She must have been overwhelmed by how easily her not-so-elaborate pranks have succeeded in hoodwinking such a large audience. She now has to come up with new crowd-pullers every few months, such as the transition from blood-weeping, to oil dripping, and more recently, the famous salt fountain.

Watching the associated Xarabank episode I pitied poor Dr Abela Medici who tried to put forward logical arguments and explanations only to find a solid wall of ignorance, apathy, and gullibility.

Ms Caruana’s frustration at this time must be the slow transition of this affront to religion and decency into a money-making venture like Medjugorje. However, I think the first signs of this intent came out very subtly during one of the rants by the psycho (truncation intended) who is “investigating” the case. In the programme he says that he is doing this in his own time and to do an investigation of this nature would cost around Euro 50,000. How come he was prepared with such an accurate figure? Was this a slip exposing a plan to start some sort of money collection effort towards this “investigation”?

The archbishop’s curia should come out in an unequivocal manner and state that the church wants no part of this carnival. The presence of nuns, priests, etc. at these cult-like gatherings is only giving credibility to what is either a massive and cruel fraud or an untreated mental illness.

Sadly many people who will be attending these meetings will be vulnerable, possibly coming with hopes of cure from some disease or other personal affliction, and we can only imagine the disappointment and sense of hopelessness that will ensue when this is all uncovered as an evil scam. For this reason alone, the church and lay authorities should act responsibly and stop it now before more people get hurt.

Peppi’s show did not help too much as the journalistic approach was very weak and basically just gave Ms Caruana some free publicity. May Our Lady inspire someone to do some real no-holds-barred investigative scientific journalism in order to stop this tragicomedy.

issa nibdew naghmlu ir-riklami barra minn Malta biex jaraw il-madonna; free of charge.

Lol qieghed sew dan.

[Daphne – Oh, that’s nothing.]

“Earlier, the hijackers had boarded the chopper pretending to be tourists, before seizing control and directing the pilots to Domenjod prison, where it landed in the exercise yard and took on the escapees.

“One of them put a gun to my temple while another threatened to set fire to a bottle of petrol he had in his hand with a cigarette lighter,” the pilot told local broadcaster Antenne Reunion.

Mr Verbard, 27, was the guru of the self-styled Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, a cult with no connection to mainstream Catholic institutions, on the island of Reunion.

He escaped along with two followers, the father and son duo Alexin Jismy and Fabrice Michel, who were jailed for their part in the kidnap of a boy, 12-year-old Alexandre, whom Mr Verbard had decided would be his successor.

He was jailed in February last year for attacks on children aged nine and 13, whose mother was the sect’s treasurer. He was also convicted of Alexandre’s kidnap and is under investigation in another alleged paedophile case.

At the time of his trial, psychiatrist Gerard Toulfayan described Mr Verbard as “an extremely powerful manipulator with great intelligence”. Mr Verbard launched his cult in 2002 after convincing scores of followers that the Virgin Mary appeared to him every month. Adepts paid €20 each for the honour of taking part in an appearance ceremony.

According to Mr Verbard, Mary called him her “Lily of Love”.

Authorities attempted to dismantle the sect after it was implicated in the kidnap of 12-year-old Alexandre, a boy that Mr Verbard claimed was destined to become his successor at the head of the group.”

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090428/world-news/child-rapist-cult-leader-escapes-from-french-jail-in-helicopter