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The Catholic Origins of Thanksgiving
The Catholic World REPORT ^

Posted on 11/24/2023 9:22:43 PM PST by moonhawk

Did you know that Thanksgiving is a Catholic holiday? True, it’s not on the Church calendar. And it is celebrated only in America, whereas Church holidays are universal.

(snip)

But any time a nation does anything in unison that involves families getting together and counting their blessings, it is a good thing. “Thanks,” says G.K. Chesterton, “is the highest form of thought.” And he mentions the fact that the worst moment for an atheist is when he is thankful and suddenly realizes he has no one to thank.

(snip)

What most people believe is a variation on what I was taught in public school in the 1960s. The Pilgrims came to Plymouth on a ship called the Mayflower. They were the first English settlers in America. They came for religious freedom. And they had a big feast with Indians, and that was the first Thanksgiving. That about sums it up. And that is what Chesterton calls “The Myth of the Mayflower.”

First of all, they were not known as “pilgrims” till about 200 years afterwards. They were Puritans, a radical Anglican “low church” sect that loathed the “high church” Anglicans that happened to include the King of England. In fact, about 30 years after the Puritans arrived in America, some of their fellow Puritans back in England arranged for King Charles I to have his head chopped off.

(snip)

The Puritans who came to Plymouth in 1620 almost didn’t survive. Half the settlers died the first winter. They were saved by a Native American named Squanto, who taught them how to hunt and fish and grow corn.

But here’s what is really interesting: Squanto was a Roman Catholic.

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


TOPICS: General Discusssion; History; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: church; history; thanksgiving
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I wish I had seen this before yesterday to post it, but this is a four day weekend, so....
1 posted on 11/24/2023 9:22:43 PM PST by moonhawk
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To: moonhawk; ebb tide

This may not be news to you, but it was a pleasant surprise to me.


2 posted on 11/24/2023 9:29:49 PM PST by moonhawk (Unleash the MAGAhideen!)
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To: moonhawk; Al Hitan; Fedora; irishjuggler; Jaded; kalee; markomalley; miele man; Mrs. Don-o; ...

Thanks!


3 posted on 11/24/2023 9:34:17 PM PST by ebb tide
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To: moonhawk

Was Squanto a baptized Catholic?
Hunt took Squanto to Spain to sell him as a slave. But some Franciscan friars saw what was happening and saved Squanto. The Franciscans taught Squanto the Catholic faith and he was apparently baptized.

Squanto the Catholic - Missionaries of the Holy Family
Missionaries of the Holy Family
https://msf-america.org › blog › 310-squanto-the-cath


4 posted on 11/24/2023 10:06:54 PM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: All
This story reminded me of a vignette in the autobiography of Oleg Cassini who designed Jackie's famous style......most memorably the elegant double satin white gown decorated by a single cocarde which she wore w/ a matching cape to the Inaugural Gala Ball in 1961. The dress was named one of the "50 Dresses that Changed the World" by the Design Museum in England.

Cassini told of a time in the WH when JFK told him he would never quote Thomas Jefferson in a presidential speech b/c Jefferson was anti-Catholic. The author of the Declaration of Independence, and a US President himself, unabashedly rejected the Trinity, Jesus's divinity as the Son of God, miracles, the Resurrection of Christ, atonement from sin, original sin and the Virgin birth.....all core Catholic beliefs.

5 posted on 11/24/2023 10:36:02 PM PST by Liz (Women have tremendous power — their femininity, because men can't do without it. Sidney Sheldon)
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To: Liz

Pretty common Enlightenment beliefs. Unfortunately.


6 posted on 11/24/2023 11:28:44 PM PST by nwrep
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To: moonhawk

ROFLMAO.

The Puritans who traveled in the Mayflower were far from being the first English people to colonize in North America, and “Squanto” didn’t have anything to do organizing with the so-called First Thanksgiving.

Reminds me of how the Bolsheviks used to claim they’d invented the light bulb, and the steam engine, and radio, and the flush toilet, and penicillin, and the airplane, and aluminum, and-and-and.


7 posted on 11/24/2023 11:53:31 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: Liz
Cassini told of a time in the WH when JFK told him he would never quote Thomas Jefferson in a presidential speech b/c Jefferson was anti-Catholic. The author of the Declaration of Independence, and a US President himself, unabashedly rejected the Trinity, Jesus's divinity as the Son of God, miracles, the Resurrection of Christ, atonement from sin, original sin and the Virgin birth.....all core Catholic beliefs.

Just keeping things real.   This is what is on Thomas Jefferson's gravestone.

"on the grave a plain die or cube 3 feet without any moldings, surmounted by an obelisk of 6 feet height, each a single stone: on the faces of the obelisk the following inscription and not a word more –

Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
of the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
and Father of the University of Virginia

On the Die
Born April 2, 1743 O.S.
Died July 4, 1826

By these as testimonials I had lived and desire most to be remembered."

He was most proud that he assured religious freedom was upheld and protected by statute.
Most of the Virginia planter class, which occupied the legislature and the public offices, were Anglican. Public officials swore to uphold the thirty-nine articles of Anglican faith. State and religion were intertwined, and the Anglican Church was established as Virginia’s official religion. From the beginning of the Virginia colony, the General Assembly had taken church rules and turned them into laws, making it a crime to violate church doctrine. A 1705 statute required belief in the tenets of the Christian church “to hold and enjoy any office or emploiment, ecclesiastical, civil, or military,” The Anglican church was supported by taxes which everyone was required to pay. After 1750, there was increasing tension between the Anglican Church and the expanding appeal to the working-class in the message of the Baptist and Presbyterian ministers. They did not believe in the ceremonies that were reminiscent of the former Catholic Church in England, or in the hierarchy which dominated the Anglican Church and set the rules by which one could reach heaven. They were known as “dissenters,” and were part of a wave of revivalism which swept through the colonies in the middle of the 18th century. This spirit of revivalism emphasized religious experience rather than doctrine and challenged the authority of the state to require all citizens to follow the dictates of the Anglican Church. However, all ministers were required to be licensed. Many of the Baptist and Presbyterian ministers were unlicensed “street preachers,” who did not have a regular church, and were often impoverished. Those who sought to be licensed were opposed by the Anglicans in the legislature. Many continued to preach and were jailed. Monuments remain throughout Virginia today at various courthouses, as evidence of their opposition.
Shouldn't it be enough that no matter what beliefs Thomas Jefferson held, he made sure that government would not infringe on your right to believe as you will?

Just so you know Protestants believe in The Trinity of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Jesus's divinity as the Son of God, miracles, the Resurrection of Christ, atonement from sin, original sin and the Virgin birth.....all also core Protestant beliefs as we are part of the "holy catholic church".

8 posted on 11/25/2023 12:05:08 AM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: Liz
One more thing, Liz.

Here is another JFK statment:

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." -- "Remarks at a Dinner Honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere (161)," April 29, 1962, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1962.
It seems that JFK thought well of Thomas Jefferson.
9 posted on 11/25/2023 12:22:04 AM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: moonhawk

Funny, I thought he was going to explain how the Puritans were seeking a haven where they would not be persecuted and potentially burned at the stake by Catholics.


10 posted on 11/25/2023 3:05:45 AM PST by Ragnar Danneskjöld
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To: Ragnar Danneskjöld

Wrong. They were fleeing the church of England and her religious practices which they deemed as too Catholic.
Since England and the Netherlands was Protestant, and it was illegal to be Catholic there, your statement is not even possible.


11 posted on 11/25/2023 5:21:06 AM PST by Texas_Guy
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To: higgmeister

No, not all.
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the Trinity.
Some of the Protestant sects regard Jesus as just a good teacher or even the archangel Michael.
Mormonism has entirely different views on Jesus and God.
Some Protestant sects reject original sin in favor of inheritance of a sin nature. I heard that yesterday on a broadcast in Dallas.
Liberal Christian sects have rejected Jesus’s miracles as unrealistic (see the Jesus seminar).
I’ve heard preachers reject the Virgin birth by saying Mary was a virgin when she initially conceived but that it was foolish and not biblical to believe that Joseph and Mary didn’t consummate their wedding shortly thereafter.

The only thing that unifies Protestantism is the belief that the Catholic Church is wrong.

That should make y’all reflect and rethink your positions.


12 posted on 11/25/2023 5:29:10 AM PST by Texas_Guy
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

There isn’t anything Catholics don’t try to own somehow.


13 posted on 11/25/2023 7:33:20 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.)
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To: metmom

It’s history.


14 posted on 11/25/2023 7:52:05 AM PST by Texas_Guy
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To: metmom
They did own the stakes however that they tied Reformers to before setting them on fire.

Foxes Book of Martyrs.

15 posted on 11/25/2023 8:37:24 AM PST by patriot torch (..)
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To: moonhawk

back to the subject of Thanksgiving - some of us, particularly those who worship in liturgical churches, celebrate thanksgiving day every Sunday when they go forward to receive the Eucharist - the Great Thanksgiving.


16 posted on 11/25/2023 8:50:32 AM PST by elpadre
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To: moonhawk

LOL “Catholic” because he was a slave in Spain.


17 posted on 11/25/2023 9:14:02 AM PST by Wuli ( ,)
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To: Wuli

Didn’t read the article, did you?


18 posted on 11/25/2023 9:29:08 AM PST by moonhawk (Unleash the MAGAhideen!)
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To: elpadre

Amen.


19 posted on 11/25/2023 9:30:43 AM PST by moonhawk (Unleash the MAGAhideen!)
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To: Ragnar Danneskjöld

But he didn’t , did he? And they weren’t fighting Catholics, they were fighting High Anglicans.

And chopping their heads off, apparently, whichif I had to choose, I would prefer to burning alive.

By that time, most of the Catholics had been persecuted or killed or had their Churches and Monasteries seized by the “church” of England. Apparently that wasn’t good enough for the Puritans.


20 posted on 11/25/2023 9:36:04 AM PST by moonhawk (Unleash the MAGAhideen!)
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