REMEMBERING +RATZINGER 2003: ¨I hasten to assure¨ with ¨heartfelt prayers¨ a ¨sense¨ for exclusion and schism at The Episcopal Church?

Pope Benedict XVI, the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

The ¨Good Old Daze/Days¨ were busy for Cardinal Ratzinger as he ¨cheered¨ American Anglican Council actions of discord, distraction/destruction, endless unhappiness (up to today), poaching/thievery, lack of LOVE/UNITY and inner-denominational-ill-will and gross deceit at The Episcopal Church and throughout many Provinces of the Anglican Communion.

One American Anglican Council ¨Sugar Daddy/Benefactor¨ Howard Ahmanson Jr and ¨Following the Money¨ HERE

NOTE: Howard Ahmanson turns out to be the primary contributor of the AAC. He has pledged $200,000 annually to the organization. There was discussion to add his name to the letterhead of the AAC, but cooler heads prevailed. It would not be wise to allow such a blatant connection between the AAC and an extremist. Instead, Roberta Ahmanson, Howard's wife, was appointed to the board of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. The IRD happens to share an suite of office in Washington DC with the AAC. The IRD is notorious among most of the mainline denominations as advocates for conservative movements, with their clear agenda being to be a subversive element, until they can get their own right wing candidates in positions of authority within the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal and Lutheran churches. HERE

Setting the stage for ¨Pillagers in Purple¨

NOTE:We occasionally hear of some Episcopal parish that is upset with the Episcopal Church over one thing or another deciding to break with the Church. These sad stories are nothing new. There's never been a time in the history of the Church when one group or another didn't attempt to sever the ties that bound the body together. So it goes when frail and flawed humans seek purity. As we all know, the Church could be a wonderful and holy place, if it wasn't for all those damn people! The only pure Church would be an empty one; but of course then it wouldn't be the Church, would it? HERE

ENTER: JOSEPH CARDINAL RATZINGER letter to American Anglican Council´s ¨A Place to Stand¨ Conference in Dallas, October 8, 2003

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Vatican's top theologian and Pope John Paul II's advisor, sent a letter of support on behalf of the Pope to those gathered at the American Anglican Council's "A Place to Stand: Declaring, Preparing" locked down/out anti-LGBT Clergy SCHISM PLANNING conference in Dallas/Plano, Texas. Clearly a holy and ¨love thy neighbor¨ type guy.

The letter:

From Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Vatican, on Behalf of Pope John Paul II

I hasten to assure you of my heartfelt prayers for all those taking part in this convocation. The significance of your meeting is sensed far beyond Plano, and even in this City from which Saint Augustine of Canterbury was sent to confirm and strengthen the preaching of Christ's Gospel in England. Nor can I fail to recall that barely 120 years later, Saint Boniface brought that same Christian faith from England to my own forebears in Germany.

The lives of these saints show us how in the Church of Christ there is a unity in truth and a communion of grace which transcend the borders of any nation. With this in mind, I pray in particular that God's will may be done by all those who seek that unity in the truth, the gift of Christ himself.

With fraternal regards, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

FAST FORWARD: January 15, 2010, As Pope Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

Pope defends invitation to Anglicans to join Catholic Church as ‘ultimate aim’ of ecumenism

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI defended his decision to invite disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic Church en masse, saying Friday it was the “ultimate aim” of ecumenism.

Benedict told members of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the invitation wasn’t an attack on the church’s reunification efforts with other Christians but was rather designed to help them by bringing about “full and visible communion.”

The Vatican in October announced it was making it easier for traditional Anglicans upset over women priests and gay bishops to join the Catholic Church while retaining many of their Anglican traditions, including married priests. HERE


Rescue Catholicism from the Vatican

¨...Pope Benedict XVI has denounced the predator priests with due severity, but he cannot credibly chastise their enabler bishops because he has been one of them... HERE

·Thanks to Fr. Jake Stops the World, sidebar
·Thanks to The Episcopal Cafe, sidebar
·Thanks to The Episcopal Church diocese of Washington D.C.
·Thanks to Jim Naughton
·Thanks to The Boston Globe
·Thanks to James Carroll
·Thanks to Flickr Photosharing

Resurrection, Renewal, Grace and other Miracles: The Gifts of God include learning how ¨to be¨

A Easter testimonial to renewed life

It was a couple of weeks before Christmas 1978 and I was a 35 year old guy sprawled out on the floor in my living room very late at night/into morning. I was wired, depressed, anxious and I had been tossing and turning in bed earlier. I couldn't sleep...I was drunk, I was miserable, I was lonely, I felt deathly sick.

I went downstairs to drink more to passout because I had to go to work the next day.

I felt isolated and scared and the booze hadn't been "working" as well in recent years as it had before. I was alone. I was neurotic and felt the end of my life was closing in. I had failed to become the person I was striving so hard to be for all those years of memory...I wanted to die but I was afraid I would die. I wanted to kill myself but I couldn't and wouldn't and I knew I shouldn't...I was a disgusting coward too in my opinion. It was all very confusing and it was a ugly and depressing low/dark emotional "place" where I had "been" before. Except: After 17 years of non-stop alcoholic "social drinking" (since College) there was no longer anywhere left to hide from the real me or from anyone else either...the message was clearer by the moment and I was trapped in the split-second-of-clarity and reality of seeing the ruined person I had become...not the person I "pretended" (exhausting) and wanted to be...my focus was on the drunk that was me. No more denial...no place to run and hide in drinks, drugs or romance(?)...I finally could see what had become of me...it was like standing naked in front of a full length ¨fun house¨ mirror of creeping dark memories. I needed to drink more...I did.

That night I knew for certain I wasn't the person I insisted I *was* (or at least pushed so hard to be)...I was clearly only a self-loathing mess that had been incapable of being honest with himself or anyone else...especially anyone else that I desperately wanted to be "close" to. I knew the *kind* of person I wanted to love and have as a partner would never love the pathetic and drunken me. I was twisted, sick and not "good enough" and I didn't know how to escape from the fear, anger, lonliness, longing, endless striving and self hate...I had to keep trying to drink those feelings/fears away...selfpity running wild! I drank more.

I never could stop drinking for any long period of time since College. I needed alcohol to help me live ¨freely¨ and without restraint. I was a frightened and a sick-and-tired single Gay man who felt guilt, despair and tried to cover my deep insecurities/shame with illusions of feeling good/right. I felt "second class" all though I always insisted I was "first" and never wanted anyone to know who/how I really was. I had bad hangovers everyday and I didn't want anyone to know about them either so I tried to act "normal"...that was hard when I thought I was dying inside most every morning at work. I had terrible anxiety! My solution for curing hangovers was to drink more at lunchtime and take traquilizers too. Inside of me on that December 13th early morning, on my living room floor, it was my souls voice crying out for God to SAVE me from *this*...I meant it this time...I meant it more than ever before but I had cried out to God before too. I drank more.

There was no longer a way out from under even though I had a good job, looked fine, had friends and plenty of "stuff." The party was over and I kept drinking more and I wanted to die...I was very emotional and physically sick. I drank a little more.

I had reached my "falling off place" of my life and I instinctively knew it. I was terrified. Worse and incomprehensible demoralization was next and I felt it.

One more drink should make all the fear go away. I drank it.

Alcohol, over-striving/wanting to learn how ¨to be¨ and defensive arrogance had told me they were my best friends all during my young adult life. I was a survivor up to that moment. I believed whispering voices in my head when they told me I must fight hard to "be someone." That night I felt betrayed by best thinking. My self-hatred wouldn't go away...I didn't know it but my self-deceiving days were almost over at that moment too!

I pretended "I" was ¨normal.¨ I'm fine! Everything is O.K.! "It" wasn't! I wasn't! The alcohol didn't/wouldn't work anymore and I was falling out/drinking out of control (the first time in my life I couldn´t stop drinking each day).

Panic attack! The truth wouldn't go away....I was a out-of-control and sick alcoholic who had to have yet one more drink. I drank it.

Then, the miracle occured! "It" was over! The drunken out-of-control drinking was gone! I slept. I didn't drink anymore! It was the end of my active alcoholism! I'd received the gift of sobriety and I didn't drink anymore...right there on my living room floor pleading with God!

My seventeen year long alcoholic obsession was "lifted" from me on my that floor December 13, 1978. It was early in the morning and I was "dead" drunk. I staggered upstairs, I went to bed, I woke up and went to work...the God of my understanding graced me with sobriety...I didn't finish the rest of that last drink.

I went to a 12 Step Group about a week later because a co-worker asked me "did you stop drinking?" (I was annoyed she noticed). I said "yes" and then she told me "you will drink again if you don't come with me and get support at meetings." Mary was 27 years old, a stunning platinum blond and 3 years sober and clean.

I knew me, I knew Mary L. was right as I had never been able to stop drinking before.

How did I recover? What about my recovery?

I was afraid I would drink. I DID know me. My attitude about ¨meetings¨ was not good but I got myself to them and I stayed through them...I remained in my ¨recovery¨ seat and listened to a lot of stuff about the 12 Steps that I didn't think really applied to me...afterall, I was gainfully employed and I was such a splendid fellow (forgetting of course how drastically damaged and emotionally sick/suicidal I had felt just a week before)...I mean, for as many years as I could remember I was ALWAYS trying to regroup, be *someone*, be beloved by friends/associates, be more handsome, taller and richer and well liked...I was never the person that I actually was/am.

I couldn't stand the thought of a glimpse of PERSONAL REALITY (well, I could if I was the not-so-silent victim that I pretended to be, regularly) especially as the active alcoholism took me to some intimacies where I CERTAINLY didn't ever intentionally want to GO and my REAL opinion of myself was one of self-loathing and unhappy/panic-stricken desperation sometimes I shuddered after my antics...what had I become? Was there a core of decency still perking inside me?

So, in my case it took plenty of time for clarity to set-in and the fog of years of active alcoholism to ¨lift¨...I simply "kept coming back" to meetings and for a very long time (maybe a couple of years before I "liked" the meetings, and never ¨loved¨ them like other people said they did) as I didn't want to be at Meetings even though people were very nice/helpful/respectful to me and I was FEELING GREAT and doing well. I was frazzled and disoriented when it came to HOW it WORKED for me specifically (I could see that many of YOU needed the "searching and fearless moral inventories" though, of course some of the others did because they were telling truths about themselves and I noted they were quite nuts).

I needed to heal and clear physically and THEN I got more glimpses of me emotionally as I lived in the world of new and unfolding REALITY that was happening around me...the REAL world with REAL feelings connected to REAL daily life...all of my feelings started appearing within me and there was no where for me to hide...well, there was my NEW, and successful, job after one year sobriety that consumed me for over eight years BUT in the end that wouldn´t cover my feelings either and I was back to emptiness and frustration after a very successful working/living experience.

I was POWERLESS over more than alcohol I was powerless over trying to HIDE from life and accepting the REAL me (however in the meantime I had deep revelations regarding aspects of my sexuality)...I had to keep working the 12 Steps with a NEW vitality after a partner was murdered...I had to find out who was/is, in fact the REAL me and not some conjured-up, make-shift, for-appearances-only human creature that I had shaped into trying to be a more idealized version of me...I learned how to cry, naturally. ALL of me was the quest, all means all...and that is what I RECEIVED FREE and what was delivered to me through the process of my LIVING ROOM MIRACLE, LIVING MY LIFE SOBER, attending Meetings, Listening to others (everywhere), being of Service (especially in small and anonymous ways), allowing myself to make all the choices that I wanted to make (and then remaining sober through the outcome of those choices), Reviewing the 12 Steps (suggestions only as the orginators realized ¨we know but a little¨) but most through the Grace of God because, trust me, I didn´t know how to NOT DRINK.

I've had the benefit of wonderful sponsors/guides turned dear friends over the years...several of them have died...sober. I always ask people to be my sponsor who have longtime sobriety and appear to be cheerful and somewhat "happy, joyous and free." I don't like overzealous know-it-all types and I don't like dictators or feardriven advisors who won´t face life outside of their pre-recorded ¨safety zone¨ or grandstanding ¨old timers¨...I like REAL not-so-everyday people with good intentions who are responsible and helpful to others by sharing of themselves and their REAL life experiences, their strengths/vulnerabilities and hopes.

I discovered what I was always reaching/striving/pushing for was to learn how to be the authentic me that God created me to be...I had never learned how to just ¨be¨ me...now I know and I would have drank/used anything to feel as self-knowing and complete as the person I am today.

Thanks be to God I was saved from the ¨lost soul¨ addicted version of me.

¨The Episcopal Church Welcomes Everyone¨

·Thanks to David Green for the Pride/Episcopal Shield
·Thanks to Mary L. (wherever she may be)
·Thanks to Spiritual Advisors (of every stripe)

EASTER 2010: Resurrection is STILL the rising again from the dead, the resumption of life.

The Resurrection of Christ by Pierro della Francesca

In the Christian Gospels, the Resurrection of Jesus was the return to bodily life of Jesus after his death by crucifixion. The Resurrection of Jesus is not to be confused with the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Christian doctrine, ritual and theology are based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus being actual events in history.[1] Most Christians accept the New Testament chronicle in all four Gospels as a historical account of Jesus' resurrection which is central to their faith. The New Testament states that after Jesus was executed by Roman crucifixion and entombed, he then was raised from the dead on the third day.[Jn 19:30–31] [Mk 16:1] [16:6] His empty tomb was found by his followers.[Mt 28:1-7] [Mk 16:1-8] [6:3] [Lk 24:1-12] [Jn 20:1-12] He appeared to many people over a span of forty days[Acts 1:3] before his return to heaven (Ascension).[Acts 1:9-10] Christians commemorate these events annually from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day. HERE

· Thanks to Wikipedia

Jesus Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the disciples spent Holy Saturday weeping for the Crucified Christ as He lay buried in a borrowed tomb

Michelangelo, 1499, Marble, Dimensions 174 cm × 195 cm (68.5 in × 76.8 in), St. Peter's Basilica

This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. The theme is of Northern origin, popular by that time in France but not yet in Italy. Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unique to the precedents. It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one of the most highly finished works by Michelangelo

The Madonna is represented as being very young, and about this peculiarity there are different interpretations. One is that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity, as Michelangelo himself said to his biographer and fellow sculptor Ascanio Condivi:

Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?

Another explanation suggests that Michelangelo's treatment of the subject was influenced by his passion for Dante's Divina Commedia: so well-acquainted was he with the work that when he went to Bologna he paid for hospitality by reciting verses from it. In Paradiso (cantica 33 of the poem) Saint Bernard, in a prayer for the Virgin Mary, says "Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio" (Virgin mother, daughter of your son). This is said because, being that Christ is one of the three figures of Trinity, Mary would be his daughter, but it is also she who bore him.

A third interpretation is that suggested by Condivi shortly after the passage quoted above: simply that "such freshness and flower of youth, besides being maintained in by natural means, were assisted by act of God".

Yet another exposition posits that the viewer is actually looking at an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Mary's youthful appearance and apparently serene facial expression, coupled with the position of the arms could suggest that she is seeing her child, while the viewer is seeing an image of the future.

Finally, one modern interpretation suggests that the smaller size of Christ helps to illustrate his feebleness while in his state of death; no longer living, he now appears small in his mother's arms.

Interpreting the sculpture in terms of its name, one might trace the origin: "The duty children owed their parents, termed pietas, was associated by Romans with the duty humans owed their gods" (James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity, Downers Grove, Ill. InterVarsity Press, 1999). HERE

Antigua, Guatemala, a Procession passes over the handmade ¨Alfombras¨ (colored sawdust, flowers, seeds)

A Holy Week procession is an event taking place in Holy Week, most often in a country with traditional Roman Catholic culture.

Palm Sunday: The day when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem.

Holy Thursday: The day when Jesus gave Last Supper with His Apostles, followed by the beginning of his passion.

Good Friday: Jesus' crucifixion, performed in 14 stations.

Holy Saturday: Loneliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the day that Jesus Christ's body lay in the tomb.

Easter Sunday: The resurrection of the Christ. HERE

·Thanks to Wikipedia
·Thanks to Antigua, Guatemala
·Thanks to Michelangelo

The Final Good Friday Procession just passed by

ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA, HOLY WEEK PASSION, PROCESSIONS and CREATIVITY

It´s after 10:00 P.M. Good Friday and a few minutes ago the final procession for today passed my door...hundreds of the faithful followed the brass band (playing mournful music) and the incense is still whafting to the heavens as dozens of men dressed (cucurucho´s) in Black Robes shoulder carried the huge ¨onda¨ with the Sculpture of Jesus being lowered from the cross on top.

¨There is an earthquake, tombs break open, and the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom...

...The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declares, "Truly this was God's Son!" (Matthew 27:45-54)

The Crucifiction of Christ, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1599-1660

BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS

According to the accounts in the Gospels, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by the Temple Guards through the guidance of his disciple, Judas Iscariot. Judas received money (30 pieces of silver) (Matthew 26:14-16) for betraying Jesus and told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest. Jesus is brought to the house of Annas, who is the father-in-law of the current high priest, Caiaphas. There he is interrogated with little result, and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest, where the Sanhedrin had assembled (John 18:1-24).

Conflicting testimony against Jesus is brought forth by many witnesses, to which Jesus answers nothing. Finally the high priest adjures Jesus to respond under solemn oath, saying "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?" Jesus testifies in the affirmative, "You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven." The high priest condemns Jesus for blasphemy, and the Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus concurs with a sentence of death (Matthew 26:57-66). Peter, waiting in the courtyard, also denies Jesus three times to bystanders while the interrogations were proceeding. Jesus already knew that Peter would deny him three times. See the article Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus regarding the two trials, one at night, the other in the morning and how their timing may affect the day of Good Friday.

In the morning, the whole assembly brings Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, under charges of subverting the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, and making himself a king (Luke 23:1-2). Pilate authorizes the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own Law and execute sentencing; however, the Jewish leaders reply that they are not allowed by the Romans to carry out a sentence of death (John 18:31).

Pilate questions Jesus, and tells the assembly that there is no basis for sentencing. Upon learning that Jesus is from Galilee, Pilate refers the case to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod, who was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Herod questions Jesus but receives no answer; Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate tells the assembly that neither he nor Herod have found guilt in Jesus; Pilate resolves to have Jesus whipped and released (Luke 23:3-16). Under the guidance of the chief priests, the crowd asks for Barabbas, who had been imprisoned for committing murder during an insurrection. Pilate asks what they would have him do with Jesus, and they demand, "Crucify him" (Mark 15:6-14). Pilate's wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day; she forewarns Pilate to "have nothing to do with this righteous man" (Matthew 27:19). Pilate has Jesus flogged, then brings him out to the crowd to release him. The chief priests inform Pilate of a new charge, demanding Jesus be sentenced to death "because he claimed to be God's son." This possibility filled Pilate with fear, and he brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came (John 19:1-9).

Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declares Jesus innocent, washing his own hands in water to show he has no part in this condemnation. Nevertheless, Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall a riot (Matthew 27:24-26) and ultimately to keep his job. The sentence written is "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Jesus carries his cross to the site of execution (assisted by Simon of Cyrene), called the place of the Skull, or "Golgotha" in Hebrew and in Latin "Calvary". There he is crucified along with two criminals (John 19:17-22).

Jesus agonizes on the cross for six hours. During his last 3 hours on the cross, from noon to 3pm, there is darkness over the whole land.[10] With a loud cry, Jesus gives up his spirit. There is an earthquake, tombs break open, and the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom. The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declares, "Truly this was God's Son!" (Matthew 27:45-54)

Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and secret follower of Jesus, who had not consented to his condemnation, goes to Pilate to request the body of Jesus (Luke 23:50-52). Another secret follower of Jesus and member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus brought about a hundred pound weight mixture of spices and helped wrap the body of Christ (John 19:39-40). Pilate asks confirmation from the centurion whether Jesus is dead (Mark 15:44). A soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a lance causing blood and water to flow out (John 19:34), and the centurion informs Pilate that Jesus is dead (Mark 15:45).

Joseph of Arimathea takes the body of Jesus, wraps it in a clean linen shroud, and places it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock (Matthew 27:59-60) in a garden near the site of crucifixion. Nicodemus (John 3:1) also came bringing 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and places them in the linen with the body of Jesus, according to Jewish burial customs (John 19:39-40). They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb (Matthew 27:60). Then they returned home and rested, because at sunset began Shabbat (Luke 23:54-56). On the third day, Sunday, which is now known as Easter Sunday (or Pascha), Jesus rose from the dead. HERE

· Thanks to Wikipedia

The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonour the body of the condemned.

Crucifixion was used for slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state...crucifixion was a most shameful and disgraceful way to die

Crucifixions/Ancient Rome

The hypothesis that the Ancient Roman custom of crucifixion may have developed out of a primitive custom of arbori suspendere - hanging on an arbor infelix (unfortunate tree) dedicated to the gods of the nether world — is rejected by William A. Oldfather, who shows that this form of execution (the supplicium more maiorum, punishment in accordance with the custom of our ancestors) consisted of suspending someone from a tree, not dedicated to any particular gods, and flogging him to death.[39] Tertullian mentions a first-century A.D. case in which trees were used for crucifixion,[40] but Seneca the Younger earlier used the phrase infelix lignum (unfortunate wood) for the transom ("patibulum") or the whole cross.[41] According to others, the Romans appear to have learned of crucifixion from the Carthaginians.[42]

Crucifixion was used for slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state. Therefore crucifixion was considered a most shameful and disgraceful way to die. Condemned Roman citizens were usually exempt from crucifixion (like feudal nobles from hanging, dying more honorably by decapitation) except for major crimes against the state, such as high treason.

Notorious mass crucifixions followed the Third Servile War in 73-71 BC (the slave rebellion under Spartacus), other Roman civil wars in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. To frighten other slaves from revolting, Crassus crucified 6,000 of Spartacus' men along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome.[43] Josephus tells a story of the Romans crucifying people along the walls of Jerusalem. He also says that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions. In Roman-style crucifixion, the condemned took days to die slowly from suffocation — caused by the condemned's blood-supply slowly draining away to a quantity insufficient to supply the required oxygen to vital organs. The dead body was left up for vultures and other birds to consume.

The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonour the body of the condemned. In ancient tradition, an honourable death required burial; leaving a body on the cross, so as to mutilate it and prevent its burial, was a grave dishonour.

Under ancient Roman penal practice, crucifixion was also a means of exhibiting the criminal’s low social status. It was the most dishonourable death imaginable, originally reserved for slaves, hence still called "supplicium servile" by Seneca, later extended to provincial freedmen of obscure station ('humiles'). The citizen class of Roman society were almost never subject to capital punishments; instead, they were fined or exiled. Josephus mentions Jews of high rank who were crucified, but this was to point out that their status had been taken away from them. The Romans often broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death and usually forbade burial.

A cruel prelude was scourging, which would cause the condemned to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock. The convict then usually had to carry the horizontal beam (patibulum in Latin) to the place of execution, but not necessarily the whole cross. Crucifixion was typically carried out by specialized teams, consisting of a commanding centurion and four soldiers. When it was done in an established place of execution, the vertical beam (stipes) could even be permanently embedded in the ground. The condemned was usually stripped naked — all the New Testament gospels describe soldiers gambling for the robes of Jesus. (Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, Luke 23:34, John 19:23-25)

The 'nails' were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 inches (13 to 18 cm) long, with a square shaft 3⁄8 inches (0.95 cm) across. In some cases, the nails were gathered afterwards and used as healing amulets. HERE

Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in 337 out of veneration for Jesus Christ, its most famous victim.

· Thanks to Wikipedia

ATTENTION: BIGOTS, BAFFOONS, SELF-RIGHTEOUS BISHOPS/ABUSERS and FEAR AND HATE MONGERS WORLDWIDE!

You Know Who You Are
HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!

REPENT!

ATTN BIGOTS, BISHOPS, BULLIES and BLOWHARDS:

Irresponsbile, self-righteous RELIGIOUS PEOPLE OF EVERY STRIPE TAKE NOTE:

You know EXACTLY ¨what you do¨ and ¨what you continue to do¨ without looking back as you demonize, persecute and become accessories to SLANDER, RAPE and MURDER at the Anglican Communion and beyond! IT´S about YOU and there is no place to hide as you spew selective Scriptural filth and intiate crimes of hate from the pulpit directed against LGBT Christians and others! REPENT!

Phoebe Price, Bullied to DEATH!

¨As a group of teens in Massachusetts face landmark charges for harassing 15-year-old Phoebe Prince so brutally she committed suicide, Lucinda Franks speaks to teen bullies and a pioneering teacher about why kids torment peers.¨

¨The indictment of the students yesterday who bullied a South Hadley, Massachusetts, girl into committing suicide is an almost unprecedented move by prosecutors against a phenomenon that has overpowered the nation’s schools. The South Hadley district attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel, not only charged nine girls and boys between the ages of 16 and 18 with crimes ranging from assault with a dangerous weapon to statutory rape, she implicated the South Hadley school staff, who simply watched as Phoebe Prince, a beautiful 15-year-old who emigrated with her family from Ireland, was brutally harassed for some six months.

In this recent rash of teen suicides, this was the first time bullies, who had mercilessly tortured their marks, have been brought into the adult world to be indicted. The only exception has been beatings that left the victim in critical condition, such as the recent atrocities that took place in South Florida: Fifteen-year-old Wayne Treacy was indicted for attempted murder after he beat 15-year-old Josie Lou Ratley into a coma over a dispute carried on over escalating text messages. Ironically, the message that set the boy off referred to his brother, who had committed suicide.¨ HERE

· Thanks to The Daily Beast, sidebar
· Thanks to by Lucinda Franks
· Thanks to Getty Images
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

The Vatican at loggerheads with critics: Holy See and the Church hierarchy in denial and out of touch?

Protesters call for Pope's resignation over alleged sex abuse cover up.


¨Palm Sunday worshippers were startled to face strong protests against the Pope and calls for his resignation as "an accomplice in sex crimes" outside London's Westminster Cathedral.

The demonstration by 50 members of secularist, women's and gay organisations accused the Pope of "covering up child sex abuse by Catholic clergy" and called him a "protector of paedophile priests".

Some congegants had sympathy with the protest, but others were angry at what they accused of being an attempt to create generalised anti-Catholic sentiment out of the current child abuse crisis - which has been growing in scale and strength in recent days.


The Vatican is now at loggerheads with many of its critics, who accuse the Holy See and the Church hierarchy of being completely out of touch and in denial about the depth of the problem.

Radical and progressive Catholics, themselves strongly critical of the Church leadership and calling for sweeping change, including a possible Vatican III Council, have been reluctant to ally with the style of the 'Protest the Pope' coalition.¨


To the National Catholic Reporter in the USA, he declared: "In his 24 years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from around the world, all cases of grave sexual offences by clerics had to be reported, under strictest secrecy ('secretum pontificum'), to his curial office, which was exclusively responsible for dealing with them. Ratzinger himself, in a letter on 'grave sexual crimes' addressed to all the bishops under the date of 18 May, 2001, warned the bishops, under threat of ecclesiastical punishment, to observe 'papal secrecy' in such cases. In his five years as Pope, Benedict XVI has done nothing to change this practice with all its fateful consequences."
HERE

Pope Benedict condemns 'petty gossip' over child sexual abuse scandal

Pope Benedict waves to pilgrims in St Peter's square as the start of mass to celebrate Palm Sunday.

¨Pope Benedict today risked inflaming opinion as he appeared to round on critics of the Catholic church over the widening sexual abuse scandal, saying he would not "be intimidated by ... petty gossip".

The 82-year-old pontiff led tens of thousands of people in a Palm Sunday service in St Peter's square. He did not mention the scandal engulfing the church directly, but parts of his sermon alluded to it.

The pope said that faith in God helped lead one "towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion".

He also spoke of how man can sometimes "fall to the lowest, vulgar levels" and "sink into the swamp of sin and dishonesty...¨ HERE

¨PETTY¨ ?!? Gossip?...Decades Global Child Sexual Abuse Victims...Coverups---¨PETTY¨ ?!? Conspiracy !?!

With all due respect- Insensitive? Kids Are Being Hurt!!! HERE

· Thanks to Ekklesia, United Kingdom
· Thanks to Getty Photo Images
· Thanks to The National Catholic Reporter
· Thanks to The Guardian, U.K.
· Thanks to Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images
· Thanks to Father Marty Jurylowicz
· Thanks to Thalamus Center, sidebar