Spiritual Renewal: The New Buzzwords

[ChillDoubt]

...for a b*llocking by the Catholic Church.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22542597

I wonder where he is going to go for that....?

[bazwillrun]

penitence !

laughable

[daisya]

For Funks Sake....what a farce..... why don't religionists see what is going on under their very noses....blind or what?

[andy-hughes]

If you believe -as the Catholic hierarchy does - that pennance will solve everything, then this is the right response. Saying sorry to God covers everything from nicking a pencil at work to child murder.

However, more locally, where the majority of us do not live in metaphorical - or in the case of The vatican, literal - ivory towers - thsi will be seen for what it is - another refusal to accept the evil that men do cannot always be expunged by a simple 'Sorry' and a prayer or two.

[andy-hughes]

daisya - as a character said in the film American Beauty - 'Never underestimate the power of denial ...'.

[Octavius]

Unless 'off to the Vatican for a b*llocking' is a euphamism for something sexual, then its unlikely that this will happen in the church. More likely to be tucked away in an outpost until it all blows over, then he'll just disappear.

[Zeuhl]

/ I wonder where he is going to go for that....? /

Thailand perhaps?

[emmie]

if he does perhaps they will incarcerate him, for his own good of course...

[modeller]

Maybe they are lining him up as the next Pope.

[emmie]

give the new one a chance to settle in first

[seadogg]

Send him to Bishop Brennan.
I guess Spiritual Renewal will involve facing up to his weaknesses and showing the Vatican he has a plan of action for defeating them.
I dont think its possible to overcome the old sex drive except by having them chopped off, maybe by the Pope with a rusty knife

[emmie]

having things chopped off doesn't stop the desire, just the deed.

[seadogg]

Fair enough em, all I know is that anno domini works a bit like that.

[Kromovaracun]

I hope he rots abroad and never comes back - his departure is as welcome to me as that of Abu Hamza. He deserves nothing but contempt, no matter where he goes.

This is a man who has had the gall to appoint himself as a spokesman of "family values", throw his weight behind policies which have a very real effect on peoples' lives, and then violate those same moral codes himself. Disgusting piece of slime.

[andy-hughes]

Kromovaracun - as I am sure you are aware, guilt is a cornerstone of the Catholic faith - everything is forbidden unless it is compulsory.

But let us not forget that other major foundation of religion in general - and the Catholic faith in particular - hypocracy.

The ability to say one thing and do another facilitiates child abuse most prominently - but it also allows the hierarchy to live in mind-watering splendour in the Vatican, while preaching that the world should support the poor.

If I lived in a palace full of thousands of works of art individually worth eight figures that were not even on the wall, but hidden in vaults, I would find it very hard to speak to anyone about humility and sacrifice, without the words sticking in my throat.