VIDEO: Pachamama demon idols take a dive into the Tiber.

This video pretty clearly shows that someone entered the church in the Via della Conciliazione, Santa Maria in Traspontina, took some of the seemingly ubiquitous pagan demon Pachamama idols out of their displays, and then left the church, went to the nearby Angel Bridge over the Tiber, and dropped them off the bridge and into the river (in which they will probably dissolve rapidly).

There must have been at least two people taking the videos on mobile phones, which were edited together.

6,670 views so far.

My first reaction to this is…

If you are going record yourself boosting Pachamama demon idols that don’t belong to you, the least you could do is …

… hold your phone horizontally when making the videos?

Meanwhile… what are they saying in Rome?

“È all’uso calabrese: Pachamama, dorme con i pesci.”

UPDATE:

New version of the video.  Ever green.

Maybe the Amazon actually falls into the Tiber?

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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83 Comments

  1. Ipsitilla says:

    Call it the Pope Formosus Rule: The synod isn’t over until someone gets thrown in the Tiber.

  2. Barnacle says:

    Wonderful wonderful news.
    There are some real men left in the world after all. Somehow I don’t think these two chaps would care much if they are identified. Please note they genuflect reverently in front of the Alter of God before/after collecting up the offending items. They know they are on a Holy Mission. Btw, they haven’t finished yet; there’s still the disgusting ‘Feeding of the Piglet’ to go. Come on the same bold chaps or other bold chaps in Rome – deal with it! Now! We’re all waiting out here! Viva Christo Rey!

  3. scoot says:

    I learned recently that there are forms for disposing of blessed goods. If I recall correctly, some blessed things should be returned to the earth and buried, so some churches have a chute that leads straight into the earth. Blessed cloth should be burned, things like that (i’m hazy on the details). Is there a similar procedure for disposing of cursed things? Is there any danger that throwing these into the Tiber, while satisfying, wasn’t enough? It would have been satisfying to see them destroyed but I will not let the perfect be the enemy of the good: this was great initiative. I wonder how they will respond.

  4. iPadre says:

    Congratulations to the “good thief” and companion! He needs to wash his arms with holy water to be sure nothing from the evil demon god attached to him.

    By the way, I told everyone in my Sunday homilies both EF and OF, that if I were to find one of these pagan idols in my church, I would burn them in the parking lot.

    Would that there were at least one Cardinal, Bishop, or priest in Rome that would have the courage to destroy these wicked false gods. Is 45:20

  5. dplentini says:

    Deo gratias! Christus vincit!

    God bless those who had the courage to rid God’s house of these idols. If only a few idol-worshipping humans could have been hurled in too.

  6. FN says:

    This did my heart good. Laughed out loud at the final splash. My warmest congratulations to the perpetrators.

  7. Bthompson says:

    Not to rain on the parade, but the theft (and trespass) part does kind of bother me.

    I am sympathetic to the offense taken at filling a chapel with non-Christian images (or even using a sanctuary as a display rather than for worship of God), and the impulse/desire to do something about it (framing it mentally as like Our Lord cleansing the temple karma, or St Boniface chopping down the tree, or some other such historical event), but I keep coming back to the moral axiom that one cannot seek a good result through doing evil.

    Or is it like a starving man stealing bread, the moral object is not theft as such?

    I don’t know, I’ll have to think it through more.

  8. HvonBlumenthal says:

    Bthompson: It is not lawful to put pagan images on display in church. They, or to be exact, the people who left them there, were the trespassers. It was perfectly correct to remove them.

  9. Amerikaner says:

    This made my day.

  10. teomatteo says:

    “Swimming (sinking) Together”

  11. SanSan says:

    This made it worth waking up to this morning! Glory to God! Now we need an Exorcism.

  12. Long-Skirts says:

    THE
    SYNOD’S
    SHROUD

    The beginning of Wisdom
    Is Fear of the Lord
    So Wisdom with age
    I’ve seen no accord.

    You Cardinals live well
    Have synods, nice…
    But what have you learned
    That sinners are nice?

    That sinners eat
    And sinners drink
    And sinners read
    And sinners think

    And sinners have
    Sincere desires
    Like remodeling rooms
    With art that inspires

    And compels one to lift
    His goblet of wine
    To toast all we want
    And make want what is mine

    So all in modern
    Society
    Shall “accompany” their versions
    Of propriety

    And when you die
    They’ll bring goblets, blessed lockets
    But they’ll realize too late…
    That your shroud has no pockets!

  13. Andreas says:

    It occurs to me that those in Rome who permitted the individuals to set up their displays in and on Church property will be put into something of a quandary should the Carabinieri arrest the duo who carried out this action. It will be quite telling to see how Ecclesiastical authorities who provide oversight of sacred Catholic sites in Rome define and respond to this act.

  14. ZestyLemonZach says:

    @Bthompson God’s law supersedes state law. If it’s a virtue to destroy demonic idols, it is a virtue regardless of weather or not it is illegal; you are therefore not doing evil, you are not sinning, you are honoring God. And if that puts you in jail, all the better, your reward will be greater in heaven.

    I’m confident they have a hundred of these things lying around and I hope this act will embolden Catholics to truly protest this filth in our Church.

  15. Cafea Fruor says:

    Wait, isn’t placing a Andean idol in a Roman church “cultural appropriation” anyway? With all the cultural appropriation backlash these days, I’m sure no one could complain…

  16. Suzanne says:

    I wish they would have gone a step further and replaced those idols with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe the image the Blessed Mother herself gave us. That to me would have been very powerful.

  17. donato2 says:

    This is the best Church-related news I’ve heard in a long time. Christine Niles has had the best tweet yet about this: Pachamama sleeps with the fishes.

  18. Sandy says:

    Nearly spit my morning coffee all over the computer screen! Agree with FN, the final splash had me laughing so hard, a fitting end.

  19. Lurker 59 says:

    Forever and into eternity, when the story and history of this Synod is told, so to shall be told of this heroic deed, and that brave Catholics did rise up and do battle, did vanquish, and did cast blasphemous idols into the Tiber. Hope has not been lost and the message has been sent to those on high that the People of God will not tolerate “dialogue” between demons and the Church, and that Christ will raise up people to cleans His holy house from pagan idols that bring pollution and besmirch His mother’s name.

    —-
    @Bthompson Those were not “non-Christian symbols”. That is what is causing the problem with your line of thought. Those were pagan idols and, as such, there is a moral and religious duty to have them removed from God’s House and destroyed. That those who have authority over these places did not so act to fulfill their duty will be for God’s judgment, and their inaction does not prevent God’s people from acting or remove the obligation on their part to act.

    The pachamama idol is not analogous to a fern cluttering up the sanctuary.

  20. Ms. M-S says:

    This is truly the best thing I’ve seen on any screen in ages.

  21. Maureen M says:

    God bless these faithful sons of God for dethroning the pagan idols!

  22. Johann says:

    Good. They should do the same with the Instrumentum Laboris.

  23. Discipula says:

    This morning’s Vortex on the fall out of P’s swim. Some how I’m not all that surprised that Vatican officials are upset over this.

    https://youtu.be/FawvWZqdGAE

  24. Sonshine135 says:

    Horse and Chariot are cast into the sea!

  25. JamesM says:

    @Bthompson

    How can a Catholic trespass in a Catholic church?

  26. Letholdus says:

    I don’t remember the last time I clicked on the morning’s new headlines and almost spit out my tea in laughter… how do you say “ding dong, the witch is dead” in Latin?

  27. DeGaulle says:

    God bless these Soldiers of Christ.

    Best place for these disgusting, filthy and so cheap, things.

  28. monstrance says:

    I would have tied bricks around the necks of each idol.
    Some poor sap will pluck these out of the Tiber.

  29. PaulusFranciscus says:

    Not all heroes wear capes.

  30. DJAR says:

    Words cannot express my heartfelt gratitude to these truly Catholic YOUNG men. There is hope.

  31. Tara Tremuit says:

    But Father! You said that demons are very legalistic, so would it not follow that if the statues have any demonic associations, unless this were done by someone with power to exorcise and ‘unbless’ the blessing (or whatever that was) that was given to these statues by the Pope, then throwing them in the Tiber (though it remains a powerful symbolic act,) is just a guy drowning some statues? It’s GOOD to see a man with some courage, but doesn’t he need some juridical authority to make an effect spiritually? (As well as turn the phone to make an effect aesthetically?)

  32. LarryW2LJ says:

    AND they genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament. Almighty God, who can read men’s hearts, knows those who love Him and those who love to just virtue signal.

  33. NBW says:

    Very good!!!!!!

  34. Amerikaner says:

    The Splash Heard Round The World

    :-)

  35. Kevin says:

    Wow! Is this the time? Did these brave Christians mark the beginning…? Pray!

    Christus Vincit!

  36. chantgirl says:

    Heck yeah!

  37. Tantum Ergo says:

    They weren’t “stolen”, only “relocated” to “Mother River”. :) Bloop-bloop-bloop-bloop

  38. veritas vincit says:

    A “crime” worth being arrested for!

    That idols would ever make an inroad into Holy Mother Church, almost makes me think there is value in the Protestant enumeration of the Ten Commandments, which forbids “graven images”.

  39. robtbrown says:

    The Vatican Director of Communications Paolo Buffone said it was a case of theft.

    Seems that Il Direttore doesn’t believe in the God of Surprises.

  40. Amante de los Manuales says:

    Destroying another person’s pagan idols in a church is theft?

    If it’s theft, then the idols were (A) righfully owned and (B) unjustly taken.
    But both A and B are very doubtful, if not false. Pagan idols strike me as always evil. But can something that’s always evil be rightfully owned? It seems only goods can be rightfully owned. And were the idols unjustly taken? That’s very hard to believe. If God has the right to his churches never being desecrated, then he certainly has the right to have destroyed anything that desecrates his churches.

    Perhaps some will think that the pagan idols should’ve only been removed, not destroyed. But even that is doubtful. If someone leaves indecent material in my house, should I put it aside for him to pick up later? I imagine that would only make complicit in his sin.

    Ultimately, the idea that theft has been committed seems to ignore the fact that our rights to private property are never absolute; they can be limited by many things, like the greater rights and duties of others, which seem to be what justifies the destruction of the idols in this case.

  41. OssaSola says:

    Ha! No, it wasn’t me, but wish it had been. Where do I contribute to his Go Fund me Campain for his bail? GOD BLESS HIM!

  42. Suburbanbanshee says:

    There are many, many martyrs who died for the faith in ancient Rome and its empire, who did so in.part because they destroyed demonic idols that they had been told to reverence. Girl martyrs were particularly prone to breaking or drowning idols.

    St. Salsa comes to mind, because she has a cool name…..

  43. An imitation of Christ in the temple only they left their bullwhips at home.

  44. fr.ignatius says:

    At last, true Catholics- all those so called men of faith, those so called radical real men of faith, none of them had the zeal to destroy these idols- instead like hypocrites they looked at turned their noses and said “how terrible” but did NOTHING. I was thinking I was going to have to fly to Rome myself to do this, and do it in my cassock. How much I desired to destroy those idols and I would have smashed them on the ground in the very church.

    O you Catholic ‘men’ who hovered around the early days of the synod, examine yourselves, you worldly minded men who allowed Christ to be insulted out of human respect,

    my brothers who are still in Rome, priests especially, I implore you, destroy the one in the synod hall, my Holy Eleazar intercede for you.

    One so called Catholic Blog compared these days to the times of the Maccabees, well at last, Judas Maccabeeus has arisen and he has torn down the abomination of desecration.

    My only envy is that I did not have the honour of doing this for Our Lord and His Holy Mother. Deus lo Vult

  45. These idols should have been destroyed, not just by a couple of guys with a cell phone, but by a mob with torches and pitchforks. In fact, the act of bringing idols into a Catholic church should have started a riot. The people who brought these things in knew that wouldn’t happen, and that’s why they weren’t afraid to do it. It is a sign of the effeminacy of our age that we even worry about things like theft and trespassing charges when high churchmen are responsible for polluting God’s house with pagan idols.

  46. bartlep says:

    iPadre,
    Make sure your bishop supports burning idols or rainbow flags before burning them. I see you celebrate the EF Mass — horrors! A traditionalist!!
    Card. Cupich ran Fr. Paul Kalchik our of his priestly duties.

    We cannot lose good priests…

    https://onepeterfive.com/chicago-priest-who-burned-gay-flag-flees-after-archdiocese-threatens-forcible-removal/

  47. seeker says:

    I have issues with taking something that does not belong to me also, maybe because I am a lawyer. But a priest in confession set me mind at ease, and it may be on point.
    Years ago I was walking with my young son through a trendy new age river town along the Delaware. An artsy store had a small courtyard decorated with odd mismatched pieces…a Campbell’s soup can, A Barbie doll’s head on a stick, a car rearview mirror…and a plaster Crucifix with part of the Corpus worn away revealing rusty wire underneath. Christ’s face was intact. I looked down at my boy and he had tears in his eyes. Without thinking, I stepped over the gate, put the Crucifix under my coat and we skedaddled.
    I went to confession at a Divine Mercy Service with a SJP confessor and laid out my actions, asking if it was a sin. He said no. I persisted. “But Father, I trespassed and stole.” He said, “My daughter not only is this not a sin, but all your past sins are forgiven.” He had a Spanish accent, and I’m pretty sure he was laughing.

  48. Gab says:

    O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

    And I have no issue with pagan idols being removed from a Catholic church.

  49. Semper Gumby says:

    Deo gratias for those intrepid souls and their Roman Tea Party.

    Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: The idols are sleeping with the fishes.

    Deo volente the Synod attendees will read the signs of the times. Deus vult.

    Christus vincit.

  50. Benedict Joseph says:

    The only iota of good news of the Jungle Synod so far.
    The only better terminus for the idols I could think of is that they were burnt, the ashes ground down and the participants in the Anaconda fest be required to ingest them. Why not? A small price to pay given the rest of the Church is going to have to stomach the toxins from this heresy orgy for decades.

  51. rayrondini says:

    Read the beginning of Chesterton’s “The Ball and the Cross”. Plus, one is only obliged to observe civil law if it’s not contrary to Divine Law. Sacrilege and idolatry surely trump any “crime” committed by cleansing the temple, no?

  52. jaykay says:

    Hagan lio, and all that? Cleansing of the Temple. And no knotted cords were used, even.

    Before Saint Boniface did the job on the pagan oak, Saint Patrick did the same with the Irish Celtic idol called Crom Cruach (which apparently involved child-sacrifice – so huggy, these deities). There’s a marvellous poem by Sir Samuel Ferguson about it:

    https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/burial-king-cormac

    And this is the Wiki about said idol:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crom_Cruach

    I don’t think our patron Saint, or his spiritual descendents up until about 40 years ago, would have had too much time for Pachemon… oops, Pachemommy. Or zir ilk.

  53. Fr_Andrew says:

    It might be worth noting that the idols sank.

    By traditional standards of the Ordeal by Cold Water, that means they are innocent, but conveniently gone.

    I’m not so sure that proves the innocence of all of these idols, so I’d next suggest Trial by Fire for the next set. I have a feeling they will not pass that test.

  54. Ave Maria says:

    Best news out of the Vatican in 6 years! The grave sins against the First Commandment are damnable. Nice to know there are Catholics in Rome!

  55. donato2 says:

    The civil law against theft is a trifle relative to the offense of this Pontificate in giving honor to Pachamama. The struggle against idol worship is at the very core of the Bible and has been going on for over 3,000 years. The admonition against idol worship is the very first of the Ten Commandments. It is beyond shocking that, despite all this, what appears to be idol worship in its crudest ancient form is being promoted at the highest levels of the Catholic Church. The spontaneous outburst of joy when the news broke of Pachamama’s deposition into the Tiber is without a doubt an expression of the sense of the faithful.

  56. Kathleen10 says:

    I guarantee those young men never felt so alive or so Catholic. What a delightful video, and really humorous as the trio plopped down into the water! They have given faithful Catholics a much needed shot in the arm, God bless them forever for their fidelity. Those wooden things had no business being in a Catholic church in the first place. Now someone please tell the Amazons about the saving power of Jesus Christ because they apparently haven’t yet been told despite all those useless Jesuits cluttering up the place.

  57. Charles E Flynn says:

    The way things are going in the Vatican’s communications office, we may see a claim that the event was a “baptism by immersion”.

  58. lifelong Catholic says:

    The “New Version” of the video with music was great ! Fr. Goring quoted Scripture…right on ! Rather than the use of the word “theft” by the powers-that-be in the Vatican, I suggest these words are more fitting: ‘casting out pagan statues from a Catholic Church’. Fr. Z correctly calls them “demon idols”. This definition of cast out is perfect for this wonderful EVENT:
    a. To throw (something, especially something light): The boy cast stones in the water.
    (From: thefreedictionary.com)

  59. Charles E Flynn says:

    It is easy for us to forget the difficulties that idols posed for the earliest Christians. Apparently, the Pachamama idol is one to which food is offered, even today. I came across this book in 2016:

    Dangerous Food: 1 Corinthians 8-10 in Its Context (Studies in Christianity and Judaism)

    From the publisher’s description:

    Recognizing the social meaning of food and meals in Greco-Roman culture and, in particular, the social meaning of idol-food, is an integral part of understanding the impact of Paul’s instructions to the Christian community at Corinth regarding the consumption of idol-food. Shared meals were a central feature of social intercourse in Greco-Roman culture. Meals and food were markers of social status, and participation at meals was the main means of establishing and maintaining social relations. Participation in public rites (and sharing the meals which ensued) was a requirement of holding public office.

    The social consequences of refusing to eat idol-food would be extreme. Christians might not attend weddings, funerals, celebrations in honour of birthdays, or even formal banquets without encountering idol-food. In this extended reading of 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1, Paul’s response to the Corinthian Christians’ query concerning food offered to idols, Gooch uses a social-historical approach, combining historical methods of source, literary and redaction criticism, and newer applications of anthropological and sociological methods to determine what idol-food was, and what it meant in that place at that time to eat or avoid it. In opposition to a well-entrenched scholarly consensus, Gooch claims that although Paul had abandoned purity rules concerning food, he would not abandon Judaism’s cultural and religious understanding concerning idol-food.

    On the basis of his reconstruction of Paul’s letter in which he urged the Corinthian Christians to avoid any food infected by non-Christian rites, Gooch argues that the Corinthians rejected Paul’s instructions to avoid facing significant social liabilities.

  60. dhegedusich says:

    I agree with BThompson. While it’s true the idols needed to be removed, the two guys with the video camera don’t have the authority to decide what stays and what goes. The ends don’t justify the means.

  61. mlmc says:

    Is it too much to pray that they are either seminarians or Swiss Guardsman?

  62. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Here’s hoping my comment takes. Earlier tonight, even though the page said I was logged in, the comment form said I was Anonymous.

    Anyway, a translated excerpt from Prudentius’ poem about St. Eulalia of Merida, in his Peristephanon. She is the speaker. She was twelve when she showed up at the courtroom that was trying Christians and demanded to be arrested and executed.

    “Tell me what this madness is,
    To lose your souls and fall headlong
    And bow your wasted hearts gone wrong
    To stones, denying what is His —
    The Father of us all?

    “You sorry gang! You have the gall
    To hunt down folks who worship Christ?
    I am your foe of sacrifice
    to evil demons. Idols fall
    beneath my feet, crushed into dust.
    With heart and mouth, in God I trust.

    “Isis is nothing. Apollo, too.
    Venus is nothing but junk made by hands
    The Emperor’s worthless because he commands
    We worship this junk and ignore what is true.”

  63. Thomas S says:

    If they want the idols returned, can’t they just burn incense to Tiberinus and ask him to give them back? Or is even that too Roman?

  64. KateD says:

    Oh! This makes my heart SING!!!

    The only thing that may have been better would be to have burned those hideous veneres of smut…

    But there is something poetic about drowning the pagan idols in the Tiber….
    And so gratifying in pushing an object of disdain off a high place!

    God bless these valiant souls!

  65. KateD says:

    bthompson,

    Any church we walk into is our Father’s house. If someone vandalizes it and/or leaves obscene objects, it is our duty to clean it up and throw the offensive items away. That’s all these good people did.

    I have thrown offensive materials purchased by previous catechists away without compunction.

    By doing so, one also affords Father plausible deniability. It’s a win-win.

  66. Ed S says:

    Who among us would not remove any putrid substance from a sacred place and dispose of it? How would such an action be considered evil? It would be an act of charity to those who would not be exposed to the filth.

  67. carn says:

    nearly verbatim my comment as posted over at wherepeteris (so to say the “other side” regarding the entire issue), since i think this thought is chilling enough to share it also here:

    Since schism was discussed:

    You want a symbolic figure for igniting schism?

    Catch the thieves and put them on trial and watch the mess Vatican will create, when defense – as it would be their duty – tries to argue that under Church law removing and destroying statues of pagan godess “mother earth” was not only permissible but that the accused due to their conscience could not act differently – for what would God say if they tolerated such? – and the Vatican will be forced to react due the defense citing Ruffini and others [Ruffini verbatim said statues were representing “mother earth”] and the state attorney then trying to destroy that argument by polititely asking Vatican to deny that it was “mother earth”,

    and then you will have perfect symbolic figures,

    with Church Militant, LSN, EWTN, etc. calling for demonstrations of solidarity and hunting down any bishop saying something positive about getting ride of “mother earth” idols.

    And then millions of Catholics might end up having the impression that Vatican officially is in favor of punishment for “sacrilege” against the pagan godess “mother earth”.

    That might do it.

    Usually, I am for violaters of law being caught and tried. But in this case I am in favor of postponement till Vatican communications get their act together [which I think even under the most well meaning interpretation is horrible; people destroy some statues, cause allegedly their are pagan idols and head of communication uses the words “mother earth” in first reaction? Do you want to encourage people to steal further statues? That is usually not the job of head of communication, your job is to discourage theft].

  68. Suburbanbanshee says:

    I don’t think anyone reasonable is going to be anxious to catch these guys. Let them remain anonymous representatives of all Christians.

    Oh, and another classic example of lay action without permission. Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (who was an iconoclast) sent a guy to remove a famous icon of Christ from above the Chalke Gate, and a bunch of court ladies shoved the ladder out from under him and beat him up. And then they threw rocks at Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople, for having allowed it.

    Emperor Leo exiled, imprisoned, and even executed the ladies for this act. St. Theodosia of Constantinople, virgin and martyr, nun, was one of those executed. (She was the ringleader and chief ladder-shaker.) Her feastdays are July 18 (original and in the West), and May 29 (current Eastern calendar).

  69. bobbird says:

    To the well-intentioned bthompson, please remember a few things: Would trespassing and non-violently blockading abortion clinics be wrong? Would jumping over a white picket fence that has a “No Trespassing” sign be wrong if you saw a 3-year old tot being mauled by a pit bull? Only laws that protect the Natural Law are … lawful. And don’t forget to avoid “straining at gnats but swallowing a camel”.

  70. Andreas says:

    I have looked at many online ‘news’ and blog resources and as yet have not been successful in finding a reference to what those who brought these statues say these statues actually represent. Most reports have been either vague whilst others have decidedly referred to the idol as Pachamama (pagan goddess ‘Mother Earth’), which certainly seems to be the case as noted above with reference to a Vatican representative’s responses to the action. Still, I am curious; have any of the ‘Amazonians’ in Rome themselves actually acknowledged that the statue is indeed of Pachamama and, if so, has this been reported anywhere?

  71. carn says:

    @bobbird:

    In my opinion the ratio between people erroneously thinking that they are justified to ignore law due to this or that reason and people who are actually justified might be 10:1 or so.

    All that leftist hooded semi- and/or violent people in demonstrations? They convinced themselves that if they do not break the law here or there and smash some windows or burn some cars, then Hitler II will open Auschwitz II in a few years.

    Eco-protestors risking collision of ships or sneaking into power plants? Billions will die, if they do not act.

    Right-wing terrorists? White race will be wiped out if they keep the laws.

    And on and on.

    So the minimum requirement anyone breaking/ignoring the law due to some superior law/good should think thrice about whether they are not actually some fool deluding themselves to be one of those “heroic” lawbreakers, who e.g. want to stop Hitler II by smashing shop windows (I mean seriously, Hitler was a talented and ruthless demagogue perfectly fine with murder and war, if it served his goals; and you stop him by smashing windows?). I would even suggest trying to consult someone with a somewhat different worldview to reduce risk of falling prey to bias from your own world view.

    In sum, when you break law for whatever good reason, but you failed due care in checking whether it was really necessary and justified, you might be guilty.

    Of course, the discussed lawbreakers might pass that criteria. But still caution when arguing that lawbreaking is justified; you do not want to end up a fool who tries to stop the new NSDAP by throwing cakes into people’s faces (no, i do not mean that as a joke; it is no joke; there are such people; I know of how much help they would be if really the new NSDAP would start to gain power).

  72. KateD says:

    carn,

    I am never trespassing in my Father’s house….

    Either they inverted the pyramid and the churches belong to us or they didn’t. Can’t have it both ways…lol

  73. JabbaPapa says:

    This. Is. CHRISTENDOM !!!

  74. MT77 says:

    Having been instructed on how to properly dispose of a Ouija board by a wonderful FSSP priest, may I please suggest this for future reference? One is to burn the Ouija board (or pagan idols, perhaps) completely to ash and dispose of the ashes in living water; namely, a flowing river [not a pond, swamp, marsh, nor lake].
    It was interesting to watch the retrieval video- I had no idea so many models of this idol were there! Yes, let’s hope they dissolve in that river or our Creator finishes them off.

  75. carn says:

    @KateD:

    Of course, they were free to enter. But we are not free to take whatever we want from our Father’s house for whatever reason.

    And they breached at least Italian secular law.

    Accordingly, they should have and hopefully have thought carefully beforehand, whether they have good reasons and the means are actually necessary. I think chances are that they are among the 1 out of 10 that is actually justified.

    I just want to warn about taking lawbreaking too lightly when one thinks a higher law/cause justifies it (here the law higher than Italian secular law and maybe canon law – i think canon law might contain prohibitions against people taking stuff out of Churches without having authority to do so – might be God’s law).

  76. otsowalo says:

    They should’ve been burned, not just thrown off a bridge.

  77. carn says:

    @otsowalo:
    If done within walking distance of the Church where they were taken this might have been a more severe breach of law (setting things on fire near buildings can in some countries result in charges of attempted homicide). If one breaches the law at best only as far as absolutely necessary.

    Besides, that would have increased risk of being caught.

  78. Adelle Cecilia says:

    I wonder what the man in the pew was thinking, as this went on…

    I gave such a sigh of relief when I first saw this video shared – thank God for good Catholic men!

  79. Semper Gumby says:

    iPadre and KateD: Good points. Is 45:20 indeed.

  80. Dr. Timothy J. Williams says:

    This is the only Good News coming from the Vatican in the past six years. God be praised!

  81. KateD says:

    Carn,

    I maintain that it is our Father’s house and it is our filial obligation to rid our Father’s house of that which is offensive to Him. He’s pretty clear on the topic of idols in His house. Consequences for doing what is right are irrelevant. Martyrdom is part of what we signed up for when we as adults continue in our faith. And again…aren’t the Novus Ordo operatives always saying “it’s our church, these priests are just here to give us the sacraments and serve at our pleasure”?

    Well, then….

    If a P shows up in my church, I’m setting it up at the gun range. There will be a blanket behind to catch it and then we will have a big ol’ bonfire and my kids think the ashes should then be used for kitty litter. As a mater of fact, while in the past I have turned a blind eye or made a flaccid objection to the new age crap given to kids at Catechism classes, this situation has convinced me that I need to DO MORE than just withdraw my children and my resources from that event….I need to go and MAKE A BEAUTIFUL MESS!..object to the idolatry being taught to our young Catholics! ¡HARÉ LÍO! Indeed I shall :D

    I win, I win, I loose, I win….Either P is gone and there is no consequence or P is gone and the Novus Ordinites are forced to admit their is an hierarchy of authority that starts with Jesus Christ, flows through the Chair of Peter to the bishop and from bishops to their priests and there it ends. If that’s the case, then the priests must remove the obscene fertility figures and are responsible when they are not removed….I can’t lose!

  82. bobbird says:

    Dear Carn:
    We do have an example of what to do with a desecration of an authentically holy place. Form a cord of whips and start swinging and overturning tables. Naturally, even Christ Himself was criticized for doing this, and He told us we would be, too. I am certain, however, that His actions in the Temple that day, demonstrated that two negatives make a positive: when there is an unlawful assembly of Money Changers, driving them out would be … lawful.

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