and corrupt state construction contracting.

Italy’s industry minister, Claudio Scajola, has already resigned after claims that Anemone paid €900,000 to subsidise the purchase of his luxury Rome flat.

Newspapers said magistrates suspected Sepe and Anemone were involved in furnishing accommodation on Rome’s Via Giulia to Guido Bertolaso, Italy’s powerful civil protection chief.

The case has shed light on the links between Roman politics and the Vatican.

Balducci was a papal usher but was dismissed when the corruption inquiry brought to light his suspected involvement with a Vatican chorister in a male prostitution ring. The Vatican said it hoped the investigation could be wrapped up fast “to eliminate any shadows, be they on the person [Sepe] or church institutions”.

The Catholic celibacy conundrum

A letter written by mistresses of Catholic priests calls for an end to the discipline of celibacy. But could the church afford it?

o John Hooper
o guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 12.00 BST
o Article history

The open letter sent to the pope by a group of Italian women who have been or are in relationships with Roman Catholic priests has cast a new light on the rule of priestly celibacy in his church at a time when its abolition was already under discussion as a possible response to the crisis over clerical sex abuse.

One aim of the letter was to make the point that the rule against marriage in the western Catholic church is not a dogma but a discipline.

In one of its most intriguing passages, the authors claim that “the reasons which prompted the ecclesiastical hierarchy, in its day, to insert this discipline into its legal system are well known – economic convenience and self-interest.”

Those alleged reasons are, in fact, far from well-known outside church circles, though they were alluded to last month in the Guardian’s Face to faith column by the dean of Southwark, Colin Slee: it costs a great deal less to pay for single priests than for priests with wives and perhaps children.

In the case of the Catholic church, moreover, there are additional, complicating factors. One is its increasingly queasy financial position. It has been calculated that, in the US, Roman Catholic dioceses have been ordered to pay out a total of more than $2.6bn in abuse-related costs. Now, the church faces another wave of claims in Europe, and especially in the German-speaking world. This is thought (the church’s finances are supremely opaque) to be one of its main sources of income, and known to be an area in which large numbers of Catholics are abandoning their faith in disgust. That too has direct financial consequences because in those countries membership of a denomination is a formal matter, registered with the state, which decides whether a proportion of a worshipper’s taxes go to his or her church.

Another factor is more ironic – the likely effect, were the Vatican to lift the ban on married priests, of its teaching on birth control. It is one thing for the leadership of the Church of England, say, to have to pay for a vicar with a wife and perhaps two or three children. It is quite another when the minister in question has a wife and five or six children.

Would married Roman Catholic priests have so many offspring? If they didn’t, I rather suspect their bishops would be keen to know why not.

I will not add anything to these two quotes. They speak for themselves.

He gave a mighty shout, “Babylon is fallen–that great city is fallen! She has become the hideout of demons and evil spirits, a nest for filthy buzzards, and a den for dreadful beasts.

The Trial of the Catholic Church: A Tale of Moral and Financial Bankruptcy

By Liam Fox
NEWS JUNKIE POST
Mar 22, 2010 at 4:22 pm

The potential financial bankruptcy of the Catholic Church is rivaled only by the apparent moral bankruptcy reaching from parish priests all the way to the Papal offices of the Vatican. Tens of thousands of cases have emerged in dozens of countries from Asia to Europe and from Australia to the Americas. No country seems immune, and the vulnerability of the victims seems only contingent on the number of clergy.

Over the past week, stories have surfaced of sexual abuse that was actively hidden and aided by the current Pope while he was archbishop of Germany. Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich and Freising, now Pope Benedict XVI , ignored repeated warnings regarding a priest accused of sexually abusing boys. While Ratzinger was in charge, the accused priest, Peter Hullerman, was briefly transferred to Munich for therapy.

Dr. Werner Huth, a psychiatrist from Munich, told the New York Times; “I said, For God’s sake, he [Hullerman] desperately has to be kept away from working with children… I was very unhappy about the entire story.” His warnings, which he states were repeated to Benedict’s senior aids, went unheeded(1). Soon after, he was allowed to return to parish work and interact with children. In 1986, Hullermann was finally convicted of sexual abuse yet was still allowed to continued working with altar boys. He was finally suspended, just this month.

As in Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law was caught actively lying about what he knew, and what he did to cover up the abuse, the Catholic Church is rallying in protection of the Pope, directing attention instead on underlings, and treating the institutionalized pedophilia as isolated and unfortunate incidents(2). Pope Benedict XVI has admitted that the Church has been “severely shaken” by repeated allegations of high-level cover-ups of sexual abuse(3) ,but his recent letter of apology to Irish victims, released March 20, 2010, was poorly received and deemed inadequate(4). The letter promises an internal Vatican investigation and a year of penitence.

read more here.

Cupid

Today February 14 is Valentines’ day or more accurately St. Valentine’s day! A log of candy, flowers and gifts will change hand today all because it is a celebration of this one mysterious “saint”. Even in the Catholic church in Sikatuna, Quezon City, Philippines a traditional Latin Mass will be held.

But who was this “St Valentine” and what is the basis for such a celebration? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia at the website newadvent.org, there are at least 3 different St Valentines! Sadly no tangible historical record of these three can be found, meaning these stories are probably legends or as Catholic call them, “traditions” or simply stories passed on. But what we do know with absolute certainty is the fact that these three are not mentioned in the bible and neither is their celebration. Two of the three lived and died in the second half of the third century while the third was at a much later period. The holiday was supposedly established by the Roman Pope Gelasius I in AD 496, definitely not of Christian or apostolic origin.

Faunus as depicted by the sculpter Bartolomeo Ammanati.

According to history.com, the legends contends that a priest named Valentine served in third century Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II who decided that single men made better soldiers and so outlawed marriage for young men! Claudius supposedly executed Valentine because the latter would not stop performing marriages. According to another legend, Valentine sent the first “valentine” card while in prison, to a young girl he fell in love with. In either case, none of these stories are ever written in the bible or attested to by the Apostles and yet this “St Valentine” apparently commands religious respect from Roman Catholics that they dedicated a mass to him.

But what is the origin of Valentines Day? History.com com again states taht the celebration was based on the pagan Lupercalia festival. Lupercalia was the fertility festival of pagan Rome which was observed on February 15 and dedicated to Faunus, the pagan god of agriculture.

And there you go, another pagan holiday celebrated by Catholics all over the world. Ask yourself this: would you allow yourself to practice a pagan holiday when you’re supposed to be Christian?

Is It True That the Miter of the Pope and Bishops Is Patterned After Egyptian Paganism?

To which he proudly answered this:

ANSWER: DEFINITENLY NOT! THE EPISCOPAL MITER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS TAKEN FROM THE HOLY GARMENTS WORN BY THE HIGH RANKING MINISTERS OF GOD IN THE TEMPLE AND THE MEETING TENT OF ISRAEL:

He then proceeded to quote bible verses from the book of Exodus that seemed to say that indeed the mitre was used by God’s ancient servants. The verses talked about ceremonies in which the priest wore a headgear. The verses he quoted from the book of Exodus were: 28:4. 28:37, 39:31, 28:39, 29:6, 39:28.

So the assertions of Mr Arganiosa on his blog are:

1. The mitre used by the Catholic church is based on God’s ancient peoples, specifically ancient Israel.
2. The mitre was used by the ancient people of God, ancient Israel.

Let examine Mr Arganiosa’s claims and see if they have some substance.

Abe Arganiosa

A casual check of the verses he quoted revealed that not all bible version render the verse to say “mitre”! Actually a good majority of bible versions render the headgear as “turban”. So, the second assertion of Mr Arganiosa that the people of God in the time of Moses wore a mitre is on a shaky foundation. He should have consulted other versions of the bible to make sure he is right but he obviously did not do this and now he’s in danger of being inadequate in his research. Or maybe he did to intentionally mislead?

The Turban, wound as a "Mitznefet" (left) for the Kohen Gadol and as a "Migba'at" (right) for the ordinary Kohen

What exactly is in the Hebrew rendition of the verses he quoted? Again a cursory check of the bible reveals that the Hebrew word which was translated to both mitre and turban by different version is “mitsnepheth“. Mitsnepheth means a piece of cloth woven around the head.  One has to agree that even today, people in the middle east wear some sort of headgear wrapped around their head to keep the sun and heat away. So it won’t be too far fetched to think that a turban is the most likely headgear used by the early inhabitants of the Middle East. In fact, some Hebrew websites describe the apparel of ancient Hebrews to include a turban.

Clearly, even common sense dictates that the “mitre” quoted by Mr Arganiosa is a turban similar to the graphic at right and is a long piece of cloth wrapped around the head. Now let’s compare this to the mitre used by the Catholic church.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (newadvent.org):

Mitre of the Catholic Church

The mitre is a kind of folding-cap. It consists of two like parts, each stiffened by a lining and risingto a peak; these are sewn together on the sides, but are united above by a piece of material that can fold together. Two lappets trimmed on the ends with fringe hang down from the back. The mitre is, theoretically, always supposed to be white. The official “Cæremoniale Romanum” distinguishes three kinds of mitres: the mitra pretiosa, auriphrygiata, and simplex. The first two differ from each other only in the greater or less richness of the ornamentation; the mitra simplex, or simple mitre, is one of white silk or white linen entirely without ornament. The fringe on the lappets at the back should be red.

Origin

The pontifical mitre is of Roman origin: it is derived from a non-liturgical head-covering distinctive of the pope, the camelaucum, to which also the tiara is to be traced. The camelaucum was worn as early as the beginning of the eighth century, as is shown by the biography of Pope Constantine I (708- 815) in the “Liber Pontificalis”. The same headcovering is also mentioned in the so-called “Donation of Constantine”. The Ninth Ordo states that the camelaucum was made of white stuff and shaped like a helmet. The coins of Sergius III (904-11) and of Benedict VII (974-83), on which St. Peter is portrayed wearing a camelaucum, give the cap the form of a cone, the original shape of the mitre. The camelaucum was worn by the pope principally during solemn processions. The mitre developed from the camelaucum in this way: in the course of the tenth century the pope began to wear this head-covering not merely during processions to the church, but also during the subsequent church service. Whether any influence was exerted by the recollection of the sacerdotal head-ornament of the high-priest of the Old Testament is not known, but probably not—at least there is no trace of any such influence. It was not until the mitre was universally worn by bishops that it was called an imitation of the Jewish sacerdotal head-ornament.

source: newadvent.org

Need I say more? A folding cap is not at all similar to a long piece of linen cloth wrapped around the head. The Catholic encyclopedia has more than enough information contradicting Mr Arganiosa’s claims. Too bad that Mr Arganiosa seems to not even know the history of his own religion.

To recap, we’ve just established that both of Mr Arganiosa’s claim are not true and also established the following:

1. The mitre used by the Catholic church is not based on the turban used by the ancient people of God.
2. A turban was used by the ancient people of God.

But then we’re still left by the question posed to Mr Arganiosa, which is

Is It True That the Miter of the Pope and Bishops Is Patterned After Egyptian Paganism?

"St". Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, wearing a mitre

As is stated by the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Pope’s mitre is of Roman origin! Read again, Roman origin, NOT Christian origin. It is derived from camelaucum. What is a camelaucum?  Again, the Catholic encyclopedia tells us that the camelaucum was first used  by Pope Constantine during his reign in the 8th century and was part of the supposed donation of Emperor Constantine.

Suffice it to say, we can safely assert with much authority that Mr Arganiosa doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that the mitre used by the Catholic church is of pagan influence.

Ask yourself this: do you think a supposedly Christian religion is well justified in using a pagan instrument in its practices?

Abe Arganiosa

The Roman Catholic priest Abe Arganiosa is a big disappointment. One would expect so much more from a supposedly “learned”, “schooled”, “educated” person. And yet, judging from his blog entries, Mr Arganiosa is all show and no substance. For a view of this amazing let down, read on:

Misinterpretation of Scriptures

He was talking about bible interpretation and claimed the the church, his church the Roman Catholic church is the official interpreter of the bible. Yeah right! To be honest and blunt, there’s not a single Roman Catholic doctrine that is based on the teachings of the bible, let alone the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only are the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church NOT biblical, they go against teachings written in the bible. I’ve already enumerated a few in this blog which have not been refuted by any catholic defender. Let’s name a few:

• Bowing and worshiping idols
• Forbidding to marry
• Commanding to abstain from eating meat

And who can forget the biggest snow job in the history of mankind, the doctrine of the trinity! Their own websites admit and confirm that the trinity doctrine is not biblical, therefore it is an addition and replacement to the teachings of the Apostles.

In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together. The word trias (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180. He speaks of “the Trinity of God [the Father], His Word and His Wisdom (To Autolycus II.15). The term may, of course, have been in use before his time. Afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian (On Pudicity 21). In the next century the word is in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen (“In Ps. xvii”, 15). The first creed in which it appears is that of Origen’s pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus. In his Ekthesis tes pisteos composed between 260 and 270

newadvent.org

Why the need for saints?

Canonization Ceremony

First, let’s define who saints are and what makes them saints. In particular, catholic “saints”. Catholic saints are another form of a money making scheme developed by the Roman Catholic saints. It one would look into how someone becomes a saint it would be evident that it involves money. A lot of money and this money goes to the Vatican. So basically if you’re foreign to the Vatican Hierarchy, you need to have a lot of money and are willing to spent it if you wanted to be “sainted”. Miguel Arroyo, the Philippine presidents husband is now in the process of making one of his aunts a saint. Let’s hope it doesn’t involve government money intended for the poverty stricken flood victims. I digress.

Mr Arganiosa mentioned a few names whom he said were saints and said these are not to be set aside. Curious thing is that he did not provide any basis as to why these names are saints and that their role is in the worship of God. Again let’s consult newadvent.org, a catholic website. It says:

Patron Saints – A patron is one who has been assigned by a venerable tradition, or chosen by election, as a special intercessor with God

You read it right! Catholic saints are supposedly “special intercessor” with God, or another “mediator”! A special one at that! Does this agree with the bible? Absolutely not! Here:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

As you can read, there is only ONE mediator between God and men, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can anyone be more special than the Saviour? Ask Abe that.

God created Himself?

This has to be the most absurd statement ever made. Mr Arganiosa claims God made himself into a man. This is so wrong in so many points so let’s point out a few of them for Mr Arganiosa’s benefit.

• God will not be man because He said so Himself.
• Jesus Christ, whom catholic claim is also God said there is ONLY ONE God the Father in Heaven. So to even think that God became Jesus is absurd.
• Jesus Christ died on the cross. God is immortal

Here you go. A few things to answer Abe Arganiosa’s preposterous claims. I sure hope he learns something.