Decisions we make are influenced by a moral compass. The degree a society is able to align to the collective beliefs and perspectives of citizens is a work-in-progress exercise. No absolutes, many shades of grey. Enlightened citizens understand we must unapologetically participate in our system of governance to ensure civil society actors are sufficiently aligned to collective values. The challenge oftentimes is that issues of morality are not black and white.
For many Barbadians- dare we say the majority- the Christian Church represents the last bastion of what defines old fashion traditional values. It is place many believers seek refuge. It is a place a believer should not expect to be abused physically or emotionally. Physical and emotional abuse should be viewed through a black or white lens.
The blogmaster received several communications from a man residing in Europe who alleged he was abused by a catholic priest now deceased by the name of Aidan Dean, a Canadian who presided in Barbados during the 70s. The victim in his search to find emotional closure tried to initiate an investigation in 2017 to discover if other young men had been similarly abused in Barbados. Fr. Andy of St. Dominic’s referred him to Fr. Harcourt Blackett. The victim spoke to Fr. Harcourt on the phone, however, he reported Fr. Harcourt’ s attitude was :- “ yes some people still alive who will remember him [Aidan Dean] but don’t spoil the memories and image that these people may hold about this person. Brush, dirt, carpet”.
An invitation where he signed with his legal name. Aidan was a name selected at ordination into the priesthood 
The late Fr. Aidan Dean
Emails sent to Fr. Harcourt and Charles Dominique were subsequently forwarded in 2018 to bishopaccountability.org because Fr. Harcourt ignored the cry for assistance from the victim. bishopaccountability.org is a website dedicated to victims and families of victims of abuse by the catholic church. The blogmaster can only speculate why the matter was not pursued by that entity.
I am a 61 years old man living in Northern Ireland. As a boy I spent a period of my life living near to the Dominican priory … England. At that time a friendship was formed with Fr Aidan Dean. I was lonely and vulnerable. Fr Aidan was a close family member who ate at our table at home and was held in great esteem by my parents.
Fr. Aidan gifted to me money, a Toshiba radio cassette player and other things and sexually abused me – I am still haunted by his nudity, physical encounters. his breath his lips etc. He is dead no. What happened shaped my life – kept contact with me through university and performed my marriage ceremony.
Extract from an email sent by the victim to Fr. Harcourt Blackett, Charles Dominic and bishopaccountability.org.
As a result of the abuse the victim underwent a psychiatric evaluation and ongoing therapy is recommended. The client reported extensive and repeated sexual abuse by Father Aidan Dean between the ages of seventeen and nineteen. The client reported that the abuse took place in the priest’s bedroom in ‘Hawksyard Priory,’ off …. The client recalls being touched, fondled, and kissed and regularly experiencing penetrative sexual abuse by Father Aidan Dean. The client recalls the priest telling him he loved him, giving him gifts, and treating him in a way that made him feel special.
Extract from the Psychiatric Evaluation Report to determine the therapeutic needs of the victim.
The blogmaster’s hope is that those with answers meet with the victim to facilitate closure to the matter. Newly installed Bishop Neil Scantlebury should move with haste to attend to the disturbing accusation. One does not expect a priest of the calibre of Monsignor Vincent Harcourt Blackett to show the level of insensitivity described by the victim. The blogmaster notes Fr. Blackett recently accepted an engagement in St. Vincent. The blogmaster also notes a communication sent by the victim to Barbados Today on Monday, 5 December 2016, 21:22 was ignored.
I could post a picture of a very naked Melania Trump the “First Lady”, reputedly, the one who brought “class” back to the White House.
But I think Michelle Obama’s bare ARM pictures are far more offensive.
How relevant is the Church of Colonialism
It is not his Church he disowns the abomination
In the era of #BLACKLIVESMATTER spirit rising
You chose to side with white rightwing Christian trash
David
The single dimensional thinking and man-in-the- streets logic by some has limited application.
The NY mafia has strict rules about not going with one another’s wives or holding personal responsibility for recruits or respecting made-men etc.
And these are all admirable moral codes. But these same people will kill other people unknown to them, as so instructed.
Does anybody thinks that the FBI cares about any of that when investigating conspiracy, racketeering etc.
That Harcourt Blackette is a member of a mellenia old crime family should not require us to assume that he is any less or more culpable than any other actor. A standard variable!
David, if this writer carried you into a California bank about a transaction and it was later found that this transaction which you brought to this writer was fraudulent both persons would be deemed part of a conspiracy to defraud the bank, a federal crime. And no stupid excuses will be listened to. Why a reverse, perverse, illogic for Blackett.
@Donna
If you post a blog that is strong, sound and sensible, then a person ‘giving grades’ of one star is exposing their pettiness and sillyness.
@all
Wishing Barbados a great day.
PachamamaDecember 11, 2021 7:45 AM
John
Was there no Black woman to set up for comparative analysis?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I did not raise the issue of a moral compass from the 60’s and 70’s.
I just chose to place an example of a woman from the 50’s who lived through the era of the 60’s and 70’s and never lost her moral compass.
Sister did though!!
QEII is the best example of such a woman, easily identified …. and guaranteed to send fragile people bananas.
@David, there is absolutely no prolix here.
The fundamental right and wrong is clear… you were wrong to condemn Blackette on the PREMISS u used. That’s it. That’s what the very first blogger noted and that’s what I am repeating.
You are wrong to conflate his condemnation of Rhianna’s status with the sordid act of sexual abuse or his reaction to a deep seated, long burning legal mess that spotlights the nastiness of the RCC.
Tell me bro, had to lauded her appointment would THIS article appear as it is!
I have not listened to his Rhianna tirade and in the context of this debate I should NOT have to … because apart surely from difference in words and tone I too strongly dismissed her appointment as political posturing ‘demagoguery’.
But I would never have treated the man as he did and thus I agree Blackette was disgustingly wrong re the response to this gentleman.
So indeed absolutely no need to be prolix, I simply do not see which see-saw you are riding to reach your strange moral compass … your ‘true north’ locator appears to be located at grid point ‘bias’! 🤦🏾♂️
So if you will I readily accept the last word. 😇🤣
I gone, bro.
David,
Intelligent people should grow and learn. Rihanna’s style is not mine but I have come to understand that these standards are man made constructs. Primative cultures in certain climates wore little in the clothing line. Others were forced t0 bundle up due to the cold and still others to wrap up due to swirling sand. Clothing standards are CULTURAL and FUNCTIONAL, not moral. It’s like Cuhdear Bajan always says, Bemuda shorts and bare arms are more suitable for our climate, yet they are deemed unsuitable for our government offices. It is only recently that Bajan women stopped wearing stockings to work. Men still sweat in stupid suits at weddings and funerals.
We need to take a serious look at ourselves.
I once was a goody two shoes who condemned “cussing” until I realised that these “cuss words” are man made concepts. It’s all in our heads!
I used to condemn marijuana smoking until I accepted that alcohol is also a drug that can do damage in excess. It is about how much of it we use.
People need to stop and think about these things.
And as for our moral compass being broken since disestablishment, if I do something I have told my son not to do I am ALWAYS challenged. I maintain that this is what happened.
The people had Grown up Stupid Under the Union Jack and Massa’s double standard church was never challenged. As soon as that hold was released, the people’s eyes were opened and they saw that the Church was naked, parading around pretending like the proverbial emperor to be wreathed in gloriously golden robes.
In other words, church officials demanded of the people that which they themselves had no intention of ever doing.
We are a people who had a foreign culture imposed upon us. We must find our own way now. There is a cost to that.
But disestablishment had to happen.
@Donna
Agree with the thrust of your comment. Pointed out in the blog is that a moral compass which anchors how we think; make decisions will always be open to criticism because of its definition i.e. representing collective beliefs. It is ironic that is Bermuda a colony of England embraces the shorts as business attire and in little England we prefer to be suited or at minimum collin tie.
*Silliness.
—–xxx——
1.Trying to avoid the avenue that some are taking. Trying to focus on what wouldbmake victims whole. It would probably be a good thing if we receive open public apologies from the head of the RC Church in the various islands.
2.Was it David who introduced Rihanna to this discussion?
Not surprised by the pushback. Some ‘unholy cows’ are still held sacred
Holy Science
Man has capacity to research knowledge of God
The Church of God is the Church of the Body where there is visible presence of God from Head to Toe and you accept that Head to Toes is like a battery that is charged from the source of the universe. When you have low energy you are in a state of a discharged condition and you need to charge it from a big source which is called the Element of Truth, and what is the Truth, the Truth is that God has become part of your existence and others existence and looks like everything, everyone, the earth and the sky. The source is the idea that God alone exists and when you know it you can write it speak it, when you feel it from head to toes you can translate it into Parabrahma consciousness and these are the changes whatever you feel in your arms legs and body activity. All kinds of Knowledge Peace Power Joy Bliss Immortality exist in this consciousness, you are not feeling this body you are feeling the visible presence of God and you keep this purity in you action without speaking about it it is shown through your behaviour not your talking and your are working like a prophet or an angel or you are so great people feel at peace to be with you all the time and feel more Power Knowledge and Peace and feel more and more integration more and more oneness. With Power Knowledge and Peace you have to demonstrate your effect and not to speak that “God has become Me” as nobody can accept it. The most important thing is to practice and keep this philosophy with you and demonstrate the effect of this philosophy through your action.
In Afrikan philosophy it is impossible to study the Creator. Therefore, theology, which means that, does not exist.
Johnny
Your assumption that Elizabeth never was uncentered morally is a lie.
Did she not marry a Nazi? Did she not encourage a Germanic ethos within the palace at a time of war?
Is she not still lording over wealth gained from slavery in Barbados?
Rihanna has committed no such large and immoral crimes.
And on and on!
Well…this is the manifestation of having teo Barbados’: one where a large cross section of the population is very heavily criminalized while others can commit any alleged crime and walk away from it. But now apparently they are being cast by others as Youtube stars so the whole world will now see and know exactly who they are.
https://youtu.be/6M_OUYBAYA4
@Theo ur snide comment is the type I normally ignore for its CARELESSNESS and obvious lack of BASIC COURTEOUS ANALYSIS
of previous posts … but I will use its ‘silliness’ to make a final few points.
First the ‘carelessness’. …. “Trying to focus on what would make victims whole. It would probably be a good thing if we receive open public apologies from the head of the RC Church in the various islands.”
So despite clear and unequivocally denunciation by the current Pope himself yet the RC flock need local public apologies !
Alright, fair PR comment but careless re THIS debate. No further prolix.
“2.Was it David who introduced Rihanna to this discussion?” Steupse… Absurd carelessness.
Whether he introduced I know not but he damn surely EMBRACED IT AS HIS CENTRAL THESIS: “This is the thesis of the blog, the same moral indignation Fr. Harcourt espoused on the voicenote about Rihanna’s elevation…”
POOR ANALYSIS
“Not surprised by the pushback. Some ‘unholy cows’ are still held sacred”
I stated TWICE that the RC church or church generally is NOT held as any sacred cow … I spoke of the Vatican Bank scandals … traipsing all the way back to the unholy wars of the Knights Templar (with no prolix but enough of a hint to u smart folks re deep webs of these ‘international mafia’ elite connections).
Yet you offer that snide remark. Steeupse. But then again, maybe u aren’t as well read in that area as I thought.
Now generally …. The matter of sexual abuse of this gentleman is important and should be ventilated.
Based on the above he wants to bring it to public awareness as he has publicized his therapy notes and other private correspondence … that the Blogmaster prepared the public case as he did is the issue.
I am not defending Blackette nor the church and @David I know you realize that everything is about PR presentation.
Here several posts were WASTED identifying HOW u did this… the VERY FIRST ONE IN FACT.
Now brother maybe that was your PR intent so who am I to contradict you … just seems to me that if that energy was used to speak on the possible pervasiveness of such abuse in Bim and some posts were healing tales from others that it would have been MORE productive.
Anyhow I gone.. I dun wid dis and peace to all.
What confounds me is that there has been high levels of child molestation and teenage pregnancies that have never attracted any sustainable debate .
There is also a very high level of domestic violence against women throughout the region and that too has never engaged us in any deep or real measure.
Hopefully, after we finish with this , we will continue to let our voices be heard on all childhood abuse that is still rampant in our society.
Miss. Fenty’s elevation to National Hero ( with which I have no problem) has exposed Father Blackett’s and by extension the church’s hypocrisy.
And in some ways it has also exposed us. For whatever reason the post has been published at this time, the truth is that hypocrisy in any form is sometimes exposed.
We must always try to connect the dots ………,..,,.
Peace
William…it’s clear that everything is UNRAVELING…let’s call this the big REVEAL…and we don’t even have to take part anymore, all we gotta to do is watch it all unfold as the witnesses, we have done more than Enuff…we came and we OVERCAME…
mission truly accomplished..
@Skinner…. preach brother …
*”What confounds me is that there has been high levels of child molestation and teenage pregnancies that have never attracted any sustainable debate .
There is also a very high level of domestic violence against women throughout the region and that too has never engaged us in any deep or real measure.”
I wryly said to myself “Holy Mary, John and Jesus” when I read that.🙏🏿😇
No prolix. I gone again.
What about incest?
Do not forget, we do not live in a perfect society.
@ WURA
First they came for……………, and then they came for…………
They think people stupid !!!
But………….
Peace
William…check out the MY, HOW WE “CARE” thread….Ronnie Yearwood just put what we knew out there for everyone to see..
Not going to do the heavy analysis
Me:
First the ‘carelessness’. …. “Trying to focus on what would make victims whole. It would probably be a good thing if we receive open public apologies from the head of the RC Church in the various islands.”
DP:
So despite clear and unequivocally denunciation by the current Pope himself yet the RC flock need local public apologies !
Me again:
I would like the local head of the RC church in every island to make a public apology. Having the pope mutter something in the Vatican does not work for all of us.
Me:
2.Was it David who introduced Rihanna to this discussion?” Steupse… Absurd carelessness.
DpD
Whether he introduced I know not but he damn surely EMBRACED IT AS HIS CENTRAL THESIS: “This is the thesis of the blog, the same moral indignation Fr. Harcourt espoused on the voicenote about Rihanna’s elevation…”
Me again:
The blog first appeared without any mention of Rihanna. A blogger introduced Rihanna.. Then I took what David said as saying. ‘ We should not have selected outrage. The good Father should also be willing to champion causes like this one’.
I lack the ability to know what was in his mind with the original post, but I can understand the evolution of his position as bloggers make their comment
On my part… Rihanna has no place on this story…
Yours was a reasonable comment, allow Dee Word to have the last word.
Notice that I did not attempt to ridicule your contribution in any way. I could easily play the following ball, but why do do???
DpD
“Yet you offer that snide remark. Steeupse. But then again, maybe u aren’t as well read in that area as I thought.”
I may not have discussed it here at any length but I have discussed it everywhere else. And so do most of the people I know. I have had very enlightening and HAIR-RAISING conversations about both child abuse and domestic violence at the BEAUTY SALON.
I heard of mothers pimping out their children, young girls who delight in de man “throwing hand”.
My ex once told me that a young man he met once openly declared, “After twelve is lunch!”
But this Roy Morris appointment was discussed here at length. I thought it was the worst appointment ever.
Oh dear!
PachamamaDecember 11, 2021 10:12 AM
Did she not marry a Nazi? Did she not encourage a Germanic ethos within the palace at a time of war?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
QEII was crowned in 1952, 7 years after the end of WWII.
Which war are you talking of, the Korean war perhaps?
Last/last
This is a great article. It describe an organization that (like any other) has internal issues. A statement does not tell the whole story.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-pope-francis-leading-the-church-to-a-schism-11626447418
@Theo, a rib cracking LOL re “Notice that I did not attempt to ridicule your contribution in any way. I could easily play the following ball, but why do do???”
I don’t attempt to ridicule. I stated clearly that if u were “well read” on the construct of the Knights Templar (which evoles to modern day Lodge Brotherhoods and goes almost directly to Vatican City subterfuge; death of Pope Jean Paul; corruption etc etc) then there is no way you should have made your ORIGINAL snide remark.
… unless of course u were being simply argumentative for the sake of opposition.
So which is it … are you knowledgeable and playing the backside or just not aware (and nothing wrong with that)!!!
I do NOT do disrespect or ridicule brother. I am dealing with the ISSUE … if u write what I consider to be careless nonsense then I will say so … to friend or foe alike.
And I also do no play a game of favorites … or whack the blogger I dont like!
Peace out.
The Overseer “allow Dee Word to have the last word.”
The First Word is the message but nobody listens to what anybody is saying
I Am the Brother of the Wind | Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra
We’ll Wait For You
I am back here … A possible case of abuse and ‘non-response’ from an authority figure
Not interested in
Father Blackett or Father Christmas Rihanna
The Pope
QE2 /Nazis
Korean wars
Roy Brown or his son
If the introduction of Roy Morris does not draw out AC, then I fear the worst.
John
Well, Phillip was a known Nazi. His and her Germanic roots even encouraged Mountbatten to try to change the name of the House of Windsor back to Saxe Coburg and Gotha to reflect that reality. During both ww1 and ww2 there were movements within the palace in support of Germany. Mountbatten is also cited later as planning a coup against the elected government during her reign.
” Her Excellency The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, The President,”
Her Excellency The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, The President,”
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/12/10/approximately-400-justices-of-the-peace-to-be-installed/
These ” titles ” seem to be confusing for some.
Testimony-Listen Carefully to the Songs Lyrics
Stripped Me Naked
The Laws of Perversion in Religion and Man and their Cover Ups
Seems like some Christian Soldiers are big freaks like the Greeks
Dompey said Police liked to finger young girls which he witnessed
There are perverts Teaching in Schools and Medical Practitioners
PachamamaDecember 11, 2021 1:08 PM
John
Well, Phillip was a known Nazi. His and her Germanic roots even encouraged Mountbatten to try to change the name of the House of Windsor back to Saxe Coburg and Gotha to reflect that reality. During both ww1 and ww2 there were movements within the palace in support of Germany. Mountbatten is also cited later as planning a coup against the elected government during her reign.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mountbatten was in command of allied forces during WWII in the Pacific of Allied forces, not bad for a Nazi!!
Philip served at see on British warships, not bad for a Nazi!!
Anyway, enjoy this clip and upgrade your historical knowledge..
A then teenager who used his father’s loaded gun to threaten another teen in an argument over a girl was fined a total of $45 000 when he appeared in the No. 4 Supreme Court yesterday.
Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell told Rafiq Rashidi Morris he was extremely lucky he was not facing more serious charges as the weapon went off twice in the struggle between the two boys.
“You are indeed a very fortunate young man,” she told Morris. “There is a saying God protects fools, babies and children. On that day, clearly somebody was watching out over the two of you all.
“Fortunately for you, since that offence your behaviour does not reflect that you have a propensity for that sort of behaviour, but I would suggest to you that you consider yourself very lucky.
HantsDecember 11, 2021 1:22 PM
” Her Excellency The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, The President,”
Her Excellency The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, The President,”
These ” titles ” seem to be confusing for some.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One thing that is obvious and I can say without fear of contradiction, the President was one crappy Justice of Appeal and was promoted way beyond her level of competence when she was made GG!!
I understand she has alot more like this.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/12/10/locked-in-legal-battle/
Johnny
This writer does not misinform this blog. We’ve read around the life of Mountbatten, over years. from birth to his death by an IRA bomb while on his boat at his countryside retreat.
Instead of being reliant of propaganda which reinforces the established narratives, about everything, which supports your ideals about Whiteness you need to go beyond the surface.
Try this for starters.
https://youtu.be/IdI1YYJoH9k
John
Or this.
https://youtu.be/41mNSage86U
A peep into the murky world of the monarchy Pacha? We must assume Dickie exerted more effort to be ethical executing his professional role than he did his personal relationship.
John
Rihanna is not known for any of the corruption of the “familia royal”
David
We keep telling you. These people are the worst of every kind.
Rihanna is like virgin snow compared to these royals
Forget the xmas party distraction they are seeking to remove you.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10224634380840668&id=1644515509&sfnsn=wa
David
Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner if Harrods and the father of Dodi, has publicly argued for years that he thought that the palace, the Prince of Wales, the British intelligence agencies were responsible for Diana’s death.
He reckoned that she was going to utter unspeakable secrets about the royals. However, only circumstantial evidence was ever produced.
But that death continues to fail to make sense at many levels.
And how about that Prince Andrew, her favourite child. Some mother she was! She raised a monster.
Pacachuti
I know about the scandals of the Royal family.
You must know by now that I like history.
However, even Princess Margaret never ran around in public exposing her lady parts or as a more frank Jamaican friend of mind used to put it “digging she pu$$y”..
That’s the difference between Rihanna and any member of the Royal family.
I really don’t have much use for Princess Di or Prince Andrew or for that matter Prince Charles and the wife.
However, Fr Blackett’s epithet for Rihanna as “”that red woman” is one that fits her to the ground.
Ms. Mockley should have let sleeping dogs lie.
Anyway, I have to congratulate you on actually doing some historical research.
Next time let it inform your contributions and don’t get things so wrong.
John
You represent no prompt for this writer to read historical documents. Real histories, not propaganda.
A neophyte could not have so quickly responded to your highly misguided assertions. The problem is always to deliver evidence, proof, within the context of a blog.
For there is always a critical mass of subjects central to what this writer reads.
As far as the Windsors are concerned we’ve found it impossible to reach a true appreciation of the magnitude of evil thusly represented unless one first understands Mountbatten.
His whole life is antithetical to what you would have us continue to believe. And in the history of the royals he is not an outlier. Believe it or not!
And ours are not merely about scandals like you would want to believe but you were the one raising the spectre of morality and your implicit bias to Whiteness. Equating Whiteness with morality.
How else can a sentient being, a social scientist, understand the present, perceive the future, without firmly being rooted in the past. It is basis for us that knowing, not believing, the past is the only way of seeing the future.
Of course,, you like (his)story when you really mean those dominant narratives supportive of Whiteness. The truth is another matter entirely. And that is what you had the good sense to appear to concede to on this occasion.
But still you revert to your original canard. Does capitalism which your people have imposed on the world not sell everything based on sex, the exploitation of women and why should that bar erected by White people preclude Rihanna or anybody else from producing the commercial content for which there is a large market. If you’re so opposed to such artistic productions you must be also against the underlying system which makes it possible, and you are not, never have been, will never be.
https://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/rihanna-1.png
Rihanna does NOT PRETEND….i CAN’T STAND pretenders who would cut your throat before you can fully turn your back, always give them a wide berth, there is nothing there to admire or be impressed about…
🐇/🐰
I see that you intend to troll this blog. I see you are casting your net for greater attention at 2:19 a.m.
It will be interesting to see how many respond to the obvious attempt to generate a response. So far, just me.
I see an obvious flaw in one of your statements and as a parent, I must challenge it.
I believe that I raised a good son. I try to give him my values, to tell him what is right and wrong, placed emphasis on him being helpful to those less fortunate than himself, on being kind to his fellowman and on respecting his elders.
At this age he is beyond my control.. any good or evil he now does should reflect on him as a person and not on me as a parent.
The question of full frontal nudity being portrayed as a moral deficiency by a roman Catholic priest is unfortunate because in the heart of Roman catholicism, the Sistine chapel, Michaelangelo’s work presents full frontal nudity as worthy of great admiration, as have many other artists. Also, it is believed that Jesus of Nazareth was stripped naked and crucified in his supreme act of self sacrifice. Is there more to the objection by the cleric than a cheap ppolitical attack on the Prime minister? By condemning the response from the church to the well deserved appointment of Rihanna as National Hero, is it an attempt to push the new Roman Catholic bishop into the middle of an ill conceived controversy.
TheO,
No flaw! He was her favourite son whom she is still shielding.
She got exactly what she raised.
BMcDonaldDecember 12, 2021 12:30 PM
Nakedness was common the further back in time we go.
In fact, Adam and Eve once upon a time, walked around naked and no doubt as you know, Adam and Eve are central figures in Christianity.
“God called out Adam and Eve from hiding and told them the consequences of their sin. He did not stop there but went on to make provision for their sin (Genesis 3:15) and the covering of their nakedness. Genesis 3:21 says “And the LORD God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.””
https://endofthematter.com/2019/10/hiding-from-god/
How would Michael Anglo address some of the basic tenets of Christianity assuming he was given full artistic license?
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3&version=KJV
We wear clothes today because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience and we wear clothes to hide the sin against God which Adam and Eve committed.
God made provision for us to hide because we know wrong from right.
A pity we were and still not able to determine chattel slavery was/is wrong.
The last scene painted in the Sistine Chapel is the last Judgment.
https://www.througheternity.com/en/blog/art/nudity-and-controversy-in-the-sistine-chapel.html
“The Last Judgement, painted from 1535 to 1541, covers the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. It depicts the second coming of Christ on Judgement Day, surrounded by apostles, disciples, saints, martyrs, angels, demons, the saved ascending to paradise and the damned being dragged to hell. It’s an extraordinarily complex and detailed scene, especially given the enormous size of the fresco. Painted twenty-five years after the completion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Last Judgement is the work of the mature Michelangelo, at the peak of his artistic powers.”
“The work had been commissioned by the Pope, but many Catholics felt that The Last Judgement was inappropriate for a place as sacred as the Pope’s private chapel. The Papal Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, deemed the fresco outrageous, and more suitable for public baths or taverns than a chapel. “….it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully”. Michelangelo responded by making Minos, judge of the underworld, resemble Cesena. It’s an extremely unflattering portrait; Minos/Cesena has the ears of a donkey and a snake biting his genitals. When Cesena complained to the Pope, the Pope reportedly pointed out that his authority did not extend to hell. The painting remained unchanged.”
“But Cesena was far from the only detractor. The satirist Pietro Aretino, angered when Michelangelo ignored his advice, accused the artist of being “godless” and homosexual – a little hypocritical, given Aretino’s boasts about his own same-sex conquests. The obvious response was to include Aretino in the painting, which Michelangelo promptly did. St Bartholomew, portrayed as a stern old man holding his own flayed skin, bears a striking resemblance to Aretino. Interestingly, the face on the flayed skin of the saint has been interpreted as Michelangelo’s anguished, distorted self-portrait.”
So, there is a logic to the work of art.
DavidDecember 14, 2021 5:57 AM
A pity we were and still not able to determine chattel slavery was/is wrong.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Man is a sinful creature.
Those who sold their kin into slavery and those who bought them are men/women guilty as the next nan/woman of sin regardless of colour.
That’s the purpose of the final judgment.
But God in his mercy has given the most grievous sinner a way to avoid it.
Here is an image from the Sistine Chapel.
You may be able to detect some of the ideas GP speaks of in it if you look closely.
https://imgur.com/sqrIDtC
At some stage the discussion went well above my head. I got lost. Where are we now?
Are we now in the Sistine Chapel and out of the bedroom of the abusive perverted pedophile priest?
Interesting to note the time the offense is reported to have occurred.
US ex-priest jailed for child sex abuse in East Timor
https://aje.io/pbse9e
Catholic Church in the news. How many more?
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/us/archdiocese-of-baltimore-clergy-sexual-abuse
@David, your note has generated little interest seemingly and one wonders if that’s due primarily to the now long standing acceptance of the depravity of the Catholic church pastors (specifically) and too the numbness that our society is well beyond repair (cue @Bushie ‘Brassbowl’ screed).
These latest revelations are quite shocking of course
1-“More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children”;
2-“[the] report … revealed the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and … decades of coverups;
3-“Some parishes, schools and congregations had more than one abuser at the same time [… one] had 11 abusers living and working there between 1964 and 2004.
4-“One deacon admitted to molesting over 100 children.
Disgusting… but this is the SAME organization that saw the alleged murder of a Pope in OUR life-time and the ‘related’ subsequent murder of their chief banking executive (cynically called God’s Banker) !
So I read these more recent matters with a cynic’s disgust as what’s new is old and what’s old is again brand new!
We have bank failures now … there was a big one in Italy when God lost his banker to murder too, not so. etc etc.. The world shrugged and moved on.
Ahhh … there is a lot of retribution still to be paid – inside that thing we call the church and well outside (years of police brutality, govt terrorism etc) !!
I gone.
@Dee Word
We tend to have an attention deficit, propelled by the latest flavour of news, added to which as liberal minded as we have become. We are numb to these heinous acts perpetrated by the men of the cloth through the ages.
Pure evil.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canadian-Indian-residential-school-system