Report: Parishioner turns over human skull to local priest, says skull was used for witchcraft

[Tis_Bearself]

You can believe what you like but be prepared for a big surprise when you die

Doesn’t your wife tell you there’s an afterlife? She sounds like the no-nonsense type who would just tell you what’s what.

 

[tablecorner]

a great schema monk! I always find the inscriptions so moving and meaningful to my soul. It is almost like reciting the rosary when i read through all the symbols.

 

[FiveLinden]

Would you really expect Catholics, who believe that occult practices like wicca and voodoo are means of serious sin, evil, and spiritually dangerous, would help others participate in those practices by giving them an object used in them? Respect for others’ religion doesn’t stretch that far. And as much as every human being deserves respect, not all spiritualities do.

Well, yes. I would. It’s what respect for religious freedom requires.

 

[sealabeag]

In other words compromise, lukewarmness and not really believing in anything? I can’t imagine anything worse in a Catholic.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Not sure why anyone is taking the bait on this “religious freedom issue” being argued by an unbeliever.

If the item belongs to another church, then it’s a property law issue and a police matter.

If the item belongs to the person who gave it to the priest, then it may still be a police matter because human remains are involved, but nobody else has a legal claim to the item, which settles the property matter.

 

[FiveLinden]

I’m working on the assumption that the skull was used in the rites of a religion, as first suggested, and that the religion is known as a result of the report of the person who gave it to the priest.

If someone was to take, as is sometimes alleged to occur, a consecrated host from a Catholic Church and give it to a Wiccan religious leader or a Voodoo practitioner, what would be the right thing for them to do? Treat it as a matter of legal ownership, or respect the beliefs of the Catholic church and return it?

I very much appreciate those who take the time to respond to my points all of which are made so I can understand more about belief.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If someone was to take, as is sometimes alleged to occur, a consecrated host from a Catholic Church

The consecrated host belongs to the Church. The skull belongs to the family. Apples and oranges.

Besides, you know perfectly well what would happen if a family gave the priest a voodoo item and said, “We took this from the voodoo church up the street.”

The priest would call the police and say somebody gave him an item that they said they took from another church. The police take the item away and deal with the matter. End of story.

I’m leaving this thread now because you’re basically making up a story that’s not what happened in this case and appears to be not only fictional, but farfetched, just to bait people into arguing with you. I am not going to enable your attempted disruption of a thread in this manner. Have a nice day.

 

[FiveLinden]

And you, too, Bear.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I’m sorry, I cannot resist this. But first, how did we ever get into a discussion about obtaining, and the desirability of having, human skulls?

And now to the part I can’t resist. When I was in Catholic high school, mirabile dictu, we actually had a human skull in our science lab. Not to suggest that this is ever an acceptable way to treat human remains — 16-year-old boys most often haven’t developed a deep reservoir of common sense yet, and we were no exception — but Mr Skull would often end up with an unlit cigarette between his teeth, sunglasses, or probably wearing a hat, depending upon the mood of the prankster and what materials were easily at hand that day.

One day Mr Skull went missing. He never reappeared. There were rumors. Nothing was ever proven. That’s been over 40 years ago.

Requiescat in pace.

(And, no, I didn’t steal him. Just in case anyone was wondering.)

 

[BornInMarch]

So it seems like the police are trying to figure out how the person the skull originally belonged to died, and it’s use in occult rituals will impede that investigation because any cut-marks found on the bones might have been part of that ritual.

My gut tells me that the person the skull came from wasn’t murdered for his skull. I think if the skull was obtained illegally than it was more likely that the original owner died and his grave or anatomical display was robbed after the fact.