Pope says gay male prostitutes can use condoms

Ha! I'll bet you think I'm making that up.

Well, I'm not:

The pope's remarks on condoms were among the most controversial in the excerpts printed by the Vatican daily, "L'Osservatore Romano," on Saturday, and drew the most interest.

"There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility," the pontiff said. (Because prostitute is a masculine noun in German, it was also unclear whether Benedict meant a male sex worker. In the Italian version of the book the noun is feminine.)

Oh, great, now I have a joke version of a David Lee Roth song in my head: They're just for gigolos, ...

Our Lady of the Oranges: the Diocese of Orange selects an architect for the cathedral

Craig Hartman FAIA (frankly, not sure what that means) has been chosen to design the cathedral for the Diocese of Orange (that would be Orange County's local administration) that has been in the planning stage for quite some time.

Mr Hartman's other works include the very cool-looking US Embassy in Beijing [above]. He also designed the modern-looking glass structure that is the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland [below].

I quite like the modern look of the new Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, but I hope Mr Hartman cools it a little with the glass. We already have one Crystal Cathedral in OC and we don't need another.

The new home of Orange County's 1.2 million Roman Catholics (!) is to be built in south Santa Ana, in a place that, I kid you not, was once known as Gospel Swamp.

UPDATE (November 2011):
Well, it's funny I should mention the Crystal Cathedral, since it turns out that the Diocese of Orange went and bought the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral. This may negate any need for a new cathedral to be built.

Chapman University, the top private college in Orange County, was in competition with the diocese, as they wanted to expand their campus. They had promised to let the Protestant-oriented Crystal Cathedral to keep operating for a few years, perhaps as long as two decades, but I believe the whole thing would have been secularized eventually.

The Catholic Church, by contrast, promised it will use the cathedral as a Christ-oriented house of worship, and that's something founder Reverend Robert Schuller had said he wants, whether Catholic or Protestant (in an interview he said he considers the Catholic Church the mother church).

The diocese also may be providing facilities, like nearby St. Callistus Church, in which the Crystal Cathedral congregants can continue to worship. I wonder, though, how many of the congregants will wish to continue attending there when (a) their beloved leader is no longer preaching and (b) they no longer have the inspiring environs of the Crystal Cathedral in which to worship. I'm guessing some might stick around and attend mass.

...

Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels

As I walked around this new place, I wondered if The Marmot would be impressed by the architecture.

JC on CC

[This is one of those posts that may make people rethink what they think about me.] 

I don't have cable TV, so I only watch programs like Jon Stewart's or Stephen Colbert's when I come across a good clip. I occasionally catch the watered-down-for-broadcast-television episodes of "South Park" that are stripped of the profanity, gore, gay sex, and animal orgies.

But I've seen enough to conclude that Comedy Central — and "South Park" in particular — pokes a lot of fun at Christianity and Christians (just as it pokes fun at just about everything). So it's no surprise that Comedy Central would be interested in making a half-hour comedy about Jesus, tentatively called "JC":

“A half-hour animated show about JC (Jesus Christ) wanting to escape his father's enormous shadow and to live life in NYC as a regular guy. A lot has changed in 2000 years and he is the ultimate fish out of water. Meanwhile his all-powerful yet apathetic father would rather be playing video games than listening to JC recount his life in the city. JC is a playful take on religion and society with a sprinkle of dumb.”

Actually, I could see them being so aware of their own ability to offend that they might go out of their way to be "religiously sound" and even relatively reverent in some respects, such that a lot of non-fundamentalist Christians (and even some fundamentalists) might actually enjoy the program.

Needless to say, some conservative Christian groups are not too happy. And they're not too happy enough that they're preemptively protesting the show:

Based on Comedy Central's long history of mocking Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, it is clear that this show is intended to further denigrate a religion practiced by 80 percent of Americans.

There is a very clear double standard in the way the media and the popular culture treat Islam with respect and deference while mocking and ridiculing Christians and Christianity at every opportunity.

I do take issue with their statement that "Islam and other faiths are treated carefully and respectfully by the media and Hollywood elite." Some of "the media" has been encouraging cartoonists to deliberately offend any Muslim who feels that it is wrong to depict the Prophet Mohammed, a big story they might have missed while poring over the Hollywood Reporter for the latest antics of Comedy Central.

TMTKR, despite some high-profile cases (also here) that occasionally occur, I feel that South Korea has a relatively high degree of religious tolerance, particularly for a place with as much religious diversity as Korea has. That has been encouraged through means that would almost certainly be considered unconstitutional in the US, including the official recognition of holy days from the major faiths as public holidays (Christmas, Buddha's Birthday, Ch'usŏk, Lunar New Year, etc.) and a heavy-handed approach when it comes to defaming various faiths. My point is that "JC" probably wouldn't fly if it ever made it out of a network brainstorming session.

By contrast, there are some who seem to relish the chance to skewer religious faith, for no reason other than they have the right to do so. I'm not making a value judgement one way or the other, just an observation, although I sometimes find myself agreeing with Patrick Buchanan's sentiment [HT to WC] — and God help me that I'm actually agreeing with Pat about anything — that while the Mohammed-related cartoonists should have every right to do what they did, maybe they ought to consider the ramifications of their actions:

If you wish to get along with a man, you do not insult his faith. And if you seek to persuade devout Muslims that al-Qaeda is our enemy, not Islam, you do not condone with silence insults to the faith of a billion people.

Can't we all just get along?

A tale of two Vatican Cities

Writing in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristoff has a nice op-ed on the two Catholic Churches that seem to exist today, and how the stodgy, male-dominated one that gives us ham-handed scandal could learn from the other:

Yet there’s another Catholic Church as well, one I admire intensely. This is the grass-roots Catholic Church that does far more good in the world than it ever gets credit for. This is the church that supports extraordinary aid organizations like Catholic Relief Services and Caritas, saving lives every day, and that operates superb schools that provide needy children an escalator out of poverty.

This is the church of the nuns and priests in Congo, toiling in obscurity to feed and educate children. This is the church of the Brazilian priest fighting AIDS who told me that if he were pope, he would build a condom factory in the Vatican to save lives.

This is the church of the Maryknoll Sisters in Central America and the Cabrini Sisters in Africa. There’s a stereotype of nuns as stodgy Victorian traditionalists. I learned otherwise while hanging on for my life in a passenger seat as an American nun with a lead foot drove her jeep over ruts and through a creek in Swaziland to visit AIDS orphans. After a number of encounters like that, I’ve come to believe that the very coolest people in the world today may be nuns.

So when you read about the scandals, remember that the Vatican is not the same as the Catholic Church. Ordinary lepers, prostitutes and slum-dwellers may never see a cardinal, but they daily encounter a truly noble Catholic Church in the form of priests, nuns and lay workers toiling to make a difference.

It’s high time for the Vatican to take inspiration from that sublime — even divine — side of the Catholic Church, from those church workers whose magnificence lies not in their vestments, but in their selflessness. They’re enough to make the Virgin Mary smile.

This dovetails nicely with my own views and certain important aspects of my own faith, exemplified nicely by the second chapter of the Book of James, and I think it can apply to many Protestant sects as well, especially those that are bogged down by their focus on rules not outlined in the Bible itself.

Catholic Church again reveals its ambiguity about An Chunggŭn

The Korea Times is reporting on Cardinal Nicholas Chŏng Chinsŏk [정진석] stirring controversy on the centennial of uber-patriot An Chunggŭn's execution for the assassination of Japan's former Resident-General of Korea, Itō Hirobumi, "Ahn's patriotic act" (the KT author's decidedly subjectivity-soaked words) which many believe triggered or at least provided cover for Imperial Japan's forced annexation of the Taehan Empire, as Korea was officially called at the time:

In his sermon this week, which marks the 100th anniversary of Ahn's patriotic act, Cheong said the church's decision 'to suspend the priesthood of a Western priest for three months for his sympathetic involvement in Ahn's final days before the latter's execution was a "best decision" to protect the priest, Hankyoreh said.

Indeed, it seems the KT writer decided to do a bit of a smear job on Catholics in general rather than addressing the Cardinal's remarks about An Chunggŭn specifically:

Some Catholic priests' acts in Korea under the Japanese colonial era drew mixed views from scholars.

While some Western priests in Korea at that time were sympathetic toward the Korean underground fighters against Japanese occupiers and helped them, some also tipped the activities of the underground Korean fighters to the Japanese authorities, leading to, for example, the arrest of the 105 Korean patriots, it said, citing theologian Park Young-dae.

I don't know who he is, but I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that Park Youngdae is either a Presbyterian with an agenda or is relying on "scholarship" produced by Presbyterians with an agenda. While the vast, vast, vast majority of Catholics, Protestants, and Buddhists in Korea have engendered a spirit of mutual co-existence and even friendship (witness President Lee's own recent remarks about the recent deaths of respected Buddhist and Catholic figures), some have sought to take a page out of the Fundamentalists' playbook back in the US, sowing seeds of religious or sectarian intolerance where there hasn't been much in the past century. Bringing up the allegedly collaborationist activities of other Catholic clergy in a discussion about the one related to the case of An Chunggŭn seems an example of that.

In the past (see here and here) I've stated my own views on An Chunggŭn, who I think saw himself as a patriot but who ultimately played a predictable negative role in Korea's history, though he is nevertheless celebrated — and his narrative distorted — solely because he struck a blow to such a prominent Japanese politico of the day.

I think it is wrong that discussion of his role, whether positive or negative, is stifled by people who make use cries of "anti-patriot" or "pro-Japanese" like some sort of neo-McCarthyism. One can reasonably feel, as I do, that Imperial Japan's takeover of Korea was cruel, unnecessary, illegal, reprehensible, and by no means inevitable, while also feeling that An Chunggŭn should not be revered as a hero.

UPDATE (3/29/2010):
The Western Confucian notes that the purpose of the Cardinals words was to express "regret that 'the Korean Catholic Church hadn’t recognized An as a good Catholic.'" Though I disagree with this point and feel it is the Catholic Church in Korea caving in to nationalist sentiments, it seems all the more that the Cardinal and the church has been the target of a sectarian smear.

The Western Confucian also links to a more thorough and accurate retelling of the Cardinal's words.

fun in the sun with Junipero Serra

This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken with my Nikon D60 so far. This is an old statue of Father Junípero Serra, arguably the single most important historical figure in California's history, at Orange County's Mission San Juan Capistrano, which I visited for the umpteenth time in January.

Unlike Seoul or Tokyo or Boston or Firenze, Orange County (and much of the rest of California) doesn't have much in the way of old things, but this "Jewel of the Missions," built in 1776, is certainly one of them. It's a fascinating but peaceful place that takes the visitor away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, and it's definitely a change of pace for visitors hitting Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc. 

Next pope may speak Korean

It may be hard to believe, but in some sense I still do consider myself Catholic. And like a lot of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, I am following the news of Pope John Paul II's very poor health.

He is said to be near death and so, while thousands are praying for him, people are also speculating about who the next pontiff will be. Will he be Italian or "foreign"? Will he be conservative or liberal? Will he be a uniter or a divider? [February 2009 update: the original Yahoo! News link in this paragraph is dead, but here's a Wall Street Journal article from 2002, three years earlier, about future pope speculations.]

A few years ago, I had heard some serious musings that the next pope could be a non-European altogether. Let's not forget, it was a major step to elect a non-Italian to the papacy, so the Polish Pope may have been about as much shake-up as the Church wants for the next century.

On the other hand, choosing a non-European pope may be a way to galvanize Catholics around the world. After all the priest sex abuse scandals, American Catholics sure could use a boost. Some have also cited a Nigerian, and a long time ago I had heard that the cardinals of the Philippines and Korea would be in the running.

Some in the Indian media are suggesting the cardinal of India as a possibility. This has the added bit of interest -- to me at least -- that the next pope might actually be able to speak Korean.

Short of a Korean cardinal being chosen, this would be the biggest way to galvanize Catholics in Korea, where the faith has a strong but often quiet following. It could also bode well for religious tolerance, since Korea, with its healthy mix of Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, and followers of traditional other faiths, traditional beliefs, or no religion, is in many ways a model of religious tolerance.

Yes, you heard me right. Despite the fact that as recently as the 19th century Catholics were being martyred for their faith, Korea in its post-War period has shown a high degree of religious tolerance, especially for a country with such religious plurality. The major faiths are all recognized in the list of official holidays, the government tries hard not to favor one religion over another, and most important, people of all religions liberally interact socially with people of other faiths, including a high degree of interfaith marriages.

How true is this even in a constitutionally religiously tolerant nation like the US, where anti-Semitism still rears its ugly head and anti-Muslim sentiment is at an all-time high? Ireland has a mix of Catholics and Protestants, and they are killing each other for it. The same is true in the similarly religiously plural former Yugoslavia, where the Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats are essentially the same ethnic group but divided by religion (being Muslim, Orthodox Christian, and Roman Catholic, respectively).

I am not saying Korea is problem-free. Some fundamentalist groups are beginning to use employ some divisive discourse, and every now and then you get a group of Protestants chopping down the changsŭng that are traditionally found at the entrance to villages but also, in modern times, in parks, universities, buildings, etc. It's a delicate balance, yes, but things are still pretty good here overall.