christianity-and-other-religions

"The Shroud is a reality that concerns everyone. The Shroud image that Turin has preserved for almost five centuries testifies to pain and death, but also to resurrection and eternal life."

"(About the radiocarbon dating) All the sindonologists in the world, and there are hundreds of them, had contested that absurd verdict. Only those who had conducted the analyses persisted in defending it, obviously together with those who denied its authenticity, people who have a preconceived rejection of the Shroud, out of partisanship. Among the Sindonologists there are many scientists, including non-Catholics, who had judged the angle of the sample to be unrepresentative of the entire shroud due to the manipulations it had undergone, in addition to all the other vicissitudes experienced by the relic. Among the various studies conducted on the subject, that of chemist Raymond Rogers stands out, demonstrating that the corner had actually been mended."

"The examination of a fabric is extremely problematic from the point of view of contamination, because a fabric is entirely exposed to the environment in which it is found. For a bone or a piece of wood, it is possible to sample an internal part, but this is not possible in the case of a cloth."

"The suffering face of the Shroud does not seek our eyes but our hearts, inviting each of us to look within ourselves with truth, to awaken our hearts and consciences to the injustices of this world, in the face of which we cannot remain silent."

"Both artefacts (the Shroud and the Holy Face of Manoppello) are true miracles that challenge scholars, as they appear to have been created by light, but with two different effects: in the case of the Shroud, as if it had been exposed to a photographic negative, and in the case of the Holy Face, as if it had been exposed to a positive. [...] The Shroud highlights both the human and divine nature of Christ, thanks to the bloodstains and the negative image. [...] Only with faith, then, is it possible to explain this energy within a dead body. This is why the two artefacts challenge reason, demonstrating the limits of science."

"Luigi Ciotti. As quoted in L'amore che salva, la pastorale sanitaria a convegno davanti alla Sindone, Acistampa.com (May 25, 2015)"

"Nunzio Galantino. As quoted in Mons. Nunzio Galantino e mons. Bruno Forte davanti alla Sindone, Sindone.org (May 21, 2015)"

"[Inside the Wedding dress shop, Louise enters in Janet's chosen wedding dress] Donna: [Gasp] You look like a sweet! Louise: ...a sweet what? Donna: No, just a sweet, like a Campino, or a truffle. Better than that, you look like a toilet roll cover! Louise: Thank you! Janet: That's a wedding dress... Louise: Janet, we're in a wedding dress shop, what do you expect me to be wearing? The Turin Shroud?"

"The Shroud and the Holy Face of Manoppello are a challenge to human reason."

"We must conclude, contrary to much research by art scholars, that the image of Christ, which is so individual, must have its model. Due to its highly asymmetrical structure, the model is the Shroud, or the Shroud together with the Holy Face of Manoppello."

"It shows an image that could only have been produced photographically."

"In the Shroud we recognise the grace that manifests itself in the wounds of those who experience suffering."

"Visiting the Shroud is an opportunity to encounter the face of Christ and the many faces of suffering."

"The pilgrimage to the Shroud is therefore a privileged encounter with the God of history, saviour and hope for all mankind."

"The Shroud represents a message of peace that, as a believer, moves and overwhelms me. It is a message that applies to all of civilisation and, of course, to the world of sport and football."

"Christ gives us the relics of saints as health-giving springs through which flow blessings and healing. This should not be doubted. For if at God’s word water gushed from hard rock in the wilderness-yes, and from an ass’s jawbone when Samson was thirsty -why should it seem incredible that healing medicine should distill from the relics of saints"

"“This is very pretty,” said Elizalde... “It’s morbid,” snapped Sullivan. “Burying a bunch of dead bodies, and putting a fancy marker over each one so the survivors will know where to go and cry. What if the markers got rearranged? You’d be weeping over some stranger. Not some stranger, even, some cast-off dead body of a stranger, like a pile of fingernail clippings or old shoes, or the dust from inside an electric razor. What’s the difference between coming out here to think about dead Uncle Irving, and thinking about him in your own living room? Okay, here you can sit on the grass and be only six feet above his inert old body. Would it be better if you could dig a hole, and sit only one foot above it?” He was shaking. “Everybody should be cremated, and the ashes should be tossed in the sea with no fanfare at all.” “It’s a sign of respect,” said Elizalde angrily. “And it’s a real, tangible link. Think of the Shroud of Turin! Where would we be if they had cremated Jesus?” “I don’t know—we’d have the Ashtray of Turin.”"

"We are made of flesh and bones, we need to experience, to touch, to see, to feel. Christianity is not spirituality, it is mysticism. Mysticism means experiencing, touching. The Shroud is a bit like the Sacraments, a kind of Sacrament. The Sacraments are a sign of an experience, of an encounter with Christ. And so it is with the Shroud. First of all, the Shroud immediately takes you back, with its image, with its reality, to two thousand years ago; and then it introduces you to that experience of resurrection and encounter with the Risen One: the Risen One who is present. Only you need to feel this presence, to touch it, and the Shroud introduces you to this experience."

"Not long ago the head of what should be a strictly scientific department in one of the major universities commented on the odd (and ominous) phenomenon that persons who can claim to be scientists on the basis of the technical training that won them the degree of Ph.D. are now found certifying the authenticity of the painted rag that is called the "Turin Shroud" or adducing "scientific" arguments to support hoaxes about the "paranormal" or an antiquated religiosity. "You can hire a scientist [sic]," he said, "to prove anything." He did not adduce himself as proof of his generalization, but he did boast of his cleverness in confining his own research to areas in which the results would not perturb the Establishment or any vociferous gang of shyster-led fanatics. If such is indeed the status of science and scholarship in our darkling age, Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls."

"Just pay and the research will be done. And you can even find someone to publish it. It is undeniable that behind some of these studies there are groups that want to make people believe that the Shroud is a historical fake. One example among many: there is a fine documentary called La notte della Sindone (The Night of the Shroud). Well, this documentary was never broadcast by Rai because it contains a statement that perhaps some people do not like. This statement is represented by a letter on the letterhead of the Curia of Turin, which Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero, then custodian of the Shroud, sent to his scientific advisor, engineer Luigi Gonella, in which he firmly stated that in the matter of carbon-14 dating (later refuted by several subsequent studies, ed.), there had been the hand of Freemasonry, which wanted at all costs to prove that the Shroud was medieval. In short, there is annoyance towards a "real Shroud on the part of those who want to deny not only Christ but also his Resurrection"."

"The history of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jews was not always a happy one. Too often it was written in tears. Yet something extraordinary happened just over half a century ago, when on 13 June 1960, the French Jewish historian Jules Isaac had an audience with Pope John XXIII, and that set in motion the long journey to Vatican II and Nostra aetate, as a result of which, today, Jews and Catholics meet not as enemies, nor as strangers, but as cherished and respected friends. That is one of the most dramatic transformations in the religious history of humankind, and it lit a beacon of hope, not just for us, but for the world."

"As Catholics and Jews, we are jointly motivated to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate by our shared belief in human beings as created b'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). The persecution of even one of us is the persecution of all of us."

"Yet the gnostic Gospel of Thomas relates that as soon as Thomas recognizes him, Jesus says to Thomas that they have both received their being from the same source ... Does not such teaching—the identity of the divine and human, the concern with illusion and enlightenment, the founder who is presented not as Lord, but as spiritual guide—sound more Eastern than Western? Some scholars have suggested that if the names were changed, the 'living Buddha' appropriately could say what the Gospel of Thomas attributes to the living Jesus. Could Hindu or Buddhist tradition have influenced gnosticism? The British scholar of Buddhism, Edward Conze, suggests that it had. Trade routes between the Greco-Roman world and the Far East were opening up at the time when gnosticism flourished (AD 80–200); for generations, Buddhist missionaries had been proselytizing in Alexandria. We note, too, that Hippolytus, who was a Greek-speaking Christian in Rome (c. 225), knows of the Indian Brahmins, and includes their tradition among the sources of heresy: 'There is ... among the Indians a heresy of those who philosophize among the Brahmins, who live a self-sufficient life, abstaining from (eating) living creatures and all cooked food ... They say that God is light, not like the light one sees, nor like the sun nor fire, but to them God is discourse, not that which finds expression in articulate sounds, but that of knowledge (gnosis) through which the secret mysteries of nature are perceived by the wise.' Could the title of the Gospel of Thomas—named after the disciple who, tradition tells us, went to India—suggest the influence of Indian tradition? These hints indicate the possibility, yet our evidence is not conclusive."

"Konkō Kyō not only declares itself as monotheism but, at the same time, repudiates all ordinary superstitious beliefs and practices so widely prevalent among the nation at large, such as the selling and the wearing of charms and the use of exorcisms, divinations, and formal, repetitious prayers. Its founder, like Jesus of Nazareth, began life as a simple peasant and, like Jesus, Kawate Bunjirō eventually came to the conviction that the great Father of All Life had come to self-knowledge in himself. Chronologically Konkō Kyō is almost exactly coextensive with the history of Christianity in modern Japan. Its study affords material that is remarkably suggestive in making comparison with the progress of the Christian movement."

"During the fourth and fifth centuries, neoplatonism and along with it, at several removes, the most valuable elements of Hindu religion, entered Christianity and became incorporated, as one of a number of oddly heterogeneous elements, into its scheme of thought and devotion."

"Evidence about the antiquity of some of the other religions, particulary the Egyptian, Chinese and Hindu, presented problems for Christian apologists. Critics of Christian belief use this evidence in two ways. Some employ it to challenge the truth of the Biblical materials. Sir William Jones might confess that since he is ‘attached to no system’, he can accept or reject ‘the Mosaick history’ according to the evidence. Those who, as believers, see themselves as fundamentally committed to some understanding of Christianity tend to assume that Christian faith involves assent to what the Bible records. They regard it as necessary, therefore, to uphold the Biblical story whatever the apparent evidence from other religions;75 otherwise, as Voltaire points out, those who maintain that ‘God dictated’ the Bible will have to admit that ‘God evidently is not an expert in chronology’.”*"

"Readers familiar with the Joshua Project will recall the outcry it created in India when our book, Breaking India, exposed this sinister project by the Church’s global headquarters to develop an extensive database of every district in India with details on religious leaders, affiliations, and socio-demographics. The stated purpose was to micro-target individual communities for missionary work."

"Martyrs continue to be glorified today. The notorious Joshua Project, based in Denver, Colorado, is a multi-billion-dollar global organization which has the conversion of all humanity to Christianity as its stated aim. In the use of controversial tactics, the end would seem to justify the means. One such tactic is to publicize widely a list of martyrs from the earliest Christian times to the present. The lists are systematically organized by country and district. One can go to the Joshua Project's database and find names of alleged martyrs in any given district of India, a list which is updated continually. This project has become a veritable machine for generating data and misinformation about any and every Christian death that could be blamed on others. In the case of India, the Joshua Project points its finger at Hindus who comprise the dominant faith and are clearly targeted as competitors to overcome. This is particularly ironic given that Hinduism has a reputation for embracing and receiving other faiths, including Christianity."

"When AD2000 was conceived for India, the plan was based on a military model with the intent to invade, occupy, control, or subjugate its population. It was based on solid intelligence emanating from the ground and well-researched information on various facets of selected people groups. The idea was to send out spying missions to source micro details on religion and culture. The social and economic divisions in the various Indian communities were closely examined. A letter written to an agency in the US is re-directed immediately to Bengaluru and the agency in Bengaluru in turn tracks down the nearest evangelist and directs him to take upon the task of ministering the Gospel to the newest seeker. In fact, the mission goal is: ‘We need a church within cycling distance, then within walking distance and finally within hearing distance.’ The Church growth figures that are with Tehelka clearly indicate that this mission mandate is on in full swing. ... Unfortunately, the Bible thumpers are winning and they are being underwritten by the American tax payers. What they are probably not aware [of] is that missionaries in India’s back of the beyond villages, like Kerala, have been pulled into Bush’s missionary zeal. Sadly, while Pastor Prabhat Nayak is deeply committed to bring the villagers of Kerala to Christ, he is unaware that Christian evangelical theology and money doled out by the White House threatens to rip apart the social fabric of India."

"That which transcends country, which is greater than country, can only reveal itself through one’s country. God has manifested his one eternal nature in just such a variety of forms... I can assure you that through the open sky of India you will be able to see the sun therefore there is no need to cross the ocean and sit at the window of a Christian church. ... “I have nothing more to say,” answered Gora, “only this much I would add. You must understand that the Hindu religion takes in its lap, like a mother, people of different ideas and opinions, in other words, the Hindu religion looks upon man as man and does not count him as belonging to a particular party. It honours not only the wise but the foolish also and it shows respect not merely to one form of wisdom but to wisdom in all its aspects. Christians do not want to acknowledge diversity; they say that on one side is Christian religion and on the other eternal destruction, and between these two there is no middle path. And because we have studied under these Christians we have become ashamed of the variety that is there in Hinduism. We fail to see that through this diversity Hinduism is coming to realise the oneness of all. Unless we can free ourselves from this whirlpool of Christian teaching we shall not become fit for the glorious truths of Hindu religion.”"

"In 1760, Voltaire acquired a copy of Ezourvedam, a forgery of the Jesuits (most probably of Di Nobili). But even this served an unintended purpose. Voltaire with his acumen saw even in this document the voice of an ancient religion. While he praised Brahmins for having "established religion on the basis of universal religion", he also found that India was the home of religion in its oldest and purest form. He described India as a country "on which all other countries had to rely, but which did not rely on anyone else". He also believed that Christianity derived from Hinduism. He wrote to and assured Frederick the Great of Prussia that "our holy Christian religion is solely based upon the ancient religion of Brahma"."

"We, on the contrary, now send to the Brahmans English clergymen and evangelical linen-weavers, in order out of sympathy to put them right, and to point out to them that they are created out of nothing, and that they ought to be grateful and pleased about it. But it is Just the same as if we fired a bullet at a cliff. In India, our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian Wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought."

"When India was explored and the wonderful riches of Indian theological literature found that dispelled once and for all the dream about Christianity being the sole revelation."

"The missionaries were sent out to exterminate heathenism in India, not to spread heathen nonsense all over Europe."

"The Christian faith, sprung from the wisdom of India, overspreads the old trunk of rude Judaism, a tree of alien growth; the original form must in part remain, but it suffers a complete change and becomes full of life and truth, so that it appears to be the same tree, but is really another."

"The books which are called Biblical were an obstacle to the perfection of Christianity and, in terms of truly religious content, they could not even remotely be compared with the sacred books of India, as well as many others from earlier and later times."

"The Christian-dominated parts of India's North-East have witnessed several instances of Hindu-cleansing. Hindu organizations like the Ramakrishna Mission and the RSS have been targeted for elimination from the region through pressure or violence. In the 1990s, tens of thousands of Riang tribals who rejected conversion were expelled from Christian-dominated Mizoram. The death toll of Hindus eliminated by Christian separatists dwarfs that of the much-publicized Hindu violence against Christians, which has killed only a handful since 1947, including in the supposed “wave” of anti-Christian riots in 1998-99. The killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines... was front-page news in the whole world and remains a constant point of reference in the dominant discourse on communalism. By contrast, when shortly after that, four RSS workers were kidnapped by Christian separatists in the North-East and their mutilated bodies were subsequently found, it was hardly reported in the Indian press and not at all in the international media.(...) Indian secularism is systematically dishonest in its assessment of the religions hostile to Hinduism."

"The Christian missionaries who came to India believed they were proclaiming something unheard of to the inhabitants when they taught that the God of the Christians had become man. The latter were not astonished by this; they by no means denied the incarnation of God in Christ, and only found it strange that among the Christians it had happened just once, whereas with them it occurred often and in constant repetition. One cannot deny that they had more understanding of their religion than the Christian missionaries had of theirs."

"Having disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits for some time to hear his prisoner speak in His turn... The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better words of bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He rises; slowly and silently approaching the Inquisitor, He bends towards him and softly kisses the bloodless, four-score and-ten-year-old lips. That is all the answer."

"He [the Grand Inquisitor] seriously regards it as a great service done by himself, his brother monks and Jesuits, to humanity, to have conquered and subjected unto their authority that freedom, and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world... Man is born a rebel, and can rebels be ever happy?..."

"A terrible commotion rages among them, the populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the cathedral door, appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself... He pauses before the crowd and observes. He has seen all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His feet, the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has grown still darker; his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his sunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowly raising his finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him..."

"He pauses at the portal of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carried in, with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old... 'He will raise the child to life!' confidently shouts the crowd to the weeping mother. The officiating priest... looks perplexed, and frowns... The procession halts, and the little coffin is gently lowered at his feet. Divine compassion beams forth from His eyes, and as He looks at the child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, 'Talitha Cumi'--and 'straightway the damsel arose.' The child rises in her coffin...and, looking round with large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly..."

"The Grand Inquisitor...addresses Him in these words: "'It is Thou! ... Thou!' ... Receiving no reply, he rapidly continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent! ... And what couldst Thou say? ... I know but too well Thy answer.... Besides, Thou hast no right to add one syllable to that which was already uttered by Thee before.... Why shouldst Thou now return, to impede us in our work?... But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee in the morning?...to-morrow I will condemn and burn Thee on the stake, as the most wicked of all the heretics..."

"Nobody knows the exact figure because records were not kept, but it seems certain that during a three hundred year period between three and five million women were tortured and killed by the “Holy Inquisition,“ an institution founded by the Roman Catholic Church to suppress heresy. This sure ranks together with the Holocaust as one of the darkest chapters in human history. It was enough for a woman to show a love for animals, walk alone in the fields or woods, or gather medicinal plants to be branded a witch, then tortured and burned at the stake. The sacred feminine was declared demonic, and an entire dimension largely disappeared from human experience. Other cultures and religions, such as Judaism, Islam, and even Buddhism, also suppressed the female dimension, although in a less violent way. Women's status was reduced to being child bearers and men's property. Males who denied the feminine even within themselves were now running the world, a world that was totally out of balance. The rest is history or rather a case history of insanity... The female form is less rigidly encapsulated than the male, has greater openness and sensitivity toward other lifeforms, and is more attuned to the natural world... If the balance between male and female energies had not been destroyed on our planet, the ego's growth would have been greatly curtailed. We would not have declared war on nature, and we would not be so completely alienated from our Being."

"The following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology generally and the Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea is that Christ revisits earth, coming to Spain at the period of the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a heretic by the Grand Inquisitor."

"He comes silently and unannounced; yet all--how strange--yea, all recognize Him, at once! The population rushes towards Him as if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds, throngs, and presses around, it follows Him.... Silently, and with a smile of boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense crowd, and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, and warm rays of Light, Wisdom and Power beam forth from His eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming multitudes of the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with returning love."

"...his words mean, in short: 'Everything was given over by Thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone; Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in our work.' In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise."

"Thus, we should find that the law of Reincarnation was rejected by the Council of Constantinople in the sixth century A.D., in spite of the fact that the Gospel itself contains words of Christ that have obvious reference to the law of Reincarnation. If people would take the trouble to study seriously the fundamental Teaching of Christ, and if possible in the original language of the Gospels instead of being satisfied with the school textbooks, they would discover a new meaning in the words, and the true, great Image of Christ would be revealed to their spiritual sight. Long ago it was said by all the Great Teachers that ignorance is the worst crime. And so it really is. What if not the darkness of ignorance bred the Inquisition? The Inquisition is the most frightful, ineradicable stain on the golden vestments of the Christian Church."

"Let us think of all those great ones who suffered under the Inquisition, or who had to conceal their luminous knowledge under the mask of folly or under the most complicated symbols, the key to which—unfortunately for humanity—is almost lost. Let us remember also about those numerous great books, full of light and goodness, the loss of which is irreparable and was considered by the best minds of all later epochs as the greatest misfortune. It is an accepted thing to be indignant about the burning of the Alexandrian Library, but many hypocrites will prefer to be silent about the string of fires lit by the Inquisition which through centuries steadily consumed at the stake the pearls of human genius!... Believe me, the spirit of the Inquisition is still strong. If Christ appeared on Earth today, possibly he would escape crucifixion and the stake, but He would hardly escape severe life imprisonment, with the stamp of Antichrist upon Him. I suggest that you reread Dostoevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor.""

"I cannot agree with your statement: "The merit of the Inquisition was that by burning about ten million witches and sorcerers it prevented the masses from participating in black magic and nocturnal orgies dedicated to Satan," etc. Indeed not! By killing millions of its victims the Inquisition created a most dreadful evil obsession... No, the Inquisition was established not just for the persecution of pitiful witches and sorcerers (mostly mediums), but for the annihilation of all the differently minded people, and all personal enemies of the representatives of the church, the latter having decided to obtain absolute power. First of all, among the so-called enemies of the church were the most enlightened minds, those who were working for the General Welfare, and the true followers of the Testaments of Christ. Indeed, the easiest way to destroy the enemy was by accusing him of being in league with the devil."