A Catholic priest has performed a “spiritual cleansing” on the hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, where Stephen Paddock stood as he rained down bullets killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/10/28/catholic-priest-...
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Er...I am sure that helped!
This is a common occurrence in New Zealand. Any place where someone has died is considered tapu in the Maori religion. So a Maori preacher is called in to perform a mixture of Maori and Christian rituals to cleanse the place of spirits. I don't know how clergy reconcile their Christian beliefs with these animistic beliefs, but I suppose all mumbo-jumbo is basically on the same wavelength.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=787165
You may also be interested to learn that New Zealand is infested with giant invisible dragons called Taniwha. Maori spiritual consultants are often called to placate and relocate these dragons (for a fee). Without such interventin, the dragons might be angered by large construction projects.
Does this mean we can now check into this room? Of course the hotel wants to rent that room as soon as possible
Typical anti-theist article. Totally misses the point of the purpose of asking a Catholic priest to bless ... well, anything!
No, Jon the Catholic YOU missed the point.
1) It is an example of catholics exploiting a terrible event to get notoriety.
2) It also illustrates how futile this practice is. If the catholics were to "bless" the room beforehand and PREVENTED the shooting in the first place, I'd be impressed.
This bullshit of priest "blessing" things is so fucking stupid it isn't even funny. It's total bullshit. It is a SHOW and nothing more.
exploiting a terrible event? Exactly how was the event exploited? A Catholic priest went to bless the hotel room. The church didn't report it.
Also, no one really believes (even Catholics) that blessings things will prevent evil from happening. This is the point I was saying most atheists miss completely.
Jon the Catholic "Typical anti-theist article. Totally misses the point of the purpose of asking a Catholic priest to bless ... well, anything!"
Well this seems reasonable enough to me, I'm not sure what else an atheist can reasonably say about such mumbo jumbo.
"I’m sincerely happy that someone was providing comfort to staff members who needed it, and I’m not opposed to using religion as therapy as long as you don’t hurt others (although there are likely secular alternatives), but let’s admit that blessing the room isn’t going to accomplish anything real. If prayer didn’t prevent this tragedy, it’s not going to be helpful now."
This on the other made me laugh out loud, it's the very definition of flimflam.
"As he opened the door, he said he instantly felt something indescribable."
"According to Kiley, the hotel may ask more faith leaders to come bless the room. Because that’s what God needs: more people to point out what God should do and which spaces God should “cleanse” of evil."
Well now here the article has a point, why would God want to cleanse the place of evil, after he sat idly by while mass murder took place, ignoring the pitiful pleas and prayers of those murdered?
This seems a far more rational and cogent assessment of the situation to me...
"This stunt may help the hotel put the 32nd floor back into the regular rotation, but it won’t do anything to help the people who suffered during the shooting. And it definitely won’t do anything to prevent future mass killings. For that we need more education, better regulations, and a more comprehensive understanding of the problem."
@Jon the Catholic: "Totally misses the point of the purpose of asking a Catholic priest to bless ... well, anything!"
So what is the point of asking a priest to bless anything, such as the Enola Gay, for example?
Blessing anything doesn't prevent the thing from being used for evil. Hotel rooms can be blessed but that doesn't prevent them from being used for drug deals or affairs.
Blessing of a place simply drives out whatever lingering demonic spirits exist in the area. This does not prevent someone or something bringing with them an evil spirit or state of mind. That's all. It also gives the faithful a chance to pray for any unrested souls that may be lingering in the area (for what it would be worth).
@Jon the Catholic: "simply drives out whatever lingering demonic spirits exist in the area."
There's nothing simple about that idea at all. You're suggesting that incorporeal beings exist and influence human actions,that Catholic priests somehow have special powers to drive those evil spirits out, and that the dead can leave "unrested souls" behind them in the places where they died. Those are pretty amazing claims to make without any supporting evidence.
I get it. But the fact remains that the “blessing” isn’t meant to deter future crimes. If you think it’s useless as you don’t believe in the supernatural, then fine. I was just answering the claim of some that the blessing was a way to somehow prevent crime from being done, which it wasn’t even originally meant to do.
My word!
Jon the Catholic says that we've all missed the point. Further stating that a priest blessing a room doesn't "prevent" anything. Ridiculous. In other words "blessing" doesn't do anything! JOC stated that it
1) drives out lingering evil spirits but other spirits may enter the room...yeah right!
2) that it puts spirits at unrest at ease....Prove that will ya!
The fact is that the catholic church has always used symbolic jesters ala witch doctors, to mesmerize the stupid. In this instance, some asshole catholic priest has decided to "bless" the room. JOC says that it wasn't a publicity stunt, but I bet you that the priest didn't go to that room alone and he told many people his intentions. If this priest REALLY fucking believed that
1) there where evil spirits there...and
2) that there were souls not laid to rest there...and
3) that he could perform some magic to rectify 1&2,
he could of, should have, would have gone there without telling anyone and done the deed. But no that isn't what happened. There was a whole newspaper article about it.
I am so sick of believers making a big show about prayer and other nonsense and then claiming that they were not out for any attention.
The catholic church is all about BIG SHOWS! They have to have a WITNESS for EVERYTHING! They even have a witness for when one confesses to their god as if THAT is needed. I suppose the priest notarizes some document or something....metaphorically!
Exorcisms, prayer vigils, blessings, confessions, all shows and nothing more. You tell me that there anything else and you're just fucking lying. You get the same result when a medicine man hits you in the face with a chicken leg and spits pig's blood all over you. European rituals are just a little more sanitary, probably because of the black plague, otherwise, they'd be slitting the neck of a lamb and spewing blood everywhere!
Want to buy a bridge on the moon?
A young man walks into a cathoholic church and enters the confessional. The priest silently waits for the young man to settle himself and then slides open the little door and greets him, "Bless you my son. I will now hear your confession." The young man replies, "Bless me father for I have sinned.", and then begins to spew some false but sin worthy things just to get his absolution and scram. The priest hears him out, prescribes the prayers he must say for absolution and then asks the young man a riddle. He asks him "My son, do you know the difference between a blow job and a bologna sandwich?" The young man replies "No, father, I do not." The priest then invites the young man to lunch.
True story, I'm sure.
The priest blessing the room where the shooter(s) fired from is pretty much a laughable marketing stunt that's certainly going to backfire for the hotel's damage control efforts. I mean, a priest? These are the cats I exemplified in the above dedication to their sexual savoir fair. These are the boffers of young men the world over has heard of. These are the low life molesters the church is reeling from. That said, the hotel engaged one to bless the freaking room? Like that's going to count for something.