Hey, it's von Fred on Xarabank
It's Friday night. Time to give Angelik a thrill.
If you’re not out tonight, I hope you’re watching the ‘magiks’ show on Xarabank. Right now, the fat guy is in labour beneath his red damask headboard, trying to give birth to twin elephants. Angelik finished off the performance with a death rattle.
The acting is beyond terrible.
Every Friday night, he gets visitations from devils and stigmata appear on his body. So, instead of going out to the shops or to the pub where the devils and spirits might be a little embarrassed, he lies down on his bed and waits for them, in that classic legs-and-arms-akimbo ‘come and get me, boys!’ position. Then he invited the Xarabank cameras in. When they arrived, they found the stigmata there already. They’d been there so long they were infected.
Forensic pathologist Albert Cilia Vincenti says that they look to him at first glance like they’ve been wrought by something hot, and he can’t understand why people are saying there’s no evidence the man has done them himself. By some amazing coincidence, he said, God works his supernatural designs only in Catholic countries. The stigmata first appeared on St Francis and since then there have been hundreds of similar cases.
Perhaps Angelik would be more credible if he actually looked like an ascetic. Instead, he looks like someone who eats all the pies. he’s clearly not short of earthly appetites.
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Angelik tends to go around wearing sweatbands on both wrists, as can be seen on various YouTube videos. If it’s to protect his wounds from infection, then he’d probably have some form of dressing instead. I’d say he’s got something up his sleeve … erm I mean sweatbands.
The testimonials were the best.
You could smell the bullshit.
Abela Medici’s comments were worth listening to, too. (Basically, he said something along the lines of “if the wounds were made by God, then they would not have been infected because that would mean imperfection, when God is meant to be perfect”.)
Jokes aside, don’t you think that since the EU election campaign took off CNI/KMB have been keeping too low a profile?
Leonard, why did Angelik remind you of KMB? Maybe because he could be someone else’s puppet?
Hi Amanda. Honestly, apart from what I’ve seen on this blog I don’t know who the hell this Angelik is. Sounds like someone who could make The Sun or the News of the Screws but then again these types aren’t in short supply. I thought about KMB while I was having a shower this morning. Must check the soap.
Heavy stuff! This is the Peppi Xarabank at its very best. Missed the first part, but I see Dr Abela Medici did a sanguine job and with Fr Elia around, we’re all safe from the devils. Don’t forget that Fr Elia is the ultimate devil-busting fraud-buster.
I think a good dose of LSD should lighten up Angelik’s story and take us to new heights.
‘Our lady is growing tired of keeping her son’s wrath in check’, he said, or something like that. Does that even sound like the compassionate, loving, forgiving son of God or just some ‘Fire and Brimstone’ style sermon? At the very worst a fraud, at best someone looking for his 15 minutes in the spotlight.
[Daphne – I suspect he’s modelling his mother/son relationship on direct experience of certain kinds of Maltese mothers and certain kinds of Maltese sons. Jekk jirrabja jigi ghalik Johnny tieghi, u ma nkunx nista nzommu, ta!]
I’m ready to accept the notion of unexplained phenomena, but the events surrounding this gent and the accounts of the professionals on the show just don’t point that way.
One of the closing speeches on Xarabank went something along the lines of “inhobba l-Madonna, ejjew nghixu kif tridna l-Madonna”. I suppose that would not mean leaving one’s husband and children to shack up with someone else’s husband, right?
[Daphne – U Marlene, jahasra. The least said, the better.]
Didn’t she fall off a horse last week?
Naf li kullhadd ghandu xi jxomm, imma Marlene is the epitome of hypocrisy. Fejn isibuhom madonfi?
And, by the way, Angelik couldn’t even try to abide by Our Lady’s personal wish to stop smoking. ”Imma naqqast ta”…..u halluna, what a load of crap. A real con artist.
Abela Medici and Professor Mifsud really showed up that smarmy up-start of a psychiatrist for what he is, an amateur aspiring to join the big guys through what he thinks is the fast track. Not charging money for his services? So what! He’s on an ego trip, but sadly there’s no substance in what he was saying.
[Daphne – Quite frankly, I think he needs to be examined himself. There is something very odd about him: the way he speaks, his ‘frozen’ facial expression, his anxiety and constant need to butt in, the way you can see his mind is working anxiously….there’s something not quite right there. By contrast, the other three science men seemed completely at ease, even if you could see that they were wondering what on earth they were doing there, surrounded by nut-jobs – except for Abela Medici, who appears torn between science and the supernatural, and felt the need to tell us how he believes in the madonna, God, etc.
Anyway, what really, really, got me about that psychiatrist with the hair and the necklace is that he committed the cardinal sin of not acknowledging his colleagues’ vastly superior experience – and hence, vastly superior knowledge. I think it is entirely to their credit that not one of them put him in his place, even though they were probably itching to do so. He actually told Dr Abela Medici that his forensic examinations were not scientific. Perhaps Abela Medici should have told him that if his forensic examinations are enough to have people jailed for life, then they are certainly enough to have us accept that the fat man and his strange wife are lying. Let’s put it this way, if those two were on trial, Abela Medici’s testimony would have had them sent down. Dr Xuereb appears to have a strong desire to ‘prove’ the supernatural.]
He looks like he’s sub-normal or drugged, and dominated by his wife.
[Daphne – Does she have very long, sharp nails, perhaps? What a peculiar couple. How scary life must be for their children.]
Regardless of everything that surrounds this story, nobody mentions Angelique’s children. I first heard it tonight that he has children. Are their parents thinking seriously what all this means to them? They should employ another psychiatrist specifically to take care of the children. And I am not joking.
[Daphne – I think you are quite right. Before I saw tonight’s show, I felt sorry for Mrs Caruana and thought her a victim of Angelik’s scam. I had never set eyes on her and somehow made that assumption. Watching tonight’s show, I reversed my opinion based on the dynamic between the couple, and the fact that she is even scarier than he is. She has that grim, humourless, hard, cold demeanour of the pathological religious obsessive. He is absolutely terrified of her. Scariest scene tonight? That close-up of her hand placed over his, gripping it hard. It wasn’t a gesture of reassurance, but of control. It is generally used by men warning their wives to keep silent, and of the consequences to be paid if they don’t. So fine, the children of two alcoholics or two heroin addicts are taken into care. But the children of a man who eats dirt and claims that he is attacked by devils and of a woman who insists that her plastic statue is a salt mine are considered to be perfectly safe.]
Daphne, your last comment says it all. I thought the authorities, and here I mean specifically the ecclesiastical ones, are there to protect us from con artists like Angelik and his equally twisted wife.
To tell you the truth, it was not even good television……… what a load of rubbish, and to think that so many people are falling for this scam.
I think I mentioned this before… the Caruanas first attempted to get media attention by parading their son on TV (if I’m not mistaken it was Xarabank too) as a Macaulay Culkin look-alike.
[Daphne – Odd that you should mention that. Last night, after seeing her on television and the control she has over the situation and her husband – as though she is the one managing it all – I was thinking that she might have some form of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, only she is using the madonna statuette instead of her child. Thinking further about it, I realised that the focus of this project is probably not her husband at all, but the statuette, with her husband’s ‘fits’ and ‘visions’ being used to direct attention to the Made in China idol. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/3528517.stm
http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=oUtDrgKG2I0&feature=PlayList&p=372BA8A3C36E3336&index=0&playnext=1
I’d say she’s now in far too deep to turn back. And another thing: Have any toxicology tests been carried out on this Angelik himself? There’s something about him which, as the Maltese expression goes, “ma’ jdoqqlix”.
And a few young people who dress up as priests and nuns for a bit of carnival fun are condemned by the Church and dragged before the Courts.
Well said, Leonard. I did not watch the show but have been reading these comments instead. If I was the Church I would feel more threatened by this creepiness than by a few kids dressed up as priests and nuns during carnival.
What about the testimony of the woman in the audience, who claimed that she went on a retreat (“irtir”) at the home of Angelik Caruana and his wife … with her husband and children? Seeing that she did not look too old, I’d say that her children were young enough to be forced to go. Maybe the Commissioner for children should take a look into both cases.
Daphne you said: “So fine, the children of two alcoholics or two heroin addicts are taken into care. But the children of a man who eats dirt and claims that he is attacked by devils and of a woman who insists that her plastic statue is a salt mine are considered to be perfectly safe”. I totally agree, however how are they different from the thousands of Maltese parents who believe in demonic possession, who pray to something they have never seen, that a person can rise from the dead, go to a spectacle every Sunday where they are told that they are eating the body of Christ … need I go on?
[Daphne – It’s the difference between the mainstream and the non-mainstream. People who believe in demonic possession and Catholic rite and ritual tend to be normal people who were brainwashed from birth. Had they encountered these things late in life, they would have been sceptical. But then there are obvious limits, and encountering late in life a man who claims to be spitting thorns and to have chats with his guardian angel, and believing him, indicates that this person is more than a touch unbalanced. I don’t think children should be exposed to parents who are so clearly cuckoo: your mother decorates a plastic statuette with salt and cooking oil; your father goes into labour in front of the television cameras….it’s not just embarrassing (and Mrs Caruana admitted on Xarabank that her children were being bullied and picked on), it is actually frightening for the children.]
“I suspect he’s modelling his mother/son relationship on direct experience of certain kinds of Maltese mothers and certain kinds of Maltese sons”
Mela qatt ma’ smajt ic-cajta li Gesu Kristu kien Malti? – Kien jghix ma’ ommu u ma’ wiehed li ma’ kienx missieru ghal-33 sena, ried isir mastrudaxxa, u jrid jghidilna li ommu kienet vergni.
Angelik’s wife is in on it, too – trying the silence the dissenters who were showing holes in the story. Now I know that to win an argument all I have to do is present something fake, play it out to be the work of God and then holler at anyone arrogant enough to question the ‘work of God’ and people will applaud me.
It’s no wonder politicians pretend to be holy in this country, because we’re a nation of fundamentalists.
The missing element from the whole range of comments has to do with the inducement of mass hysteria. There are
people who are testifying to seeing thorns grow out of Angelik’s mouth and holy wafers appearing out of nowhere and landing on his palms. I think the country needs a team of specialised shrinks who deal with collective mental malfunctioning.
Mario
Should have played this on Xarabank … keeping il-bilanc fix-xandir sort of. Forty years on and still sparkling. I know there’s a clip somewhere out there with a longer version of Taylor’s solo which Decca chopped off, but I just can’t find it – if anyone has the link I’d appreciate it. Thanks Daphne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZUp1gUQLyg
I was so impressed that I slept in the middle of the programme. Peppi used Angelik as a filler.
I am really disappointed that the so-called psychiatrist (and medical doctor) declared that the wounds are not normal, while at first glance doctors on the panel stated the contrary. Why didn’t he prescribe him some cream or Augmentin to heal the wounds?
[Daphne – I laughed when I saw his stigmata, John. It’s true that they might not be self-induced, and your mention of Augmentin is spot-on. I, too, have near-permanent stigmata, usually on my palms and sometimes on the inside of my wrists. Sometimes they are really bad, sometimes they are almost invisible for years. Right now, the one on my right palm is giving me hell, and will turn into a full-blown festering wound if I don’t keep treating it. One of my sisters sometimes gets them too. It’s a dermatological condition and it’s hereditary. Of course, if I aggravated my stigmata further instead of using Augmentin or Dermovate and remembering not to ‘attack’ myself no matter how bad the discomfort, which only opens up the skin further, I could rush out and claim to be an ascetic visionary. But when they first appeared when I was around 18 or 19 I went to a dermatologist instead of a priest. I laughed even louder when I saw the scratches on his forearms that were the signs of an assault by devils. A couple of months ago while in Canada I woke up with my forearms covered in such bad, bloody scratches that my friend and I were just staring at them in disbelief. It didn’t take me long to work out what had happened: I had fallen asleep, exhausted, wearing a woolen jumper. Had I slept more lightly, I would have woken up and pulled the jumper off. Instead, I must have just gone for my itchy forearms while dreaming. The alternative explanation would be that my friend decided to assault me and I somehow didn’t notice, or that those devils got bored of Angelik and flew over to have some fun with me instead. I really can’t understand the mindset of people who look for a supernatural explanation when there is always a rational one.]
Xarabank should have also investigated Angelik’s wife, and how the family lives. Probably there are no wounds in his legs because he cannot touch his toes.
When people like Angelik claim the supernatural, the first to investigate should be a good magician, like Pule’. In Angelik’s case not even that was needed.
Well when I was on certain acne medication, I used to have worse scratches than Angelik and all done while sleeping. I never claimed devils attacked me.
This Angelik is just a load of horseshit. I am surprised to see a Jesuit there with him. Most Birzebbugiani know him as a fraud.
It’s all hogwash!
What’s amazing is that everything that happened in “apparitions” the world over happens in Borg in-Nadur. When the Madonna speaks, she repeats the words heard at Lourdes. She appears to Angelik and tells him to eat grass and put mud on his face like at Lourdes. Hosts fly by, stigmata, attacks by the devil , guardian angel etc etc.
Our Lady even explained that later on the stigmata would be deep, and they weren’t on the soles of his feet so that he would be able to walk normally. Makes the Madonna tal-Ghar quite tame.
Don’t you think that with a bit of marketing, our tourism problem could be solved for all time? I can see hotels sprouting all round Birzebbugia.
By the way Marlene felt guilty as she has been to Lourdes several times and didn’t go to visit Angelik.
“Our Lady even explained that later on the stigmata would be deep, and they weren’t on the soles of his feet so that he would be able to walk normally”
Oh, I get it! She bothered about the soles of Angelik’s feet, and yet doesn’t give a toss about the millions of innocent people – babies included – dying of starvation, disease, war, etc. Oh, come on!
This woman and her husband (because it looks very much to me like she’s the one who orchestrates it all) should not be given such importance. To do so – and to keep repeating the words like “inhobbkom hafna” and all that bullshit supposedly uttered by the Madonna to the chosen one – is an insult to all the human suffering all over the world.
@Marika Mifsud
“And the forces of evil shattered the glass”.
That’s the only instant I zapped onto the show and upon hearing this nonsense I went back to the movie I was watching. Judging from these posts I did the right thing not to waste my evening watching crap.
I’m so sorry, but I fail to see how half of the people here mock and scorn this bloated fraud and then go to mass, pretending to eat flesh and drink blood. You are so quick to dismiss a “miracle” happening around you, but fail to see that such an act would have impressed so greatly 2000 years ago that it would be fabled in books for years to come. Not to mention the flocks of people who complain over the bad economy and can hardly feed their family, while still spending a good chunk of money to take their yearly trip to Lourdes every year.
My apologies if I offended someone, but apply your levels of discernment on your whole life, instead of when it suits you.
This is the island of hypocrisy.
“I fail to see how half of the people here mock and scorn this bloated fraud and then go to mass, pretending to eat flesh and drink blood.”
Because, having attended mass every week since shortly after birth, their mind is conditioned in such a way that it refuses to contemplate the alternative. They will invent all sorts of theories as to how that bread actually becomes Christ’s flesh after having been “consecrated”, yet when confronted with a similar outrageous claim that should really test their faith, they suddenly turn sceptical. Such a claim would be alien to the reality modeled by their minds, an individual model which we all build over the years and which helps us get through intractable problems in our lives by making use of assumptions that fill in the blanks of lacking hard information (heuristic-based decisions).
I used to think this is hypocritical. Now I only see it as a side-effect of undisciplined, unscientific minds. You can see this working in other aspects of our lives as well, e.g. if you’re used to drinking one particular brand of beverage, it would be very difficult to switch to another, or to stop drinking that type of beverage entirely. If you’re used to not exercising, changing your lifestyle is by no means a simple task, and the majority of people will not adapt to change, even if they consciously know it is for the better (health or otherwise). Rather than hypocritical, I now look at it as an opportunity – once you get people hooked on something, they become very loyal customers.
Could it be Dr Xuereb is using Angelik to gain recognition?
What a cheek he has accusing Dr. Abela Medici of making assumptions when he was explaining everything so scientifically!
If Our Lady wanted to say something to the world she should have stopped all the tv transmissions in the world and appear on each tv station around the globe in a miraculous way for all the world to hear and see…then everyone would believe…isn’t that simple enough.
I remember a mention of €50,000 needed for the ‘project’. Makes me wonder….
One can only wonder how many donations they’ve accepted till now.
50,000 Euros is a big sum, kinda makes you think they’re going to buy particle accelerators or something.
All they need is 10 webcams costing 15 Euros each (150 Euros), hooked up to a single core desktop ( 500 Euros) , 1 TB hard disk (150 Euros), a free program to record the action or the most 200 Euro program.
Any 15 year old can set it up for …30 Euros.
They can have tangible evidence, with not more than 1030 Euros.
Yet the Genius Dr.whoever claims they need 50000 Euros.
Please read these articles:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/10/03/time_runs_out_for_medjugorje
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000299.shtml
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1052230/Pope-finally-launches-crackdown-worlds-largest-illicit-Catholic-shrine-suspends-dubious-priest.html
‘he had fathered a child with a nun called Sister Rufina’
I find this sentence very comical, especially the nun’s name.
Why do Maltese people believe this crap? Have they no brain to think?
[Daphne – It’s not only Maltese people. Medjugorje receives five million visitors a year, from all over the world.]
I did not watch Xarablasens yesterday. Who is Marlene being mentioned above please?
[Daphne – Labour MP Marlene Pullicino, who left her husband to set up home with somebody else’s husband, and said on Xarabank yesterday that she is a great admirer of the Madonna, believes that she has appeared to Angelik, and has visited Lourdes often. I thought it was only men who compartmentalised their lives and actions.]
Mela maybe we can get some tourism out of this!
Maybe that’s what Angelik’s ultimate aim is, with some profit for himself, naturally. His website ( http://borgin-nadur.blogspot.com/2009/04/p184-message-of-1st-april-2009-given-at.html ) provides links to other “Angelik-friendly” ones, but suspiciously also includes a “Coming to Malta” link. Maybe eventually the Caruanas will be charging suckers a fee for tours round their home or to the site of the apparitions.
http://borgin-nadur.blogspot.com/2009/04/p184-message-of-1st-april-2009-given-at.html
(Message from Rome … “even though Angelik is not in Malta”.) Nahseb mar jipprova jikkonvinci l-Papa wkoll.
I feel so sorry for Angelik et al.
Like him, there are thousands of honest and well meaning people in Malta, (just listen to Radju Marija) countless millions over the world, who really seek truth, and who are willing to suffer for what they think is right.
These people are not, as some suppose here, crazy, or on drugs.They doing what people have done for thousands of years, getting in touch with “familiar” and other spirits.
And it’s wrong, so wrong.
Aaron, the many who believe that Angelik is saying the truth are obviously blinded by faith. Whilst I think that most are being conned, others simply cannot think clearly. (“Tiskanta, taf, hux?: L-ewwel jattakkawh ix-xjaten, imbaghad itella l-kmiem, u jkun mimli grif minghajr ma’ giet mqattha’ l-qmis, ghax is-spirti jistghu jigirfuh minghajr ma’ jqattghu id-drapp, ghax spirti, hux?”)
Doesn’t he realise that this circus act is nothing more than a ‘case study’ for Church authorities interested in learning more about the occult?
Odd, how very odd.
Aaron,
So you think that Angelik is honest, well-meaning and seeking the truth? I would say that he’s a particularly inept and grotesque con man and it is shameful that a) he hasn’t been denounced by the Church and b) there are people who actually believe him.
[Daphne – I think Aaron was being sarcastic.]
And this Marlene is dead set against divorce.
L-imgienen mhux biss Malta qeghdin:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Italy-Earthquake-Snake-Festival-Rito-dei-Serpari-Is-Cancelled-At-Cocullo/Article/200904415268946?lpos=World_News_Second_Home_Page_Feature_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15268946_Italy_Earthquake%3A_Snake_Festival_Rito_dei_Serpari_Is_Cancelled_At_Cocullo
I’m new to this blog, so hello everyone. Angelik is well known to the inhabitants of Birzebbuga and not for all the right reasons. Unlike what his psychiatrist says, he is a very susceptible person. Once when three speech therapists went to work at the centre where he was employed, he started telling strangers that he was a speech therapist himself. It’s a sad case, really, but now it has gone too far.
That’s a new one – A speech thereapist who speaks very inaudibly himself.
Surely you have heard about Padre Pio’s stigmata which in all probability were self-inflicted with carbolic acid? It is a fact that he did buy quantities of carbolic acid, but he had some lame excuse about what he did with it. Even Pope John XXIII thought he was a fraud.
Did not watch Xarabank – can you pl enlighten me as to who this Dr Xuereb is?
[Daphne – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyXsmqCJMQ Be sure to notice that the solitary tear which Joe Azzopardi documents is produced by the very eye into which the psychiatrist has just poked a tissue – but that’s just a coincidence, of course. ]
Well, just had a look at the blog. Surprised no one has posted any comments.
david s – We believe in the likes of Padre Pio not because of his stigmata but because of the good works he did. Did you read only about the carbolic acid or maybe you succeeded in finding out something about the hospital he founded, for example?
I really don’t care what Marlene Pullicino did, and with whom because we all live in glass houses etc. What I do mind is the way these people, after having thrown caution to the wind, have the guts to come into our houses (via TV) and play Santa Maria Goretti right in our faces. Can anyone blame us then if we all chorus “Who are you tryin’ to kid?!”
Exactly. She can do what the hell she likes, but should certainly not parade as a saint. Ditto the people “b’xeba qrun u stejjer” that make it a point of acting holy when it suits them, “ghal ghajn in-nies”. As I always say, “Jekk veru temmen b’Alla, b’Alla ma’ tidhaqx.”
Have just read Daphne’s article on this subject on today’s issue of ‘The Independent on Sunday’ and I could not agree more with all she wrote. I cannot comprehend how people with the slightest intelligence can swallow such rubbish.
Keep up the good work, Daphne.
Angelik might be honest. He just needs some (serious) psychiatric help. Even if I just said he might be honest, it is still a known fact that if you go down to Birzebbuga and ask about him many people, especially shop owners, will tell you he’s indebted with them. Viva l-progett tal-hamsin elf, hux.
There are known cases of people who have ended up with bruises etc. during sleep even if they did not scratch. There are very rare cases where the mind can produce such things. Nothing magical about it.
Regarding the tears he has when he “sees” the Madonna, all you have to do is keep your eyes open without any blinking for a few minutes. You’ll see the tears streaming down for yourself.
Someone told me that Angelik’s father was also some kind of visionary who used to say he saw the Madonna and such things. I guess it’s a hereditary condition. The guy needs help, and I’m not being sarcastic.
The one thing that most convinces me that it is a fraud is the willingness of these people to make a media circus out of it.
When claims relating to the supernatural are made, there should be a presumption that such claims are false. Only after many years of analysis, reflection and prayer should one even remotely consider that there may be some truth in the claims.
For Catholics, the Borg in-Nadur circus is an insult to our religion.
I was particularly saddened by the participation of two priests on the panel. Even if they did not declare themselves favourably on the alleged apparitions, their presence gave credibility. Stating that God can work in mysterious ways in a programme dealing solely with the claimed apparitions of Borg in-Nadur is easily misinterpreted that the alleged apparitions may well be true.
The participation of Marlene Pullicino confirmed what I have been suspecting all along – she is a person with a very, very low IQ.
When people talk to God, it’s called prayer. When God talks back, it’s called schizophrenia.
Oh come on John, don’t tell me you fell for this hogwash.