The Missionary Church of Kopimism’s core “belief” is that everybody has the right to file-share i.e. “kopyacting” is a religious ceremony, and that file-sharing now has “religious protection.”

A church spokesman said they had to apply 3 times before they were successful.

Its “sacred symbols” are CTRL+C and CTRL+V (universal shortcuts for “copy and paste”).

They say the church doesn’t condone illegal file sharing but rather focuses on “the open distribution of knowledge to everybody,” and that

For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament. Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore copying is central for the organisation and its members. Being recognised by the state of Sweden is a large step for all of Kopimi. Hopefully this is one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution.

The BBC
Wikipedia

It had been in a sorry state in its pot since a year ago but was somehow still planted by the local council as a way to bring up the Christmas mood, complete with lights that were incongruously bigger than the tree’s branches.

The top 2 feet of the tree is still alive, and the rest already dead

However, villagers complained about the “pathetically limp” tree in the local newspaper, and Council officers reportedly were so embarrassed by it that they removed the tree in the dead of night a mere few hours after getting wind of the news.

It was reported by the BBC on 11th February 2008 that the religious police in that country have banned the sale of any gifts related to Valentine’s Day, and that surely included red roses.

Shop owners have been warned to remove all items red in colour off the displays, including red wrapping paper.

That surely only made red roses highly sought after in the black market.

An alternative for those wishing to celebrate was to go to less strict countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

I wonder if the same reaction would be accorded to mothers day gift ideas red envelope because it seems anything in red and remotely foreign would trigger alarm bells.

Source
The BBC, 11 Feb 2008

Click here to view the embedded video.

You probably remember the green mankini worn by Sacha Baron Cohen in the 2006 film with the rather long title: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Should one be brave enough to wear a mankini in public, I suppose one must have the body to match, therefore for those not quite in shape but still want to look good in it, if that was at all possible, perhaps it’d be a good idea to consume the best fat burners available.

Now there’s nothing unusual about that, but it had a message in it asking for it to be sent back to the sender. So, the next Christmas, it was sent back to where to came from in Canada.

And that had been going on for most of the last 61 years – up to this year, it has now crossed the Atlantic Ocean 54 times.

The tradition was started by Linda Ashton’s mother. After her mother died, Ms Ashton continued it, the other player in Canada being her 94-year old aunt.

Well, I suppose that in that era, it was the closest thing to green shopping…

However, in an unprecedented move, Pope Benedict XVI has issued an 8-page pastoral (i.e. open) letter talking exclusively about the matter.

A Vatican taboo has been broken.

For sure people will flock to it like it’s some kind of outdoor décor and dissected, analysed, the works.

Key excerpts.

Full text.

There’s a growing chorus asking Pope Benedict XVI to resign over the Catholic sex abuse cases. If he did, he’d be the 3rd Pope in history to do so.

Who were the other 2?

The first one was Pope Celestine V (1209-1296) in 1294, only 5 months into his reign. He first issued a decree declaring it permissible for a pope to resign, then then did so himself, explaining it as such:

… the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life.

He then lived 2 more years, then later declared saint.

The second was Pope Gregory XII (1326 – 1417), who reigned 1406 – 1415 resigned in order to end the Western Schism i.e. there were 3 popes who all claimed to be the one true pope, including one so-called Antipope.

Source
The BBC

She has resigned as bishop.

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24 Feb 2010

Margot Käßmann (or Margot Kaessman), 51, was appointed the head of Germany’s 25-million-strong Protestant Church in October 2009, the church’s first ever female leader. In 1999 she became Germany’s youngest bishop.

On 20th February 2010 she drove a VW belonging to her church past a red light in Hanover’s city centre while her blood alcohol level being 3 times over the legal limit.

She has admitted drink driving.

If previously she’d have no problems getting cheap auto insurance quotes from sites like www.carinsurancelist.com, that’s all in the past now.

She told a local paper:

I am shocked at myself that I could have made such a grave error.

She has been controversial for some time, being Germany’s first bishop to divorce 2 years ago. She was married to her husband for 26 years. She has 4 daughters.

Source
The BBC, 23 Feb 2010

As on 19th February 2009 Bishop Williamson has been ordered by the Argentinian government to leave the country within 10 days or face expulsion.

Earlier this month he was removed from his post as the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina.

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In November 2008 Bishop Richard Williamson, 48 said to Swedish TV, which was aired on 21 January 2009:

I believe there were no gas chambers. I think that two to three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers.

As expected, it outraged Jews leaders the world over.

This is a video of the controversial interview, very gripping indeed:

Click here to view the embedded video.

He was one of the appointees of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, who was possibly the most controversial member of senior Roman Catholic clergy ever.

To add insult to injury, Williamson was recently reinstated into the Church by the Pope because he had “affirmed his willingness to accept Church teachings and papal authority.”

The Vatican then said it didn’t know what Williamson had said about the Holocaust by the time of his reinstatement.

Mordechai Lewy, Israel’s envoy to the Vatican said:

We have no intention of interfering in the internal workings of the Catholic Church, however, the eagerness to bring a Holocaust denier back into the Church will cast a shadow on relations between Jews and the Catholic Church.

Tensions esclated on 28th January 2009 when the Chief Rabbinate of Israel terminated “indefinitely” official ties with the Vatican in protest.

In damage control mode, the Vatican has distanced itself from those remarks; its spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said:

This act regards the lifting of the excommunications, period. It has nothing to do with the personal opinions of a person, which are open to criticism, but are not pertinent to this decree.

Before the dust has even settled, another member of the clergy from the same Society of St Pius X as Bishop Williamson, Father Floriano Abrahamowicz basically said the same thing.

He was quoted to have said, on 29th January 2009, by Italian newspaper La Tribuna di Treviso:

I know gas chambers existed at least to disinfect, I can’t say if anybody was killed in them or not.

What’s going on? Are all SSPX members Holocaust deniers?

Source
The BBC, 24 Jan 09
The BBC, 30 Jan 09

In contrast, the appointment of the self-declared celibate Dr Jeffrey John (born 1953) of the Church of England was announced on 20th May 2003 but he stood down before his ordination due to the controversy the news generated.

Gay bishops could’ve been around forever but for secrecy – apparently in the 11th century Ralph, the Catholic Archbishop of Tours installed his gay lover as Bishop of Orléans. Pope Urban II and his successor Pope Paschal II apparently knew about it but did not strip them of their titles.

Then there’s the case of Episcopal Bishop Otis Charles, bishop in Utah 1971-93 who announced his homosexuality after his retirement. Or Bishop Mervyn Castle who was made a bishop in Cape Town in 1994. Or Bishop Arthur Mervyn Stockwood who was bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. Or Bishop Terry Brown of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. Or Bishop Derek Rawcliffe who came out in 1995 after his retirement.

Okay, back to Gene Robinson.

He attended seminary (training institution for would-be priests) in 1969 and received his Master of Divinity degree in 1973 and was ordained priest the same year.

He married Isabella “Boo” McDaniel in 1972, and “privately acknowledged” his gay tendencies to her a month before they married, but decided to go on with the marriage.

They had 2 daughters, Jamee (born 1977) and Ella (born 1981).

He publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, then divorced his wife, in the 1980s.

In 1987 he met his current partner, Mark Andrew. The next year, Robinson and Andrew moved into a new house which was blessed by Douglas Theuner, a bishop. He was married (perhaps the politically correct term is “legally joined”), in a civil union and religious ceremony, to Andrew in June 2008.

He was elected bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church of the USA in 2003, by delegates to an Episcopal convention, 62 to 45.

During his ordination as bishop, he wore a bulletproof vest. His parents, sister, daughter and their families and his ex-wife Boo all attended. Bishop Frank Griswold presided with 6 co-consecrating bishops. Apparently 48 bishops in all attended.

Indeed his life has not been easy. Some have held him responsible for the split in the 400-year old Anglican network. For example, on 13th July 2008 he was heckled by a long-haired man while giving a sermon at a church in London, who jabbed his finger and shouted, amongst other things, “repent, repent, repent” and “you preached the Gospel but departed from it.” After the man was escorted out, the Bishop asked the congregation to “pray for that man.”