Man discovers he's not a ninja after all
November 18, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Did you know Hitler's propaganda machine tried to commandeer Christmas?
November 17, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Neither did I. And that’s why this article in today’s Daily Mail online caught my eye and raised my eyebrows.
Nazi Germany celebrated Christmas without Christ with the help of swastika tree baubles, ‘Germanic’ cookies and a host of manufactured traditions, a new exhibition has shown.
The way the celebration was gradually taken over and exploited for propaganda purposes by Hitler’s Nazis is detailed in a new exhibition.
Rita Breuer has spent years scouring flea markets for old German Christmas ornaments.
She and her daughter Judith developed a fascination with the way Christmas was used by the atheist Nazis, who tried to turn it into a pagan winter solstice celebration.
Selected objects from the family’s enormous collection have gone on show at the National Socialism Documentation Centre in Cologne.
‘Christmas was a provocation for the Nazis – after all, the baby Jesus was a Jewish child,’ Judith Breuer told the German newspaper Spiegel. ‘The most important celebration in the year didn’t fit with their racist beliefs so they had to react, by trying to make it less Christian.’
The exhibition includes swastika-shaped cookie-cutters and Christmas tree baubles shaped like Iron Cross medals.
The Nazis attempted to persuade housewives to bake cookies in the shape of swastikas, and they replaced the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas, who traditionally brings German children treats on December 6, with the Norse god Odin.
The symbol that posed a particular problem for the Nazis was the star, which traditionally decorates Christmas trees. . . . (continue reading)
"My Name Is Luka" Redux
November 17, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
First, refresh your memory as to the original:
Some words of encouragement for those who predict the imminent end of the world
November 17, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams can come true. Unless it’s really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which will destroy all life. Then you’re pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it’s death by meteor.”
In Praise of Bacon
November 16, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
You know this is true. You know it. Don’t lie.
Nihilist thought for the day: Nothing really matress
November 16, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Even when misspelled, it is still true.
Here's a Bible Verse You'll Never See Cross-stitched on a Pillow
November 16, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Just when you think you've solved a problem, along comes a bigger one
November 16, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
One priest per Dublin parish shortly, archbishop warns
November 16, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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Ireland, once a mighty powerhouse of priestly vocations, sent men by the thousands to the United States, Canada, and elsewhere to help build the Church here, over the last 150 years. But the Emerald Isle is now struggling just to ordain enough priests to meet its own ever-dwindling church-going Catholic population.
DUBLIN’S CATHOLIC archdiocese will soon have barely enough priests to serve its 199 parishes, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said.“We have 46 priests over 80 and only two less than 35 years of age. In a very short time we will just have the bare number of priests required to have one active priest for each of our 199 parishes,” he said in Dublin’s pro-cathedral at the weekend.
He was speaking at a Mass on Saturday to celebrate the feast of St Lawrence O’Toole, principal patron of the Dublin Catholic archdiocese, of which he was archbishop from 1162 until 1180. Last April Archbishop Martin said there were now 10 times more priests over 70 than under 40 in the archdiocese.
In April also it emerged that the number of priests in Tuam Catholic archdiocese is set to fall by 30 per cent over the next four years, leaving most parishes there with just one resident priest. . . . (continue reading)
Bahamian Archbishop Speaks Out on Sexual Sins Within Marriage
November 14, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
The Archdiocese of Nassau, Bahamas, has come out in support of legislature to deal with marital rape.“To the extent that the proposed legislation seeks to address the unfortunate reality of marital rape and in the measure that it seeks to preserve the dignity of every person and to safeguard marriage as a covenant of life and love between a man and woman, the Catholic Church offers its prayerful support”, reads an August 27 statement from Archbishop Patrick Pinder on the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2009.Giving the Church’s perspective, Archbishop Pinder said God created man and woman in such a way that through their bodies “it would be self-evident that they are called to love and give themselves to one another in the gift of marriage”, a sacrament according to the Catholic understanding. “By its nature, then, marriage is an intimate union of life and love.” . . . (continue reading)
