The Pope is going to Carnaby Street!

Why would he go there? Well, to recruit unhappy Anglicans it seems.

The pope also has a delicate path to tread during his four-day-trip to England and Scotland in relations with the Church of England after his offer last October making it easier for disaffected Anglicans, unhappy over women ordination and gay bishops, to convert.

The leader of the world's best known group of pedophiles has other problems: Cardinals who think Brits are barbarians.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, who retired last summer as the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, caused a stir this week when he told the German magazine Focus that landing at Heathrow Airport was like landing “in a third world country.” He also criticized the “aggressive atheism” of Britain.

Funny how any time a mission from Rome, as far back as the Emperor Claudius, arrives and finds the British just seem to have their own religious thing. Some don't have any at all.

Maybe the Brits are barbarians. Gawds know, I spent enough time trying to eat the compost they call composite rations. In any case, at least some of them behaved in an "appalling" manner in the lead up to Benny's visit and to be honest, I can only applaud. Back in April a Foreign Office memo appeared with many brilliant suggestions.

The paper was attached as one of three "background documents" to a memo dated 5 March 2010 inviting officials in Whitehall and Downing Street to attend a meeting to discuss themes for the papal visit.

Themes! Acers stuff.

It suggested Benedict XVI could show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by "sacking dodgy bishops" and launching a helpline for abused children.

The document went on to propose the Pope could apologise for the Spanish Armada or sing a song with the Queen for charity.

It listed "positive" public figures who could be made part of the Pope's visit, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair and 2009 Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, and those considered "negative", such as Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins.

All good ideas. Although I have to admit that I was not aware that the Vatican had not yet apologized for the Spanish Armada. Given that the Pope is supposedly just a continuing line of one person then it would be proper to arrest him and toss him into The Tower... wouldn't it?

Back then even the bishops were speaking.

Bishop McMahon said he hoped it was meant to be "light hearted".

But he added: "That in itself can be dangerous if these memos move around the departments, they tend to gain momentum."

But they gain no more momentum than memos from Vatican cardinals (who go on to become Pope) attempting to cover up the criminal behaviour of Catholic priests.

Going to the Vatican? Wear a sleeping bag

Apparently the officials at the Vatican have nothing more to worry about than seeing peoples' knees and bare shoulders.

Tourists and Romans clad in scanty summer clothing were being told to cover up before entering the Vatican City on Tuesday. Long-standing rules on modest dress, previously applicable only to those visiting St Peter's Basilica, appear to have been extended throughout the tiny walled state. Swiss Guard officers manning the official customs point between Rome and the Vatican City began pulling aside members of the public dressed in 'inappropriate' clothing early in the morning. Men in shorts and women with exposed knees or uncovered shoulders were all stopped by the officers, who asked them if they knew "how things worked here". Bewildered locals, accustomed to treating the Vatican much like any other part of Rome, initially assumed a new bureaucratic procedure was in force. Prescriptions, letters and shopping permits were hastily produced as evidence of plans to use the Vatican's pharmacy, post office and shop. Only to be told the real reason was their clothing. "This is the Vatican City and for reasons of respect, you are not allowed in with uncovered shoulders or wearing shorts," was the standard explanation. Some retreated without protest, while a number of the women made impromptu purchases from one of the many stands selling shawls and scarves near the Vatican gates. A cheap, quick solution to cover the bare legs of men in shorts was harder to come by, although some duly trudged off to the nearby shopping district of Cola di Rienzo to buy a pair of trousers. However, a number of visitors, especially the more elderly, refused to budge.

And from the Telegraph ...

The crackdown on inappropriate clothing comes at a time of almost unprecedented crisis for the Vatican, with senior figures, including Pope Benedict XVI, accused of failing to act against priests who sexually abused children.

Priorities. The Vatican has some.

(The unclad statue of Perseus in the image above is from the Vatican Museum)

Who ya gonna call?

THE TIMES OF LONDON has a very disturbing report by Richard Owen in Rome:

Chief exorcist

Father Gabriele Amorth

says Devil is in the Vatican

Hey — it deserves big and bold.

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".

. . .

Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit, invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me."

Boogityboogity. 

Vatican cardinal : Gaza "a big concentration camp"

Reuters : "Pope Benedict's point man for justice and peace issues on Wednesday issued the Vatican's toughest criticism of Israel since the latest Mideast crisis began, calling Gaza a "big concentration camp".

NYTimes : "The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered “shocking” scenes — including small children next to their mothers’ corpses — when its representatives gained access for the first time to parts of Gaza battered by Israeli shelling.

The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it "found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.

In response, the Israeli military did not comment directly on the allegation. In a statement, it accused Hamas, its foe in Gaza, of deliberately using "Palestinian civilians as human shields" and said the Israeli Army "works in close cooperation with international aid organizations during the fighting so that civilians can be provided with assistance. "

Presumably this "close cooperation" began just yesterday, the first time the Red Cross was allowed access.
"Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do."


"....an eye for an eyelash..."

Meanwhile, over at the National Post, Kelly McParland happily quotes Jason Cherniak, "President of Liblogs, a site that aggregates blogs from writers identifying themselves as Liberals", who gives us a short history of Gaza in which Israel is astonishingly blameless.
I will refute each of Mr. Cherniak's remarks with those of someone much more expert than myself : Avi Shlaim, "Oxford Professor of International Relations who served in the Israeli army", writing in yesterday's Guardian . I urge you however to read Prof. Shlaim's short history in its entirety.

Cherniak : "In the summer of 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza. This was a complete and total withdrawal, where even settlers whose families had lived in Gaza for decades were withdrawn to Israel. It was everything the world had ever asked from Israel as far as the Gaza strip was concerned. Israel showed nothing but restraint from the summer of 2005 until December 2008 in its relations with the people of Gaza."
Shlaim : "The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children."

Cherniak : "Eventually, by June 2008, Israel was able to negotiate a cease fire with Hamas, the “State of Calm Agreement”, brokered by Egypt. That agreement fell apart in December 2008 when Hamas once again began attacking Israel with rockets imported from Syria and Iran."
Shlaim : "It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men."

Cherniak : People need to "demand that governments around the world start to take action to save the people of Gaza from their own elected government[Hamas]."
Shlaim : "The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood."

Shlaim writes that Gaza is "an open air prison".
This morning "Israel warned thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses ahead of planned air raids on Thursday."You have until 8am [06:00 GMT]," said leaflets which were dropped by the Israeli military."

Where are they to go for safety? Certainly not UN buildings or schools.

So which description do you personally prefer, Mr. Cherniak : "concentration camp" from the Vatican or "open air prison" from the Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford ?

Cross-posted at Creekside

Sign Amnesty International Canada's Open Letter to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon, to take action.

Branding catholocism - What Will They Think of Next ? ? ? ?

From today's Toronto Star:

Benedict the Brander muscles his message
The Pope's focus on Catholic fundamentals scares reformers but works miracles, marketers say

Catherine Mulroney Special to the Star July 14, 2007

Call him the Bill Gates of the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI, leader of more than 1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, is no stranger to controversy. Last Tuesday, he reasserted the primacy of the Catholic Church, stating it is the one true church. This following his approval of the broader use of the Latin Mass, has set critics' tongues wagging and refocused attention on church politics and practise.

Benedict's edicts, issued just before his summer vacation, have naysayers expressing concerns about everything from the political correctness of claiming church supremacy to fears it will soon become impossible to attend mass in the vernacular.

But numbers tell a different tale regarding his appeal to a core population of Catholics. The Vatican's financial statements for 2006, Benedict's first full year as pope, show a huge leap in donations to the papal charity known as Peter's Pence, ($101 million U.S. in 2006 versus $64.4 million the year before) in 2006, and the numbers of faithful flocking to St. Peter's Square in Rome are soaring. While marketing is likely the last thing on the Pope's mind, experts in that worldly field say Benedict's actions serve very powerfully to brand the Catholic Church in the eyes of the world, bringing a muscular "take-it-or-leave-it" approach to church positioning.

"Benedict is very progressive about his brand," says Patrick McGovern, vice-president of Blade Creative Branding, a Toronto-based marketing agency, who gives the Pope credit for clearly expressing the values a core constituency holds dear. "If everybody is wishy-washy, (the institution) will wash away."

For many people, belonging to a church with a unique chain of command leading up to the papacy has great appeal and reassurance, McGovern argues. Windows has Bill Gates. The Catholic Church has Benedict."








I'm putting my money on Bill Gates.








At least he has better fashion sense . . . .

(Cross-Posted at Moving to Vancouver)

Here endeth the lesson...

This will help cement relations among the faithful.

The Vatican issued a document Tuesday restating its belief that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ.

The 16-page document was prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a doctrinal watchdog that Pope Benedict used to head.

Yes, well, nothing like promoting your own agenda.

Formulated as five questions and answers, the document is titled Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.

It says although Orthodox churches are true churches, they are defective because they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope,

"It follows that these separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation," it said.

The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation — are not true churches, but ecclesial communities.

Five questions.... oh yeah! Here they are!

Actually, this looks like an amazing feat of navel-gazing and self-affirmation. Given all the problems in the world, the most important thing the Roman Catholic Church can come up with is that anyone who isn't playing their game is wrong?

The decree comes days after liberal Catholic and Jewish groups spoke out against the Pope's move to authorize the wider use of a traditional Latin mass.

The Tridentine mass includes a prayer for the conversion of Jews. Its use was restricted following the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.

Pope Benedict issued a decree last week authorizing its broader use in an effort to reconcile with followers of an ultratraditional excommunicated bishop.

Sounds like Ratzinger is trying to compete with George W Bush and Steve Harper as a "great uniter".

Of course, all of this is significant only if it matters to you. And there are a lot of Roman Catholics who don't pay all that much attention to the edicts handed down by the Roman Catholic Church.

There has been a wide and increasing defection of Roman Catholic women from the traditional teaching of their Church on the subject of birth control over the past two decades and a resulting convergence of Catholic and non-Catholic contraceptive practices. By 1970, two-thirds of all Catholic women were using methods disapproved by their Church; this figure reached three-quarters for women under age 30. Considering the fact that most of the one-quarter of young Catholic women conforming to Church teaching had never used any method, the percentage of those deviating may well reach 90 as these women grow older and the problems of fertility control become more important.

Much of this increasing deviation has been among the more educated Catholics, who were formerly the most faithful adherents to Church teaching. The change between 1965 and 1970 was especially striking for Catholic women who had attended college.

Perhaps the most significant finding is that the defection has been most pronounced among the women who receive Communion at least once a month. Even among this group, the majority now deviates from Church teaching on birth control; among the younger women in this group, the proportion not conforming reaches two-thirds.

That was written in 1973. Irrelevance, thy name is ....