Vladimir Putin is saint and saviour for Russian cult
(Svetlana Frolova pauses during a service at her sanctuary at Bolshaya Yelena, a village near central Russia's city of Nizhny Novgorod May 15, 2011/Natalia Plankina)
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cultivates the image of a bare-chested macho man, but a nun-like sect in central Russia thinks actually he’s the reincarnation of St. Paul, the apostle. Or, if not that, he may in a past life have been the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church.
“I say what the Lord has revealed to me,” the sect’s leader, former convict Svetlana Frolova, said.
Putin’s advisers disclaim any link with the sect led by the former railway manager, who was jailed for fraud in 1996. “He (Putin) does not approve of that kind of admiration,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by telephone.
But Frolova and her followers are only the most extreme illustration of a personality cult building up around Putin before the 2012 presidential election. An opinion poll by the independent Levada Center showed that more than half of Russians believe a Soviet-style personality cult is being cultivated for Putin, who has refused to say whether he will run for president in the March vote.
“I love Putin as our No. 1, our commander, the captain of our great ship, and he is worthy of our love,” said Frolova, who says she was “reborn” as Mother Fotinya after serving a 21-month sentence. She says God spoke to her and revealed Putin’s past lives included that of Grand Prince Vladimir of Rus, credited with founding the Russian Orthodox Church more than a millennia ago.
“Every one of us has many incarnations. Saint Paul was indeed one of Putin’s,” she told Reuters, her high-pitched voice bouncing off the icon-hung walls of her sanctuary in Bolshaya Yelnya, a village near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, some 410 km (255 miles) east of Moscow.
Filipinos flock to northern town for fertility dance for patron saint
Hundreds of couples flocked to a town in the northern Philippines to take part in a centuries-old ritual dance, honouring a patron saint believed to bring fertility. The ritual took place this year amid an increasingly acrimonious battle over a controversial bill promoting artificial contraception in this intensely Catholic nation.
Those seeking children packed into Obando by the thousands for the annual May ritual, inspired by miraculous stories of the babies it has brought. Couples dance in the two-hour long procession, swaying their hips to a traditional folk tune from bamboo and marching bands. The ritual is accompanied by a short chant and prayer to Saint Claire, the local patron saint of fertility, asking her to bless them with children.
The rite has taken place in Obando for centuries and apparently originated from a pagan fertility ritual where couples once rubbed their body parts against an idol. But the act was later changed by the Catholic Church when they introduced Saint Claire, the patron saint of fertility, to the locals.
The dance also promotes fertility in a different way, with the saint playing matchmaker to help people find a partner. Newlywed Tess Faustino said she found her husband after asking the patron saint for guidance. “This is my first time to wish for a child,” she added.
The contraception bill has led to an escalating war of words that has put Philippine President Benigno Aquino on a collision course with the country’s powerful Catholic Church leaders, who have blocked similar measures since the 1990s.
Read the full story by Roli Ng and Peter Blaza here.
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Pope John Paul beatified before huge crowd at the Vatican
The late Pope John Paul moved a major step closer to sainthood on Sunday at a ceremony that drew about a million and half people, the largest crowd in Rome since his funeral six years ago. “From now on Pope John Paul shall be called ‘blessed,’” Pope Benedict, wearing white and gold robes, proclaimed in Latin, establishing that his predecessor’s feast day would be October 22, the day of the inauguration of John Paul’s pontificate in 1978.
To the cheers of the crowd, a tapestry showing a smiling John Paul was unveiled after Benedict read the proclamation. St Peter’s Square was packed and the crowd stretched as far back as the Tiber River, more than half a km away. The devotees, many carrying national flags and singing, moved toward the Vatican area from all directions from before dawn to get a good spot for the Mass.
Police estimated the crowd in the Vatican area at about 1.5 million people. Many camped out during the night in the square, which was bedecked with posters of the late pope and one of his most famous sayings, “Do not be afraid!”
In his homily, Benedict noted that the late Pope, whom he praised as having had “the strength of a titan” and who gave millions of people “the strength to believe,” had blessed crowds thousands of times from his window overlooking the same square. “Bless us now,” Benedict said.
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Pope John Paul II – a halo too soon?
Is Pope John Paul II approaching his halo too fast? As the Vatican prepares to elevate the late pontiff one step closer to sainthood this Sunday, the Catholic world is caught up with beatification fever.
Rome is festooned with posters of the former pope on buses and lamp posts as the city where he was bishop for 27 years awaits one of the largest crowds since his funeral in 2005, when millions came to pay tribute. At least several hundred thousand people are expected at the mass in St Peter’s Square where his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, will pronounce a Latin formula declaring one of the most popular popes in history a “blessed” of the Church.
The frenetic preparations in Rome, in John Paul’s native Poland and around the world, have matched the buildup for Friday’s royal wedding in London and drowned out the voices of a minority of Catholics asking “Why the rush?.”
The answer depends on the definition of sainthood. “The official judgment of the church is catching up with the spontaneous judgment of the people of the church,” said American theologian and papal biographer George Weigel. “What’s happening is the acknowledgement of a Christian life nobly lived and one from which we can all take inspiration,” Weigel, who knew the pope, told Reuters.
At John Paul’s funeral in 2005, the crowd chanted the now famous phrase “Santo Subito” (Make him a saint now).
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