Better Than Bingo Night

by Tom McFeely Tuesday, October 13, 2009 4:36 PM

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/better_than_bingo_night/#ixzz1XBK7LtpF

2. Veneration of relics - In the fourth century Saint Helena, mother of Constantine and empress of the Roman Empire, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where she is supposed to have found fragments of the true cross on which Christ was crucified. By the sixth century the belief in relics and their power to work miracles was widespread.

3. Rosary - The Brahmins of Hindustan have long employed the rosary. It is a common thing among the adherents of the Buddhist faith.

4. Purgatory - The Roman poet Virgil (70 B. C. – 19 B. C.) wrote of purgatory showing the pagans believed in it long before the Catholic Church taught it.

5. Transubstantiation – become a doctrine of the Catholic Church until the 13th century, is pagan. This Romish doctrine means that the bread and wine when blessed by the priest becomes the actual flesh and blood of Christ.

Challenge of a Liberal Faith
George N Marshall
page 60

Constantine, a pagan emperor, called a council to meet in a little city about forty miles south-east of Constantinople. Nicaea was a city in Bithynia, Asia Minor. It isnow a miserable Turkish village called Isnik. In the last syllable you get the remains of Nicaea..

The year easily held in mind was 325. The meeting was held from June 14 to July 25.

There were present 1,500 to 2,000. 318 of these were bishops, mostly from the eastern part of the empire. The rest were ministers of the lower orders,— elders and deacons. There was no bishop of Rome present. He sent two elders, who were by no means important figures in this first council. The important figures were: Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, who was called Pope; Hosius, a friend of Constantine; two bishops, each with the name Eusebius. One of these wrote the Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea. But more important than the bishops were two men.

Arius was one, a tall man, with fine-cut, sharp features, very polite, elegant in dress, a keen mind, ready of speech, good in logic, and a hard man to meet in an argument.

The other, Athanasius, was then a young man of deep feeling and of great determination. He was eager for the truth, suffered for what he believed the truth, and made others suffer for what he conceived their errors. The emperor himself was also present. He opened the council. His enthusiastic admirers in the Church, seeing him clad in the robes of office, brilliant with gold and gems, said he appeared like a messenger of God. He exhorted the council to put away all causes of strife and loose all knots of discord by the laws of peace. “Thus,” he said, “shall you accomplish the work most pleasing to God, and confer on me, your fellow-servant, an exceeding great joy.” Having spoken thus, the emperor withdrew.

What The Dispute Was About? No sooner had the emperor gone than the arguments began. Jesus—a noble prophet — had by his teaching and example and spirit given a great impulse in life to the world. Who was he? Not man: that could not be. “He was the Son of God.” But how? If son, then he is not God, and must come after God. He was the greatest being between God and man. This said Arius. No: he is the eternal Son of God, and therefore equal with God,— is God. This said Athanasius. That cannot be, said Arius again. He is like God. Not at all, said Athanasius: he is of the very substance of God. In the end Athanasius won,— Jesus Christ was declared of the same substance as God.

Beacon lights of Christian history: forty lessons

By Albert Walkley, Unitarian Sunday-School Society

Opinion

The church of the poor

This is something that only few of us know: the Philippine Roman Catholic Church is a multi-billionaire religious and business organization. Yes, the Church is mega-rich.We have always known that the Church, to which at least 80 per cent of Filipinos belong, is rich. Its properties like cathedrals and other big churches, expensive private Catholic colleges and universities all over the country, private hospitals, big buildings and huge tracts of land for their seminaries, etc. are there for people to see. We have always thought this as a given, normal. After all, the Church has been here longer than any of us. 

No one really cared to approximate how rich the bishops really are and what the church can do if it really wanted to help poor Catholics.

We know that Catholic schools are the most expensive that only children of the rich can attend. And, yes, Catholic schools are among the best in the country. In effect, children belonging to rich families generally receive better quality education than those of poor Catholic families.

We also know that Catholic hospitals are good. Though they are not the most expensive, still, these are private hospitals that ordinary Catholics can hardly afford. Thus, these hospitals care more for those who are better off than the millions mired in poverty.

Quality education and healthcare are two of the most urgent needs of the people, and we are, as the Church claims, mostly Catholic. Yet, we never question why the Church mostly serves those who are, in the first place, able to fend for themselves.

On top of these properties and service-oriented institutions that earn by themselves are the business holdings of the various Catholic organizations in the country’s biggest business corporations. This, I think, is something that people do not know about. After all, churches are not expected to be business corporations at the same time.

Very recently, news organizations have bannered Catholic Church holdings in at least two big corporations —Philex Mining Corporation and the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

Chamber of Mines head Jerry Brimo said that as of March 31, Catholic entities owned a substantial number of shares in Philex. The Archbishop of Manila owned 3,221,135 shares; the Religious of the Virgin Mary-B with a total of 4,216,804 shares; and the Archbishop in Zamboanga owned 1,116,147 shares.

According to the Philippine Stock Exchange, as of 27 May 2011, each Philex share is valued at P20.45. This means that the Catholic Church’s holdings in the company are valued at P65,872,210.75; P86,233,641.80; and P22,825,206.15 respectively, or a total of P174,931,058.70.

In BPI’s list of its top 100 stockholders as of 31 March 2011, at least eleven were obviously Catholic entities. The worth of these stocks amounts to many billions of pesos (computed at P57.05 per share according to the 27 May PSE Market Information). These were (according to ranking and number of stocks owned):

• 4 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila with 222,843,681 shares worth P12,713,232,001;

• 8 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (Real Casa de Misericordia) with 41,408,841 shares worth P2,362,374,379;

• 13 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (Hospital de San Juan de Dios) with 22,072,182 shares worth P1,259,217,983;

• 15 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (Hospicio de San Jose) with 6,016,624 shares worth P343,248,399;

• 17 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (Hosp de San Juan de Dios) with 4,285,572 shares worth P244,491,882;

• 21 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (Mayordomia dela Catedral) with 2,664,266 shares worth P151,996,375;

• 26 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (St. Paul’s Hospital) with 1,772,418 shares worth P101,116,447;

• 49 Carmel of the Divine Infant Jesus of Prague, Inc (Filipino) with 726,819 shares worth P41,465,024;

• 60 Superior dela Corporacion Filipina de Padres Agustinos Recoletos, Inc. with 551,382 shares worth P31,456,343;

• 64 Roman Catholic Archbishop of Jaro with 491,385 shares worth P28,033,514; and

• 74 Corporacion de Padres Dominicos with 380,307 shares worth P21,696,514.

The staggering amount of RCC money in BPI alone totals P17.3 billion pesos. Add its Philex holdings and the total is 17.5 BILLION PESOS. This huge amount in only two corporations! It will not be surprising if the Catholic Church has a lot more money in other big corporations.

With this alone, the Roman Catholic Church already becomes the 9th richest in the country dislodging Emilio Yap, Manila Hotel and Manila Bulletin owner and Oscar Lopez of Benpres Holdings Corporation.

Let’s imagine what this kind of money can do.

P17.5 billion pesos is more than half of the total budget of the Department of Health which is P31.8 billion. The department’s budget is supposed to serve more than 90 million Filipinos. We can only guess how many hospitals can be better equipped, how many doctors and nurses can be hired, and eventually, how many lives can be saved if only the Church decides to put this money in people’s health —even only in Catholic people’s health.

The National Statistical Coordination Board estimates that there are about four million families living in poverty and each needs P7,017.00 monthly to stay out of poverty. Instantly, the Catholic church is in a very good position to remove about 2.5 million families from poverty!

The Church positions itself as the vanguard of morality. Yet, while it sits on at least P17.5 billion, it continues to solicit donations from the poor instead of helping them have a better life. The Church proclaims itself as the protector of life. Yet it doesn’t use its billions to save the Catholic poor from hunger, sickness, and death.

Why don’t we see anything wrong with the bishop in all his finery standing beside the Catholic beggar? Is it really acceptable that cathedrals are in the same community of Catholic slum dwellers?

When will the Roman Catholic Church realize that as the multi-billionaire church of the millions of poor Filipino Catholics, it is its moral responsibility to substantially help its flock?

eangsioco@yahoo.com

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?

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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On his blog, Mr Abe Arganiosa posed this question:

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?