Pope Francis has made some more news which I am sure you are all aware. He sort of came down on the side of censorship of the cartoons that are causing all the trouble in France.
I am not surprised. He is after all an ultra-liberals and all liberals are in the camp of protecting Islam no matter what crimes they commit. The liberals are all for censoring speech that offends the Muslims and he signed right on with that. He is firmly in the Ecumenical camp which is not unusual for Popes so it is unlikely that he would be in favor of freedom of the press instead of kissing up to the ragheads. I guess I could understand it if he was as outspoken about Catholic imagery being perverted. It seems that every other TV show I see is set in a Church and the sacred symbols are treated like garbage. Haven't heard him speak out much about that.
I will give you an example. Last season on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills there was this dumb cunt named Carlton who claimed to be a Wiccan but had all sorts of Catholic symbols in her house. Crucifixes, Celtic Crosses and a full confessional booth that she delighted in saying she enjoyed having sex in all the time. It went unmentioned.
There was a very short lived sitcom called Partners that starred Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence. In the first episode the set up was that a Catholic priest was having an affair with Martin's estranged wife. They broke into the rectory and rifled through the priest things included a suitcase that contained a chalice and a monstrance that holds the Sacrament. Nobody said boo. No biggie.
I mentioned at Father Foxes place a strange occurrence at Midnight Mass. There were a whole bunch of people you never saw before. Not unusual in a big holiday. Anway there was this one hipster tattooed blue haired chick who took the host in her hand and started to walk away. She didn't put it in her mouth. The 80 year old minister started chasing her down the aisle because it seemed she took the host for some nefarious purpose. Maybe for some art project. Maybe for a Black Mass or some Satanic bullshit. The girl goes."Ok Ok stop it" and put the host in her mouth.
I wonder if the Pope would have punched her in the face?
9 comments:
You are wrong. Pope Francis is a Catholic who has seen more Catholic-bashing than any of us can imagine, including a lot, no doubt, from Charlie Hebdo itself. He doesn't like religion being crapped on. He's not talking reeducation camps. He's talking a little respect. The French don't have it. They sent Carmelite nuns to the guillotine and turned Notre Dame into the Temple of Reason before killing a million men bringing Enlightenment to Europe in the person of a new Messiah named Napoleon. The French calmed down, but they never lost their penchant for little Thermidors oozing from cartoon pages. The French believe in nothing but good food, wine, the charms of art, and the glories of sex and France.
The Pope is just saying this crap should not be turned into a categorical imperative for the maintenance of civilization, no matter what the French say.
Now, if you want to know what a fairly conservative, actual, ordained Priest thinks about Francis and all this cultural merde, you should read Fr. Longenecker here.
Not following your argument, TT.
Pope Francis is a Catholic who has seen more Catholic-bashing than any of us can imagine
Really? In Argentina, where the Catholic Church was a dominant institution for most of its history? If the Pope saw a lot of Catholic bashing in Charlie Hebdo, it's only b/c he went looking for it on the CH website, or was a subscriber.
He doesn't like religion being crapped on.
I'm sure he doesn't. Tough shit.
The Church takes some strong stands on social issues. That's its right, but it can't expect to be immune from pushback from non-Catholics when it enters the political arena. And the Church has been heavily involved in politics in Argentina for a long time. I'm actually shocked that this pope would be so sensitive given the environment he came of age in.
Most importantly, his statement about Charlie Hebdo and the Muslims was staggeringly clueless. You and others can parse or ignore his plain words, but he wasn't "talking a little respect." He legitimized anger over perceived slights and endorsed physical attacks as modes of expression of that anger. To say that in the wake of a massacre in the name of "religious respect" goes way beyond stupidity, and well into recklessness.
The French believe in nothing but good food, wine, the charms of art, and the glories of sex and France.
Wrong. While Catholicism is in decline in France, there are still about as many confirmations annually there as the number of subscribers to Charlie Heed (pre-massacre).
I read Fr. Longenecker's post, and I'd ask, Why weren't this pope's predecessors similarly misinterpreted or misreported? At some point, if you keep getting misunderstood you probably need to express yourself more carefully.
I am afraid that I have to agree with Chip. Why does this Pope need interpreters and excuse makers for almost everything he has to say? At a certain point you have to take him at his word instead of excusing it or explaining it away.
I guess Nick is right and I am a rabid Shite Catholic.
Lol. I'm a liberal (some days more than others) and I hate Islam.
I'm becoming less "progressively" liberal on economics. I'm glad Chip is here. I slowly warming more and more to adjusting the EITC over minimum wage. Whatever keeps inflation lower and investments more valuable.
I think economic socialism might be reaching a breaking point. To upwardly adjust working wages when technology inevitably makes more and more work obsolete (while incentivizing increasingly creative business ventures) the argument for shifting more of the country's income from work to investment makes a lot of sense.
I think Chip's right. The downside of fighting for greater respect of religious feelings just for their own sake is the Pope's need to empathize with Islam's hurt feelings and perpetually indignant "dignity". Who knows to what end that will lead? It can't be good. But that's the sort of common cause that's inevitable when feelings are prioritized over rights. In the past, it might instead have been the religion of French nationalism empathizing with Islam. But not this time.
1. I just left an after-work get-together w/ some co-workers, and the discussion was generally friendly, but I found myself at one point (talking Obamacare, of course) lapsing into internet-style verbal rough stuff. It made me appreciate more than usual TTB's generally calm style. So I hope that nothing I wrote crossed the line with him, as he's someone I should try to emulate.
2. Hey, Ritmo, good to see ya!
I said this @ Father Fox's blog. This is a clash of cultures, the secular and religious. Leaders of both cultures don't understand the other. For whatever we think, Muslims are very invested in no images of the prophet. It is a sacred belief. In the secular world, there are few more sacred rights than that of free speech. The Pope showed ignorance of that. It seems simple to me. The Pope was also wrong when he gave the example of if you dis my mom I will hit you. It was Freudian because Italians are often Momma's boys. The Pope in that example showed ignorance of both the secular and religious. In both those spheres, except for Islam, the rule is "you answer speech w/ speech, not violence." The Pope pissed on both legs w/ this one, playing to the press and trying to be "all things to all men."
The press distorts everything Francis says. Here's the real story.
Post a Comment