Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church - Yahoo! News

Well, this is huge!:

Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church - Yahoo! News: By Mary Wisniewski

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.

In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church - the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

I love what Father, er, Mother? Rosemarie Smead has to say about the Vatican:

"It has no sting for me," said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. "It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."

Russian court denies punk band convict Tolokonnikova parole - Yahoo! News

Russian court denies punk band convict Tolokonnikova parole - Yahoo! News: MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court refused to release from prison one of two jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk band so that she can look after her young daughter.

The court on Friday rejected Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's appeal for parole eight months after she was handed a two-year prison sentence for the band's performance of a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Tolokonnikova, 23, has been serving her sentence for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" in a prison colony in central Russia, about 550 km (350 miles) southeast of Moscow.

"I've spent enough time in the prison colony. I've had enough of studying it. Half a year is long enough," Tolokonnikova, a philosophy student, told the judge at the parole hearing, the RAPSI legal news agency reported.

She complained of having frequent headaches in jail in Mordovia, a region that has a large number of prisons.

Her lawyer, Irina Khrunova, said Tolokonnikova's five-year-old daughter Gera needed her mother.

The judge said Tolokonnikova's parental status had been taken into account when she was sentenced - prosecutors had asked for three years - and pointed to two reprimands she has received as evidence her conduct has not been sufficiently "corrected", RAPSI reported.

Parasociology: Marian Apparitions at El-Zeitoun and Social Psi (part 5)

From Parasociology, part 5 on the El-Zeitoun apparitions in Egypt 1968. Excerpt:

Parasociology: Marian Apparitions at El-Zeitoun and Social Psi (part 5): In such an atmosphere, which mixes religious devotion and amazement, the probabilities that many people projected their belief into what they saw seem quite high. Non-believers like Nelson, as already noted, did saw an intense light, but could not translate what they saw into the “Virgin Mary”. Yet, the original witnessed were Muslim workers, and they thought that a woman was about to commit suicide by jumping from the Church’s roof.

A combination of factors can be invoked to reinforce what was discussed on this blog in previous posts about “prior plausibility structure”. Zeitoun is known in the Coptic tradition as a place where the Virgin rested during the escape to Egypt, and there is an old tree associated with this tradition in Zeitoun. Then, the apparitions were centered on a Church, dedicated to Saint Mary. There were “miracles” seen by witnesses, and there is no doubt that the word about such event spread very quickly. The main colors were blue and white, and sometimes red, the traditional colors associated with the Marian iconography. Finally, the shape of the apparition was construed even by no believers as the one of a woman.

From Amazing UFO Stories AND Strange UFO Videos: Frightening UFO Perception Prompts Grabbing Of Holy Bible

From Amazing UFO Stories AND Strange UFO Videos: Frightening UFO Perception Prompts Grabbing Of Holy Bible:

"Looking out west window. From behind cloud, came flying towards my building direction, very low, continued over my building. Wide and long to tips,chevron/boomerang shape. Ghostly-transparent at first like a creature, no flapping of wings,then more mechanical/metallic as it flew past my window looking up. View was head on, underside possibly flaling material at the tail end, like kite material. Whitish/gray color was more vibrant than adjacent city-reflecting clouds.In fear, I grabbed my Holy Bible next to alarm clock, and noted time of observation."

Interesting how people react to UFO sightings and events. Some UFOs invoke fear -- or, are interpreted as fear inflicting objects -- others inspire wonder, joy, even. For myself, they've inspired, to various degrees, giddiness, extreme curiosity, and obsession. Never fear, though. However...

As I've posted in the past, many times, many places, fear does seem to be an element in some sightings. I'm not a Christian so don't have that framework around experience (ie, grabbing my bible) (if I had one) but that Orange Orb? Still angers me, calls to me, compels me, to find out what the hell happened that night decades ago.

Pastor announces plans to run for Oregon governor | Statesman Journal | statesmanjournal.com

From Pastor announces plans to run for Oregon governor | Statesman Journal | statesmanjournal.com, Aaron Auer's disingenuous statement:

An Oregon City pastor announced Friday he plans to run for governor next year.

Aaron Auer, the founder of Reviving Oregon’s Amazing Roots Ministries in Umpqua, said he’s in the early stages of his campaign and kept tight-lipped about what political party he was seeking a nomination from.

“I am campaigning as a modern day circuit riding preacher,” said Auer, a son of dairy farmers in Douglas County.

If there's any doubt, here you go:

“I had a dream. I saw governor and the Lord spoke to me and told me you would be the governor of Oregon,” she later told her husband.

Cracking Down on Nuns

The new Pope's symbolic feet washing of women was seen by some as a positive and forward thinking gesture. Not so fast; some of us more cynically minded saw it as a stage act, a slighelgh of hand moment in the Vatican's ushering in of the new Pope Francis. However, the new Pope is continuing the Vatican's war on women:

Pope Francis supports crackdown on US nuns - Yahoo! News: VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis supports the Holy See's crackdown on the largest umbrella group of U.S. nuns, dimming hopes that a Jesuit pope whose emphasis on the poor mirrored the nuns' own social outreach would take a different approach than his predecessor.

The Vatican last year imposed an overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious after determining the sisters took positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." Investigators praised the nuns' humanitarian work, but accused them of ignoring critical issues, including fighting abortion.

The Vatican has been going after so-called renegade nuns; Ope Francis is just following the Vatican's line. See related posts Vatican's War on Women: this time it's nuns, and Vatican Weighs in on Cult Like Group.

Vintage Holy Cards

The BVM Visits Holy Girl Scouts

Jesus Feeds Himself to the Children

Follow the Rules!

Pink Angel Watches Over Spot and the Kids as Dad Backs Out

Sorry, boss, you can’t deny me my fertility rites | The Sunday Times

Sorry, boss, you can’t deny me my fertility rites | The Sunday Times

Calling the Psycho Bastards on their Shit: Saudi imam rapes, tortures 5-yr-old daughter

Saudi imam rapes, tortures 5-yr-old daughter because he ‘doubted her virginity’ — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami: A popular Saudi Arabian television preacher was found guilty of murdering his own 5-year-old daughter because he doubted her virginity, as reported by The Daily Mail via Examiner thanks to the Religion of Peace.

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