Posted on 11/23/2009 5:32:37 AM PST by markomalley
Pope John Paul II regularly whipped himself in a sign of "remorse for his sins", a nun has claimed.
The Pope, who died five years ago, is being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church.
As part of the Vatican's investigation thousands of documents have been collected and examined by officials from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Among them is the testimony of Tobiana Sobodka, a Polish nun of the Sacred Heart of Jesus order, who worked for Pope John Paul in his private Vatican apartments and at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.
Sister Sobodka said: "Several times he (Pope John Paul) would put himself through bodily penance.
"We would hear it – we were in the next room at Castel Gandolfo. You could hear the sound of the blows when he flagellate himself. He did it when he was still capable of moving on his own."
The flagellation is also confirmed by another bishop who has given testimony. Emery Kabongo was a secretary for Pope John Paul.
"He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests," he said.
"I never actually saw it myself but several people told me about it."
Self flagellation is sometimes used by devoted Catholics as it reminds them of the whipping endured by Christ at the hands of the Romans before he was crucified.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
It is likely that the Holy Father also fasted. I wonder when (and how) they are going to report that he wore a hair shirt.
I guess the media will now use this to beat up on Catholics some more.
Enough for the DBM to report it as fact.
What is a hair shirt? What’s the significance?
Completely incomprehensible to the modern world, however, as some comments on this thread will likely show.
I hate to butt in on your conversation, but perhaps our old pope was merely excoriating himself due to his non-action on reversing serious errors ensuing subsequent to Vatican II.
Find a real Jesuit who hasn't caved in to secular humanism and ask him.
The hairshirt is a sign or mourning, made from goats’ hair. A singularly uncomfortable garment.
It is an undershirt that is made of some rough material (traditionally animal hair), but can also be made of rough cloth (imagine cloth woven from twine).
What’s the significance?
Some people who practice asceticism wear a hair shirt (or some other form of physical penance) as an act to separate their will from physical desires. Often done as a form of penance for their sins or for the sins of the world (See Col 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,). The idea is that if you can keep your mind on God with the distraction from hunger pains (in the case of fasting) or itching (in the case of a hairshirt) or pain (in the case of flagellation), then you will be less vulnerable to temptation when something happens in the moment. (If you look at the use of the word gymnazō and related words, you will see that we are exhorted to exercise ourselves unto Godliness. See for example 1 Tim 4:7 and Heb 5:14).
I wonder in the NYT will report on this. As I understand it, they now have a policy of not reporting news “which was never intended for public consumption” or some such drivel.
Corporal penance has been a completely normal part of the Church's life for millenia.
It's only in our own time that it has become regarded as a sign of mental incapacity: by those unable or unwilling to distinguish it from low-insight activities such as self-mutilation or masochism.
Corporal Penance is not cutting. Corporal Penance is not self-damage, neither is it some masochistic perversion. It is mortification: a self-willed identification with the pains endured by Christ.
Corporal Penance is not required for Christians: however it is a hallmark of the lives of many of the Saints.
Not at all, the Holy Father endured a tiny portion of what our Lord did, both voluntarily. Saying this is to suggest that Jesus was also unbalanced, insulting in the extreme.
God bless.
Are you a Catholic?
“Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies.” 2 Corinthians 4:10
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