#NELSON_MANDELA laid bare the suffering world we have created
▻http://africasacountry.com/nelson-mandela-laid-bare-the-suffering-world-we-have-created
June 16 is a national holiday in South Africa – Youth Day, commemorating the June 16, 1976 #Soweto student uprising and those who lost their lives in the violence that followed. This year, June 16 was also Father’s Day. In the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands it was a bright, sunny day, lit in dramatic relief by a […]
Vatican offers ’time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets | World news | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/16/vatican-indulgences-pope-francis-tweets
Vatican offers ’time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets
Papal court handling pardons for sins says contrite Catholics may win ’indulgences’ by following World Youth Day on Twitter
In its latest attempt to keep up with the times the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering “indulgences” to followers of Pope Francis’ tweets.
The church’s granted indulgences reduce the time Catholics believe they will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins.
The remissions got a bad name in the Middle Ages because unscrupulous churchmen sold them for large sums of money. But now indulgences are being applied to the 21st century.
Des superpouvoirs un peu pourris // The Vatican’s World Youth Day Offers Forgiveness ’Special’ for Young People Who Confess to Having Abortions | Death and Taxes
►http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/132334/the-vaticans-world-youth-day-offers-forgiveness-special-for-young-
The Vatican’s World Youth Day in Madrid is offering a salvation special this year. In addition to the usual fare of processions, communions, a sermon from Pope Benedict XVI and group prayers, this year the Catholic Church is offering “special” forgiveness for anyone who confesses to having had an abortion.
As pointed out by the Guardian yesterday, abortion is usually a sin that the church punishes by excommunication.
“Normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power,” said the pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.