KEEP THE FAITH—BUT NOT IN OUR SCHOOLS

The Canadian Secular Alliance and its allies are hosting a rally in front of the Legislature at Queen's Park on Sunday September 18 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. to demand:

• The end of the over $500 million taxpayer subsidization for the promotion of the Roman Catholic religion. Public funding for the expensive duplicate school system must be eliminated to provide one secular publicly funded school system.

• The protection of equality rights for all students—including gay students—by ending the constitutional privilege afforded Roman Catholics to overrule legislation and the courts in favour of religious dogma.

"Equality for all students means ending privileged access to public schools for favoured religious services," says CSA President Greg Oliver.

Speakers represent a cross section of the religious and non-religious.

More information: http://secularalliance.ca

Tear Down The Wall--One School System For All Conference.

The Conference is sponsored by the One School System Network [OSSN]

If you are concerned about discrimination and special privilege for one group of Ontario citizens (ie; Catholics) then you should find this conference of interest.

Location:  North York Civic Centre   5100 Yonge  Street  Toronto, ON M2N 5V7

Date:   Saturday, 28th May, 2011

Time:   9:30-6:00 pm

Admission:  $20.00    $5.00 for students and seniors. [includes refreshments]

Pay at the door or by cheque.

Cheques to be written out to One School System Network and sent to:

 PO Box 8733 Stn T

Ottawa   ON    K1G 3J1

 For inquires, please send an email to:  sheila@secularism.net or call 613 738 7720

Carcassonne, France. The Old City

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

We got up early and went for breakfast. It was going to be a full day of walking and I didn't want to get tired too soon so we called a taxi to take us to the old town.

Carcassonne, is famous for being the best surviving example of a medieval military city in Europe. The city was next on the hit list for the Christian Crusaders after the sacking of Beziers. 

Nova Scotia bishop facing child porn charges

A bishop based in Nova Scotia has been charged with possessing and importing child pornography, just weeks after his diocese reached a $15-million settlement with people who said they were abused by priests as children.
Raymond Lahey, 69, resigned from his post with the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish on the weekend before news of his arrest became public knowledge on Wednesday.
Police says Lahey was sent for a secondary examination at the Ottawa airport as he was returning from a foreign country on Sept. 15.
Ottawa police said in a news release that border services searched his laptop and "found images ... that were of concern."
The laptop and other media devices were seized by border guards.
Read the full story: The Toronto Star

Just one more example of the good works of Christianity.  What makes this even more pathetic and sad is that I'm not really surprised by this. 

Award for Poland abortion woman

A Polish court has awarded $11,000 (7,400 euros) in damages to a woman likened to a child killer by a Catholic magazine for wanting an abortion.

The article also compared abortion to the experiments of Nazi war criminals at Auschwitz.

Alicja Tysiac had been warned by doctors when she became pregnant that she could go blind if she had her baby.

Source: BBC News

Ahhhhh, God is love.

Scientist Creates Sperm

Scientists in Newcastle claim to have created human sperm in the laboratory in what they say is a world first.

The researchers believe the work could eventually help men with fertility problems to father a child.

But other experts say they are not convinced that fully developed sperm have been created.

Writing in the journal Stem Cells and Development, the Newcastle team say it will be at least five years before the technique is perfected.

They began with stem cell lines derived from human embryos donated following IVF treatment.

The stem cells had been removed when the embryo was a few days old and were stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen. Full Story

I just had a brief chat with God and he has assured me the vatican will be issuing a statement denouncing this at any moment.

The Pope's Good Friday Message On Human Brutality...

...and my reaction to it!

This is just a small quote that I thought was worth sharing; Thanks to the Telegraph for the original story. 

So the Pope says "We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink."  I will add that he is speaking at the 7th station of the cross where Jesus was mocked, and

 comparing that to the way he sees Western secular society (i.e.; me) mocking religion.

I'm always impressed by the audacity of religious leaders like the Pope who will go through the motions of rituals like he did this week, washing the feet of vatican priests, as Jesus supposedly did to his disciples. The purpose; to show humility. Sounds good so far, right? 

WRONG!

He does this foot washing using a solid gold basin. 

I wonder, if that gold basin was sold off, how many starving people would it feed? How many living in tents in Italy right now because of the recent earthquake could benefit from the funds that would supply for rebuilding or food and medicine?

Lets not forget the vast riches the church has at its disposal, acquired over hundreds of years by questionable means along with donations from the faithful. 

What if these riches were all used in the spirit in which Jesus preached? Would it solve world hunger? Could it save one life? Of course it could, in fact the church could save thousands of lives and improve the quality of

 life for millions more. 

And its not even just about the money. The church could simply use its influence that it has with its audience profoundly better. One simple way would be to stop lying to the uneducated masses in Africa by telling them that condoms could increase the risk of becoming HIV positive or getting AIDS.  You might as well disallow them AIDS medication while your at it. 

As far as I'm concerned this institution is guilty of being an accessory to mass murder. At the very least just shut up and don't talk about condoms. After  all, priests are supposed to be celibate, so really condoms are not something you are best suited to be talking about to begin with. 

So finally, while your carving the easter ham, or happily decorating easter eggs. In the spirit of being shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink I humbly submit the following for you to reflect upon this easter weekend. Personally as an atheist, I will be celebrating the nice spring weather and the passing of another cold winter.

1. Legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV's papal bull Ad exstirpanda of 1252, which authorized and regulated the use of torture in investigating heresy.  For more click here.  
   
2. Here is one really sick family that is not Catholic, but the depravity is based in religion.
3. From the misguided Pope John Paul II, one which I take particular offense to, as someone who is a gay sexual abuse survivor. This statement reinforces the incorrect belief by some that homosexuality equals pedophilia.  The Pope decreed: because a significant majority of victims were teenage boys, disallowing ordination of men with "deep–seated homosexual tendencies"
4. For those who prefer visuals, watch this short video for a look at some of the torture tools of the inquisition.
5. Its not just christians: A pig caused hundreds of Indians to kill one another in 1980. The animal walked through a Muslim holy ground at Moradabad, near New Delhi. Muslims, who think pigs are an embodiment of Satan, blamed Hindus for the defilement. They went on a murder rampage, stabbing and clubbing Hindus, who retaliated in kind. The pig riot spread to a dozen cities and left more than 200 dead. Full Article Here
   

The Pope Vs. Condoms

The following is an email I received from Avaaz.org. Please take a moment to sign the petition. Thank you

This week, on his first visit to Africa, Pope Benedict said that "[AIDS] cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems". The Pope's statement is at odds with the research on AIDS prevention, and a setback to decades of hard work on AIDS education and awareness.
With powerful moral influence over more than 1.1 billion Catholics in the world, and 22 million HIV positive Africans, these words could dramatically affect the AIDS pandemic and put millions of lives at risk. Worldwide concern is starting to show results and a willingness by the Vatican to revise the statement - sign our urgent petition asking the Pope to take care not to undermine proven AIDS prevention strategies: http://www.avaaz.org/en/pope_benedict_petition
The personal beliefs of Catholics and all people should be respected, and the Pope does advocate for other AIDS prevention methods such as abstinence and fidelity that can be effective when combined with condom use.
The Catholic Church engages in a vast amount of social service work, including the care of those living with AIDS. But the Pope's claim that condom distribution is not an effective AIDS prevention mechanism is not supported by research. It's untrue, and if it diminishes condom use, it will be deadly.
The fact is, HIV and AIDS are prevented by condom use. There is no easy solution to the spread of this tragic disease, but condoms and education are the best known prevention combination and have not been found to increase risky sexual behaviour. That is why even priests and nuns working in Africa have questioned the Pope's statements.
We may not be able to ask the Catholic Church to change its broader position, but we are asking the Pope to stop actively speaking out against prevention strategies that work. It's important that people of all beliefs, especially Catholics, call on the Pope to exercise care in his leadership on this issue.
Sign below then spread the word to your friends and family - this petition could actually save lives: http://www.avaaz.org/en/pope_benedict_petition 25 million people worldwide have already died of AIDS, and 12 million children have been left without parents. If enough of us join this outcry, we will win an important battle in the struggle for a world without AIDS.

More from the 'Big Surprise' Department

Vatican expresses disapproval of "Angels & Demons"

The Vatican might be gearing up for an official call for a boycott of "Angels & Demons," Ron Howard's big-budget follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code."

Avvenire, the Vatican's official newspaper, ran a story in Friday's edition noting that the Church "cannot approve" of such a problematic film. The Turin daily La Stampa, meanwhile, said the Vatican would soon call for a boycott of the film, though the same article also quoted Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, who warned against a "boomerang effect" that could call attention to the film and eventually make it more popular.

Source: Yahoo! News

-Big surprise! Is there anything this church does like (other than little boys and money)?

Priests to face 'sex drive tests'

The following story is from the BBC news, its actually from October 2008. My thought is this; If the church wants to weed out those with 'homosexual tendencies', and they won't allow women preists, then who will they have for priests?

The Roman Catholic Church has issued guidance for future priests to have psychological tests to weed out those unable to control their sexual urges.

A senior churchman said a series of sex scandals had contributed to the rewriting of the guidelines.

The authors said screening would help avoid "tragic situations" caused by what they termed psychological defects.

The guidance says the voluntary tests should also aim to vet for those with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies".

Argentina expels Holocaust bishop

Argentina has ordered an ultra-traditionalist British bishop who denies the Holocaust to leave the country or face expulsion.
The interior ministry said Richard Williamson had been given 10 days to leave Argentina.
Earlier this month the bishop was removed from his post as the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina.
A row erupted in January after the Pope decided to lift Bishop Williamson's excommunication on an unrelated matter.
The Vatican said the Pope had been unaware of Bishop Williamson's views and had since ordered him to recant. Full Story

Okay, maybe I'm slow, but if you're the Pope, you know 'God's guy on earth', the be all and end all. He who KNOWS everything, the direct line to the big (yes, this is sarcasm) guy in the sky, how is it that you could be "unaware" that the jerkoff Bishop you are reinstating was, scratch that, IS a holocaust denier. How pathetic.

Deliver Us From Evil

From the Toronto International Film Festival site:

Director Amy Berg has been a producer for CBS News and CNN. Her first feature documentary delivers a shattering and revealing account of the human cost of this issue. She tells the story of Father Oliver O’Grady, a notorious pedophile who used his position – as well as his Irish charm – to rape and abuse members of dozens of Catholic families across northern California over a twenty-year period. His victims ranged from a nine-month-old infant to the middle-aged mother of another adolescent victim. Astonishingly, despite ample signs and warnings as to his proclivities, the Church moved him from one parish to another, covering up the reality of what was going on from both the unsuspecting members of each new community and from the police. Church documents prove that, beginning in 1973, his evil deeds were done with their full knowledge.

Creep of the Daye!

It appears that Ontario is still a great place to molest children, and get off with a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle. This fucking creep, Rev. Charles Sylvestre molests 47 girls (that we know of) over a more than 30 year period (that we know of) and gets 3 years!!!?

That means, with the system the way it is, provided he gets early release, he most likely will serve a grand total of about 2 years in prison.

Not a high price for him to pay for more than 30 years of diddling kids! I read in another story that this scumbag was known as 'Father Feeler' in his parish....which once again confirms what I said long ago; "sexual abuse is often the secret that everyone knows about, yet does nothing about." These abused kids will have to deal with this for the rest of their lives, in a world that doesn't comprehend how sexual abuse affects a person, while the priest will be free in a couple of years to take up where he left off.

Note how distraught he looks as he leaves the courthouse in this photo.
Photo Credit: CP Photo/ Diana Martin.

Another diddling priest....lets all praise God for his bounty

The defrocked priest is by turns remorseful and flippant as he recounts in graphic detail a lifetime of sexually abusing children. Then, near the end of “the most honest confession of my life,” he turns to the movie camera to wink and smile at his victims.

If this creep is "...flippant" then, in my opinion any remorse he may demonstrate is an act. In my experience the only remorse these creeps ever have is related to getting caught.

Click the title link to see the entire article from the Globe and Mail.