More Catholic spin from The Telegraph
Here are the headlines:
Muslims outnumber Catholics, Vatican says (31/03/08)
Muslims 'to outnumber traditional churchgoers' (26/03/08)
In the first article Damien Thompson ( a prominent Roman Catholic ) goes on to report:
- Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican has announced.
Muslims now make up 19.2 per cent of the world's population, outnumbering Catholics at 17.2 per cent, according to the Vatican's 2008 yearbook of statistics.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
The none too subtle spin here is that Roman Catholicism is Christianity it its entirety - this is just untrue. There may be a case for arguing that Roman Catholics aren't Christians ( as is made by some Protestants - and the reverse by some Catholics ).
They also fail to divide Muslims into Sunni, Shia and goodness knows what else, as they implicitly divide Christians (dumping the half not approved of by Rome in the process ).
In the earlier article the spin is that Catholic church goers are the only church goers. Just as when the Catholic Church tried to spin that Britain was becoming Catholic ( thanks to our Polish friends ) - when in fact Protestants outnumber Catholics in considerable numbers.
They are throwing their weight around over some political issues ( its not that their is no moral case involved - its just they have been very quiet about many of Labour's other anti-Christian legislation and plans ).
To what do we owe this attempted noise and deception ?
Perhaps the Catholic church is trying to frighten its nominal flock in places like Italy, France and Spain where Catholicism is official, but very poorly supported.
More likely this is part of a campaign to kill of the Church of England (like we need help in that department - ever wonder what Tony - converted to Catholicism as soon as he left office- Blair was thinking of when he appointed Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury ?).
There are signs of a concerted campaign to assert Catholic influence in England as well as to destabilise the Church of England.
3 comments:
In his post of Sunday, March 30, 2008- “The rise of anti-Anglicanism”, Cranmer comes to the same conclusion. Cranmer refers to offensive remarks made by a Catholic contributor, James Mawdsley, to the Credo column in the Times on March 29th. Cranmer tells us:
…..what was profoundly saddening was the overt anti-Anglicanism which permeates the piece. Consider the opening paragraph:
Anglicanism and Islam were both founded by men who wielded total power. Under Henry VIII, politics swallowed religion. Under Muhammad, religion swallowed politics. Consequently, Anglicans struggle to defend their religious identity against a political agenda and Muslims struggle to defend their political rights against a religious agenda. Roman Catholics believe that the boundary between religion and politics is no less essential than the bridge.
It is a purposely provocative juxtaposition of Anglicanism with Islam, and it is a grotesque caricature of the foundations of both religions.
If ever anyone dared to compare Roman Catholicism with Islam, there would doubtless be cries of anti-Catholic bigotry ……… but the Church of England is deemed to be fair game. Anti-Anglicanism has not entered the vernacular, but it is, sadly, becoming increasingly pervasive.
What's the point of all this? The world's going to end in 1914.
DOH!
Dear Bonkers - I've tried that line on the JW's who pop round every so often. Doesn't seem to phase them at all ! ( They claim the second coming 'started' in 1914 - bit of a get out clause that one ).
Still at least you can argue with them without anyone offering to cut your throat for insulting their religion (which for some reason believes in a god unable to defend himself ).
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