PaRaLyZeD-420
Growing Guru
Since its foundation, the Catholic Church and its Pope have been the sworn enemy of global marijuana culture.
The late Pope John Paul II: wanted tobacco banned
While millions of Catholic faithful around the world mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II, pot people would do well to remember that the Catholic Church has long been a leader in the global effort to exterminate marijuana and the cannabis culture.
The late Pope John Paul II had frequently campaigned against marijuana decriminalization, saying there are no distinctions between "hard" and "soft" drugs and that using marijuana is equivalent to using heroin.
In January 1997, a Pope-approved statement issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family claimed that legalizing drugs would be akin to legalizing murder, and also called for the banning of tobacco.
These statements are consistent with the Catholic Church's longstanding policy of official hatred for marijuana and other medicinal and psychoactive herbs. Catholic Popes have been viciously persecuting users of medicinal plants virtually since the formation of the Church.
For much of Europe's history, the Roman Catholic Church was fighting wars of destruction against many "heretical" sects. In many cases, these so-called heretics had rediscovered the herbal sacraments like mushrooms and cannabis, and were ruthlessly exterminated for their use of these powerful plants.
Some of these traditions of using psychoactive plants as sacraments survived for many centuries before finally being violently extinguished. For example, the magic mushroom eating Manicheans survived until the 12th century before finally being slaughtered by Catholic armies.
Most observers agree that the reason the Catholic Church hates psychoactive herbs is that these substances can create a sense of direct spiritual communion with the divine, while Catholic authority is based on the idea that the only way to reach God is with the Pope and priest as mediator.
The Inquisition
The Pope who launched the most vicious of the Catholic Church's many campaigns against herb users was Pope Innocent VIII (1432-1492). In 1484 he issued a papal bull called "Summis desiderantes" which demanded severe punishments for magic and witchcraft, which at the time usually meant the use of medicinal and hallucinogenic herbs. Indeed, the papal bull specifically condemned the use of cannabis in worship instead of wine.
The principles Pope Innocent VIII outlined became the basis for the terrifying and torturous witch-hunters' handbook, the Malleus Maleficarum (1487).
Further, Pope Innocent VIII was a major supporter of the vicious Inquisition, and in 1487 he appointed the infamous and sadistic Spanish friar Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor. Under Torquemada's authority, thousands of traditional female healers, users of forbidden plants, Jews, and other "heretics" were viciously tortured and killed during the "witch-hunts" of the Spanish Inquisition. This reign of terror gripped Europe well into the 17th Century.
Catholic Inquisitors tortured and killed many more in Central and South America, where peyote, ololiuqui and other sacred plants of the Aztec culture were prohibited as "works of the devil."
(Ironically, while the Church was slaughtering cannabis users in Europe, the Spanish conquistadors were busy planting hemp around the New World for use as clothing, rope and sails.)
The late Pope John Paul II: wanted tobacco banned
While millions of Catholic faithful around the world mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II, pot people would do well to remember that the Catholic Church has long been a leader in the global effort to exterminate marijuana and the cannabis culture.
The late Pope John Paul II had frequently campaigned against marijuana decriminalization, saying there are no distinctions between "hard" and "soft" drugs and that using marijuana is equivalent to using heroin.
In January 1997, a Pope-approved statement issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family claimed that legalizing drugs would be akin to legalizing murder, and also called for the banning of tobacco.
These statements are consistent with the Catholic Church's longstanding policy of official hatred for marijuana and other medicinal and psychoactive herbs. Catholic Popes have been viciously persecuting users of medicinal plants virtually since the formation of the Church.
For much of Europe's history, the Roman Catholic Church was fighting wars of destruction against many "heretical" sects. In many cases, these so-called heretics had rediscovered the herbal sacraments like mushrooms and cannabis, and were ruthlessly exterminated for their use of these powerful plants.
Some of these traditions of using psychoactive plants as sacraments survived for many centuries before finally being violently extinguished. For example, the magic mushroom eating Manicheans survived until the 12th century before finally being slaughtered by Catholic armies.
Most observers agree that the reason the Catholic Church hates psychoactive herbs is that these substances can create a sense of direct spiritual communion with the divine, while Catholic authority is based on the idea that the only way to reach God is with the Pope and priest as mediator.
The Inquisition
The Pope who launched the most vicious of the Catholic Church's many campaigns against herb users was Pope Innocent VIII (1432-1492). In 1484 he issued a papal bull called "Summis desiderantes" which demanded severe punishments for magic and witchcraft, which at the time usually meant the use of medicinal and hallucinogenic herbs. Indeed, the papal bull specifically condemned the use of cannabis in worship instead of wine.
The principles Pope Innocent VIII outlined became the basis for the terrifying and torturous witch-hunters' handbook, the Malleus Maleficarum (1487).
Further, Pope Innocent VIII was a major supporter of the vicious Inquisition, and in 1487 he appointed the infamous and sadistic Spanish friar Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor. Under Torquemada's authority, thousands of traditional female healers, users of forbidden plants, Jews, and other "heretics" were viciously tortured and killed during the "witch-hunts" of the Spanish Inquisition. This reign of terror gripped Europe well into the 17th Century.
Catholic Inquisitors tortured and killed many more in Central and South America, where peyote, ololiuqui and other sacred plants of the Aztec culture were prohibited as "works of the devil."
(Ironically, while the Church was slaughtering cannabis users in Europe, the Spanish conquistadors were busy planting hemp around the New World for use as clothing, rope and sails.)
oh herbal lord show me the way.. 
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