Note to self: have kids skip the Vatican this Halloween. Pope Benedict XVI has joined Kimberly Daniels at the Christian Broadcasting Network in issuing his own warning against Christians participating in Halloween. The Pope wants Catholics to know that the holiday is dangerous to not just their waistline but their eternal souls.
The Vatican has issued a statement denouncing Halloween as “anti-Christian” and “dangerous.”
In an article entitled ‘The Dangerous Messages of Halloween’, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, lays out the soul-sucking dangers of the holiday. Liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals warns “Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian.”
Canals suggests that parents “be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.”
The church is suggesting a nice distraction for the kids like a mass or prayer vigil. I may give that a try Saturday night and suggest it with the kids, but if you do not see any postings on Sunday morning, you will know why.
Of course, there is still some room for dress up at such masses:
For the story, click here.
I suppose the fact that neither you, nor any of the responders here who are bashing the Pope, have actually read the artical? L’osservatore Romano hasn’t yet posted it online, and it isn’t “the Vatican’s official newspaper”; it speaks with its own voice, not necessarily the Pope’s. How about you wait, read the article, then comment on it… instead of echoing what The Telegraph, or Dateline want you to think?
Swine says “the celebration of Halloween is the pagan bastardization of an ancient Christian celebration,” but my child is wrong. Yes, my child, I did indeed “google” the term, and found the first hit, “Halloween: A Return to Paganism,” by Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.:
http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/e008rp_Halloween.htm
“Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhein which marked the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, a time of year associated with death. The pagan Celts believed that on that night, the boundary between the worlds of the living and dead blurred, and the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth. It was a night for preternatural communication with the dead, various forms of divination and prophecy, and sexual rituals.
“By the 800s, the influence of the Catholic Church entered into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV had already designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. Later, the Church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. The eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls were celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.
“This was the wise way the missionary Church acted in face of this pagan feast that she transformed. She ordered the customs and habits that existed among a people to the Catholic Religion.”
So you see that you are wrong, Swine. The pagan feast did come before the Christian feast. The Vatican will fight all efforts of the modern pagans to regain and restore their ancient misguided rites and rituals.
Actually, the celebration of Halloween is the pagan bastardization of an ancient Christian celebration. The Pope is just doing his job by trying to get things back to the original intention of the thing. Ain’t gonna happen – but he has to try. Google the “religious significance of Halloween” and learn. I’m no fundamentalist bible beater, but I do wish haters with no historical perspective would get their facts straight before showing the world their anti-Christian and anti-Catholic prejudice.
Hell Pope Benedict the XVI! Hell! Hell to the Chief!
BIL, you have my blessing, my child.
Go Green!
“It is all the fault of those damn Irish.”
Why . . . thank you. 😀
Bill and Meg had better pay heed. I detest Halloween. It is all the fault of those damn Irish. They loved their pagan harvest festival Samhain on the first of November. We made them change it to the feast day for all of the hallowed saints, but the little buggers kept their pagan ways the night before on the eve of the hallowed ones. Now they have spread it around the world. This is ridiculous.
Their own saint, Patrick, was not even Irish. He was a good Roman English boy who was enslaved by the wild Irish. But he got even with them. He went back and converted them all to the Church and they have not had an instant of happiness since. Ha!
Trick or Treat? I’ll give you a treat. Fifty million our fathers and fifty million hail marys, and then a good act of contrition. That’s your treat.
Bill,
Pope Benedict is telling you the straight poop. If it is in the official Vatican newspaper, it is what the real Benedict wants and thinks. It is rather hypocritical for the Pope to claim that Halloween is a Pagan ritual that is dangerous, when the Mass is all about sacrificing an animal and when you take Communion you are eating the flesh of Jesus! What could be more ghoulish?!
The Pope has the greatest Halloween costume of all time.
Meg, do not be delusional like Bill. There is no First Amendment in Vatican City. I own the paper. If I disapprove, it does not appear. Say a rosary for penance. Snuff out some of those candles, and open the windows to clear out the incense.
And read wiki: “L’Osservatore Romano (English: The Roman Observer) is the “semi-official” newspaper of the Holy See. It covers all the Pope’s public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released.” It does run official documents. And “Acta Apostolicae Sedis”? Where are you writing from? A 13th Century monastery or convent?
That is not from the Pope or the Vatican; there is no “statement”; it is just Canals’ personal opinion. L’Osservatore Romano is full of editorials and opinion pieces. Vatican decrees are published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
No, Bill, you stupid Catholic moron, if it is in my newspaper, that means that I approve it. Just when was the last time the paper printed something that I disapproved? Did Pravda print stuff that Stalin disagreed with? The nuns should have whacked you a little more upside the head to knock some sense into you. You better stay indoors tomorrow night with the lights out, and keep away from the little pagan extortionists asking for treats through wrongful threats of tricks.
No where in this article does the Pope make any anti-halloween statements. The Vatican newspaper prints all kinds of articles from different priests, but these are not the Popes words. The article quotes Aldo Bonaiuto and Father Canals, not the Pope. But don’t let that stop you from insulting the pontif for being Catholic.
Here is the seminal work explaining the Zombie brain. It also links to a discussion of satanic activities for Halloween:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200910306
“Can a researcher develop a consistent theory of undead neuroscience from a detailed study of zombie films? And are there psychological tips to surviving a zombie attack? We’ll talk with Steven Schlozman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education, a leading authority on the brains of the living dead.”
Man, that Sax is Saxy.
Better not show that black man n’ White wermen video too fur south of the Mason–Dixon line, though.
And for a limited time only, I’ll extend this offer to include a behavior limitation. I won’t ask people for candy while I’m dressed up if he quits asking for money while he’s dressed up.
That is all.
I’ll make the Pope this one time offer:
I’ll quit wearing my pagan costumes when he quits wearing his, pointy hat and all.
I don’t expect I’ll be hearing back from his holiness (lower case intended) any time soon. He never writes anymore. 🙁
I wonder if it was something I said.
Halloween is the soul of U.S. discourse, the mask of public relations, a.k.a. PR or propaganda, so pass the masks and eat my candy.
Since about 1917 deceit has been one of the largest industries in the U.S. and Britain, and who knows where else:
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/01/deceive-business.html
The gentle essence of putting on a mask and asking for candy is but a kind microcosm of the GRANDIOSE DECEIT macrocosm practised each and every day by Bullshitistan, the true name of most things newsiness; and the true name of the Land of Masks.
BTW, the mantra “power corrupts” (started by Lord Acton who was a catholic) began as an action against the notion of the infallibility of the Pope as a governor.
http://powertoxins.blogspot.com/2009/10/about-toxins-of-power.html
If we can’t put on masks you can’t put on bloomers.
FFN,
I have a good costume for Halloween. A bathrobe and a neighborhood devoid of trick or treaters.
Mike S,
That sounds like sour grapes from someone who couldn’t come up with a good costume idea 🙂