Faced with the inescapable collision of lofty Christian ideals with the basics of public hygiene, the cathedral authorities abruptly went into reverse gear and pleaded with the demonstrators to leave.
***
Kierkegaard is never around when you need him.
Also: how much longer can George Weigel keep it up?
Repeat after me/him (for the 1000th time):
The truth of the matter is that “the Vatican” — whether that phrase is intended to mean the Pope, the Holy See, the Church’s teaching authority, or the Church’s central structures of governance — called for precisely nothing in this document.
The document is a “Note” from a rather small office in the Roman Curia. The document’s specific recommendations do not necessarily reflect the settled views of the senior authorities of the Holy See; indeed, Fr. Federico Lombardi, the press spokesman for the Vatican, was noticeably circumspect in his comments on the document and its weight. As indeed he ought to have been.
The document doesn’t speak for the Pope, it doesn’t speak for “the Vatican,” and it doesn’t speak for the Catholic Church.
***
So…
Abolish these troublesome bureaus and councils and whatnot if they’re such a non-stop source of scandal-giving misinformation.
Oh, but that would make sense.
Yes, the media is partially to blame.
It is staffed by ignorant, uneducated boobs who are mostly downright hostile to religion in general and Catholicism in particular.
But seriously: The Vatican itself gave this bunch the name “the Pontifical Council…”
Who are the “ignorant” ones this time?
How many times can we do this dance before somebody sprains an ankle and says, “F*ck this, I’m going home to watch TV”?
This was a nice touch, by the way, George:
That the specific recommendations of the document reflect what will seem to many an uncritical internationalism of a distinctly Euro-secular provenance is an interesting matter that will doubtless be discussed, vigorously, within the Catholic family for some time to come.
***
Yes, let’s have yet another worldly “discussion” in which we all congratulate each other on our sophistication, using lots of big fancy words and tsking affectionately about how, after all, the Vatican IS in Italy, and Italy IS in Europe, and you know… They’re different than you and I… Dreadful drivers, you know… And the mail service? Don’t get me started… Yet it’s all so quaint and charming…
All those Vatican medals and delectable Roman lunches and insider gossip channels must be worth it, huh, George?
Aren’t gluttony and avarice and gossiping still sins?
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