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Vatican’s secret, and deadly, project to preserve its saints
New York Post ^ | 03/22/2014 | Theresa Potenza

Posted on 03/23/2014 7:49:27 PM PDT by Alex Murphy

The Catholic belief of “incorruptibility” holds that if a body does not decay after death, the person is holy. It takes two miracles to become a saint; the Church once allowed a perfect corpse to count as one.

Incorruptibility is no longer a miracle, however, perhaps because so many tried to help God along. Oil and herbs were inserted into the muscle cavities of some older popes, for instance.

When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, the Vatican used a wrapping technique similar to what was believed to have been applied to Jesus. It failed miserably. Only days after his death, his nose fell off, and a Swiss Guard fainted due to the stench while he was guarding the body.

[SNIP]

In 2000, Pope John Paul II had [Pope John XXIII] exhumed to be declared “blessed,” part of the progression to sainthood. The airtight coffin had left him virtually undisturbed, and the embalming team wanted to keep it that way.

After the pope’s internal organs were removed and analyzed, the body was placed in a stainless-steel tub for several weeks in a solution of formalin and alcohol, then neutralized for several weeks.

His body then undertook a series of baths in assorted solutions for months at a time, including various mixtures of ethanol, methanol, phenol, camphor, nitrobenzene, turpentine and benzoic acid.

Finally the body was bandaged in linen cloths saturated with a solution of mercury bichloride and ethanol. Then a second team ensconced him with wax on his face and hands. The entire process took about a year.

The Church decided not to rebury Pope John XXIII, instead putting him on display for pilgrims. More than 25,000 people visit St. Peter’s Basilica every day, and many faithful still believe the incorrupt state of his body is a miracle.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Ministry/Outreach; Worship
KEYWORDS: catholic; incorruptibility; moacb; relics
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To: WXRGina
"Really? Other than the prophecies of Jesus' body not seeing corruption and him not being left in death, where is that written in the Bible? I would like to know.

We are told in John's Gospel that Lazarus was in the grave for 4 days, at which time there would have been "a stench". However, Jesus managed to restore not only his life, but reversed the decaying process that had already taken place. I don't see God being limited in any way, do you?

21 posted on 03/23/2014 8:26:49 PM PDT by fidelis (Zonie and USAF Cold Warrior)
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To: fidelis

No, I don’t see God being limited, because He’s not, but I see what’s being talked about on this thread in regard to catholicism as nothing more than unbiblical suppositions.


22 posted on 03/23/2014 8:31:00 PM PDT by WXRGina (The Founding Fathers would be shooting by now.)
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To: HangnJudge
Being Catholic: Sacred Things, Relics and the Incorruptibles
23 posted on 03/23/2014 8:32:21 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: fidelis; HangnJudge

Necromancy is when someone tries to contact the dead to gain information from them. That is what Saul did. A saint’s body found to be be incorruptible is nothing like necromancy.


What’s described in this article is more like Necrophilia.


24 posted on 03/23/2014 8:33:51 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: fidelis
This article seems focused primarily
on the ones that aren't authentically incorruptible
and which, if these accounts are accurate,
cannot be condoned.

Accepted

I despise magical thinking,
it is a breach of Reason and Logic
and worse, deliberate attempts of illusions,
to cause same

The Vatican is in no way alone in this
The Protestants can be quite as guilty
As are a wide array of institutions
Deliberate attempts to corrupt clear thought are EVERYWHERE

25 posted on 03/23/2014 8:33:55 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: steve8714; HangnJudge
I was never taught this as a doctrine of the Church, through 13 years of Catholic education.

During Catechism I was taught that the bodies of Saints were often uncorrupted after death and smelled of flowers.

I converted to Christianity.

26 posted on 03/23/2014 8:36:15 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: fidelis
The Church does not claim that ALL those who lived saintly lives will be incorruptible. It only happens to a few, apparently at God's discretion.

But according to the practices called out in the article, the church doesn't wait for God's discretion before they start soaking and shellacking and wax-coating their deceased. I'm honestly surprised that Tupperware didn't rate a mention. It works on almost anything!


27 posted on 03/23/2014 8:38:15 PM PDT by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: Alex Murphy

The Vatican is cool; since it can do what ever is warranted- “by the blood of Jesus, and his mommy,” to justify every known act of lower human nature in the supposed chair priests of Peter. This improbable throne is unknown to God, Son and Holy Spirit. Hey, get holy, get right and stop lying to yourselves.


28 posted on 03/23/2014 8:49:42 PM PDT by RedHeeler
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: logitech

There is not one scintilla of evidence or documentation in that article. Sanctity is based on heroic virtue not the stae of their body.


30 posted on 03/23/2014 9:17:50 PM PDT by amihow
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To: Alex Murphy
The Catholic belief of “incorruptibility” holds that if a body does not decay after death, the person is holy.

An idiot wrote this.

There is no "Catholic belief" of incorruptibility. It's a miracle that is sometimes observed in the bodies of people of great sanctity. (The Orthodox have observed the same miracle in some cases, BTW.)

Many very great saints were not incorrupt after death. St. Therese of Liseux even laughed at the idea when someone suggested to her during her life that her body might be incorrupt after death (it wasn't).

So incorruption is hardly a sine qua non of sanctity. If achieved by means that can be explained either by nature or chemistry, it's not a sign of sanctity, either.

At some point, idiocy like this in the press passes beyond the stage of sweetly innocent ignorance into an organized, deliberate effort to paint Catholics as dangerous freaks. It begins to remind one of some of the anti-Semitic nonsense that circulated around Europe around the turn of the last century.

31 posted on 03/23/2014 9:18:13 PM PDT by Campion ("Social justice" begins in the womb)
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To: WXRGina

You think every miracle God has ever done, or ever will do, is recorded in Scripture? Seriously?


32 posted on 03/23/2014 9:19:33 PM PDT by Campion ("Social justice" begins in the womb)
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To: T bench

There is only God


33 posted on 03/23/2014 9:19:47 PM PDT by RedHeeler
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To: logitech

Thank you for demonstrating my point. You have learned exactly the lesson the lamestream media wanted you to learn. Congratulations.


34 posted on 03/23/2014 9:20:28 PM PDT by Campion ("Social justice" begins in the womb)
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To: Campion

What about the part about taking body parts, and even wearing them?

That seems pretty freaky to Americans.


35 posted on 03/23/2014 9:26:42 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Libertarianism offers the transitory concepts and dialogue to move from conservatism, to liberalism)
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To: Alex Murphy

Just another “lying wonder” of popery. Anyone who believes these ridiculous claims is under strong delusion.

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
—2 Thessalonians 2:9-12


36 posted on 03/23/2014 9:28:40 PM PDT by .45 Long Colt
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To: ansel12
Body parts? You want to talk "body parts" and "freaky to Americans"? Seriously?

Murdering 53 million children in cold blood for the sake of convenience, flushing their body parts down the sewer system and calling it a "constitutional right" seems way beyond "freaky" to Catholics. But that's the "America" you're defending as some sort of arbiter of what's "freaky," isn't it?

BTW, you also learned the lesson the lamestream media wanted you to learn. Congratulations.

37 posted on 03/23/2014 9:33:36 PM PDT by Campion ("Social justice" begins in the womb)
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To: WXRGina

You are correct, and I’m a saint!


38 posted on 03/23/2014 9:33:56 PM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: fidelis

We die, we get new bodies, who cares what happens to the old? This is beyond bizarre.


39 posted on 03/23/2014 9:35:24 PM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: Campion

Yeah, I’m wondering about the part where they take body parts, and even wear them.

What is that about?


40 posted on 03/23/2014 9:35:55 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Libertarianism offers the transitory concepts and dialogue to move from conservatism, to liberalism)
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