Father Edward Commolly Curses Buxom Pirate Statue

Sometimes the superstitious behavior and beliefs of religious people is astounding. Of course religious believers deny that their ideology has anything to do with superstition, despite a host of at least superficial similarities, but the connection is a whole lot more than just superficial. Sometimes the line between superstition and religion hardly exists.

Case in point is Father Edward Commolly, a Catholic priest in Girardville, Pennsylvania, who actually thought it reasonable to curse a statue in front of an antique shop — all because the statue is of a buxom female pirate showing a bit of cleavage. First, though, he commanded the owners to remove it — as if he had any authority to command anything outside his congregation.

"I believe that it's indecent. I guess it would categorized as soft porn. If there is a definition of that I would call it soft porn," said Father Edward Commolly. ...

Father Commolly commanded the owners to remove it. "He pointed to the statue and very dictatorially and said, 'I curse you. I curse this place. I want to see this destroyed. I want her destroyed,'" said pirate owner Peggy Kanigoski.

Source: WNEP (via: PZ Myers)

It sounds to me like someone has way too high of an opinion about himself and his office. Perhaps if he had simply asked for the statue's removal, he'd have gotten a better reception, but commanding its removal in such a matter is just pure ego and arrogance. Frankly, in such a situation I'd a get second statue to accompany the first! When I see self-righteous people behaving in such a manner, it becomes itself a reason to just continue doing more of what annoys them so much. Even if I didn't have much of a reason to do it before, I have lots of good reasons to do it now.

Father Edward Commolly says that he'll now start visiting the statue and praying for its removal. Frankly, I question whether he needs to visit just to pray for it and wonder if there is some other reason why he'd feel the need to keep coming back to stare at this "soft porn," buxom female pirate. Regardless, I think we'll see just how strong the power of his prayers is — about as strong as the power of his commands.