Page 1 - Good News July 2008 paper
P. 1
Atheistic Editor Dared God
To Send Earthquake
t was Christmas Eve in 1908, animals quartered in the town and the outlying
but the citizens of Messina, districts.
IItaly, were not planning the Dogs and donkeys began dashing about in frantic
traditional observances of the but aimless distress, howling and braying, eyes
birth of Christ, because they were distended in wild and staring terror. Horses, mules
an atheistic community. and oxen neighed, bawled and trembled in every
In its Christmas issue on the 21st, limb, pointing their ears forward, and rolling their
the town newspaper, Il Telefono, glaring eyes.
blatantly irreligious in tone, had Geese, pigeons and other domestic fowls fluttered
published an ugly parody defying wildly in fright. Even wild birds flew screaming
God and daring Him to make through the air in obvious alarm. Fishes in the sea
Himself known by sending an rose to the surface and floated there, alive, but
earthquake. inert. They were caught in large numbers. The wind
Now, on the very eve of Christ- Continued on p. 8
mas, the city council, in the same
disparaging mood, passed a
series of shockingly disrespectful
and irreverent resolutions flou-
ting God. In effect, the resolutions
mocked God on behalf of the
entire community.
No sooner had the defamatory
actions of the town council been
accepted by the unprotesting
people than distress and panic
seemed to enter into all the