Discussion for article #231420
PR recommendation: Limit your grievances to the 10 biggest. Carve them on two tablets and walk down from Mt. Vesuvius with them in hand. The media will love it and your point will be made ex cathedra.
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āI must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.ā
Personal fav: #8
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Too bad these Vatican Officials didnāt get the original memo:
The Ten Commandments, perhaps?
They needed a slightly expanded version, with a few hidden easter eggs to understand its meaning. Sort of like Vatican crib notes or a cheat sheet.
Thanks Pope Francis. Those words are helpful for all of this season.
This guy is amazing.
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[Christmas] angels are often positioned in high places, as they are an element in one of the oldest explanations for how organisations and hierarchies keep the ālittle guyā down.
Professor Parker from the University of Leicesterās School of Management says that although we have now largely replaced winged figures with the business magnate sitting atop a pile of money, we still seem to believe that hierarchies are somehow natural and inevitable.
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/12/2014/we-could-all-be-angels
Wow. 2,000+ years without any introspection and now this. Pope Mirror the 1st is easily my favorite pope.
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Can we forward this to congress, especially the blowhards (either of the Kings come to mind)?
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Heās my first favorite Pope. Which, for an atheist, is saying something.
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They (the R blowhards) must read this and cringe. They claim to be true Christians, but none of this message matches their political goals. I bet they ask themselves, āShould I speak out against the Pope? Who will I alienate? Will anyone notice the contradictions I spout daily?ā (or perhaps they donāt have that much self awareness)
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Stephen Colbert became immortal by shooting Grimmy on his last show, thereby violating Number 1.
Thatāll show the Pope whoās boss!
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Iād like to think that the choice of using 15 is a nod and a wink to Mel Brooks
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Jesus, itās my annual review all over again. Can we cut to the chase: am I getting a raise or not??
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I think the Pope has decided to celebrate Festivus instead of Xmas. āI got a lot of problems with you people!ā I canāt wait for the Feats of Strength.
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Anything, it could be said is better than Pope Rat-Zinger. Iād take āthe Pinko Popeā any day of the weekā¦if I were Catholic that isā¦A little more socialism (weāre all in this together) and a little less capitalism (I got mine Jack) is by far what the good lord intended.
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But seriously, folks: from what weāve seen of Francis, it seems clear heād choose any number but ten. If he had only ten, heād add an extra.
If youād ever studied āThe History of the World, Part Iā youād know it actually started out as the 15 Commandments, but Moses had butter fingers.
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This guy Popes like nobody has Poped in centuries.
His message: you guys suck, and I care about you.
Story idea for you, Josh, if I didnāt miss it when you did it: how the hell did this guy get selected?
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Yeah, but donāt we have to wait another 10,000 years for this one?
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I have often wondered what might happen if, instead of advocating absolute authority over the spiritual predicaments of the faithful, and being the Vicar of Christ and all that, instead ā the Chief Witch-Doctor advocated for love and forgiveness, and healing, instead of demanding obedience and warning of retribution.
But of course, all the clerics he is pontificating forāthey joined the Church when it was wearing itās authoritarian mantleāthey didnāt go there, sacrificing the sacrament of marriage, for the love, the joy, and the healingāthey went for the authority, and the materialism. So, in this regard, Francis is speaking very much like Jesus to the Pharisees.
Matthew 23:13King James Version (KJV)
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widowsā houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead menās bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
I am no Christian, but I can relate to these sentiments. Francis totally rocks!
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Wow. Most of that sounds like what ails our political bodies.
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