
Discworld
Why does it sound like something out of a Terry Pratchett?
Or at least what a 18's rated Discworld novel might be like.
A controversial monastery in Rome – the scene of performances by lap-dancing nuns and "lifestyles that were probably not in keeping with that of a monk" – has been closed down on the orders of the Pope. The Santa Croce in Gerusalemme basilica, home to nuns and monks of the Cistercian order, is one of the oldest and most …
Too right... I'm not sure what to make of it meself.
Bit irreverent at some parts but honestly, not as pervy as I thought it would be, but nevertheless, I can see why it could be labelled subversive.
Of course, there have always been somewhat saucy bits in the bible. i.e. Song of Songs.
Surely it's far better that senior figures in the Catholic church should be getting their jollies watching gyrating adult women capable of making their own lifestyle choices rather than molesting altar boys? Just putting a bloke in robes and a stupid hat doesn't stop him being a bloke.
To the adult section of the community, does the new virility and vitality certainly seems like a move in the right direction, and much healthier than the pedophilia the church is so well known for. But what would religion know of the modern world whenever it is such a sad relic and messenger of the past, in all its many disguises and versions .
Oh, look ...... new icons to help express further meaning. Bravo, El Reg.
Actually I was raised in that parish, many years ago. As a matter of fact my parents are still living in that parish. I did meet the people that "transformed" the parish, some time ago, and I did have a feeling that something was not right. My parents are defending those people and putting the blame on the enviousness of other priests.
You know what my take is? They have sold, literally sold, the place where I grew up as a child to some hotel. I used to go there and play soccer, and now kids can't do it anymore because of the hotel. The garden was a scam: they re-sold goods as they were theirs. And let's not talk about the stuff about "dancing in the church".
What did Jesus do to the merchants in the temple? Here we are in front of the very same problem: priests and monks that have sold the church for some money.
I am happy that the Vatican took measure and shut it down!
...and I can tell you that, for MANY clerics of MANY faiths, the face they put on in public is very different than the face they put on in private.
When people reach a certain age and become unhappy with their lives, they often adopt addictive personalities - sex, drugs, alcohol. Religious people are also people. You'd be surprised how many priests, rabbis, nuns, imams, ministers, etc become sex-crazed party animals.
Oh, and I forgot one point: "Father Fioraso was busted from his position as abbot (and presumably despatched to a hardship posting on a remote island off the Irish coast)"
Father Fioraso is still living there. He was supposed to be dispatched to some remote monastery in Italy, to follow a some more appropriate monk life style, but he refused and he now walks all day long around the parish doing God knows what.
So, you can be happy, he wasn't dispatched off the Irish coast, yet. :)
"Well, this should start filling the seminaries again."
...or emptying the semen-aries...
On a (slightly) more serious note, OTOH, the detail of the ex-lap-dancing nun reminded me of Anatole France's story "Our Lady's Juggler" (http://www.accuracyproject.org/t-France,Anatole-OurLadysJuggler.html). It *could* simply be that -- whatever others may have made of it -- like Brother Barnaby, she was praising Heaven in the only way she knew how.
I grew up watching that bone, and there nothing wrong, beside it being some singer bone!
Actually all over Italy you can watch some bones: http://www.arcarussa.it/forum/ossari-teschi-e-scheletri-mummie-vt4589.html , though in Italian, it is a (small) list of places where you can go "human bones" watching. Some are quite well preserved as well!
Who needs a habit? By the time the bills emerge, that habit will have been kicked long ago. Where the bills go depends upon your tastes in storage. Depending on the dancer's exact physiognomy, you could tuck them under * 2, tuck them between * 1 ... or roll them up.
And let me just add that anybody who spends any amount of time envisioning that is an absolute pervert -- I should know!
"Investigators from the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life moved in, and delivered their sealed report in March – one so sizzling that it will never be released to the public"
Now THAT is a matter of opinion too.in a year , two .. a leak .Somehow someone looses a USB key containing that very file on it.I beleive the public should have the right to know what the , pardon the expression, bottom of the story is and if criminal charges should be laid so be it.It dosen't feel like justice is being done keeping this story under the covers. ... Good night. .. Taxi !
I presume these monks are not the Cistercians of the Strict Observance!
I am amazed at the news: in my youth I always admired the Cistercian order, since they appeared to embody the very best of coenobite community life, and were amongst the most austere of the religious orders. An Englishman, Stephen Harding, was one of the three rebels against the decline of monastic discipline they observed among the Benedictines at Clairvaux, and they set out to re-establish the pure rule of St Benedict.
The British Isles have a number of ruins of former Cistercian Abbeys - Fountains Abbey is one - and many years ago there were at least two in Britain - Mount St Bernard at Charnwood Forest, and Caldey Island off Tenby. Also Mount Melleray in Ireland; don't know if they are still extant.
Otherwise known as Trappists, they had a very strict life, living in Silence. An American Cistercian, Thyomas Merton, wrote a number of books about life in the Cistercian houses in America.
The Belgian Trappists, of course, made some of the best beer in the world, so perhaps the mortifying of the flesh had abated somewhat byt 19th - 20th centuries!
Yeah, it's a white scapular I'm wearing!