Path: utzoo!mnetor!motto!ecijmm!eci386!clewis
From: clewis@eci386.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Scene at a Roman Catholic cathedral.
Message-ID: <1989Aug28.180103.6345@eci386.uucp>
Date: 28 Aug 89 18:01:03 GMT
References: <3984@looking.on.ca> <1479@apss.apss.ab.ca> <619057392.19843@telly.on.ca> <6257@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <3424@yunexus.UUCP>
Reply-To: clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Organization: R. H. Lathwell Associates: Elegant Communications, Inc.
Lines: 44

In article <3424@yunexus.UUCP> tony@yunexus.UUCP (Tony Wallis) writes:

>... There have been and are married RC priests.

Celibacy is a (relatively!) recent requirement in the RC church.  During
the middle ages even the popes were married (um, er, well, perhaps "married"
isn't the right word for the carryings on...)

>A reminder : Catholic should not imply Roman Catholic.

True.

>Personal note : If you think the Catholic (RC, Anglican, ..) and other
>(fundamentalist, conservative, ..) churches screwed-up approach to
>sexuality is keeping Jesus-loving people away from their doors, I agree
>with you.

In some senses, "Anglican" (I'm obstensibly one) is "More Catholic than
the Roman Catholics", for the ritual (communion etc.) is *just* as strong,
if not more so in some cases.  Even so, I'd very much hesitate to include 
Anglican in the above list of "screwed-up" simply because in some sense they're
"Catholic" (per your definition).  In spite of the ritual, the Anglican 
church is *far* more tolerant than some of the RC dogma.  Not quite so much 
"permissive", as much as being realistic and human-oriented (not quite
"humanistic").  For example, ordination of women has been going on for 
quite some time.  Birth control is okay.  You should meet the minister that 
married us!  (He has been known to moon-light in beer commercials!)  

In constrast, official RC dogma includes such things as: marriage is only 
for procreation - AND [believe it or not] where one partner is unable to 
perform their role in procreation, they *cannot* be married in the RC Church.

I'd have a tendancy to add "centralized *strong* authority figure" to
your definition of Catholic.  Nor would I consider Anglican to be 
fundamentalist (or even particularly conservative for that matter).

Sort of a capsule synopsis of my impression of the Anglican Church - 
strong on the basic beliefs, strong on ritual, strong on caring for others, 
no emphasis on literal bible interpretation...  They tell good jokes too.
-- 
Chris Lewis, R.H. Lathwell & Associates: Elegant Communications Inc.
UUCP: {uunet!mnetor, utcsri!utzoo}!lsuc!eci386!clewis
Phone: (416)-595-5425