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CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions

Female Sex Workers Recognised by The Pope

November 24, 2010
CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Well, the Pope must have read my post on Tuesday 23 November 2010………..I pondered why (actually I knew)  he only mentioned male prostitutes when he wrote in his book that they could wear condoms (see ...Catholic Dichotomy of Females

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By Michael Day in Milan:

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

The Vatican has appeared to expand the Catholic Church’s tolerance of condoms as a means of fighting HIV, backing their use by female prostitutes, days after the Pope said their use by male sex workers was better than spreading the virus.

Pope Benedict XVI was quoted at the weekend saying condom use by male prostitutes could be a good thing, indicating the user’s intention to protect others from a deadly infection, apparently condoning the use of contraceptives for the first time. The Vatican yesterday confirmed that the same message applied to women sex workers.

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Previous statements about condoms  issued by The Vatican:

March 28, 2009|By Faith Karimi CNN
  • Thousands of Facebook supporters plan to send condoms to the Vatican.
    Thousands of Facebook supporters plan to send condoms to the Vatican.

Critics took to the social networking site Facebook to voice their fury over Pope Benedict’s remark that condoms do not prevent HIV.

Thousands have pledged to send the pontiff millions of condoms to protest the controversial comment he made to journalists as he flew to Cameroon last week.

“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”

Pope Benedict XVI has made it clear he intends to uphold the traditional Catholic teaching on artificial contraception. The Vatican has long opposed the use of condoms and other forms of birth control and encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.

Condom Confusion in Catholic Church

November 23, 2010
CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Pope Benedict & his cardinals

By Nick Squires in Rome and John Bingham 5:46PM GMT 21 Nov 2010 –
(My Comments)

In a book to be published this week, Benedict XVI said there could be “justified individual cases” in which condoms could be used, softening Rome’s blanket ban on contraception, one of the most controversial issues facing the Church.

“In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality,” the head of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics said, giving as an example a male prostitute having sex with a client.

I wonder about a female prostitute who has aids or any other STD!

But he gave no guidance on the long-standing moral and religious question of whether it would be permissible for a married couple, in which one partner is HIV positive, to use condoms in order to prevent the other partner from becoming infected.  Just more confusion.

While the Pope restates Catholicism’s objections to contraception and stresses its emphasis on abstinence as the best policy to fight Aids, he says that using a condom could be a responsible act if it is intended to prevent the spread of the virus.   What about the spread of unwanted children with no chance for a decent life?

The pontiff’s comments are made in a book to be published by the Vatican this week, which has been the subject of increasing anticipation.   The publicists were not exaggerating when they sent out an email last week saying the Pope delivers “answers that will surprise and impress both critics and his fans”.

“Benedict XVI has shown himself time and again to be the ‘Pope of surprises’,” it said. After decades of staunch opposition from the Catholic Church to the use of condoms, his comments are likely to cause astonishment.

Not only does it represent a hugely significant shift in the Church’s teaching, but the softening in its position is coming from a Pope who took office with a reputation for being hardline and fundamentalist.  Perceived as the Vatican’s enforcer after heading its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, he is challenging this image by showing himself willing to embrace change.

The Pope’s reluctant support for condom use in certain circumstances is likely to dismay the most conservative Catholics who believe it is impossible to distinguish the use of condoms as contraceptives and their use as preventers of the transmission of Aids.

Yet it reflects a growing consensus amongst theologians that the stance now adopted by the Pope can be morally justified.

Cardinals, such as Godfried Danneels and Lozano Barragan, have argued that it must be better for an infected man to use a condom if the intention is not to avoid life but to prevent death.      But what if a man is using a condom for both reasons?  Will he go to hell?

Earlier this year, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, indicated he was sympathetic to a more tolerant approach to condom use, saying he could see “why, in the short term, [the] means that give women protection are attractive”.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, his predecessor, was told by Pope Benedict XVI – who was then Cardinal Ratzinger – that the Church needed to reach an agreed position on the morality of the use of condoms.  How pathetic!  when we consider all the really significant  problems the world has to deal with at  present; rampant paedophilia,  terrorism, brutal wars, aids, dying children etc etc.

Although they acknowledged that there was a need to clarify the Church’s teaching on the use of condoms, cardinals and senior figures in Rome were ultimately too concerned that it was impossible to do so without being misinterpreted.

These concerns appeared to be well founded after Pope Benedict was fiercely criticised for his comments in Africa, which were effectively no more than repeating a well-established Church view that condoms are not the solution to Aids.   Forget about the solution to Aids – what about the reality of  children infected with Aids suffering and dying in their millions?

Rather than promulgate an edict he has chosen to do it in an interview with Peter Seewald, a German journalist whom he trusts and knows well from his time as Cardinal Ratzinger.  Speaking at the Frankfurt Book Fair earlier this year, Mr Seewald said: “The events in the news around the abuse scandals and the wider situation of the Church naturally give this conversation an incredible explosiveness and I can only reveal to you now that you are expecting a very exciting, very extensive book.”

While the Pope tackles many controversial subjects in the book, from the sex abuse crisis to the Church’s teaching on clerical celibacy, his comments on condoms are likely to cause the greatest shock.  They may not go far enough to appease Catholics such as Cherie Blair, who argue for a total acceptance of contraception.

His stance will help to distance the Church from some of its more embarrassing statements, such as the claim by a cardinal that the HIV  virus can pass through tiny holes in the rubber of condoms.   What on earth can these cloistered, brain washed men,  possibly know about pregnancy, giving birth and the hardships of  life in the real world!   And then there is the hypocrisy;  The Catholic Church has financial interests in the manufacturing of contraceptives through the all-powerful Vatican Empire.

Crucially, it may go further in ensuring the Church’s relevance in public debate, presenting it as more humane and more flexible – even at the risk of people thinking the Church has changed its mind on the issue. This desire to secure the Church’s place in the public square is at the heart of Pope Benedict’s thinking and no doubt the guiding reason behind such a brave move.

What does he mean by these statements? …….”I was, naturally, not always simply against things, exclusively and as a matter of principle” ……………….. “Ultimately someone who is in opposition could probably not endure life at all”, quotes the Pope in the book.

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See More…

Females Sex Workers Recognised by the Pope

Moral Reasoning by Victor Grassian & The Moral Intelligence of Children by Robert Coles – Book Reviews

October 20, 2010
BOOKS In My Non-Fiction Collection-REVIEWS, CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions, Christianity
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There is a debate currently going on in Australia about giving school students the choice between taking either classes in Ethics,  or in Religious Studies.  Apparently the respective Christian Churches are not at all happy about this development.  Well, they wouldn’t be would they? They believe they are losing their grip over young minds.

Ethics clarified

In his book  ‘Moral Reasoning; Ethical Theory And Some Contemporary Moral Problems’ Victor Grassian defines ethics as:

‘Ethics may be defined as the philosophical study of morality-that is, of right conduct, moral obligation, moral character, moral responsibility, moral justice, and the nature of the good life. The philosophical study of morality should be distinguished from the descriptive or scientific study of the same subject matter’.

Mr Grassian goes on to say… ‘Although a study of  ethics will not in itself make one into a good person, it can certainly provide us with more than the knowledge of abstract philosophical theories and terminologies that seem incapable  of aiding us in the solution of our own practical moral problems.  A study of ethics can serve to help us better understand and classify our own moral principles; most of all, it can help refine, develop, and sometimes change these principles’.

In other words it can help us to question and to think for ourselves.  I particularly identify with the following paragraph as I am sure a lot of my readers will do especially those who were indoctrinated with  Catholic dogma  from infancy:

‘The study of ethics can lead one from the blind and irrational acceptance of moral dogmas gleaned from parental and cultural influences, which were never subjected to logical scrutiny, into a development of a critical reflective morality of one’s own’.

Childhood ethics

 

Robert Coles, who was a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at Harvard Medical School,  also draws on his experience as a teacher and child psychiatrist in his book:

‘The Moral Intelligence of Children’. He writes about the confusion children feel when they are  caught between two parents who have different religious beliefs; who constantly clash over opinions  and values but who never-the-less expect their children to follow in their religious path unquestioningly.  Simply stated,  Mr Coles found in his research that children are morally intelligent and it is therefore beneficial to them to be raised in a home where they are encouraged to question and to think for themselves.  Parents who only see  issues in black and white can have a detrimental effect on their children’s outlook on life.  The problem begins when the child is expected to ‘learn by example’ from the adults in their family but has intelligently worked out for themselves that something is not right.  The atmosphere in the household is one in which the child is not permitted to question any ‘laws’ laid down by their parents and this includes religious beliefs.  At the same time the child is being bombarded by media images and peer group pressure.   Perhaps the high rates of depression in our young people is understandable when there is so much conflict in their world view.

Erik H Erikson, a child psychiatrist who knew only too well the psychological trauma caused by  strict and rigid upbringing in a religious household comments in ‘Moral Intelligence’:

‘It is a long haul, bringing up our children to be good; you have to keep doing that, bring them up, and that means bringing things up with them: asking; telling; sounding them out; sounding off yourself; teaching them how to go beyond why?……’

Lets hope then, that all schools will eventually allow students to choose Ethics over Religion in schools.  We might then see some changes taking place in the behaviour of young people and their readiness to take responsibility for their own actions.    <><><>

-Anne Frandi-Coory 20 October 2010

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Also here on Anne Frandi-Coory’s Facebook page  

https://www.facebook.com/myhomelibrary/

See previous posts:  God in the Classroom?

&          Access Ministries Want Access to Childrens’ Minds

Vatican Bank 0r Office For Religious Works

September 27, 2010
CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Pope Benedict meets the head of the bank

Associated Press Article below about one of the world’s most corrupt institutions:

ROME (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI met Sunday with the head of the Vatican bank in a show of support for the banker despite Italian authorities investigating him as part of a money laundering probe, ANSA news agency reported.

The pope received bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and his wife at his Castel Gandolfo residence outside Rome, the news agency said.

“It is an obvious sign of his respect and confidence. The meeting in front of numerous witnesses publicly demonstrated in a clear manner the pope’s closeness and support to the banker chosen to lead the IOR towards complete transparency,” ANSA quoted a Vatican source as saying.

The bank is officially known as Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR)  [Office for Religious Works] 

Gotti Tedeschi has been accused of violating laws put in place in 2007 that have tightened rules on disclosure of financial operations to the Italian central bank in a bid to stamp out money laundering.  (guess where the mafia banks?)

The investigation was launched after the financial intelligence office at the Bank of Italy noticed two IOR operations it deemed suspicious.

The first one was a transfer of 20 million euros to JP Morgan Frankfurt, while the other was a three-million-euro transfer to Italian bank, Banca del Fucino, Italian media reported.

Gotti Tedeschi, whose appointment in 2009 was greeted as a move towards greater transparency at the bank implicated in a major scandal in the 1980s, has said he was “profoundly humiliated and mortified” by the probe opened Tuesday.

The bank’s chief executive Paolo Cipriani is also under investigation.

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More – The Corrupt Vatican…

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More – JP Morgan & The Vatican = Transparency?

Carla Bruni; The Problem Being Female

September 2, 2010
CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Sakineh Ashtiani

Update: Sakineh Ashtiani’s  death sentence was commuted and she was freed in 2014 after nine years on death row.

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Carla Bruni has been branded a ‘prostitute and adulteress’, (both biblical terms to be sure), by the Iranian Hierarchy.  They  also pronounced that Ms Bruni “Deserves to Die!”  This is because Ms Bruni, President Sarkozy’s wife,  had the temerity to suggest that the Iranian woman,  Sakineh Ashtiani,  shouldn’t be stoned to death because, in Carla Bruni’s words:

‘Spill your blood, deprive your children of their mother? Why? ‘Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you are a woman, an Iranian? Every part of me refuses to accept this.’

Because there is global condemnation of the sentence of stoning to death, Sakineh is daily subjected to torture; refused visits by her family, daily paraded out to a gallows, since Sharia Law has decreed that she will be hung instead, and lashed.  Still, The Law procrastinates, but only because  it is under the global spotlight.  Sakineh’s children must bear their mother’s pain and her humiliation.

Why don’t these patriarchal, Islamic countries  move into the 21st Century?  But it is not only Islam that lives in the dark ages.   Catholicism does too, only it calls its equivalent to Sharia Law, ‘Office of the Inquisition’, which still exists today albeit under another name.

In my book ‘Whatever Happened to Ishtar?’ I explore the reasons why members of my father’s Catholic Lebanese family called my mother ‘sharmuta’ (prostitute) constantly when I was a child.  It didn’t seem to matter to them that particular men in that same family fathered her children.  I used to wonder as a teenager how a woman could be good enough to have sex with,  yet not good enough to be treated with respect.  My mother was never a prostitute, but those men,  being from the Middle East, were used to blaming women for all their ills; they brought the culture with them to Australasia.

I despair for the daughters of those women in Islamic countries whose mothers are branded with such degrading labels.  As females, they have no power, not over their lives, not over their own bodies.  But their men are free to murder, rape, torture and humiliate with impunity, so long as the victim is female.

Irshad Manji summarises  the “case” against Sakineh:

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Stoning cases themselves tend to be built on a pile of indignities. Consider the allegation against Ms. Ashtiani: adultery. The charge is manifestly trumped up and the investigation has been stacked from the get-go — so much so that a loophole had to be invoked to convict her. That loophole lets judges claim special “knowledge” for which there’s no evidence. How convenient.

In May 2006, a criminal court in East Azerbaijan province found Ashtiani guilty of having had an “illicit relationship” with two men following the death of her husband. But that September, during the trial of a man accused of murdering her husband, another court reopened an adultery case based on events that allegedly took place before her husband died, the BBC reported. …Mohammed Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who volunteered to represent Ashtiani when her sentence was announced a few months ago, called the planned stoning “an absolutely illegal sentence.”

“Two of five judges who investigated Sakineh’s case in Tabriz prison concluded that there’s no forensic evidence of adultery,” Mostafaei told the Guardian. “According to the law, death sentence and especially stoning needs explicit evidences and witnesses while in her case, surprisingly, the judge’s knowledge was considered as enough,” he said.

 

 

Islam, Christianity & the Vatican Library

August 23, 2010
CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Vatican Library.  Do we need such opulence to preserve books? What a shame the Catholic Church burnt all those books on ‘THE LIST’

UPDATED 13 March 2013

In Doveton, Victoria, Casey Council has approved the building of a Catch the Fires Ministry Christian Church and an Omar Farooq Mosque alongside each other. A petition against the building of the mosque  beside the Church is doing the rounds.  MORE: The Age News

From TGO’s Blog:

Muslims need a place to pray???

I believe Muslims should be provided with a place to pray as soon as they provide Christians, Jews and other denominations with a place to pray in predominantly Muslim countries; how’s that for logic? By the way, one minor detail; this place to pray for non-Muslims cannot be subjected to suicide bombers. Sensible people do not want their lives ended prematurely.

Personally, I couldn’t care less for prayer, which is about as worthless as tits on a bull (for those of you out there who might be confused, bulls don’t have mammary glands, therefore their tits don’t produce milk and are therefore basically useless – just like prayer).

Anyway, why is it that we, the United States, need to cater to the whole world; a world that basically poo-poos on us (to be polite)? Since when have Muslims become such upstanding citizens that this country owes them a place to pray??? TGO

I agree with most of the above.  Anyway, why do the various religions need to build such palaces of grandeur to pray in?  Now, every time I visit  a Roman Catholic cathedral, full of stunning marble and fabulous artworks, I can appreciate the magnificence and beauty of the architecture and art, but at the same time, I can’t help thinking of the blood shed by millions over thousands of years, during the pillaging of the needed resources, not to mention the slave labour!   If I believed in prayer,  I would say a prayer for them.  Instead, I think of them and contemplate the brutality in the name of religion.  St Peter’s in The Vatican, for instance, should be an embarrassment to all Catholics the world over, for its opulent extravagance.  Let’s not just criticise the Muslims here, think of the Christian crusades as an example.   Raping and pillaging licensed by the Catholic Church,  and in ‘God’s Name’.  No better or no worse than the suicide bombing of millions of innocents in ‘Allah’s Name’.

One thing I will say about the Catholic Church, they believe that women and girls should have the same rights to a good education as boys.  I know I did.

See Burning Books…

‘The Jesus Papers’ by Michael Baigent – A Book Review

August 17, 2010
BOOKS In My Non-Fiction Collection-REVIEWS, CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Exposing the great fraud?

UPDATED 15 MARCH 2016

There is a new pope in the Vatican, Pope Francis, and thousands of cases of sexually abused children at the hands of thousands of paedophile priests, have come to light.  Has anything really changed in the Catholic Church?

ARE WE BUT A MERE FLOCK OF SHEEP?

“Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favor, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one.” – Richard Dawkins (Quote taken from TGO’s Blog)

 

 

Michael Baigent  discusses historical fact –  he is enlightening. I have read previous books about the Dead Sea Scrolls and  other books co-authored by Michael Baigent and this book is just as good.  There is much information about the beginnings of Catholicism which will interest many of my blog readers.  The back of the book lists three questions:

  • What if everything we have been told about the origins of Christianity is a lie?
  • What  if a small group had always known the truth and had kept it hidden…until now?
  • What if there is incontrovertible proof that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion?

I, and I am sure many other Catholics, are asking:

  • Did we suffer all that terrifying threat of hellfire and brimstone as children,  for the sake of a LIE’?
  • Are women being stoned to death for the sake of a LIE?
  • Is this the reason we have been labelled  ‘His flock of sheep’ and He ‘Our Shepherd’?
  • Are the reasons many thousands died during the Inquisition and the Crusades – all based on LIES?

The Inquisition was initiated by the cruel and fanatical Spanish monk, Dominic De Guzman  in the 13th Century and the Catholic Church named  Orders after him;   Dominican nuns and priests.  Guzman  was eventually canonised by the Vatican as a Saint, can you believe it?   As Michael Baigent says in his book, all roads might have led to Rome, but so did vast rivulets of blood!  Question marks still hang over the present German pope, Joseph Ratzinger, who as Cardinal Ratzinger, (from 1981 until 2005) headed the twice re-named Inquisition;   Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in 1908 and during his reign as Cardinal in Charge (‘Grand Inquisitor’), Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1965.

 

-Anne Frandi-Coory 15 March 2015

Read more here:

Australian Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses Into Sexual Abuse Of Children  2013 -2017

 

‘God’s Callgirl’ by Carla Van Raay. A Book Review

July 8, 2010
BOOKS In My Non-Fiction Collection-REVIEWS, CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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God’s Callgirl-a memoir

My childhood was spent in Roman Catholic institutions and my mother was a novice nun before her marriage (see ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?’), so  this book was of personal interest to me.   But of course it is also a well written and interesting book in its own right, well worth the reading. Another great read I found in a second hand book shop.

Carla Van Raay’s book God’s Callgirl is a perspective of the depths, in my opinion,  of how far Catholicism has sunk since the beginnings of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus.  Carla tells us  about her life from her upbringing within a strict Catholic family,  sexual and physical abuse by her father,  to her entry into a convent as a teenager and her later life as a sex worker. Her life in the convent was spent in prayer and unpaid drudgery, such as cleaning, teaching and needlework (which the convent sold) and when she finally leaves the convent she discovers her parents, who were not well off, were charged by the nuns for Carla’s board and keep!  She re-enters the real world as an innocent in every sense of the word. The convent was run by spiteful and cruel nuns within a strict hierarchy.  The convent’s inhabitants were called ‘The Faithful Companions of Jesus’, ironic to say the least.  Carla triumphs despite the best efforts of her parents and Catholicism.

My mother’s life was also one of hardship and emotional abuse in her convent which was called the ‘Home Of Compassion’.  My mother and I,  like Carla,  never experienced or witnessed any real and heart-felt compassion in any Catholic institutions!  In light of what is being exposed within the Catholic Church in recent times, it brings to my mind that saying  ‘The higher you fly, the further you fall’.

-Anne Frandi-Coory 8 July 2010

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……’Whatever Happened to Ishtar?’ by Anne Frandi-Coory

April 15, 2010
'WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ISHTAR?' *Fifteen+ Reviews, BOOKS Authored by Anne Frandi-Coory, CATHOLIC CHURCH & Its Institutions
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Whatever Happened To Ishtar? – A Passionate Quest To Find Answers For Generations of Defeated Mothers …

Whatever Happened to Ishtar_cover 2020

Updated 4th edition paperback  plus Kindle ebook 

Now available here on AMAZON BOOKS

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Whatever happened To Ishtar? 4th Edition Updated Rear Cover:

Anne’s story is one of lost generations…

What is most fascinating about ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?’ are the ancestral genealogies of the author’s Lebanese father and her Italian mother. This does assist readers to understand what hardships 19th century immigrants to the United Kingdom and New Zealand endured. With no access to birth control, women faced multiple pregnancies or secretly resorted to self-induced abortions.

The personal stories Anne has researched for this book go some way to explain why her parents were compelled to make the life choices they did. This memoir will stay in your memory as it covers universal issues of female sexuality, women’s roles and limited options, mental illness, and societal harsh judgments that have defeated mothers for generations.

Historical personal stories within the pages of this book explore the emotional pain felt by abandoned, abused children, along with the guilt and helplessness felt by mothers struggling within hostile environments with little or no support. 
The author’s formative years spent in Catholic institutions has given her a heartfelt and very personal insight into the harm Catholicism can inflict on traumatised children. She was abandoned by her mother when she was ten months old, and from then on, she lived a life of abuse and gross neglect in the Mercy Orphanage For The Poor, and at the hands of her paternal extended Coory family in Dunedin, New Zealand.
In the Coory family’s ethnocentric mindset, Anne’s greatest shortcoming was her demonised Italian mother.
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‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?’ by Anne Frandi-Coory is a well-written and haunting memoir of a woman who finds herself by exploring her family’s heritage that contributed to her growing up without the love and nurture of a mother she most desperately wanted. What first attracted me to this book was the title; Ishtar was the Ancient Sumerian Mother Goddess who celebrated love, fertility, and sexuality. This title haunted me as I read the memoir because Anne’s mother, like many women of her generation and previous generations, was harshly 
judged for those same attributes. – Linnea Tanner USA.  HERE on Amazon

See *****15 book reviews below….

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Anne Frandi-Coory – 10 years old

This story about an abandoned girl will  lead you to  stories about generations of defeated mothers …

Anne blog

 Anne Frandi-Coory – 2010

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 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ISHTAR?; A Passionate Quest To Find Answers For Generations of Defeated Mothers…

ishtar-front-cover

1st Edition Cover

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Anne Frandi-Coory is interviewed by Chris Morris of the Otago Daily Times November 2018 for project ‘Marked By The Cross’ – Part One and Two Here: 

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Lebanese Settlers Reunion Dunedin, NZ 2011

Photos: Catholic Churches, Schools & Orphanages

Anne in convent clothes

Anne in Mercy Orphanage clothes aged about eight years old

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Copy of Doreen &amp; Joseph's wedding day

Joseph Coory and Doreen Frandi at their marriage ceremony

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 Whatever Happened to Ishtar? is made up of two books:

  • In Book I, Anne Frandi-Coory traces her father Joseph Coory’s Lebanese family history back through the mists of time to various places in the Middle East, including Iraq and Damascus, then to Bcharre, from  where her paternal grandparents Eva and Jacob Fahkrey (Coory) emigrate to Melbourne in 1897.  Khalil Gibran, Lebanon’s most famous poet,  came from the same village as Jacob and was related to him through marriage. The couple eventually travel to Dunedin, New Zealand and subsequently had twelve children. Family members live on in the same house at 67 Carroll Street for a hundred years.  In many ways it becomes a house of horrors for Anne’s mother Doreen Frandi and her children.

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Anne & Tony

Doreen Frandi’s two children Anthony and Anne during their years in Catholic institutions

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Kevin blog 1

Kevin Coory, son of Phillip Coory and Doreen Frandi, adopted by Joseph Coory after his marriage to Doreen.

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Lebanese Family Tree here

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In Book II, Anne Frandi-Coory traces her mother Doreen Frandi’s Italian roots back decades to such places as southern Italy, Sicily, Pistoia, Lucca, Pisa, Florence,  and northern Italy’s border with Switzerland.   Anne’s personal story begins when her mother, a former nun, falls pregnant to a Lebanese soldier, Phillip Coory, at the close of WWll.  Phillip, already married with a small son, abandons Doreen, who then decides to follow him to Dunedin, New Zealand. Phillip’s older brother Joseph marries Doreen against the extended Coory family’s wishes, and adopts Phillip’s second son. Anne’s subsequent birth sets off a series of consequences still reverberating through several generations. Anne also documents her mother’s tragic descent into  severe bipolar disorder when her marriage to Joseph disintegrates following Anne’s birth.

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Italian Family Tree here

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  • 21 Black and white photos in the book
  • Extensive Lebanese and Italian family trees
  • Some of Anne Frandi-Coory’s favourite poems are woven into chapters; each poem relevant and poignant

Song Of Ishtar

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Most of all, this book proves two things: Our lives can be pre-ordained by the tragedies of our ancestors’ lives, and a child’s spirit can survive the cruelest of beginnings, to take on the world

*********************FIFTEEN BOOK REVIEWS***********************

5 star ***** AMAZON BOOK REVIEW by Deianira 11 January 2015

When I started reading  Whatever Happened To Ishtar?, I expected to finish it quite quick but in truth, it took time to digest the words and their significance. It is a journey, both biographical and autobiographical in approach. The author seeks to find her place not only in society but who she is. This is an extraordinary search which uncovers the history of her maternal and paternal lineage.

What is revealed is both heart-rending and powerful, a personal narrative. Ms. Frandi-Coory’s pursuit as to why her mother abandoned her while a baby is a difficult journey of self-discovery. How could a mother leave her children is the driving question behind the author’s plight. That, and trying to understand who she is and to identify with the family nexus and her place within it.

Her father, ill equipped mentally and economically to rear his daughter and son, placed them in an orphanage run by catholic nuns. It was not a pleasant time for either and the author gives vivid descriptions of her time incarcerated. Her father’s family weren’t the most pleasant people, abusive both verbally and physically. Why? Her mother was considered a harlot and mentally unstable, therefore she was of the same ilk. The cultural mix of Italian and Lebanese blood, the author is driven to learn more about both sides of the family and why they behaved in such a contrary manner.

I admire Ms. Frandi-Coory for writing this book. She revealed secrets most families would prefer to remain hidden to detriment of those who were and are victims. This is a brave expository, which shows the cycles of abuse can be stopped with determination and strength of character.

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4.5 Stars ***** AMAZON BOOK REVIEW by Gerald Gentz USA 30 December 2014

Gerald Gentz

Gerald Gentz

Whatever Happened To Ishtar? is more than a book and more than a story. It is the telling of a remarkable journey of discovery of one person’s difficult life. Anne Frandi-Coory spent much of her life trying to find a place and the love of a family. Book ended between a caring but weak father and mentally ill mother unable to care for her financially or emotionally, Anne and her brother, Kevin, suffered childhoods that no child deserves to experience. In the end, even the scars would not prevent them from making stable and successful lives.

Anne’s long research into both the paternal and maternal sides of her family is remarkable for it’s depth and acceptance. In doing so, she exposed her demons and the dysfunctions of her maternal and paternal families. The result is a culmination of her difficult journey to understand herself. Her greatest victory is her coming to understand the love of her mother and the realization of her love for her mother. Anne’s was a journey of discovery and healing.

This can be a difficult book to read at times because of the emotions it elicits. It was particularly emotional for me because of my realization that Anne is actually my cousin that I was not aware I had, her mother being my mother’s older sister. Anne’s book gave me a deeper awareness of my maternal family, and thus my mother, than I had before. So Anne Frandi-Coory’s journey of discovery was also mine in 373 pages.

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“An amazing journey – challenging, painful, and ultimately unforgettable”  

– Tanith Jane McNabb, Owner of Tan’s Bookshop Marlborough NZ, 27 October 2014 on  

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Goodreads 5 Star ***** Book Review by Susan Tarr  – 14 October 2014

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11168865-whatever-happened-to-ishtar 

Author, Editor and Proofreader

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Susan Tarr

Susan Tarr

“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ISHTAR? By Anne Frandi-Coory is a remarkable portrayal of New Zealand’s earlier Lebanese and Italian Catholic families. Although I was raised in the various vicinities this book covers, I had no idea there were established Lebanese families in New Zealand. And, for me, the whole Catholic religion was shrouded in mystique, so I had very little understanding of what was involved in being a part of the Catholic faith.

Set in New Zealand, the spartan buildings of the Catholic St Vincent’s orphanage mirrored in some part those of Seacliff Mental Asylum (Otago, NZ) in both outlook and care of those in their charge. Both would seem to have lacked a close affection for those who needed it most: the vulnerable and unloved.

This work is an amazing testimony for all mothers, a testimony we can probably all relate to. How many times do we feel inadequate, or feel we could have done better? We should never have such constraints placed on us as a mother to feel either of these. Whatever a mother is capable of at that time, for her child, is sufficient for that time.

As Frandi-Coory bears out, it is always possible to break mindsets, or break the mould, as it is said. I.e. the sins of the father… All it takes is an invincible will, which clearly she had and has.

Frandi-Coory recounts the histories of both her Lebanese and Italian families. She explains how the various mindsets occurred and how they were passed down through the generations.

I found I kept referring to the photographs as I formed opinions on the various players in this tapestry of life.

What is astonishing here, is that Anne Frandi-Coory and I never made a connection until after our respective books were published, in separate countries. It was through reading each others work that we realised our lives were very closely linked. In fact we may well have known each other through a mutual friend (Italian) during our college years in Dunedin, NZ. That is why I can vouch for the events, scenery, time frames and cultures in this amazing work.

It’s absolutely raw in its honesty.

Very well written, it’s a compelling read, from start to finish.

Kudos to Anne Frandi-Coory.” – Susan Tarr HERE on Amazon

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AMAZON BOOK REVIEW  16 August 2014:

Whatever Happened To Ishtar? is a raw and powerful memoir/family history by author Anne Frandi-Coory.  She spent 15 years travelling, researching her family tree, interviewing extended family members, haunting libraries and museums.  Some of what Anne discovers is devastating, but mostly she is proud of the cultures and heritage of her ancestors.

Anne believes that the Catholic Church’s Dogma with its divine elevation of the ‘Virgin Mary Mother of God’, changed the image and value of the female across the world. Gone forever were the powerful, pagan goddesses. Instead we humans were left with the Roman Catholic black and white dichotomy of whore/virgin. Anne Frandi-Coory was born into a Lebanese Maronite migrant family in Dunedin, New Zealand. Prior to Anne’s birth, her Lebanese father, Joseph,  married Anne’s Italian mother who’d already given birth to a son whose father was Joseph’s younger brother, Phillip. Unfortunately, Phillip was already married with another son! From the time of her birth, Anne is caught up in a vortex of hatred, neglect, physical and sexual abuse. At only ten months old, she is separated from her parents when she is placed in a Catholic orphanage for the poor run by the Sisters Of Mercy.

Anne’s research into her mother’s, grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’ lives reveal their extreme hardships largely brought about by giving birth to too many children, xenophobia, and abusive husbands.

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Book Review by Roseann Cameron;

Christchurch, New Zealand. 25 November 2013

Roseann Cameron

Whatever Happened to Ishtar? by Anne Frandi-Coory  is a necessary read for any mother in order to help make an adjustment to your mindset in this information age filled with books on how to parent better.

Anne tells, in an honest and direct way, the reality of her childhood where her mother was largely absent; suffering neglect and abuse in the hands of the Catholic Church and her extended family.  Despite this absence by her mother, the rare moments Anne shared with her still gave her something enormous.

It is a balanced account such as she does acknowledge the education the catholic church introduced her to.

Why Anne’s story is one of redemption and healing is that, despite what she reveals of her childhood and subsequent adult quest to reach a place of understanding, Anne has in her, a life blood and intelligence that is vibrant and strong.  Anne knows how to live in the moment and embrace love and laughter to its full.

Anne is giving back to her children the opposite of what she was given which is a massive testament to her strength and sheer force of character.  So if you ever feel you are not giving enough to your child take a read of what Anne didn’t get from her biological parents.  Be encouraged by Anne’s story that even the most meagre rations her parents were able to give did make a difference to her.  How much more so, an available parent with intent to actively love her children, despite the inevitable mistakes you make along the way?  Such a mother  Anne has turned out to be, despite all odds.

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Note from my nephew, Dean Marshel-Courté 1 May 2013…….

dean

Dean Marshel-Courté

Hi Anne, l’m sitting at a cafe in Sofia, Bulgaria, and thought l’d let you know that l just finished re reading properly, Whatever Happened To Ishtar?  last weekend and like l’ve already mentioned to you, your work is outstanding. l have a complete picture now of yours and Tony’s and my dad’s lives in that difficult time. l just can’t believe how terrible your situation was and the way they treated you all. Just for your info, my adopted mother lived in Dunedin too and was a dress maker for your aunties; she remembers them very well.

 Luv. Deano

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MOMOBOOKBLOG REVIEW   of  Whatever Happened To Ishtar? 22 June 2011…  How much can a person endure, especially a little child. This heart-rendering account of Anne-Frandi Coory’s life is a proof that we can live through a lot of hardship and still turn out to be passionate and affectionate people, in this case a wonderful woman and mother of four children even though she was an abandoned and abused child herself.

The author goes back to the history of her Lebanese-Italian family and all the troubles her ancestors went through before reaching New Zealand… MORE…

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Rita Roberts

Rita Roberts,retired archeologist, Crete, and author of  ‘Toffee Apples & Togas’  –

Whatever Happened to Ishtar?  by  Anne Frandi-Coory  is a book I could not put down. It tells of Anne’s terrifying upbringing as a child and later on in life the long quest to trace her family. Written with such passion that once read one thinks of the old saying, ‘There for the grace of god go I’. This book I would recommend to all families,especially mothers, in fact, to everyone. – Rita Roberts 2011

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I am loving  Whatever Happened To Ishtar? – I started reading it straight away… Isn’t it amazing that when you know someone, you don’t know what is really going on in their life? I always saw you as a fun loving mother of 4 busy kids, with the wonderful Paul by your side. I loved staying with you all. I loved your home and its romantic decoration, I loved your sense of warmth and your zest for life. When you went off to Uni, you inspired me to be a life long learner – its never too late! You are amazing and have had the most incredible journey to become and even more amazing grandmother and mature woman. I love you and will always hold you in such high esteem.- 2011

Rachael Dunphy Van Asch, Marlborough on her facebook page

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MOMO – International Book Group Online 2011– Location: The Netherlands:

Whatever happened to Ishtar? by Anne Frandi-Coory, the biography of a woman from New Zealand with Lebanese-Italian parents. This book was recommended to me by a person in Australia. Not for the faint-hearted but very good.
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dean

Dean Marshel-Courté

        Dean Marshel-Courté, Hungary  facebook comment:

Reading my Aunty’s [Anne Frandi-Coory] book; Whatever Happened to Ishtar? Its fab and very informative regarding the family history. Dad [Kevin Coory], its worth a read buddy. (-:

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Marion Groves’ Tweets:

30/08/2011 > Night girls, dying to get back to my book. Am reading Whatever Happened to Ishtar? by Anne Frandi-Coory @afcoory … Highly recommend! @lunarchic @externallylaws

6/09/2011 > @PhilosophyQuotz @MarionGroves Your descendants shall gather your fruits. Virgil (ping @afcoory ) > Maybe I should have used this title for ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?’

6/09/2011 >No, your title is provocative & thought-provoking, as is your book. I was sorry when I had finished it. @afcoory

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*****Book Review by Wendy O’Hanlon –   Click – A Cultural Connection [September 2010]: Whatever Happened To Ishtar?

Wendy O'Hanlon

Wendy O’Hanlon

ISHTAR, according to Phoenician legend, is the great mother goddess. But author Anne Frandi-Coory grew up without close contact with her mother. In this painful re-telling of her family history, the author explores how generations of her family have lived thwarted, sad and unfulfilled lives because of a cruel twist of fate and even crueller family behaviours.

The author grew up in an orphanage, ostracised by her Lebanese father’s family. She rarely saw her Italian mother who spent many years in asylums and endured horrific shock treatments. She has tried to trace her siblings and re-establish relationships – with and without success, with heart-rending surprises and tragedies.

The author is now living a fulfilled life but needed to face these demons of her family history to try to make sense of life and purpose. There is true courage in her words. Her childhood was very lonely. Hers is such a searing, heart-tearing story.

The author painstakingly documents the history of her family back through the generations of Italian and Lebanese faces and stories. What is ironic is that she uncovers the rich cultural history of these families and the fact that such wonderful traits and traditions were all but lost to modern generations as her family tree fractures again and again.

For the reader, there is much to learn about the history of these great cultures as Frandi-Coory meticulously delves into ancient stories and legends. There is also much to learn about the strength of the human spirit – that a life with purpose can be lived despite a crippling beginning.

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JOHN MORROW’S PICK OF THE WEEK September 2010

This is an autobiography cum family history from a strong woman who has overcome the odds to come out a successful and wonderfully strong person.

There are not many happy childhood memories when Anne recalls her earlier life in Dunedin.   Anne spent her formative years at the Orphanage for the Poor.  There she was indoctrinated into the world of the Roman Catholic religion. Prayers, bible study and chores were not the practical things that would prepare a damaged young girl for life out in the wide world.

Anne’s story is a revelation of cruelty and mind games which set her on a path of self-doubt.  It is little wonder that she has been on a life journey that has been harrowing, but ultimately, triumphant.

Anne’s story is painful and, at times, difficult to read.  However, she has my absolute admiration for rising above the adversity of her childhood to become the confident woman she is today.

Thanks Anne, for sharing your story.

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Click Here: for more of the latest reviews for  ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?‘ 

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Anne Frandi-Coory… Author Photograph: Robb Duncan 2010

BRIEF BIO OF AUTHOR:

Growing up in an orphanage, raised by strict Catholic nuns, abused by her father’s Lebanese family in Dunedin. This beginning did not prepare Anne Frandi-Coory well for the realities of life.  But she overcame the continual threat of hellfire and brimstone, escaping into marriage and children as a teenager, while trying to find out who she was.  Then followed divorce, and diverse short careers;  interior decorator, estate agent, joint owner of a café/caterer. Always looking for new challenges while becoming bored with the old, Anne then went to university and gained a degree in Sociology after which she worked for a short time as a child case worker in the NZ Dept of Social Welfare.  Not content with that, she travelled the world with her partner and daughter, and then wrote her first book ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar? – A Passionate Quest To Find Answers For Generations Of Defeated Mothers’.   The book was the result of fifteen years of research, interviews, and note-taking, and is selling worldwide.

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*Please note: If you have trouble purchasing a 4th edition paperback copy, contact me here on my blog by leaving a comment.*

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