From: CEvans1950@aol.com
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 16:53:25 EDT
Subject: Doublethink at work

Hello,

Here we see where Italian Catholic delusionals cannot comprehend the madness of their views. On the one hand they venerate a lunatic/fraud who happened to hold a religious title and whose lunacy/fraud undoubtedly filled church coffers with valuables defrauded from the stupid while they arrest an identical lunatic/fraud who performed exactly the same "service" for her own use. Valuables obtained by fraud are stolen property no matter to what use they are put. Hypocrisy thy name is Catholic.

Sincerely,
Caroline

Italian Mystic Arrested

.c The Associated Press

BARI, Italy (AP) -- A woman posing as the "spiritual daughter" of a late Italian mystic faces charges of defrauding his believers of $600,000 with promises to cast out their devils and deliver miracles, a news agency said Thursday.

In a case that illustrates the power of Padre Pio -- whose tomb attracts millions of visitors each year -- Filomena Malerba is accused of trading in on his legend for three years and infiltrating a group of his devotees, Italy's ANSA news agency said.

The 61-year-old housewife is from Bari, a town in the southern province of Puglia, where the monk's monastery is located.

Padre Pio was a Capuchin monk who attained worldwide fame in 1918 when he began to bleed from his hands, feet and side -- the first priest in centuries to show signs of the stigmata.

Thirty years after his death in 1968, his followers still credit him with miracles, intercessions and supernatural powers. Many say a powerful scent of flowers signals his spiritual presence.

Malerba and another woman are accused in the scam and are under house arrest, ANSA said.

Police raided Malerba's house and found huge sums of money, jewelry and silver and gold objects, allegedly given to the women by her victims, ANSA said.

Among the alleged victims was a woman suffering from leukemia, a woman whose son tried to commit suicide and a woman who was depressed because of marital problems.

AP-NY-10-01-98 1353EDT

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