Pope Jumps the Shark
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James Joyner | Sunday, March 28, 2004 |
Yahoo! News - Pope Says Sundays for God, Not Sports
Pope John Paul on Friday said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports.“When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of ‘weekend’ dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens,” the pontiff said in a speech to Australian bishops.
John Paul criticized the “culture of the ‘here and now,’” urging Church leaders to “lead men and women from the shadows of moral confusion and ambiguous thinking.”
The 83-year-old pope also encouraged Christians, especially young people, to remain faithful to Sunday Mass, saying the secular culture was undermining family life.
Now, this is just going too far. Catholic homilies are pretty repetitive, after all: The same liturgy and a cookie, basically. On the other hand, those precious sixteen weeks of NFL Sundays, plus the postseason, provides some of the best family entertainment around. And the snacks are better.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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And the snacks are better.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you've never been to a Midwestern Lutheran coffee hour.
The Midwestern Lutherans have enough sense to hold their activities before the football games!
Yep. Our services are timed to be Packer-friendly, and if I had any objection to people wearing Packer gear to church, I'd be wise to keep it to yourself. (Of course, I don't--I'm usually wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes t-shirt under my robe.)
You're going to hell, where on Sunday's you must watch reruns of synchronized swimming semi-finals.
Um. As I understand it, a homily is a sermon.
The entire service is called a mass, just to be different.
And the congregation, a parish.
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