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Botafumeiro swings with a new scent

peregrina2000

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NOTE from a chagrined peregrina: If you scroll through this thread, you will see I have been duped! Fake news. But since it is pretty funny, I will leave it up. And a good reminder to me to keep my thinking cap on when I read stories online. And looking at the report now, I keep saying to myself — HOW could I possibly have thought that was real?! Hopefully, lesson learned.

I don’t know if this is a sacrilege or a sin, but I couldn’t help chuckling. Two of the monaguillos (the guys in brown who swing the botafumeiro) were arrested for having put marijuana in the botafumeiro.

Apparently this was part of a New Years Eve resolution, and the two who were apprehended said they were sure everyone left the church happier than when they came in.

Priceless comment from one of those at the mass (paraphrasing): “It didn’t smell like incense, and I couldn’t put my finger on it but I have smelled something similar in my son’s bedroom.”

https://elnuevodiario.com.do/apresa...ihuana-en-incensario-de-la-catedral-espanola/

No charges were filed, but these two will not be swinging the botafumeiro again.
 
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Rather sacrilegious I'd say, but I admit I couldn't help chuckling also.
 
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Great story!! But - "half a kilo"??!! That would have been some smoke!! One wonders if a little youthful exaggeration may have been at play, at some point in the saga...!

Edit: And yes, all a joke after all! See @ivar 's post below...
 
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Oh, god forgive me, but I laughed as well! And that happened in a mass for the "epiphany of the Lord", according to the text? Some people may have indeed had an epiphany!
 
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Icacos said:
Those two will no longer be swinging the botafumeiro? Who is the killjoy?
Click to expand...

This is during Mass -- it's a sacrilege. They probably shan't incur any very severe canonical penalty, it's clear they acted from out of ignorance, but it's clear they can't be permitted to fulfil any function whatsoever at the Holy Mass.
 
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The incongruent situation is what made me chuckle - the totally unexpected. However, I agree, the act is sacrilegious - committed out of ignorance, perhaps- but at the very least disrespectful in so many ways. The thought of it has bothered me throughout the day. Whether we laugh or not, it needs to be seen for what it is. Cambridge definition of sacrilegious : treating something holy or important without respect.
On another note, I wonder.. Did this really happen, or is this some made-up joke to gauge our reactions?
 
The linked article is using "Hay Noticia" as a source... looking at their site, they are a "fake news" site (their words). So.... this might not be true..
 
ivar said:
"Hay Noticia" as a source... looking at their site, they are a "fake news" site (their words). So.... this might not be true..
Click to expand...

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/01/12/hechos/1515781640_757895.html of 15 January 2018 - Marihuana in the botafumeiro - can a joke be fake news?

Quote: "In the networks, many celebrated the joke, others laughed thinking that it had really happened. Some were offended, because there is always someone who is offended. And thanks to all of them, to the web that published it, Hay Noticia's server broke down when receiving two million visits in a single day".

@peregrina2000, in this day and age, NEVER rely on just one single news source.
 
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Thanks for this @Kathar1na - I thought the story seemed a little far-fetched! It was the "half kilo" that did it for me! First rule of fake news: make it somewhat plausible at least!!
 
Ok, it looks like I just saved my skin then by starting to doubt the story. Ha... shows how easily it is done though. Now I can laugh with an easy conscience!
 
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ivar said:
The linked article is using "Hay Noticia" as a source... looking at their site, they are a "fake news" site (their words). So.... this might not be true..
Click to expand...

Ha! Just goes to show how gullible I am. But at least I was not alone. As a joke, though, it is pretty good.

On a more serious note, it does point out the very real threat of fake news.

Hope that I will have learned this lesson.
 
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falcon269 said:
There may be a difference between satirical news and fake news, though.
Click to expand...
True, but it does point out that when I see an article on a trusted news feed (in this case Javier Martin’s camino emails), I should go further and make sure the source itself is a trusted one.

Just the other day, I remember shaking my head in disbelief about how politicians could read text on camera endorsing arming preschoolers. Now I can understand a bit more how it happens!
http://www.businessinsider.com/sacha-baron-cohen-who-is-america-arm-preschoolers-guns-2018-7
 
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JabbaPapa said:
This is during Mass -- it's a sacrilege. They probably shan't incur any very severe canonical penalty, it's clear they acted from out of ignorance, but it's clear they can't be permitted to fulfil any function whatsoever at the Holy Mass.
Click to expand...
My comment was tongue in cheek. That may be sacrilegious in itself.
 
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I believe I read that the site had two million hits and crashed! I hope those readers found out that the post was a joke...otherwise we may experience a lot more folks on the path to Santiago!

Or, how about using it as an add to improve mass attendance...collection might go up!
 
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But, won't they be too stoned to put money in the plate.
 
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I suspected it was a "The Onion" style piece, but wasn't familiar with Nuevo Diario to know for sure. To give credit, with the way news is today it's sometimes hard to tell!!
 
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Kathar1na said:
many celebrated the joke, others laughed thinking that it had really happened. Some were offended, because there is always someone who is offended.
Click to expand...
A perfect description of what just happened.

Thanks for the very real giggle, @peregrina2000 , and for the unintentional lesson about fake/satirical news fact-checking.
 
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GettingThere said:
Thanks for this @Kathar1na - I thought the story seemed a little far-fetched! It was the "half kilo" that did it for me! First rule of fake news: make it somewhat plausible at least!!
Click to expand...

Well I guess you've never been inside the home of a professional drug dealer then ? (sad to report that I have been, myself)

500g of a cannabis plant actually isn't that much of it, relatively speaking ...

KinkyOne said:
This summer retail price in Madrid for half a kilo would be approx. 10.000 €.
Much less on the Mediterranean coast though.
Click to expand...

1 lb weight of some ordinary cannabis plant is probably next to worthless. NOT that I'd recommend consuming the stuff except for certain medical conditions ...
 
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HOLY SMOKES!!! Bordering on sacrilege, but hey, this is the best story I've read on the blog recently. Can't stop laughing!
 
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nycwalking said:
But, won't they be too stoned to put money in the plate.
Click to expand...
Nah, it wouldn't be concentrated enough to get anyone high. We used to burn armloads of the stuff in a bonfire during eradication ops.
 
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Love it. Too bad it's fake news
 
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We know!!! Lol
 
This is an interesting example of how fake news spreads and then resurfaces from time to time. The original hoax story seems to have been created way back in January 2018. It was picked up here on the forum and retold more than six months later when it had already been revealed as a hoax only days after first appearing. Now within the past 24 hours I have seen it posted again on two different Facebook groups by different people
 
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Sadly the source here seems to be a legit newspaper in the Dominican Republic. Yet in the body of their story they cite the Spanish source "Hay Noticia" which states at its website it's a humor website for entertainment. Sad!

When I saw the botafumeiro in action this summer, I was surprised that I couldn't smell the incense at all. In my experience whatever they use in cencers in Masses in the USA is quite pungent.
 

I have to say that though I was totally duped in this case, it has been a very good lesson for me. I am much more careful about news outlets, sources, etc. Shortly after the botafumeiro embarrassment, I was called by a "news agency" in my home state that I had never heard of. Rather than just blurt out my opinions on the latest crazy thing my state legislature had done, I told him to call me back in an hour, in which time I had found that it was essentially a Breitbart news type place. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
 
The story has been posted several times today on the APOC Facebook group and a couple of times on the CSJ group. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a concerted wind-up campaign going on!
 
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Bradypus said:
The story has been posted several times today on the APOC Facebook group and a couple of times on the CSJ group. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a concerted wind-up campaign going on!
Click to expand...
The story was apparently republished yesterday by an entertainment website that also has a presence on Facebook. With 169,250 people who follow it. And that's not counting their friends and the friends of their friends.
 
Kathar1na said:
The story was apparently republished yesterday by an entertainment website that also has a presence on Facebook. With 169,250 people who follow it. And that's not counting their friends and the friends of their friends.
Click to expand...

That explains a lot
 
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