UPI Item: 'Nun in Italy names surprise child Francesco"

She's keeping the baby. This article doesn't say if she'll continue to live in the convent. I'd like to more -- a lot more!

Nun in Italy names surprise child Francesco - UPI.com: Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A 31 year-old nun at the Little Disciples of Jesus convent in Rieti, Italy discovered she was pregnant and about to give birth when stomach pains sent her to the hospital on Wednesday.
Hours after arriving at the S. Camillo De Lellis hospital, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Media reported that the nun, originally from El Salvador, has named her son Francesco, the same name as Pope Francis.

The Flying Nun

Remember this? Well, if you're a certain age you might, if not, here you go. Sally Field as The Flying Nun. I liked this show when I was a kid, have to admit. (I was just a kid!)

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.

Amnesiac Nun Dream

Discussion last night at the weekly pagan-earth centered group I participate in centered around shamanism. One side topic that briefly came up was my highly integrated mish-moshed ancestry. I had said that until recently -- past few years -- I felt like a crazy pin ball, bouncing around. Am I Native American? Do I embrace the Roman Catholic, Latino side of my family? How about the Russian Jewish side? Then there's the Spanish, and the Celtic. Don't forget about the Buddhist side, or the 32nd degree Masonic side. And that's all just going back three generations. (Great grandparents on down.)

To top it off, there's a very huge elephant in the room concerning blood ancestry, and so, aside from the Scottish/English lineage (on both sides) is the (maybe) Irish side. But no one's talking. There's also a Japanese blood line in my family. And by extension, Korean.

As one person said, and it was supported by the "vision" of another, I "...worked very very hard to choose the parents and family I came to in order to get all these connections." That resonated with me and made quite a bit of sense.

source: Wikipedia nun, Ireland, 1964

So all this energy -past life- present life path stuff was swimming in my head. Last night I had this dream:

One of my recurring dreamscapes. This one is what is labeled "downtown" or "East L.A." in my dream, but it isn't really. It's my own dreamscape; a large boulevard, busy with traffic, pedestrians, lots of theaters and shops and restaurants. It's considered the "poor" section and sort of the "end" of town/dream place, but it doesn't seem that way. I'm a little nervous every time I'm here; I'm in the minority for one thing. A woman, white, alone. But no one really cares. It's slightly hilly here, and while the boulevard is very big and bright and busy, just across the way are residential streets; lots of homes. Hills in the distance.

So I'm roaming around here, a little lost, as I always am when in this place. Not too familiar with the location. This time, I'm a nun. Completely outfitted in a black and white habit. I know I'm a nun, but I also seem to have some kind of amnesia. I don't know where I "work" or what my name is. I don't know why I'm a nun, or how it all works. I just know I am. I'm okay with being a nun and feel sure of what that's all about, even though I don't know the name of my order, or even if I belong to one. 

I'm aware of the looks I'm getting; people are fine with me being a nun but they assume I won't "get" things. That I won't enjoy the Klezmer musicians and their fantastic music as I walk by them playing in a storefront. That I won't think the slightly off color jokes passengers tell on the bus are funny. Etc.

I'm on this bus, and a little worried, because really, I have no idea where I'm supposed to go, let alone know how to get there. Hell, let alone know who I am!

But while I'm lost and am not sure of who I am, I seem to be all right, considering. I am very sure of my "nun-ness" even though I'm not sure if my idea is what other nuns might think. I assume there are other nuns -- as I say, I just find myself here and without an order, without a name for that order, or even if there is an order. I'm a sort of lone nun.

Interesting dream in context: Years ago, a group of us were using the Ouija board. I managed to tick everyone off not because I didn't believe we were getting real messages, but because I doubted the honesty of those messages. No, I wasn't debunking the experience but rather, questioning the energies that were coming through. However, some things did come through that seemed to be more honest than other things. One was the "message", as were discussing past lives, that in one of my former lives I was a nun. This was in the late 1800s in the U.S. west. I was not just any nun, but one thrown out of her order -- or possibly left. I was on my own, still a nun, but more a friend of the "ladies of the night" than any town preacher.

“An onna-bugeisha (女武芸者?) was a female warrior. Members of the samurai class in feudal Japan, they were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honor in times of war.”

- Wikipedia

There's also my Catholic background; growing up in a Jewish-Buddhist household, as a Catholic, and constantly causing scandal by my questions ending in my refusal to stand up and take the pledge during confirmation.

Roswell researcher Kevin Randle: The nun's story

Among the rich data bank of witnesses to Roswell: nuns. Kevin Randle reports: A Different Perspective: The Nuns Story - Roswell Edition

The obvious subtext to this report is the layer of deceit accompanying this story. As with the entire Roswell story, from beginning to the present, the mess of lies, cover-ups and disinfo is a huge one. Wading through it has caused many a UFO explorer to give up, or worse, dismiss Roswell as a dead topic. Randle continues however and is only after one thing: the answer.

Very interesting account.

By the way, the comments are almost as interesting as the post. The usual skeptoids make their appearance of course :(.

The only thing Randle does "wrong" is waste time answering such trolls, but I really shouldn't say that, since I enjoy doing the same at times myself when the mood strikes.

Just For Fun...

Philip Coppens: The Lies of Fatima

The following from Philip Coppens:The Lies of Fatima;The apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima in origin had nothing to do with prophecies or, indeed, the Virgin Mary. But through a series of manipulations, the Church created one of the most elaborate lies, which formed the backdrop of major political events.

The story of the BVM at Fatima contains numerous fascinating elements. One aspect of the story is the following concerning Lucia, who kept the "secrets" and lived the rest of her life in a convent. But this, Coppens suggests (and the facts support) wasn't due entirely to Lucia's devotion as a Catholic.

...shortly after the Fatima apparitions, she was forced into a convent (she was not a devout Catholic when the visions happened; her father was actually an atheist), sent to a nunnery where she could not communicate with anyone because language barriers, and was later placed in solitary confinement, to make sure she didn’t speak to anyone; access to Lucia required the consent of the highest Vatican circles and it was rarely granted. What Lucia desired, was therefore totally at the Pope’s discretion.

It's been suggested before, and Coppens discusses this in his article, that the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul ll in 1981 had something to do with the Fatima secrets. So much so that "the bullet was later set in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima."

But was the secret a true prediction of an assassination attempt, or manipulated revelations by the Vatican -- manipulated to the extent of holding prisoner a woman for just about her entire life? Coppens shows us how the latter seems to be the case.

Note: be sure to read Lon Strickler's piece about Philip's article at his blog Phantom and Monsters!

Santa Muerte (Saint Death)

One of my favorite blogs, Mystic Politics, has a brief item about "Santa Muerte" the Saint of Death.

"While tens of thousands of Mexicans have lost their lives in the ongoing drug war, millions more have become devoted to death. Saint Death (Santa Muerte) is a skeletal folk saint whose cult has proliferated on both sides of the border over the past decade. The Grim Reapress (she's a female figure) has rapidly become one of the most popular and powerful saints on both the Mexican and American religious landscapes. Although condemned as satanic by both Catholic and Protestant churches, she appeals to millions of Mexicans and Latin American immigrants in the U.S. on the basis of her reputedly awesome supernatural powers. ~ sources: Huffington Post

Santa Muerte, or The Grim Reapress, is a folk image/entity/icon. As such,like many folk images, she is outlawed by authorities and institutions. Since Saint Death is a protectress of the criminal and the murderous, her images, as well as conspicuous homages to her, are quashed:

The current administration of Felipe Calderon has even declared her religious enemy number one of the Mexican state. In March 2009, the Mexican Army bulldozed dozens of her roadside shrines in the border cities of Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. But providing protection to narcos is just one of Saint Death's multiple roles. She is also a supernatural healer, love doctor, money-maker, lawyer and angel of death. ~ source: R. Andrew Chestnut,Huffington Post.

'La Catrina' by Rodolfo Cartas

The duality is interesting too: adopted by the criminals, the outsiders, but also by another type of outsider: those needing help in every day matters concerning money, illness, love, the law...and, death, which gets us all. It's interesting the saint is a female. R. Andrew Chestnut, author of the Huffington Post article that Mystic Politics links to, addresses this:

No introduction to Saint Death would be complete without consideration of one of her most unique characteristics -- her gender identity. While folk saints abound in the Americas, and other supernatural skeletons work miracles in Guatemala and Argentina, Santa Muerte stands alone as the sole female saint of death from Chile to Canada. Her asexual skeletal form contains no hint of femaleness. Rather it is her attire and, to a lesser extent, her hair that define the saint as female. Devotees and manufacturers of mass produced images of the Bony Lady usually dress her as a nun, the Virgin, a bride or queen.

(I wonder about Catrina, the famous Day of the Dead skeletal figure -- is she as common/popular? It's not quite the same meaning, from my limited understanding; Day of the Dead, while maybe morbid to some of us gringos, isn't a negative celebration, and it doesn't share the same context as Saint Death. While both are female images, both are of the people, and both are vilified by authorities, they aren't the same.)

Another post I found: Pagan Spirits: Santa Muerte -Saint Death with comparisons to other female dieties of death, including, to my surprise, the Virgin of Guadalupe, who one doesn't usually think of in this context:

The Virgin of Guadalupe’s indigenous antecedent is Tonatzin, the Moon Goddess, a milder aspect of Coaticue. Coaticue was the Lady of the Serpent Skirt, the creator-goddess who gave birth to all the deities and to earthly life as well. At death, she swallowed living things back into her body. She was also goddess of the moon and stars. She wore a necklace of skulls (like India’s Kali) and, as her name implies, a skirt of serpents. She is sometimes depicted as wearing a skirt made from the penises of her sacrificial victims.

Claudia Santini: Now Hiring Online: Nuns

At the Huffington Post, Claudia Santini writes about the cloistered sisters in Italy who use the internet to recruit new nuns: Claudia Santini: Now Hiring Online: Nuns

"Cloistered life in Naples is enjoyable and cheerful," they say, "This is a daily extraordinary adventure, even if we know that, being stared from the outside, our lives seem different. There are many young women bringing vocation in their heart, but they are not aware of it."

Vatican weighs in on cult-like group in Legion - Yahoo! News

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has proposed giving hundreds of women who live like nuns within the troubled Legion of Christ order greater autonomy after a Holy See investigation found serious problems in their regimented communities.
The pope's delegate running the Legion, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, said in a letter published Monday that the problems of the consecrated women of the Legion's lay branch were "many and challenging." Of particular concern is that they have no legal status in the church.
In a 2010 Associated Press expose, former consecrated women spoke of the cult-like conditions they lived in, with rules dictating nearly every minute of their day — from how they ate to what they watched on TV — all in the name of God's will.
The women described emotional and spiritual abuse they suffered if they questioned their vocation, and of how they would be cast aside if their spiritual directors no longer had any need for them.
The Vatican ordered the investigation after word of the abuses emerged during a broader Vatican probe into the Legion, a conservative order founded in Mexico in 1941 by the late Rev. Marciel Maciel.
After decades of denying allegations Maciel was a pedophile, the Legion in 2009 began admitting to his double life: that he sexually abused seminarians and had fathered at least three children with two women.
Rest here:Vatican weighs in on cult-like group in Legion - Yahoo! News

US priest who backs women's ordination detained - Yahoo! News

US priest who backs women's ordination detained

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A U.S. Catholic priest who supports ordination for women has been detained by police after marching to the Vatican to press the Holy See to lift its ban on women priests.

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois and two supporters were taken away Monday in a police car after their group marched down the main boulevard leading to the Vatican and chanted outside St. Peter's Square "What do we want? Women priests!"

BBC News - Child protection measures apply regardless of religious rules

Some Catholics are not happy about this: BBC News - Child protection measures apply regardless of religious rules -- new law in Ireland that mandates child abuse be reported, despite the religious position of the abuser. Cardinal Brady, who "defended the seal of the confession" and others are affronted by such laws:

Cardinal Brady stressed it was a "sacred and treasured" rite.

During his homily to worshippers at Knock shrine in County Mayo, on Sunday, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland said: "Freedom to participate in worship and to enjoy the long-established rites of the church is so fundamental that any intrusion upon it is a challenge to the very basis of a free society" he said.

Thanks to Boing Boing for link.

Brown Pelican Synchronicity

I wrote about our watching a brown pelican while on the coast over Thanksgiving on my blog The Orange Orb. I took some pictures but they didn't turn out well; couldn't distinguish too well the pelican, which was swooping, diving and hovering above the sea, from the many gulls. When I uploaded the photos I noticed a strange thing; a sharp object appeared in the sky, somethine we didn't notice while on the beach. It's pixalated, and hard to tell what it could be; camera glitch, or UFO/military-gov. object?

Writing away here at UFO Mary on various things (see posts below) including the suppressions of the church and "maverick" groups, I find the following item on a Mary contactee; St. Catherine Laboure, on the Brown Pelican Sociey of Lousianna blog.   

November 25th is her feast day.

St. Catherine's body is "incorrupt" and is enclosed in a glass coffin in Paris, at one of the places Mary appeared to her.