CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 7 – CLASH OF BELIEFS

10:51 (Jerusalem Time)

Tuesday, June 20, 1944 ‘B’

Offices of the Overseer of the Holy Land

Government Administrative Tower, Jerusalem

Holy Land of Palestine

The crowd of visitors and pilgrims was moderate this morning, compared to the dense crowds which were now customary on the Temple Mount on weekends. Most of the outside visitors and pilgrims coming to the Holy Land did so mainly on weekends. Those who came to be healed by walking across the Temple Mount, which was inhabited since last December by the spiritual mass of The One, were often poor and sick people who could barely afford the trip to Jerusalem from their country of residence and who could only pay for a short hotel stay, thus came on two-day trips. Nancy had been most vigilant about making sure that those poor, desperate pilgrims seeking healing in Jerusalem didn’t get fleeced by unscrupulous local hotel and restaurant owners during their short visits to the Holy Land. Scrupulously honest functionaries had been personally selected by her to act as tourism industry inspectors, charged with discreetly checking out for any case of price gouging in the now booming hotel and restaurant businesses in and around Jerusalem. Those who were found to overcharge visiting pilgrims, especially the old and feeble ones, where then subjected to heavy fines and back taxes. Nancy and her justice administration had to make a few examples at first, but now things were mostly under control. What was nearly out of control now was the mad boom in the building or opening of new hotels, restaurants and boutiques by local residents and investors wanting to profit from this swarm of tourists and pilgrims. The local medical establishments and practitioners, after fearing with some reason to see their usual clientele evaporate because anyone could go now to the Temple Mount to be healed instantly, had however been able to stay in business for two reasons. First, many foreign pilgrims seeking healing arrived in often precarious medical shape in Palestine and needed medical supervision overnight before they could go or be carried to the Temple Mount for healing the next day. As a result, hotels offering extensive

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medical supervision and services were now the rage around Jerusalem, employing countless doctors and nurses who would otherwise find themselves out of work. The second reason had to do with the fact that, as demonstrated more than once already, someone with significant crimes on their conscience and who tried to be healed of a disease or wound by going to the Temple Mount risked being judged on the spot by The One and punished. The more heinous the crime, the more severe the punishment. One German ex-Nazi official hiding behind a false identity to escape prosecution for his war crimes had made the mistake of ignoring the warning signs in multiple languages posted at the entrance points to the Temple Mount. The moment he had stepped on the Temple Mount proper, that ex-Nazi had literally burned up from the inside in front of the other visitors and pilgrims. Others who had been similarly punished on the Temple Mount included foreign organized crime figures, petty dictators, serial murderers, violent drug dealers, pimps, human traffickers and predatory pedophiles. As a result, those in Palestine who had something on their conscience and needed medical attention had to use traditional medical care in order to avoid judgment. One celebrated incident on the Temple Mount a few months ago had involved an Irish Christian Brother who had come to Jerusalem to have his arthritis healed, only to see his condition worsen dramatically once he set foot on the Temple Mount. On confronting him afterward, Nancy had found out that the man had a long history of sexually abusing orphan boys placed under his ‘care and guidance’ at an Irish orphanage. His Irish superiors, along with the Vatican, had however refused to believe Nancy, instead proclaiming that she was lying and had caused the Christian Brother’s worsening condition in order to defame the Roman Catholic Church. This case was in fact far from being the only reason why the relations between Nancy and the Roman Catholic Church were now severely strained.

Nancy was still looking out at the Temple Mount through one of the large windows of her office when someone knocked lightly on the door connecting the office and its anteroom.

‘’COME IN!’’

Nancy, wearing her customary white and gold embroidered robe, plus her tiara, gold necklace and ring of Queen of Jerusalem, slowly turned around to face the door as her secretary entered and stopped a few paces from the door.

‘’Cardinal Sylvio Reggiani is here to see you with two other Vatican dignitaries, Nancy.’’

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‘’Very well! Let them in, Yasmin.’’

The young Arab secretary nodded once her head and then turned around, going out of the office for a few seconds and then returning with three men in their forties wearing the black and red robes of high-level Vatican churchmen. One of them also carried a leather briefcase in one hand. Yasmin then closed the door behind them, leaving the three men alone with Nancy. While they showed a façade of confidence and righteousness, Nancy could sense their nervousness, helped in that by her telepathic abilities. Despite the present bad blood between herself and the Catholic Church, she kept a polite expression and pointed a group of comfortable padded chairs surrounding a low coffee table in one corner of her office.

‘’Please, gentlemen, have a seat and make yourselves comfortable.’’

‘’Thank you, Overseer.’’ replied politely the leading churchman, who was probably Cardinal Reggiani. The four of them then moved to the corner and sat around the table.

‘’Would you like some coffee or tea, gentlemen?’’ offered Nancy, getting Reggiani to shake his head.

‘’Thank you but no, Overseer. Our visit is intended to be a short one.’’ Nancy gave him a somber look: that could only mean that they had come to deliver some kind of announcement from the Vatican, and probably not a very nice one. Reggiani however took the time to present his two companions to her.

‘’May I present to you Monsignor Aldo Fellini, my executive secretary, and Bishop Felipe Franco, from the office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith?’’

‘’And may I ask why you brought with you a member of the Inquisition, Cardinal Reggiani?’’ asked Nancy, deciding to cut the bull. ‘’Does it have to do with the fact that the Pope called me publicly a witch only three weeks ago?’’ Reggiani tensed up at that, but kept his tone polite.

‘’Bishop Franco is here because of the nature of our visit to you, Overseer. We are here to deliver to you an official letter from His Holiness, The Pope.’’

‘’I see! Then, you may show me the said letter, Cardinal.’’ Fellini opened his briefcase and took out of it a velum envelope sealed with a large red wax seal bearing the arms of the Vatican, then handed it to Nancy. Before Nancy opened it, she eyed somberly Reggiani.

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‘’You do realize, Cardinal Reggiani, that once I open this letter and read it, then there will be no turning back in our mutual relations. Now is still the time to find a reasonable agreement between us.’’

‘’I fully realize that, Overseer. However, these are the words of His Holiness and he has carefully weighed them before putting them down on paper.’’

‘’Very well, then.’’ said Nancy before breaking the wax seal and opening the envelope, extracting from it a three-page letter. The three churchmen tensed up as she started reading, obviously expecting a negative reaction from her. While keeping an impassive expression during her lecture, Nancy effectively became progressively angry on seeing the content of the letter. Taking the time to reread a few key paragraphs of the letter, she then lowered it and looked coldly at the churchmen facing her.

‘’This is all that your Pope could come up with, Cardinal Reggiani? A tired reiteration of lies and utter denial of reality and scientific facts, capped by an insulting ultimatum? Does he realize what this letter will cause?’’

‘’You and your Time Patrol have left His Holiness little choice but to call up your heretical, blasphemous statements, Overseer.’’ replied Reggiani, hardening his tone. ‘’You publicly challenged and contradicted many of the most sacred teachings of the Christian Bible, both from the New Testament and from the Old Testament.’’

‘’Sacred teachings…’’ said Nancy in a clearly contemptuous tone. ‘’Like that Humanity was created only 6,000 years ago, with God using simple dirt to make the first man and woman? That the theory of evolution is blasphemous, despite being supported by thousands of scientific finds and by on-the-spot research by Time Patrol exploration teams sent to the distant past? That the whole Universe was created in only seven days? That women are born sinners? Do you realize how ignorant and intolerant those so-called sacred teachings, written centuries or millenniums ago, often are? And the Pope is condemning me as a heretic and blasphemer for simply telling the truth? No! Don’t say a thing now, Cardinal Reggiani! This letter says enough by itself. Your church wants to shut me up and discredit me so that it can keep its spiritual and social grip on its masses of followers, thus also ensuring that the revenues from those masses keep flowing towards Rome. All the while, it is shamelessly protecting those of its members who use their spiritual authority to beat and abuse sexually young children, in order to satisfy their repressed lust and their urge to impose their authority on others. You want to dirty my name in order to protect your hold on others? Then expect in return to be shamed publicly in a way that will convince even the most naïve and myopic of your

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followers that your precious church stands mostly for hypocrisy, misogyny and intolerance. I came from the future and fought to end early the Second World War, saving in the process millions of innocent people. I healed tens of thousands of people through the powers given to me by The One. I brought peace and prosperity to Palestine. I even prevented a genocidal war in the future. And your Pope is calling me a witch, a heretic and a blasphemer? He should rather look back at the history of his own church and publicly recognize its failings and crimes.’’

‘’Crimes, Overseer?’’ started to protest Bishop Franco. Nancy however cut him off at once.

‘’Yes, crimes, Bishop Franco. Crimes like the senseless massacres of the Christian Crusades, committed in the name of the Christ and sanctioned by Rome. Like the torture and burning at the stake of over 200,000 unfortunate girls and women accused unjustly of witchcraft and then killed by your own Inquisition. Like the mass killings of so-called heretics during the various wars of religion in Europe, wars sponsored and approved by the Church of Rome. God is with us, proclaimed the various murdering armies on both sides! Yeah, sure! Or what about the massacre of indigenous populations in the Americas, committed supposedly to ‘save their souls’, by conquistadors accompanied by Christian missionaries? Should I also mention the prosecution of Galileo by the Church, or the Salem Witch Trials? The hands of the Catholic Church and of other Christian churches are drenched with blood, Bishop Franco, yet they still cover up crimes committed to this day by its members. How many boys have to be sodomized by an abusing priest or Christian Brother before that said priest or brother is finally punished by your precious church? The answer up to now? Too many to be counted. In fact, most of those priests and brothers are never punished. Instead, your church moves them around to hide them and to protect its own reputation. I have lived for months besides Yeshua of Nazareth, the man your church is supposed to honor and proclaim as a savior of Humanity, and spoke with him countless times as one of his disciples. Well, I can tell you with confidence that, if Yeshua could see what your church has done in his name, then he would be mightily pissed. Show me where the tolerance, compassion and kindness were in the past crimes I described? Oh, that’s right: I am lying about me meeting Yeshua, and so is his widow, Miriam of Magdala.’’ A fiery Nancy then looked directly in Cardinal Reggiani’s eyes while waiving the letter from the Pope.

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‘’Be assured that both me and The One will make appropriate responses to this letter, Cardinal Reggiani. You may now return to Rome and tell the Pope to sit tight and grab solidly his chair, as his precious church may be seriously shaken in the weeks and months to come. As for me recanting my so-called blasphemous declarations, Hell will literally freeze over before that happens. Good day, gentlemen!’’ She then got up from her chair, imitated by the three red-faced churchmen. She escorted them to the door of her office without a word and waited for them to be out of the anteroom, being escorted out by her secretary, before taking a deep breath to calm down. If there was something that she truly couldn’t stand, apart from cruelty and intolerance, it was hypocrisy. However, she could not afford to underestimate the political power of the Roman Catholic Church and of the other various Christian churches. This would need some serious thinking and planning on her part in order to respond properly to this challenge from the Vatican.

10:07 (New York Time)

Sunday, June 25, 1944 ‘B’

Cathedral of St-Patrick, 50th Street and Fifth Avenue, Manhattan New York City, U.S.A.

Sean Manning had come to the Sunday morning mass with his whole family, as he customarily did every Sunday. This time, however, he had even better reasons to come, as he intended to thank God for the healing of his younger son, James, who was six years old. Sean, having limited financial means, had gone alone with James to Jerusalem a week ago with the hope of seeing his son’s sequels from polio healed on the Temple Mount. Sean would never forget how the pavement had started to glow as soon as he had rolled his son’s wheelchair on the stones of the Mount. That glow had then enveloped James, with his two atrophied legs growing back healthy and strong in a mere minute. That first dance of joy with his son had brought tears to Sean’s eyes. Afterward, his younger son had finally been able to go play and run with the neighbors’ children and had realized his dream of riding a bicycle, watched by his ecstatic parents.

Sean was a bit surprised when his parish priest gave early his pulpit to the Archbishop of New York, Francis Spellman, announcing that His Eminence had an important speech to deliver. The small and a bit overweight Archbishop Spellman,

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looking as if he was going to perform an exorcism, then spoke with a strong voice in the microphone of the pulpit.

‘’My good parishioners and believers, I am addressing you today to warn you about a great evil. That evil is even greater due to the fact that it is hiding behind a mask of goodness. That evil resides in Jerusalem, where the so-called Overseer of the Holy Land has been spreading lies and blasphemies against our sacred church and the Holy Bible. That evil has now reached new heights, with that Jerusalem witch tricking sick and desperate people into coming to her city to be supposedly healed. While those desperate people are often effectively healed by walking across the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, what they don’t know is that the Devil, and not God, actually resides under the Temple Mount, stealing their souls in exchange for some temporary healing. Those unfortunate ones who had hoped for miracles thus were condemning themselves to Hell, while that witch of an Overseer gets rich with all the money made by the flow of pilgrims to Jerusalem. Our holy father in Rome has however uncovered the true nature of that witch, along with the abominable crimes she is committing under the guise of kindness.’’ As Spellman continued his fiery speech, Sean Manning could only look and listen on, now as white as a ghost. A glance at his son James showed him to be frozen with a look of horror on his young face, while his wife Mary was strangling her sobs, nearly hysterical. Worst of all, some of the other parishioners nearby who knew them were now looking at James as if he was truly damned to Hell. Sean’s horror quickly turned into denial, then in anger as Spellman promised to personally help those duped into going to Jerusalem in reclaiming their lost souls. Finally unable to take it anymore, Sean rose up to his feet and shouted at his archbishop.

‘’THIS CAN’T BE TRUE! I SAW MY SON BEING HEALED IN A MERE MINUTE IN JERUSALEM AND THE ONLY THING I FELT THERE WAS THE GOODNESS OF GOD. ARE YOU SAYING THAT MY SON, ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHERS WHO WENT TO JERUSALEM TO BE HEALED, SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME AND CONTINUE SUFFERING? GOD KNOWS I PRAYED OFTEN ENOUGH IN THIS CATHEDRAL IN THE PAST FOR SOME MIRACLE TO HEAL MY SON. YET, NOTHING HAPPENED DESPITE ALL THOSE PRAYERS. NOW, YOU WANT US TO FORGO THE ONLY HOPE FOR HEALING LEFT TO US, BASED SOLELY ON YOUR WORD? NANCY LAPLANTE SAVED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE BY HER ACTIONS TWO YEARS AGO, BY PUTTING AN END TO A DREADFUL WAR. WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO SMEAR HER LIKE THIS?’’

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Spellman was speechless at first, surprised to see that any of his parishioners would dare challenge his words. He then exploded in righteous anger.

‘’WHY? BECAUSE SHE IS A BLASPHEMER AND HERETIC OF THE WORST KIND! SHE DEFAMED THE GOOD LORD’S WORDS BY SPREADING LIES ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THE HOLY BIBLE. IF YOU WOULD LISTEN TO HER, WE WOULD SUPPOSEDLY ALL DESCEND FROM MERE MONKEYS. SHE ALSO

DENIES THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF GOD IN CREATING THE UNIVERSE AND MAN, WHILE CLAIMING THAT OUR LORD JESUS WAS MARRIED TO A PROSTITUTE. WHAT KIND OF WOMAN BUT A WITCH WOULD UTTER SUCH BLASPHEMIES?’’

Sean could now see that the parishioners around him were quickly getting polarized, with some appearing to agree with him, while others seemed ready to believe anything Spellman said. There however was also a large portion of the persons attending mass who looked unsure of where the truth lay. That however didn’t matter much to Sean, who had made his mind about who to believe.

‘’MAYBE SHE IS ONLY A WOMAN WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH. MEN WROTE THE BIBLE, NOT GOD! AS FOR YOUR STORY ABOUT THE DEVIL BEING INSIDE THE TEMPLE MOUNT, I DON’T BELIEVE IT.’’

He then looked down at his wife and children.

‘’Let’s go home! We will continue to pray there.’’

Spellman watched with disbelief and fury as other parishioners followed the example of Sean Manning and started leaving the cathedral in growing numbers.

‘’HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THE WORD OF YOUR SACRED CHURCH? YOU WILL END UP IN HELL FOR THIS!’’

Those words, pronounced under the influence of rage, only convinced more parishioners to leave, with a good fifth of the audience ending up walking out on their archbishop.

Only a few days later, through the reading of newspapers and listening to radio news, did Sean learn that the Roman Catholic Church had tried to spread the same message as Spellman’s across the World, via Sunday sermons. In some places, notably in France, the Catholic Church suffered a significant drop in attendance as a result, while parishioners in countries around Latin America and Africa, plus Spain and Italy, mostly believed blindly the accusations thrown at Nancy Laplante. The small drop which followed in the number of Catholics travelling to Jerusalem afterwards was

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however more than compensated by the growing numbers of Muslims who had started to favor Jerusalem over the Mecca as a pilgrimage site. In an ironic twist, that mass defection in favor of Jerusalem then soured up the Islamic authorities’ relations with Nancy, who had up to now enjoyed a fairly amiable relationship with them save for issues about women. Nancy, while defending her versions of things every time someone questioned her publicly, finally decided to let the Catholic Church hurt itself with its own intolerance and obtuseness and limited her actions to releasing worldwide a public statement about her beliefs and her denial of the accusations by the Catholic Church. Her restraint, compared to the often shrill accusations thrown at her by churchmen, actually convinced many to start listening to her instead. While slow, the decline from then on of the influence of the Catholic Church around the World soon proved irreversible.

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