Rad Trad Quote-Quiz of the Week

Identify the writer: (No cheating)

But amid this variety of languages a primary place must surely be given to that language which had its origins in Latium, and later proved so admirable a means for the spreading of Christianity throughout the West.

And since in God's special Providence this language united so many nations together under the authority of the Roman Empire -- and that for so many centuries -- it also became the rightful language of the Apostolic See. Preserved for posterity, it proved to be a bond of unity for the Christian peoples of Europe.

Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting every form of culture among peoples. It gives rise to no jealousies. It does not favor any one nation, but presents itself with equal impartiality to all and is equally acceptable to all.

Nor must we overlook the characteristic nobility of Latin for mal structure. Its "concise, varied and harmonious style, full of majesty and dignity" makes for singular clarity and impressiveness of expression.

~

My buddy Chris explains it all to you

Chris Ferrara breaks the mould of the Catholic Trad. He's one of the leading voices in the Traditionalist movement in the US. And you will never meet a more cheerful, fun-loving and personable chap. Never an unkind word to or about anyone and always ready for a laugh or a song or a beer or a gelato.

Here he helps to clear up some misunderstandings.

One often hears the phrase, "I'm just a Catholic" from people who are at once trying to place themselves above the Church's interior War and to deny that there is anything they need to learn about their Faith.

It is annoying.

Where there are differences, one must make distinctions. And in the Church there are differences (and how!) and therefore we make the distinctions as best we can. (Taxonomy is the least exact of all the biological studies).

It is not pious or noble to try to ignore these differences or to sneer at the people who are attempting in good faith to clear away the dishonest effort made by many churchmen over the last 50 years to paper over and ignore these differences, to the harm of millions.

Chris Ferrara explains that we use these distinguishing terms because there are differences, one might say "divisions" in the Church that, for the good of souls, must be identified.

"Because of these novelties that have infiltrated the life of the Church, we've developed a kind of neoconservative Catholicism... And that is unprecedented in the Church. Before Vatican II we were all 'traditionalists'. We all went to the traditional Latin Mass; we all believed there was one true Church; we all prayed fifteen decades of the Rosary. We all pretty much practiced and believed the same way as our fathers and their fathers did for century after century after century.

"But now as I stand here, it becomes necessary for me to say I'm a Traditionalist. Why? Because there has arisen in the Church a kind of division of the Church into strains of Roman Catholicism.

"Now we have the charismatics. We have the conservative Novus Ordos. We have the very conservative Novus Ordos, the liberal Novus Ordos, the moderate Novus Ordos, the Traditionalists, the very extreme Traditionalists, the sede vacante Traditionalists... and so on.

"Whereas before Vatican II, we had heretics and Catholics."

He's the one who finally put my mind to rest about the Church. In a conversation at Gardone, he said, "Whatever goes on in Rome, stay Catholic. They can't take the faith from you unless you're willing to relinquish it."


"You can't take the sky from me."



~

Gimme the old days when you could go to Mass and not think about a blessed thing

My latest piece for the Remnant is on "How to get thrown out of a church in Rome for praying too much". I blow away the fond fantasies of the rest of the Catholic world that somehow the Faith survived the Asteroid better in Italy, and in Rome, than elsewhere.

The New Mass always reminds me of 10th grade gym class...

"One of the things I find so offensive about the Novusordoist regime is the demand that we all do the same thing at the same time, in the same way. Sit, stand, kneel (briefly), up, down, up, down. And anyone not bouncing up and down with the rest of the class is quickly called out for failing to Actively Participate in the Catholic calisthenics. The demand is not so much for unity, since no two Catholics believe the same thing any more, but lockstep uniformity.

The traditional rites of the Church left you to actively participate in your own way. You could pray the Rosary, (and clank it on the back of the next pew if you liked); you could follow eagerly along in your book if you were a keener. Or you could do what I do and consider your having shown up on time to be adequately active and participatory, and spend your time blissfully daydreaming and looking at the frescoes and thinking vaguely holy thoughts."

~

Ye still got it, bro...

My old bloggie buddy Evil Steve is tweaking the Traddie tiger's tail in Crisis, and it's just like the old days...

Never known for our collective charisma or charm, those who self-identify as “Traditionalist” can often be about as much fun as a leaky bottle of lemon juice at a paper cut party.

Steve, you just go to the wrong parties, man.



~

It's all in the details

Just been enjoying a rousing game of "Quote the pope" with a bunch of Trads on Facebook, all arguing about lying in defence of innocent lives.

I won't bore you with too much of all that backing and forthing, (everyone's talking about it...put "Lila Rose" and "Lying" into Google), but one friend just made a comment that about summs up my total lack of patience with all this sort of stuff these days:

"When I argue with certain Catholics, I feel as though I'm debating with Star Wars nerds, or arguing with a fanatic about comic book origin lore:

'Wolverine didn't have bone claws before Weapon X! He only had a healing factor.'

'Yes he did, didn't you see Wolverine Origins #2? Right there. Bone Claws.'..."

Yep.

Everyone knows that Superman's ability to fly is a capacity of his super strength.

"It is an extension of his ability to leap tall buildings, an ability he derives from exposure to Earth's yellow sun."

"Oh yeah? Then how does he fly at night?"

"A combination of the moon's solar reflection and the energy storage capacity of Kryptonian skin cells..."

Well, du-uh!



~

The Great Reformers

As long-term readers of my blogs have learned, over the last few years, I have developed a strong aversion to talking, writing or even thinking much about liturgy. I have for some years shied away from the usual Trad topics, except for making the occasional joke at the expense of the Grey Pony-Tail and Wrinkly Birkenstock crowd. I take a look fairly regularly at Rorate Caeli and even at NLM now and then, just to keep my nose in the latest topics.

But friends from my liturgy-ranting days will recall that I am (almost) not exaggerating when I say that the Liturgy Wars put me into enraged convulsions and that it is best all 'round if I leave such things to those whose constitutions are better suited. (Those who are, in a word, less Irish).

I offer the following as an example of the sort of thing that has inspired me to stay carefully away from Traditionalist blogs, discussion groups and websites:

The great reformer Martin Luther, appalled by aberrations committed on relics, fiercely took issue with the Catholic Church. Indeed, who would not be scandalized by reports that when priests were compelled to celebrate only one Mass a day to stifle the abuses surrounding Mass stipends, some had the temerity to simulate the Mass and raise the relic of a saint at the supposed moment of consecration? I can still hear my mentor Adrian Nocent's dismissive remark when he listened to stories of relics, private apparitions, and saccharine devotions: "It's another religion!"

This was from a book by Anscar Chupungco's What, Then, is Liturgy?: Musings and Memoir, Claretian Publications. Adrian Nocent, Rorate Caeli informs me "was one of the leading lights of the liturgical reform of the 1960's."

It makes me want to go live in a cave.



~

Passel of new blogs

Huh. Turns out there's a whole world of Italian Trad Catholic bloggers out there.

Who knew?

Here's one on vocations that looks pretty nice.

They seem to like these Poor Clares of the Immaculate. Apparently the Franciscans of the Immaculate have some contemplative sisters. Someone might want to remind them to mention it on their North American website. Nice if they would let someone in the Anglosphere know about it.

Don't fret too much about the language. Italian is one of those languages that, if you just stare at it long and hard enough, magically turns into English, (albeit, English with funny spelling). Like one of those optical illusion picture things. But if the magic fails to work for you, there's always this.

All you ever wanted (or needed) to know about Italian Trads at Messainlatino.it Lots of interesting articles on lots of different topics (though if I were running it, I might do something about the eyesore colour scheme).



~

Michael's canoe tips over the falls

Welcome to the Dark Side, Michael. Or perhaps we should say, "Welcome to the desert of the Real".

Trad 101

Someone asked a while ago, possibly a long while ago, if there is a go-to site on the net that gives the Trad 101 thing all in one place. I couldn't think of any (other than Fisheaters), but I had forgotten about the wonderful Seattle Catholic website.

Seattle Catholic, sadly, is updated no more, and has not been for some years. But its archives are still there for the enlightenment and edification of the people, and to cause gnashing of teeth in all the right quarters.

I read it extensively when I was trying to choke that Red Pill down.


(Thanks for the reminder, Jeff)


~

Catholic question...

Settle an argument for me...

Why, exactly, do we refer to the cardinals as "George Cardinal Spinelessmarshmallow" and not "Cardinal Seamless O'Boychaser"?

Doxies

TTony, a regular reader here for some time, is taking a break:

...the LMS created a fortress of insularity because it needed to. I think that time has gone, but I sometimes sense a new insularity online, that seems to value an idea of ultratrad heteropraxis. "My praxy is better than your praxy" is less bad than "my doxy is better than your doxy", but it isn't good.

Some years ago, I abruptly stopped being interested in the Liturgical Issues and have more or less stopped blogging about them. Some of my friends here think this is odd, considering I came to Rome with the express purpose of being able to worship in the traditional rites of the Latin Church. But it just tires me, bores me, leaves me feeling ennervated and kind of like a doll with not enough stuffing. It sometimes makes the after-Mass luncheon a bit of a trial, being the only one there not interested in dissecting the minutiae of styles of candlesticks, numbers and depths of bows and genuflexions etc.

But I just can't help it. Every time they get going the same thing pops into my mind. I picture some billious cleric screeching in a panic in the sacristy, "I can't wear this biretta! It's got the wrong kind of pompom on it. This is a novus ordo pompom!"

I'll just take that away and burn it for you then, shall I?

Of course, this is not to say that I will be returning to the glad-handing and banal kindergarten Masses where Father acts like a gameshow host with his microphone (yes, I've seen a bishop at a confirmation walk up and down with his microphone interviewing the kids and making jokes with them...)

I have worked out a way to avoid the Gladhand 'o Peace in Roman churches which are usually extremely large, very old, full of art and don't really have pews. You see, in Roman churches, tourists are constantly wandering around looking at the walls and taking pictures of the statues while Mass is going on. One has to pay attention, but the trick is to wait until the build-up - you know, when they all stand up after the Pater Noster and start wiping their greasy palms on their coats - and just wander over to the side aisle and pretend you're looking at the frescoes. They'll think you're a tourist and leave you alone. Helps to bring a camera.

But it's a funny thing that in all this time of being a Mad, Rad and Bad Trad, I'm really just more or less fed up with the whole thing. It just seems silly to waste one's energies trying to explain that Bach is better than Duran Duran. If they can't see it, why are we bothering?

John Allen indulges in a little Left-Liberal wishful thinking

While everyone agrees that John Allen is the best of the liberal journalists covering Vatican issues, he is still on the other side, and one of the things about the other side is that they are not, shall we say, deeply committed to reality.

In his post for today at NCR, Allen opines,

In what could be seen as another piece of fallout from Benedict XVI’s January decision to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including one who is a Holocaust denier, the pope today restructured the Vatican office that handles relations with the traditionalist world -- and, in effect, gently fired the officials who presided over the earlier fiasco.

...

As a result of a document issued by the Vatican today, titled Ecclesiae unitatem, Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos, who had served as President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission since 2000, and Italian Monsignor Camille Perl, the number two official at Ecclesia Dei, are both out of work.

...

In broad strokes, the restructuring announced today is seen by most observers as a sign that the Vatican intends to take a more careful, and perhaps a bit firmer, hand in its dealings with traditionalist Catholics.

Ok, here's the bits he left out.

Cardinal Hoyos is 80 years old and has, in the words of one of my inside informants, been "gagging" to retire for some years now. Retirement age for active bishops is normally 75. He has a nice family home in Colombia and wants to go there. And who wouldn't. Rome, as we have seen, is still a snake pit (always has been I suppose).

The plans for restructuring Ecclesia Dei, and folding it into the structures of the CDF have been underway since there was even serious speculation that the HF would lift the excommunications. Papa, as the former head of the CDF and as the quintessential inside man in the Vatican's dealings with the SSPX, has long known that the big issues do not revolve around the Mass or the liturgy, but around the doctrinal, ah...shall we say...trends in the Church to which the SSPX (and quite a few others) have objected.

The plan all along, as far as I know, has been to dismantle the Ecclesia Dei structure as an "overseer" of traditionalists, a move intended to acknowledge that there is not the chasm between us and the rest of the post-conciliar Church as is so fondly imagined by the extreme wings of both sides of the fight. (Whether this is true is arguable, but that's the official line, a chasm does not exist. There is no "rupture", just make sure you don't look down when you take that next step...everything's going to be fiiiiinne...whatever.)

As all Traddies know (those who are not "neo-trads" that is) Msgr. Perl has never been our friend. And that's putting it politely. The fact that he has not been made the replacement for Hoyos is an extremely encouraging sign. It means that the Boss knows who is and who is not going to help him re-integrate the Trads, and traditionalism, into the Church.

The fact that he's being replaced with Pozzo, who is generally acknowledged to be a friend, is another such sign.

Sorry John. But it might be a good idea to actually talk to the people on whom you are reporting once in a while, because it looks like your "most observers" are looking the other way.

Fr. Z has more

And the ever-reliable NLM still more.

The Kingdom of Noise

"Music and silence - how I detest them both! How thankful we should
be that ever since Our Father entered Hell ... no square inch of infernal space
and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable
forces, but all has been occupied by Noise - Noise, that grand dynamism, the
audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile - Noise which
alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires.
We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great
strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of
Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough,
or anywhere like it."

I've said it on previous occasions. The Novus Ordo Mass is, quite simply and objectively, inferior to the Traditional Rite. It could hardly help being so, considering its origins. The NO is to the Traditional/Gregorian/Tridentine/Classical Rite, what Duran Duran is to Allegri's Miserere.

You can like Duran Duran. I like the Clash. But I'm not going to swan about the world trying to make people say that London Calling is on an equal musical footing to the B Minor Mass.

I recall that someone in the commbox of Shea's latest surge of blither said he did not trust the "personal preference" dodge some (lilly-livered) Trads put forward as the reason for driving fifty miles a week to get to the MOAT. He said something along the lines of "Well, can prove to us that your so-called 'personal preference' is not just a disguised way of saying the Traditional Mass is superior to the Novus Ordo?" Ah yes, the familiar whimper: "You elitists are just trying to prove you're better than us".

He's quite right about one thing though. It is a cowardly dodge to simper and say "Well, I just prefer it, that's all". Yet another form of the Stockholm Syndrome displayed in our times by those who cannot bring themselves to square their shoulders and manfully own up to being superior. The Mania of Nice, in which Betters must apologise for being Betters, that has taken hold of our entire culture and tries so desperately to say that all things are equal.

All things are not equal. Neither are all men.

Just as all religions and philosophies are not true, all music and all art are also not equal.

I woke this morning when the BBC Radio 3 came on at 7:30 and had the pleasure of listening to some barbarian, who works in aquisitions for the Tat Modern, (whose directors should simply rename it "Miniart" and have done with it) tell us that anyone who does not look upon a urinal or an unmade bed and fall into swoons of rapture over these "great works of modern art" are simply philistines who have an "outdated" attachment to the concept of art as "craftsmanship". We who look upon these things as jokes in bad taste and insults to our intelligence, were soundly chastised for our primitive narrowmindedness.

On Radio 3.

Nice.

The snivelling desire to be nice, to be liked by everyone and apologise for having convictions: Stockholm Syndrome.

"Well, of course, the English Reformation was a crime against humanity, but of course, we need to point out that not all Anglicans are nasty people and perpetrators of this crime...and some of our best friends are Anglicans..."

"Well, of course, abortion is a terrible thing, but I couldn't bring myself to judge others when they choose..."

"Well, of course, I go to the Traditional Mass as often as I can, but I wouldn't dream of saying it is superior to the Novus Ordo...it's just that I happen to prefer it..."

The other day I joined a thing called the Friends of Radio 3, a group of people who are trying to make a stand against the flood waters of toadying mediocrity. Having seen what the trendy egalitarian Visigoths did to CBC 2, I don't hold out much hope, but I thought I'd join and throw in my tuppence.

I see that there are still a few of us out there. Robert Reilly does a little shoulder-squaring on Inside Catholic:

Classical music is the greatest music. This assertion is not based upon my preference or opinion; it is as much a fact as the statement that the noble is higher than the base, or the beautiful than the ugly. I say this because there exists a hierarchy in the nature of reality, including in the world of sound, which is metaphysical. Noise occupies the lowest rung in this hierarchy; it is an undifferentiated mass of sound in which no distinction exists. The lowest kind of music -- rock -- comes closest to noise. Classical music exists at the highest rung, because it is the apprehension of reality in sound in the most highly differentiated way possible. It is the farthest from noise.

Whatever

Steve Skojec: "Hey, you guys should all go over to Inside Catholic."

HJW: "Why?"

SS: "Shea's being an ass over the Trad-bashing thing again."

HJW: Yaaaaawnnn

"Oh"

Landmines

So, a lot of people talked about the liturgical "timebombs" of Vatican II, about how there were all these ambiguous bits of fluff-talk in the VII documents that were really code words for later use to help bring in clapping, clowns, balloons and teddybear Masses.

I'd like to introduce another concept for the discussion: JPII Landmines. Permissions and "clarifications" issued by his late "greatness" John Paul II that are just now coming into their own as weapons in the hands of the enemy against any possible resurgence of the Faith.

Item:
"Redemptionis Sacramentum" (On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist), 25th March 2004

"[47.] It is altogether laudable to maintain the noble custom by which boys or youths, customarily termed servers, provide service of the altar after the manner of acolytes, and receive catechesis regarding their function in accordance with their power of comprehension.[119] Nor should it be forgotten that a great number of sacred ministers over the course of the centuries have come from among boys such as these.[120] Associations for them, including also the participation and assistance of their parents, should be established or promoted, and in such a way greater pastoral care will be provided for the ministers. Whenever such associations are international in nature, it pertains to the competence of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to establish them or to approve and revise their statutes.[121] Girls or women may also be admitted to this service of the altar, at the discretion of the diocesan Bishop and in observance of the established norms".

No one liked it. Lots of people looked upon the permission for altar girls as the last straw and left the Church, or gave up the fight for the Faith in despair. I know at least one Cardinal who had been trying to improve things and who never tried again after that.

But I think the usefulness to the enemy of most of JPII's obscure and unreadable stuff was to come later.

Here we have a clear case of a JPII Landmine, planted right in road, just waiting for the Trad personnel carriers to roll over it on the way to victory.

I’m sorry to learn that yesterday’s traditional High Mass at Cardiff Cathedral was called off at the last minute because the Dean insisted that a woman server be present in the sanctuary.

Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff:
Traditionalists are not welcome in cathedrals

The Latin Mass Society cancelled the service because female altar servers are not part of the tradition of the pre-1970 Mass. Opponents of the Pope’s reintroduction of the old Mass must be delighted – what an ingenious way of throwing a spanner in the works!

Fr Tim Finigan broke the news on his excellent blog, commenting that the Vatican is going to have to sort this one out.

Personally, I’m sorry that the LMS didn’t go ahead notwithstanding the presence of the woman altar server. It’s true that the classical form of Mass makes no provision for this innovation, introduced by Pope John Paul II – but by stretching a point the society would have denied liberals the delicious pleasure of seeing the event cancelled.

For, make no mistake about it, this is not about including woman in the traditional Latin Mass: it is about excluding traditionalists from the cathedrals of England and Wales, where they are not wanted.

But hey, it's the springtime guys! Come on now, let's all clap, "JPTOOWEELOVEYOOO"

There's only one problem with this

there are no nuns anymore who dress like that.


I was told something interesting about religious life this weekend. The Congregation for Religious in the Vatican is absolutely flooded with requests for approval of new communities. There is indeed a revival going on, big time.

The one thing they never get is requests for approval of communities in the Traditional Rite.

Odd hey? Where are the trads?

Pop Quiz II

How Traddie are you?

Watch this video.



Toward the end, when Fr. Michael Mary intones, "Adiutorium nostrum in nomini domini..."

What's the response?

And who just did it automatically without thinking?

Frabjous Day!
Kaloo kalay!

The latest buzz is that the Transalpine Redemptorists have announced that they will seek union with Rome.

I love these guys!

Dear English "Catholic Bishops"...

(Not my church...yet)

Last weekend, I'm happy to announce, we started enjoying the extraordinary privilege of Mass in the True Rite of the Latin end of the Catholic Church, right here in our miserable little "English Catholic" brick hovel, with gorgeous Gothic St. Alban's looming and glowering [see above] over us a few yards away. I have to say, I felt quite relieved and not a little sympathy for my Irish ancestors at their Mass Rocks, with one chap stationed at the road on the look out for the Black and Tans. I half expected some aging tie-dyed Bikenstocked priest to come bursting in, but the Mass was conducted with great decorum and with fewer interruptions and less chattering than that wretched little garage has likely ever experienced.

We are starting with monthly. I'm sure his excellency said nothing about "starting with", but of course, we have been taught as modern, adult, We-are-Easter-People Catholics to read between the lines and interpret official statements according to our own Lived Experience.

I told Fr. ______ at the tea n' snax that I would write a letter to Bishop Noble thanking him for his generous permission for the implementation of Motu Proprio that, as we all know, specifically states that we don't need his permission...but never mind. I was told that this would be imprudent.

Probably true, but ooo how tempting to do a little polite gloating. I would start by informing his excellencye that I was born after their precious Council and then wax rhapsodic on the glories of the Church's traditional liturgy and how glad I am that it is experiencing such a resurgence among the young in the Church... But of course, I promised to behave. Fr. ______'s a real priest, after all, the kind we're supposed to obey.

The peevishnes of the revolutionaries as they are increasingly forced to recognise the failure of their revolution is starting to make them look ridiculous. Though how they could look any more ridiculous than they've been looking in the last few decades is hard to imagine.

They're mad, and who wouldn't be? But the more they jump up and down squeaking in impotent fury and outrage, the more amusing they become. The pathetic attempts by the tie-dyed revolutionaries to hold on to their power is starting to be a subject of comic blog posts, cartoons and running jokes everywhere. The reason? All you have to do is attend "Mass" at one of their churches, climb up to the choir loft and look down at the tops of heads. From that perspective, the answer becomes self-evident.

In this vein, Damien Thompson today, in a laudably gratuitous poke at the E&W Episcopate, mentions Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, [to my utter lack of surprise, a former champion figure skater], who is known for his generosity towards Traditionalists:

I would never accuse Bishop Arthur of suppressing the 1962 Missal in his diocese.

I gather that he has very generously given permission for the Traditional Mass to be celebrated on the third Monday of the month at 5.30 in the morning in a remote village in the Yorkshire Dales - provided, of course, that the celebrant has the necessary Vatican doctorate in ecclesiastical Latin.

To paraphrase Ezra today: Just so you know, Cardinal Bubbles, when they're all laughing at you, you've lost.

Or, as it is increasingly being said on English Catholic blogs: Face it hippies...

Cardinal Say-It-With-Bongos Arinze

is criticising liturgical abuses.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Church’s head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments recently made a speech in Kenya in which he criticized liturgical abuses and protested Masses where the recklessly innovative priests act as “Reverend Showman”...

While he was at the Catholic University of East Africa, the cardinal delivered a public lecture in which he discussed the importance of following liturgical rubrics and the proper place of inculturation in the liturgy.

It always makes me laugh. A hollow, mirthless sort of laugh.

Bless me father, for I have committed systemic social injustice, and excessively accumulated wealth.

So, Good on 'em.

The socialists and Marxists in the Church have been searching for decades for those elusive "social" and "corporate" sins the Jesuits are always banging on about. You know the ones; we hear about them all the time in The Suppository and Amerika. And they've finally found them, courtesy of Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body which oversees confessions and plenary indulgences.

He said that priests must take account of “new sins which have
appeared on the horizon of humanity as a corollary of the unstoppable process
[sounds more like plate techtonics than sin
to me. Tough to figure out who's responsible if its "unstoppable".]
of globalisation” [does this mean that Globalization
has to go to confession now? And can he go in the Rec. Room? Not sure Globalization
is capable of kneeling in a little confessional...or making an act of
contrition]. Whereas sin in the past was thought of as being an invididual matter,
it now had “social resonance”.

“You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your
neighbour’s wife, but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally
debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations [well, OK, but again,
who actually has to go confess these sins? The politicians who voted for the
legislation? or just the actual scientists doing the splicing and
dicing?] which alter DNA or compromise embryos,” he said.

Bishop Girotti said that mortal sins also included taking or dealing in drugs,
[ok, I'm on with
this, assuming that he means to be more specific and is not talking about caffiene]
and social injustice [here's where it gets fun. Since sins, by definition,
have to be committed by a person, not a 'society', who do we call on the carpet?
Who goes to hell for 'social injustice'? a 'sin' that no one has ever been able
to define? Everyone? because, as you know, if you're not part of the solution...No.
I think he means no one. Because he's not actually talking about sin, as it is
understood by Catholics.] which caused poverty [ah, only the kind of 'social
injustice that causes poverty? or other kinds too?] or “the excessive accumulation
of wealth by a few” [which few? exactly? Only the board members and shareholders of,
say, the top Fortune 500's? or are we talking about anyone who
owns more than one car? Be specific].

He said that two mortal sins which continued to preoccupy the Vatican were abortion,
which offended “the dignity and rights of women”, [Err...Hhuh? Whatthefuh? here's a nice little givaway.
The man is not a Catholic, clearly, and has outed himself. Abortion
'offends' the 'dignity and rights of women' and that's why "the Vatican" objects to
it. Yah. Gotcha] and paedophilia, which had even
infected the clergy itself and so had exposed the “human and institutional fragility
of the Church”.

The mass media had “blown up” the issue “to discredit the Church”, but the Church
itself was taking steps to deal with it.

We hear about them all the time at the intercessory prayers at Mass (if you go to that sort of thing). The new improved sins are the ones no one is personally responsible for. They're the ones about which we all get to point at someone else as we congratulate ourselves for being part of the solution every time we buy a Fair Trade coffee.

War, poverty, social injustice, the arms race, The Third World, private property and Walmart.

Now we've got backup from the Vatican.

Who said those guys don't move with the times?

But if they think the New Deadlies are going to result in a rash of calls to the rectory to book some time communing with the potted palms in the Reconciliation Room, it might be time to wake up and smell the lattes.


BTW:
Nice little slag at the pro-life movement towards the end there eh? and a new twist, don't you think? Abortion isn't the problem, but the apparent emphasis upon it in the Church (where?) is all the fault of the media for focusing on it too much...at the expense of, naturally, the Church's commitment to the preferential option, no doubt.