Comments on: Bring out your dead

By: Graham Young

Graham Young — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:25:54 +0000

Jason, you’ve sent me off to do some research on veneration of relics. It appears to be something which developed some centuries after Christ, and may relate to honouring of martyrs killed in Rome http://www.ichrusa.com/saintsalive/relic_bural.html.
According to http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc5.ii.xviii.ii.html “The attitude of the Protestant churches to relics was expressed by Luther in his Larger Catechism when he said, “es ist alles tot Ding das niemand heiligen kann.” They are lifeless, dead things, that can make no man holy.”
The difference in attitudes between Catholics and Protestants to relics is significant. We might share a number of beliefs that others might label “irrational” but the Catholic Church has a lot that are unique to it.
I guess that’s what motivated me to write about it. In a world where some people can’t see the difference between a Muslim and a Christian, or a Buddhist and a Jew, they think the differences within religions are a little esoteric. I think this example shows they aren’t.
The whole area of saints’ relics is steeped in fraud and superstition. And while some of the Christian story is a bit hard to take – resurrections and such like – it’s even harder to suppose that the only relic left of Christ is his foreskin. Yet it is supposed to be, and it is venerated in a church in France.
At least Pier Giorgio will have a death certificate and we’ll be fairly sure he is who they say he is!

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:43:05 +0000

In partial defence of my erstwhile co-religionists, surely they don’t have a mortgage on irrational beliefs?
I read a Jack Marx post where he offers some links to some pretty damning stuff about the belief system of Tibetan Buddhism, which is convincing enough for Richard Gere.
The various Protestantisms still stick with the basics of Christianity, which are implausible enough from some points of view. Anglicanism has its ancient and medieval holdovers – the Nicene creed, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Book of Common Prayer…
Of course, relics seem pretty strange from the outside, but they’re consistent with the practices of what really is a broad church
Anyway Graham – was this your “Easter Message”

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:08:12 +0000

The title of the event is a lie too.
It has no relevance whatsoever to the over-whelming majority of world youth who are NOT catholic.
And isnt the entire event essentially an exercise in “religious” power politics, and “religious” one-upmanship too.
On another level it is pure barnum & Bailey showbiz—with thousands of suckers.
Come and see the clown (the star attraction) dressed up in his fancy costume. And listen to him talk his usual archaic double-minded mumbo-jumbo.
Better that he appear totaly naked and show us that he too, is a vulnerable human being who really hasnt got a clue about anything.