Maybe you think of me as an enemy.
Lucky for me ... you are a good Christian and so you must love me.
No, Catchup, I do not consider you an enemy. I have dealt with other people who have an anti-Catholic
pathology, who hate Catholics and their Church with every ounce of their might and being, and even them I merely consider ill-informed, but not enemies. You are far too reasonable and balanced to even approach their level.
But can you tell me who designed the courtyard pattern of Saint Peter's Basicalla? It is the "Eight Fold Path to Enlightenment" pattern. Also why was it thought necessary to include pagan son gods within its boundaries? Are you aware of any of this? Do you know its meaning?
I dealt with this accusation years ago on another board, when somebody posted some stuff from an outfit called XL Ministries. (Personally, I think the name should have been "MX Missile, Aimed At Catholics", but that's another story.)
The courtyard of St. Peter's Square was designed by an Italian architecht, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and built between 1656 and 1667. It is not a circle, but actually an oval, with two long arms extending back towards the basilica; if you look at it from directly overhead, it looks like two encircling hands on the ends of wrists, symbolizing the care of the Church for all people.
Bernini had to work around a lot of obstacles in his day, including other buildings and whatnot, when he built St. Peter's Square. The obelisk which the Square is built around was in place long before the Square was built; Bernini simply built the Square around it. The obelisk, which was originally a monument to Horus, the Egyptian sun god, was brought to Rome from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis by the emperor Caligula in 39 AD and set up in the Circus of Nero, where it remained throughout the Middle Ages. Pope Sixtus V ordered it to be moved to its present location in 1586, and it was surmounted with a bronze Christian Cross (containing a fragment of the True Cross), to symbolize Christ Triumphant.
The
Dharma Chakra, or the Buddhist Wheel of Law, is an eight-spoked circle, symbolizing the Noble Eightfold Path found in Buddhist philosophy. Bernini's design, as I said, is an oval, not a circle, so if St. Peter's Square is a
Dharma Chakra, then it's running on a flat tire, since it would be rather lopsided. Insofar as I know, the eight sections of Bernini's design do not represent anything, other than that they line up with each of the four corners of the curved collonades, with the apex of the curve of the collonades, and with the
Via della Conciliazone, the street which leads to the Basilica.
In short, the obelisk does not represent the Egyptian sun god anymore; it has a Cross atop it, and it represents Christ Triumphant, the Light of the World. And Bernini's design is not a Buddhist Wheel of Law, since a wheel is round and St. Peter's Square is an oval.
But, if one looks hard enough and has a vivid enough imagination, one can find sinister symbolism in just about dern near anything. Just ask Jack Chick.
