veteranstoday--2020-03-17--Faking It At Fatima

Faking It At Fatima

worth looking at this particular example of how the Catholic Church operates and how truth becomes an early victim in its incessant search for spectacles to keep the faithful faithful and the money flowing in .
First a bit about ‘ miracles ’ in general .
The Catholic Church is notorious for using ‘ miracles ’ to convince its believers that it is the one true church , believing in the one true god and that it has a special relationship with the ruler and creator of the Universe .
The problem it has to overcome is the problem of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , so it needs trickery .
Experience has shown that ‘ miracles ’ are particular effective on the poor , uneducated and unsophisticated people who make up the bulk of Catholic congregations worldwide .
Miracles are especially useful for the Church because , by definition , there can be no physical contradictory evidence , just as there can be no physical evidence for them , because otherwise they wouldn ’ t be supernatural ‘ miracles ’ but perfectly natural events with perfectly natural explanations .
‘ Faith ’ fills the gap and renders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even , in some strange way , confirmation .
Favourite sites for these ‘ miracles ’ were formerly the remote rural areas of devoutly Catholic European countries such as Portugal , Spain , Italy and France , often involving children living in remote villages and farms .
Some miracles are of course ludicrous and easily debunked , but nevertheless the Church still holds to them so long as a steady trickle of credulous people keep coming along to worship , buy into the superstition , buy the tacky souvenirs and continue to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost laughable tale of the Cock of Barcelos ( O Galo de Barcelos ) from Portugal , the equally implausible and almost certain example of fraud from Spain , the ‘ Miracle of Calanda ’ or the ‘ Miracle of Miguel ’ s leg ’ about which I wrote here and the obvious trickery of the ‘ liquifaction ’ of the blood of San Gennaro in Naples that ‘ honest ’ Pope Francis has even faked for the crowds .
Very many of these ‘ miracles ’ , especially over the last couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manifestations of the Catholic demi-god , Mary , the alleged mother of Jesus who was promoted to the status of ‘ virgin ’ some time during the 3rd or 4th century CE as a device to get around the problem of inherited sin which would have made Jesus a sinner had his birth been natural .
Mary was also dogmatically declared to have been immaculately conceived when it was realised she would have inherited sin too had she been conceived naturally .
Over the centuries , as the Catholic Church came to realise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a female ; a perfect mother figure and epitome of female perfection , so ‘ the Virgin Mary ’ has been promoted to the point where many people see Catholicism as the cult of Mary worship in all but name , whilst still paying lip service to the idea of monotheism .
To this end , the Catholic Church has always been eager to promote Marian miracles .
Indeed , no modern miracle would be worthy of promotion unless Mary was involved somewhere .
One of these miracles was the so-called ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senhora de Fátima ) , which , along with that other Marian ‘ miracle ’ at Lourdes in France , is one of the more enduring Catholic miracles and still attracts vast crowds and generates vast amounts of money for the Church .
It is , of course , like all the others , a creation of the Catholic Church provided for those who crave confirmation for their ‘ unshakable ’ faith .
Briefly , on 13 May , 1917 , an uneducated peasant girl , 10 year-old Lúcia Santos , out tending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ da Iria ( Irene ’ s field ) , with her younger cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto , claimed she saw an apparition who called herself ‘ The Lady of The Rosary ’ .
The other two children never saw anything and Lúcia told them not to tell anyone .
However , Jacinta told her mother who , amused by their childish imagination , told her neighbours .
Soon , news of the ‘ miraculous apparition ’ spread round the village and attracted the attention of the the authorities .
At this point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ figure in all this , Lúcia de Jesus Santos : Born on March 22 , 1907 , to Antonio and Maria Rosa Santos , Lucia was the youngest of seven children .
Five years younger than her next-oldest sibling , Lucia was a petted and spoiled child .
Her sisters fostered in her a desire to be the center of attention by teaching her to dance and sing .
At festivals , Lucia would stand on a crate to entertain an adoring crowd .
Among her other talents was a gift for telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saints ’ legends—which made her popular with village children , as well as an ability to persuade others to do her bidding .
Two years before the famous series of apparitions occurred at Fatima , eight-year-old Lucia and three girlfriends claimed to have seen apparitions of a snow-white figure on three occasions .
Lucia ’ s mother called the experiences “ childish nonsense.
” The following year , Lucia , Francisco , and Jacinta were thrice visited by an “ angel.
” Lucia ’ s background is revealing .
The seeds of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her childhood experiences and in her obviously fantasy-prone personality.1 Her charismatic ability to influence others drew little Francisco and Jacinta into the Fatima fantasy .
As Zimdars-Swartz says of Lucia : It is clear that she played the leading role in the scenario of the apparition itself .
All accounts agree that she was the only one of the three seers to interact with both her vision and with the crowd , carrying on conversations with both while her two cousins stood by silently .
She has said , moreover , and probably @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been accustomed to follow her directives before the apparition began , that they turned to her for guidance afterwards , and that it was she who convinced them that they had to be very careful in their experiences .
( p.68 ) Further evidence that Lucia orchestrated the fantasy and manipulated the other children is provided by certain incidents .
For example , when Jacinta first told the story , she stated that the Virgin had said many things that she was unable to recall but “ which Lucia knows.
” Lucia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her precocious daughter was , in her words , “ nothing but a fake who is leading half the world astray ” ( pp .
71 , 86 ) .
Clearly , then , Lúcia Santos was a fantasist who , with her cousins , played the sort of fantasy games children play .
Her parents knew what she was like and dismissed her fantasies for what they were .
But there were other forces at work which latched onto her fantasy in this instance .
To understand that we need to consider @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that time , and in particular the political situation .
In the early 20th-century , revolutionary , republican , anti-monarchist , anti-ruling class movements were gaining influence across Europe and Portugal had elected a republican government seven years earlier in 1910 which had abolished the monarchy .
The Catholic Church , like other establishment churches , was closely allied with the ruling elite at that time believing that autocratic governments represented the ordained order as described by St Paul ( Romans 13:1-7 ) .
So far as the Church was concerned , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and had to be opposed by all means .
Power to the people would give control to the ‘ mob ’ and no-one knew what that would lead to .
This left-wing Portuguese government was becoming more anti-clerical as the Church meddled more and more in politics on the side of the forces of reaction , leading eventually to the first fascist coup d ’ état in Europe in 1926 , led by the devout Catholic and former seminarian , António de Oliveira Salazar , closely supported by Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira , his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promoted to Patriarch Cardinal of Lisbon for his efforts .
In effect , the social tensions and democratic threats to clerical power in Portugal at this time were resolved by installing a Catholic theocracy and abolishing democracy but in 1917 this issue was far from resolved and formed the backdrop to politics of the time .
Rightly or wrongly , the local administrator , seeing a political motive for the story , briefly arrested the three children , so creating even more attention to them and their story , but the girls stuck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to boil them in oil – which would not have been a serious threat in Portugal at that time .
But this gave even more credence to their story .
The republicans had something to fear so there was probably some substance to the children ’ s claims .
While there was no political motive in the children ’ s fantasy , there was very probably a political motive for the Church to latch onto it and elevate it to the status of a miracle to impress a truculent and rebellious population .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a good miracle .
What had started out as a childish fantasy had become bound up in Portuguese politics and the Church lost no time in promoting it as a cause celebre .
Apparently , the apparition had promised to return on the 13th of each month and had told Lúcia three secrets during her appearance on 13 July ( how children love secrets ! )
.
By July , the story was spreading that the apparition would perform a public miracle on her final appearance on 13 October 1917 .
Accordingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 people gathered to witness this ‘ miracle ’ which was to become known as the ‘ miracle of the Sun ’ .
The apparition dutifully appeared , but only to Lúcia , who , so she later claimed , saw light rising from the apparition ’ s hands as the Sun shone through the thin clouds which followed heavy rain earlier in the day , and called out to the crowd to “ look at the Sun !
” Significantly from a meteorological perspective , many in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followed depends a great deal on who reported it .
Some people described the Sun as spinning round like a wheel , others saw it changing colour while yet others reported seeing it dance and zig-zag across the sky and some saw the Sun advancing towards Earth , radiating heat as it did so .
Some even reported seeing white flower petals falling to Earth to disappear as they hit the ground .
Still others reported seeing nothing unusual .
None of this was witnessed anywhere else in Europe and for the Sun @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sky would actually entail Earth moving erratically in its rotation and orbit around the Sun – unless of course the Sun orbits Earth , as some uneducated people still believe .
In fact , of course , the meteorological conditions which give rise to high , thin cloud following heavy rain in October in Portugal are also the meteorological condition – an occluded cold front – which gives rise to high ice clouds with all their attendant optical effects such as strange coloured , shimmering sunlight .
In addition , staring at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make the Sun appear to move around .
It will also produce an ‘ afterimage ’ on the retina which will appear to move as the eyes move .
As high clouds move across the Sun ’ s disk , the Sun would be expected to get brighter and dimmer , appear to advance and recede , and the heat from it would be expected to rise and fall .
Pre-primed observers , expecting a miracle , will interpret almost anything as miraculous .
There is no common agreement about what the supposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crowd believed they saw a ‘ miracle ’ .
Sun ‘ miracles ’ are commonplace at supposed Marian miracle locations – Lubbock , Texas , in 1989 ; Mother Cabrini Shrine near Denver , Colorado , in 1992 ; Conyers , Georgia , early to mid-1990s ; and elsewhere , including Thiruvananthapuram , India , in 2008 .
For reason which probably aren ’ t hard to understand , witnesses are often required to stare at the Sun .
At the Colorado and India sites , many people suffered solar retinopathy , possibly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sun .
So , the ‘ miracle of the Sun ’ is easy to explain , especially when balancing the probability that the Sun really did all the things reported by the witnesses but this was completely unnoticed by the entire population of the sunlit portion of Earth at the time , that Earth underwent an erratic change in its rotation and solar orbit without anyone feeling the effects , as though Newtonian Laws of Motion had been suspended , or there was a natural explanation for all those differing eye-witness accounts in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and which read remarkably like accounts of normal meteorological phenomena and the effects of staring at the Sun .
Nevertheless , the Catholic Church prefers to claim that the ‘ miracle of the Sun ’ at Fatima really happened .
In an attempt to deal with the fact that no-one else anywhere in Europe saw anything remarkable happen to the Sun , Pope John XII bizarrely suddenly remembered in 1950 that he had seen the miracle himself thirty-three years earlier from the Vatican gardens .
So much for the ‘ Sun miracle ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secrets ’ which have become an essential ingredient in the whole Fatima miracle .
And this is where events and the role of the Vatican itself begins to get more than a little murky .
Despite her father being an Atheist and he mother not believing her fantasies , the Catholic authorities decided they had a valuable asset in the form of Lúcia Santos and the best thing to do with it was to shut her away in the Dorothean convent in Tui or Tuy , Galicia , Spain , where her contact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ controlled .
Sadly , her playmates and cousins , Jacinta and Francisco Marto , died in the ‘ Spanish flu ’ outbreak which swept the world between 1918 and 1920 , killing more people than the number who died in WWI .
Lúcia entered the convent as a 20 year-old in 1928 and was rarely seen in public again .
She was visited only by selected clerics .
A straightforward vision of Hell with which any Catholic of those times would have been familiar , and suitably frightening to sow fear into the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go .
To save them , God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart .
If what I say to you is done , many souls will be saved and there will be peace .
The war is going to end : but if people do not cease offending God , a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI .
When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light , know that this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he is about to punish the world for its crimes , by means of war , famine , and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father .
To prevent this , I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart , and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays .
If my requests are heeded , Russia will be converted , and there will be peace ; if not , she will spread her errors throughout the world , causing wars and persecutions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ martyred ; the Holy Father will have much to suffer ; various nations will be annihilated .
In the end , my Immaculate Heart will triumph .
The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me , and she shall be converted , and a period of peace will be granted to the world .
Something nasty might happen ‘ during the Pontificate of Pius XI ’ ( Pope from 1922 to 1939 ) and Russia is to be converted to Catholicism or else “ she will spread her errors throughout the world , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” .
Quite remarkable ‘ secrets ’ for 1917 you might think , and a definite prediction there of the name and regnal number of a future Pope .
How could this be ?
Clearly a miracle .
However , remember , that Lúcia Santos was barely educated and , as an 10 year-old with her younger cousins , was tending sheep .
Clearly , there was not much in the way of education for peasant girls in rural Portugal in those times .
In fact , these ‘ secrets ’ ( what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that is meant to warn the world and instruct us to take action ? )
were not written down until between 1935 and 1944 , some years after being shut away in a convent , well after the events they describe , and during the pontificate of Pius XI himself .
In fact , Lúcia never thought to inform the Vatican of the second ‘ secret ’ until 1941 , when Germany invaded the Soviet Union .
Given the politics of the time , this can be seen as a straight attempt to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing more and nothing less .
Catholics are to support the Nazis in overthrowing Soviet Communism and establishing a Catholic regime in Russia .
Although Portugal and Spain were both ostensibly neutral in WWII , they were certainly friendly to the Nazis and the Catholic Church was keen to find reasons to support German fascism just as it had Spanish , Portuguese , Hungarian and Czech fascism .
What better way to do this than to say the Virgin Mary had told them to ?
Not surprisingly , some see the sinister hand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ .
One little retrospective problem , however , is that Germany lost and Russia never did convert to Catholicism , not even after the collapse of Communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union .
It is to this day firmly in the Orthodox Christian camp that it has been in since becoming Christianised .
Have no fear though !
Having spotted this little problem of the Virgin Mary having apparently conveyed a false prophecy at Fatima , and having already venerated the ‘ miracle of the Sun ’ so obviously neither @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pope Pius XII saved the day by announcing that he had consecrated the whole human race to ‘ the Immaculate Heart of Mary ’ , and obviously that included Russia .
In 1936 and again in 1941 Lúcia remembered the apparition had told her her two companions were to die soon but she was to be kept alive to bring these important ‘ secrets ’ to the world .
Lúcia ’ s memory seems to have been quite similar to the memory of other ‘ prophets ’ and witnesses to miracles in that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more and more detail is remembered and especially after the events prophesied , rather like the memory of Monica Besra , the subject of and main witness to the miracle of the dead Mother Teresa ’ s wonderful curative powers , who at one time seemed to have forgotten all about the miracle until her poverty-induced amnesia was cured by a very large sum of money from the Vatican , at which point , astonishing details were remembered which she had already forgotten when she first related the magical cure for her ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amnesia is particularly noticeable when we compare what Lúcia said to the investigating canon Formigao a few days after the 13th October ‘ miracle ’ :

worth looking at this particular example of how the Catholic Church operates and how truth becomes an early victim in its incessant search for spectacles to keep the faithful faithful and the money flowing in.
First a bit about ‘miracles’ in general.
The Catholic Church is notorious for using ‘miracles’ to convince its believers that it is the one true church, believing in the one true god and that it has a special relationship with the ruler and creator of the Universe. The problem it has to overcome is the problem of having no evidence whatsoever for that claim, so it needs trickery. Experience has shown that ‘miracles’ are particular effective on the poor, uneducated and unsophisticated people who make up the bulk of Catholic congregations worldwide.
Miracles are especially useful for the Church because, by definition, there can be no physical contradictory evidence, just as there can be no physical evidence for them, because otherwise they wouldn’t be supernatural ‘miracles’ but perfectly natural events with perfectly natural explanations. ‘Faith’ fills the gap and renders the lack of evidence a mere inconvenience, even, in some strange way, confirmation.
Miracle. noun An extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency: Oxford Dictionaries The wonder of the miracle is due to the fact that its cause is hidden, and an effect is expected other than what actually takes place. Hence, by comparison with the ordinary course of things, the miracle is called extraordinary… A miracle is said to be above nature when the effect produced is above the native powers and forces in creatures of which the known laws of nature are the expression, as raising a dead man to life, e.g., Lazarus (John 11), the widow’s son (1 Kings 17). A miracle is said to be outside, or beside, nature when natural forces may have the power to produce the effect, at least in part, but could not of themselves alone have produced it in the way it was actually brought about. Thus the effect in abundance far exceeds the power of natural forces, or it takes place instantaneously without the means or processes which nature employs. The Catholic Encyclopedia (accessed 8 May 2015)
Favourite sites for these ‘miracles’ were formerly the remote rural areas of devoutly Catholic European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, often involving children living in remote villages and farms. Some miracles are of course ludicrous and easily debunked, but nevertheless the Church still holds to them so long as a steady trickle of credulous people keep coming along to worship, buy into the superstition, buy the tacky souvenirs and continue to donate money.
For example, the almost laughable tale of the Cock of Barcelos (O Galo de Barcelos) from Portugal, the equally implausible and almost certain example of fraud from Spain, the ‘Miracle of Calanda’ or the ‘Miracle of Miguel’s leg’ about which I wrote here and the obvious trickery of the ‘liquifaction’ of the blood of San Gennaro in Naples that ‘honest’ Pope Francis has even faked for the crowds.
Very many of these ‘miracles’, especially over the last couple of hundred years, have involved claimed manifestations of the Catholic demi-god, Mary, the alleged mother of Jesus who was promoted to the status of ‘virgin’ some time during the 3rd or 4th century CE as a device to get around the problem of inherited sin which would have made Jesus a sinner had his birth been natural. Mary was also dogmatically declared to have been immaculately conceived when it was realised she would have inherited sin too had she been conceived naturally.
Over the centuries, as the Catholic Church came to realise that what its pantheon of gods lacked was a female; a perfect mother figure and epitome of female perfection, so ‘the Virgin Mary’ has been promoted to the point where many people see Catholicism as the cult of Mary worship in all but name, whilst still paying lip service to the idea of monotheism. To this end, the Catholic Church has always been eager to promote Marian miracles. Indeed, no modern miracle would be worthy of promotion unless Mary was involved somewhere.
One of these miracles was the so-called ‘Our Lady of Fatima’ (Nossa Senhora de Fátima), which, along with that other Marian ‘miracle’ at Lourdes in France, is one of the more enduring Catholic miracles and still attracts vast crowds and generates vast amounts of money for the Church. It is, of course, like all the others, a creation of the Catholic Church provided for those who crave confirmation for their ‘unshakable’ faith.
Briefly, on 13 May, 1917, an uneducated peasant girl, 10 year-old Lúcia Santos, out tending sheep in a field known as Cova da Iria (Irene’s field), with her younger cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, claimed she saw an apparition who called herself ‘The Lady of The Rosary’. The other two children never saw anything and Lúcia told them not to tell anyone. However, Jacinta told her mother who, amused by their childish imagination, told her neighbours. Soon, news of the ‘miraculous apparition’ spread round the village and attracted the attention of the the authorities.
At this point it’s worth considering the central figure in all this, Lúcia de Jesus Santos:
Born on March 22, 1907, to Antonio and Maria Rosa Santos, Lucia was the youngest of seven children. Five years younger than her next-oldest sibling, Lucia was a petted and spoiled child. Her sisters fostered in her a desire to be the center of attention by teaching her to dance and sing. At festivals, Lucia would stand on a crate to entertain an adoring crowd. Among her other talents was a gift for telling stories—fairy tales, biblical narratives, and saints’ legends—which made her popular with village children, as well as an ability to persuade others to do her bidding. Two years before the famous series of apparitions occurred at Fatima, eight-year-old Lucia and three girlfriends claimed to have seen apparitions of a snow-white figure on three occasions. Lucia’s mother called the experiences “childish nonsense.” The following year, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta were thrice visited by an “angel.” Lucia’s background is revealing. The seeds of her later visionary encounters were clearly contained in her childhood experiences and in her obviously fantasy-prone personality.1 Her charismatic ability to influence others drew little Francisco and Jacinta into the Fatima fantasy. As Zimdars-Swartz says of Lucia: It is clear that she played the leading role in the scenario of the apparition itself. All accounts agree that she was the only one of the three seers to interact with both her vision and with the crowd, carrying on conversations with both while her two cousins stood by silently. She has said, moreover, and probably not incorrectly, that Francisco and Jacinta had been accustomed to follow her directives before the apparition began, that they turned to her for guidance afterwards, and that it was she who convinced them that they had to be very careful in their experiences. (p.68) Further evidence that Lucia orchestrated the fantasy and manipulated the other children is provided by certain incidents. For example, when Jacinta first told the story, she stated that the Virgin had said many things that she was unable to recall but “which Lucia knows.” Lucia’s own mother was convinced that her precocious daughter was, in her words, “nothing but a fake who is leading half the world astray” (pp. 71, 86). Zimdars-Swartz, Sandra L. 1991. Encountering Mary. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press Joe Nickell. The Real Secrets of Fatima
Clearly, then, Lúcia Santos was a fantasist who, with her cousins, played the sort of fantasy games children play. Her parents knew what she was like and dismissed her fantasies for what they were. But there were other forces at work which latched onto her fantasy in this instance. To understand that we need to consider the wider context of Portuguese society at that time, and in particular the political situation.
In the early 20th-century, revolutionary, republican, anti-monarchist, anti-ruling class movements were gaining influence across Europe and Portugal had elected a republican government seven years earlier in 1910 which had abolished the monarchy. The Catholic Church, like other establishment churches, was closely allied with the ruling elite at that time believing that autocratic governments represented the ordained order as described by St Paul (Romans 13:1-7). So far as the Church was concerned, the collapse of the old order was dangerous and had to be opposed by all means. Power to the people would give control to the ‘mob’ and no-one knew what that would lead to.
This left-wing Portuguese government was becoming more anti-clerical as the Church meddled more and more in politics on the side of the forces of reaction, leading eventually to the first fascist coup d’état in Europe in 1926, led by the devout Catholic and former seminarian, António de Oliveira Salazar, closely supported by Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, his room-mate in seminary, later to be promoted to Patriarch Cardinal of Lisbon for his efforts. In effect, the social tensions and democratic threats to clerical power in Portugal at this time were resolved by installing a Catholic theocracy and abolishing democracy but in 1917 this issue was far from resolved and formed the backdrop to politics of the time.
Rightly or wrongly, the local administrator, seeing a political motive for the story, briefly arrested the three children, so creating even more attention to them and their story, but the girls stuck to their story despite his reported threats to boil them in oil – which would not have been a serious threat in Portugal at that time. But this gave even more credence to their story. The republicans had something to fear so there was probably some substance to the children’s claims.
While there was no political motive in the children’s fantasy, there was very probably a political motive for the Church to latch onto it and elevate it to the status of a miracle to impress a truculent and rebellious population. Nothing brings the masses back into line like a good miracle. What had started out as a childish fantasy had become bound up in Portuguese politics and the Church lost no time in promoting it as a cause celebre.
Apparently, the apparition had promised to return on the 13th of each month and had told Lúcia three secrets during her appearance on 13 July (how children love secrets!). By July, the story was spreading that the apparition would perform a public miracle on her final appearance on 13 October 1917. Accordingly, a crowd variously estimated to be somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 people gathered to witness this ‘miracle’ which was to become known as the ‘miracle of the Sun’. The apparition dutifully appeared, but only to Lúcia, who, so she later claimed, saw light rising from the apparition’s hands as the Sun shone through the thin clouds which followed heavy rain earlier in the day, and called out to the crowd to “look at the Sun!” Significantly from a meteorological perspective, many in the crowd had umbrellas with them.
Page from Ilustração Portuguesa, 29 October 1917, showing the people looking at the Sun during the ‘miracle of the Sun’, Fátima. Source: Wikipedia – Our Lady of Fátima
What followed depends a great deal on who reported it. Some people described the Sun as spinning round like a wheel, others saw it changing colour while yet others reported seeing it dance and zig-zag across the sky and some saw the Sun advancing towards Earth, radiating heat as it did so. Some even reported seeing white flower petals falling to Earth to disappear as they hit the ground. Still others reported seeing nothing unusual. None of this was witnessed anywhere else in Europe and for the Sun to appear to move erratically around the sky would actually entail Earth moving erratically in its rotation and orbit around the Sun – unless of course the Sun orbits Earth, as some uneducated people still believe.
In fact, of course, the meteorological conditions which give rise to high, thin cloud following heavy rain in October in Portugal are also the meteorological condition – an occluded cold front – which gives rise to high ice clouds with all their attendant optical effects such as strange coloured, shimmering sunlight. In addition, staring at the Sun frequently produces optical disturbances which can make the Sun appear to move around. It will also produce an ‘afterimage’ on the retina which will appear to move as the eyes move. As high clouds move across the Sun’s disk, the Sun would be expected to get brighter and dimmer, appear to advance and recede, and the heat from it would be expected to rise and fall. Pre-primed observers, expecting a miracle, will interpret almost anything as miraculous. There is no common agreement about what the supposed phenomenon actually was but many in the crowd believed they saw a ‘miracle’.
Sun ‘miracles’ are commonplace at supposed Marian miracle locations – Lubbock, Texas, in 1989; Mother Cabrini Shrine near Denver, Colorado, in 1992; Conyers, Georgia, early to mid-1990s; and elsewhere, including Thiruvananthapuram, India, in 2008. For reason which probably aren’t hard to understand, witnesses are often required to stare at the Sun. At the Colorado and India sites, many people suffered solar retinopathy, possibly permanently, due to staring at the Sun.
So, the ‘miracle of the Sun’ is easy to explain, especially when balancing the probability that the Sun really did all the things reported by the witnesses but this was completely unnoticed by the entire population of the sunlit portion of Earth at the time, that Earth underwent an erratic change in its rotation and solar orbit without anyone feeling the effects, as though Newtonian Laws of Motion had been suspended, or there was a natural explanation for all those differing eye-witness accounts in an audience expecting to see a miracle and which read remarkably like accounts of normal meteorological phenomena and the effects of staring at the Sun.
Nevertheless, the Catholic Church prefers to claim that the ‘miracle of the Sun’ at Fatima really happened. In an attempt to deal with the fact that no-one else anywhere in Europe saw anything remarkable happen to the Sun, Pope John XII bizarrely suddenly remembered in 1950 that he had seen the miracle himself thirty-three years earlier from the Vatican gardens. So much for the ‘Sun miracle’.
That just leaves the ‘three secrets’ which have become an essential ingredient in the whole Fatima miracle. And this is where events and the role of the Vatican itself begins to get more than a little murky.
Despite her father being an Atheist and he mother not believing her fantasies, the Catholic authorities decided they had a valuable asset in the form of Lúcia Santos and the best thing to do with it was to shut her away in the Dorothean convent in Tui or Tuy, Galicia, Spain, where her contact with the outside world could be strictly controlled. Sadly, her playmates and cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, died in the ‘Spanish flu’ outbreak which swept the world between 1918 and 1920, killing more people than the number who died in WWI. Lúcia entered the convent as a 20 year-old in 1928 and was rarely seen in public again. She was visited only by selected clerics.
The First Secret
Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror. Credit: Wikipedia – Our Lady of Fátima
A straightforward vision of Hell with which any Catholic of those times would have been familiar, and suitably frightening to sow fear into the minds of doubters.
The Second Secret
You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. Credit: Wikipedia – Our Lady of Fátima
Something nasty might happen ‘during the Pontificate of Pius XI’ (Pope from 1922 to 1939) and Russia is to be converted to Catholicism or else “she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church”.
Quite remarkable ‘secrets’ for 1917 you might think, and a definite prediction there of the name and regnal number of a future Pope. How could this be? Clearly a miracle. However, remember, that Lúcia Santos was barely educated and, as an 10 year-old with her younger cousins, was tending sheep. Clearly, there was not much in the way of education for peasant girls in rural Portugal in those times. In fact, these ‘secrets’ (what’s the use of a secret that is meant to warn the world and instruct us to take action?) were not written down until between 1935 and 1944, some years after being shut away in a convent, well after the events they describe, and during the pontificate of Pius XI himself.
In fact, Lúcia never thought to inform the Vatican of the second ‘secret’ until 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Given the politics of the time, this can be seen as a straight attempt to give legitimacy to the Nazi invasion, nothing more and nothing less. Catholics are to support the Nazis in overthrowing Soviet Communism and establishing a Catholic regime in Russia. Although Portugal and Spain were both ostensibly neutral in WWII, they were certainly friendly to the Nazis and the Catholic Church was keen to find reasons to support German fascism just as it had Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian and Czech fascism. What better way to do this than to say the Virgin Mary had told them to? Not surprisingly, some see the sinister hand of the Vatican in this ‘secret’.
One little retrospective problem, however, is that Germany lost and Russia never did convert to Catholicism, not even after the collapse of Communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It is to this day firmly in the Orthodox Christian camp that it has been in since becoming Christianised. Have no fear though! Having spotted this little problem of the Virgin Mary having apparently conveyed a false prophecy at Fatima, and having already venerated the ‘miracle of the Sun’ so obviously neither Mary nor Lúcia could be wrong, Pope Pius XII saved the day by announcing that he had consecrated the whole human race to ‘the Immaculate Heart of Mary’, and obviously that included Russia.
Phew! Prophesy fulfilled, and all divine reputations intact.
In 1936 and again in 1941 Lúcia remembered the apparition had told her her two companions were to die soon but she was to be kept alive to bring these important ‘secrets’ to the world. Lúcia’s memory seems to have been quite similar to the memory of other ‘prophets’ and witnesses to miracles in that it tends to improve with time as more and more detail is remembered and especially after the events prophesied, rather like the memory of Monica Besra, the subject of and main witness to the miracle of the dead Mother Teresa’s wonderful curative powers, who at one time seemed to have forgotten all about the miracle until her poverty-induced amnesia was cured by a very large sum of money from the Vatican, at which point, astonishing details were remembered which she had already forgotten when she first related the magical cure for her (non-exitent) terminal cancer.
This reverse amnesia is particularly noticeable when we compare what Lúcia said to the investigating canon Formigao a few days after the 13th October ‘miracle’:


veteranstoday--2020-03-17--14 of the Most Absurd and Unforgivable Things the Catholic Church Has Ever Done

14 of the Most Absurd and Unforgivable Things the Catholic Church Has Ever Done It ’ s hard out here for a pope .
See , when it comes to religious history , the list of Catholic Church transgressions makes for pretty uncomfortable reading .
Despite exalting virtue and kindness in its teaching , Church leadership has spearheaded a long history of outright unforgivable Catholic actions .
You might remember some of these improprieties from school – the Inquisition , Joan of Arc , and the trial of Galileo should all ring a bell .
But not everything here is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back , there are a number of disturbing episodes from recent history .
Some of this repugnant behavior comes from Popes , some was Church-endorsed , and some , most unsettlingly , was just straight-up regular Church practice .
Dark Church history contains scandal after scandal rife with every vice and taboo you can imagine .
When the Church was at the height of its power ( at which point it was the most powerful organization in the Western world ) , it ’ s safe to say everything went to its head @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Church leaders seem to stubbornly resist adapting to changing morality and you ’ ve got a whole lot of unforgivable moments on our hands .
Systemically Covering Up Tens Of Thousands Of Cases Involving Sexual Misconduct Remember the time there was a systematic cover up of abuse , molestation , and rape at the hands of priests that went all the way to the top of the Church ?
A conservative estimate says there were 17,200 victims in the US alone , and this type of mistreatment happened world-wide .
When complaints came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transferred , rather than punished .
The extent of their actions will probably never be fully understood , because of the decades of cover up .
But the Church isn ’ t denying it anymore .
The archdiocese of Milwaukee acknowledged the severity of the issue and agreed to pay a $ 21 million settlement to 300 victims .
But these types of settlements are few and far between .
Luckily , Pope Francis has set up a tribunal to hold the bishops who facilitated the cover up to account .
The molestation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hands of priests , 15 years after the Boston Globe broke the story .
In fact , in August 2018 , a grand jury reported that internal documents from six Pennsylvanian dioceses noted that over 300 “ predator priests ” were “ credibly accused ” ( a seemingly subjective accusation acknowledgement based on the discretion of individual dioceses ) of harming more than 1,000 child victims ; the alleged violations go as far back as 1947 .
Due to statute of limitations , only two priests were charged with abusing minors .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ publicly acknowledged the systemic maltreatment and vowed to combat the problem .
He said , “ I think that it ’ s continuing because it ’ s not like once you realize it that it stops .
It continues .
And for some time we ’ ve been working on it.
” The International Union of Superiors General has used the uprising of the # metoo movement to denounce the “ culture of silence and secrecy.
” With the support of Pope Francis and the pushback from the community of international female superiors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ working on ” overcoming the years of sexual mistreatment by persons in power .
The Crusades ; Or , Incapacitating Jews And Muslims For 300 Years In 1095 , when Pope Urban II made a plea for war with Muslims , armies of Christians in Western Europe took up the charge .
The pope promised serfs freedom if they went , galvanizing the masses .
In the First Crusade , an army of peasants led by Peter the Hermit was massacred by the Turks .
When an army of knights went after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said they massacred Muslims until the streets ran with blood .
This was only the beginning .
Waves of the Crusades continued until 1396 , marking three centuries of warfare , and incalculable human suffering .
Catholics definitely weren ’ t the only religion involved in this mass violence , but Pope Urban II got the ball rolling .
Here ’ s a nice juicy summary of the sordid catastrophe : “ Taking the heads of slain enemies and impaling them upon pikes appears to have been a favorite pastime among crusaders .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ who referred to the impaled heads of slain Muslims as a joyful spectacle for the people of God .
When Muslim cities were captured by Christian crusaders , it was standard operating procedure for all inhabitants , no matter what their age , to be summarily killed .
It is not an exaggeration to say that the streets ran red with blood as Christians reveled in church-sanctioned horrors .
Jews who took refuge in their synagogues would be burned alive , not unlike the treatment they received in Europe.
” Pretty Much Everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re such an evil pope Dante reserves you a spot in the Eight Circle of Hell , you definitely get a place on this list ( and are probably laughing in heaven right now at the filthy plebs who deigned write this ) .
It ’ s amazing to think people of this nature were endorsed by the Catholic Church , let alone elected to lead the organization .
Boniface VIII ( 1230 -1303 ) was guilty of many horrible crimes that , sum total , make him seem like a sadistic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he oversaw the complete destruction of Palestrina , a city that peacefully surrendered .
Palestrina was completely razed , and Boniface ordered a plow driven over it to prove it had been reduced to nothing but earth and rubble .
You know priests take a vow of celibacy , right ?
Apparently , Boniface VIII didn ’ t take his too seriously .
He once had a three-way with a married woman and her daughter , but was even more well known for saying that having sex with young boys was as natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So , obviously , he was raping ( or at least fornicating with ) , children .
To celebrate his many great accomplishments , Boniface VIII just loved erecting statutes of himself .
So add hubris to his list of sins .
Burning Joan Of Arc For Dressing Like A Man You may know Joan of Arc as a saint , but the Church didn ’ t always hold her in such high esteem .
In fact , at one time , she was pretty much the Catholic Church ’ s public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 17-year-old Joan of Arc , believing God had spoken to her , instigated an uprising to get the English out of France , but some high-powered Catholics who sympathized with the English weren ’ t pleased .
French king Charles VII wisely accepted Joan ’ s help in his fight against the English , and together , they won some major battles .
When Joan was captured , Charles VII , unsure of whether he trusted her as an emissary of God , handed her over to the Church , which did what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trial for heresy with no evidence .
To make things one step more ridiculous , Joan was denied counsel , which was against Church rules .
Despite this , she is famed for remaining cool , calm , and dripping with integrity throughout the trial .
Because there was no evidence of heresy , Joan was found guilty of one of the 70+ other charges brought against her , wearing men ’ s clothes , for which she was burned at the stake in 1431 in front of a crowd of thousands .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and did .
In 1456 , Charles VII ordered an investigation into Joan ’ s trial .
The result ?
She was declared innocent and made a martyr .
The Church followed suit and , in 1920 , canonized her .
Talk about a change of heart .
Maybe since all male Church officials were dresses they pretend are robes , they decided it was okay for Joan to dress a little butch .
Burning William Tyndale For Making A Vernacular Bible For The Masses You ’ d think the Church would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ text a main priority .
As it turns out , in the 16th century , this was the last thing powerful Catholics wanted .
Scholar William Tyndale , on the other hand , wanted this so badly he went into hiding to translate the Bible into English , so lay people could read it for themselves .
The Church was not happy about this , and when copies were smuggled around Europe , Catholic authorities demanded they be burned .
And what of Tyndale ?
He was captured , tried for heresy for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the stake .
When Church authorities decided printing Bibles in English was okay , they borrowed a whole lot from Tyndale ’ s translation .
And never apologized .
Slaying Countless Women As Witches Because Pope Innocent VII Was Paranoid The Catholic Church wasn ’ t the only group involved in witch hunts , but it kicked things off with Malleus Maleficarum ( Hammer of Witches ) , a doozy of a book written in 1487 , after Pope Innocent VIII declared , by papal bull , witches were real and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Satan ) .
He wanted that sh*t investigated stat , so clergymen Johann Sprenger and Heinrich Krämer ( using his Latin name , Henricus Institoris ) took up the call and literally wrote the book on witches , Satanists ( which were invented for this book ) , and hunts thereof .
And boy , was it a success .
It was so popular that , for 200 years , it was second only to the Bible on the sales charts .
The problem ?
Well , for one , the book was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ women , promoting burning them at the stake , a common punishment for heretics .
So who knows how many deaths it inspired ; its influence was too huge to quantify .
The book is also filled with somewhat dubious information , such as the following facts about witches and Satanists : they stop cows from giving milk ; they rode through the air on broomsticks on their way to forest orgies ; they ate infants .
Absolving Sins For Cash Payments , Including Sins Not Yet Committed If one bit of Catholic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in high school , there ’ s a good chance it was the selling of indulgences and Martin Luther ’ s reformation .
Now synonymous with money-grubbing , the idea of an indulgence isn ’ t so bad in theory .
According to Church doctrine , “ [ an ] indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven , which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain defined conditions through the Church ’ s help when , as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ and the saints.
” In the 16th century , however , indulgences got out of hand .
Pope Leo X had expensive taste and wasn ’ t above using shady means to satisfy it .
Indulgences were peddled as “ pay X to absolve you of Y.
” Basically , money gets you into heaven .
To give some indication of how crazy things got , Dominican friar John Teztel was named Grand Commissioner of indulgences in Germany ( so , overseeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where he sold absolution for future sins .
So : “ Hey , give us some gold , it ’ s all good if you kill that dude next week.
” If you were poor and ignorant , as most poor people in the period probably were , you basically just believed you were hopelessly f*cked and did your best to prepare for an eternity spent frolicking in the torments of hell .
So what happened ?
Martin Luther , none too pleased , wrote his 95 Theses , effectively kick starting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Knights Templar To Appease A Broke King Made famous again by The Da Vinci Code , the Knights Templar , a stateless military fraternity assembled to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land , were the subject of gossip a long time ago .
They were endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1129 , and were famous valorous service in the Crusades .
They were also really good with money , which shouldn ’ t have been a problem , but King Philip IV of France owed them ( and others ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took advantage of growing fear of the Knight Templar ’ s power and pressured the Church into dropping the mighty anvil of god down on them .
What the Church did next wasn ’ t great .
In 1307 , Pope Clement V had members arrested and tortured , gaining false confessions of heresy .
In fact , he got enough such confessions to justify disbanding the order in 1312 .
Various Knights confessed to spitting on the cross , fraud , and secrecy ( which was apparently a crime ? )
, @ @ @ @ @ @ @ torture and were recanted afterward .
Archbishop of Sens Philippe de Marigny , who ran an investigation into the Knights , had dozens burned at the stake .
A fine repayment for all of that fighting in the crusades .
In 2007 , a secret document showing Pope Clement V absolved the Knights before later deciding to disband them was published .
Historians believe this document provides essential proof that the Church caved under King Phillip ’ s pressure .
Good news for the Knight ’ s integrity , bad news for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Years After He Passed Because He Upset Some Important Catholics As if having your enemies killed wasn ’ t enough , Catholics got ta burn the corpses , too .
What gives ?
Trying to outdo what the Romans did to JC ?
John Wycliffe ( 1320 – 1384 ) , famous English theologian and vocal critic of the Church , was a forerunner of the Reformation .
Among his many criticisms was a belief the Church should give up its worldly possessions .
As you can imagine , not an idea the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Wycliffe also promoted and worked on the first English translation of the Bible , hoping to give people direct access to the word of god .
Again , not a fun idea for the Church , which liked its monopoly on power .
William Courtenay , Archbishop of Canterbury , made moves against Wycliffe after retiring ( got ta stay busy ) .
Wycliffe ’ s writings were banned in certain areas , but it didn ’ t end there .
It didn ’ t even end when Wycliffe died of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1415 ( 31 years after he died ) , the Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic .
Not only did they order his books burned , they ordered his body exhumed and burned .
And it took them 12 years to do that .
So , 43 years after Wycliffe died , his corpse was torched and his ashes thrown in the River Swift .
So much for resting in peace .
Executing Jan Hus For Working Out Some Tricky Theological Philosophy The Church tends to be pretty brutal with its critics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hus , born 1372 , is one of the best ( or worst ) examples .
A Czech priest , Hus felt the Church , run by humans , who are by nature flawed , must necessarily also therefore be flawed , while the Bible , the direct word of God , had no flaws .
He was , therefore , openly critical of Church practices , especially the papal schism and indulgence sales .
So , not very happy with Hus , the Church convened the Council of Constance and invited him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about , just a wee chat .
Or so they said .
Instead of having that wee chat , the Council arrested Hus and put him on trial ( and then in jail ) for , you guessed it , heresy .
He was kept in a dungeon and , when he refused to recant his teachings , was sentenced to death .
The Church even refused him his last rights before burning him at the stake .
And to think they said they just wanted to talk .
The Joust Of Whores @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Whores is just one example of the corrupt and ridiculous popes of yore .
In 1501 , Pope Alexander VI ( a Borgia , if that rings any bells ) , who was known to have some pretty refined hobbies , like watching horses fornicate , took things way over the top .
According to historian Tony Perrottet , he invited 50 women to strip at the pope ’ s table .
Then things got weird .
As Perrotet writes : “ Alexander and his family gleefully threw chestnuts on the floor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their feet like swine ; they then offered prizes of fine clothes and jewelry for the man who could fornicate with the most women.
” It ’ s rumored Alexander VI was killed by his son , Cesar .
Just to show how truly f*cked up Alexander was , his body was expelled from the basilica of Saint Peter .
Why ?
He was considered too evil for sacred soil .
The Roman Inquisition , During Which Judaism And Love Magic Were Serious Crimes The level of the Church ’ s involvement in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s important to remember Pope Innocent IV ( ironic name , that ) explicitly condoned torture as an Inquisition interrogation technique in his papal bull Ad extirpanda in 1252 ( which bull probably deserves its own place on this list ) .
The Spanish Inquisition , most famous of these murder orgies , was carried by Spanish royalty and friars , who were Catholic , but not working directly for , or under direction of , the Vatican .
But wait , kids !
Don ’ t forget the Roman Inquisition , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Roman and Universal Inquisition , which was 100 % the church ’ s doing .
In 1542 , as part of a Counter-Reformation against Protestantism ( seriously , didn ’ t these people have anything better to do than overreact to other Christians who pissed them off ? )
, the Spanish Inquisitions ’ s gentle cousin , the Roman Inquisition , was born .
Galileo and Copernicus were among those questioned .
While Church staple heresy was a popular dish during the Inquisition , the menu had a number of options , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crime how ? )
, immorality , witchcraft , love magic ( yes please ) , and anything else wrathful Papists could shoe-horn in .
John Bargrave , a contemporary English writer , described how he was questioned in Latin ( rather than Italian ) to prevent uneducated guards from understanding what was being said .
He was also prevented from carrying books “ printed at any heretical city , as Geneva , Amsterdam , Leyden , London , or the like.
” Not as bad as the Spanish Inquisition , sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dogmatic , close minded , and power-mongering .
A Church specialty .
Bonne mort , frères et sœurs .
Imprisoning Galileo In His Home For Years Because He Suggested Science Was Greater Than God The Church and science have a complicated relationship , to put it nicely .
In 1633 , Galileo Galilei , the father of , like , all science , was put on trial by the Church for saying the sun is the center of the universe and the earth moves around it , rather than the other way around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true for the most part ( sure , okay , the sun isn ’ t the center of the universe , but still , he was onto something ) .
But that didn ’ t matter .
Pope Urban VIII was having none of it , seeing Galileo ’ s statement as horrific heresy .
So , 10 cardinals sat in judgment of Galileo , who was threatened with torture , imprisonment , and even being burned at the stake .
Galileo , 69 at the time and in a “ pitiable state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his beliefs .
Because of this , the church went easy on him and , rather than torture , he was subjected to house arrest until he died .
What a way to treat the father of modern of science .
And what does the church have to say on the subject now ?
“ We today know that Galileo was right in adopting the Copernican astronomical theory , ” Paul Cardinal Poupard , the head of an investigation into the matter said in 1992 .
So , only 350 years too late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Their Connection To The LGBTQ+ Community Not all Catholic faux pas come from the past ; there ’ s been some dodgy stuff in modern times , as well ( see priest rape bonanza ) , and the church ’ s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community continues to be a source of frustration .
But here ’ s a humdinger : For years , the Church gave thousands of dollars to Compañeros , a nonprofit helping Hispanic immigrants access healthcare , understand laws , and meet other basic needs .
That is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up with a gay and lesbian rights group , at which point Nicole Mosher , executive director of Compañeros , was informed their funding was in danger .
Compañeros is but one example of organizations the Church threatens for not falling in line with the most strident dictates of Catholicism .
The New York Times explained in 2002 , “ Since 2010 , nine groups from across the country have lost financing from the campaign because of conflicts with Catholic principles.
” On the one hand , of course it ’ s okay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ causes in contradiction with its beliefs .
Like , say , an abortion clinic .
But cutting off funding to aid the needy simply because of an association with the LGBTQ+ community seems extreme and unfair , especially given Church doctrine on helping the needy and feeding the poor .
What ’ s more , members of the LGBTQ+ community can identify as Catholic and go to church , but can ’ t be helped by that Church ?
This is all the more more difficult to swallow when considering the Church ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

by Lea Rose Emery
It’s hard out here for a pope. See, when it comes to religious history, the list of Catholic Church transgressions makes for pretty uncomfortable reading. Despite exalting virtue and kindness in its teaching, Church leadership has spearheaded a long history of outright unforgivable Catholic actions.
You might remember some of these improprieties from school – the Inquisition, Joan of Arc, and the trial of Galileo should all ring a bell. But not everything here is medieval. Though Vatican violence goes way back, there are a number of disturbing episodes from recent history. Some of this repugnant behavior comes from Popes, some was Church-endorsed, and some, most unsettlingly, was just straight-up regular Church practice.
Dark Church history contains scandal after scandal rife with every vice and taboo you can imagine. When the Church was at the height of its power (at which point it was the most powerful organization in the Western world), it’s safe to say everything went to its head. Combine that with the fact that Church leaders seem to stubbornly resist adapting to changing morality and you’ve got a whole lot of unforgivable moments on our hands.
Systemically Covering Up Tens Of Thousands Of Cases Involving Sexual Misconduct
Remember the time there was a systematic cover up of abuse, molestation, and rape at the hands of priests that went all the way to the top of the Church? A conservative estimate says there were 17,200 victims in the US alone, and this type of mistreatment happened world-wide. When complaints came in, priests and other offenders were transferred, rather than punished. The extent of their actions will probably never be fully understood, because of the decades of cover up.
But the Church isn’t denying it anymore. The archdiocese of Milwaukee acknowledged the severity of the issue and agreed to pay a $21 million settlement to 300 victims. But these types of settlements are few and far between. Luckily, Pope Francis has set up a tribunal to hold the bishops who facilitated the cover up to account. The molestation of children is still happening at the hands of priests, 15 years after the Boston Globe broke the story.
In fact, in August 2018, a grand jury reported that internal documents from six Pennsylvanian dioceses noted that over 300 “predator priests” were “credibly accused” (a seemingly subjective accusation acknowledgement based on the discretion of individual dioceses) of harming more than 1,000 child victims; the alleged violations go as far back as 1947. Due to statute of limitations, only two priests were charged with abusing minors.
In February 2019, however, Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the systemic maltreatment and vowed to combat the problem. He said, “I think that it’s continuing because it’s not like once you realize it that it stops. It continues. And for some time we’ve been working on it.”
The International Union of Superiors General has used the uprising of the #metoo movement to denounce the “culture of silence and secrecy.” With the support of Pope Francis and the pushback from the community of international female superiors, the Catholic church claims to be “working on” overcoming the years of sexual mistreatment by persons in power.
The Crusades; Or, Incapacitating Jews And Muslims For 300 Years
In 1095, when Pope Urban II made a plea for war with Muslims, armies of Christians in Western Europe took up the charge. The pope promised serfs freedom if they went, galvanizing the masses. In the First Crusade, an army of peasants led by Peter the Hermit was massacred by the Turks. When an army of knights went after them and captured Jerusalem, it was said they massacred Muslims until the streets ran with blood.
This was only the beginning. Waves of the Crusades continued until 1396, marking three centuries of warfare, and incalculable human suffering. Catholics definitely weren’t the only religion involved in this mass violence, but Pope Urban II got the ball rolling. Here’s a nice juicy summary of the sordid catastrophe:
“Taking the heads of slain enemies and impaling them upon pikes appears to have been a favorite pastime among crusaders. Chronicles record a story of a crusader-bishop who referred to the impaled heads of slain Muslims as a joyful spectacle for the people of God. When Muslim cities were captured by Christian crusaders, it was standard operating procedure for all inhabitants, no matter what their age, to be summarily killed. It is not an exaggeration to say that the streets ran red with blood as Christians reveled in church-sanctioned horrors. Jews who took refuge in their synagogues would be burned alive, not unlike the treatment they received in Europe.”
Pretty Much Everything Done By Pope Boniface VIII
When you’re such an evil pope Dante reserves you a spot in the Eight Circle of Hell, you definitely get a place on this list (and are probably laughing in heaven right now at the filthy plebs who deigned write this). It’s amazing to think people of this nature were endorsed by the Catholic Church, let alone elected to lead the organization.
Boniface VIII (1230 -1303) was guilty of many horrible crimes that, sum total, make him seem like a sadistic Roman emperor. Among other things, he oversaw the complete destruction of Palestrina, a city that peacefully surrendered. Palestrina was completely razed, and Boniface ordered a plow driven over it to prove it had been reduced to nothing but earth and rubble.
You know priests take a vow of celibacy, right? Apparently, Boniface VIII didn’t take his too seriously. He once had a three-way with a married woman and her daughter, but was even more well known for saying that having sex with young boys was as natural as rubbing one hand against the other. So, obviously, he was raping (or at least fornicating with), children.
To celebrate his many great accomplishments, Boniface VIII just loved erecting statutes of himself. So add hubris to his list of sins.
Burning Joan Of Arc For Dressing Like A Man
You may know Joan of Arc as a saint, but the Church didn’t always hold her in such high esteem. In fact, at one time, she was pretty much the Catholic Church’s public enemy number one.
In 1429, 17-year-old Joan of Arc, believing God had spoken to her, instigated an uprising to get the English out of France, but some high-powered Catholics who sympathized with the English weren’t pleased. French king Charles VII wisely accepted Joan’s help in his fight against the English, and together, they won some major battles.
When Joan was captured, Charles VII, unsure of whether he trusted her as an emissary of God, handed her over to the Church, which did what Catholics do best, put her on trial for heresy with no evidence. To make things one step more ridiculous, Joan was denied counsel, which was against Church rules. Despite this, she is famed for remaining cool, calm, and dripping with integrity throughout the trial.
Because there was no evidence of heresy, Joan was found guilty of one of the 70+ other charges brought against her, wearing men’s clothes, for which she was burned at the stake in 1431 in front of a crowd of thousands. The Church was determined to get her, and did.
In 1456, Charles VII ordered an investigation into Joan’s trial. The result? She was declared innocent and made a martyr. The Church followed suit and, in 1920, canonized her. Talk about a change of heart. Maybe since all male Church officials were dresses they pretend are robes, they decided it was okay for Joan to dress a little butch.
Burning William Tyndale For Making A Vernacular Bible For The Masses
You’d think the Church would make the mass distribution of its core text a main priority. As it turns out, in the 16th century, this was the last thing powerful Catholics wanted.
Scholar William Tyndale, on the other hand, wanted this so badly he went into hiding to translate the Bible into English, so lay people could read it for themselves. The Church was not happy about this, and when copies were smuggled around Europe, Catholic authorities demanded they be burned.
And what of Tyndale? He was captured, tried for heresy for daring translate the bible, and burned at the stake. When Church authorities decided printing Bibles in English was okay, they borrowed a whole lot from Tyndale’s translation. And never apologized.
Slaying Countless Women As Witches Because Pope Innocent VII Was Paranoid
The Catholic Church wasn’t the only group involved in witch hunts, but it kicked things off with Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches), a doozy of a book written in 1487, after Pope Innocent VIII declared, by papal bull, witches were real and a threat (due to their involvement with Satan). He wanted that sh*t investigated stat, so clergymen Johann Sprenger and Heinrich Krämer (using his Latin name, Henricus Institoris) took up the call and literally wrote the book on witches, Satanists (which were invented for this book), and hunts thereof. And boy, was it a success. It was so popular that, for 200 years, it was second only to the Bible on the sales charts.
The problem? Well, for one, the book was hugely sexist and focused almost only on women, promoting burning them at the stake, a common punishment for heretics. So who knows how many deaths it inspired; its influence was too huge to quantify. The book is also filled with somewhat dubious information, such as the following facts about witches and Satanists: they stop cows from giving milk; they rode through the air on broomsticks on their way to forest orgies; they ate infants.
Absolving Sins For Cash Payments, Including Sins Not Yet Committed
If one bit of Catholic Church history got drilled into your mind in high school, there’s a good chance it was the selling of indulgences and Martin Luther’s reformation. Now synonymous with money-grubbing, the idea of an indulgence isn’t so bad in theory. According to Church doctrine,
“[an] indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain defined conditions through the Church’s help when, as a minister of redemption, she dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ and the saints.”
A little wordy, but potentially inoffensive.
In the 16th century, however, indulgences got out of hand. Pope Leo X had expensive taste and wasn’t above using shady means to satisfy it. Indulgences were peddled as “pay X to absolve you of Y.” Basically, money gets you into heaven. To give some indication of how crazy things got, Dominican friar John Teztel was named Grand Commissioner of indulgences in Germany (so, overseeing indulgence was his only job), where he sold absolution for future sins. So: “Hey, give us some gold, it’s all good if you kill that dude next week.”
If you were poor and ignorant, as most poor people in the period probably were, you basically just believed you were hopelessly f*cked and did your best to prepare for an eternity spent frolicking in the torments of hell.
So what happened? Martin Luther, none too pleased, wrote his 95 Theses, effectively kick starting the Reformation.
Orchestrating The Fall Of The Knights Templar To Appease A Broke King
Made famous again by The Da Vinci Code, the Knights Templar, a stateless military fraternity assembled to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, were the subject of gossip a long time ago. They were endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1129, and were famous valorous service in the Crusades. They were also really good with money, which shouldn’t have been a problem, but King Philip IV of France owed them (and others) a whole lot of it. Philip took advantage of growing fear of the Knight Templar’s power and pressured the Church into dropping the mighty anvil of god down on them.
What the Church did next wasn’t great. In 1307, Pope Clement V had members arrested and tortured, gaining false confessions of heresy. In fact, he got enough such confessions to justify disbanding the order in 1312. Various Knights confessed to spitting on the cross, fraud, and secrecy (which was apparently a crime?), and nobody cared the confessions arose from torture and were recanted afterward. Archbishop of Sens Philippe de Marigny, who ran an investigation into the Knights, had dozens burned at the stake. A fine repayment for all of that fighting in the crusades.
In 2007, a secret document showing Pope Clement V absolved the Knights before later deciding to disband them was published. Historians believe this document provides essential proof that the Church caved under King Phillip’s pressure. Good news for the Knight’s integrity, bad news for the Church’s.
Burning Someone 43 Years After He Passed Because He Upset Some Important Catholics
As if having your enemies killed wasn’t enough, Catholics gotta burn the corpses, too. What gives? Trying to outdo what the Romans did to JC?
John Wycliffe (1320 – 1384), famous English theologian and vocal critic of the Church, was a forerunner of the Reformation. Among his many criticisms was a belief the Church should give up its worldly possessions. As you can imagine, not an idea the church was happy to have spread around. Wycliffe also promoted and worked on the first English translation of the Bible, hoping to give people direct access to the word of god. Again, not a fun idea for the Church, which liked its monopoly on power.
William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, made moves against Wycliffe after retiring (gotta stay busy). Wycliffe’s writings were banned in certain areas, but it didn’t end there. It didn’t even end when Wycliffe died of a stroke in 1384. Instead, in 1415 (31 years after he died), the Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic. Not only did they order his books burned, they ordered his body exhumed and burned. And it took them 12 years to do that. So, 43 years after Wycliffe died, his corpse was torched and his ashes thrown in the River Swift. So much for resting in peace.
Executing Jan Hus For Working Out Some Tricky Theological Philosophy
The Church tends to be pretty brutal with its critics, of which the treatment of Jan Hus, born 1372, is one of the best (or worst) examples. A Czech priest, Hus felt the Church, run by humans, who are by nature flawed, must necessarily also therefore be flawed, while the Bible, the direct word of God, had no flaws. He was, therefore, openly critical of Church practices, especially the papal schism and indulgence sales.
So, not very happy with Hus, the Church convened the Council of Constance and invited him to join them. Nothing to worry about, just a wee chat. Or so they said.
Instead of having that wee chat, the Council arrested Hus and put him on trial (and then in jail) for, you guessed it, heresy. He was kept in a dungeon and, when he refused to recant his teachings, was sentenced to death. The Church even refused him his last rights before burning him at the stake. And to think they said they just wanted to talk.
The Joust Of Whores Organized By Pope Alexander VI
The Joust of Whores is just one example of the corrupt and ridiculous popes of yore. In 1501, Pope Alexander VI (a Borgia, if that rings any bells), who was known to have some pretty refined hobbies, like watching horses fornicate, took things way over the top. According to historian Tony Perrottet, he invited 50 women to strip at the pope’s table. Then things got weird.
As Perrotet writes: “Alexander and his family gleefully threw chestnuts on the floor, forcing the women to grovel around their feet like swine; they then offered prizes of fine clothes and jewelry for the man who could fornicate with the most women.”
It’s rumored Alexander VI was killed by his son, Cesar. Just to show how truly f*cked up Alexander was, his body was expelled from the basilica of Saint Peter. Why? He was considered too evil for sacred soil.
The Roman Inquisition, During Which Judaism And Love Magic Were Serious Crimes
The level of the Church’s involvement in various inquisitions can be argued. It’s important to remember Pope Innocent IV (ironic name, that) explicitly condoned torture as an Inquisition interrogation technique in his papal bull Ad extirpanda in 1252 (which bull probably deserves its own place on this list). The Spanish Inquisition, most famous of these murder orgies, was carried by Spanish royalty and friars, who were Catholic, but not working directly for, or under direction of, the Vatican.
But wait, kids! Don’t forget the Roman Inquisition, or the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, which was 100% the church’s doing. In 1542, as part of a Counter-Reformation against Protestantism (seriously, didn’t these people have anything better to do than overreact to other Christians who pissed them off?), the Spanish Inquisitions’s gentle cousin, the Roman Inquisition, was born. Galileo and Copernicus were among those questioned. While Church staple heresy was a popular dish during the Inquisition, the menu had a number of options, including blasphemy, Judaism (which is a crime how?), immorality, witchcraft, love magic (yes please), and anything else wrathful Papists could shoe-horn in.
John Bargrave, a contemporary English writer, described how he was questioned in Latin (rather than Italian) to prevent uneducated guards from understanding what was being said. He was also prevented from carrying books “printed at any heretical city, as Geneva, Amsterdam, Leyden, London, or the like.”
Not as bad as the Spanish Inquisition, sure, but very much related and equally dogmatic, close minded, and power-mongering. A Church specialty. Bonne mort, frères et sœurs.
Imprisoning Galileo In His Home For Years Because He Suggested Science Was Greater Than God
The Church and science have a complicated relationship, to put it nicely. In 1633, Galileo Galilei, the father of, like, all science, was put on trial by the Church for saying the sun is the center of the universe and the earth moves around it, rather than the other way around. Which is, you know, true for the most part (sure, okay, the sun isn’t the center of the universe, but still, he was onto something). But that didn’t matter.
Pope Urban VIII was having none of it, seeing Galileo’s statement as horrific heresy. So, 10 cardinals sat in judgment of Galileo, who was threatened with torture, imprisonment, and even being burned at the stake. Galileo, 69 at the time and in a “pitiable state of bodily indisposition,” eventually renounced his beliefs. Because of this, the church went easy on him and, rather than torture, he was subjected to house arrest until he died. What a way to treat the father of modern of science.
And what does the church have to say on the subject now? “We today know that Galileo was right in adopting the Copernican astronomical theory,” Paul Cardinal Poupard, the head of an investigation into the matter said in 1992. So, only 350 years too late.
Cutting Funding For Immigrants Because Of Their Connection To The LGBTQ+ Community
Not all Catholic faux pas come from the past; there’s been some dodgy stuff in modern times, as well (see priest rape bonanza), and the church’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community continues to be a source of frustration. But here’s a humdinger:
For years, the Church gave thousands of dollars to Compañeros, a nonprofit helping Hispanic immigrants access healthcare, understand laws, and meet other basic needs. That is, until the Church found out Compañeros teamed up with a gay and lesbian rights group, at which point Nicole Mosher, executive director of Compañeros, was informed their funding was in danger.
Compañeros is but one example of organizations the Church threatens for not falling in line with the most strident dictates of Catholicism. The New York Times explained in 2002, “Since 2010, nine groups from across the country have lost financing from the campaign because of conflicts with Catholic principles.”
On the one hand, of course it’s okay for the Church to withhold money from causes in contradiction with its beliefs. Like, say, an abortion clinic. But cutting off funding to aid the needy simply because of an association with the LGBTQ+ community seems extreme and unfair, especially given Church doctrine on helping the needy and feeding the poor. What’s more, members of the LGBTQ+ community can identify as Catholic and go to church, but can’t be helped by that Church? This is all the more more difficult to swallow when considering the Church’s $1.6 billion stock portfolio.


veteranstoday--2020-03-17--Breaking/Exclusive:  US Brought COVID-19 to China with Fake Army Team for Military Games, Evidence M

Breaking/Exclusive:  US Brought COVID-19 to China with Fake Army Team for Military Games, Evidence Mounting

“ When did patient zero begin in US ?
How many people are infected ?
What are the names of the hospitals ?
It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan .
Be transparent !
Make public your data !
US owe us an explanation !
” Zhao tweeted .
RT/Moscow : The US army might have brought the novel coronavirus disease ( COVID-19 ) to China ’ s Wuhan , the city where the virus was first detected in the country , Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Thursday .
The Chinese claim , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below average results of American athletes in the game indicates they might have been in for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives , and that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market , where the first known cluster of cases occurred .
[ 28 ] [ 29 ] They also have sources that say the US had misrepresented influenza that Trump claims have killed thousands , influenza carried to China by the US team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a disease developed in a military bio-warfare facility in the state of Washington , now “ ground zero ” in the US for COVID 19 .
The US team went home on October 28 , 2019 , and within 2 weeks , the first human contact cases of COVID 19 were seen in Wuhan .
The Chinese have not been able to find “ patient zero ” and believe he was a member of the US team .
The US team did so badly that they were called “ Soy Sauce Soldiers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , many never participated in any event and stayed near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market , where the disease is said to have originated only days after the US left the area .
In October 2019 , the US brought 172 ( really 369 ) military athletes to Wuhan for the World Military Games .
Despite having the largest military in the world , tenfold , the US came in 35th behind nations like Iran , Finland and Slovenia .
No video or photos exist of the US team , no records were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pitiful performance for the best military in the world .
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lijian Zhao has demanded US authorities reveal what they ’ re hiding about the origins of Covid-19 , going as far as to suggest the coronavirus may have been brought to China by the US military .
Pointing to a video of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) director Robert Redfield apparently admitting the US had several deaths from Covid-19 before they were able to test for it , Zhao called on the American watchdog @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Thursday .
“ It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan , ” Zhao suggested , calling for the CDC – and the US in general – to “ be transparent ” and share what they know about where and when “ Patient Zero ” was first diagnosed .
In the video , Redfield acknowledged that some cases of coronavirus were misclassified as influenza as the medics did not have an accurate test for the new epidemic at the time .
He did not elaborate on when these misdiagnosed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ some cases have been diagnosed that way.
” In the absence of any patients ’ details or chronology of deaths , speculation has swirled .
Zhao ’ s “ theory ” in particular focused on the military delegation that traveled to Wuhan in October for the Military World Games , weeks before the city confirmed the outbreak in December .
The delegation was part of the 300-member group of American athletes taking part in the multi-sport event held every four years .
Zhao is not the only high-profile political figure to voice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the introduction of the coronavirus in Wuhan .
Former Malaysian PM Matthias Chang offered similar speculation back in January , zeroing in on the event as the launch point for what he deemed a biological war waged by the US against China .
The World Health Organization ( WHO ) states that what is now the Covid-19 pandemic was first reported as a coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan , China , on 31 December 2019 .
The search for the deadly disease ’ s origin has been ongoing , with conflicting versions blaming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a local delicacy – sold there in particular , while others opined humans might have gotten the virus from pangolins , an endangered scaly mammal .
Less orthodox theories suggest malicious intent , with the head of Iran ’ s elite Revolutionary Guards sensationally claiming last week that Covid-19 could possibly be “ a product of a biological attack by America which initially spread to China and then to Iran and the rest of the world.
” So far , the problem with all of those theories , blaming both animals and humans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been established , while the identity of China ’ s “ patient zero ” also remains unclear .
And it ’ s not China alone : in Washington state – which seemingly identified and successfully isolated its first infected traveler , with dozens of contacts identified and monitored – the virus somehow began spreading anyway .
Even Steve Wozniak , Apple ’ s co-founder , at one point claimed he and his wife may have been the US ’ “ patient zero ” after developing a bad cough on return from China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s diagnosis was “ a sinus infection , ” however .
Why does the plague in Wuhan depend on the PLA ?
From October 18 to October 27 , 2019 , the World Military Games was held in Wuhan , and the United States sent 369 soy sauce soldiers to participate .
Why is it soy sauce soldiers ?
Because in the 10-day game , the performance of the American soy sauce soldiers was so disappointing that even Bahrain was unnecessarily disappointed , the gold medal was even missing , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ North Korea , which once gave Mexico a chance .
The urge to counterattack the continental United States .
However , the poor performance in the game did not affect the mood of the soy sauce soldiers playing in Wuhan .
They teamed up in groups of two , and played around the streets of Wuhan , leaving many romantic accidents .
It should be pointed out that the location of the US guest house of the Military Games is not far from South China Seafood City .
At the end of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wondering , how could these gangsters who ca n ’ t wait to build muscles on their faces suddenly get fired up ?
Did the American soldiers ’ food only be grappled ?
Or did they forget to eat it during the game ?
Snickers ?
Note : Para Athletics , Para Archery , Gymnastics , Tennis and 3 Senior Triathlon events not counted in medal table .

https://twitter.com/WEIWEIDAI4/status/1408274396792324096
VT’s overall poor relationship with the Trump presidency has moved up a notch. The report Trump is referencing went, not unnoticed, but rather totally censored in the Western press, as has so much else until VT sought out the facts and published them.
https://twitter.com/DailyMail/status/1407741751603957768
US Congress is seeking a probe into the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan, as alleged COVID-19 'super-spreader'.#VoiceOfNations pic.twitter.com/51mYGS4aDJ — Voice of Nations (@VoiceOfNations7) June 24, 2021
If America proves that the Wuhan Games were a super spreader event – Trudeau and Xi Jinping are in some serious shit. https://t.co/8Nt21XnwPv — Keean Bexte (@TheRealKeean) June 24, 2021
Now, for the second time, Trump has made sad and silly denials, this one filled with hyperbole and grandiose behavior, typical of a spectrum sociopath.
March 12, 2020: In October 2019, the US brought 172 (really 369) military athletes to Wuhan for the World Military Games. Despite having the largest military in the world, tenfold, the US came in 35th behind nations like Iran, Finland and Slovenia. No video or photos exist of the US team, no records were kept, a huge team but a pitiful performance for the best military in the world.
The US team did so badly that they were called “Soy Sauce Soldiers” by the Chinese. In fact, many never participated in any event and stayed near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the disease is said to have originated only days after the US left the area.
“You look at how the US team performed in the 2019 Military Games, and you think about the overall economic situation in America, and you wonder how long the US can continue on its current path when the economies debt is at an unprecedented rate”, stated Ben Tejes, Co-Founder and CEO of Ascend Finance, which created a Chapter 7 means test calculator to help people understand their debt relief options such as bankruptcy.
The US team went home on October 28, 2019, and within 2 weeks, the first human contact cases of COVID 19 were seen in Wuhan. The Chinese have not been able to find “patient zero” and believe he was a member of the US team.
They also have sources that say the US had misrepresented influenza that Trump claims have killed thousands, influenza carried to China by the US team, influenza that was really COVID 19, a disease developed in a military bio-warfare facility in the state of Washington, now “ground zero” in the US for COVID 19.
The Chinese claim, something censored in the US, that the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below average results of American athletes in the game indicates they might have been in for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives, and that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.[28][29]
RT/Moscow: The US army might have brought the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to China’s Wuhan, the city where the virus was first detected in the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Thursday.
“When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US army that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! The US owes us an explanation!” Zhao tweeted.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lijian Zhao has demanded US authorities reveal what they’re hiding about the origins of Covid-19, going as far as to suggest the coronavirus may have been brought to China by the US military.
Pointing to a video of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Robert Redfield apparently admitting the US had several deaths from Covid-19 before they were able to test for it, Zhao called on the American watchdog to come clean in a tweet posted on Thursday.
2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3 — Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 12, 2020
“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” Zhao suggested, calling for the CDC – and the US in general – to “be transparent” and share what they know about where and when “Patient Zero” was first diagnosed.
https://twitter.com/twainus/status/1238131011503951872
In the video, Redfield acknowledged that some cases of coronavirus were misclassified as influenza as the medics did not have an accurate test for the new epidemic at the time. He did not elaborate on when these misdiagnosed cases first appeared – saying only that “some cases have been diagnosed that way.”
CDC director openly admitting that some #covid deaths have been misdiagnosed as influenza in the US. The question is when are those deaths. This supports the claims made by Japanese scientists that the virus originated from the US but was covered up.#COVID19 #Corona pic.twitter.com/AwdXAKz6Ao — Taro (@taro_taylor) March 12, 2020
In the absence of any patients’ details or chronology of deaths, speculation has swirled. Zhao’s “theory” in particular focused on the military delegation that traveled to Wuhan in October for the Military World Games, weeks before the city confirmed the outbreak in December. The delegation was part of the 300-member group of American athletes taking part in the multi-sport event held every four years.
The #Bahrain Interior Minister accused Iran of spreading #COVID19 & biological warfare. I respond to him that the #USA with its 5th fleet governing Bahrain is the main factor behind #BiologicalWarfare and even initial hiding #CoronavirusOutbreak in America. pic.twitter.com/f7TqbqFoOA — H.Amirabdollahian امیرعبداللهیان (@Amirabdolahian) March 12, 2020
Zhao is not the only high-profile political figure to voice suspicions about the timing of the Games and the introduction of the coronavirus in Wuhan. Former Malaysian PM Matthias Chang offered similar speculation back in January, zeroing in on the event as the launch point for what he deemed a biological war waged by the US against China.
We are still figuring out where the virus originated. And chances are high that the virus was brought to China by the US army team who visited Wuhan in October. Anyway, no human deserves COVID-19. The world should fight against the disease together. No time for blame. — Chris Jiang (@crs_1222) February 27, 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that what is now the Covid-19 pandemic was first reported as a coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. The search for the deadly disease’s origin has been ongoing, with conflicting versions blaming the Wuhan food market and bats – a local delicacy – sold there in particular, while others opined humans might have gotten the virus from pangolins, an endangered scaly mammal.
Less orthodox theories suggest malicious intent, with the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards sensationally claiming last week that Covid-19 could possibly be “a product of a biological attack by America which initially spread to China and then to Iran and the rest of the world.”
So far, the problem with all of those theories, blaming both animals and humans, is that no direct causal proof has been established, while the identity of China’s “patient zero” also remains unclear. And it’s not China alone: in Washington state – which seemingly identified and successfully isolated its first infected traveler, with dozens of contacts identified and monitored – the virus somehow began spreading anyway. Even Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, at one point claimed he and his wife may have been the US’ “patient zero” after developing a bad cough on return from China. It has since emerged his wife’s diagnosis was “a sinus infection,” however.
Why does the plague in Wuhan depend on the PLA?
2020-01-30 17:01:10 Source: school coffee house Author: fish off the deep
Views: 37708 Comments: 24 (view) From October 18 to October 27, 2019, the World Military Games was held in Wuhan, and the United States sent 369 soy sauce soldiers to participate. Why is it soy sauce soldiers? Because in the 10-day game, the performance of the American soy sauce soldiers was so disappointing that even Bahrain was unnecessarily disappointed, the gold medal was even missing, and the overall score was left far behind by North Korea, which once gave Mexico a chance. The urge to counterattack the continental United States. However, the poor performance in the game did not affect the mood of the soy sauce soldiers playing in Wuhan. They teamed up in groups of two, and played around the streets of Wuhan, leaving many romantic accidents. It should be pointed out that the location of the US guest house of the Military Games is not far from South China Seafood City. At the end of the military games, just when people were wondering, how could these gangsters who can’t wait to build muscles on their faces suddenly get fired up? Did the American soldiers ’food only be grappled? Or did they forget to eat it during the game? Snickers? * Host nation (China) Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 China (CHN)* 133 64 42 239 2 Russia (RUS) 51 53 57 161 3 Brazil (BRA) 21 31 36 88 4 France (FRA) 13 20 24 57 5 Poland (POL) 11 15 34 60 6 Germany (GER) 10 15 20 45 7 North Korea (PRK) 9 8 15 32 8 Bahrain (BHR) 9 1 7 17 9 Uzbekistan (UZB) 8 7 5 20 10 Ukraine (UKR) 5 13 15 33 11 Italy (ITA) 4 12 12 28 12 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 4 3 5 12 13 Belarus (BLR) 4 2 8 14 14 Iran (IRI) 4 2 5 11 15 Switzerland (SUI) 4 1 8 13 16 South Korea (KOR) 3 10 11 24 17 Norway (NOR) 2 4 2 8 Slovenia (SLO) 2 4 2 8 19 Egypt (EGY) 2 2 5 9 20 Kenya (KEN) 2 1 2 5 Morocco (MAR) 2 1 2 5 22 Turkey (TUR) 2 0 3 5 23 Romania (ROU) 1 4 3 8 24 Mongolia (MGL) 1 3 5 9 25 Hungary (HUN) 1 3 1 5 26 Czech Republic (CZE) 1 2 5 8 27 India (IND) 1 1 2 4 28 Belgium (BEL) 1 1 1 3 29 Latvia (LAT) 1 1 0 2 30 Lithuania (LTU) 1 0 1 2 31 Bulgaria (BUL) 1 0 0 1 Namibia (NAM) 1 0 0 1 Tunisia (TUN) 1 0 0 1 34 Finland (FIN) 0 4 2 6 35 United States (USA) 0 3 5 8 36 Austria (AUT) 0 3 1 4 37 Algeria (ALG) 0 2 5 7 38 Azerbaijan (AZE) 0 2 4 6 39 Dominican Republic (DOM) 0 2 3 5 40 Slovakia (SVK) 0 2 1 3 41 Qatar (QAT) 0 2 0 2 42 Thailand (THA) 0 1 5 6 43 Canada (CAN) 0 1 2 3 Sri Lanka (SRI) 0 1 2 3 Sweden (SWE) 0 1 2 3 46 Oman (OMA) 0 1 1 2 Syria (SYR) 0 1 1 2 Vietnam (VIE) 0 1 1 2 49 Denmark (DEN) 0 1 0 1 Ecuador (ECU) 0 1 0 1 Estonia (EST) 0 1 0 1 Saudi Arabia (KSA) 0 1 0 1 Tanzania (TAN) 0 1 0 1 54 Serbia (SRB) 0 0 3 3 55 Venezuela (VEN) 0 0 2 2 56 Albania (ALB) 0 0 1 1 Armenia (ARM) 0 0 1 1 Barbados (BAR) 0 0 1 1 Greece (GRE) 0 0 1 1 Indonesia (INA) 0 0 1 1 Ireland (IRL) 0 0 1 1 Kuwait (KUW) 0 0 1 1 Luxembourg (LUX) 0 0 1 1 Pakistan (PAK) 0 0 1 1 Rwanda (RWA) 0 0 1 1 Spain (ESP) 0 0 1 1 Totals (66 nations) 316 316 389 1021 Source:[33] Note: Para Athletics, Para Archery, Gymnastics, Tennis and 3 Senior Triathlon events not counted in the medal table.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades. Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues. Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology. Gordon’s Archives: 2008-2015
Gordon’s Archives: 2016-2022