#Catholic Conspiracy

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1641 – Rory O’More, Lord Maguire and Sir Pheilim O’Neill initiate a major revolt in Armagh.

The Irish Uprising of 1641 was a long-term result of the “plantation” policy of Tudor and Stuart monarchs under which Ireland was aggressively colonised by Protestant settlers from England and Scotland. From the mid-16th century, Irish landowners were dispossessed to make way for the settlers and a vicious cycle developed whereby rebellion against the English government was followed by further…

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I lived in a narrowly pre-apocalyptic America that existed in a state of Cold War-type political tension, and Roman Catholic nuns were held in general suspicion of involvement with Soviet conspiracies.

[mysharona1987]

I will give the Catholic Church some shit, and deservedly so, but they likely gave the coordinates to the IDF to protect the Christians and nuns there involved. You know, avoid them.

Not that it makes what is happening to innocent Muslims any better. But they probably did think: “Hey, at least they won’t go after actual nuns.”

Then this happened.

And now we are about to hear Idf members claim elderly nuns were Hamas members and a threat to them.

Because 87 year old Sister Mary Agnes knows how to handle an assault weapon and fight like John Wick all of a sudden.

[agentnico]

Conclave (2024) review

This Pope is dope!

Plot: Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with one of the world's most secretive and ancient events - leading the selection of a new pope. Surrounded by powerful religious leaders in the halls of the Vatican, he soon uncovers a trail of deep secrets that could shake the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.

Since his stellar 2022 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front that bagged him a Best International Feature Academy Award, Edward Berger showcased himself as a director to keep an eye out for. I did not expect him to be back so quickly, yet here we are with Conclave, and goodness we he may have yet another awards contender on his hands. This movie is all about lies, deception, manipulation and strategy, all encapsulated in this global scale game of chess. From the offset one may question how interesting a movie about a bunch of cardinals picking the next Pope could be. Like it’s just a bunch of men in red caps sitting and talking. But believe me this is far from a boring tale, as Berger manages to turn this intimate and supposedly-holy ritual into a thrilling and tense experience that echoes the scheming, backstabbing nature and intrigue of something like Game of Thrones whilst also feeling strikingly relevant. I’m not saying this thing is full of sex and blood, but truly this movie about priests gossiping is extremely entertaining and engaging. Whenever the ballot result was being announced after every vote, I’m not going to lie, and I hate using this term, I was at the edge of my seat, wondering who the next front runner was.

Part of me wishes this took a Death of Stalin approach with all these cardinals trying to one up each other to get to the top, as there is so much comedy potential in that. However this movie plays it mostly straight, yet it does still manage to find some humour in the interactions, with especially one of the most diabolical vape hits of all time, and I don’t just mean in cinema history. Truly though this is a really well made piece of drama, and also fantastically shot, as Berger and his crew manage to turn the Vatican into a highly cinematic location, with even a small behind-the-scene auditorium darkened in a way that only the red of the cardinals clothing and the turquoise blue seats are highlighted, which I must say was a phenomenal minimalistic approach. Also a bird’s eye sequence of the cardinals holding white umbrellas and walking past a fountain - chef’s kiss! Huge shout out to Volker Bertelmann’s music score, as even though I think his work on All Quiet on the Western Front was overrated and dull, here his style works much better, with his score dominating a specific sound made by a string chamber orchestra, that mirrored the movie’s constant theme of being “stuck”.

With this cast you already expected high class performances, but truly they are great. Elegant, crafty, poised, but never shy of getting emotional when needed, Ralph Fiennes abilities of balance continue to impress me with how he invests in making a good character. It’s a reserved yet powerful performance. Stanley Tucci goes a bit more theatrical, his character the voice of the "liberal" side as his aggressions and passions are artfully delivered in a manner fit for the stage to offset Fiennes' calmer tones. John Lithgow is almost a mix of the two extremes, holding his usual support role that keeps so many of the leading sides held and providing perhaps most of the engaging mystery element in the search for the truth. Isabella Rossellini is unfortunately a tad under-used, though she does get one scene to deliver that powerful note that the Oscars would love to reference should she be nominated. Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto and Carlos Diehz also make notable turns as the other contenders for the Pope role, all of whom get their moments to shine.

In my eyes Conclave is a stunning piece of work. It manages to take what one would assume as such a simple premise, yet manages to entangle it with so many threads of twists and turns, as such turning a political and religious drama into a true mystery thriller, with Fiennes character acting more so as a detective rather than a leader of the conclave. Partner that with the great acting, sublime cinematography and a slow but engaging pace with a script filled with wit and realism, and we have ourselves one hell of a motion picture!

Overall score: 8/10

[boygirlctommy]

hate having a genuine interest in christianity bcus there is No One in my life i can discuss it with. i sound too atheist to talk w religious people and too religious for the athiests lol

[quarterqueens]

it's sexier if there are bones and officially the bones are there but i do not think that there are bones

[thetwiddler]

[swallowtail-ageha]

Lukewarm take but hating Luce for the missionary rosary thing is extremely valid what i dont get are people fear mongering and saying "its a catholic psyop to indoctrinate the youth by using kawaii aesthetic!!!" because yes, of fucking course the catholic church, in crisis with the youth, will try to find a way to appeal to them, its literally how organized religions work for god's sake

[neoninky]

I’m still zonked out from yesterday….and today was absolutely hellacious 💀

but I wanted to share this song I discovered earlier as I was scrolling through various creepy pasta videos and the like (Halloween may be over but my love for eerie shit never ends 😂)

The band is called Dread Majesty and they just dropped this song, their very first song today. It’s called All The Saints are Dead and it checks so many damn boxes for me personally oof

First of all, I seriously dig their aesthetic but if you love gothic style, music, black metal, heavy music in general - or if you’re like me and love epic cathedral opera metal types of music - definitely check these guys out. I’m really excited to hear more from them down the road!

You can also look up this song on Spotify 🎶

~Speaking of grandeous cathedral-esqe majesty-

HSR 2.6 was a blast and I’m super excited that we revisited the fever dream that is Penacony. As cool of a character Rappa is no I still haven’t gotten her I’m actually really excited to see Mr. Catholic Guilt himself, Sunday 😂

His arc and boss battle were amazing. I wish the game let you go back and replay parts of the story because the whole of Penacony is my favorite so far. Either way, I hope he shows up when I pull on his banner but either way, I’m very curious where his story goes next if anywhere.

All this rambling to say: today kinda sucked the bone marrow outta my soul but I am very excited for the future of creative storytelling in music, videogames, and just in my media hyper fixations in general 🤌✨

[downintheseine]

tonight's family reunion in a nutshell

my father: hi hello is everyone aware that my mother's dying

my brother: have y'all heard about the old woman who hanged herself from the balcony? here's the picture

my uncle: oh her neck probably snapped right away, she didn't even suffocate. i had an uncle who was in auschwitz for two years. he got alzheimer, made a nice little stool with the right measurements and hanged himself.

[sforzesco]

"when you marry off a son to the church, they're married to god's vicar on earth" lives rent free in my mind now, thank you very much! also, can't stop thinking of rodrigo borgia and giuliano della rovere as a bickering divorced couple, and it's too kinda your fault -_-

absolutely CACKLING at the idea of rodrigo and giuliano as a divorced couple because I've always envisioned them as two different types of monsters that despised each other and were intent on eating the other along with anyone else that got in their way, with giuliano coming out of that war winning. and it wasn't enough to get the throne (the papacy), he also kicked cesare to the curb after luring him back in. we love to see it! you can't buy that kind of hate off the shelves, you have to curate it and let it fester like an open wound! an absolute masterclass in driving in one final nail into the coffin of a family you despise. (there's a kind of dynastic rivalry subtext in regards to inheritance etc, between these two that makes them incompatible with the divorced framework to me. it's more of a eat or be eaten, destroy the pretender to the throne, etc etc in my mind)

ascanio sforza and giuliano della rovere on the other hand. they have an adjacent kind of divorced energy, to me. those two were rivals for so long (ascanio kneecapping della rovere by backing rodrigo in the papal elections, and it escalating from there), and only came together in the end (della rovere visiting ascanio every day on summer for conversation, hello??), and even then: that came with a hefty side of deeply unbalanced power dynamics of the julius caesar-clemency variety (fun fact! when giuliano della rovere became pope, he took on the name julius II in reference to julius caesar!)

wait--- you want to know who's literally divorced, though? ascanio and rodrigo. ascanio was one of the major players in setting up the lucrezia borgia-giovanni sforza marriage, and that annulment had implications, especially with how rodrigo kept trying to shut ascanio out of vatican politics. that didn't stop them from sharing the pastime of gambling together, though.

[bigmeansweatydyke]

the long-ago aforementioned cool bi girl turned wannabe cathtradwife friend is currently getting flamed on facebook by friend and acquaintances. karma's a bitch ya shoulda known betta

[lemonduckisnowawake]

To be honest, horror stuff always gets cheapened and cringe when they add Christianity into it. Like, my man, you do not need to give me some idiotic afterlife theology loosely based in Christian mythos and ruin the decent scares you had going there.

[soliusss]

Cleaned out my YouTube subscription box and I need more YouTubers to try out. I like indie horror lets players (current favorite is John wolfe) and video essayers (Mina le, shanespeare, ro ramdin) the best. If anyone has recommendations let me know

[hamstringy]

I NEED a complete box set of the locked tomb once it is available so that I can finally annotate the FUCK out of this series and understand what tamuir is referencing

[momentsbeforemass]

I don’t know

“I don’t know.”

Whether it’s someone else asking us questions. Or it’s just us, struggling with something we don’t understand.

There’s something in us that craves certainty, that wants an explanation. That desperately wants the emotional payoff of knowing.

That’s why “I don’t know” is one of the hardest answers to give. And an even harder answer to live with.

If you’ve ever wondered why good, kind, thoughtful people fall for conspiracy theories? Why some people make stuff up and then believe their own made-up stuff?

Letting their desire to know run away with them is a big part of it.

It’s also one of the big reasons that waiting on the Lord is so hard.

The thing is reality – including God, the ultimate reality – is full of seasons where we can’t see what’s happening. And yet, something is happening.

This is what today’s Gospel is pointing to, when it says, “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.”

When it comes to seeds, we all know that there’s a time after you plant it that nothing appears to be happening. At least nothing we can see. But if we could see it, we would see a lot of things going on.

We would see the seed bursting its shell, sending out roots, gathering strength. Building the foundation that it needs to support the plant that you and I will see when it breaks through the surface.

If we can stand waiting on the seed, we’ll get the payoff of what we planted. In the seed’s good time. Not ours.

But if we keep digging it up to check on its progress? It’ll never happen.

So it is with a lot of things in life. Especially God.

Just because we can’t see what God’s doing right now doesn’t mean that it’s not happening.

The hard part for you and me? Getting over our need to know exactly what’s happening. Learning to trust God. Which is what waiting on the Lord is all about.

Today, ask God for the grace to not have to know everything. Ask God for the grace to avoid jumping to conclusions while you’re waiting.

Trust that God will take care of all of it.

Receive God’s best. In God’s good time.

Because the best things in life are worth waiting for.

Today’s Readings