Hello Francis, I'm a Catholic-raised person as well. These days I call myself an agnostic. I have some acquaintances who are very Conservative Catholics, along the lines that you suggest, but without the bigotry and racist baggage, I am glad to say. One of these acquaintances moved his entire family many hundreds of miles to another State and city, just so he could send his children to a "proper" Catholic school... those catholic schools available near his then home, not being sufficiently traditional when it came to the church fundamentals. His biggest complaint was that the Mass was no longer said in Latin, as I recall. Anyway, I was not then nor am I now so invoved, theologically, in Catholic questions. But I do have some layman concern about the Conservative tilt that the Catholic Church, as an institution, appears to be taking, especially under the recent Pope Benedict XVI. http://www.jamescarroll.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Carroll Here is a link to a former Catholic priest and author, fairly prominent and respected here in the U.S., named Mr. James Carroll. I recently viewed a documentary that he made titled "Constantine's Sword" that does a much better job considering some of these questions than I could. If you have a chance, maybe you can get hold of a dvd to view... I got it through my local library, so I didn't have to rent or purchase it. The current Pope Benedict XVI does seem to be a bit "scary" doesn't he? I don't mind the traditionalism when it comes to formal or even strictly theological matters (for what little I understand of such things) but these broader social or historical questions... the persecutions or the historical factual errors.... it does seem as though Pope BenedictXVI is taking a very big step backwards, into an evil past conception of the clery's self-assumed authority..... Ex Cathedra only goes so-far... I've read Dante.... some Popes deserve to be in Hell, I agree. nominal9
On Feb 6, 5:43 am, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > The media in Germany has been dominated, in the past week, by the > controversy arising as a result of the lifting of the excommunications > of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (originally imposed > following their illicit consecrations by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988) > on January 21st. The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is a traditionalist > fringe group with origins in the Catholic tradition, which rejects > large sections of the modification in teaching and liturgy promulgated > by the Second Vatical Council. > > On the same day, Swedish TV aired an interview with Richard > Williamson, one of the four, in which he denied the Shoah, stating, “I > believe there were no gas chambers ... I think that two to three > hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps ... but > none of them by gas chambers.” The excrement impacted with the > ventilator. > > The indignation and criticism in Germany (which, as a result of the > Nazi area, sees itself as having an abiding responsiblity to the > victims of the Holocaust) reached such a level that Chancellor Merkel > publicly criticised the German-born pope, Josef Ratzinger/Benedict > XVI, concerning his decision. This has provoked a reaction by many > (mostly conservative) Catholics about inappropriate political > interference in internal Church matters. For those interested in more > background the following links may be > helpful:http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,605714,00.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Saint_Pius_X > > The issue raises some interesting questions, particularly in the area > of relations between the state/public society, and religions/churches, > as well as issues within the Catholic tradition. I would be > particularly interested in reading comments from Catholic and Jewish > members of our group. > > Francis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
