245 Comments
User's avatar
NOGODZ20's avatar

Bottom line: This was about the money for the RCC, as always. Acutis' parents have it and Holy Mother Church is all to willing to cut a deal.

Expand full comment
James Scammell's avatar

It’s very unfair … I suffer dreadfully from the disease ME/CFS … and this story is making me feel more sickly. That’s all proof that THEISM is a spoof.

Expand full comment
Sarah Longstaff's avatar

Did you light enough candles at the correct saint's shrine?

Expand full comment
James Scammell's avatar

BLAST !

Was that the likely cause of my health demise ?

I’ll get a carton of matches and a thousand birthday cake candles, find a cattletick church with unlocked doors, and attempt to light all candles on the big meat chopping table up the front near the big gold lightening conductor.

Fingers crossed !

Expand full comment
Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

I called it yesterday.

Expand full comment
XJC's avatar

But...but...Joe Biden is a Good Catholic(TM)?

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

A basically good man who happens to be a devout Catholic.

And unlike so many Rethuglikkkan xtian hypocrites, Biden tries to live by his beliefs. Not just when it’s convenient.

Expand full comment
XJC's avatar

Biden still believes he could have beaten Trump.

Beliefs...or delusions?

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Biden at his most delusional is nowhere NEAR as delusional as Trump is.

Expand full comment
James Scammell's avatar

Many years back my sister-in-law married what’s referred to as "an unusually good cattletick". BUT, he himself and his church would not allow him to marry until she signed her life away and became a member of the cattletick nuthouse church.

Ten years back, at least my normal human non-theist son was able to marry his lady, who is a cattletick on paper, without joining the herd of suffering cattleticks.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Ellis Peter's, A morbid taste for bones (Traffic de reliques). This novel doesn't sound like an endorsement of catholic cult of relics.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

The Catholic Church has become notorious for taking anything even slightly out of the ordinary as a "miracle." It has gotten to the point where they no longer employ a "devil's advocate" to argue against a proposed sanctification. (Worthy of note, Christopher Hitchens actually served as such an advocate against Mother Teresa! A shame they couldn't bother to actually LISTEN to him. 😝)

This particular sainthood, such as it is, amounts to little more than a desperate attempt to rope Millennials and GenZers into the Church. I have to wonder just who Vatican City thinks their kidding, as kids know their way around cell phones and media better than damned near anyone, and those who are sufficiently engaged to think will see through this charade about as fast as you can swipe to the left!

I've said it before and will say it again: the RCC is grasping at straws.

Expand full comment
Derrik Pates's avatar

> The Catholic Church has become notorious for taking anything even slightly out of the ordinary as a "miracle."

Hey, when you don't have much in the way of unexplained events to choose from, you have to use whatever you can get.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

You can smell the desperation on 'em. 😝

Expand full comment
Nevoustrumpezpas's avatar

Don't forget the president's unfortunate brush with death. Won't that be elevated to some kind of Catholic miracle one of these days? I looked it up, and there are a number of saints who are said to receive prayer about earaches.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

He would have to convert first.

Expand full comment
Sarah Longstaff's avatar

They have to compete with all the christo-fascist red pill propaganda that is dragging in GenZ and younger boys worldwide.

Expand full comment
Hannah olufs's avatar

I look at the website. No one is gonna think "cool man".

Expand full comment
Old Man Shadow's avatar

[Was it a miracle or was it a misdiagnosis?]

Don't know. Unusual things still happen.

My first thought, of course, is why God permits any child to suffer at all. This whole story begins with the death of a child. Probably a child whose parents prayed for a miracle and didn't receive one. Why would God permit so many children to suffer and die and hand out miracles like they were limited by scarcity? The easiest and most likely answer is that miracles don't happen or have a rare natural cause.

Anyway, yeah, the Catholic Church is absolutely using this dead child as a marketing tool.

Expand full comment
Richard S. Russell's avatar

“I moved away from practicing religion and I stopped asking why God would allow people to suffer, and started asking why WE are allowing people to suffer.”

—Tatiana Chance, former Jehovah’s Witness, winner of the 2025 Youth Activist Award from Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

Damn! Hell of a statement, especially from a former JW!

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

Further Thought: People have been going to Lourdes for longer than I care to think. One hears stories of miracles and of people leaving walkers and crutches and wheelchairs behind. Still, I'd be willing to bet that NOT ONCE has anyone ever left a prosthetic arm or leg as they left.

And if they did, where is all the news about a regrown limb?

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

First hallucination 1858

Last miracle 2009

Millions of pilgrims each year, 72 miraculous healings.

Mary sure is stingy with her help 🤔

Expand full comment
Joe King's avatar

She's busy in heaven's kitchen making sammiches for pops, junior, and the spook.

Expand full comment
Kay-El's avatar

Can’t stop laughing

Expand full comment
Hannah olufs's avatar

Shit Joe, that was funny.

Expand full comment
Sarah Longstaff's avatar

Was there any follow up? Adrenaline can be a hell of a drug, but it wears off.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

That's the kind of crap that Benny Hinn depends on all the time.

Expand full comment
Joe King's avatar

𝐼𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑘𝑖𝑑 𝑎 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑉𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓𝑓.

"Paid off" being the key phrase. If the Vatican can get more money put of it, they will. If it distracts from the kiddie diddling scandals, they'll do it. Anything to keep the faithful in line and opening their wallets.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

If it's a distraction, making a kid a saint is kind of self-defeating, It would put MORE focus on the kiddie fiddling.

Expand full comment
Joe King's avatar

"Don't look at the live kids being abused, look at the dead kid doing miracles!"

Expand full comment
RegularJoe's avatar

If only they were just fiddling with the kiddies.....nope, these bastards are 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 the children.

Expand full comment
Joe King's avatar

Two instances where patients getting state of the art medical care had relatives who touched something a dead kid was associated with, and when they recovered it 𝘩𝘢𝘥 to be the dead kid doing a miracle and not the medical professionals. Critical thinking is dead.

Expand full comment
Richard S. Russell's avatar

Math problem:

Given: Religion + Good Works = Good Works

Solve for Religion.

Expand full comment
Hannah olufs's avatar

Do I have to show my work?

Expand full comment
Stephen Brady's avatar

Sympathetic Magic is alive and well.

Expand full comment
Rachel's avatar

So true. Let's see how it would go without medical intervention. Well...we have seen, and it usually ends very poorly.

Expand full comment
Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

They saint you for that too. Hello Mother Teresa!

Expand full comment
Joan the Dork's avatar

So, what the fuck is this poor kid gonna be the patron saint of? 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘮-𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨?

It's all quite horrible, really. All of your actual accomplishments, your personality, your passions... everything, forever, all forgotten. The only thing about you that will ever be remembered again is someone else's posthumous delusion. Not your life- not even your death. Just one little incident that you didn't even play a role in, because you were already dead, replacing the whole of your life and memory. That's sainthood in a nutshell.

Horrible.

Expand full comment
Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

"So, what the fuck is this poor kid gonna be the patron saint of? 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘮-𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨?"

I did a lot of that as a teen. It would be appropriate.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

How often did you shave your palms?

Expand full comment
Mr.E's avatar

also, how is your vision??

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

I wear progressive bifocals, aka trifocals.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

My prescription is so strong, I have x-ray vision.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

Greased palm. - That's one way to keep people from stealing your coconuts.

Expand full comment
jason's avatar

Nothing new for the Catholic Church. They dug up a dead nun and declared a miracle that little decomposition had happened and many kissed the corpse on the lips. The buzz around the nun and the newly manufactured saint is to keep existing customers happy, the money flowing, and to lure new customers. Just a business to prey on people's emotions that was and is a social media empire way before the internet.

Expand full comment
Chris Titchmarsh's avatar

The final nail for me in Catholicism was when the holiest woman in the world was exposed as a hypocrite and, no other way of putting it, a monster.

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

The buzz around the nun was most likely flies.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Congratulations to the catholic church that will try to win as much money as possible with this boy's tragic death while the family paid for everything. And the grift goes on 🎶

Expand full comment
oraxx's avatar

There is no idea so absurd there will not be people who believe it. All religions are desperate for a sense of validation, it isn't limited to Catholics. It isn't as if the Catholic church can prove any of this. You should not have great expectations for a species so deeply rooted in magical thinking.

Expand full comment
Linda Bower's avatar

It’s hard not to just laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, but the Catholic Church really wants to be the comeback-kid right now and that should alarm everyone. From the surprise American Pope to the sadistic Supreme Court 6, the pieces are all in place for the win by force (here anyway). They want us to forget about all the oppression and the child abuse. Sorry, they are not forgiven. Thanks.

Expand full comment
Sarah Longstaff's avatar

Ugh, I tried to read the book Opus by Gareth Gore, and I just couldn't. "ANOTHER cult?!" I thought. "I can't take anymore!" Opus Dei preys on the trauma-bonds of well-educated young men who go on into finance and other influential positions. And then they traffic women to act as the men's servants. So gross. Yes, this is the organization that that foul, pustulant dictator wanna-be turd joined before his puppet master bought him the Vice Presidential spot.

Expand full comment
Linda Bower's avatar

Yikes! I don’t think I could read that, right now anyhow. I was unaware of the name of ol’ JD’s cult. He’s so much worse than Dear Leader because he’s a “true believer”

Expand full comment
Boreal's avatar

The xtian cult is filled with the most gullible of rubes. I remember a news article a few years back where a woman was interviewed because her sister had died in a fire. The premise of the story was that her sister’s bible had survived the fire and that was somehow a miracle from ‘god’. This vapid bint was gushing about how god saved the bible but not a bit of sorrow that her sister had perished in the fire.

It’s a death and grifting cult.

Expand full comment
Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Religion attracts the incurious, it beats the curiosity out of the curious, and it rewards the lack of curiosity. This allows the mindless to accept the nonsense, including miracles.

Expand full comment
John Smith's avatar

Religion also rejects critical thinking, introspection, self reflection so that the followers are willing to become mindless drones.

Expand full comment
Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

She never said she liked her sister.

Expand full comment
Boreal's avatar

Ah, so she set the fire.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

We didn't start the fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g

Ear worm burn.

Expand full comment
Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

Frank Burn?

Expand full comment
Guerillasurgeon's avatar

There was a meme, don't know if it was about this particular incident, but it was just an exchange where she gushed on about that and somebody chipped in with "Someone died, Helen" or something like that.

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

Surely, the death part is merely incidental to the real story.

Expand full comment
Charles Newman's avatar

"died of leukemia" It's a miracle that the Catholic omnipotent God didn't spare the youngster's life of suffering and death. Something many believers in the supernatural and invisible beings will never question or think about. Sadly the fear is controlling them.

In God We Trust? 🤔

Expand full comment
Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Ah, but God needed a YOUNG saint. Most of them are too old to appeal these days.

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

You try being 1500 years old and see how attractive you are to a 60-year-old priest.

Expand full comment
Guerillasurgeon's avatar

15 might be a tad old for some.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

That must have been one horrid case of leukemia. Leukemia is TREATABLE, or at least around here it is, and it should NOT be a death sentence!

So what the actual fuck is going on here?

Expand full comment
Charles Newman's avatar

"what the actual" For many Christians no need for treatment, their God will cure them. Ask Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copland?

Experience Miraculous Healing with Pastor Benny Hinn😆

Expand full comment
Bonnie Boyce's avatar

With most religion, it is ALWAYS marketing.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

In one of his talks, Seth Andrews mentioned a woman who told him: "Everything I ever learned about marketing, I learned in church!"

Speaks volumes, don't it?

Expand full comment
Charles Newman's avatar

"Seth Andrews" is a favorite to listen too. Thanks 🙂

Long live Seth!

Expand full comment
Lynn Veit's avatar

If it's not marketing, it's performative piety.

Expand full comment
Chris Titchmarsh's avatar

Of course it is all marketing. It is selling a non existent product.

Following from yesterday's article, the city that rejected the church expansion into the commercial District was wrong to do so. Or would have been, if churches were correctly identified as profit making commercial ventures THAT PAID TAXES.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

OT

Today may be a short session for me. I find myself needing to go to the VA. Something is going on with the lower left half of my body that I cannot explain and that seems to have no cause.

If I return today, it may be much later, depending on what they find.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

At least it's not the lower right. : )

Expand full comment
RegularJoe's avatar

Best wishes!

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

Get Well SOON! 👍

Expand full comment
Boreal's avatar

Hope all is okay.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

Good luck!

Expand full comment
Bensnewlogin's avatar

Be well. I hope everything is OK.

Expand full comment
Hannah olufs's avatar

God Speed!

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Good luck and be careful out there.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Thanx. Back in the saddle. 🙂

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

Anyone we know? ;)

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

I'd say, but modesty forbids.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Thanks to all who replied. Means a lot, believe me.

Expand full comment
Kay-El's avatar

I guess it’s a miracle that mom had the money to make this a reality. Otherwise, none of us would know about the sad death of a young man before his time.

Expand full comment