What's Latin for "wank"?
I guess you could say that this is from the Jesus fandom. One of the two recent pieces of news out of the Vatican that pissed off most of the planet was that individual priests will be free to celebrate the Tridentine Mass whenever they damn well please. The Tridentine Mass is the Latin service used worldwide by all Catholics from the 16th century until about 1970. The structure of the service itself is different, not just what language it's celebrated in.

(Full disclosure: Yes, I am one of those whackjobs who attends this kind of Mass.)

Well, this has caused such global waves of wank in the press and on the Internets that the entire planet is red and sore by now. I have many examples, but my favorite so far has got to be this innocent-looking article from Indianapolis. All would have been well...if this paper didn't have forums attached to every article.

"A dead language for a dead god. How appropriate," one commenter said oh-so-cleverly. And...they're off! Catholics aren't Christians! Protestants don't understand history! Anyone who believes in God is a fucking moron! Pedophile priests! FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!!11

I'd pick out highlights, but really...there's too much here.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	eilan 2007-07-19 05:16 am UTC (link)
	And of course there's the fact that your Pope says we're all a load of heretics we=? Because if we=Protestants, as far as I recall that's not true. Or maybe the Popes were partial to European protestants and condemned the US varieties. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	snarkivist 2007-07-19 05:37 am UTC (link)
	The Pope didn't write the document. He signed off on it, but didn't have anything to do with producing it. And "heretic" wasn't the phrasing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	eilan 2007-07-19 05:43 am UTC (link)
	So, which document are we talking about her exactly? I went to Catholic school, so I know some stuff about the catholic church, but I never paid attention to what decrees say exactly what. Didn't vatican II de-condemn Protestants? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

snarkivist
2007-07-19 05:57 am UTC (link)

Ah, I'm referring to the document that came from the Vatican last week that has touched off some controversy. The short answer to your question: No, not really. Nobody's really condemned according to the Vatican--the official position is that God can save whomever he wants, be they Protestant, Catholic, or Hindu. It's just easier to be saved if you receive sacraments and follow what the Church teaches.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	eilan 2007-07-19 06:01 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for the link. I googled a bit and appearantly, I was thinking of "Ut unum sint" by Pope John Paul II. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	warrioreowyn 2007-07-21 01:30 am UTC (link)
	Eh, I don't remember any specific document, just a news article from a while back with a statement from Benedict saying only Catholics were Christians. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	snarkivist 2007-07-21 06:13 am UTC (link)
	Statement wasn't from the Pope. Was from the CDF (Inquisition) and he signed off on it. It says that other churches have some of the Truth, but the Catholic church has all of it. Catholicism is whole milk, and everyone else is 2% or skim. It's still milk, but you're not getting everything you should. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -