FROM A VERY NAUGHTY READER

What shall I wear to the ball?

The times they are a-changin'.

THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES

From the ground up is how change will come.  The AP reports on a Holy Thursday sermon by Pope Benedict critical of a group of Austrian Roman Catholic priests who have taken a stand against celibacy for all RC priests and in favor of the ordination of women.  No steps beyond criticism have yet been taken to discipline the priests.  We shall see.

On the website of the group, the Pfarrer-Initiative is the following declaration.

The Roman refusal to take up long needed reforms and the inaction of the bishops, not only permits but demands that we follow our conscience and act independently:

We priests want to set a mark for the future:

1. WE WILL include a petition for church reform in every liturgy.

2. WE WILL not deny Communion to faithful of good will, especially remarried people, members of other Christian churches, and in some cases those who have officially left the Catholic Church.*

3. WE WILL avoid as much as possible celebrating multiple times on Sundays and feast days, and avoid scheduling priests travelling around or priests unknown to the community. A locally-planned Liturgy of the Word is preferable to providing guest performances.

4. WE WILL use the term “Priestless Eucharistic Celebration” for a Liturgy of the Word with distribution of Communion. This is how the Sunday Mass obligation is fulfilled when priests are in short supply.

5. WE WILL ignore the prohibition of preaching by competently trained laity, including female religion teachers. In difficult times, the Word of God must be proclaimed.

6. WE WILL advocate that every parish has a presiding leader – man or woman, married or unmarried, full-time or part time. Rather than consolidating parishes, We call for a new image of the priest.

7. WE WILL take every opportunity to speak up publicly for the admission of women and married people to the priesthood. These would be welcome colleagues in ministry.

We express solidarity with colleagues no longer permitted to exercise their ministry because we have married, and also with those in ministry who live in a permanent relationship. Both groups live in accordance with their conscience – as we do with our protest. We see in them as we do in our bishops and the pope our brothers. **

* Here we refer to those who officially leave the Church; some to avoid Church Tax as a means of protest

** This is a reference to the German Word "Mitbruder" instead of "Bruder" (=brother) which is sometimes used by clerics and excludes the laity.
Trinity Sunday, 19Th June, 2011

To expect the top levels of the Roman Catholic Church to implement change is unrealistic.  Change will come only from pressure from the folks on the ground, from the priests who serve in parish churches and church parishioners.  I'm pleased to learn of the brave stand by the Austrian priests, and I hope that the movement spreads to other countries.  The majority of the hierarchy seem out of touch with the operations of its parishes where the major work of the church is actually accomplished.

Note: Once you arrive at the website of the Pfarrer-Initiative, click on 'English', if you prefer to read the material in the English language, then scroll down and click on 'Appeal to Disobedience'.  The next link, 'A Plea For a Credible Church' is well worth reading, also.

H/T to Mark Harris at Preludium. 

POPE ORDERS CUSTOM EAU DE COLOGNE

From the Guardian:

He is picky about his robes and his red shoes are tailor-made, but Pope Benedict has taken the meaning of bespoke to a whole new level by ordering a custom-blended eau de cologne just for him.

The fragrance, which mixes hints of lime tree, verbena and grass, was concocted by the Italian boutique perfume maker Silvana Casoli, who has previously created scents for customers including Madonna, Sting and King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Casoli said she had a "pact of secrecy" with her most illustrious client to date, and refused to release the full list of ingredients that had gone into his scent – but she did reveal that she had created a delicate smelling eau de cologne "based on his love of nature".

The story leaves me wordless - nearly.  Obviously the "pact of secrecy" applied only to the ingredients of the cologne and not to the very fact that the pope placed an order for a custom cologne.

Thanks to Ann V for the link.

UPDATE: I thought of something else to say: You can't make this stuff up.

PREY UNCEASINGLY

Alas, must Rowan make do with the floor, rather than a prie dieu, because he's not a 'real' archbishop in the eyes of the pope?

The proposed Anglican Covenant is, in part, an attempt by the Archbishop of Canterbury to gain the approval of Pope Benedict and ease the way into a closer relationship between the Vatican and Canterbury. You see, we Anglicans are, at present, a diverse lot, a messy communion of autonomous churches, and Rowan wants to gather us into a 'real' Anglican church vis-a-vis the church of Rome. He should know that the attempt is similar to the old cliché of trying to herd cats. Besides, no matter what Rowan does, the pope will not accept him as a 'real' archbishop, nor will he accept Anglican orders as valid. Even if the ABC joined the ordinariate or converted to the RCC, he could not be a bishop, much less an archbishop, because he is married.

Anglicans decided nearly 500 years ago that they preferred an autonomous church, the Church of England, which was not under the authority of Rome. Why is Rowan so anxious to curry favor with the RCC, especially after the recent shabby treatment of only very short notice by of the powers in the Vatican before the predatory RC ordinariates were set up in England to woo away disaffected Anglicans? Why try to foist the covenant on the churches in the Anglican Communion partly to 'relate' better to Rome? We (at least a good many of us) want to be in communion with other Anglican Churches, but we do not want to be a worldwide Anglican Church.

Clever and very funny photoshop from The MadPriest Internet Chop Shop.

ORDINARIATES "VERY IMPORTANT" TO POPE BENEDICT

From Catholic Online:

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - A priest at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is affirming that the newly established Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, the Ordinariate of the United Kingdom, is "very important" to Benedict XVI.
....

"In the area of ecumenism it strengthens the Catholic Church's approach in two ways," the priest noted. "It promotes sincere dialogue with a Christian defense of life and the promotion of peace."

He stated: "The goal of the ecumenical movement is complete visible union with one Christ and with Peter in one Church. We must cooperate and grow together."

"Unity is built on two pillars, love and truth," the priest added.

True ecumenism promotes unity through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation amongst those of different faiths. The game of so-called "ecumenism" as played by the Roman Catholic Church is the same old, same old, my way or no way. Unity means becoming one of them.

What we see in the statement here is a bit more truth-telling and a bit less covering up of the true purposes of ecumenism as defined by the RCC. In the end, the members of the so-called "Anglican" ordinariates will be Roman Catholics and no longer Anglicans.

And poaching by any other name still stinks.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

 

From the Guardian:

He has carried an organ transplant card faithfully for years, but Joseph Ratzinger's election to the papacy has ruled him out as an organ donor, the Vatican has revealed.

Instead of providing a liver or kidney to a needy recipient, pope Benedict's body will belong to the church when he dies, said one Vatican official, who suggested that veneration of the pontiff's remains would be complicated if they were not all in the same place.
....

Vincenzo Passarelli, the president of the Italian association of organ donors, said he was very surprised by the Vatican's decision.

"If he decides to give up an organ, does that mean the rest of his body no longer belongs to the church?" he said. "Organ donation is a noble act and if the pope donated to a Muslim or a Jew, it would become a truly universal act."

Passarelli admitted that if a papal organ was transplanted, the recipient might risk becoming the object of veneration. "But once an organ is transplanted, it immediately becomes part of another person.

"You cannot say that Antonio, for instance, has the pope's kidney – at that point it is just Antonio's kidney."

Down the rabbit hole into Sillyland. Imagine being the walking venerated because of having one of the pope's organs. The whole practice of body-part veneration is beyond ridiculous.

Thanks to Lapin for the link.

POPE BENEDICT - CONDOMS LESSER EVIL FOR USE BEYOND MALE PROSTITUTES

From the AP:

Using a condom is a lesser evil than transmitting HIV to a sexual partner — even if that means a woman averting a possible pregnancy, the Vatican said Tuesday, signaling a seismic shift in papal teaching as it further explained Pope Benedict XVI's comments.

The Vatican has long been criticized for its patent opposition to condom use, particularly in Africa where AIDS is rampant. But the latest interpretation of Benedict's comments about condoms and HIV essentially means the Roman Catholic Church is acknowledging that its long-held, anti-birth control stance against condoms doesn't justify putting someone's life at risk.

"This is a game-changer," said the Rev. Jim Martin, a Jesuit editor and writer.

The news that the use of a condom to prevent infecting one's partner may be applied beyond male prostitutes comes from the Rev. Federico Lombardi:

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters Tuesday that he asked the pope whether he intended his comments to only apply to male prostitutes. Benedict replied that it really didn't matter, that the important thing was the person in question took into consideration the life of the other, Lombardi said.

As I said in the comments at The Lead, "And it took the pope only years to come to this conclusion. However, this IS good news, and it is a game-changer.

Still, I think of those who became infected with HIV and those who died during the years while the pope was making up his mind."

UNAIDS estimates that 22.4 million people in Africa are infected with HIV, and that 54 percent — or 12.1 million — are women. Heterosexual transmission of HIV and multiple, heterosexual partners are believed to be a major cause of the high infection rates in Africa.

Why so long and why was it so difficult for the pope to announce the good news? It seems to me that the principle of the two-fold effect could have been applied much earlier to justify the use of condoms to prevent HIV infection.

Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau, an expert at the Vatican's bioethics advisory board, said the pope was articulating the idea in church teaching — long practiced by some church officials with regards to condoms — that there are degrees of evil.

"Contraception is not the worst evil. The church does not see it as good, but the church does not see it as the worst," he told The Associated Press. "Abortion is far worse. Passing on HIV is criminal. That is absolute irresponsibility."

The biggie here is that despite past statements to the contrary, the pope now admits that using condoms helps to prevent the spread of HIV infections.

H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead.

POPE SAYS CONDOM USE JUSTIFIED FOR MALE PROSTITUTES

From Yahoo News:

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop the spread of HIV, a stunning comment for a church criticized for its opposition to condoms and for a pontiff who has blamed them for making the AIDS crisis worse.

The pope made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times," which is being released Tuesday. The Vatican newspaper ran excerpts on Saturday.

Church teaching has long opposed condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception, although it has never released an explicit policy about condoms and HIV. The Vatican has been harshly criticized for its opposition.

Benedict said that condoms are not a moral solution. But he said in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, they could be justified "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection."

Benedict called it "a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality."

One wonders how many male prostitutes waited with bated breath for guidance from the pope and how many will change their behavior because of the pope's stance.

What about Roman Catholic married couples with one spouse HIV-positive? Give them condoms (maybe!), but not yet? The "first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality" is not for Roman Catholic married couples but for male prostitutes. Logic according to the Vatican. Meanwhile the Roman Catholics who are HIV-positive and who heed the Vatican's proscription against the use of condoms will continue to spread the infection to their spouses, who get sick and may die.

When I first began to read the the article, I burst out laughing at the sheer absurdity of the pope's statement, but I'm no longer laughing, because the consequences of the pope's stance on the use of condoms for married couples are so very tragic.

Thanks to Lapin for the link.