Catholicism’s Civil War Spills Into Bolivia

[Disir]

On Oct. 21, two men broke into the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. But they were not thieves. They were a very specific type of vandal—traditionalist Catholics who believed that they were doing God’s work against paganism in the church. They were there for three statues, which they threw in the Tiber River.

The statues had come a long way before they arrived in Rome for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, an event to highlight paths for evangelism of indigenous people and the Amazon’s environmental role, held by the Vatican from Oct. 6 to 27. If you asked advocates for the synod, the statues were of the Virgin Mary or St. Francis’s “Mother Earth.” If you asked its opponents, they depicted the Andean goddess Pachamama and were a sign of the apostasy of Pope Francis’s papacy.

Catholicism’s Civil War Spills Into Bolivia

That's an interesting read.

 

[gtopa1]

On Oct. 21, two men broke into the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. But they were not thieves. They were a very specific type of vandal—traditionalist Catholics who believed that they were doing God’s work against paganism in the church. They were there for three statues, which they threw in the Tiber River.

The statues had come a long way before they arrived in Rome for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, an event to highlight paths for evangelism of indigenous people and the Amazon’s environmental role, held by the Vatican from Oct. 6 to 27. If you asked advocates for the synod, the statues were of the Virgin Mary or St. Francis’s “Mother Earth.” If you asked its opponents, they depicted the Andean goddess Pachamama and were a sign of the apostasy of Pope Francis’s papacy.

Catholicism’s Civil War Spills Into Bolivia

That's an interesting read.

I've no idea how it's a "Civil War" though. Yes; there are discussions and a few ratbags; nothing new there.

Greg

 

[jasonlee3071]

Sounds more like what some protestants would have done instead of traditionalist catholics.

 

[Pogo]

On Oct. 21, two men broke into the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. But they were not thieves. They were a very specific type of vandal—traditionalist Catholics who believed that they were doing God’s work against paganism in the church. They were there for three statues, which they threw in the Tiber River.

The statues had come a long way before they arrived in Rome for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, an event to highlight paths for evangelism of indigenous people and the Amazon’s environmental role, held by the Vatican from Oct. 6 to 27. If you asked advocates for the synod, the statues were of the Virgin Mary or St. Francis’s “Mother Earth.” If you asked its opponents, they depicted the Andean goddess Pachamama and were a sign of the apostasy of Pope Francis’s papacy.

Catholicism’s Civil War Spills Into Bolivia

That's an interesting read.

It's not at all a new phenomenon though. Statues and images of local mother goddesses have been transformed (sometimes with nothing more than literally a new coat of paint) into the Virgin Mary for literally millennia. Co-opting the pre-existing deities and holy-days has been de rigeur as long as there has been the Church. So --- they're both right. The statues do represent Pachamama, AND Mother Earth/Mother Nature AND the VM.

If some people could figure out the universal symbology and quit wetting their pants about trivial details .....

 

[Penelope]

Church Militant and OnePeterFive are religious zealots in my opinion. Long live Pope Francis.

 

[sparky]

If some people could figure out the universal symbology and quit wetting their pants about trivial details .....

idolatry is so 2 dimensional....

~S~

 

[Disir]

On Oct. 21, two men broke into the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. But they were not thieves. They were a very specific type of vandal—traditionalist Catholics who believed that they were doing God’s work against paganism in the church. They were there for three statues, which they threw in the Tiber River.

The statues had come a long way before they arrived in Rome for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, an event to highlight paths for evangelism of indigenous people and the Amazon’s environmental role, held by the Vatican from Oct. 6 to 27. If you asked advocates for the synod, the statues were of the Virgin Mary or St. Francis’s “Mother Earth.” If you asked its opponents, they depicted the Andean goddess Pachamama and were a sign of the apostasy of Pope Francis’s papacy.

Catholicism’s Civil War Spills Into Bolivia

That's an interesting read.

It's not at all a new phenomenon though. Statues and images of local mother goddesses have been transformed (sometimes with nothing more than literally a new coat of paint) into the Virgin Mary for literally millennia. Co-opting the pre-existing deities and holy-days has been de rigeur as long as there has been the Church. So --- they're both right. The statues do represent Pachamama, AND Mother Earth/Mother Nature AND the VM.

If some people could figure out the universal symbology and quit wetting their pants about trivial details .....

No. It's not a new phenomenon. I agree with you.

 

[Blackrook]

It's not a "civil war" to throw statutes in a river. A civil war involves people shooting each other and blowing stuff up.

 

[luchitociencia]

The news are interesting but are not real "news".

In South America the Catholic church have had the same problems since the 1500s.

People, by different reasons, have tried to destroy the images of churches all the time.

But the Catholic leaders became smart. They payed individuals to fake of having experienced miracles thanks to those statues, and also made run stories to prevent attacks to their images.

One of the traditional stories is about the image of a Crucifixion which was in progress, and a man broke into the painter's house and tried to destroy it. But when he was ready to make cuts on the painting he immediately became blind. After that "miracle" the oil painting was declared "holy" and started to be carried every year as the center of the procession throughout the city streets.

 

[DOTR]

On Oct. 21, two men broke into the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. But they were not thieves. They were a very specific type of vandal—traditionalist Catholics who believed that they were doing God’s work against paganism in the church. They were there for three statues, which they threw in the Tiber River.

The statues had come a long way before they arrived in Rome for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, an event to highlight paths for evangelism of indigenous people and the Amazon’s environmental role, held by the Vatican from Oct. 6 to 27. If you asked advocates for the synod, the statues were of the Virgin Mary or St. Francis’s “Mother Earth.” If you asked its opponents, they depicted the Andean goddess Pachamama and were a sign of the apostasy of Pope Francis’s papacy.

Catholicism’s Civil War Spills Into Bolivia

That's an interesting read.

interesting article as always. I will say that Christianity has always taught that idol worship is demon worship so the author is wrong to identify that teaching as “right wing”.