Nine years shorter in Purgatory. Thats what Catholics get for each step they climb on their knees in a Vatican staircase, claimed to have been transported to Rome from Jerusalem.
The so-called «Sacred Steps» in Rome is supposed to be the staircase from Pontius Pilate’s mansion, on which the Catholics are told Christ was made to walk on his knees, carrying the cross.
People still walk on their knees on those 30 odd steps as a mark of Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind. And there are 4 places on the stairs that are encased in gold-framed glass, supposed to be places where drops of Jesus’ blood fell.
How Pilate’s staircase came to Rome?
Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, brought it from wherever she might have found it.
In the Catholic Church, plenary indulgence can be granted for climbing the stairs on the knees. Pius VII on 2 September 1817 granted those who ascend the stairs in the prescribed manner an indulgence of nine years for every step. Finally Pius X, on 26 February 1908, granted a plenary indulgence to be gained as often as the stairs are devoutly ascended after confession and communion.
Not a few popes are recorded to have performed this pious exercise; Pius IX, who in 1853 entrusted the Passionist Fathers with the care of the sanctuary, ascended the Holy Stairs on 19 September 1870, the eve of the entrance of the Piedmontese into Rome.
There are replicas (holy copies) of these Holy Stairs at Lourdes, France; St. Anne de Beaupre, Canada; Tytuvenia, Lithuania; Abruzzi, Italy; Nasonville, Rhode Island and at St. Patrick’s.
My comment:
First:
There is no words in the Bible, about Jesus being dragged in a staircase in the Governor`s palace in Jerusalem. And if there ever was such a staircase, how did it end up as a pagan Roman Queens possession, more than 300 years after the life of Jesus?
Second:
And if there were blood in this staircase, how did anyone come to know if the blood was of Jesus? No one had His DNA-profile.
Since Pilate washed his hands of Jesus, would it not be reasonable, that someone would have cleaned up the mess in the staircase?
Third:
Frankly, it is more than unlikely that the Governor would make his presumed blood stained staircase into a «Museum» for a Jew the Jewish crowed wanted to get rid off, and the Roman soldiers crucified.
Forth:
In Mathew 28 you can read how the chief priests and the Jewish elders tried their best to blot out any traces and evidences of a risen Messiah, a cover-up that was supposed to have pleased Pilate.
Fifth:
How do you transport a staircase? I guess it must have been difficult to demolish? Was the building also demolished, and a proper copy of the castle built in Rome, to fit the staircase?
Six:
Jesus did not redeem mankind in the presence of Pilate, and any penance in such a staircase that will redeem the dead Catholics from «purgatory» is not-Biblical non sense.
The Vatican is cheating. The pagans claimed to be «Christians» has built a religion around a copy-cat Jesus, and religious rituals based on fabricated stories that perverts the truth.