14 Comments

Jack Perry
December 12th, 2012 | 9:09 pm

Given the Onion’s record over the last few years, I wonder how long it will take before some Chinese media outlet publishes this as a factual story.

Bret Lythgoe
December 13th, 2012 | 2:34 am

Perhaps when those on the extreme left of Catholicism, when they find out that this a parody, will denounce the pope for not really doing it: after all, how out of touch, and lacking in sensitivity can this pope be, to stay Catholic, when so many aren’t? Where’s his decency? ;-)

Heather
December 13th, 2012 | 8:51 am

I don’t read Onion stuff very often, but this is possibly the best satire I have ever seen from them in all their history. Nicely done.

outdeep
December 13th, 2012 | 11:06 am

One thing I respect about the Catholic Church is they uphold who they are and what they have believed for centuries. They are not tripping over themselves seeking to be cool, hip, and relevant to each generation. One day people will get bored with the “I’m spiritual but not religious” scene.

Mike Melendez
December 13th, 2012 | 12:34 pm

If The Economist could publish a lead “news” piece about Pope Benedict that indicated the writer and his editor(s) had no idea what Christianity was, let alone who the Pope was, then the Onion will undoubtedly be believed by a number of people. At the least, I can see those who tell themselves, “It’s about time!”

slats grobnick
December 13th, 2012 | 12:39 pm

Maybe a clown mass or a rapping priest will bring the Holy Father back into the church?

Mitch
December 13th, 2012 | 4:33 pm

The Onion is just angry because any time the Pope writes a book, it’s an automatic best-seller, and not just among catholics, or christians either. As an organization dedicated to the silencing of religion and religious people, the Onion, and the New York Times, and the huffington post et all, are seriously annoyed by the Pope’s continued relevance in our time. Despite the New Atheism, despite Marxism, despite Feminism, and despite every assault on the rights and dignity of religious people, and freedom of religious belief and expression – the Catholic Church Orthodox Judaism, and even Islam in some respects continues to march on the steady course after thousands of years.

Brian
December 13th, 2012 | 6:48 pm

Are you lumping in feminism with the polemical atheism and Marxism? Feminism allows women to share in public life. That’s the basis of feminism–there is radical feminism, and there is basic feminism, which is a response to a negative reality, is it not?

Douglas Johnson
December 14th, 2012 | 5:02 am

Heather,

Go to the Onion videos and search for “the money hole.”

Mitch,

I’m pretty sure the Vatican would give that video a thumbs up. It doesn’t mock the Pope, it mocks the false spirituality of youth.

Sergio Méndez
December 14th, 2012 | 2:36 pm

Good for the Onion. I think more than mocking “false spirituality” of young people, it is a call to be coherent with their lifestyle and abandon a belief they no longer hold.

Steve, Winnipeg, Canada
December 14th, 2012 | 4:44 pm

The Pope is definitely not the one being made fun of here.

Take-away lesson for me: It is just as silly, albeit less noticeable, when Evangelicals do the same. Maybe the quickest road to irrelevance is infatuation with being ‘relevant’. Marry the spirit of the age and quickly become a widow.

Heather
December 15th, 2012 | 3:23 am

Douglas, thanks for the tip. (“One of America’s greatest traditions” :-)

I think I’ll look at their videos more often; there’s some very good writing sometimes (mixed with the opposite, downright gross even), but the videos are definitely of professional production quality. Oh, just noticed you need to pay! That’s where they get the money for the videos :-)

This one was very nice too:
“38-Year-Old Little Boy Posts Picture Of Fast Car He Likes To Facebook”

I love the take on his little friends’ comments…

==============
“it mocks the false spirituality of youth.”

Exactly – but which is so much more widespread than in reference to just the youth group.

“It is just as silly, albeit less noticeable, when Evangelicals do the same.”

YES. (and not less noticeable)

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On the other hand, if Churches don’t reach out to youth, they will lose them (or will lose many more young people).

However, a significant number of youth who go to Church have already been “lost” in the sense that they are the perfect, very selective Cafeteria Christians.

For example, suggest to a group of “Christian” young people that they should not go to Starbucks to hang out with their other “Christian” friends, because Starbucks is anti-Christian and watch the reaction. Suggest it even to their parents and watch the reaction… Tell them they shouldn’t buy Apple products…

“But, but… Christianity for us is thinking about ourselves, our over-priced coffee, our cool hang-out place, our gadgets… Who cares if they are anti-Christian?”

Humour mixed with truth | The Catholic Soapbox
December 15th, 2012 | 5:44 am

[...] The First Things blog reposted the brief video here, complete with fabricated “quotes” from a prominent bishop and the reaction of a younger Catholic. Enjoy. [...]

Evangelical Exploring Catholocism
December 15th, 2012 | 11:36 am

Evangelicalism is by its nature entrepreneurial. It has a strong focus on bringing others to Christ by being all things to all men. That is why the Evangelicals of the WWII generation emphasizing duty, loyalty and “onward Christian solders” is different from the Jesus movement “Jesus is the best trip” is different from the baby-boomer’s “12 steps to raise obedient children” to today’s thirty-something hipster churches.

They all have the common element of seeking to reach the culture at hand. Evangelism basically says as long as you stick to a short list of a statement of faith, you can do just about anything you want.

This has the positive effect of Evangelicism adapting to many different cultures and subcultures. It has the negative effect of going too far, losing our identity, watering down the gospel so that is shallow, and having no expectations of those who join the church so that it becomes a very large gathering of people who all happen to give assent to the same gospel tract.

Catholicism is probably slower to adapt in some ways (e.g., one could never imagine the Pope making the choices the satire suggests while some can imagine an edgy Evangelical trying to at least blend in with that type of thinking). Nevertheless, it does a better job in knowing who she is. It seems to say to a society, “This is who we are and this is the gospel. If you want what we have, let’s talk. If not, come back when you are ready.”

I think that is why there has always been movement back and forth between the two groups. Those Catholics who are attracted the individuality and personal autonomy and independence of Evangelicaism move one way. Evangelicals who want to be tied to something solid, ancient and unchanging move the other.