The newspaper account "Pope remembers Steffie" by Markus Mannheim in the Canberra Times of August 21, 2005, was discussed on this board at the time here. There is no doubt there was such a newspaper report.
Earnest
JoinedPosts by Earnest
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What does the Catholic church think of JW?
by Halcon inon a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.
he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.
is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?
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119 Hours....
by onacruse in...until i meet the most incredible, wonderful, fascinating lady i've ever encountered in my life!
bikerchic, you have captured my heart and make me happier than i've ever been, ever, ever, ever!
craig (of the totally twitterpated, gushing-and-blushing-all-over-the-place dufus-in-love class).
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Earnest
Hi bikerchic, how lovely to hear from you again and to full in some gaps in your collective story, especially your courtship and first meeting which Craig (onacruse) shared on this board. He and his mates (AlanF and Farkel) are still greatly missed.
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JWs in the news: UK Telegraph:"‘Jehovah’s Witnesses told me I would die at 15 – so I didn’t save for a pension’"
by Balaamsass2 in‘jehovah’s witnesses told me i would die at 15 – so i didn’t save for a pension’.
fame & fortune: award-winning author on religion, divorce and her dream car.
70. gift this article free.
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Earnest
She wrote a book in 2022 - Without Warning and Only Sometimes - about her childhood which was serialised on Radio 4 in the UK as reported here at the time.
Kit de Waal grew up in a household of opposites and extremes. Her haphazard mother rarely cooked, forbade Christmas and birthdays, worked as a cleaner, nurse and childminder sometimes all at once and believed the world would end in 1975. Meanwhile, her father stuffed barrels full of goodies for his relatives in the Caribbean, cooked elaborate meals on a whim and splurged money they didn't have on cars, suits and shoes fit for a prince. Both of her parents were waiting for paradise. It never came.
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WASHINGTON ST PASSES BILL MANDATING CLERGY REPORTING CHILD ABUSE
by blondie inhttps://www.thereflector.com/stories/washington-legislature-passes-bill-to-make-clergy-mandatory-reporters-of-child-abuse,378913 .
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Earnest
The bill does seem to make an exception for "privileged communication".
The Final Bill Report says :
Privileged Communication. No one is required to report child abuse and neglect when the information is obtained solely as a result of a privileged communication that would not compel that person to testify as a witness in any action or proceeding. A member of the clergy, a Christian Science practitioner listed in the Christian Science Journal, or a priest shall not, without the consent of the person making the confession or sacred confidence, be examined as to any confession or sacred confidence made to him or her in their professional character, in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he or she belongs.
But then in the Summary it says :
Members of the clergy are mandated reporters of child abuse and neglect. Except for members of the clergy, no one shall be required to report child abuse or neglect when that information is obtained solely as a result of a privileged communication.
"Member of the clergy" means any regularly licensed, accredited, or ordained minister, priest, rabbi, imam, elder, or similarly situated religious or spiritual leader of any church, religious denomination, religious body, spiritual community, or sect, or person performing official duties that are recognized as the duties of a member of the clergy under the discipline, tenets, doctrine, or custom of the person's church, religious denomination, religious body, spiritual community, or sect, whether acting in an individual capacity or as an employee, agent, or official of any public or private organization or institution.
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bomb for jehova italy
by andr initaly meets another bomb in front of the kingdom hall, after having caused a scandal on tv, now it is also dangerous to go to the hall.
here is the image of the press release.
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Earnest
This happened on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. It was reported here, here and here.
A google translation of the notice from the Italian branch office follows :
On Tuesday, March 25, at approximately 4:00 p.m., a small explosive device exploded in front of the entrance door of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, located in Piazza delle Camelie in Rome. We are relieved to report that no one was injured. As a precaution, religious gatherings scheduled for yesterday evening and today have been canceled.We note that the place of worship that was hit is the same one that recently appeared in a report on a national television program, which included defamatory speeches against Jehovah's Witnesses.
We are grateful to all those who are providing assistance.
Alessandro Bertini
NATIONAL SPOKESMAN
Communications and Press Office
Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses
TEL +39 06 872941
EMAIL [email protected]
Via della Bufalotta 1281, 00138 Roma RM
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Flee to the Mountains......What Mountains?
by liam inmay 2025 study article 21 seek the city that will remain.
what i remember was, when you see the romans, flee to the mountains.
now the wt is saying that's not enough.
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Earnest
raymond frantz : Are all those documents in question now 2000 years later that some Jewish, Christian hating, so called historians want us to question everything about our faith?
"Christian hating". Really? "so called historian". Really? You are throwing around a lot of emotive words about something that has nothing to do with faith. We are not talking about the words of Jesus, but about a fourth century historian. And Jonathan Bourgel is an historian whose PhD was on The Jewish Christians of Judea from the Great Revolt (66-73 CE) until the Bar Kokhba War (132-135/6 CE). He knows what he is talking about.
Further, there are a number of scholars who question the historicity of what Eusebius wrote :
G. Strecker, Das Judenchristentum in den Pseudo-Klementinen, (1958; 2nd ed. rev; Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1981) 229–231; J. Munck, Jewish-Christianity in Post-Apostolic Times,” New Testament Studies 6 (1959–60), 103–104; L. Gaston, No stone on Another: Studies in the Signiicance of the Fall of Jerusalem in the Synoptic Gospels, (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1970), 142 n. 3; G. Lüdemann, The Successors of pre-70 Jerusalem Christianity: A Critical Evaluation of the Pella-Tradition in "Jewish and Christian Self-Definition", (edited by E. P. Sanders. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press 1980), vol. 1 161–173; J. Verheyden, The Flight of the Christians to Pella, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, vol. 66 Issue 4 (1990), 368–384.
Are they all Christian-hating, so-called historians? Not only that, but if you had bothered to read what Jonathan Bourgel wrote, you would have seen that he doesn't rubbish Eusebius, but says (p.111) "we tend to uphold the reliability of Eusebius’ statement, even though we suspect him to have altered the chronology of the Jewish-Christians’ flight for his own purposes".
Vidqun : Eusebius was a respected Church historian. Why would he lie?
It is not a case of him lying, but of embroidering a kernel of truth for apologetic purposes. Eusebius does not say who/what his source was so it is left to speculation. Quite likely some Jerusalem Christians did end up in Pella either before or during the war, and this was embellished to "something that had been commanded by a revelation" which involved the whole church.
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Flee to the Mountains......What Mountains?
by liam inmay 2025 study article 21 seek the city that will remain.
what i remember was, when you see the romans, flee to the mountains.
now the wt is saying that's not enough.
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Earnest
raymond frantz : By the way Eusebius is not the only one of that period to write about the Christian Exodus.
You are right. Epiphanius also discusses the flight to Pella. Three times in fact. Twice in the Panarion and also in his treatise On Weights and Measures. But Epiphanius wrote in the second half of the fourth century which was after Eusebius wrote his Ecclesiastical History.
raymond frantz : I'd rather believe Eusebius who lived 200 years after the events rather than a Jewish "historian" who lived 2000 years later ...
The point isn't so much that Eusebius wrote about Pella 200 years after the alleged event, but that none of the prolific writers amongst the ante-Nicene fathers mentioned it before him. No-one, Christian, Jewish or pagan, mentioned it for 200 years.
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Flee to the Mountains......What Mountains?
by liam inmay 2025 study article 21 seek the city that will remain.
what i remember was, when you see the romans, flee to the mountains.
now the wt is saying that's not enough.
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Earnest
Note that the authenticity of Eusebius's account has been debated amongst historians because
(a) he wrote his Ecclesiastical History over 200 years after the events;
(b) there is no corroborating evidence from contemporary sources including Josephus;
(c) a pagan city seems an unlikely place for refuge in a time of Roman hostility to Jews;
(d) the narrative fits too neatly with Christian theological interpretations of Jerusalem's destruction, comparing it to the fall of Sodom and the escape of Lot and his daughters.
The article The Jewish Christians' Move from Jerusalem as a Pragmatic Choice by Jonathan Bourgel in Studies in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity – Text and Context, 2010, gives more substance to these arguments.
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Further Crisis looming for JW org re Safeguarding ?
by Phizzy inif you substitute j.w org for c of e this really hits home : (from bbc news site) :.
the church of england risks further crisis if it fails to adopt a sweeping new independent system to keep people safe, the former head of a national inquiry into child sexual abuse has said.
(prof. alexis jay).. "i think it's absolutely necessary because church safeguarding as it stands falls below the standards of secular organisations, and i do not think that can continue when it has also led to such serious weaknesses," she told the bbc..
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Earnest
Phizzy : They [Church of England] are debating the idea of an Independent Body to assess their efforts.
Yesterday (11 February) the Church of England General Synod had to choose between two models of safeguarding - the first involved creating an independent central safeguarding team for the Church - but with safeguarding officers continuing in their current roles; the second (recommended by Professor Jay) would also make the Church's safeguarding officers part of that independent body.
The Synod voted (392 to 9, with 6 abstentions) for the first option, which Professor Jay described as "deeply disappointing" and "devastating for victims and survivors". A report on the vote can be read here.
Phizzy : The CofE ... have adopted a good number of measures, and I bet they apply to C of E Churches wherever they are.
Au contraire. In the report by Professor Jay, she noted (p.18) "that dioceses operate their safeguarding services very differently, and that the bishop can exert significant influence over local safeguarding." -
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Further Crisis looming for JW org re Safeguarding ?
by Phizzy inif you substitute j.w org for c of e this really hits home : (from bbc news site) :.
the church of england risks further crisis if it fails to adopt a sweeping new independent system to keep people safe, the former head of a national inquiry into child sexual abuse has said.
(prof. alexis jay).. "i think it's absolutely necessary because church safeguarding as it stands falls below the standards of secular organisations, and i do not think that can continue when it has also led to such serious weaknesses," she told the bbc..
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Earnest
jhine : I would be very interested to find out what other measures Prof Jay thinks need to be implemented.
The report and recommendations by Professor Jay can be read here.
Professor Jay recommends (Future of Church Safeguarding, Section 10) :
(a) that the church introduces mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse ahead of legislation (which is due this Spring);
(b) that the church complies with statutory definitions of children and vulnerable people over the age of 18 when it come to safeguarding;
(c) that the church uses guidance relating to emotional and psychological abuse pertaining to vulnerable adults and children rather than spiritual abuse in all guidance, training and in referring cases.