Ramadan!
The Devil weaves his net
Awk! Awk! He’s done it again! Awk! He’s forced us to write about him again!
Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI told a group of Roman clerics that Lenten fasting should now include fasting from newspapers, television and other communications media, beyond abstaining from the foods proscribed by Catholic dietary laws, because: “We need a space without the permanent bombardment of images, to create spaces of silence, without images, to reopen our hearts to the True image and the True word.” Awk!
Lent is known as Quaresima in Italian. The word comes from the same root as “quarantine” because it lasts forty days – “quaranta” being the Italian word for “forty”. Catholic papers and broadcasters presumably would be exempted from this longish prohibition since they ought already to be in tune with the “True” word.
And if you were thinking of slipping out for a harmless crossword puzzle during the Lenten run-up to Easter, well, don’t. The other main matter the Pontifex addressed during the meeting with his Roman priests was Hell: “Not everyone is going to be equally present at the Banquet of Paradise,” he said, pointing out that it should not be taken for granted that salvation is “free” and that many will have to undergo “purification” before they can think of passing the Holy Gates. Burning for a while, up until the Last Judgement say, may help get the moral carbon out of the cylinders – or not.
“Whoever is not working for Paradise is neither working for the good of man on Earth,” Benedict pointed out, citing “Nazism and Communism which, by trying to change only the World, destroyed it.”
The Pope, in this instance, did not mention the many risks of rationalism, economic liberalism, freedom and democracy. He has in part already dealt with these issues, showing an especially critical concern for the concept of “fun” in his Easter prayers of 2006 (here), referring to…
“... a mindless desire for transgression, a dishonest and frivolous freedom, exalting impulsiveness, immorality and selfishness as if they were new heights of sophistication.”
Then clarifying…
“... our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society’s incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness.”
You might wish to stay especially far away from super-hero comic books – a particularly dishonest form of frivolity – until after bunny day. The Bible is probably not OK either. Roman Catholicism does not encourage self-study of the Good Book since the faithful are liable to misinterpret many of its messages without the solid guidance of a trained and licensed professional.
Do not try this at home!
Awk!