Bitter Pill's spiteful attack on the Pope

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Holy Smoke

“Once the Pope’s legs start giving out – he is 80, after all – maybe Mgr Marini will bring back the gestatorial chair.” Vatican-watchers will have no difficulty identifying the author of that spiteful little sentence: it’s Robert Mickens, Rome correspondent of the Tablet, aka The Bitter Pill.

Now, we all know that “Bobbie” Mickens burst into tears of rage when Ratzinger was elected – but couldn’t he do a better job of hiding his animosity towards the Holy Father? We get it week after week.


Mickens made his comment in a diary item about the return of dignified, beautiful worship to St Peter’s: “During Vespers two deacons were constantly at the Pope’s side, holding open the heavy silk-covered cope, while the lace-draped Mgr Marini piously followed a step behind with his head solemnly bowed and his hands pressed together.” And we’re supposed to disapprove?

Talk about sore losers. :mad:
 
Expect dems-dat-have-reduced-the-liturgy-to-a-puddle-of-sentimental-mush to become more shrill as the curtain comes down on their final act.
 
Expect dems-dat-have-reduced-the-liturgy-to-a-puddle-of-sentimental-mush to become more shrill as the curtain comes down on their final act.
ROFTL…just like Don Giovanni being dragged down to hell.
 
Holy Smoke

“Once the Pope’s legs start giving out – he is 80, after all – maybe Mgr Marini will bring back the gestatorial chair.” Vatican-watchers will have no difficulty identifying the author of that spiteful little sentence: it’s Robert Mickens, Rome correspondent of the Tablet, aka The Bitter Pill.

Now, we all know that “Bobbie” Mickens burst into tears of rage when Ratzinger was elected – but couldn’t he do a better job of hiding his animosity towards the Holy Father? We get it week after week.


Mickens made his comment in a diary item about the return of dignified, beautiful worship to St Peter’s: “During Vespers two deacons were constantly at the Pope’s side, holding open the heavy silk-covered cope, while the lace-draped Mgr Marini piously followed a step behind with his head solemnly bowed and his hands pressed together.” And we’re supposed to disapprove?

Talk about sore losers. :mad:
Bones-
Where do you find this stuff???

Dang it Bones, I’m a Teacher, not a Theologian!
 
I don’t know why people think the Church should change with the times?

All I know is that at my parish, with is moderately modern, our Priest recently took a turn toward tradition and I was glad to see it. We now (again after a long absence) have statues of Mary & Joseph in our church. The Tabernacle is no longer under the stairs that lead to the choir loft in the corner of the Church! Our priest even apologized for moving it there in the first place!!! I believe it is all due to the influence of our Pope and I am happy to see a return to our traditions.
 
I don’t know why people think the Church should change with the times?
The Church always has and always will change with the times. The issue is determining what manner and what extent are appropriate.
 
Somewhere Chesterton commented that he would rather belong to a Church that was 2000 years behind the times and consistent, than to one that was always 6 months behind and racing to catch up.😃
 
Yesterday, I heard a Catholic priest on the radio talking about a return of reverance to the Church and a return of morality. Change is not always good or beneficial.

“the times” is a construct that is human based, not God based. The same priest on the radio was talking about the problems created in society, and in the Church, over the last 40 years. Many things are going back to the way they were 40 years ago, especially morality and reverance. The inside must be cleaned so that the outside can be clean also (see Matthew 23: 25 and 26).

God bless,
Ed
 
Really? Do expand.
The creation of a catechism for the universal Church was a change which most agree was a good move, although unprecedented in the history of the Church. The issuance of a “Ten Commandments of Driving” is a change which may not have been as wise.
 
The creation of a catechism for the universal Church was a change which most agree was a good move, although unprecedented in the history of the Church. The issuance of a “Ten Commandments of Driving” is a change which may not have been as wise.
That’s not the same thing as saying that the Church as you said,
always has and always will change with the times.
 
The Church always has and always will change with the times. The issue is determining what manner and what extent are appropriate.
What do you mean by that?
Are you saying that the Church should change according to man-made time rather than the God-given Holy Spirit guided time that has always governed the Church?
 
Are you saying that the Church should change according to man-made time rather than the God-given Holy Spirit guided time that has always governed the Church?
I’m really not sure what you mean by that. I looked up time in the old Catholic Encyclopedia to see whether there was an interesting theological construct about time that I was unaware of, but not that seems to apply to your question.

I am saying that it is inevitable that the Church does change with the times, whether it wants to or not. But it should deliberately play a role in that change, so that it can have maximum benefit from those changes judged to be positive, and can redirect or minimize those changes judged to be negative.

A couple of changes the Church has made in different eras are the use of the internet in recent years, and development in the form of the Sacrament of Penance in the Third Century. One can argue that these changes originated more internally or externally - perhaps that’s what you mean by man-made time or Holy Spirit-guided time. But even internal changes are usually responses to the external world - unless you want to argue that the Holy Spirit invented the internet and instigated the Decian persecution.
 
Digitonomy, I think I have a more recent example. Pope Leo XIII was originally oppose to labor unions, seeing them as “secret societies” like the Freemasons. It was only after discussing the matter with a number of bishops (including several from the US) that he came to realize that the secrecy of the beginning labor movement was essential for the safety of the workers. This understanding helped in the writing of “Rerum novarum” or “On Capital and Labor.” In this way, the Church “changed with the times”, not in creating new doctrines, but showing how the existing doctrines applied to the new circumstances.
 
Digitonomy, I think I have a more recent example. Pope Leo XIII was originally oppose to labor unions, seeing them as “secret societies” like the Freemasons. It was only after discussing the matter with a number of bishops (including several from the US) that he came to realize that the secrecy of the beginning labor movement was essential for the safety of the workers. This understanding helped in the writing of “Rerum novarum” or “On Capital and Labor.” In this way, the Church “changed with the times”, not in creating new doctrines, but showing how the existing doctrines applied to the new circumstances.
Exactly. The Church, very rarely, if at all, makes doctrinal statements to “change with the times”. She merely points out that there are already doctrines in place that pertain to the issue.
 
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