Yesterday, the Spanish Bishops Conference issued a document that accuses the government of the decline of believers and it stated that they should act with urgency to recover the believers.
Several bishops read a pastoral those criticizing the media, government and individuals who write X "For social purposes" rather than "Aid to the Church" at the annual statement of income.
The bishop of Valencia, García Gascó, criticized the government saying that they "may end up with the family" with its legislation, and advised to "faithfuls" to "convince not stop by materialism" and reject "that destroy marriages the family ".
The bishop of Toledo, Cañizares, charged with "handling public" to the media, the government, and citizens who write X in "For social purposes" rather than "Aid to the Church." It says that they "do not want freedom of man", because citizens can write X in both concepts ("social purpose" and "Church").
Members of the PP criticized the government saying that "Spaniards are not concerned about secularism. The government is doing demagoguery to raise these issues." When Procrustes looks after you, you're sure to fit in.
In the UK it generated this response which I think summed up my feelings
Guardian CiF - I don't believe it
Murphy-O'Connor also speaks with forked tongue when he tries to portray the Catholic Church as some persecuted institution that means harm to no one. He says the Catholic Church is caricatured as "some heartless, insular institution that wants to deny people their freedom". Cardinal - this is not a caricature. It is the truth. Your own actions and pronouncements confirm it. You have tried to deny human rights to homosexuals, you have tried to rob women of the right to choose contraception and abortion and thereby take control of their lives, you have tried (and continue to try) to interfere with scientific research that may lead to the alleviation of enormous suffering. You have attempted to manipulate the political process by pressurising Catholic MPs. On a personal level you - and your church - try to control every aspect of your followers' lives, from telling them what to think, what to eat and when to eat it, to telling them who they can sleep with and even what they can and cannot do when they get between the sheets. You have argued that Christian leaders should have privileged input to government policymaking. You have said that you should have unchallenged access to the BBC. You are a politician as much as a priest, but no one has elected you. It is you and your church - not secularists or atheists- which are out of step with the people of this country ................. You ask why the government continually thwarts your will - the answer is that they are elected to represent the people, while you take your orders from an unaccountable central source in another country. You may bleat that people no longer believe - but that is their choice and choice is the one thing that the Catholic church fears.
Cardinal - this is not a caricature. It is the truth. Your own actions and pronouncements confirm it. You have tried to deny human rights to homosexuals, you have tried to rob women of the right to choose contraception and abortion and thereby take control of their lives, you have tried (and continue to try) to interfere with scientific research that may lead to the alleviation of enormous suffering. You have attempted to manipulate the political process by pressurising Catholic MPs. On a personal level you - and your church - try to control every aspect of your followers' lives, from telling them what to think, what to eat and when to eat it, to telling them who they can sleep with and even what they can and cannot do when they get between the sheets.
You have argued that Christian leaders should have privileged input to government policymaking. You have said that you should have unchallenged access to the BBC. You are a politician as much as a priest, but no one has elected you. It is you and your church - not secularists or atheists- which are out of step with the people of this country ................. You ask why the government continually thwarts your will - the answer is that they are elected to represent the people, while you take your orders from an unaccountable central source in another country.
You may bleat that people no longer believe - but that is their choice and choice is the one thing that the Catholic church fears.
The point being that I honestly have little idea what the religious views of his predecessors were, but Blair made his religiosity, his presumed piety, into an aspect of his premiership. Campbell was fooling himself when he said "we don't do god"; he might not have, but Blair did, each and every day. keep to the Fen Causeway
I know you are also very well read on Muslim faith. Could you do an LQD with the rest of the article to start a religions´ series? Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
Just in case, that was probably intended to mean spell the end of the family or finish off the family. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
people are getting fed up here in italy of being told how to run their families by people to choose not to create them.
but the social milestones of baptism, catechism, first communion, marriage and the last rites still rule supreme, and the church is not above using that lever shamelessly.
the catholic church, clad in their bejewelled pomp, have earned no right to speak for jesus. take away that self-vested authority, and the only christian things they do are feeding the poor, and nursing the sick, (worthy as that is), it's the proportion to their wealth and their proclivity for meddling in politics that are disturbing.
spain has a lot younger a population than italy, so it sounds like the spaniards took the vatican't's advice in bed more seriously than those residing closer to the See.
or maybe italy was just closer to chernobyl. ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
The box for 'social purposes' goes to fund NGO's and the church has created loads of them, branching out with different names, so they get the church-aid money, the NGO money, the government programs money and their followers' contributions. Then, every time I read the NGO employment site, some church NGO is asking for volunteers to do clean-up work in some residence because they do not even pay minimum wage!
They will be better off if they STFU because that loophole may be closed sooner, rather than later.
It is enraging, but at least there are enclaves like the 'red parish' that the archbishop tried to close months ago and failed. Right now, the '80 sacred meters' are housing 24 Bolivians that had been living in slum huts and an illegal hostel the city demolished.... Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
