Vatican: Halloween is anti-Christian

[Bob]

Vatican warns parents that Halloween is 'anti-Christian' - The Vatican is warning parents not to let their kids dress up as ghosts and goblins this weekend for Halloween, calling it a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death," Britain's Daily Telegraph reports in a dispatch from Rome.

The newspaper's Rome correspondent, Nick Squires, notes that the Roman Catholic Church has become alarmed in recent years as the traditional U.S. celebration spreads to other countries, particularly Britain and Italy.

The Vatican issued its warning through its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in an article headlined "Halloween's Dangerous Messages."

It quotes a liturgical expert, Joan Maria Canals as saying, "Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian." .....I find this poignantly ironic.

 

[Bob]

Pope Adult Costume - Costumes this would have to increase your intake of candy in a catholic neighborhood

 

[LuciferSam]

Vatican warns parents that Halloween is 'anti-Christian' - The Vatican is warning parents not to let their kids dress up as ghosts and goblins this weekend for Halloween, calling it a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death," Britain's Daily Telegraph reports in a dispatch from Rome.

The newspaper's Rome correspondent, Nick Squires, notes that the Roman Catholic Church has become alarmed in recent years as the traditional U.S. celebration spreads to other countries, particularly Britain and Italy.

The Vatican issued its warning through its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in an article headlined "Halloween's Dangerous Messages."

It quotes a liturgical expert, Joan Maria Canals as saying, "Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian." .....I find this poignantly ironic.

When you think about it, any belief system besides Christianity goes against Christianity and is in a sense anti-Christian. Furthermore all religions are steeped in occultism.

 

[LuciferSam]

Pope Adult Costume - Costumes this would have to increase your intake of candy in a catholic neighborhood

He's wearing sneakers.

 

[poppy]

Pope Adult Costume - Costumes this would have to increase your intake of candy in a catholic neighborhood

And scare the hell out of little boys!

 

[Gidget]

Grown ups have a way of spoiling fun for kids! IF you were to ask kids what Halloween is all about they would say dressing up and pretending for a night and of course CANDY! That's it. If we want to get all freaked out and call pagan on Halloween then we could easily freak about the ties between paganism and Christianity and especially Christmas. If the Pope recognized those ties then there'd be no celebration with trees or even the actual date itself! Me thinks he won't do dat!

Christmas' pagan origins

Anyway, for those of you going out to celebrate have fun and stay warm and safe!

G

 

[AlphaCrab]

Vatican warns parents that Halloween is 'anti-Christian' - The Vatican is warning parents not to let their kids dress up as ghosts and goblins this weekend for Halloween, calling it a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death," Britain's Daily Telegraph reports in a dispatch from Rome.

.

I thought those were some of the basic tennants of the Catholic Church?

 

[idlewind]

I guess this is a big deal if you are a Catholic.

 

[Miss Critter]

Funny, I attended catholic school for 12 years (13 if you count kindergarten) and every year my school had the BEST haunted house fundraiser. But that was both long ago and in New Orleans. . . .

 

[Mango]

No one knows for sure if that is the sentiment of the Vatican. The newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is a "semi"-Vatican paper and some of the articles are opinion pieces and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Pope or any Vatican Clergyman. It's all ambiguous at best. It's like taking apart the words of a staffer who works for someone who works for somebody in the Obama Administration. Also, the new Editor of the Newspaper is known to have a flair for the dramatic. If you want to hear the Popes stance, the Vatican has a web site and lists all His writings.

That being said, I was shocked when my sister moved from Holland to the South and my nephew, who was pre-school at that time, was not allowed to wear his Halloween, Batman-- defender of crime, costume to school. :roll:

Although, I have to admit, I like the idea of Halloween being a celebration of life and all things magical vs. a spooky day.