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Polish Catholic Church in Halloween warning

spanky

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BBC News - Polish Catholic Church in Halloween warning


One archbishop said the 31 October celebrations were promoting paganism to young people.

Archbishop Andrzej Dziega warned that Halloween was behind a "culture of death".

"This kind of fun, tempting children like candy, also poses the real possibility of great spiritual damage, even destroying spiritual life," the archbishop of Szczecin-Kamien wrote in a letter to be read out at Sunday sermons, according to the Polish Press Agency.

He wrote that "irresponsible and anti-Christian fun" introduced young people to a "world of darkness, including devils, vampires and demons" in the name of "fun".

Party poopers.
 
Catholic Church tries again to run the world, but fails.
 
Halloween is lilkely to have Christian origins.
 
Sadly, nothing these people can do to control their believers in the name of their particular invisible man really surprises me any more.
 
If I believed in witchcraft, vampires, werewolves and the like, I'd probably be very concerned as well. But I don't have to be superstitious any more because I have a great good luck charm.
 
If I believed in witchcraft, vampires, werewolves and the like, I'd probably be very concerned as well. .

There are many who believe that is precisely what Catholicism is. Which would certainly mean some delicious irony.
 
There are many who believe that is precisely what Catholicism is. Which would certainly mean some delicious irony.
Once you believe in magic, you have to be afraid of bad magic.
 
Dressing up in a costume, carving pumpkins, getting candy and watching scary movies are tempting young people to spiritual destruction?


I don't really see it. It's not like the kids take Halloween seriously, they just want candy and fun.


If he wants to worry about something destroying them spiritually, he might find better and more important targets, like porn and thug culture.
 
I hear you, Goshin.

The RCC, though, has become ultra paranoid in their huge losses with the laity, and have resorted to a 'must control everything' mentality.

Sadly, it is no different than the attempted control executed by dictators upon their constituents.
In addition, the RCC tells their laity that they are the only source of information, direction, and control in order to maintain the facade.

They abhor common sense and knowledge, as these attributes result in the education of Catholics, and show the RCC to be a self-feeding monster who has completely forgotten it's roots in Jesus Christ.
 
I hear you, Goshin.

The RCC, though, has become ultra paranoid in their huge losses with the laity, and have resorted to a 'must control everything' mentality.

Sadly, it is no different than the attempted control executed by dictators upon their constituents.
In addition, the RCC tells their laity that they are the only source of information, direction, and control in order to maintain the facade.

They abhor common sense and knowledge, as these attributes result in the education of Catholics, and show the RCC to be a self-feeding monster who has completely forgotten it's roots in Jesus Christ.


I have issues with many Catholic doctrines, but I don't know if I'd go that far.

Then again, Catholicism isn't very common around here. I've only known a few Catholics, but they were good folks.
 
I see a lot of people in this thread baselessly accusing the Church, yet, somehow I don't actually see anything in OP about the Catholic Church trying to actually control anything.

All I see is an Archbishop speaking some unpopular yet necessary truths about how Halloween is a near occasion to sin. Nothing about control, just a fair warning to those who choose to avoid sin.

So this thread is, basically, anti-Catholic bigots spewing anti-Catholic BS as usual.
 
I have issues with many Catholic doctrines, but I don't know if I'd go that far.

Then again, Catholicism isn't very common around here. I've only known a few Catholics, but they were good folks.

Unfortunately, I have had an insider's view of these actions here in the local Diocese.
While I don't like the actions of RCC Bishops and many priests, the Catholic laity are fantastic people, in my experience.
 
Churches, the RCC is far from the only one, need to let go of Halloween and let it become entirely secular.

All this business about Halloween being the devil's playground and opening the door to evil etc is just hype for the holiday. If they would let go, Halloween could proceed on it's journey to becoming a secular kid and candy night. Honestly, THAT'S the big deal. Getting to dress up and walk around have strangers give you candy. How is that not awesome?

Regurgitating the tired old myths that Halloween is "of the Devil" just keeps the devil in Halloween. He'd be long gone if churches would just let him go. But every year there're churches who try desperately to keep the devil in Halloween. They promote the idea to everyone who will listen. "Be afraid. Be very afraid. Wooooo! it's Halloween! Devils and demons come out to play. Woooo!"

Give it a rest guys. I ain't giving you any additional money just because you want to promote Halloween in your back-handed way.
 
Churches, the RCC is far from the only one, need to let go of Halloween and let it become entirely secular.

All this business about Halloween being the devil's playground and opening the door to evil etc is just hype for the holiday. If they would let go, Halloween could proceed on it's journey to becoming a secular kid and candy night. Honestly, THAT'S the big deal. Getting to dress up and walk around have strangers give you candy. How is that not awesome?

Regurgitating the tired old myths that Halloween is "of the Devil" just keeps the devil in Halloween. He'd be long gone if churches would just let him go. But every year there're churches who try desperately to keep the devil in Halloween. They promote the idea to everyone who will listen. "Be afraid. Be very afraid. Wooooo! it's Halloween! Devils and demons come out to play. Woooo!"

Give it a rest guys. I ain't giving you any additional money just because you want to promote Halloween in your back-handed way.

In case you've forgotten, Halloween is a Catholic holiday, to wit it's the day before the feast of All Saints.

Halloween is no more "of the devil" than Christmas Eve. What is diabolical and sinful is the occult, which the Secular traditions surrounding Halloween glorify. If you are a believing Catholic then Bishop Andrzej has some wise advice for you in this regard: don't get sucked in to the occult. It can and will lead you away from God. If you are not a believing Catholic then why the hell do you even care what advice a Catholic bishop gives to the faithful? Keep your nose out of our business!
 
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In case you've forgotten, Halloween is a Catholic holiday, to wit it's the day before the feast of All Saints.
Halloween is no more "of the devil" than Christmas Eve. What is diabolical and sinful is the occult, which the Secular traditions surrounding Halloween glorify. If you are a believing Catholic then Bishop Andrzej has some wise advice for you in this regard: don't get sucked in to the occult. It can and will lead you away from God. If you are not a believing Catholic then why the hell do you even care what advice a Catholic bishop gives to the faithful? Keep your nose out of our business!
Sorry I mentioned the heliocentric model.
By all means, disregard all reasonable advice which doesn't originate inside the Catholic Church.

fwiw, most of my experience w/ back-handed promotion of devilry etc comes from local non-Catholic churches. The Catholic churches around here seem pretty pragmatic about things. But, you have a great point. There's no way that someone who is not a part of the RCC could have any reasonable observation about anything remotely religious. So, feel free to disregard my posts.

But from my perspective, the biggest promoters of associating devilry etc with Halloween are the churches. They promote the connection of devilry and Halloween every year. They hype it up with the full force of the threat of eternal hellfire and damnation.

Maybe that's a good idea. Maybe promoting devilry on Halloween is the intention. Idk. But hyping that connection seems to actively work against the ostensible intentions of the various churches.

But what do I know? I am just some sort of a lapsed fundie. I don't know no nothing. So I am prob'bly wrong about the effect of clergy everywhere coming out of the wood work year to promote the idea that Halloween belongs to Satan.
Promoting that association may actually diminish the association despite my observations otherwise.

:shrug:
 
Sorry I mentioned the heliocentric model.
By all means, disregard all reasonable advice which doesn't originate inside the Catholic Church.

fwiw, most of my experience w/ back-handed promotion of devilry etc comes from local non-Catholic churches. The Catholic churches around here seem pretty pragmatic about things. But, you have a great point. There's no way that someone who is not a part of the RCC could have any reasonable observation about anything remotely religious. So, feel free to disregard my posts.

But from my perspective, the biggest promoters of associating devilry etc with Halloween are the churches. They promote the connection of devilry and Halloween every year. They hype it up with the full force of the threat of eternal hellfire and damnation.

Maybe that's a good idea. Maybe promoting devilry on Halloween is the intention. Idk. But hyping that connection seems to actively work against the ostensible intentions of the various churches.

But what do I know? I am just some sort of a lapsed fundie. I don't know no nothing. So I am prob'bly wrong about the effect of clergy everywhere coming out of the wood work year to promote the idea that Halloween belongs to Satan.
Promoting that association may actually diminish the association despite my observations otherwise.

:shrug:

What the Bishop is doing here is shining light on a tradition of glorification ofthe occult which is largely viewed as innocuous. He is right to do so; the occult is sinful.

Sounds like you simply have an ax to grind against Catholics and religion in general. You are wrong, people outside the faith can make reasonable observations about it. But the key word is reasonable. So far you have been entirely unreasonable and inflammatory, and have made no effort to understand the Catholic view of the matter. Therefore it is necessary that any thinking person disregard what you have to say, since it is based on an ignorant prejudice.
 
What the Bishop is doing here is shining light on a tradition of glorification ofthe occult which is largely viewed as innocuous. He is right to do so; the occult is sinful.
I am shining a light on the fact that the association of Halloween and the occult largely arises from w/in churches. Ime, it almost entirely exists in bad fiction and in October sermons.
The connection of Halloween and the occult is mostly promoted by churches telling us about the connection between Halloween and the occult.
Churches are by far the greatest promoter the association of occult devilry and Halloween.
To me, it seems that if they actually wanted to diminish the association of occult devilry and Halloween, they would stop promoting the connection.
Whereas, instead, every October they trumpet the connection.

Sounds like you simply have an ax to grind against Catholics and religion in general.
That's the result of your ears.

So far you have been entirely unreasonable and inflammatory, and have made no effort to understand the Catholic view of the matter.
lol

Therefore it is necessary that any thinking person disregard what you have to say, since it is based on an ignorant prejudice.
That's fine by me.

Attention, anyone who thinks, please disregard me noticing that churches are by far the largest promoters of the association of devilry and Halloween.

Take a look for yourselves and see if there're any groups outside of churches who devote greater efforts to promoting the association of devilry and Halloween.

Let me know if you find any groups who devote more time to promoting that connection too if you don't mind.
 
In case you've forgotten, Halloween is a Catholic holiday, to wit it's the day before the feast of All Saints.

Halloween is no more "of the devil" than Christmas Eve. What is diabolical and sinful is the occult, which the Secular traditions surrounding Halloween glorify. If you are a believing Catholic then Bishop Andrzej has some wise advice for you in this regard: don't get sucked in to the occult. It can and will lead you away from God. If you are not a believing Catholic then why the hell do you even care what advice a Catholic bishop gives to the faithful? Keep your nose out of our business!

I'd just like to emphasize that last part there where you say "a Catholic Bishop" meaning one Catholic Bishop in Poland. I think people forget that the Catholic Church is a very large Church spanning multiple countries, her membership holds over 1 billion people so to examine what one Bishop says in one country isn't a very reasonable way of discerning the beliefs of the Catholic Church as a whole or her individual members.

Second. I'd also like to emphasize that the Polish Bishop is not preaching hellfire and damnation he's basically saying that glorifying and celebrating the creatures that are typically considered dark and evil isn't necessarily the healthiest way to enrich your spiritual life. I don't see anything over the top there.

Third, Halloween is awesome.

That is all.
For now. :cool:
 
In case you've forgotten, Halloween is a Catholic holiday, to wit it's the day before the feast of All Saints.

Halloween is no more "of the devil" than Christmas Eve. What is diabolical and sinful is the occult, which the Secular traditions surrounding Halloween glorify. If you are a believing Catholic then Bishop Andrzej has some wise advice for you in this regard: don't get sucked in to the occult. It can and will lead you away from God. If you are not a believing Catholic then why the hell do you even care what advice a Catholic bishop gives to the faithful? Keep your nose out of our business!

Because all these warnings make Catholics (and other religious folks who say this crap) real sticks in the mud.
Most of us are tired of hearing it.

If you think it's sinful, don't observe it.
You can spare us all the warnings.
 
Because all these warnings make Catholics (and other religious folks who say this crap) real sticks in the mud.
Most of us are tired of hearing it.

If you think it's sinful, don't observe it.
You can spare us all the warnings.

Why do you care what someone else believes? I don't recall the archbishop knocking on your door admonishing you to put down the candy corn.
 
I don't recall the archbishop knocking on your door admonishing you to put down the candy corn.
That's because you had already passed out at that point.
I was just getting back from the county line, so I saw it all happen.

I really enjoy watching a good brow-beating in a foreign language--Polish is no exception.
 
There are many who believe that is precisely what Catholicism is. Which would certainly mean some delicious irony.

The Church actually used to practice the policy of dismissing local customs and folklore by saying essentially, "you're crazy. You can't fly..there's no gathering of witches. Now go and pray, and forget these silly dreams of yours." Slowly the Church became interested in heretics and stuff meant to do harm unto people, but their fascination was for the longest time with the religious aspect. The folks that were really good at creating a mixture of Satanic witchcraft with local folklore magic were the German protestants.
 
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he folks that were really good at creating a mixture of Satanic witchcraft with local folklore magic were the German protestants.

You really have no idea what you are talking about, do you?
 
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