Can I help you? No, we don't sell pesto sausage, but we do have little weenies.

Dec 7, 2007

Does this rise to the level of insider trading?

From Raw Story

Pope offers 'shortcut' through purgatory
Mike Aivaz and Jason Rhyne
Published: Friday December 7, 2007

...
Pope Benedict XVI has decreed that Catholics can cut short their future purgatory stays by visiting a holy shrine in Lourdes, France, a site where believers say the Virgin Mary appeared to a shephardess in 1858. Catholic pilgrims who visit Lourdes from now through next year, which will mark the 150th anniversary of the miracle claim, will receive an "indulgence" from the Pope, which he says will speed the trip to heaven.

"The door for indulgences is not always open, though, and for years after the Vatican Council reforms of the 1960s, they were rarely offered -- until 2000, when Pope John Paul II started using them to attract pilgrims to World Youth Day," reports the New York Times' Mike Nizza. "The pilgrimage, which must be made in the next year, can be accomplished using Vatican charter flights that began over the summer."

For Catholics not in a position to jaunt off to France, prayer at other select sites during a ten-day span in February may also do the trick. According to the BBC, the Pope indicated that "believers who prayed at places of worship dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes from 2-11 February next year -- or who were unable to make the journey -- would also be able to receive indulgences."
............
Would Virgin Airlines be okay?

6 comments:

Distributorcap said...

i wouldnt mind if george and laura took that shortcut TODAY

Anonymous said...

Wow, a modern day take on simony. Ok, not quite, but money's involved, so it's close enough (and you know money is involved).

dguzman said...

Uh gee, the last time I heard the words "Catholic" and "indulgences" was in 12th English lit class, when we were talking about how corrupt the church was during the time of the Canterbury Tales.

Lovely.

Do you suppose Pope Nazi is trying to give certain people a hint?

Anonymous said...

dguzman: The roman catholic church is the world's most successful ponzi scheme. Sadly, we won't see it go down in our lifetimes, but it too will end.

dguzman said...

PINY: perhaps--but it's been around through so much. Must be the white collars.

Fran said...

As the resident Catholic I just feel a lot of pain.

That is all I can say.