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"Thou shall not text”
(TOI) – Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging the faithful to go on a high-tech fast for Lent, switching off modern appliances from cars to iPods and abstaining from suffering the web or text messaging until Easter.
The suggestion goes far beyond no-meat Fridays, giving a modern twist to traditional forms of abstinence in the five-week period Christians set aside for fasting and prayer ahead of Easter. And it shows the church’s increasing focus on technology’s uses-with many of the Lenten appeals posted on various dioceses’ websites.
Dioceses and Catholic groups in Modena, southern Bari and other cities have called for a ban on text messaging every Friday in Lent. The Turin diocese is suggesting the faithful not to watch the television during Lent. In the city of Trento, the church has created a “new life-styles” calendar with proposals for each week of Lent.
Some ideas: Leave cars at home and hop on a bike or a bus; stop throwing gum on the street and start recycling waste; enjoy the silence of a week without the internet and iPods.
Italian laity and clergy have reacted cautiously to the proposals. Some contend that people who need technology to work shouldn’t be asked to do without. “What does giving up mean? If the use is capricious, then abstinence is welcome; but if technology is needed for work, it makes no sense”.
Holocaust Denial is Intolerable
(AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI said that it was “intolerable” to deny the Holocaust as he confronts controversy over a bishop who claimed Jews were not killed in the Nazi gas chambers.
“Any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable”, the Pope informed leaders of the Conference of American Jewish Organizations where he also confirmed plans to visit Israel.
“This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures”, he said in a veiled reference to Richard Williamson, the ultra-conservative bishop who has denied that Jews died in Nazi gas chambers.
The Roam Catholic Church is profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities”, the Pontiff said.
A Bishop Booted
(T) – A formerly excommunicated Roman Catholic bishop has been expelled from Argentina after publicly questioning accepted facts of the Holocaust and declining to recant without “proof” that the Nazis executed millions of Jews in gas chambers. Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of an ultra-conservative sect, returned to his native Britain, but no before scuffling with a reporter at Buenos Airesairport. He still faces investigation in Germany, where Holocaust denial is a crime.
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