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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:16 PM
Original message
Sex, Drugs And Weeping Icons
Edited on Mon Apr-16-07 03:27 PM by DeSwiss
SOURCE: Brownsville Herald

Monk Details Sex, Drugs, Weeping Icon At Texas Monestary

April 15, 2007 - 9:15PM

One of five monks facing charges of sexually abusing children told authorities that an inner circle of monks at the monastery there had sex with one another, smoked marijuana and used an eyedropper to produce fake tears on a Virgin Mary icon.

The allegations are the latest revelation into life at The Christ of the Hills monastery, in Blanco, Texas, which was allied with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia from 1991 to 1999.

The church broke ties with the monastery when allegations surfaced of indecency by San Antonio-businessman-turned-monk Samuel Greene with an 11-year-old novice monk studying there. Greene pleaded guilty in 2000 to indecency and was sentenced to 10 years probation. Monk Jonathan Hitt received a 10-year prison sentence in the case.

Greene, Hitt and three others were charged last year with sexual assault of a child and engaging in organized crime. All the monks except Hitt are free on bail and awaiting trial, authorities said.

In July, monk Hugh Brian Fallon detailed to investigators some of the activities going on at the monastery. That statement was released by court order last month. The monks claimed that a Virgin Mary icon wept tears of myrrh, but those tears came from an eyedropper Greene kept in his nightstand, Fallon said.

Greene encouraged sex among the monks and would offer marijuana "when people were having problems," Fallon said in his statement. A man who answered Greene's phone Sunday said that the monk is not talking to the media and had no comment.

Last year, the insurance company for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia settled a claim by a man who says he was abused as a teenager at the monastery.

link: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/onset?id=75544&template=article.html


*** - Okay, okay the sex? Hey that's personal, live and let live I always say. Not with the kiddies mind you. Put those bastards under the jail!!! But the adults, well hell... they're adults and it was consensual. Let's move on.

Smoking doobies in the rectory? Well, god created the world, right? And everything in it. Including all the herbs. Nuff said.

But creating tears with an eyedropper on the icon of the Virgin Mary!!!! Sacrebleu!!! Have they no shame? Don't they know god don't play the dozens?? You can't do "yo' momma" jokes with the Almighty. As in, "yo' momma so dry, monks have to make myrrh tears for her from an eyedropper." Hmmmm, I don't think that's going to play too well up in heaven.
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:20 PM
Response to Original message
1. This sounds like an early Almodovar film
"Dark Habits," about shenanigans at a convent that dealt with "fallen women" but had fallen on hard times because the fallen women had enough resources to pick themselves up.

If you have an appreciation for the truly bizarre, I recommend it. If you don't, you won't like it.
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:29 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Sounds like something I'd like to read. Must check it out...
...thanks for the reco!

;)
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. You'll have to rent
It's a flick, in Spanish with subtitles.
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More Than A Feeling Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:24 PM
Response to Original message
2. Another supernatural claim bites the dust.
Shocking, truly. (as if you needed it...:sarcasm:)
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:43 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. I was shocked...
...for at least 2 or 3 seconds.

Then reality set in.....

:eyes:
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Red_Viking Donating Member (903 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:27 PM
Response to Original message
3. Holy sh*t, I've been there!
I'm stunned. I'm not a Catholic, nor am I particularly religious, but I went there to see the weeping icon years ago. The monestary is in a beautiful place in the Texas Hill Country. The priest who gave the tour blessed everyone with myrrh from the icon, including my daughter who was two at the time. She has always been a firecracker, and that day proved no different--when the priest went to bless her, she kicked him in the shins. At the time I was horrified, but now... maybe she knew something? :P

It is a shame to see this kind of abuse. Makes me sad.


Peace,

RV
(Native Texan, transplanted to Oregon)
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-16-07 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Seems to me....
...that she saw through his monkish mask! :mad:

:)

Note to self: when kids kick the preacher, he's probably a bad egg. }(

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