“So, my good brothers, what should be our next move to counter the latest display of witchcraft from the Overseer of Palestine?”
The various bishops and monsignors sitting around the conference table with Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo looked at each other, unsure about what to say. The pictures from the United Nations General Assembly had struck them hard, with a few around the Vatican starting to have doubts about the wisdom of denying everything said by Nancy Laplante. Cardinal Pizzardo, who would have been called the Grand Inquisitor in earlier centuries, sensed the doubts around him but kept his voice calm and measured.
“Come, now! You are all faithful servants of the Church: one more magical display should not disturb you this much.”
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“What if it was not a magical display, Your Eminence?” replied quietly a German monsignor. “This is the first time that what Laplante calls ‘The One’ would supposedly have appeared in public. At the risk of offending my brothers here, shouldn’t we at least consider the possibility that we may have erred in our judgment of the Overseer? She has after all saved or healed hundreds of thousands of persons in the past years, while not committing once any act that could be called evil.”
“Not once, you say?” countered in a reprobate tone a hardnosed Spanish bishop. “Denying the divine nature of Our Savior the Christ is not an evil act in itself?
That woman is an apostate and a blasphemer of the worst kind. What tells us the limits of the things this future technology from the Global Council can do? Creating an optical illusion and then disappearing by traveling through time should be child’s play for Laplante. We should…”
A drop of red liquid then splattered on the bishop’s pointed index, cutting him off and making him look up at the ceiling. His strangled exclamation of horror made the others look up as well, in time for all of them to receive red drops on their faces. A dark red liquid was now oozing through the ceiling at a growing rate, like rain bursting out of a cloud! The monsignor who had presented an objection hesitantly smelled, then tasted one of the red drops as the others were getting up on their feet in a hurry to try to get out of the red rain.
“BLOOD! IT IS RAINING BLOOD!”
Now truly panicked, the churchmen ran out of the Cardinal’s office to escape the bloody rain, only to find to their horror that the ceiling along the main hallway was also raining blood. From the way other churchmen were running out of their offices along the hallway, it was apparent that the whole building must have been similarly cursed. The Cardinal and his subordinates next ran towards the nearest exit, the red rain quickly soaking them and making the floors and steps slippery. Before they could get to the exit, though, a woman’s giant face appeared to them, blocking completely the hallway and glaring severely at the churchmen. Her voice boomed and echoed around then.
“THIS IS THE BLOOD OF ALL THE INNOCENTS WHICH WERE TORTURED
AND MURDERED DURING MANY CENTURIES IN THE NAME OF YOUR CHURCH.
YOU KILLED PEOPLE ON MERE RUMORS OR SUSPICIONS AND YOU
PRETENDED AFTERWARDS TO DO GOD’S WORK? EVEN IN THIS CENTURY, YOU
ARE STILL READY TO PERSECUTE THOSE WHO DON’T AGREE WITH YOUR
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VIEWS. OTHERS WILL BE CURSED TODAY, BUT YOUR SO-CALLED
CONGREGATION WILL BE CURSED FOREVER!”
The giant face then vanished, letting the blood-drenched inquisitors flee in panic outside.
They were not out of trouble yet though, as the churchmen nearly gagged the moment they were in the open plaza in front of the Palace of the Holy Office: a horrible stench floated all around them. As far as they could see inside the Vatican grounds, people were made sick by that stench, covering their noses and mouths or vomiting where they stood. The inquisitors, including their cardinal, made the sign of the cross while fighting the urge to throw up.
“How could such a saintly place as the Vatican be cursed like this?” protested the Spanish bishop. Nobody in the group dared answer that.
17:46 (Washington time)