The news appears to be from 2009, but I've recently come across it...

The Orthodox Christianity is the one with the tradition of worshipping relics (i.e. the remains / decayed limbs of people deemed as saints by the Church), of course.

By the way, do catholics have such a tradition as well? Do you know?

Anyway, the textual news goes like this:
"
Human mistake or deception done knowingly? At the Celic Dere Monastery in the Tulcea county, the pilgrims have been praying for years to some bones of pigs and sheep, instead of to the holy relics of Astion and Epictetus.

These relics of these saints were brought into the place, along with other human and animal bones, alongside which they had been unearthed. After having been separated, the remains of the saints have rested some time within the monastery, and then were sent to the Archdiocese of Tomis.
At the Celic Dere have thus remained the bones unrelated to the holy ones.
The bishop acknowledged the mistake and decided to bury the bones of animals in the monastery cemetery.
The tourists visiting the place were not being told explicitly what the shrine contained. The episcopate investigation follows to clarify things.
"

Well, of course, praying to and kissing the boxes containing the rotten limbs of sheep and pigs is no different than praying to and kissing boxes containing the rotten limbs of "saints"
But anyway, I wonder, what could the believers think and feel now, knowing that they've been worshipping beast carcasses? A very holy and very CHRISTIAN act, right?

That's pretty funny.

Wow, and here I thought it was pretty universal among Christians to believe praying to idols is a terrible sin.

Too bad that I had not saved the picture of the news a few months ago, when the parliament elections of the Moldavian Republic were near. At a demonstration of the supporters of the Communist Party, you could have seen an old woman somewhere in front, with her head covered by a kerchief, holding with her hands, above her head, an icon of the Virgin Mary. So interesting to find the symbols of Communism and Christian Orthodoxy being swayed in the air in the same place, at the same time... when... the old communist party(-ies), back in the time of USSR, was atheistic and was condemning any form of christian manifestation. Now they go very well together.

If it wasn't so sad (deluded people) it would be a scream.

The Catholics simply removed the commandment forbidding bowing down to images from their bible (conflict of interest).
They don't use the book much anyway, so their buildings are filled with statues they pray to.

Goddess worship has been around a very long time.
Mariology is just the latest version (same demon behind it worshipped - different name).

(March 6, 2015 at 12:51 pm)professor Wrote: If it wasn't so sad (deluded people) it would be a scream.

One mans delusion is another mans reality prof.

I would like to know whether all those prayers to the pig god were answered.

(March 6, 2015 at 11:42 am)Losty Wrote: Wow, and here I thought it was pretty universal among Christians to believe praying to idols is a terrible sin.

This reminds me of the old times, back when I was a child, ~12 years old. I grew up in a pentecostal family. In my school we were roughly 10 children of pentecostal families, and we were holding the Religion class separately. However, the Orthodox Religion classes usually occurred amidst other classes, and having a free class that hour but having nowhere to go, I was also assisting to the Orthodox classes. At each religion class they were turning eastwards and praying in front of the icon of Mary which was in front of the class, above the blackboard. I was also praying at that time (I was feeling it compulsory), but I was praying in a different direction so as not to pray to the icon. It was obviously ridiculous and my colleagues were looking ugly at me and laughing.

When they found out that I was not orthodox and that I was "pentecostal", I started to be asked questions like "Do you believe in the Virgin Mary?", "Why do you not pray to the Virgin Mary?", "Do you worship the Devil?", "I heard that you pentecostals worship the Devil, is it true?" by my colleagues.
I was always looked bad at, for being different and for stating that I worship God only, and not saints. It was like, "What, you do not give respect to the Virgin Mary??" as if not praying to her meant that I was thinking about her like "What a bitch and a slut! Fuck her!"

I remember, one time when I was in the school yard, a colleague of my class opened up the window (he was in the class) and shouted at me, "You sectarian!!"
In private discussions, this is how the orthodox people were calling the protestants (and I'm sure, there are many to this day that still do). It was not a sin to be catholic, even though the Catholic church is a small minority in Romania, as well. It was a shameful sin to be a protestant.

Ah... now that I think about it, I heard the word "atheist" and what it means, for the first time when I was 19 years old, my last year of high school. lol.

(March 6, 2015 at 11:38 am)Zenith Wrote: By the way, do catholics have such a tradition as well? Do you know?

Yes, they do. In the Middle Ages there were wars fought over the possession of relics. They drew pilgrims to certain sites and these pilgrims were the tourists of the times. They brought money. Lots of money.

And the story isn't that sensational after all. We have about a dozen prepuces of Jesus, which either means he had a prick that scraped the clouds or simple forgery. Also there's one saint who obviously had 37 arms and Mary must have had an udder to make any cow proud, given how much milk of the holy mother made it into the churches.

I'm sure many if the prayers to the bones got answered. It reminded me of this video:

http://youtu.be/jk6ILZAaAMI

(March 7, 2015 at 11:36 am)robvalue Wrote: I'm sure many if the prayers to the bones got answered.

The intention mattered. So God listened (or well, the bones).