Witchcraft @ MindSay 
god
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
Earliest Reference Describes Christ as 'Magician' |
Video: Discovery Archaeology Oct. 1, 2008 -- A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ. If the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world. The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ." "It could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic," Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology, said.
for complete article see: http://dsc.discover y.com/news/ 2008/10/01/ jesus-bowl. html
Your child asks to use the broom to cleanse, I mean clean, their room.
There is always a steak knife missing.
Your smallest pan keeps disappearing and reappearing, and always smells like ashes and potpourri.
All your candle holders are missing.
They now enjoy going to the fabric store with you and they want thread, ribbon and cloth of every color of the rainbow.
Their Christmas and Birthday wish lists consist of: a white or black full length bathrobe, blank journal books, window box herb gardens and a box of candles in assorted colors.
You just figured out that every full or new moon your child asks to have 3 friends spend the night; and strangely they are very quiet all night.
Your child now says "Merry Meet Again" every morning to you and whenever they leave they say "Merry Part".
Your recipe cards are disappearing and when you do find them you can't seem to use them as none of the recipes require any actual cooking.
Your child has a new ID bracelet that reads something like "RavenMoon" "StarWolf" or "SunDragon"
Your child asks you one day for a compass, four cans of paint; blue, green, red, and yellow, so that they can paint their room correctly.
They insist that their
Their pillows are now filled with all your potpourri.
You ask your child to rake up the autumn leaves in the yard, and they come back with a small stick and a large stick; which you later find to have shiny objects on them and unidentifiable etchings.
Once a jar gets emptied in your house it ends up in your child's room filled with various objects like pins, needles, hair, honey, paper, and soil.
Your child buys trinkets like silver cups, small tablecloths, statues of mythological figures, and the like, but you're never quite sure where they've put it all... You look in the attic, their closet, or some other concealed place and find all of that stuff they bought is arranged neatly on a small table.
They made you a doll that looks eerily like you, and every time it falls off the table, you take a sudden tumble yourself.
You find a stone circle in the sandbox.
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In other news, I finally stumbled into the Mindsay forums today and found the thread about Paganism. Reading the posts in the thread sparked a lot of memories and old feelings in me, and I realized that not only do I miss being religious and having religious convictions, I more specifically miss being Pagan. I miss the rituals and the Sabbats and the celebration of life and... just all of it. In the year since I've stopped practicing, I've managed to forget a good share of what I'd learned. I spent nearly four years trying to desperately absorb everything I could concerning Paganism, and now I've lost all that knowledge, lost it or locked it away somewhere. Either way, I can't remember very much of what I'd learned.
So this goes out to anyone who stumbles across my blog: if you're Pagan or Wiccan or anything of the sort then please, take mercy on my poor memory, leave me a comment, and tell me something useful about this religion. In an odd way, I'm asking for a teacher. Yes, that's it: if you're Pagan and read this, be my teacher.
Until then... adios. I've got an obscene amount of reading and an overlarge sense of hunger.
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