Comments on New Humanist Blog: Now the Vatican's having a go at Hallowe'en

There was someone in my local newspaper (in Illino...

2009-10-30T19:31:11.787Z

There was someone in my local newspaper (in Illinois, USA) complaining that Halloween has been too commercialized, and that we've forgotten the religious significance of the day. Back when he was younger and the world wasn't in the heathen-y state that it is, All Saints Day was a time for venerating the saints and remembering the dearly departed. All the candy and expensive decorations and costumes are the real sin...

However, the yothe guy mentioned in the daily mail...

2009-10-30T19:14:27.240Z

However, the yothe guy mentioned in the daily mail post does have a piece on halloween: donaldobuonaiuto.it/blog/?p=499

They have a daily edition in italian and a weekly ...

2009-10-30T19:08:03.681Z

They have a daily edition in italian and a weekly in some other languages, here: vatican.va/news_services/or/home_eng.html
I tired to find the name of the priest they refer to but I didn't. Of course maybe I was not looking hard enough - my italian is far from perfect, and I didn't want to waste too mcuh time on this...

Joan Maria Canals Possibly a typo - the guy's Sp...

2009-10-30T18:16:14.511Z

Joan Maria Canals

Possibly a typo - the guy's Spanish, so maybe Juan? On the other hand, naming male children after female saints isn't exactly a rarity in predominantly Catholic countries.

Not a lot of support for that Derry petition. The...

2009-10-30T17:33:15.246Z

Not a lot of support for that Derry petition. They got 187 signatures, a lot of which are bogus and a lot are against it in the comments (myself included).

But it is true that children should be drawn away ...

2009-10-30T16:32:12.854Z

But it is true that children should be drawn away from mad, occult, brain-warping practices, and into nice, harmless things like eating the magically-created flesh and blood of a long-dead tribal shaman. That's only logical.

Ha. The trouble with Osservatore-derived stories ...

2009-10-30T13:41:39.398Z

Ha.

The trouble with Osservatore-derived stories is that they're invariably headlined "the Pope says" as though he writes the thing. Whereas it's attributed to a "liturgical expert" called Joan Maria Canals - later described as "Father Canals", surprisingly. Still, I loved the part about parents needing to direct the feast towards "wholesomeness and beauty"; it put me in mind of that scene from Mean Girls where Lindsay Lohan is inappropriately dressed.

Very much so. I feel especially confident that it ...

2009-10-30T13:31:00.537Z

Very much so. I feel especially confident that it will have provided me with a reliable translation from the original Italian (or do they print L'Osservatore Romano in Latin?)

A very reliable source, that Daily Mail.

2009-10-30T13:27:57.109Z

A very reliable source, that Daily Mail.