Covid defeated the Virgin Mary herself. The blooming religious business in Medjugorje, Bosnia, is tanking for the first time since it started in the 1980s.

Souvenir shops selling Virgin Maries, and Virgin Mary hotels are empty. People are running away from the place that they claimed healed them for a fear of getting sick.

Quote:Usually, tours are organized through individual churches and church groups. “I found tour operators running from as far away as Phoenix, Arizona who were offering package deals including airfare, accommodation, and tours led by Mirjana Soldo, one of the original six visionaries from 1981,” he explains. Not all the tour companies — international and domestic — are strictly religious. 

His most recent images show the devastating effects of the pandemic on the town’s tourism. “When I trekked up to the Apparition and Cross Hills, I only saw a handful of people compared to the hundreds or thousands I saw the previous year,” he recalls. The hotel where he stayed in 2019 was also closed. “I tried to get in touch with the owners but they might have been out of the country themselves. The previous summer they were completely booked up, as were most of the hotels in town — and there really are a lot of them.” But beyond the obvious lack of people, St. Oegger describes a noticeable “loss of energy”.

https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/...ghost-town

Another Mass Gravesite Found at Another Catholic-Run Canadian Residential School

This time, we're talking about the remains of 751 people at a former school in Saskatchewan.

We don't know how or why these children died, but the possibilities are disturbing. These Catholic schools were known for abusing children physically, sexually, and emotionally. The technology used to arrive that that number has an error rate "ranging from 10 to 15 percent" and it's not clear if only children were buried there, but the science appears to confirm anecdotes that have been passed down for decades.

Making matters worse, the Catholic institutions that controlled these schools are not fully cooperating with investigations, making it difficult to identify whose bodies may have been buried there. At least 150,000 Indigenous children went to these kinds of schools. There's very little doubt that more gravesites will be discovered soon. The Canadian government is even helping fund that process.

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021...al-school/

This is St. Paul’s Cathedral in Saskatoon

Two Catholic churches destroyed by fire on First Nations reserves in Canada

The fires, which occurred hours apart, happened on National Indigenous Peoples Day – and come nearly a month after the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation found what they believe are the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.

Police have not said the fires were arson, but a local fire chief said his team found liquid accelerant outside the charred remains of St Gregory’s.

The church burnings come amid growing calls for the Catholic church to formally apologize for their role in Canada’s residential school system, including from the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.

For over a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend Christian schools as part of a broader strategy to assimilate them into Canadian society. The schools, where physical and sexual abuse was rampant, were run by a number of churches and funded by the federal government.

According to historical records, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran half of Canada’s residential schools, including the one in Kamloops – the largest in the country. The Oblates have so far refused to release their records to help identify the remains found.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...n-reserves

(June 28, 2021 at 12:41 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Two Catholic churches destroyed by fire on First Nations reserves in Canada

The fires, which occurred hours apart, happened on National Indigenous Peoples Day – and come nearly a month after the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation found what they believe are the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.

Police have not said the fires were arson, but a local fire chief said his team found liquid accelerant outside the charred remains of St Gregory’s.

The church burnings come amid growing calls for the Catholic church to formally apologize for their role in Canada’s residential school system, including from the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.

For over a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend Christian schools as part of a broader strategy to assimilate them into Canadian society. The schools, where physical and sexual abuse was rampant, were run by a number of churches and funded by the federal government.

According to historical records, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran half of Canada’s residential schools, including the one in Kamloops – the largest in the country. The Oblates have so far refused to release their records to help identify the remains found.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...n-reserves

Holy kindling, Batman!

An Unmarried Catholic Schoolteacher Got Pregnant. She Was Fired. The Catholic Church punishes women who get pregnant out of wedlock more than they punish priests who rape kids.

Quote:When a Catholic school art teacher was asked to take on extra responsibilities, she requested a raise, explaining that she was about to have a baby.

Weeks later, she was fired from her New Jersey elementary school. The principal, a Roman Catholic nun, told her she was being terminated “because she was pregnant and unmarried,” court records show.

The woman sued. Her daughter is now 7, but the lawsuit remains in limbo, caught in a yearslong back-and-forth between New Jersey’s trial and appellate courts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/nyreg...acher.html

(June 28, 2021 at 12:41 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: For over a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend Christian schools as part of a broader strategy to assimilate them into Canadian society.

Why? Why in the fuck would Canada do this? This is the type of shit that pisses me off to no end and I was already pissed off at the bodies of kids being found and the typical circle jerk of Catholics molesting kids and hiding it. Why is it that society refuses to see Christianity for what it really is? Atleast there seems to be some pushback form society. I'm glad their shit is getting vandalized, but I won't be surpirzed if the Church itself was behind the Church burnings to hide evidence.

(June 28, 2021 at 11:12 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: An Unmarried Catholic Schoolteacher Got Pregnant. She Was Fired. The Catholic Church punishes women who get pregnant out of wedlock more than they punish priests who rape kids.

Quote:When a Catholic school art teacher was asked to take on extra responsibilities, she requested a raise, explaining that she was about to have a baby.

Weeks later, she was fired from her New Jersey elementary school. The principal, a Roman Catholic nun, told her she was being terminated “because she was pregnant and unmarried,” court records show.

The woman sued. Her daughter is now 7, but the lawsuit remains in limbo, caught in a yearslong back-and-forth between New Jersey’s trial and appellate courts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/nyreg...acher.html

I went to Catholic school. My class had about 145 people in it.

That I know of for sure, we had one pregnant cheerleader who flew to another state over the holidays to have an abortion. One other cheerleader had the baby she was pregnant with after school was out...she was still allowed to cheer and participate in everything else. A former cheerleader was also pregnant but went on to finish out the year and walk the stage at graduation.

No one seemed to pay any attention at all...maybe because all were from wealthy families who probably gave a lot to the church. One's father was an attorney, one co-owned a manufacturing plant, and one owned a FORD dealership. In a town of about 3K these things aren't secrets. We just didn't talk about it. All three went on to marry in the church...the one who had the abortion and the pregnant one and the one who already had a child.

Same church wouldn't baptize my child...born after those two by a couple years...dad wasn't quite as into hitting the hip for the collection plate.

(June 28, 2021 at 7:00 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: Same church wouldn't baptize my child...born after those two by a couple years...dad wasn't quite as into hitting the hip for the collection plate.

Ha, yes, you are very perceptive. Michael Moore came to the same conclusion when he was in the seminary

From his autobiography



Source

(June 28, 2021 at 11:43 am)AkiraTheFighter24 Wrote:

(June 28, 2021 at 12:41 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: For over a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend Christian schools as part of a broader strategy to assimilate them into Canadian society.

Why? Why in the fuck would Canada do this? This is the type of shit that pisses me off to no end and I was already pissed off at the bodies of kids being found and the typical circle jerk of Catholics molesting kids and hiding it. Why is it that society refuses to see Christianity for what it really is? Atleast there seems to be some pushback form society. I'm glad their shit is getting vandalized, but I won't be surpirzed if the Church itself was behind the Church burnings to hide evidence.

Canada was not alone in this.

The schools were a deliberate attempt at cultural genocide -- but of course the term didn't exist back then.

The alternatives they saw were probably either a huge population who would be poor wards of the state, or a huge population that regained their identity and power and became a threat to English power.

As disgusting as this was, can we say that we would've chosen differently if we lived in the late 1800s?  China is making the same calculation today with the Uighur.  It seems to be an evil built into our nature.

Most of the graves were probably kids who died of Cholera or TB.  However, some may have died from abuse -- we will never know.

We do and can choose differently, and so could they have, then- they simply did not. I think that it’s a mistake to think that things like this just happen or are an inextricable part of human nature. They don’t and they aren’t. It’s hard to hurt people. It takes effort and conditioning and a massive network of funding and provisioning and constant recruiting.