Cristiano Ronaldo's Mother Tried to Abort the Unborn Soccer Superstar

Dolores Aveiro, the mother of Real Madrid (and formerly Manchester United) soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, helped author a candid autobiography with ghost writer Paulo Sousa Costa titled: Mãe Coragem "Mother Courage" which was recently had its lusophone launch in Lisbon.  Aveiro had wanted to dub the book "A Woman Is a Woman" as a nod to German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht's  "Man Is a Man".  But "Mother Courage"'s subtitle: "The Life the Force and the Faith of a Fighter" better explains her homage to the struggles of mothers.

In the book, Ms. Aveiro revealed that when she was pregnant with Cristiano on the Portuguese  archipelago of Madeira  in 1984, she tried to abort him.  Dolores Aveiro reasoned that she was 30 years old, already the mother of three children and her poor gardener husband was an alcoholic.  When doctors rejected her reasoning, "Mother Courage" tried to do the dirty deed  herself with a homemade abortifacient concoction of warm ale and running until she dropped.  Fortunately for the F.I.F.A. world, her attempts to abort were unsuccessful.

When Cristiano Ronaldo learned that his mother tried to kill him in utero, he seemingly took it in good spirits, joking about who pulled the purse strings in the house.  Perhaps it was a coincidence, but Ronaldo was not present for the book launch, nor was one of his brothers. Dolores excused the absence, since she claims that he knew what she would say.

Aside from giving birth to Ronaldo, Dolores Aveiro encouraged her son to channel frustrations about school into improving his atheleticism and soccer skills.  Later, when her superstar son fathered a child in Florida, Dolores dedicated herself to raising her grandson.

Amongst the allegedly enlightened intellectuals who are pro-abortion rights, terminating a pregnancy is simply "reproductive rights" which is between a women and her doctors.  Well, had Dolores Aveiro been successful of getting rid of a pregnancy problem when she felt under mental duress, the world would have never seen the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.

Kaka on Values

Should the World Cup Be an Orthodox Anathema?

Alexander Shumsky, a Russian Orthodox priest who is also a member of the Russian Writers Union, gave the foot fashion on World Cup players the boot.   

Shumsky's critique is centered on the bright colors of the Puma Trick shoes, which were designed for the 2014 World Cup being held in Brazil.

Puma's reasoning for the exotic color palate for the football boots was because Brazil is all about vibrant colors. The context for Shumsky condemning the World Cup as anathema has not been widely circulated outside of Russia.  However, the thrust of the critique does mirror the homosexual tolerance controversy which shrouded the 2014 Winter Olympics. 

Shumsky's perspective on FIFA had better lighten up, considering that Vladimir Putin has secured the 2018 World Cup in Russia, with the finals being held in Sochi.  Maybe by then the hotels in Sochi will be finished.

polls

Marveling at Super-Pope Francis via Graffiti Art

Artist Mauro Pallotta with his graffiti art "Superpope" Francis (photo:  Andreas Dueren/CNA)

Mauro Pallotta is a 41 year old artist and sculptor based in Rome.  But Pallotta may better be known as a celebrated street artist based on widespread notoriety of his graffiti "Super-Pope" Francis on the Via Plauto, a tiny cobble stoned street in the Borgo Pio district near St. Peter's Square in Rome (Vatican City).

Pallotta (a.k.a. Maupal) was inspired to do the piece one evening when he was reading a comic book and the image of the Pope appeared on television.  Pallotta opined:

“I thought of representing this Pope, Francis, as a super hero of the Marvel (Heroes), simply because, according to me, he is one of the few people who, having a real power as a Pope, he uses it for the good like the superheroes of the American Marvel.” 

It dawned on the artist that this Pope also had superpowers in the form of humility and empathy.

Pallotta likened Super-Pope  to  "It's  a little bit like Greek mythology brought to modernity.”   In depicting Pope Francis as a superhero using his papal authority for the good, the pontiff is shown as a pop style dressed in his understated white cassock, simple shoes and an iron pectoral crosscross as the Super-Pope carrying a black briefcase labeled "Valores" (meaning values in both Latin and Spanish).  This symbolizes that the first New World  Pope only carries his Christian values.

A red and blue scarf is hanging out of the briefcase, which is for the Argentine San Lorenzo de Football (soccer) club, which the Pope been a fan of this underdog team since his boyhood.

Graffiti art in Buenos Aires, Argentina of Pope Francis &San Lorenzo Football Club (photo TripAdvisor)

Pope Francis greeted players from San Lorenzo at the Vatican in December after a Wednesday general audience to congratulate them on winning the Tornial Incial championship.

 Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken of the spiritual values of sports teams.  His Holiness exhorted Argentine and Italians sports clubs that:  "[R]ugby is like life because we are all heading for a goal, we need to run together and pass the ball from hand to hand until we get to it".

The artist explained that the San Lorenzo soccer scarf brought Super-Pope Francis to being human.  However, considering Pope Francis' connection between sports and spirituality, carrying  the San Lorenzo scarf with his values "baggage" , it can be seen as a reminder that even a "Super-Pope" needs the support of his underdog team to achieve the goal of advancing the kingdom of God.

Vatican Communications embraced Pallotta's Super-Pope folk art tribute by posting it on  its Twitter feed.

The Super-Pope graffiti art lasted but a day, as Rome's decorum police acted faster than a speeding bullet took down this street art in record time.