Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Proofs that the Catholic Church forbids its priest to marry



FIRST PROOF: The First Lateran Council (1123),


Canon 21: We absolutely forbid priests, deacons, subdeacons, and monks to have
concubines or to "contract marriage"

"The Law of Celibacy Confirmed

14. Hence We consider that the present law of celibacy should today continue to be linked to the ecclesiastical ministry.

SACERDOTALIS CAELIBATUS
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI
ON THE CELIBACY OF THE PRIEST
JUNE 24, 1967

SECOND PROOF: In the official Catechism of the Catholic Church (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, copyright 1994, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA) on page 395 under #1580, speaking in the context of "priests" it states:

In the East as in the West a man who has already received the sacrament of Holy Orders can no longer marry.

It is well known that both priests and nuns are forbidden to marry.


So Catholic defenders' statements that the Catholic Church is not forbidding their priests to marry is really a lie when they say this when preaching the Church's teaching apologetics to their fellow Catholics and defending their faith against anti Catholics online or in personal.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Quran's compliment on Christians



QURAN'S COMPLIMENT ON CHRISTIANS:

Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians": because amongst these are men DEVOTED TO LEARNING and men who have renounced the world, and THEY ARE NOT ARROGANT. (5:82)

And when they listen to the revelation received by the Apostle, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears, for THEY RECOGNISE THE TRUTH: they pray: "Our Lord! we believe write us down among the witnesses. (5:83)

"What cause can we have not to believe in God and the truth which has come to us, seeing that we long for our Lord to admit us to the COMPANY OF THE RIGHTEOUS?" (5:84)

Islam teaches that a woman is worth less than a man





HERE ARE THE PIECES OF EVIDENCE FROM QURAN AND HADITHS:


Qur'an (4:11) - (Inheritance) "The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females" (see also verse 4:176).

Qur'an (2:282) - (Court testimony) "And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not found then a man and two women."  Muslim apologists have sometimes creatively tried to explain why a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man's under Islamic law (based on this verse) while still attempting to maintain the semblance of equality.  Unfortunately for them, studies consistently show that women are less likely to tell lies than men, meaning that they would make more reliable witnesses in any court - were it not for Islam's obvious sexism.

Qur'an (2:228) - "and the men are a degree above them [women]"

Qur'an (5:6) - "And if ye are unclean, purify yourselves. And if ye are sick or on a journey, or one of you cometh from the closet, or ye have had contact with women, and ye find not water, then go to clean, high ground and rub your faces and your hands with some of it"  Men are to rub dirt on their hands if there is no water to purify them following casual contact with a woman (such as shaking hands).

Qur'an (24:31) - Women are to lower their gaze around men, so they do not look them in the eye.  (To be fair, men are told to do the same thing in the prior verse).

Qur'an (2:223) - "Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will..."  A man has dominion over his wives' bodies as he does his land.  This verse is overtly sexual.  There is some dispute as to whether it is referring to the practice of anal intercourse, which it has been used historically to justify.  If this is what Muhammad meant, however, then it would appear to contradict what he said in Muslim (8:3365).

Qur'an (4:3) - (Wife-to-husband ratio) "Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four"

Qur'an (53:27) - "Those who believe not in the Hereafter, name the angels with female names."  Angels are sublime beings, and would therefore be male.

Qur'an (4:24) and Qur'an (33:50) -  A man is permitted to take women as sex slaves outside of marriage.  Note that the verse distinguishes wives from captives (those whom they right hand possesses).

From the Hadith:


Bukhari (6:301) - "[Muhammad] said, 'Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?'  They replied in the affirmative.  He said, 'This is the deficiency in her intelligence.'"

Bukhari (6:301) - continued - "[Muhammad said] 'Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?' The women replied in the affirmative. He said, 'This is the deficiency in her religion.'"  Allah has made women deficient in the practice of their religion as well, by giving them menstrual cycles.

Bukhari (2:28) - Women comprise the majority of Hell's occupants.  This is important because the only women in heaven ever mentioned by Muhammad are the virgins who serve the sexual desires of men.  (A weak Hadith, Kanz al-`ummal, 22:10, even suggests that 99% of women go to Hell).

Bukhari (62:81) - "The Prophet said: "'The stipulations most entitled to be abided by are those with which you are given the right to enjoy the (women's) private parts (i.e. the stipulations of the marriage contract).'"  In other words, the most important thing that a woman brings to a marriage is between her legs.

Bukhari (62:58) - A woman presents herself in marriage to Muhammad, but he does not find her attractive, so he "donates" her on the spot to another man.

Muslim (4:1039) - "A'isha said [to Muhammad]: 'You have made us equal to the dogs and the asses'"

Abu Dawud (2:704) - "...the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: When one of you prays without a sutrah, a dog, an ass, a pig, a Jew, a Magian, and a woman cut off his prayer, but it will suffice if they pass in front of him at a distance of over a stone's throw."

Abu Dawud (2155) - Women are compared to slaves and camels with regard to the "evil" in them.

Ishaq 593 - "As for Ali, he said, 'Women are plentiful, and you can easily change one for another.'" Ali was raised as a son by Muhammad.  He was also the 4th caliph.  This comment was made in Muhammad's presence without a word of rebuke from him.

Ishaq 593 - "From the captives of Hunayn, Allah's Messenger gave [his son-in-law] Ali a slave girl called Baytab and he gave [future Caliph] Uthman a slave girl called Zaynab and [future Caliph] Umar another." - Even in this world, Muhammad treated women like party favors, handing out slave girls to his cronies for sex.

Tabari VIII:117 - The fate of more captured farm wives, whom the Muslims distributed amongst themselves as sex slaves: "Dihyah had asked the Messenger for Safiyah when the Prophet chose her for himself... the Apostle traded for Safiyah by giving Dihyah her two cousins. The women of Khaybar were distributed among the Muslims."

Tabari IX:137 - "Allah granted Rayhana of the Qurayza to Muhammad as booty."

Ishaq 969 - "Men were to lay injunctions on women lightly, for they were prisoners of men and had no control over their persons." - This same text also justifies beating women for flirting.

Tabari Vol 9, Number 1754 - "Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves."  From Muhammad's 'Farewell Sermon'.

Additional Notes:

The fourth Caliph, who was Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, said just a few years after the prophet's death that "The entire woman is an evil. And what is worse is that it is a necessary evil."

A traditional Islamic saying is that, "A woman's heaven is beneath her husband's feet."

The revered Islamic scholar, al-Ghazali, who has been called 'the greatest Muslim after Muhammad,' writes that the role of a Muslim woman is to "stay at home and get on with her sewing.  She should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbors and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband... and seek to satisfy him in everything... Her sole worry should be her virtue... She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband's sexual needs at any moment." [as quoted from Ibn Warraq]

A Yemeni cleric recently explained in a television broadcast what it is that makes women inferior and unable, say, to serve as good witnesses: "Women are subject to menstruation, when their endurance and mental capacity for concentration are diminished. When a woman witnesses a killing or an accident, she becomes frightened, moves away, and sometimes even faints, and she cannot even watch the incident."

The many opportunities denied women under Islamic law, from giving equal testimony in court to having the right to exclude other wives from their marital bed, is very clear proof that women are of lesser value then men in Islam.  Muslim women are not even free to marry outside the faith without being killed by their own families.

Islamic law also specifies that when a woman is murdered by a man, her family is owed only half as much "blood money" as they would be if she had been a man.

Although a man retains custody of his children in the event of his wife's death, a non-Muslim woman will automatically lose custody of her children in the event of her husband's death unless she converts to Islam or marries a male relative of within his family.  Even the rights of Muslim mothers are subordinate to her husband's family.

Contemporary Muslims like to counter that Arabs treated women as camels prior to Muhammad. This is somewhat questionable, given that Muhammad's first wife was a wealthy woman who owned property and ran a successful business prior to ever meeting him.  She was even his boss... (although we're sure that changed after the marriage).  Still, it is somewhat telling that Islam's treatment of women can only be defended by contrasting it to an extremely primitive environment in which women were supposedly non-entities.

Homa Darabi was a talented physician who took her own life by setting herself on fire in public protest of the oppression of women in Islamic Iran.  She did this after a 16-year-old girl was shot to death for wearing lipstick.  In the book, Why We Left Islam, her sister include a direct quote from one of the country's leading clerics:

"The specific task of women in this society is to marry and bear children.  They will be discouraged from entering legislative, judicial, or whatever careers which may require decision-making, as women lack the intellectual ability and discerning judgment required for these careers."

At best, Islam elevates the status of a woman to somewhere between that of a camel and a man.

The immutable, ever-relevant Qur'an explicitly permits women to be kept as sex slaves, and this is hardly something in which Muslims can take pride. 

Compare this to this teaching of Apostle Paul whom the Muslims hate very much of all the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ:



Ephesians 5:28-29  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

Compare this also to the teaching of one of Jesus' original 12 disciples:

1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel,

CA throws out suit filed by ABS-CBN vs Eli Soriano



SOURCE: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110409met3.html


By Benjamin B. Pulta
 
04/09/2011


The Court of Appeals (CA) has thrown out a suit for damages filed by the Lopez-controlled ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. against “Ang Dating Daan” television evangelist Eliseo “Eli” Soriano.
In an 11-page decision by Associate Justice Vicente Veloso, the CA Special 6th Division reversed and set aside the ruling of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) against Soriano.

Associate Justices Francisco Acosta and Ramon Cruz both concurred with the decision.
The QC court ordered Soriano and the Bayan ng Katotohanan Inc. to pay P100,000 to defendants Patrick Paez, Epoy Fuduranan, Luchi Cruz-Valdes and Abigail Apostol, then officials of ABS-CBN news and current affairs.

The appellate court’s ruling pointed out that the lower court did not justify why Soriano and his religious group should be compelled to litigate and incur expenses to the defendants.

“Current jurisprudence instructs that in awarding attorney’s fees, the trial court must state the factual, legal or equitable justification for awarding the same, bearing in mind that the award of attorney’s fees is the exception, not the general rule, and it is not sound public policy to place a penalty on the right to litigate; nor should attorney’s fee be awarded every time a party wins a lawsuit,” the appellate court said.

The ruling added “while Article 2208 (of the Civil Code) allows attorney’s fees to be awarded the claimant is compelled to litigate with third persons or to incur expenses to protect his interest by reason of an unjustified act or omission of the party from whom it is sought, there must be a showing that the losing party acted willfully or in bad faith and practically compelled the claimant to litigate and incur litigation expenses.”

Soriano stated in his petition that he filed the case to protect their reputation and that they honestly believed that the filing of the case was the only legal way to prevent defendants from maligning their reputation.

The lower court earlier had stopped the airing of the Special Assignment, particularly the “Mga Kwentong Komiks ni Bro. Eli” episode.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Pagan origin of Catholic clergy celibacy



The doctrine of celibacy has no biblical basis. in truth, it is against Christian doctrine to forbid one to marry and to abstain from eating meats. And so this begs the question: What is the origin of the doctrine of priestly celibacy?

Pagan religions of the ancient Mediterranean

In the great pagan religions of the ancient Mediterranean, celibacy was practiced in various contexts. In Rome the institution of the Vestal Virgins, who were required to remain celibate for at least the 30 years of their service, indicates that celibacy was a very ancient aspect of Roman religion. As Classical civilization developed, two ideals of masculine celibacy appeared, that of the ascetic philosopher and that of the priest of the mystery religions. The Pythagoreans are an excellent example of the former. Pythagoras (c. 580 bc–c. 500) established a small community that emphasized study, vegetarianism, and sexual restraint or abstinence.

Many later philosophers believed that celibacy is conducive to the detachment and equilibrium required by the philosopher’s calling. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus (ad 55–c. 135) for example, held that the
ideal teacher would be unmarried and that his task would require freedom from the cares of family life. (my comment: The same of the Catholic priests)

A different mood was set by the celibate priests of the mysteries. Celibacy was especially characteristic of priest-devotees of the Great Mother cults. The well-organized priesthood of the religion of Isis, for example, represented a serene sacerdotalism; sexual abstinence was an absolute requirement of those who celebrated her holy mysteries. In many other cults—e.g., Manichaeism, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism—an inner circle of worshipers was required to observe strict continence. The philosophical and religious ideals of celibacy in the Classical world strongly influenced subsequent practices of celibacy and monasticism in Christianity.

source: http://www.britannica.com

The law of clerical celibacy practiced by other religions is solely based on pagan religions and is therefore not Christian.

The Law of Celibacy Confirmed

14. Hence We consider that the present law of celibacy should today continue to be linked to the ecclesiastical ministry.

SACERDOTALIS CAELIBATUS
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI
ON THE CELIBACY OF THE PRIEST
JUNE 24, 1967

"
and

"Canon 277 - Clerics are obliged to observe perpetural continence (control of sexual desires) and are bound to celibacy."

In the Bible, Even during Moses' time, a priest can marry:

Leviticus 21:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them 

Leviticus 21:13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity.

In fact, Apostle Paul taught celibacy not to restrict Christians from marrying.

1 Corinthians 7:35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. (New International Version)

besides, you cant find in the New Testament Bible that a single priest who married should be removed from priesthood.

The Christian celibacy is just a suggestion but not a law that it violated is there is a punishment of removal from priesthood or nunnery.
It is God's order not to imitate the ways of pagan nations:

Jeremiah 10:1 Hear what the Lord says to you, O house of Israel. 

Jeremiah 10:2 This is what the Lord says:

Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them. (New International Version)

Proofs that Catholic Church is falsifying documents


St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Rome. The Pope's residence and Catholic Church's main HQ in this sinful world.

Read: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06135b.htm

Instances might be given of officials of the Roman Curia who suffered death for such forgeries. Domenico of Viterbo and Francesco Maldente were tried and executed for this crime in 1489. They had forged, among other documents, among other documents, a Bull authorizing the priests of Norway to celebrate Mass without wine (Benedict XIV, "De Beatif.", II, c. XXXII, n. 2; Pastor, "History of the Popes", tr. V, 351).

Notice this readers,  "They had forged, among other documents, among other documents, a Bull authorizing the priests of Norway"



The official status of this letter is acknowledged in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, entry on Donation of Constantine, page 120:

"The first pope who used it in an official act and relied upon it, was Leo IX; in a letter of 1054 to Michael Cærularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, he cites the "Donatio" to show that the Holy See possessed both an earthly and a heavenly imperium, the royal priesthood."

Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Isidore

Pseudo-Isidore is the pseudonym given to the scholar or group of scholars responsible for the Pseudo-Isidorean (False) Decretals, the most extensive and influential set of forgeries found in medieval Canon law. The authors were a group of Frankish clerics writing in the second quarter of the ninth century under the pseudonym Isidore Mercator.

Comparing Islam and Christianity on dealing with apostates



The Quran teaches:

They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): So take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of God (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks;- (4:89)


The Bible teaches:

1 Timothy 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. (for the renegade apostates)

2 Timothy 1:15 This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:

2 Timothy 1:17 But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.

2 Timothy 1:18 The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

(For an ex Christian who is not a renegade and instead did good to a Christian)

Apostle Saint Paul prayed over to an apostate who is not a renegade that someday God will have mercy on him on the Judgment Day.