HOWEVER, the politics of the Latin Mass within the Catholic church means that only the hardcore freaks and really old will be there.

The old, I can deal with. But the freaky hardcore Catholic traditionalists are a huge pain in the ass (and usually converts, I might add). With them, it's all about the superstition and opportunity to hate.

Tell you what, Dan: I'll go to a Latin Mass with you if you get us some matching mantillas. But you have to promise not to give me a "rosary job" ;-)

(Let us pray also for the perfidious jews, that our god and our lord would lift the veil from their hearts, and that they might recognized Jesus Christ, our Lord.)

Apparently they will eliminate the *perfidious* bit, and it's only said once a year - on Good Friday, right before the traditional running of the jews, as featured on Borat.

Man, it must get tiresome figuring out how not to live your own life.

Rough translation: old habits die hard. (Habits. Ha! I swear I didn't mean that pun. No, really.)

Amen.

I've been to a latin mass. There's a lot less to do when you don't know what's being said (because there are rules in place that a modern mass must be done entirely in the modern way, and a latin mass must be done entirely in the old way).

Plus, I had to kneel and let the priest place the wafer in my mouth, which was *awkward*.

Religion is not special, nor is it an innate trait. We don't mock people for things they can't change. Thats rude. However belief systems make claims that can be tested and argue for positions that can be opposed. Claiming bigotry to protect stupidity is not a good thing.

I like #10s comparing of Catholic beliefs with astrology. It is a totally legitimate anology.

Atsrologist: "My palnets line up better than yours!"

Catholic: "Oh yeah, I eat my saviour once a week"

I'm not a Catholic, so I don't really care if they have a Latin mass again or not, but this sort of shrieking is pretty typical of The Stranger's puerile coverage of anything to do with religion.

ecce sticks his head above water on a Sunday morning, just to let us all know that he is still a bigot.

Man, it must get tiresome figuring out how not to live your own life.

Oh wait, I forgot only religion is special you can mock other things without being a bigot right?

But really now -- there is no God but Allah!!!!!!
Tolerant of your ignorant backwardness,

I somehow think he forgot that particular prayer as Jim has always been very eccumenical in his friends (I'm an ex-Protestant, our best man was Jewish, et.c.).

There is still an anti-Semitic streak among some Catholics, just the way there are anti-gay, anti-Mormon, and anti-women streaks. However, there isn't a spot in the mass where they say a specifically anti-gay, anti-Mormon or anti-women prayer (though one can argue that the absence of women conducting the mass speaks for itself about the Catholic place of women).

It's all Spacely Sprockets versus Cogswell Cogs as far as I'm concerned.

Read the article, people. The only thing that has changed is that priests who want to use the Latin Mass no longer have to ask the bishop's permission to do so. This is a WEAKENING OF THE CHURCH HIERARCHY! How is that a rollback of Vatican 2? How is that regressive? It's not like Benedict has made it standard again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/bloodylamer/bastardly-photos/0505/2005-image-uploads/bodydoublepope051305.jpg

I'll go to Latin Mass if they play the Imperial March on a pipe organ.

"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the DARK SIDE!"

Secondly, the thirst for the Latin mass is related to the sense of pageantry of the Roman Catholic Church. The non-Latin mass satisfies a thirst for egalitarianism, but the Latin mass satisfies the need for mystery and spectacle. Have you ever seen the Cathedrals of Chartres or Auxerre? The same principle applies to the architecture and design. Ever study a religious painting by Titian or Raphael? Same thing. The Church listened to parishioners who wanted this sort of thing back.

I'm pretty sure they'd lose me at the point wine and crackers become the skin and blood of their bastard(unmarried parents) zombie god and they ask me to eat it. I've sen enough late night movies to know what happens when one eats the flesh and blood of a zombie.

...

I WIN.

classics majors secretly giddy

To be perfectly honest, I have less issue with religion and more issue with the religious taking their piousness and misery and distributing it to everyone else.

But that is their own damn fault!