MetaFilter posts tagged with religion and catholicism

Olivier Messiaen's organ music

Trurl — Sun, 27 May 2012 06:54:16 -0800

The irony in a way is that Messiaen used this great romantic organ for his most modern experiments. For Messiaen, this was a great sort of sonic paintbox, if you like, and he would come here and experiment with the extraordinary sounds that he could conjure out of this amazing instrument. In addition to L'Ascension (1934), Messiaen's major works for the instrument are La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) - whose "Les Anges" can be heard performed by the composer here - Les Corps Glorieux (1939), and Le Livre du Saint Sacrement (1984). Latry's performances in the Deutsche Grammophon 32 CD box set of the complete Messiaen - available by torrent - have received positive reviews. But I find greater profundity in the renditions by British organist Jennifer Bate.

Thomas Merton

Trurl — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:23:04 -0800

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has sold over one million copies and has been translated into over fifteen languages. He wrote over sixty other books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms race.

Irish stew. Papal hide the pickle.

markkraft — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:56:36 -0800

Irish PM condemns Vatican interference in sex abuse cases. Enda Kenny, the new Taoiseach of Ireland, has scathingly criticized the Vatican, citing the Cloyne Report and a recently-leaked Vatican letter intended to prevent sex abuse cases from going public, despite their public policy of reporting all abuse claims to the authorities. (Similar claims of the Vatican not reporting recent child abuse cases have also been made in the US.) Ireland's Minister for Justice has cited an extensive list of The Church's failures to comply with their policies, and is supporting legislation to make it a crime not to report child abuse claims. The Vatican's envoy was asked to report to Parliament and explain The Church's position on this matter quickly, with the implied threat that they might be forced to testify. Today, the Church, citing "surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions" has recalled their envoy. "(This) should be interpreted as an expression of the desire of the Holy See for serious and effective collaboration with the (Irish) Government."

Grape Fields to The Game

telstar — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:50:30 -0800

The Madness of Cesar Chavez

Missionary Position: Facing West

zarq — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:50:00 -0800

Pope Benedict XVI has announced the establishment of a new Vatican department dedicated to tackling what he called 'a grave crisis in the sense of the Christian faith and the role of the Church." The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelisation will (per Archbishop Vincent Nichols,) focus on countries "in which, even though the Christian Gospel has shaped an entire culture," secularism now reigns, in what the Pope termed an "eclipse of a sense of God." Editorial: "Catholicism, the religion that gave the world the idea of the missionary, is struggling on its historic home turf." This council is part of a larger reshuffling of the Vatican hierarchy, which may support the Pope's ongoing anti- abortion and gay marriage efforts: The first President of the new Evangelical Council will be Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, a Vatican bioethics official, whose controversial front page statement in the L’Osservatore Romano newspaper last year condoned the abortion of twins in a nine year-old Brazilian rape victim. At the time, Fisichella headed the institution that helps frame the Catholic church's "pro-life" doctrines, The Pontifical Academy for Life. A Canadian theologian and anti-abortion hardliner, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, will now head the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for Bishops, which evaluates the nomination of bishops and sets the tone for the Catholic Church hierarchy worldwide. “The head of the Congregation of Bishops is a very important nomination; it determines the ruling class of the Catholic Church for the next 20 years,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert with the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale. The appointment is particularly important in light of the abuse scandal, which has called into question the actions of bishops around the world. Victims have accused bishops of covering up abuse or not acting swiftly to discipline priests who have abused minors.
Ouellet has been outspoken against abort ion (calling it a 'moral crime', unjustified even in cases of rape) and gay marriage.

Santa Muerte

homunculus — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:20:37 -0800

A Saint for Lost Souls. "The barrio of Tepito, where it's said that everything is for sale except dignity, has been one of Mexico City's roughest neighborhoods since Aztec times. Famous for its black market and its boxing champions, Tepito is a place where residents learn to fight early and fight hard. These days it has also become the epicenter of Mexico's fastest-growing faith: Santa Muerte, or Holy Death, a hybrid religion that merges Catholic symbolism with pre-Hispanic worship of the skeletal Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl, Lord and Lady of the Dead."

Catholic Charities Denies Health Benefits To Spouses

Joe Beese — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:45:16 -0800

I am writing to you to inform you of an important change to our group health care benefit plan that will take effect on March 2, 2010 due to a change in the law of the District of Columbia. It is an irony that many who have marched under the banners tolerance and open-mindedness, now that they have power, show that it never really was about either of those things. It appears it was really about power and imposition.

Has the Supreme Court Become Too Catholic

jefficator — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:23:27 -0800

Has the Supreme Court become too Catholic?

The Surprisingly Accurately Named Thirty Years War

Kattullus — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:32:07 -0800

The Thirty Years War is a website covers that ginormous kerfuffle that consumed Europe in the first half of the 17th Century from the Second Defenestration of Prague to the Peace of Westphalia. It has a handy map with a place locator which will help you tell your Schweidnitz from your Schweinfurt. Here are some other maps, The Religious Situation in Central Europe about 1618, Principal Seats of War, 1618-1660 and Europe in 1648 - Peace of Westphalia.

Bringing New Meaning to 'Flogging the Bishop'

Navelgazer — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:54:09 -0800

Does it cause hairy palms? (No, that is a myth.) Will it make you go blind? (No, though zinc deficiency can be detrimental to one's vision, and semen contains a small amount of zinc.) Are you going to hell for it? (Maybe, maybe not.) But what if it helps with conception? (well, the men doing it, anyway)

Religious takes on the global financial crisis

desjardins — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:04:30 -0800

The Dalai Lama blames the financial crisis on a decline in spirituality. Hindus blame it on greed. Saudi Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, blames the crisis on ignoring God's rules. Jewish scholars say we could have avoided a crisis by following Talmudic traditions. Pope Benedict sees the global financial system as "self-centred, short-sighted and lacking in concern for the destitute." Is it right to pray for the economy? (a Christian perspective). A Malaysian conference brings together Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, and Sikhs to discuss the crisis.

Nun of the Above

Xurando — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:29:44 -0800

Are nuns keeping up with the times and are they having fun? From blogs to running, to the arts and union disputes, nuns are busy. Even a beauty contest is being planned. But, the old ways persist. I've always been both afraid and in awe of nuns. Their dedication was something I still can't conceive or remotely master. And then there is that whole"brides of Jesus" thing which totally screws up my head. There was also nun sexual abuse. Go figure.

Dignity and Bioethics

homunculus — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:35:43 -0800

The Stupidity of Dignity: Conservative bioethics' latest, most dangerous ploy. Steven Pinker reviews Human Dignity and Bioethics, the latest report from the President's Council on Bioethics. dgaicun posted Pinker's article in the Leon Kass vs. ice-cream thread, but I think it and the report deserve their own post.

Two popes, two

omegar — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:35:12 -0800

"Ratzinger is an Evolutionist, which by definition makes one an athiest", is one of the reasons that this website, in which the "true" catholic faith (different [?] from the other catholic faith) is promoted, gives as to claiming Benedict XVI isn't the true pope. And to make their point they have elected a "real" pope themselves: Pope Pius XIII His real name? Lucian Pulvermacher (wikipedia) (previously) But, How can they elect a pope when they have one in the Vatican? you ask? Well, according to the FAQ, which is a tad outdated: "John Paul II is NOT the Pope and never was. Neither were the 3 other imposters, John XXIII, Paul VI or John Paul I." Of course, having two popes isn't news at all for the catholic church. There have been antipopes (wikipedia), a second pope unrecognized by the Vatican, intermitently for almost 1900 years now. Once there were even three popes at the same time, couresy of the Western Schism (wikipedia). (via)

Medieval Church Wall Paintings

thomas j wise — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:47:15 -0800

The Mills-Kronborg Collection of Danish Church Wall Paintings, courtesy of Princeton University's Index of Christian Art, includes descriptions and images of medieval and early modern church frescoes. There are more church frescoes at Painting and Sculpture in Medieval Hungary. (Another site features a fine panorama.) Anne Marshall has developed an extensive site devoted to similar paintings in England, many of which were whitewashed during the Reformation. The University of Leicester hosts a much more specialized database devoted to the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy (no images); La Mort Dans L'Art/Death in Art has some Continental examples of The Three Living and the Three Dead.

The Pope with the Robotic Head

Iridic — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:16:11 -0800

Gerbert D'Aurillac: mathemetician and engineer, Pope, ghost, and meddler with dark forces. The superstitious and rather insulting assumption that Gerbert's intellectual achievements could only be supernatural in nature has survived to the present day. More modern mythmakers have outed him as a disciple of The Nine, the enigmatic circle of savants and scholars who have custody over science's more dangerous secrets. Apparently they were the ones who gave him his robotic brass head.

Mother Teresa's lengthy, unresolved crisis of faith

ibmcginty — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:54:30 -0800

From a Time magazine article: A new, innocuously titled book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), consisting primarily of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years, provides the spiritual counterpoint to a life known mostly through its works. The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book's compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist." Previously on Mother Teresa's doubt, more generally.

it's been agreed that results of the debate are to be binding on all religious and nonreligious people.

ibmcginty — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:19:44 -0800

Sam Harris, an atheist, and Andrew Sullivan, a Catholic, debate whether moderate religion makes any sense. Harris: "Religious moderation is the result of not taking scripture all that seriously." Sullivan: "Blogger, please."

This Week in God

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 30 May 2006 09:47:36 -0800

This Week in God Salon interviews Karen Armstrong, a British ex-nun who has used her religious search to write several books on the subject. Her focus is not merely on Catholicism, but extends to many religions, including Islam.

Catholics are the New York Yankees of Christianity.

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 22 May 2006 08:35:40 -0800

The Interpretative Dance Theocrats. Inspired by Salon's excerpt from Michelle Goldberg's new book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, this handy guide will resolve your confusion over Christian theological jargon. [via]

Catholic non-fundies?

lbergstr — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:05:44 -0800

Catholic church warns of the danger of fundamentalism. "The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: 'We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.'" (via flambingo)

Catholicism

oddman — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 14:16:25 -0800

Some MeFites have expressed an interest in learning more about the Catholic Church's positions on abortion, the death penalty, and other issues. I hope you will all find these links interesting and enlightening. The peo ple and the Chu rch. But, what about how other Christians see Catholics? Can Catholics respond to these claims? Of course, some claims have to be taken with a very large chunk of salt. Some Christians are even changing their minds. Though there is no single kind of Catholicism. Finally, here is a source for further research.

Papal conclave

Davenhill — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 11:14:48 -0800

The conclave of cardinals will soon start the process of choosing a new pope. Have you filled in your brackets yet?

Mmm, church and state, mmmmmmm.

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:27:13 -0800

Uhoh. Tony Blair's new Education Secretary Ruth Kelly is almost certainly a member of masochistic Catholic cult Opus Dei, as featured in The Da Vinci Code.

The Seven Capital Sins - Revised!

MiguelCardoso — Wed, 12 Mar 2003 23:31:36 -0800

Hey, It's Not Enough We Die Of Obesity without having to go to Hell too? Some enlightened Frenchmen are bending the Pope's ear, trying to spring Gluttony from the Deadly Sins blacklist. Well, even clever old Thomas Aquinas did his damnedest to narrow the seven buggers down. So: which sins would you excuse today's poor sufferers from and which ones would you insist on keeping, if any? [Something tells me MetaFilter is ideally suited to put in a good word for Sloth. I wonder why? Speaking of which, NYT reg. is required but you can read about it here instead. Via Arts and Letters Daily.]