Its officials say the college, a public institution, has a strict policy of not promoting religion or favoring one religion over another. “The Constitution prevents us from doing this in any form,” says Dianna Cusick, director of legal affairs.

(See video below)

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Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing•Strongs 4108: planos, plan´-os; of uncertain affinity; roving (as a tramp), i.e. (by implication) an impostor or misleader; — deceiver, seducing. spirits, and doctrines•Strongs 1319: didaskalia, did-as-kal-ee´-ah; from 1320; instruction (the function or the information): — doctrine, learning, teaching. of devils;”
—1Timothy 4:1

But that seems to depend on your religion.

Where Christianity is concerned, the college goes to great lengths to avoid any hint of what the courts call “entanglement” or support of the church. Yet the college is planning to install facilities for Muslims to use in preparing for daily prayers, an apparent first at a public institution in Minnesota.

Separation of church and state is clearest at the college during the Christmas season. A memo from Cusick and President Phil Davis, dated Nov. 28, 2006, exhorted supervisors to banish any public display of holiday cheer: “As we head into the holiday season … “all public offices and areas should refrain from displays that may represent to our students, employees or the public that the college is promoting any particular religion.” Departments considering sending out holiday cards, the memo added, should avoid cards “that appear to promote any particular religious holiday.”

Last year, college authorities caught one rule-breaker red-handed. A coffee cart that sells drinks and snacks played holiday music “tied to Christmas,” and “complaints and concerns” were raised, according to a faculty e-mail. College authorities quickly quashed the practice.

They appear to take a very different attitude toward Islam. Welcome and accommodation are the order of the day for the college’s more than 500 Muslim students. The college has worked with local Muslim leaders to ensure that these students’ prayer needs and concerns are adequately addressed.

DUBLIN – It often starts as a voice in the wilderness, but can swell into an entire nation’s demand for truth. From Ireland to Germany, Europe’s many victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons.

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Days of Lot

Jesus said, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend•Strongs 4624: skandalizo, skan-dal-id´-zo; from 4625; to entrap, i.e. trip up (figuratively, stumble (transitively) or entice to sin, apostasy or displeasure): — (make to) offend. one of these little ones.”
—Luke 17:2

“Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences•Strongs 4625: skandalon, skan´-dal-on; (“scandal;” probably from a derivative of 2578; a trap-stick (bent sapling), i.e. snare (figuratively, cause of displeasure or sin): — occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumblingblock. will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
—Luke 17:1

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences•Strongs 4625: skandalon, skan´-dal-on; (“scandal;” probably from a derivative of 2578; a trap-stick (bent sapling), i.e. snare (figuratively, cause of displeasure or sin): — occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumblingblock. contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”
—Romans 16:17

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Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing•Strongs 4108: planos, plan´-os; of uncertain affinity; roving (as a tramp), i.e. (by implication) an impostor or misleader; — deceiver, seducing. spirits, and doctrines•Strongs 1319: didaskalia, did-as-kal-ee´-ah; from 1320; instruction (the function or the information): — doctrine, learning, teaching. of devils;”
—1Timothy 4:1

“Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
—1Timothy 4:3

Ireland was the first in Europe to confront the church’s worldwide custom of shielding pedophile priests from the law and public scandal. Now that legacy of suppressed childhood horror is being confronted in other parts of the Continent — nowhere more poignantly than in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI.
The recent spread of claims into the Netherlands, Austria and Italy has analysts and churchmen wondering how deep the scandal runs, which nation will be touched next, and whether a tide of lawsuits will force European dioceses to declare bankruptcy like their American cousins.
“You have to presume that the cover-up of abuse exists everywhere, to one extent or another. A new case could appear in a new country tomorrow,” said David Quinn, director of a Christian think tank, the Iona Institute, that seeks to promote family values in an Ireland increasingly cool to Catholicism.
Quinn noted that stories of systemic physical, sexual and emotional abuse circulated privately in Irish society for decades, but only moved aboveground in the mid-1990s when former altar boy Andrew Madden and orphanage survivor Christine Buckley went public with lawsuits and exposes of how priests and nuns tormented them with impunity.
Floodgates opened for Irish complaints that have topped 15,000 in this country of 4 million. Three government-ordered investigations have shocked and disgusted the nation, which has footed most of the bill to settle legal claims topping euro1 billion (nearly $1.5 billion).
“A lot comes down to: When does that first victim gather the courage to come forward into the spotlight?” Quinn said. “It seems to take that trigger event, the lone voice who says what so many kept silent so long. That’s basically happening now in Germany. It could happen next in Spain, Poland, anywhere.”
In January, an elite Jesuit school in Berlin declared it was aware of seven child-abuse cases in its past and appointed an outside investigator, Ursula Raue, to seek testimony. Within weeks, she had gathered stories of long-suppressed woe from more than 100 ex-students abused by their Jesuit masters, and from 60 molested by parish priests.
“I always thought that at some point the wave would reach us,” said Petra Dorsch-Jungsberger, a commentator on Catholic affairs and retired University of Munich communications professor.
She credited heavy German media coverage of the latest Irish abuse scandal — a November report into decades of cover-up in the Dublin Archdiocese involving approximately 170 priests — with inspiring similar soul-searching in Germany.
“Once the door had been opened, then many others felt they were able to step up and say: That happened to us too,” she said.
In recent weeks, new German abuse claims have surfaced on a near-daily basis and spread to Pope Benedict’s Bavarian heartland and the Regensberg boys’ choir long directed by the pope’s brother. Benedict was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich from 1977 to 1982, and questions now focus on what role, if any, the pontiff, played in handing pedophile priests to new parishes rather than to the law.
A Swiss abbot said in an interview published Saturday that 60 people have reported being victims of abuse by Catholic priests in Switzerland.
Abbot Martin Werlen of the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln told Swiss daily Aargauer Zeitung that the allegations were reported to the Swiss Bishops Conference, which is investigating them.
The Vatican on Saturday denounced what it called aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland, and contended he has long confronted abuse cases with courage.
In separate interviews, both the Holy See’s spokesman and its prosecutor for sex abuse of minors by clergy sought to defend the pope.
“It’s rather clear that in the last days, there have been those who have tried, with a certain aggressive persistence, in Regensburg and Munich, to look for elements to personally involve the Holy Father in the matter of abuses,” Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio.
It’s inevitable that all bishops of the day, including Ratzinger, handled abuse complaints against priests in-house, said the Rev. Fergus O’Donoghue, editor of the Irish Jesuit journal Studies.
“The pope was no different to any other bishop at time. The church policy was to keep it all quiet — to help people, but to avoid scandal. Avoiding scandal was a huge issue for the church,” he said. “Of course there was cover-up,” he added. But worse was “the systematic lack of concern for the victims.”
In the Netherlands, a former Catholic boarding-school abuse victim is leading a campaign for accountability. Bert Smeets, 58, has formed Mea Culpa, a victims group that has collected testimony from hundreds of abuse victims and is mulling a class-action lawsuit against the Dutch church.
The church has apologized to the victims and set up an inquiry headed by a former government minister, a Protestant. Smeets dismisses that effort as “a typical Vatican cover-up.” He said the pressure on the church came from aggressive investigations into abuse in Ireland and the U.S.
In other predominantly Catholic areas of Europe, child-abuse scandals have tarnished individual priests and even a Polish archbishop, but have not mushroomed into a mass movement. In Spain, more than a dozen priests have been convicted of child abuse in recent decades and two potentially larger-scale cases are attracting attention.
Ireland was until relatively recently the most enthusiastically Catholic country in Europe. Its half-dozen seminaries exported priests worldwide. All but one of those seminaries is closed now, illustrating the rapid falloff in Mass attendance as the economy has advanced and secularism has spread.
Quinn, the Dublin think-tank director, noted that a few Irish dioceses are openly warning that they’re struggling to pay bills stemming from abuse claims. In the southeast diocese of Kells, the archbishop’s house has had to be remortgaged.
“The church is asset-rich but cash-poor,” Quinn said, noting that it’s the biggest property owner in Ireland but has comparatively little cash in the bank. He said the Vatican, too, has less money on tap than resides in the endowment fund of a typical top-tier U.S. university.
___
Associated Press Writers Melissa Eddy in Berlin, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist.

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Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing•Strongs 4108: planos, plan´-os; of uncertain affinity; roving (as a tramp), i.e. (by implication) an impostor or misleader; — deceiver, seducing. spirits, and doctrines•Strongs 1319: didaskalia, did-as-kal-ee´-ah; from 1320; instruction (the function or the information): — doctrine, learning, teaching. of devils;”
—1Timothy 4:1

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon”.

He added: “When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia.”

He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican “cover-up” over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. “They covered up everything immediately,” he said. “Here one sees the rot”.

A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay’s relatives have challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who was never identfied.

Father Amorth, who has just published Memoirs of an Exorcist, a series of interviews with the Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti, said that the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been the work of the Devil, as had an incident last Christmas when a mentally disturbed woman threw herself at Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Midnight Mass, pulling him to the ground.

Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that Father Amorth had “gone well beyond the evidence” in claiming that Satan had infiltrated the Vatican corridors.

“Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God,” he said. Some Vatican officials were more pious than others, “but from there to affirm that some cardinals are members of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance.”

Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was “pure spirit, invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me.”

He said it sometimes took six or seven of his assistants to to hold down a possessed person. Those possessed often yelled and screamed and spat out nails or pieces of glass, which he kept in a bag. “Anything can come out of their mouths – finger-length pieces of iron, but also rose petals.”

He said that hoped every diocese would eventually have a resident exorcist. Under Church Canon Law any priest can perform exorcisms, but in practice they are carried out by a chosen few trained in the rites.

Father Amorth was ordained in 1954 and became an official exorcist in 1986. In the past he has suggested that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were possessed by the Devil. He was among Vatican officials who warned that J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels made a “false distinction between black and white magic”.

He approves, however, of the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although “exaggerated” offered a “substantially exact” picture of possession.

In 2001 he objected to the introduction of a new version of the exorcism rite, complaining that it dropped centuries-old prayers and was “a blunt sword” about which exorcists themselves had not been consulted. The Vatican said later that he and other exorcists could continue to use the old ritual.

He is the president of honour of the Association of Exorcists.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The rare spirits that went under the gavel at a recent online auction in New Zealand weren’t aged brandies or hard-to-find liqueurs.

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Perilous Times

“This know also, that in the last days perilous•Strongs 5467: chalepos, khal-ep-os´; perhaps from 5465 through the idea of reducing the strength; difficult, i.e. dangerous, or (by implication) furious:—fierce, perilous. times shall come.”
—2 Timothy 3:1-2a

Editors note about the word perilous•FYI: The Greek word (chalepos) (perilous) is only used one other time in the New Testament, Matthew 8:28. There it is translated as (fierce) when describing the nature of the devils that possess Legion and his cohort.

Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing•Strongs 4108: planos, plan´-os; of uncertain affinity; roving (as a tramp), i.e. (by implication) an impostor or misleader; — deceiver, seducing. spirits, and doctrines•Strongs 1319: didaskalia, did-as-kal-ee´-ah; from 1320; instruction (the function or the information): — doctrine, learning, teaching. of devils;”
—1Timothy 4:1

Instead, two glass vials purportedly containing the ghosts of two dead people sold for $2,830 New Zealand dollars ($1,983) at an auction that ended Monday night.

The “ghosts” were put up for bidding by Avie Woodbury from the southern city of Christchurch. She said they were captured in her house and stored in glass vials with stoppers and dipped in holy water, which she says “dulls the spirits’ energy.”

She said they were the spirits of an old man who lived in the house during the 1920s, and a powerful, disruptive little girl who turned up after a session with a spirit-calling Ouija board. Since an exorcism at the property last July led to their capture, there has been no further spooky activity in the house, she said.

The auction attracted more than 214,000 page views and dozens of questions before the winning bid, Trademe auction site spokesman Paul Ford said Tuesday. The name of the winning bidder was not released.

Woodbury said that once an “exorcist’s fee” has been deducted, the proceeds of the spirit sale will go to the animal welfare group the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

An official announcement by the Obama administration disclosing the reality of extraterrestrial life is imminent. For several months, senior administration officials have been quietly deliberating behind closed doors how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology.

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Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly•Strongs 4490: rhetos, hray-toce´; adverb from a derivative of 4483; out-spokenly, i.e. distinctly: — expressly., that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing•Strongs 4108: planos, plan´-os; of uncertain affinity; roving (as a tramp), i.e. (by implication) an impostor or misleader; — deceiver, seducing. spirits, and doctrines•Strongs 1319: didaskalia, did-as-kal-ee´-ah; from 1320; instruction (the function or the information): — doctrine, learning, teaching. of devils•Strongs 1140: daimonion, dahee-mon´-ee-on; neuter of a derivative of 1142; a dæmonic being; by extension a deity: — devil, god.;”
1 Timothy 4:1

“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. —2 Corinthians 11:14

Strong Delusion

“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong•Strongs 1753: energeia, en-erg´-i-ah; from 1756; efficiency (“energy”):—operation, strong, (effectual) working. delusion•Strongs 4106: plane, plan´-ay; feminine of 4108 (as abstractly); objectively, fraudulence; subjectively, a straying from orthodoxy or piety:—deceit, to deceive, delusion, error.
•Strongs 4108: planos, plan´-os; of uncertain affinity; roving (as a tramp), i.e. (by implication) an impostor or misleader; –deceiver, seducing. , that they should believe a lie:”
—2Thessalonians 2:11

The impending disclosure announcement follows upon the secret implementation of a year long openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Over the period February 12-14, 2008, the United Nations held closed doors discussions where approximately 30 nations secretly agreed on a new openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life in 2009. The openness policy was implemented but never publicly announced due to threats against UN diplomats not to disclose details of the secret agreement. h The secret UN agreement was based on two conditions. First, UFOs would continue to appear around the world; and second, the openness policy would not lead to social unrest in liberal democracies. Both conditions have been satisfied making it possible for the next stage to begin – official disclosure of extraterrestrial life.

Obama’s September 24, 2009 chairing of the UN Security Council meeting on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, signaled his emerging leadership role in tackling major global issues such as nuclear weapons. The Nobel Peace Prize was an important step in giving global legitimacy to President Obama in making an extraterrestrial disclosure announcement. Obama is therefore poised to play a prominent role in the increased global governance that will be necessary after an extraterrestrial disclosure announcement. The timing would most likely coincide sometime soon after his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10, 2009 in Oslo, Norway.

There have been various sources that have revealed deliberations are underway to make an announcement concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life by the end of 2009. These include, Dr Pete Peterson, a whistleblower who has recently emerged revealing high level discussions have taken place concerning announcing the existence of extraterrestrial life. In a Project Camelot interview, Dr Peterson revealed that “Obama is planning to disclose the reality of ET contact by the end of the year; and that most, but not all, of the ET visitors are friendly.”
Another source is David Wilcock, a prominent researcher of emerging scientific paradigms. Wilcock has been told by additional independent sources that extraterrestrial disclosure will take place by the end of 2009. He furthermore claimed in a Coast to Coast AM radio interview that “a 2-hour international TV special has already been booked that will introduce an alien species, similar to humans, to the world.”

In addition, popular NASA and space researcher, Richard Hoagland, has publicly come forward to reveal that the October 9, LCROSS ‘bombing’ mission of the moon, discovered an ancient base at the moon’s South Pole. Reviewing the scientific data achieved by NASA’s LCROSS mission, Hoagland concluded, also on the popular late night Coast to Coast AM radio show, that “LCROSS is part of a carefully constructed campaign to prepare the populace for imminent disclosure. The President of the United States will soon announce that scientists have discovered ruins on the moon, he added. Nobody saw the LCROSS debris plume because the probes struck a building which swallowed the effects of the explosion.”

Finally, two independent and confidential sources have revealed to me that face to face meetings have recently occurred between U.S. military officials with one or more groups of extraterrestrial visitors. This has allegedly led to confidence being built for future cooperation with the extraterrestrials that will be formally announced to the world public either at the end of 2009, or early 2010.

In conclusion, a diverse number of sources and events point to some form of extraterrestrial disclosure being made by the end of 2009, or early 2010. Official disclosure will most likely emerge in either of two scenarios. One is that President Obama will announce the existence of extraterrestrial visitors, and describe one or more of these to the world. This scenario is supported by Peterson, Wilcock, and my own confidential sources. The second scenario is that an announcement will be made concerning the discovery of artificial structures at the moon’s South Pole, as revealed by the LCROSS mission. This scenario is supported by Hoagland.

Which ever of the above scenarios is used for announcing the existence of extraterrestrial life or technology, President Obama will figure prominently. Behind the scenes, powerful institutions are ensuring that nothing derails the planned disclosure announcement. The disclosure will follow upon a year of greater government openness on UFOs in accord with a policy secretly developed at the United Nations. If extraterrestrial disclosure does occur at the end of 2009 or early 2010, President Obama will lead an unprecedented effort to promote global governance through the United Nations. The Obama administration and its supporters are poised to take a bold step forward in helping our planet become an interplanetary culture that openly deals with the challenges posed by extraterrestrial life.

The Archbishop of Canterbury warns today that Britain must learn the lessons of Nazi Germany in dealing with the effects of the recession.

Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 Timothy 4:1

Dr Rowan Williams risks causing a new controversy by inviting a comparison between Gordon Brown’s response to the economic downturn and the Third Reich.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, he claims Germany in the 1930s pursued a “principle” that worked consistently but only on the basis that “quite a lot of people that you might have thought mattered as human beings actually didn’t”.
Dr Williams, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, then appears to draw a parallel between the Nazis and the UK Government’s policies for tackling the downturn, which he says fails to take account of the “particular human costs” to the most vulnerable in society.
“What about the unique concerns and crises of the pensioner whose savings have disappeared, the Woolworth’s employee, the hopeful young executive, let alone the helpless producer of goods in some Third-world environment where prices are determined thousands of miles away?” he asks.
In an apparent reference to the Prime Minister, who has claimed to be guided by a moral compass, the Archbishop also observes “without these anxieties about the specific costs, we’ve lost the essential moral compass”.
It follows a disagreement with the Prime Minister last week in which the Archbishop likened Government policy on spending to “an addict returning to a drug”. This prompted Mr Brown to allude to the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan by claiming he could not “walk by on the other side” as people suffered.
The Prime Minister has pledged to spend his way out of the economic downturn, increasing public borrowing to a record £200m a day. The Government has pledged £500billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out the banking system, and cut VAT by 2.5 per cent to get consumers spending again.
But unemployment is predicted to top 2 million by the New Year as high street names such as Woolworths and MFI go under. Thousands have fallen into negative equity as the property market has fallen by 15 per cent. Millions of prudent savers are also suffering as interest rates have been cut to 2 per cent.
Dr Williams’ comments may be perceived as a further attack on Mr Brown’s efforts to boost the economy, and risk damaging the relationship between Lambeth Palace and Downing Street. It threatens a return to the 1980s, when the Conservative Government came under fierce attack from the Church over its social policies which were said to exclude the poor deliberately.
This summer, the Archbishop invited the Prime Minister to speak at a rally by Anglian bishops and hailed his commitment to ending world poverty.
But after the collapse of banks around the world in September, Dr Williams called for governments to increase regulation of the financial sector and claimed Karl Marx had been right in his analysis of the dangers of capitalism.
Last week, the Archbishop admitted it would not be “the end of the world” if the Church’s links with the state were severed, as it would no longer have to rely on ministers’ approval for changes to canon law.
He also claimed he did not take account of MPs’ opinions before making public pronouncements, saying: “While there might be many reasons for watching what I say, being a nuisance to the people across the river [Thames] is not a big consideration.”
He then denounced Mr Brown’s plans to increase debt, saying: “I worry about that because it seems a little bit like the addict returning to the drug.
“When the Bible uses the word ‘repentance’, it doesn’t just mean beating your breast, it means getting a new perspective, and that is perhaps what we are shrinking away from.”
In response, the Prime Minister defended his “fiscal stimulus” policies by alluding to the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan.
Mr Brown said: “I think the Archbishop would also agree with me that every time someone becomes unemployed or loses their home or a small business fails it is our duty to act and we should not walk by on the other side when people are facing problems.”
However, Dr Williams has continued his criticisms of current economic policy in this newspaper.
In his article he warns of the dangers of “unconditional loyalty to a system” that turned into a “nightmare” in Germany under Hitler, in which only certain groups and ideas were valued, while others were deemed dispensable and suffering was ignored.
He cites the lectures given by Karl Barth, a theologian who was driven into exile by Hitler, who had claimed that one of the benefits of Christianity is that believers are able to live without the “principles” that drive politics.
The Archbishop concedes some of the “principles” now being put forward are not as destructive as the 20th century ideologies of Fascism or Communism.
But he goes on to suggest that some “principled” defences of the economy “block out actual human faces and stories”, and defends the right of religious leaders to raise questions about the social implications of financial plans.
Dr Williams concludes that the message of the Christmas story is one of unconditional love, and the idea that every human life must be valued.
Meanwhile, a member of his staff has been sacked for making an offensive comment about a senior bishop in an official document that was sent to 10 Downing Street as well as other clergy.
The obscene word was written next to the name of the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, in a confidential job application sent from Lambeth Palace.

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
—John 8:44

“Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!
—Numbers 23:23

Peruvian shamans tip Obama
BARACK Obama apparently can count on the support of most Peruvian faith healers.

Nine of the 11 shamans in a Peruvian faith-healing organisation say they have foreseen victory for Democrat Obama in the US presidential race. Only two foresaw his Republican rival John McCain winning.

Blowing incense over a sacred llama foetus perched on a bed of coca leaves next to posters of the candidates, the shamans shook rattles, chanted “up, Obama, up!” and threw flowers at their images.

“Obama is growing stronger, I’ve seen that he has the spiritual support of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy,” said Juan Osco, president of the Apus-Inka healers association. “He’s going to win.”

Mary Gomez, a healer from the city of Chiclayo, said she has seen that Obama “will win and he will change history. He is going to help all the Latinos living in the United States”.

The shamans whistled, chanted and rubbed both posters with Andean spirit-totems, crucifixes, a statue of a dark-skinned Jesus and other idols to scare away bad spirits and negative energies they said might prevent a fair and democratic election.

“We are cleansing both of them (for) November 4,” Mr Osco said.

“We have seen that if the election is not fair, there will be another global economic crisis, war and despair”.

Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 Timothy 4:1

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”
—Matthew 24:42

NEW DELHI: With Democrat senator Barack Obama busy in the run-up to the US presidential polls, a group of well-wishers in the capital have decided to send him a symbol of his lucky charm, Lord Hanuman, to help him emerge victorious.

Obama’s representative Carolyn Sauvage-Mar on Tuesday received a gold-plated two-feet-high idol which she will pass it on to the Obama after it is sanctified.

The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms.

An hour-long prayer meeting to sanctify the idol was earlier organised at Sankat Mochan Dham and by Congress leader Brijmohan Bhama, Balmiki Samaj and the temple’s priests.

“Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him,” said Bhama.

Accepting the souvenir, Sauvage-Mar, who is chairperson of Democrats Abroad-India, said, “Obama has extended his thanks for the support.”

However, questions on Obama’s religious beliefs elicited just a smile from Sauvage-Mar, apparently to avoid controversy back home where the Democrat senator is pitted against the Republican Party’s John McCain in the Presidential polls.

The idol will be kept at the temple for 11 more days and then sent to US.

“We will perform the prayers for 11 days and then hand the idol to Carolyn who will send it to Obama,” said the temple priest.

Doctrines of Devils

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 Timothy 4:1

False Prophets

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
—Mat 7:15

George W Bush and Pope Benedict XVI have held an intimate meeting in Rome as rumours mounted in Italy that the president may follow in Tony Blair’s footsteps and convert to Catholicism.

The two men spoke for half an hour in the 12th century Tower of St John, a private area in the Vatican gardens which is used by the pope for private reflection.

The usual protocol for heads-of-state is a meeting in the pope’s library in the Apostolic Palace, but a spokesman for the Vatican said Benedict wanted to reward Mr Bush for the “warmth” of his reception at the White House earlier this year.

The two men have grown increasingly close in the past two years, and Mr Bush was overheard whispering: “What an honour, what an honour, what an honour!” as he ascended the steps to the tower.

After a stroll through the Vatican gardens, the men listened to a recital by the choir of the Sistine Chapel. However, Mr Bush did not, as expected, kneel in prayer before the Grotto of the Madonna of Lourdes. It was thought that he may have prayed with the pope in private. Mr Bush prayed with Benedict in the Oval Office during the Papal visit to the US in April.

Several Italian newspapers cited Vatican sources suggesting that Mr Bush may be prepared to convert. One source told Il Foglio, an authoritative newspaper, that “Anything is possible, especially for a born-again Christian such as Bush.”

He added that while the Holy See deplored the war in Iraq, “on ethical matters he has always had a line that is practically identical to that of the Vatican.” Mr Bush has spoken out against gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research. He proposed amending the US constitution to “fully protect marriage” as the “union of man and woman as husband and wife”.

He has repeatedly made clear his admiration for Benedict and has even claimed to have read some of the pope’s theological books.

A source close to the Vatican said that Mr Bush was the most “Catholic-minded” president since John F Kennedy, who famously played down his Catholicism. Mr Bush belongs to a Methodist church in Texas and prays at an Episcopal church in Washington.

However, George William Rutler, a New York-based priest who is close to the president, was quoted by the Washington Post earlier this year saying that Mr Bush “is not unaware of how evangelism, by comparison with Catholicism, may seem more limited both theologically and historically”.

Mr Bush has filled the White House with Catholic speech-writers and consultants and is also thought to have asked a Catholic priest to bless the West Wing.

Before he became president, Karl Rove, his former political adviser, invited Catholic intellectuals to Texas to lecture the candidate on the church’s teachings. Mr Bush appointed the Catholic judges Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court.

However, it is thought unlikely that Mr Bush would convert until after he has left office. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother, has already converted to Catholicism.

Catholics have noted that during the contested election in 2000, Jeb Bush travelled to Mexico and prayed to the icon of Our Lady of Guadelupe. His victory was announced by the Supreme Court on December 12, the feast day of the Lady of Guadelupe.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 Timothy 4:1

“For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
2 Corinthians 11:4

Padre Pio is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints and during his lifetime the Italian monk was said to have had the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Jesus’ crucifixion on his hands and feet.

The economy of this southern town revolves around the cult of Padre Pio and heaving crowds waited to see his body, displayed in a crystal, marble and silver sepulcher in the crypt of the monastery where he spent most of his life.

His face was reconstructed with a lifelike silicone mask of the type used in wax museums because it was apparently too decomposed to show when the body was exhumed.

“He seems like he is sleeping. Even if they had to re-do the face, its better remembering him this way than looking at a slab of cold marble,” said Domenico Masone, deputy mayor of Pietralcina, the town where Padre Pio was born.

Some 15,000 devotees attended a Mass said by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican department that oversees the Catholic Church’s saint-making process, before the body went on display in the afternoon.

“He knows what I want from him,” said Antonio Zimbaldi, 19, who attended Mass with his face, except for his lips, covered with white gauze.

“I have been devoted to him for as long as I can remember.” Zimbaldi’s entire body was burned in a fire caused by a gas explosion two years ago.

The body of the bearded Capuchin monk was exhumed from a crypt on March 3 and found to be in “fair condition” after 40 years. Since then a team of medical examiners and biochemists has worked to preserve and reconstruct the corpse.

In the sepulcher, he was dressed in a brown Capuchin habit and wore fingerless gloves he used to absorb blood from wounds on his hands. The mask was made by a London company which makes lifelike sculpted figures for museums.

ASKING FOR A MIRACLE

A poll in 2006 by Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana found that more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other figure, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus. His picture is stuck to the dashboards of many taxis and cars throughout Italy.

Eighty-year-old Assunta Antico attended the Mass sitting in a wheelchair and was covered with a shawl in the same deep brown that Padre Pio wore. “I had a stroke two years ago. I’m paralyzed and I want to walk again.”

This town is home to a large hospital founded by the monk and many hotels and restaurants cater to the pilgrim trade.

As of Friday, the first of 750,000 people who have made reservations to see the body between now and December will file past the glass coffin at a rate of about 7,200 a day.

There are about 3,000 “Padre Pio Prayer Groups” in the world, with a membership of 3 million. Pope John Paul made him a saint in 2002 before one of the biggest Vatican crowds.

Among the stories that surround the monk, who died at the age of 81, is one that he wrestled with the devil one night in his monastery cell and emerged bloodied and bruised.

However, he was dogged by accusations of fraud. A book last year suggested he was a self-harming man who might have used carbolic acid to cause his wounds. Church officials have denied he was a fake.

(Editing by Giles Elgood)