Some teenagers came onto a pagan web site and asked if it was ok for Catholics like them to practice witchcraft. I was forced to tell them that in my understanding, the Catholic church wasn't amenable to them practicing witchcraft, no matter how trendy. Anticipating their dilema, I wrote something to help them make up their minds.…
Article comments
76 - Anthony Grande
Let's go a step further. Let's hang those motherfuckers in the public square. Then behead Michael Jackson for getting away with what he did.
77 - Phillip Winn
Yeah, I knew better than to take you seriously, AG, but maybe someday you'll think about how wrong you were on every factual point you've raised here, and you'll be more careful or gracious in the future.
I can hope, at least.
78 - Bennett
Great points, Phillip. Thanks for taking the time for all of that. It may have been wasted on AG, but I got a lot out of it.
Cheers!
79 - Anthony Grande
Well Phillip in comment 77 you didn't get my drift. I was being sarcastic. I am 100% anti-Death in any way shape or form. I believe in should be automatic life sentences for child molestation.
I do harbor some violent feelings toward Jackson though.
80 - JM
Hey Phillip haven't you have any shame about criticism priest. Come on, this is not something an educated person should do. Let me ask you something, do you believe in karma?
81 - MT
We're all Jews -- like it or not! Jesus was one and only after his death did Christianity take form. Of course this Jewish connection is denied but I don't think anyone can prove otherwise. Yes, sorry to rub it in but we are all JEWS!!! Be proud.
82 - Baronius
Philip, from a quick perusal of your comments, you did a pretty solid job of explaining Catholic beliefs. Any time you want to step up to the plate and convert...
:)
83 - Phillip Winn
JM, I believe that Jesus Christ overturns karma in a most dramatic way, not that this has anything to do with the rest of your comment.
MT, I don't think that anyone has ever denied that Jesus was Jewish. Quite the contrary in fact. But, um, read Galatians and, heck, the entire New Testament to see what effect that has on those who follow Jesus as the Christ.
Baronius, thanks, but I don't plan to cross the Tiber. I'm not even Anglo-Catholic, but instead about as low-church Anglican as you're ever gonna find. :-)
84 - uao
I'd like to thank Phillip Wynn for helping to counter some of the widespread fallacies about the Catholic Church. Pretty nice of an Anglican to go to all that trouble. ;-)
It seems to me that anti-Catholicism is pretty much the last form of discrimination that is still considered PC.
If the original post had been about jews, blacks, women or cripples, it would have been attacked as racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, or insensitive. But jokes making fun of Catholics are just fine.
I haven't set foot in a church since I was 18 (a long time ago), so I don't claim to be a good defender of the church's teaching. But whenever someone tells me what Catholicism is, it is usually a vulgar caricature. I remember enough to know that.
PS: Jan's diatribe about what Mary (#54) represents within Catholic teaching is wrong, wrong, wrong. It's fine if she wishes to educate the masses on feminism, but make your points without attributing false significance and imagined motives to Mary. Falsehoods, even when their aim is noble, are still falsehoods.
The RCC has never preached the servitude or submission of women, and has a history of assisting organizations that help empower women (and minorities too). The only thing they don't support is abortion-- which has nothing to do with Mary, either.
85 - The Countess (Trish Wilson)
I was raised Catholic, and I remember the business of Mary being a kind of conduit to Jesus. She was like a big sister, which I thought was important in that women were treated like crap by Christianity. You could pray to Mary and on her behalf she would speak to Jesus for you. And if Jesus was a good boy he would listen to his mother. ;)
I don't practice wicca, but I see the appeal. Cool incense, neat votive candles, nifty spells, black clothes, all sorts of fun stuff.
I live near Salem so I see lots of pagans and wiccans. Salem just erected a statue of Elizabeth Mongomery as Samantha in "Bewitched". Salem is now even more commercialized than it already was.
Am I the only person on earth who has never seen Buffy?
86 - Phillip Winn
You haven't seen Buffy? Yeah, you may be all alone!
I have heard Roman Catholic lay-people describe Mary as a sort of maternal go-between, able to get Jesus to listen to her by virtue of her role as His mother. I personall consider this idea to be atrociously hideous, for all sorts of reasons. It's also far more popular among uneducated laypeople than among more educated clergy, so I don't actually know what sort of "official" teaching there is on this.
Somewaht the point of Christianity is that all of us -- male or female, young or old, Jew or Gentile -- can approach Christ directly, boldy even, as an adopted child of God. There are many cultural reasons why people shy away from this, which is why I think the idea of praying to the dead is so popular, but it just isn't necessary.
87 - The Countess (Trish Wilson)
I guess I'm alone, then. I was a major "X-Phile". Does that give me some brownie points? ;)
Yes, you're right about some Catholic-lay people seeing Mary as a go-between. I think it's a cultural thing. I remember it from when I was a kid. I can't attest as to the education level of the people who saw Mary that way, as I have been out of the Catholic church for many years. I don't think it's recognized by "official" teachings, though.
88 - JM
Those teenagers that came looking for witchcraft has the right to express their beliefs freely. But they don't have to drag the Catholic fayth into this.
89 - Baronius
Mary's role as intermediary isn't unique; the idea is that we all pray for each other. I'd as soon ask Mary for her prayers as I would my parents. And it is official church teaching. In the Mass, we pray:
I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault; in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and it what I have failed to do. And I ask Blessed Mary ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
In the old Latin Mass (if I remember correctly) Michael, Peter, Paul, and maybe some other saints are also mentioned by name. So this isn't a new thing or a regional thing.