A Director's Journey to Life: Vatican City

Showing posts with label Vatican City. Show all posts

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Day 278: Pope Benedict XVI, flying off like a True Pilgrim

28th February 2013.

Pope Benedict XVI leaves the Vatican for Castel Gandolfo, the no less palatial Papal residence which is situated about 30 km from Rome and is part of the Vatican State -although not adjacent-, another one of the many Vatican owned properties that will host him as a scholar and a "pilgrim" in his post-papal times.

This is a temporary choice, once the refurbishment of the 4 storey nunnery behind St Peters will be finished, he will move there, it wasn't difficult to choose a place for him to stay being the Vatican is the 1st property owner in The World.

Given the enormous distance to cover, the Pope, understandably, used an helicopter to reach Castel Gandolfo, which is provided by the Italian State -free of charge- for him and the head of State for official missions, those carried out on behalf of the People, such as retiring from Papal duty to become a Pilgrim (?).

A Pilgrim??

The Pope will NOT be your usual retiree, "he will get 2,500 euros a month as pocket money even though the Vatican official spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said last week that the Pope would want for nothing.

"We will ensure he can live a dignified existence," he said.

It is unclear what Benedict might need to spend the money on. The former nunnery is a grace-and-favour residence inside the Vatican, and he will not have to pay rent.

His meals and daily living expenses will also be paid for by Vatican state finances, and cooking and cleaning will be done by a group of four women from a Catholic organization called "Memores Domini."

He will take his piano, his pets and personal belongings, he won't have access to the Fancy Closet he once cherished that gave him the title of 'Prada pope', but we can say his future is guaranteed, he will have nothing to worry about, unlike 1/3 of the world and growing who struggle to make ends meet and whose choices are limited by the amount of Money they have access to.

So, why does The Pope get to 'want for nothing' and the rest of the World is left wanting for the essential?

The fate of Benedict, once dubbed the "Prada Pope" for his taste in fine red loafers and haute-couture vestments, will be very different, although Church officials seem still themselves to be working out just what his new life in cloisters will be.

His initial departure from the grand papal apartments in the 16th-century Apostolic Palace, where he has spent eight years with a staff of clerical secretaries, including priests and nuns, a butler and other domestic staff, will be for the no less palatial surroundings of the historic summer residence of popes at Castel Gandolfo, on a lake in the hills south of Rome.

Strange timing about the Pope leaving and the documentary about Vatican Pedophiles cover up coming out in March, Mea Culpa, in the documentary they affirm that no one like the Pope knew better of the abuses of the church since he was in charge of the Child Abuse investigations prior to becoming Pope.

Strange as well that after all the secular cover ups of Child Molestations, he should have taken a stand against Cardinal Keith O'Brien to step down and NOT participate in the Conclave for the election of the next Pope, what was his fault after all, had he not followed the Church indications to deny, deny, deny?

And then for denying the anonymous allegation against him for sexual misconduct, because they were anonymous, not because they were not true, he was asked to step down, SHAME.

For the exit of the Pope in true Pilgrim style, the Vatican Inc. set up an elaborate display of power and pompousness,

"How do you invent a ritual for the pope leaving the Vatican and the pope leaving office? That's new for us. But it had to happen," said Rev. Jeremy Driscoll, a theologian at the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

the Swiss Army was lined up, everyone was wearing their Sunday attires and we made sure to imprint the new generations to come with this Idea, that the Vatican is the Holy See, the Holy Seat as we say in Italian, the seat of the power of God on Earth, A Special Place run by Special Men.

It's important to stick to the story, if we let it go, we would have to ask ourselves how did we accept and allow Famine and Poverty in the face of a Wealth and Abundance that could have fed the world.

Isn't it a big price to pay just to give up self responsibility?

Making the Vatican responsible for our Life and AfterLife and one of our excuses to not stand up for the Whole as One, a responsibility that they happily took together with the World's Wealth and Privileges that come to those who -apparently- are more important, more Value-able than others.

If we had not looked for excuses to our Creation, the Vatican wouldn't even exist, it stands and will stand as The Powerful Reminder that we can't have our cake and eat it, if we are the sinner we accept to be, just so we can continue sinning and don't have to change, we give up all our power to others to use it as they see fit, and look, they didn't see fit to take care of the world, yes, just like us, what a wake up call, isn't it?

The Vatican has been closed for 3 days, sealed, there was no Angelus this Sunday, everyone still alive? YES, it made no difference whatsoever if not to the Vatican shops that have not been able to sell their souvenirs, nothing of value is coming from the Vatican or it has ever come from there, look around, the world's devolution is Here for everyone to see.

The words of Jesus don't live in the Vatican, they must be lived.

To give to another what we would like to receive would mean to make sure everyone has enough for a dignified life, dressing people in 'Alice in Wonderland's' clothes, doesn't make the World a Wonder-land, it should be clear by now, it does make it the Land of WONDER Why, we haven't taken care of each others and instead opted to keep in place a system that works just for few to the detriment of the many in fear of our Self responsibility and of facing our Creation for what it is, a place of Inequality and Disconnection that needs correction, Our Own Correction to realign to What is Best for All vs What is best for Me.

Many liked Jesus and saw that what he said was cool, we can make his Words live, As Us, standing for a system change that will benefit All Equally, giving as we would like to receive.

Stand for the Life of All @ EqualMoney, we don't need funny dressed Characters to remind us what we have to do, we know what we have to do, we need to 'Just Do It', making the "Here" Heaven on Earth for All instead of following promises of a happier AfterHere by those who live the happiest Here as Heaven on Earth just for themselves.

Join us, cast your vote for Life @ Equal Money.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Day 233: The Vatican - Moral Compass of This World? NOT.

I live in Italy. Not the one of the movies, where men follow you with a red rose in their pockets promising eternal love on a moonlight walk next to the sea as they invite you to 'Rodolfo's', the restaurant where everyone is nice and cute and bends over hills to give you the greatest experience of your life all the way to the amazing Tiramisu'.

I live in the other Italy, the epicentre of industries up in the north, where pollution is so grave some days that cars have to be stopped and run on alternate car plates, where immigration has reached levels so high that we have to invent structures to teach languages to those that came only with hopes for a better future, I live in an area with a high density of immigration too, where immigrants have opened so many little shops to try and survive that some days I think I am walking through Istanbul and not Milan.

I live in the country of the Vatican too, not the same same country, we share the land, the dust of the same peninsula, but the Vatican has its own state, it was given to them by Mussolini, to get them off the back of the Government, to make them leech somewhere else and off from the poor people of Italy, he dreamt that by confining them in a Ghetto, although ever so elegant, they would be limited to the damage they could do both to the characters of Italians and their lives.

While Mussolini managed to make many other of his socialist dreams come true, the reclamation of the land in the centre of Italy turning it from swamps to agricultural land, the railway station that connected north and south, the Fascist Saturday, to give half day off to the workers and the summer camps, to take the kids of the cities to the sea, to make them strong, such as a good Balilla -young fascist- should have been, exuding health and fortitude, and for that the state could guarantee the health by cleaning up the place, for the fortitude the Vatican had to go, the weakening of the population through bullshit rhetoric and useless fairy tales of Hope and the goodies awaiting after death would have to relent if not disappear, and he couldn't come up with any better solution than to confine them.

Having them travel in their costumes on a Show like Holiday on Ice did not occur to him, this can be excused as such shows did not yet exist at the time, ridding Italy for good from the Vatican seemed impossible, then and even now, it is the skin cancer of our country, it came from too much exposure to the Son/Sun as they kept worshipping Pagan Gods while they sold Jesus and the cross to everyone else, removing them would imply to cut off that circle of a mockery of a State and just sink it, we should never bestow on others what we have proved carried so little value for the price they charged, the very humanity of human beings.

One year ago, while we were going through a very cold spell in Italy and a post on Facebook had gone viral about opening the fucking churches at night for the homeless to sleep, I went on the Vatican site where I spent half an hour and found out there was NO way to contact them, no way on Earth I mean, maybe they just deal from Heaven down, the mere mortals are inconsequential for them and they don't want to be bothered with things they have no intention to address or solve, they are by no means stupid people, we have la creme de la creme of religious criminal in the Holy See, and they understand anyone asking anything means MONEY that they should spend, they understand as well that saying no is just bad rap, so they use prevention, as the best cure, they don't allow for asking.

The Pope receives only the Rich and Powerful for private hearings, do you know why?

Because those are safe bets, they have got the dough, they will just ask for the annulment of a marriage to start again clean, or for a blessing, or for an endorsement, ALL FREE stuff, and those are the people who are welcomed to the Vatican.

The Vatican is the religious branch of the IMF and the World Bank - or is the World Bank and IMF the Commercial arm of the Vatican, hard to tell in this confusing times- , none of them helps the poor, but while one is an Investment Fund and one is a Bank, the other is a State of Affairs, the Affairs of the Rich handled with the pennies of/for the Poor, one and the same.

There aren't other institutions in the world that represents best what we have become, useless creatures whose words have no meaning nor substance, no merit and whose hypocrisy can be seen in everything we do, we have secrets, the Vatican has secret archives, so do the IMF and the World Bank, we have lost our Moral Compass, the Vatican, the IMF and the World Bank never had one, we say all the right things and do all the wrong ones, just like them, we sing We are the World and then leave people hungry, homeless, at war, stranded at sea, jobless, and so do they, bar the IMF and the World Bank who don't even sing, basically, when you really look at their mission in life, they are all trying to make ends meet, just like us.

In the case of the Vatican, it's not their fault if their ends met about 500 years ago, if by then the meeting of all ends had been reached and widely surpassed to guarantee that they would all live happily ever after Here, not in the Afterlife, the existence of which is not certain to them either - and they don't bet on anything that is not giving a sure and safe return-, but they are sure about the existence of here, so sure that they don't even pile up merits like the Buddhist do, if there is a Hell, they are cueing up for it and planning to thoroughly enjoy it, didn't everyone always say the most interesting people will be found there?

At the highest levels, like in all Corporations, they lived amazing lives, they traveled in private jets, were hosted at 5 stars private residences, dined and drunk the best that is available on earth, no holds barred, foie gras, caviar, extinct species, you name it, they had access to it, and we won't go down to fancy sexual interplays, our history is full of tales of Popes and Bishops who fathered kids in compliance with their chastity vows -don't ask-, or child molestation, following the teaching of Jesus, let the children Cum to me, and they dress for the part too, furs, gold, fancy hats and cloaks, ivory.

And sometimes they have to be slooowed down, like now, as they were forced to let go of the support of Deutsche Bank for their card transaction within the Vatican walls, following the EU Money laundering Legislation, now everything is cash, waitaminute, isn't that weird?

Wouldn't you ask someone you are doubting of Money laundering to have ALL their transactions done by card, wouldn't that be The Way to go to have a Trace of the money being charged to 'thousands of tourists flocking there every day'.

But of course, Not, the Bankers must know better, for 15 years Deutsche Bank handled the card transaction of the Vatican without authorization. Those things happen, we have to understand the role of the Bank of Italy as a watchdog (hihi) and that they have plenty to do, with all of the issuing of our no-longer-Sovereign-Currency the issuing of which is now privatized like everywhere else in the world -just 2 countries left to go, you didn't know that ?- the currency and loans and calculating how to handle the flow of liquidity in the country for maximum damage, they should be excused for failing to notice that an Italian bank let's say an Italian based German Bank, who did not ask the authorization to process credit cards from a foreign country onto Italian territory could be in breach of the Law. Yes and it is an oversight that can go on for 15 years, what is strange about THAT?

Amazing as well that the Vatican says they have been fighting hard to comply with Money Laundering regulations but it's so difficult, they even hired a Swiss Banker for the position, yes because the Swiss Banking system is best reputed for their practices on prevention of Money laundering or unlawful anonymous deposits of cash by Dictators and is furthermore fully compliant with transparency, we just have to accept it's hard to catch those pests, who could tell when someone walks into a Bank with no documents and millions in cash inside a suitcase, the Real origin of the Money?

They could be selling sacred souvenirs for all we know, and Who are we to Judge in the House of the Lord?

So back to the breach in the Law, sorry, what Law? Ah yes, One they probably drafted just now to allow the Vatican to handle its operation in cash with a good excuse, such is the Power of Money.

And then, as all good PR demands, not only the Pope holds a speech about 'Righful Living' in which he highlights the 'dangers of homosexuality' -woo woo- but he says he is not afraid to tell the World how to behave, to shout about the Inequalities and the problems we face, while with his hand behind the white robe he signs deals with pornography distributors in Germany and buys Beretta (the no. 1 Italian weapons manufacturer) shares to become the biggest shareholder, because, after all, business is business, so go and do what I say, Don't Do what I Do, please.

The Vatican is a Corporation, they live above and beyond the Law, we can't do that yet, but we wish we could.

We wish we were in the position of all those rich and powerful that get away with murder, we wish to keep the poor in their place so we ca feel lucky for NOT being That Poor, we wish to live out our fantasies, our dreams, failing to see how far off the cliff we have let both the fantasies and the dreams go, believing that we could do just that, in the secret of our Minds where no one is watching.

But now, as we reach the end of time, as in all the Great Shows, All Masks come off to reveal who we really are, and crime rates go up, to mirror the true nature of ourselves, what we have harboured against each other and ourselves, our self loathing for this world that we came to create out of our disconnection from reality as ourselves, while we followed the pied piper of the imaginary lives we believed we could create for ourselves, so did the Vatican, but wait, they have done it better, grander, with more flair and with the uncanny ability of the Magicians, look over there-look over here, here is the Corpus Christi and here is Yours, crucified on the same cross by our own judgements, by our own inability to stop the suffering for all, realizing that this existence is Me, with all its flaws and I must correct myself to correct this existence, I must switch off the Vatican inside of me to switch it off outside of me, get back to common sense where I do have a Moral Compass that tells me that I must do to another what I would like done to me, and give to another what I would like to receive and I don't need a Pope to tell me this and when I realize it, the Pope is out of job and we can equalize the world to give to all those that need food and water and a place to live -so many churches to convert to housings, yeppe!-, so, if you have invested your Moral compass into the Vatican, take it back, they have made it clear they have no clue abut Morality, what ELSE should they do for us to drop All Hopes that they may be in any possible creative way a solution of some sort?

If they were after a solution they would have sold what they have, they would have given up their possessions to feed the poor, to uplift humanity, so far they did not and they won't either, but we can start with ourselves, isn't it great when -as Anna Frank said- you realize you don't have to wait another minute to start to change this world as Yourself? Join us

For support on how to walk our Self Correction back to Oneness and Equality check out Desteni

To Give to All what we would like to receive check Equal Money