New Patron Saint of Conjurers Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit New Patron Saint, Just in the Nick of Time (Apparently even St. Jude, Patron Saint of Impossible Causes, has thrown up his hands with the latest Church scandal. So JP2 is resorting to Magic....] source - Bill Koehnlein Sojomail (Sojourners magazine online) - April 17, 2002 http://www.Sojo.net Pope gives blessing to a patron saint of Harry Potters Thanks to Pope John Paul II, Harry will soon have a patron saint to turn to when spells threaten to go horribly wrong. The Pope is planning to name Saint Don Bosco, a 19th-century Italian priest with a passion for magic, as the patron saint of conjurers, magicians, and wizards. The idea is the brainchild of Father Silvio Mantelli, a bespectacled priest and magician who boasts the stage name Mago Sales and has devoured all of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. He likes to celebrate mass wearing a clown's plastic red nose. Don Bosco was born near Turin in 1815. As a child he watched visiting performers in his village piazza and developed an interest in magic from them. His repertoire included making rabbits disappear and finding coins in a loaf of bread. Not all Catholic officials are convinced of the benefits of magic. Last December Father Gabriele Amorth, the church's best-known exorcist, said Harry Potter was inspired by the devil. ********************************************************************* "The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated." --José Martí ********************************************************************* The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory http://www.toplab.org ********************************************************************* ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrad-04.18.02-03:05:27-26579