IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM. JOIN THEM

 The poor old Catholic Church has been fighting a rearguard action for decades, trying to keep 'the faithful' under control and, in darkness blindly seeking guidance. 

This was OK in less 'enlightened times' but chalk this up to another success for modern communications and social media. No longer are the uneducated, dim or bewildered totally dependant on missives from the pulpit as they can simply do Google searches or rely on Facebook, X and other platforms to 'inform' them.

The consumers, sorry, the faithful are no longer satisfied with stories from old books and 'mysteries' hidden in tabernacles and monstrances - they want a bit of sparkle and pizazz which is why dreary old church calendar events like Christmas, Easter, All Saints Day, Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Ascension Day, Pentecost etc. are not popular compared to Santa's Christmas, The Easter Bunny's Easter and Halloween. Even old Robert, one of the Catholic Church's most devout followers admits that the old stuff is as stale as the Communion hosts on a Monday.

In a comment on a recent The Curmudgeon's post he said:

I particularly note his wanting All Saints Day (the day after Halloween) to be commercialised and having retail stores sell tacky Catholic junk like "... plastic halos, cotton wool clouds, automated St Benedict's that raise and lower rosary beads, strings of glowing solar powered rosary beads".

Well done that man even if the spelling is atrocious.

When I was very young, at Primary school at about 8 or 9 years old, I was an altar boy at St Anne's Parish Church. I used to enjoy dressing up in the vestments and assisting at Mass and Benediction. My favourite 'job' was swinging the thurible (censer).

I loved the smell of the incense and the fumes used to make me feel a bit spacey.

There's zero chance though, regardless of what Robert hopes for, that I'd rush into a store to buy some cheaply made synthetic altar boy vestments to dress up on All Saints Day.

That's just me though and, as Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Easter, Chinese New Year, Diwali and other retailer coopted festivals show - there's no bottom limit to bad taste where the public is concerned and "plastic halos, cotton wool clouds, automated St Benedict's that raise and lower rosary beads, strings of glowing solar powered rosary beads" should race off the shelves (and be in the rubbish dump the week after).

Robert might have a bit of self interest in this as well as, in addition to being entrusted with the collection at Mass he is often in charge of the Church Shop. This Church Shop is certainly in need of a bit of pizazz ....

.... with its boring selection of holy cards, dreary pamphlets and crappy medals. Even Richard's suggestion of installing a condom machine wasn't adopted. I guess that Robert is embarrassed at the takings each Sunday and has to confess this on Monday each week. Imagine what the takings would be with a whole lot of new merchandise...

RICHARD MIGHT BE ON (TO) SOMETHING

 That old atheist from Wainuiomata has a new bee in his bonnet.

He's been scaremongering before and continually baits his younger and very religious brother Robert The Forgiven (don't ask) but this time by golly he might be on to something.

History .... sorry, The Bible and all of the other made up things that Christians believe in has many references to Jesus and Satan meeting up to discuss things.

Even BibleAsk, a Christian propaganda site thinks that it merits discussion:

Satan: "C'mon Jesus. You can't support that Christian guy Robert. Look at the unnatural way he looks at your Mum. Even his brother won't talk to him through the blogs ...."

I found many examples where Satan and Jesus have fun - they even went on holiday together for 40 days or more. They even shared bread making recipes as pals do when out camping:

I found this extract as well:

Sorry ... badly copied, the missing bits say:

"And Jesus and Satan (Jesus called him Stan) went camping together. They followed all the rules as good campers do. They:

• BUILT A CAMPFIRE. 
• MADE DINNER AN EVENT. 
• PICKED A MEMORABLE LOCATION. 
• POOLED THEIR RESOURCES. 
• FOUND ACTIVITIES WITH WIDE APPEAL. 
• CHOSE GLAMPING. 
• GAVE THEMSELVES PLENTY OF SPACE. 
• MADE IT EASY.

Fun in other words."

          - John: Revelations 14-24.

IS IT ALL OVER NOW ....

 ... Baby Blue?

Hey! I read some good news (see what I did there?) today. Pope Frank's putting the boot into the Catholic Church again. Well done that man.

Pope Francis has called for an end to anti-gay laws and welcomes LGBTQ  people into the Church. It's a late welcome for all those LGBQT priests, brothers and nuns already in the Church but ... better late than never. The big news though is that women ... remember them? .... are welcome too and will be able to have voting rights.
Frank criticised laws that criminalise homosexuality as “unjust”, and said that God loves all his children just as they are and has called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said on Tuesday in an interview.

This is important because next, if homosexuality isn't a crime the Catholic Church might finally admit that it isn't a sin either. They're still a bit conflicted over this though, even Pope Francis:

Francis articulated the position: “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”

“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” he added.

The Church apparently won't recognise marriages between gay and lesbian people because 'it's a sin'.

You can read about it here (Robert, you might need to confess if you read it though):

END OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

Well, not yet until Frank mans up and denounces all of the silly stuff not just some of it. He could be the new Martin Luther.