Beatification of John Paul II

Beatification of John Paul II has come at the time when Catholic church is seeing rapidly declining interest. Church attendance has declined as well as recruitment into priesthood. This means reduced income for the church at the time of record payments being made to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The beatification dates are highly symbolic. May Day celebrations originate from prehistoric times. It has always been necessary to measure time for agricultural and hunting purposes.In prehistoric times this was done using astronomy. Year was probably divided into sixteen months. The time was measured in terms of solstices and equinoxes. The days which fell in between solstice and equinox were called quarter days. May day is such a point and denotes the start of summer. Many prehistoric sites have large stones to mark such passage of time. Large stones are arranged in circles, henge, but sometimes rows. May Day sun declination is +16 67 +- 0.14 and stones helped to mark the point in time. Festivities amongst Celts and others have various symbols of fertility such as Maypole associated with quarter days in May. During periods of Christianity many pagan festivals were taken up and somewhat modified. It is said one must not fish on May Day. Fish is symbol of Christ. May Day celebrations were forbidden at different times in history such as during protestant opposition to Catholicism. So, I am not surprised that May Day was chosen for the beatification. The pleasure element of May Day did not appeal to puritans. They banned it. It is interesting to read that allegedly the sign that John Paul II should be beatified was that on of the nuns who attended to him in his final days and had Parkinson's disease recovered allegedly miraculously. Of course, doctors do know that signs of Parkinson's Disease such as trembling can come from various types of poisoning. Some sedative medication can cause it as a side effect. When medication is stopped the signs of parkinsonism go away usually. Maybe it was stressful looking after the Pope and nun needed some sedation, or was given medication for another condition and it caused the symptoms as a side effect. Click here to read about just a small selection of toxins that can cause parkinsonism. May Day is also symbolic of work such as planting. In secular states May Day was designated as Labour Day, International Workers Day, and much celebrated with spectacular military parades in communist countries (and time off work for a day or two) and HERE. The presence of Polish ex union leader Lech Walensa and Mugabe who was a socialist at some point in his political career is symbolic of Catholic power over communism which opposed religion as Opium of the people. Both Walensa and Mugabe were raised as Catholics. Mugabe opposed homosexuality and his predecessor was found guilty in court of many offences of sodomy.