Catholics @ MindSay

You have to wonder what planet this man lives on that he is so out of touch.  Don't use condoms? In a country where thousands of children are born every year with aids.  The church should be distributing them for Goddess sake!

And sorcery and witchcraft....what was the turning water into wine, the raising from the dead, the healing by touch?  Miracles according to the church....sorcery if done by someone not Catholic?  Interesting twist to fit don't you think?  But then the Bible is a book of propaganda just like others are .... not intended to be accepted as historical fact.  Its a tool to brainwash masses of sheeple....to servitude of the status quo in power. 

If he was so damned concerned for 'his children' then sell off the Vatican treasures and put your money where your mouth is.

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

 LUANDA, Angola – Pope Benedict XVI appealed to the Catholics of Angola on Saturday to reach out to and convert believers in witchcraft who feel threatened by "spirits" and "evil powers" of sorcery. On his first pilgrimage to Africa, the pope drew on the more than 500 years of Roman Catholicism in Angola, saying that Christianity was a bridge between the local peoples and the Portuguese settlers. "In today's Angola," the pope said in a homily at Mass, "Catholics should offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened, disoriented, even reaching the point of condemning street children and even the most elderly because — they say — they are sorcerers."

In Africa, some churchgoing Catholics also follow traditional animist religions and consult medicine men and diviners who are condemned by the church. People accused of sorcery or of being possessed by evil powers sometimes are killed by fearful mobs. Benedict counseled Catholics to "live peacefully" with animists and other nonbelievers and urged Angolans to be the "new missionaries" to bring people who believe in sorcery to Christ. Eighty percent of Angola's 16 million people are Christian, about 65 percent Catholic. Benedict spoke at a Mass at the capital's blue-domed St. Paul's Church, where light streamed through stained glass windows onto veiled nuns and priests and bishops resplendent in white and lilac robes. Before the invitation-only Mass for nuns and priests, Benedict was welcomed by a huge crowd. Children screamed their excitement and held up cell phones to take photographs of the 81-year-old pontiff. Young girls prostrated themselves before him in a sea of pink veils. People chanted and swayed to drumbeats and the rhythm of hymns in this tropical seaside capital. Many women wrapped their waists in cloth printed with photographs of the pope's face. The pope lovingly caressed the faces of children and sketched the cross on their foreheads.

Security was unusually tight, with military sharpshooters atop buildings in the capital. The National Police said they have deployed 10,000 officers. Security agents blocked cell phones in the church, apparently by sending a signal. Inside, veiled nuns and bishops resplendent in white robes with cerise belts and skull caps celebrated Mass with Benedict, who arrived in Luanda on Friday on the second leg of his tour of the continent with the fastest growing Catholic population in the world. "This is a very emotional day for me, my first time to get a Papal blessing," said Sister Iliria Olivera, from Oaxaca in Mexico, among hundreds of foreign missionaries in the church. Olivera for nine years has been working with her Sisters of the Divine Pastor, teaching children and running a maternal health clinic outside Luanda. After the Mass, the pope mounted a podium to bless the frenzied crowd of faithful who cheered him, crying out "Viva ao papa! Viva!" Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to get the pope's benediction, and he waved signs of the cross from his glass-topped vehicle as he processed through the capital.

On Friday, Benedict lamented what he called strains on the traditional African family, condemning sexual violence against women and chiding countries that have approved abortion. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who is traveling with the pope, told journalists at a briefing Saturday that Benedict in that speech was referring to abortion when used as a means of "population control." Earlier in the weeklong trip, Benedict drew criticism from aid agencies and some European governments when he said that condoms were not the answer to Africa's severe AIDS epidemic, suggesting that sexual behavior was the issue. In his remarks to diplomats, Benedict also called for a "conversion of hearts" to rid Angola and the rest of Africa of corruption. Critics say last year's elections, which were swept by President Eduardo dos Santos' party, were marred by fraud and corruption. Dos Santos has been in power for 30 years. In his welcome speech after arriving from Cameroon on Friday, Benedict referred to Angola's poverty as well as its rich natural resources, saying the multitude of poor Angolans must not be forgotten. Angola is rich in diamonds and oil, but war and mismanagement have left most of its people in poverty.

The pope referred to his own childhood growing up in Nazi Germany, saying he had known war and national divisions and was keenly aware that dialogue was a way of overcoming "every form of conflict and tension and making every nation, including your own, into a house of peace and fraternity." Angola was lacerated by a civil war that started with its 1975 independence and ended in 2002. Its history as a former Portuguese colony has given the country Christian roots. Dos Santos said his government has good relations with the Vatican and he underlined the strong role the church plays in the country's recovery from nearly three decades of war. In a message of welcome published in the local press Saturday, he said "Today, the signs of reconstruction of Angola are already visible and we can say that the benefits of peace can be felt in the life of each citizen." Amnesty International on Saturday called on the pope to use his influence to halt the threat of forced evictions for residents of Luanda to make rise for high-rise apartments and office buildings. Many have been given cheap houses in faraway satellite towns that have no running water or electricity. Amnesty said that between 2003 and 2006, thousands of people were forcibly evicted from land belonging to the Catholic Church in three Luanda districts. Asked at the press briefing about Amnesty's allegations, Lombardi referred the question to an Angolan bishop, Monsignor Jose Manuel Imbamba. The prelate denied that anyone had been evicted or houses destroyed. "We help the poor, we don't send them away," Imbamba said.

___ AP correspondent Michelle Faul and reporter Casimiro Siona contributed to this report

A man arrives at the gates of Heaven.

St. Peter asks, "Religion?"

St. Peter looks down his list, and says, "Go to Room 24, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8."

Another man arrives at the gates of Heaven.

"Religion?"

"Baptist."

"Go to Room 18, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8."

A third man arrives at the gates.

"Religion?"

"Jewish."

"Go to Room 11, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8."

The man says, "I can understand there being Different rooms for different religions, but why must we all be quiet when we pass Room 8?"

that I only posted one story about my trip to Canada. So here's another.

We were driving to the giant, touristy mall called the Forks on our one-and-only free day. We were all excited to finally get the chance to take a break from the cramped chruch and go shopping and go-karting. We pulled into the gravel parking lot, where we were so distracted by the huge, weird-looking bridge nearby that we almost didn't notice the purple minivan that parked right between our two church vans at the very same moment. "Hah, we sandwiched that car. I wonder if it's the group from Minnesota. I heard they came up in a regular van," someone said.

We were about to get out when we saw that the middle-aged woman who had been driving the minivan had gotten out, slammed her door, and stomped her way over to the driver's side window of the other van, where our youth leader, Matt was sitting. We couldn't see or hear much, though we opened our windows slightly to try to catch a few words, and we did. Those words were, "...HELL!" and "...HOOLIGANS!" From what the people in van under attack told us, she was accusing us of throwing rocks at her car. Matt tried to calmly explain to her that this was impossible, seeing as how our vans only have windows on the side that open very slightly, and they were closed. He suggested that maybe, since we were driving on a gravel road... But the woman wouldn't hear any of it. She went on a crazed rant about how her children would never do such a thing because they go to Catholic school, and everyone in her church is better than the likes of us and we would never be welcome there. Also, we were going to be judged in Hell. When Matt (who is quite soft-spoken and abhors this kind of confrontation) had finally had enough, he said, "God will judge all of our sins, and He alone will judge our sins. Have a great day," and rolled up the window.

However, the woman apparently had not gotten all of the screaming out of her system, because she proceeded to storm over to the window of our driver, Tree (a very tall, people-person from the last story). She then said shrilly, on the verge of tears it seemed, "Those hooligans in the other van threw rocks at my car and you people continue to DENY IT!" Tree, remaining pleasant, replied, "Well, if that's true, that was very wrong of us to do."

She obviously had no idea what to say to that, but was still quite angry. She backed away, waving her arms manically and screaming, "I just can't DEAL with you people! You hooligans! HOOLIGANS!!!" She paced back and forth a few times, pulling at her short, curly hair, until it occured to her to write down the name of our church, which was painted on the side of the vans. Her teenage daughter had apparently already written down our license plates from the passenger seat of the minivan. A girl in our van said she felt sorry for her, but the scowl that was escaping from under her giant, bug-like sunglasses suggested she wasn't at all embarressed.

The woman must have thought the act of writing down our church name was a threatening enough gesture to end her rampage with an air of now-we'll-see-who-gets-the-last-laugh and she drove away. Our theory is that she was a hardcore Catholic who saw our van, noted that we weren't Catholic like her, and when a pebble from the gravel road got kicked up and hit her car, she naturally assumed it was us. Us with our dirty, slightly different belief system.

Everyone exclaimed how the lady needed to be locked up and put on heavy mediaction, but I maintained that she just started menopause, was recently fired from her job, and her mom probably just died. Her dog, too.

my september 12th and 13th were pretty uneventful.

today emma sat w/ me on the bus and she attepted to eat a muffin. IT WAS HILLRIOUS!!! (it was a "you had to be there thing")

on the 11th from about 5:00pm to 7:00 were great. to make a long story short (cuz i dont hav much time). i went to alex's youth group meeting with Emma at OLG.  for the first hour the other  people participated in an activity (we met this guy named matt). then about 6:00. me and Emma were like lets ditch this shit so we walk out into the hallway and motion to alex and matt to come out. we knew matt would do it ut we didnt think Alex had the balls to skip out (cause he would get in HUGE trouble if he did). but much to our surprise he came! so we all go out and hang out on the playground (lol very bad-ass! NOT)  Matt and Emma "paired off" in one of the playground tunnels. and me and alex talked and cuddled on the playground for an hour then he walks me home and i get a little peck on the mouth. he calls me up at 10:30, it turns out he got in BIG trouble.....

and thats why Alex is grounded off the comp. another two weeks. 

(there were LOTS and LOTS and LOTS  of awesome details to this story.... *sigh* oh well)