Damned Catholics

[Fake Messiah]

Sri Lankan cardinal bans girls from being altar servers

In an Oct. 22, 2024, letter to the priests of his diocese, Ranjith said, “It has been brought to my knowledge that several parishes in the Archdiocese of Colombo have appointed girls as altar servers.”

“In this context, I wish to reiterate, what I stated at the presbyteral meeting held on Oct. 21, 2024, that no girls should be invited to serve at the altar, as altar servers in the archdiocese,” he said.

“Since females are not allowed to be ordained priests, we have to make that decision,” he said, warning priests that “this cannot be changed at your discretion.”

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2024/...ar-servers

[Fake Messiah]

Historic Menasha Church in Wisconsin Undergoes $2 Million Restoration

One notable feature is the addition of 2,200 gold leaf stars on the ceiling, sponsored by parishioners at $500 each, raising over $1 million. Other enhancements include painted roses on the walls and 12 hand-painted medallions depicting Marian apparitions, also funded by the congregation.

https://www.nbc26.com/news/local-news/in...estoration

[Fake Messiah]

Freemasons, homosexuals and corrupt elites in Cameroon: Inside an African conspiracy theory

On Christmas day in 2005 the archbishop of Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, the famously homophobic Victor Tonye Bakot, surprised the nation with a sermon attacking the national elite. He accused them of spreading homosexuality by forcing anal sex on young men eager to get a job.

The sermon was all the more surprising since the archbishop spoke in the Yaoundé cathedral with the nation’s leaders right in front of him, including then president Paul Biya. It offered a new variation of the Catholic church’s attacks on Freemasonry.

In France, Freemasonry was fiercely attacked by the Catholic church, worried by the increasingly secular tendencies of the brotherhood and its supposedly central role in the French Revolution. So, even though the 2005 attack by the Cameroonian archbishop was nothing new, it hit like a wave in this specific context and created a conspiracy theory that lives on today.

Only a month after the sermon, several newspapers started publishing lists of “supposed” or even “prominent” homosexuals.

They named ministers and other politicians, sports and music stars, and even some senior religious leaders. Denouncing the elite as homosexuals corrupting the nation had become an outlet for people’s dissatisfaction with the regime.

Of course, linking homosexuality to Freemasonry strengthens the claim – now made by many in the continent – that homosexuality is un-African and imposed by colonialism.

https://www.alternet.org/freemasons-africa/

[Fake Messiah]

The Worst Catholic LGBTQ+ News Stories of 2024

We asked our readers and other New Ways Ministry supporters to vote for the worst stories from a “nominations” list of 15 stories in each category.

1. Ghana’s Catholic bishops endorse an anti-LGBTQ+ law and support the use of “conversion” therapy for sexual and gender minorities. 55%

2. The Synod on Synodality closes after four years, but the final report does not mention LGBTQ+ people or issues, despite that these topics were mentioned in so many of the local reports. 54%

3. Pope Francis continues to condemn “gender ideology,” an amorphous term never fully defined. At one point, he refers to it as the “worst danger” in the world. 49%

4. Dignitas Infinita, a new Vatican document on the fundamental and universal application of human dignity lists “gender ideology” as a “grave harm” to such dignity. 47%

5. After transgender advocate’s funeral was held in New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, Cardinal Timothy Dolan condemns the liturgy and authorizes a Mass of reparation to be celebrated in the building. 45%

6. Though usually slow to implement directives from Pope Francis’ Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops moves with speed to implement the anti-LGBTQ+ guidance from Dignitas Infinita. 38%

7. Some bishops oppose the blessing of same-gender couples which had been allowed by the Vatican with the release of the December 2023 declaration, Fiducia Supplicans. 31%

8. A National Catholic Reporter investigation reveals that two conservative Catholic organizations–Cardinal Newman Society and Person & Identity–were driving forces behind many diocesan anti-LGBTQ+ gender policies. 29%

9. Pope Francis uses an Italian anti-gay slur in a meeting with members of the Italian Bishops Conference, then repeats doing so a week later. 23%

10. The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire ends a 60-year relationship with a group which supports mentally and physically challenged people from using church-run facility for youth camps, after some campers displayed Pride flags this past year. 22%

https://www.newwaysministry.org/2024/12/...s-of-2024/

[zebo-the-fat]

Theists seem to be scared of ANYTHING related to sex.... sex is involved... it must be dirty!

[Fake Messiah]

Priest investigated for manslaughter over death of newborn left on church doorstep

Father Antonio Ruccia, a parish priest at the San Giovanni Battista Church in the southern Italian city of Bari, has been named as a suspect despite being absent from the church at the time.

The newborn, believed to be a month old, was found dead on Jan 2 inside the church’s “thermal cradle”, a device set up for unwanted babies to be left anonymously.

The cradle’s alarm and heating system is normally activated as soon as the baby is left there and a notification is supposed to be sent to the priest’s phone.

Father Ruccia had been in Rome for Christmas festivities and initially told local media his mobile phone, which is normally connected to the activation of the cradle, did not ring.

Questions have been raised about claims made on the parish website that said the cradle alarm was directly connected to the neonatal department of the local Policlinico Hospital.

Antonio Sanguedolce, the hospital’s director, told Corriere della Sera that these claims were false. “There has never been an alarm connected with the department, only with the parish priest’s cell phone.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...by-church/

[Fake Messiah]

A Catholic dissing on the Vatican?

Mel Gibson dubs Vatican a 'counterfeit parallel church' consumed by evil on Joe Rogan

Gibson referred to the Vatican as a "den of pedophiles" who prey on children while steering the Catholic Church away from the Christianity instituted by Christ.

Gibson himself is a devout Catholic and had some harsh criticism for the religious institution. In addition to accusing its leadership of being overrun by predators and child abusers, he claimed that the Church is no longer following the teachings of Christ but has been taken over by what he calls a “counterfeit parallel church” running an entirely different--an evil religion.

Not one to ever hold back, Gibson continued by suggesting Pope Francis is complicit with a global network of child abuse within the Church. “The Church was instituted by Christ,” he said, “but it’s not what it purports to be anymore.”

https://www.irishstar.com/culture/entert...m-34458977

[Ivan Denisovich]

A Catholic dissing on the Vatican?

Mel Gibson dubs Vatican a 'counterfeit parallel church' consumed by evil on Joe Rogan

Gibson referred to the Vatican as a "den of pedophiles" who prey on children while steering the Catholic Church away from the Christianity instituted by Christ.

Gibson himself is a devout Catholic and had some harsh criticism for the religious institution. In addition to accusing its leadership of being overrun by predators and child abusers, he claimed that the Church is no longer following the teachings of Christ but has been taken over by what he calls a “counterfeit parallel church” running an entirely different--an evil religion.

Not one to ever hold back, Gibson continued by suggesting Pope Francis is complicit with a global network of child abuse within the Church. “The Church was instituted by Christ,” he said, “but it’s not what it purports to be anymore.”

https://www.irishstar.com/culture/entert...m-34458977

He is somewhat right in the first part, though it's not Vatican but entire catholic church that is den of pedophiles.

[Fake Messiah]

Church accused of hate crime after ‘banning gay mayor from mass’

Spain’s Catholic Church has been accused of a hate crime after a gay mayor claimed that he had been banned from receiving communion by his priest.

Rubén García de Andrés, the Socialist mayor of Torrecaballeros, near Segovia, posted on X that the village priest had barred him from holy communion “for my sexual orientation and for living with my partner”.

Mr García de Andrés is a practising Catholic and had previously been a lay preacher in Torrecaballeros until, he claims, that role was taken away from him two years ago for the same reason.

Mr Aceves asked Jesús Vidal Chamorro, the incoming bishop of Segovia, to overturn the ban on the mayor and another gay couple in the area, who also claim they have been prevented from taking mass.

But the bishopric of Segovia defended itself, saying in a statement that the priest had acted not out of homophobia but following the canons of the Catholic Church, under which any couple living together outside wedlock, including heterosexual couples, can be refused the sacrament.

“This is not homophobia or discrimination, since communion is not denied on the basis of homosexuality, but rather to defend the sacred character of the Eucharist,” the statement read.

The mayor claimed that he had been told the problem was that he was openly living with another man and that “it would be different if he was just gay and following a path of conversion”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...gay-mayor/

---

Meanwhile in the US...
Someone has been stealing gold from catholic churches. It would be hilarious if they caught the thief and discovered he melted the crown, sold gold and jewels, and donated the proceeds to the poor.

Thief steals golden crown from Mary statue inside Philly Catholic church

A 125-year-old golden crown made of jewelry and gems was stolen from a statue of Mary inside a Philadelphia Catholic church by an agile thief seen climbing up the outside wall of the Center City church before breaking in, police said.

The theft occurred Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, shortly after 1 a.m. inside the St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church on South 13th Street, Philadelphia police said.



https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/loc...h/4075762/

[Fireball]

^ Probably paste and rhinestones on foil.