20th Century Irish Roman Catholics Actually Shamed Single Women For Being Single – Gross

20th Century Irish Roman Catholics Actually Shamed Single Women For Being Single – Gross

This reminds me of how present-day Protestant and Baptist conservative Christians, and secular American conservatives, still shame women for being single and/or for being childless.

It’s disgusting that people do this. It’s not your place to question a woman’s marital or childed status. A woman isn’t less a woman because she is single or childless  (whether by choice or by circumstance).

(Link): Chalk Sunday: Women marked with an X for being single 

Feb. 26, 2023

By Nuala McCann
BBC News NI

Today – the first Sunday in Lent – was once known as Chalk Sunday in Ireland.

“It was a custom dating back to the 1900s,” said Fiona Byrne, curator of History at the Ulster Folk Museum.

“Young boys would have drawn Xs on the backs of single women’s coats and dresses as they walked to and from Mass. They might have dusted them with chalk or touched them on the shoulder.

“It meant you didn’t manage to get married and was a bit mean really.

Lent is an old English word meaning ‘lengthen’. Lent is observed in spring, when the days begin to get longer. It allows Christians to remember Jesus’s fasting in the desert. It is a time of giving things up and a test of self-discipline.

No sex

The old Irish tradition of Chalk Sunday ties in with the feast of Shrove or Pancake Tuesday -the last day before Lent began – when people celebrated and had weddings, in preparation for the period stretching over six weeks of fasting, penitence and denial.

Meat, eggs, dairy, alcohol and even sex were off limits for strict Catholics in Ireland over Lent. Music and merrymaking was not enjoyed. There was a tradition of musical instruments being put away for the six weeks of Lent.

“Shrove Tuesday was traditionally the last day to get married before Lent,” said Ms Byrne. “There would have been a big rush for priests running up to Shrove Tuesday.”

People who were single were considered to have disregarded their social duty to marry and enjoyed a lesser social status.

It followed that Chalk Sunday was a focus on the single.

“Women’s role at that time was about getting married, having children and keeping a house,” said Ms Byrne.

“Women did so much more than that … but as for marriage, for some women it just may not have worked out. The word ‘spinster’ is a horrible term.”

Priest Close to Pope Francis Accused of Inviting Two Nuns to Take Part in a ‘Holy Trinity’ Threesome

Priest Close to Pope Francis Accused of Inviting Two Nuns to Take Part in a ‘Holy Trinity’ Threesome

(Link): Priest close to Pope Francis accused of inviting two nuns to take part in a ‘Holy Trinity’ threesome 

(Link): Priest accused of inviting nun to join ‘Holy Trinity’ threesome

Dec 20, 2022
by Tom Kington, Rome

A Jesuit priest at the centre of a sex scandal at the Vatican tried to arrange a ménage à trois with two nuns, likening the tryst to the Holy Trinity, one of the nuns has said.

The allegation against Marko Ivan Rupnik adds to revelations of sexual antics dating back decades, all of which could be an embarrassment for the Pope, who is said to be close to the priest. Rupnik, 68, has produced mosaics that feature biblical scenes for a papal chapel at the Vatican.

(Link): Priest ‘close to the Pope’ is accused of inviting two nuns to take part in a ‘Holy Trinity’ threesome

Dec 20, 2022

A Slovenian priest who is said to be close to the Pope has been accused of inviting two nuns to take part in a ‘Holy Trinity’ threesome.

Marko Ivan Rupnik, 68, was accused by a former nun of using his ‘psycho-spiritual’ control over her some three decades ago to have sex, including group sex, and watch pornographic films.

At the time of the allegations, Rupnik, who is known in the church for his artwork, was a spiritual director of a convent in Slovenia and the former nun, now 58, has described how her complaints against the priest were ignored.

…The former nun told the Italian investigative newspaper Domani on Sunday in an explosive testimony: ‘Father Marko started slowly and sweetly getting inside my psychological and spiritual world, exploiting my uncertainties and fragility and using my relationship with God to push me into sexual experiences with him.’

The nun claimed Rupnik had groomed her, had sex with her and bullied her into silence during her time in the Slovenian convent between 1987 and 1994.

She claimed Rupnik had asked her and another nun to have sex with him, saying they would replicate the three-way relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

She said she believed Rupnik had abused as many as 20 women.

(Link): Jesuits ask victims to come forward in artist abuse case

Pope Francis’ Jesuit order is asking any victims to come forward with complaints against a famous Jesuit artist

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
December 18, 2022

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ Jesuit order on Sunday asked any more victims to come forward with complaints against a famous Jesuit artist who was essentially let off the hook by the Vatican twice despite devastating testimony by women who said he sexually and spiritually abused them.

Nuns and Priests Watch Internet Porn, Pope Admits – well, so too do a lot of Protestants and Baptists

Nuns and Priests Watch Internet Porn, Pope Admits – well, so too do a lot of Protestants and Baptists

I grew up Baptist, and a lot of research and studies in the last 20 years have shown that a lot of Baptists and Protestants (mostly men but some women too) view  porn.

(Link): Priests and nuns watch porn online too, says Pope Francis

…Priests and nuns watch pornography online just like everybody else, the pope told aspiring clerics of the Roman Catholic Church this week.

“It is a vice that many people have, many laymen, many laywomen, and also priests and nuns. The Devil gets in that way,” Francis said Monday, according to the European Times.

“And I’m not just talking about criminal pornography like that involving the abuse of children, that is already degeneration. But pornography that is a little ‘normal.’ Dear brothers, be careful about this,” he warned seminarians at a meeting in Rome.

The famously tolerant 85-year-old pope had been asked by a student of the church whether devotees should use the technologies of the modern world, such as cellphones.

(Link): Nuns and Priests Watch Internet Porn, Pope Admits – well, so too do a lot of Protestants and Baptists

Priests and nuns watch internet porn, Pope Francis admitted while speaking with seminarians in Rome on Monday.

Pope Francis said internet porn was a ‘vice’ shared between members of the church.

‘It is a vice that many people have, many laymen, many laywomen, and also priests and nuns,’ said the 85-year-old Pope.

The Gross, Shaming Natalism Propaganda on Gab Platform by Its Rude Members, Including By Roman Catholics and Other Conservatives

The Gross, Shaming Natalism Propaganda on Gab Platform by Its Rude Members, Including By Roman Catholics and Other Conservatives

A few days ago, someone I follow on Gab – I was automatically signed up to follow that person when I joined the site, I did not choose to follow them on my own – (with Gab being a social media platform that is similar to Twitter) shared a meme by someone else called “Disco.”

You can view that meme (Link): here on Gab.

I will also provide a screen shot below.

By the way, I am not as familiar with Gab’s functions and commenting as I am with Twitter’s, so I am not quite sure how to reply to people on Gab or how to link to specific comments by myself or others.

I am a pro-life conservative.

I am not opposed to equal rights for women, but I don’t identify as a feminist.

I don’t really fit in totally over on Gab, a platform which unfortunately attracts a lot of extreme right wing kooks (but some of the users seem okay),
but I don’t really fit in over on Twitter, either (where I was suspended for months previously before I got posting ability again),
because Twitter is over-run with far left “nut jobs,” most of whose views I normally do not agree with.

I have found that both conservatives and liberals / progressives are about equally annoying and wrong on the parenthood, marriage, or nuclear family topics.

Not all progressives or liberals are opposed to women having children; they just believe (and I agree with this concept, though I am a conservative) that women (and men) should be permitted to decide for themselves if they truly want to be a parent or not.

People should not be guilt tripped or pressured into having children.

There are some very fringe, far-out there leftists who are “anti nuclear family” and who are opposed to people having children, and they call themselves “anti natalists.”

I don’t agree with progressives who try to propagandize women (or men) from having children.

I don’t think it’s the progressives’ place to try to brainwash, scold, shame, or guilt trip people from having children.

But then I see the reverse dynamic from a lot of secular and Christian conservatives.

I see people who identify as conservative or Roman Catholic on sites such as GAB who keep pumping out these stupid, horrid, “Have ten kids by the time you’re 30” type memes or comments.

And these views are not even “biblical.”

Christian Conservatives Explain Outrage Over Dave Rubin’s Surrogacy Announcement – Women Used As Props in Homosexual or Transgender Communities

Christian Conservatives Explain Outrage Over Dave Rubin’s Surrogacy Announcement – Women Used As Props in Homosexual or Transgender Communities

I actually follow Dave Rubin on Twitter. I’ve known for awhile he used to be liberal and became a conservative at some point, and he is a homosexual.

I am not too educated on the topic of surrogacy, so that is something I need to research.

In the past year, and though I’m not a feminist myself, I started following a lot of anti-trans-agenda feminists (they tend to call it “radical feminism”), and some of them are strongly opposed to women being used as surrogates to provide babies for other people.

One of my only annoyances with this at this stage, based on what little I know, are Christians who criticize married, infertile (hetero) couples who turn to a surrogate mother and/or IVF, etc, to have a child.

The reason I dislike this, is that I find it hypocritical: most Christian churches, denominations, and persons present being married and having children as being “better” than being single and childless.

So, Christians shame adults for being single and childless, but when or if that adult then tries to take steps to make marriage or pregnancy possible (whether by using dating sites, IVF, a surrogate), that same Christian, church, or denomination will shame that single, childless adult.

You will get shamed or criticized by Christians for striving for the very thing or life goal they are constantly pushing in your face, whether it’s marriage or parenthood.

I may not necessarily be in agreement with all opinions expressed below by other authors.

(Link): No Allies Who Buy Babies

The problem of gay surrogacy reminds us that the right’s alliance with anti-woke liberals cannot and should not survive.

…This, of course, is the primary issue: the moral abomination of surrogacy itself, the commodification of the human child, the relegation of women to the status of incubators. But there is a secondary concern as well.

The same people who make a living being outraged that Lia Thomas, who is a man, is allowed to swim in the women’s races for his college cannot turn around and tell us that there’s nothing wrong with two dudes having babies together.

Is there a difference between men and women, or is there not?

The normalization of homosexuality, and especially the normalization of homosexual parenthood, necessarily leads to the more radical gender ideology advancing from the left today.

30 Horrible Dates Whose Entitlement Is Through The Roof

30 Horrible Dates Whose Entitlement Is Through The Roof 

I am not about to copy all 30 items, so please use the link provided to visit their page if you’d like to see all 30.

As to one of the examples on the page, where the European guy tells his lady date she might be attractive if she only lost some weight – one of my friends went through this.

This friend of mine was trying dating sites in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and one of the guys she met at a dinner date, via this dating site she was using, actually told her if she wanted to date him, she’d have to lose weight.

This seems to be a somewhat common attitude by men who meet women on dates – tell them if they’d only change “X” about themselves (usually, it’s lose weight), they’d be attractive and worthy of a relationship.

This is a huge red flag. Most women who hear this will not date such a guy further.

I myself am a visually oriented woman who am not attracted to fatties, so my preference is to date in-shape guys

Therefore, I don’t have a problem per se with people who aren’t comfortable dating chubbies or fatsos, but if that’s you, you shouldn’t accept a date with an overweight person on a site only to spring this preference on them when you meet them in-person on a date, and tell them, “You know, I’d totally enter into a relationship with you if ONLY you’d lose weight,” for god’s sake!

If you can tell from the person’s dating app photo that they’re overweight in their dating site / app photos, then don’t approach them on the site for a date in real life, moron!

(Link): 30 Horrible Dates Whose Entitlement Is Through The Roof 

by Ieva Gailiūtė and Austėja Akavickaitė

Dating is complicated. After all, being selective has never been easier with the myriad of dating apps and websites that let you filter people based on their descriptions.

But let’s say you decide to go for it.

You message back and forth, awkwardly wait to be asked out, think of different conversation starters… only to discover that the person you’re interested in is way too picky to begin with.

So today, we’re diving into the not-so-pleasant incidents where people ran into dates who were ridiculously entitled. From insisting you own waterfront property to demanding a free Korean BBQ dinner, some people have unrealistically high standards.

We have combed through the internet and collected some of the best stories of people who think they inherently deserve more than anyone else…

#2 Guy Went On One Date With A Girl, Waited 3 Months Of No Contact Before Deciding To Pick Out Every Insecurity She Probably Has About Herself. Claims She Hurt His Ego, Then Proceeds To (Kind Of) Ask For A Second Date

Hello [name redacted]. I know we went on a date quite a while ago now but I’d like to explain why I haven’t messaged you.

I feel like you could have made the date much better, here’s a few reasons why. I apologize if I offend you

• • If you lost some weight you would look incredible. Maybe about a stone or so
  • You are very pale. I know you aren’t a fan of the sun but a bit of a fake tan won’t hurt
  • You have quite big boobs so you should show off cleavage more
  • I think you need to wear clothes that suit your figure and maybe update your style slightly. Just so I’m not embarrassed to be seen with you
  • You need to dye your hair a normal colour and add extensions. Longer hair is much more attractive 😍

Pope Francis Says ‘Sins of the Flesh’ Aren’t that ‘Serious’ – Joins His Baptist and Protestant Counterparts in Downplaying Sexual Sin

Pope Francis Says ‘Sins of the Flesh’ Aren’t that ‘Serious’ – Joins His Baptist and Protestant Counterparts in Downplaying Sexual Sin

This Roman Catholic Pope now joins the many Baptists, Protestants, evangelicals, and social conservatives who have given up on upholding celibacy and sexual abstinence until marriage in the last several years.

(Link): Pope Francis Says ‘Sins of the Flesh’ Aren’t that ‘Serious’

By Hannah Frishberg
December 8, 2021

Lust is not the worst of the seven deadly sins, according to Pope Francis.

There are worse indiscretions than sex outside of marriage, the leader of the Catholic Church told reporters on the papal plane while en route from Greece to Italy on Monday, Reuters reported.

“Sins of the flesh are not the most serious,” the 84-year-old religious leader said regarding sex outside of marriage. Top transgressions instead include pride and hatred, according to Reuters.

Italian Priest is Arrested for Stealing Thousands From Church Funds to Buy Drugs For Homosexual Sex Parties In His Home

Italian Priest is Arrested for Stealing Thousands From Church Funds to Buy Drugs For Homosexual Sex Parties In His Home

(Link): Italian priest is arrested for ‘stealing more than £85,000 from church funds to buy drugs for gay sex parties in his home’

By Charlotte Mitchell

A charismatic Italian priest has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than £85,000 from church funds to pay for gay sex parties at his home.

Father Francesco Spagnesi, 40, from Prato near Florence, is under house arrest on suspicion of theft.

Police are in the process of interviewing hundreds of people said to have attended his drug-fuelled orgies over the last two years.

Priest Who Urged Women to Cover Their Shoulders To Protect Men’s ‘Purity” Calls Twitter ‘Demonic’ – Wipes Account

Priest Who Urged Women to Cover Their Shoulders To Protect Men’s ‘Purity” Calls Twitter ‘Demonic’ – Wipes Account

When will men – especially conservative, religious, men – stop blaming women for the men’s sexual hang ups and sexual sins? It is not a woman’s responsibility to dress a certain way to keep a man “from stumbling.”

You men are responsible for your own thought lives and actions.

For one man, bare shoulders may be sexy, but to another, no. A woman cannot dress in such a way to please all men all the time. It’s subjective to a large degree.

I thought this sort of sexist kook-ery was the province of Baptists and Protestants only, but no, the Catholics are in on this nonsense as well.

(Link): Priest who urged women to cover their shoulders to protect men’s ‘purity’ calls Twitter ‘demonic’ – wipes account

Excerpts:

Last week a Catholic priest drew nationwide attention – and outrage – after taking to Twitter (Link): to urge women to cover their shoulders to protect men’s “purity.” The responses were what you might expect, mostly outrage and accusations of misogyny.  

Teacher Fired By Catholic School For Getting Pregnant Out of Wedlock (2018)

Teacher Fired By Catholic School For Getting Pregnant Out of Wedlock (2018)

I don’t understand these supposed Christian employers who fire women who get pregnant out of wedlock – I have other examples on this blog of this very thing.

First of all, I’ve never heard of a scenario where they fire the pregnant woman but do nothing to the man she slept with, which makes this a pretty one-sided, sexist action to take.

Secondly, most Christians claim to be pro-life. Would they prefer is women in these situations go to an abortion clinic and abort the baby?

I can a situation where a single woman, who needs her job to pay her bills, gets pregnant, but then panics, knowing her Christian employer may fire her for fornication, so keeping it a secret, she runs out and gets an abortion.

That is a possible scenario some of these Christian groups are putting women in. Is that really what they want?

(Link): Teacher Fired By Catholic School For Getting Pregnant Out of Wedlock

Dec 5, 2018
by Kristine Solomon

A respected English and creative writing teacher in Pennsylvania was fired on Friday from her job at the Catholic high school where she’s been employed for four years. Her transgression? Becoming pregnant while unmarried.

Naiad Reich was ready to start a family, and she planned the pregnancy to coincide with a June birth so she wouldn’t have to take maternity leave from her post at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School in Coal Township, Pa., (Link): according to the Daily Item.

When she announced her happy news — and the clever timing — to Sister Mary Anne Bednar, though, the principal and administrator was less than impressed.

“Her response, honestly, is one that will sit with me for a very long time, because she was very displeased,” (Link): Reich told PennLive. “She said it would be a problem and she had to contact the diocese.”

By Friday, the Roman Catholic Harrisburg Diocese officials had reached a decision: Reich’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy was a violation of a morality clause in her contract. If Reich and her partner, Matt Graboski, had no plans to get married in the near future, (Link): according to ABC affiliate WNEP, she’d have to be let go.

More Women Looking to Become ‘Consecrated Virgins’ Vatican Says

More Women Looking to Become ‘Consecrated Virgins’ Vatican Says

(Link): More Women Looking to Become ‘Consecrated Virgins’ Vatican Says

There has been ‘rapid’ growth in interest in taking vows of lifelong celibacy, Catholic Church says

by Chris Baynes

An increasing number Catholic women are taking life-longchastity vows in order to “dedicate themselves” to God, according to the Vatican.

The Holy See has issued new guidance on consecrated virginity in response to growing interest across the world in the little-known spiritual “vocation”.

One Foot in Christianity, One Foot in Agnosticism – In a Faith Crisis

One Foot in Christianity, One Foot in Agnosticism  – In a Faith Crisis

November 2016. (There is a moderate amount of swear words in the post below)

Some of the points in the post, in brief (the long explanation is below):

• I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior before I was ten years old
• I have read the entire Bible.
• I spent many years reading books ABOUT the Bible (e.g., books about its formation and history)
• I spent years reading Christian apologetic literature
  – so do NOT tell me that I “do not understand Christianity” or that I was “never a REAL Christian to start with”
• I currently have doubts about the Christian faith and/or aspects of the Bible
• I have not rejected Jesus Christ Himself
  (he’s pretty much Christianity’s only good feature or selling point, as far as I can see at this point)

• I am not an atheist
• I am not a Charismatic
• I am not a “Word of Faither”
• I was brought up under conservative, Southern Baptist and evangelical teachings and churches

• Even though conservative Christians claim to believe in the Bible, they
  • cannot agree on what the Bible means or how to apply it – this is a huge problem as I see it in the faith
  • they diminish the role of the Holy Spirit or deny Him and that He can work for Christians today, because they are “hyper sola scriptura” and have reduced the Trinity to “Father, Son, and Holy Bible,” (this is also problematic),
    they usually do this because they are hyper-cessationist and paranoid or hateful of Charismatic teachings or practices
  • they teach that most to all of the biblical promises are not for Christians today but are only for the Jews of 5,000 years ago, there-by teaching that the Bible is NOT relevant for people today  (this is also problematic)
• If you are a Christian, do not act like a smug dick about any of this and immediately disregard any points I have to make about God, the Bible, or other topics, because in your view, I am a “Non-Christian who was ‘never’ really saved” -not to mention, that is not even true.
  I was in fact “truly” saved, and I am / was, a “real” Christian.
• No, I don’t want to enumerate a detailed list of reasons why I have doubts about God, the Bible, or the faith.If I were to provide such a list or explanation, your average Christian would only want to debate each and every point to argue me back into fully believing. (A witnessing tip to Christians: doing that sort of thing is NOT an effective way of “winning back a lost sheep to Jesus.”)

---

DETAILED EXPLANATION

I find that people who are both Christian and Non-Christian (and several other categories of people I bump into on Twitter and other sites) get frustrated when they cannot easily box me in.

People seem to be more comfortable with labels, but I’m not sure what label I would give myself these days.

I have briefly tried to explain my current religious beliefs on my Twitter bio, and I explain them a little more on my blog’s “About” page and have mentioned them in a post or two over the course of the last few years I’ve been blogging here.

Here is my background:

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior prior to turning the age of ten.

That means: I believed that Jesus took my sins upon himself, he was without sin, he paid the price for my sins, and was raised from the dead three days after having been crucified – and if I believe in all that, if I put “saving faith in” Jesus (as opposed to mere intellectual assent), my sins have been forgiven by God, and I go to heaven when I die.

I read the entire Bible through when I was 18 years old, and afterwards, I read a lot of the Bible in the years after. Prior to that age, I had read portions of the Bible when younger.