02-19-25 - Statue Of Virgin Mary Weeping Blood In Italy Found To Be Using Pig's Blood To Bilk Faithful For Donations

Summary

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Arizona

Episode: February 19, 2025
Title: Statue Of Virgin Mary Weeping Blood In Italy Found To Be Using Pig's Blood To Bilk Faithful For Donations

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Introduction to the Controversy

In this episode of Holmberg's Morning Sickness on Arizona's #1 Morning Radio Show, hosts John Holmberg, Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, and Dick Toledo delve into a shocking revelation from Italy. The show examines the case of the Madonna de Trevignano statue, revered by many as a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary that allegedly sheds tears of blood. However, investigations have uncovered that the tears were not divine but rather pig's blood used to deceive and solicit donations from the faithful.

Unveiling the Fraudulent Miracle

Brady Bogen opens the discussion by recounting a listener's revelation about the Madonna de Trevignano statue:

Brady (00:36): "People from across the world have traveled to Carmiano in Italy to visit the Madonna de Trevignano... She started to share this with other people... it's pig blood. She's been loading the thing with pig blood for years and taking money."

The hosts explore how Gisela Cardia, the owner of the statue, manipulated believers by presenting fabricated miracles. Brady emphasizes the extent of the deception:

Brady (03:28): "She's been at it for years with this thing... it's like going to the North Pole and going, he's not here."

Community Impact and Church Involvement

The conversation shifts to the broader implications for the local community and the Catholic Church's response. The hosts discuss how the scam not only defrauded individuals but also tarnished the reputation of genuine religious practices.

Brady (07:06): "They have to investigate the people who walked up there and ordered a slice off the Virgin Mary statue."

Brady criticizes the ease with which people were duped, drawing parallels to other fraudulent practices:

Brady (06:47): "How is it different than a palm reader? You're paying them and they give you something you want to hear."

Public Reaction and Ethical Considerations

The hosts debate the ethical boundaries of religious miracles and the exploitation of faith for personal gain. They question the morality of such actions and the responsibility of both the deceivers and the deceived.

Brady (09:36): "It should have never been... Does it bother you that we live in a world where that's something people will pay for?"

Pat adds to the discussion by highlighting the manipulation involved:

Pat (10:37): "Rally up with a new thing, but... you have to hit the dome."

Comparisons to Other Scams

Brady draws comparisons between the Madonna de Trevignano scam and other well-known fraudulent schemes, further illustrating the prevalence of such deceitful practices.

Brady (11:46): "Joel Osteen has... he's just selling the message that if he. And if you buy some of his products, you should know better."

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, the hosts express their frustration and disbelief at how such scams operate under the guise of faith. They advocate for greater scrutiny and critical thinking among believers to prevent future exploitation.

Brady (12:20): "She had to be in year three going, I got to come up with something new."

The hosts conclude by assuring listeners that investigations will continue, hinting at upcoming topics related to debunked miracles and fraudulent claims.

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Notable Quotes:

• Brady Bogen [00:36]: "She's been loading the thing with pig blood for years and taking money."

• Brady Bogen [07:06]: "You need to investigate the people who walked up there and ordered a slice off the Virgin Mary statue."

• Brady Bogen [09:36]: "It should have never been... Does it bother you that we live in a world where that's something people will pay for?"

• Brady Bogen [11:46]: "Joel Osteen has... he's just selling the message that if he. And if you buy some of his products, you should know better."

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Key Takeaways:

1. Deception in Faith Practices: The Madonna de Trevignano statue's fraudulent tears highlight how sacred symbols can be exploited for financial gain.

2. Community and Church Response: Such scams not only deceive individuals but also harm the integrity of religious institutions and genuine believers.

3. Ethical Implications: The episode raises important questions about the moral responsibilities of those in positions of religious influence and the need for critical evaluation among the faithful.

4. Prevalence of Fraudulent Practices: By comparing this case to other scams, the hosts emphasize the widespread nature of such deceitful activities and the importance of vigilance.

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Holmberg's Morning Sickness continues to challenge listeners to question and critically assess the information presented to them, ensuring that faith and belief are not manipulated for ulterior motives.

Transcript

[Dick Toledo]

It's Dick Toledo and new customers right now on FanDuel. Get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 wager wins. Just visit FanDuel.com KUPD to grab $150 in college hoops bonus bets with a winning $5 bet and prepare for March on FanDuel America's 1 Sportsbook 21 plus in President Arizona first online real money wager only $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800-next- step or text NEXT STEP to you. Thought that was funny.

[Brady]

You were laughing like a hyena when he said it. What the hell is wrong with you? I'm being I was very hilariously reprimanded by a listener who emails a lot named Justin. He's very funny guy. And Justin says to me, despite the slave owner suit, Harlan Williams actually has a fairly incredible backstory. I recommend looking into it after your contracts are up and you don't have to watch the news anymore. Well, first off, Colonel Sanders isn't Harlan Williams. So you're telling me to do research? Harlan Williams is the guy from something about Mary and the Bad Dukes of Hazzard and comes in here every once in a while. Stand up comedian Harlan Williams. Harlan Sanders is who you're thinking of, so don't tell me to do research on Harlan Williams. That's just. I sell chicken. Huh? Hey, buddy, look out there. This old chestnut from the sea's called the Chicken Ranch. I got myself a chicken ranch now, and it is a plantation owner's outfit. Now. Is he from a different time where that was okay? Sure. I don't know how he's gotten away with the stolen valor either. He's never a colonel. He was given that title by the governor of Kentucky, who probably owned a plantation at the time. Hey, thanks, buddy. Appreciate the whole title and all the accolades from the military. I was only in four years. See? Hey, buddy. Harlan Williams, we love your chicken. Hey, thanks, buddy. Wrong guy. So that's not a thing. A duping, a tip of the cap for the great Harland Sanders for all that delicious chicken. Another thing I saw, this is a great one to me. I love these moments where it's just like, come on, they had that Virgin Mary statue that they've been making money off of. People from across the world have traveled to Carmiano in Italy to visit the Madonna de Trevignano. It's got extraordinary powers. It's a statue of the Virgin Mary that the owner of the said statue, Gisela Cardia, said that the statue starts to cry. The tears of the blood. Tears of blood fall out of the Virgin of Mary. She fell out of the eyes. And she started to share this with other people. And every third day of the month, she'd allow people to visit the Madonna de Trevignano, which was placed in a large blue case on a hill as a shrine. When the whole city went and I think it's real, she wouldn't let anybody touch it and anything else. So they finally went up and go, all right, we gotta take a look at this. It's pig blood. She's been loading the thing with pig blood for years and taking money. Even the Roman Catholic Church was like. She was. Spread it on there like Carrie. You see a few of the pictures and she's just coding. This Valentine's Day, she's not crying. That's where horror dreams are built.

[Dick Toledo]

Is it scheduled? Does she come in after each viewing and then like wipe off the face?

[Brady]

I guess she goes and cleans it up. So then somebody got wise and said, give me that rag. And DNA test. Let's see what that is. She bought a statue at a Catholic pilgrimage site, and she got it in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the power started coming to light. She said that The Madonna fed 15 people with her never ending portions of pizza, gnocchi.

[Brett]

All right.

[Brady]

And rabbit meat. And said that sometimes she'd show up and there'd be like cooked rabbit meat at the feet of the. And people believed it.

[Pat]

Tumor go away.

[Brady]

Now that didn't happen either. People. People said, gal. Brett, that's her. That's your Italian friend.

[Brett]

No, you don't.

[Brady]

Says they had to making money. But here's the thing. I get you, but did we have to DNA test that for people to. Are we living amongst people that dumb that the Virgin Mary is going to provide pizza? Come on.

[Pat]

And did that shut down? Are people still going there?

[Brett]

You know, many people probably went because of that free pizza.

[Brady]

I mean, look, Brady would have visited the Virgin Mary. He already booked a flight.

[Justin]

I hear she gives out slices.

[Brady]

Yeah, because she's a sparrows.

[Dick Toledo]

That picture said some of the tears matched her genetic DNA.

[Brady]

Whose? The guy, the Lady Cartagen.

[Dick Toledo]

Whatever.

[Brady]

She mixed in her own tears.

[Brett]

Oh, man, she was running short that day.

[Brady]

Look, when the lady who says the Virgin Mary statue she owns cries blood, but every once in a while she's at the butcher shop buying blood. We don't need to waste time with an investigation. You know, you need to investigate the people who walked up there and ordered a slice off the Virgin Mary statue. Thank you, Pat. Mush. Whenever you're ready. She's just crying blood today. She's not handing out pies. I'll come back tomorrow.

[Brett]

Was she giving a cut to the church then?

[Brady]

Well, no.

[Brett]

That's why she got in trouble.

[Brady]

That's why they're right, They've been watching her for.

[Brett]

That's because she hasn't been kicking down.

[Brady]

Yeah, exactly. Otherwise they do it right now. There's a tourist attraction down in Mexico. There's a tourist attraction of this shroud that supposedly.

[Pat]

Is that the lady of Guadalupe.

[Brady]

It's something like that. But it's 400,000 people a year or something like that make this pilgrimage to see this shroud that's made on hemp. And it's an. Oh, that's a different one. No, that's in. That's in New Mexico. This is a big museum, and it's. It's the number one tourist attraction in Mexico, aside from beaches and. And they looked into it and they. They kind of told them, like, look, first and foremost, the thing you're saying isn't from the time you're saying it from. We have, like, tons of recorded documents of the people you're talking about, and they didn't live in the time you're saying this happened, so. And plus, by the way, the dude you're mentioning never once wrote anything down, and he was a meticulous note taker. So this is terrible. Like, your idea is bad, and still hundreds of thousands of people visit it. They just won't accept it. Like, scientifically, they've debunked it and they're. They're. They're taking people's money. And I'm kind of torn on it. I'm like, it's a duping, but if you're dumb enough to spend it, go get them. I think if you've got a crying statue that people give you 50 bucks for and you got to load it with pig blood every couple of days and hand out a slice like Dave Portnoy showing up, then you know what? They deserve it.

[Dick Toledo]

How is it different than a palm reader?

[Brady]

It's not.

[Dick Toledo]

You're paying them and they give you something you want to hear.

[Brady]

Responsibility lies on the person going to it, not the person duping.

[Dick Toledo]

Need your hopes.

[Brady]

But I mean, if you get duped that badly and people have to investigate it because you're Making. You're making too much. Then you know you're going to get shut down again.

[Brett]

If you're to kick down down kicked up to the church, this wouldn't be an issue.

[Brady]

This guy said Portnoy did try her pizza. John gave it a 2.3 her's Mary Pie.

[Pat]

Bad undercarriage.

[Brady]

Yeah. Too soft and he moves away covered in blood. It's just. It's terrible. I just don't understand it. But I'm just glad when they expose these idiots. But she's not backing down. Even though they've proven her wrong, she's still gonna tote that statue around and try to fool another group of dummies down to town. Online.

[Dick Toledo]

You know there's gonna be some people that travel there.

[Brady]

Is it online or is it. Are there people that. You don't need the Internet to know that it gave me pizza. Guys, there was a pie waiting for it.

[Pat]

Let me know where you're relocating.

[Brady]

Right. Brady will do it. Look, in America, a Virgin Mary that hands out free slices is gonna be fairly amazing. All we ask is that you donate to the Virgin Mary handing out of the pizza.

[Justin]

I'll do that.

[Brady]

How much?

[Justin]

$. Here's a game card I didn't use for Dave and Buster's.

[Pat]

325 left on it.

[Justin]

You got a couple games left on that. Try Zaxon.

[Brady]

It's fun.

[Justin]

If I recall correctly, that's a fun game for the kids.

[Dick Toledo]

But come on, Johnny, you claiming once a month a statue bleeds?

[Brady]

She was regular and she's too old to still be bleeding. That would have shut down by now, right? Plus she was a virgin. Like it all dried up a long time ago anyway. It's just weird that. It's just weird. We live in a world where we have to have somebody go DNA test the miracle statue. And how depressed and disappointed are the people who like, if I spent money on them, like, I went to that and I bought in, you gotta double down on it. If you traveled to Mexico to see a shroud that they've proven to be on and you're like, no, I told a bunch of friends, I took pictures. I made a whole week out of it. I gotta pretend that's real still. Anyway, the red liquid from Madonna de Trevignano's eyes are the tears of the lady who owned the statue. And some pig blood, which is gross. So what do we do with that? Do you let it go?

[Pat]

It's out now. Yeah, it's done.

[Brady]

But it's been done. It should have never ever been A.

[Pat]

Rally up with a new thing, but.

[Brady]

It should have never been it. Doesn't it bother you that we live in a world where that's something people will pay for? Like, you know, pizza and pig blood is the. That's the real. But they are just so dumb. And it isn't like, you know, it's the. It's like going to the North Pole and going, he's not here. Well, it's all. Yeah, I know. You're. How dumb are you?

[Pat]

You gotta hit the dome.

[Brady]

Huh?

[Pat]

It's protecting the dome, Santa. Yeah.

[Brady]

Yeah. Okay, you're gonna get up there and not find the dome and be equally as disappointed. If some strange lady in Italy has a statue that cries blood, chances are she's killing animals and loading it with blood. She's a problem in the community. Don't go to Miracle first. Investigate. Ask 10 questions and then go, wow, she's onto something. But you could have easily debunked this right away. She's been at it for years with this thing.

[Brett]

She's an entrepreneur.

[Brady]

I don't know. Brett's people, your people, fleecing each other.

[Brett]

People are dumb enough to fall for it. Good on them.

[Brady]

I agree. But, boy, are they dumb.

[Pat]

And you don't have to donate. You can just.

[Brett]

Look, she didn't donate.

[Brady]

That's the problem. Brady just went cheap. Yeah, he did.

[Justin]

You just take the pie and walk away knowing it's all phony.

[Brady]

Well, that's gonna dry up even faster if the people don't start paying. And after a while, they're kind of like, I'm not so sure. I buy this, and then suddenly there's beer and pizza. Like, well, wait a minute. That Virgin Mary seems real again.

[Dick Toledo]

I'm back in.

[Brady]

Hold on a second. Why is she dressed like a colonel? Oh, it's chicken day, stupid. So, all I'm saying is, if you've got a relative, it's time you just kind of stumbled over that. Awkward. I know it's your religion thing, but let's not watch you get duped, because you would do it if it was a dude in Texas who said, I just need $10,000. I'm a billionaire, and if you just give me some money, I can. I can get out of this, and I'll come meet you and love you. And then, you know, you got the flag lady for the Diamondbacks cutting holes in books and sent. Nobody stood up and said, your fantasy has got to be destroyed.

[Brett]

It's like, Joel Osteen.

[Brady]

Joel Osteen has. But you know what? He's just selling the message that if he. And if you buy some of his products, you should know better. He's not sitting there saying, hey, I've got this magic statue that cries and gives peace.

[Brett]

He's the magic statue.

[Brady]

Yeah, but if he starts handing. That's true. If he starts handing out free pizza, that's pretty good.

[Brett]

I convert for that meal.

[Brady]

I don't know. I just don't get. Took six years for them to go test it, and it's because we're so delicate with that topic.

[Brett]

She's probably even saying, I pulled this off for seven years.

[Brady]

She had to be in year three going, I got to come up with something new. I can't believe they haven't asked a single question about this yet. Question it. It's nuts. Stop being crazy. We got ourselves a Rock wars coming up in a little bit. Who won?

[Pat]

It's me.

[Brady]

Oh, boy. All right, Brady's got some time. Virgin Mary is canceled. You have to take that off the table. We'll come up with something else. The Rock wars topic from Brady will be coming your way next. It's 98, Arizona's most powerful, powerful rock radio station.