Pope arrives at Pompeii shrine

[emad]

Defying Vatican medical experts' recent scaremongering, John Paul 2 visits a holy shrine in Pompeii today, according to the UK's BBC:


Pope John Paul II has travelled to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii to pray for world peace at a popular Catholic shrine. It is the ailing Pope's second visit to Pompeii - and he insisted on keeping the long-standing invitation despite his poor health.

More than 30,000 people were waiting to greet him as he flew in by helicopter. Many stayed up all night to see him, saying they feared his ill health might prevented him travelling in future. "I see God in the Pope and I want to see him one last time," said one woman. "We are worried about him. We are worried that we may never see him again," said another. There are no papal trips planned either in Italy or abroad for the time being, though the pontiff has been invited to several countries next year.

One cardinal said on the radio last week that the Pope was nearing his dying days. However, the pontiff bounced back on Sunday to lead a two-hour canonisation ceremony in St Peter's Square. His visit to the shrine of Madonna of Pompeii will last two-and-a-half hours. He is expected to deliver a homily before flying back to Rome by lunchtime.

The Pompeii shrine was built around 130 years ago by a young southern lawyer called Bartolo Longo, who died in 1926. Seeing the huge crowds attracted to the pagan marble statues of the Gods of Rome and by the erotic artefacts dug up in the ruins of Pompeii, which was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 79AD, he organised a prayer group to save the souls of local tenant farmers. When one of many reported miracles was attributed by local farmers to the Madonna, the shrine was officially recognised by the Vatican.

more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3170068.stm

Question, re Pompeii 'miracles': how do they know it was not the 'Gods of Rome' that were responsible for for the many reported miracles attributed to the Mandonna? Female deities - such as Juno -were BIG in ancient Rome and are known to have been assimilated into the Judaeo-Christian religion when Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion.....

[LosinIt]

1. He's like the Energizer Bunny

Can't keep him down.

[PsychoDad]

2. Question, re Pompeii 'miracles':

Maybe they all come from the same source, regardless of the face or namewe wish to put upon that source?

[emad]

3. My thoughts, as well...

hope JP2 doesn't mind those 'erotic statues' he might actually be praying to, hem hem...

Re: assimilation: some of JP2's fellow Polish prelates, the Marian Fathers, who have their UK HQ in Henley on Thames, Buckinghamshire, converted a famous 18thC Hell Fire Club satanic temple on the banks of the river Thames into a 'holy shrine' to Fr Maksimilian Kolbe, a WW2 Pole beatified by JP2. The process involved exorcism and 'purification' of the temple, including painting over kabbalisitc icons and their replacement with christian symbols.

Local expat Poles have reported that prayers offered up at this shrine have produced 'miraculous' pregnancies in previously infertile women. Always wondered just which 'deity' was pulling those strings to get those ovaries pumping again.....