John Paul 11. Soon to be saint |
by Richard Mellor
Pope Francis has
gone ahead and authorized the Vatican to make former pope, John Paul 11 a saint
the BBC reported today. The move is due
to Francis attributing a second miracle to John Paul, a bit like a second
degree black belt in Karate. This means John Paul can move up to the
Canonization procedure which is the final step in this process.
With two miracles,
John Paul goes one up on pope John the XX111, but Francis decided to authorize
sainthood for John as well. John Paul
has been on the “fast track” to
sainthood the BBC reports and a lot of that has to do with him helping bring
down communism.
All major news
outlets from Reuters to CNN have announced the news, “An
"inexplicable recovery" on the very day of John Paul II's
beatification has been assessed as a miracle by the Vatican's saint-making
department…” the BBC states on its website.
These are supposedly
serious news outlets. A story like this
might be OK in the Onion but to actually report this and give it credibility is
something else. One has to laugh at
this, but it is an example of the important role that the media and religious
superstition plays in society. The Vatican City news agency doesn’t say what
these miracles are but in John Paul’s case, an “inexplicable recovery” occurred as the process to sainting him was
moving along.
What gets me is how
come only Catholics get to be saints.
How come Einstein couldn’t be a saint or Malcolm X? What about Albert Schweitzer? He cured a lot of people, sure with scientific methods but can't that count? Why does god only
allow Catholics to perform miracles like waking dead people or curing bone
marrow cancer just by thinking about it? And James Connolly? He was a Catholic? What about Edward Snowden, or Bradley Manning, they deserve to be a saints for the good they've done.
And another thing
I’m a bit peeved about is favoritism. I went to a school named after a guy
named George Napier. I don’t know who he was but he is a blessed, the name of
the school was Blessed George. You see, before you become a saint you are a “blessed.” until they can find one of
the miracles you might have performed. I
haven’t been to that school in over 50 years and Napier is still a blessed as
far as I know; there’s some shenanigans going on here. It’s just not fair. I hate to say it but it seems a bit like nepotism too, I make the last guy in my job a saint when he dies and it increases my chances when I'm dead.
The Vatican is an
institution of capitalism, perhaps one of the most powerful and influential of
them. Like all religious institutions it
defends the free market and capitalism vehemently as it assigns greed and
selfishness to us all, billionaires and starving peasants alike. “We’re
all god’s children” you see. The
other “official” reason for global
poverty, starvation and war is that we are all sinners. This is due to the fact (yes a fact) that all
humans are born with this sin that I recall being called “original sin”. Original sin is the first sin and that according to
the Vatican:
“originated from Adam and Eve
disobeying God's commandment, choosing to follow their own will and introducing
sin into the world. Original sin describes the subsequent fallen state of human
nature.”
Yes, we’re living in the 21st century and one of the powerful and richest institutions of the ruling class perpetuates this stuff; it’s very useful keeping people in the dark. It does explain though why there are no women allowed to make saints or hang out at the Vatican let alone become pope who is actually gods representative on earth. It was Eve who tricked, cajoled and seduced poor old Adam in to thinking for himself.
Yes, we’re living in the 21st century and one of the powerful and richest institutions of the ruling class perpetuates this stuff; it’s very useful keeping people in the dark. It does explain though why there are no women allowed to make saints or hang out at the Vatican let alone become pope who is actually gods representative on earth. It was Eve who tricked, cajoled and seduced poor old Adam in to thinking for himself.
That's it then, women are the problem. Except for my mum.
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