Hundreds of thousands of young people descending on Madrid this week for the Catholic church’s World Youth Day – which features processions, group prayers and a mass with Pope Benedict XVI – are to get a “special” concession.
Church leaders have ordered that anyone confessing, during this event, to having had an abortion – a sin punishable by excommunication – will be welcomed back into the church.
“Normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power,” said the pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.
Two hundred white wooden confession booths have been set up in Madrid’s Buen Retiro park for the event, which started on Tuesday and runs until Sunday…
The driving force behind the deal is the archbishop of Madrid, Antonio María Rouco Varela, who persuaded the Vatican to offer women who had had abortions access to “the fruits of divine grace that will open the doors to a new life”…
Young Catholics making the trip to the Spanish capital will also gain a plenary indulgence – effectively a reduction in the time believers spend in purgatory after confessing and being absolved of their sins. These concessions were once sold by priests, but now the indulgences are granted on special occasions.
As seen on TV. All credit cards accepted.
why is that that new pope smell is more like old rental bowling shoes
comparison shop for your religion folks you just make up your own like all these at one time were
Catholicism not a good buy
http://religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm
Howard–nice chart. Including atheism is even fair given the other inclusions.
Protestant religions seem to be absent? Methodists, Lutherans, Anglicans, etc.
Number of Jews seems low.
Good start though. I was razor clear that Christian Science and Scientology were totally different. Ha, ha. And why should I?
Has god created a universe wherein by his grace all these religions are correct?–or does he play favorites????
Ha, ha.
@ #16
Looks like it’s a glory hole confession.
Meh.
The conversation got more interesting…
http://elpais.com/recorte/20110816elpepunac_10/XXLCO/Ies/Durante_confesion.jpg
Correct #9. I am certainly no longer Christian, but something in me says it’s murder and wrong.
#19 Pulling out makes no difference. You’re already in hot water at that point.
Might as well join this: http://ffrf.org/
So does this include guys?
Howard Beale,
I spent about an hour perusing your informative link.
It’s a great chart to shop for a deity.
I’ve been learning Jainism . Although there are no local Jainism organized groups I may check out the local Unitarian Universal-ism group. The only problem with UU is the use of scripture from “The Holy Bible”.
Thanks for the link Howard.
# 14 Olo Baggins, “…nobody is in favor of killing babies. Nobody.”
Weeeelllll. I’m not in favor of killing cattle, either. But, I sure do like me a good burger from time to time…
#19
Pulling out is not OK. The only thing OK as far as birth control and the Catholic Church goes is something called “Natural Family Planning”
Basically it’s a means of determining when a woman is ovulating and not having sex on those days (with a cushion of a couple days before and after).
There are a few different methods but one uses basal body temperature and observation of cervical mucus.
When practiced correctly it’s more reliable than a condom. Unfortunately it’s pretty easy to screw up or just say: “F*ck it. I don’t want to wait another 10 days. We’re married for Christ sakes.”
About 80% of U.S. Catholics ignore the Pope on this one and use more common forms of birth control.
I can see someone getting drunk and staggering into one of these booths in the park. “Can I help you my son?” “Yeah, do you have any toilet paper?”
Apparently a combination of all those priests’ child sex scandals, and the world’s general economic problems, is costing the Church. So marketing these forgiveness vacations (Pilgrimages) to Spain, for those who dropped out when their boyfriends got them pregnant (and never suffered excommunication for fathering babies out of wedlock). I guess the Church figures their former flock must be doing better, financially. Since they didn’t have the burden of raising babies, all on their own, the way the rest of their flock did. So give them some of that money they saved on baby doctors, food and clothes, to get invited back into Heaven. Hopefully, 21st century people will be a little more savvy, to seeing thru this, than their 19th century contemporaries wouldn’t have been.
The antithesis being the rewards progressives give to women who abort their babies…welfare, school grants, accolades and public praise.
While no priest officiates over the welcoming into the realm of progressive life, the indulgence is no less real.
Why do you have to confess to a human priest if you are Catholic? As a Christian, I am my own royal priest and Jesus is my high priest. I confess my sins directly to God without any clergy required. Thus, it is God, not some man wearing funny clothes who decides whether or not I am forgiven.
I question the need for priests in the Catholic tradition. Protestant denominations get by with a pastor (and maybe some assistants in larger churches) and deacons that volunteer their time to help maintain the local church. Besides Catholic priest seem to get caught up in scandal and shenanigans which distracts from true Christian ministry and frankly hurts the credibility of the Church.
With Christians acting as their own priests, the Church can focus on preaching the Gospel, feeding the hungry, and giving instruction from Scripture.
Watch The Godfather III. It explains the power of absolution. And how to eat a canelloni.
I guess the church is getting low on funds.
I confess I’ve been a good guy, done no bad to my fellow humans, always was nice, friendly and helpful to everyone, always been respectful to ladies, gave money to the poor, spoke no evil of anybody, forgave those who done bad to me…. Most of all, I’ve been a regular human being.
PECATORE!!!!!!!!!! PECATORE MAXIMUM!!!!!!!!!!! PENINENTIA!!!!!!!!!! PENITENTIA!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously? How can anyone look at this and not realize the entire idea of religions is bullshit? “Killin’ babbies is wrong, nkay? But, just this one time, gawd is gunna fergive ya.” WTF? How can you not see it’s all man-made?
#31.
I know religion isn’t supposed to be rational, but the Catholic church’s stance on NFP is bizarre even by religious standards.
Their thing about sex is that doing it for procreation is good and doing it for pleasure is evil. Deliberately having sex when there is the least or no chance of getting pregnant (more reliable if done properly than condoms from what you say) can’t be about procreation, therefore must be evil. Which means the Catholic church thinks it’s okay to be evil if you only do evil (at most) once per month.
I guess we can file that cognitive dissonance along with the church’s opposition to abortion and God’s mass infanticide as pointed out in #15, and completely overlooked by #14.
Not to mention entire cities and on one occasion the entire world. All those unborn children slaughtered by God. Along with it’s mother, father, brother, sister, next door neighbor etc etc etc …