Bishop demands church recognition of homosexual relationships

And now the deluge!

Bonny with two stealth priestesses

The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny advocates an ecclesiastical recognition of homosexual relationships. The dogma that the Catholic Church can only accept male-female relationships, he put in question in an interview with this newspaper. "There should be a diversity of recognition forms."

With his plea Bonny, is one of the first church leaders who attacks the absolute monopoly of the male-female marriage. "We have to look inside the church for a formal recognition of the relationality which is also present in many gay couples. As a variety of legal frameworks in society exist for partners, he wants to instate a diversity of recognition forms in the church."

Bonny, the designated (in fact, for the time being, most likely) successor of Archbishop
André-Joseph Léonard, who will retire in 2015, believes that gay couples should be able to get a church blessing. Moreover, he argues that a homosexual relationship can also satify the criteria of a religious marriage. "The intrinsic values are more important to me than the institutional demand. The Christian ethic is based on lasting relationships where exclusivity, loyalty and care are central to each other.

Bringing up children

With a subtle formulation Bonny also puts the male-female Catholic monopoly for bringing up children in question. "Then there is the openness to new life, or at least the responsibility taken up by partners to be generous in what they provide to children."

In September, the Antwerp bishop wrote a letter to the Vatican on this matter. Among others, he include the idea that the church urgently needs to find a connection in modern society, explains why Bonny emphasises the matter. "Everyone gets to make his or her life with relationships, friendship, family and children's upbringing. We should not deny that this existed within the church injuries and traumas. Too many people were excluded for a long time."

Canon lawyer and the Rector of the (Cathcon-once) Catholic University of Leuven, Rik Torfs considers Bonny's message as a turning point: "Do not underestimate the significance of this.  Bonny advocates a  change in long-held unshakable principles, something that the dogmatic pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI no bishop could afford to do. "

Source

Belgian justice- new statement due on legality of church seaches

Original
Last Friday, the Belgian justice authorities refused to comment on the content of a ruling about the legality of the searches following the meeting of the Court of Indictment the previous Friday.
But now
The Brussels Public Prosecutor-General will explain the ruling on Thursday that the Brussels Chamber of Indictment (AI) gave last Friday on Operation Chalice. This is confirmed by the outgoing Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck (CD & V). The investigating magistrate in Brussels on June 24 searched the cathedral in Malines, the archbishop's palace and the offices of the Adriaenssens Commission (which was set up after the pedophilia scandals) looking for secret files of the Church. The Prosecutor-General had questions about the legality of the investigation and put a series of questions to the AI. The AI took a decision last Friday, but the prosecutor refused to say anything about the content. This will happen now on Thursday.

God of Life, Father and Mother

Liturgical abuse in Brussels. 25 minutes in it goes from attrocious to worse.


Two years earlier with a better view of the ghastly altar, now, horrible to say, replaced with something far worse- pictures to come.

Desecration beyond desecration of Brussels church

The Church of the Beguines in Brussels has been occupied before by "sans-papiers"- illegal immigrants with no permission to work in Belgium. The first time it was forced entry and they trashed the place. The second time was with the permission of the parish priest. Cathcon took some pictures as it was a wider movement of occupation of churches, associated with alleged hunger strikes. See also report here. And church becomes tent city.

Now, as can be seen from the banners over the door, the new occupation has the support of the Catholic trade union CSC.
Instead of Mass times, there are schedules for meetings and demonstrations.
Mass, according to the notice has been banished to the Sacristy.

The Sanctuary, where as far as Cathcon could make out, the Blessed Sacrament has been removed has been decorated with banners.

"I am without papers, in Belgium at the Beguinage. I am staying, I am not going". The statue bears propaganda from the Christian trade union. A stale sandwich is on the table with some milk.

Bizarrely, some pieces from a modern "art" exhibition which took place in the church last year are still there. This the south transept.

An extraordinary photo from the Sanctuary.

Another photo of the "protesting statue"

A man rolling his own cigarettes on a table in front of the sanctuary.

The south transept altar.

But looking around the rest of the church and dispair. Side altar of Our Lady of Sorrows off the north transept.Same from a different angle.

Taken in the other direction.

Various views of the south transept.

The confessionals are being used as storage space.
"We are not dangerous, we are in danger"Washing hung out to dry in what I take to be the chapel used by the women occupants.
Saint Theresa of Lisieux looks on.

The church contains quite a few works of arts, such as St Paul in Prison. They clearly are in danger.

There are so many halls, empty buildings and assorted meeting places in Belgium, but they do have to choose a church to make their point.

Even using the long-redundant pulpit.

Ecumenical European elections

EU: Europäische Kirchen informieren über Wahlen

Four ecumenical organizations based in Brussels, including the Conference of European Churches, has launced an information campaign on the upcoming election for the European Parliament. The campaign aims for a higher commitment of EU citizens and thus for a higher turnout than the last time. In the next five years 736 members of the European Parliament to take decisions that concern not only citizens, but the whole world, the organizers said in a release. They put a text on the Internet which deals with issues such as climate change, migration, poverty and peace . It also encourages churches in Europe in advance of the election to actively participlate in the political discussion.

Cathcon- influence of the churches in the European institutions - zero- sitting typing just four hundred yards from the European Parliament. This was even admitted to my wife by one of the Church's leading "lobbyists".

If your talk is of climate change rather than the Cross of Christ, there are a whole lot of organisations that do it a whole lot better, just as there are night clubs in Vienna that provide discos much more exciting that the Cardinal's Find Fight Follow Masses.

Erosio

This piece is sitting immediately in front of the high altar of Brussels Cathedral, as part of an exhibition called CORPUS.

Cathcon met the artist (!) Mr Karabitian and was assured that Erosio has nothing to do with the erotic, but erosion (as in riverbank by the flow of a river). He was neither comforted or consoled.

Asylum Seekers Desecrate Catholic Church

As they re-occupy the Church of the Beguinage in Brussels. This first occured in 2000, when they trashed the place. Now, with the full permission of the parish priest- this is, after all, the parish whose biggest event in the year is a Multi-Cultural Picnic in the square in front of the Church.

Outside the Church


And inside.  When I can find someone in authority, will find out if the Blessed Sacrament is still reserved.  In the meantime, sympathisers and asylum seekers turn the nave into a place for chat.


The South Aisle


Banner strung between confessionals which are used for storage.


South aisle from the other direction



The altar of Our Lady of Sorrows.


The Sacred Heart altar


Lifting the blue curtain- to reveal two women chatting away and the Sacred Heart altar laden with rubbish.


The Welcome Office in the Church- welcome to asylum seekers but to n0-one else.



Another confessional wardrobe


Some screens- the advert is for a Pispottenfestival.


The Unholy Sleepers of Brussels








On another noticeboard-


The asylum seekers are watched over by The Hand.  Incredibly, it is meant to represent the Hidden Hand of Adam Smith's economics.   What is this doing in Church?


Another poster- Become Scandalously Fraternal- a parody advert for a Church charity which parodies a lottery poster- Become Scandalously Rich.


Its a scandal alright- there are hundreds of halls to occupy in Belgium.  Why desecrate a Church?

See also Muslim Group transforms Chapel.

Sharp words for the EU from the Pope

Cathcon translation of Papst: Scharfe Worte Richtung Brüssel

"Maybe" four years ago the people of Central and Eastern Europe were "a little too optimistic", as their countries joined the European Union? This suspicion Pope Benedict expressed this Thursday to the Bishops from Slovenia. He referred to their pastoral letter in April 2004, when they ecstatically welcomed the EU accession of their country into the EU. When you look today at this pastoral letter Pope said that what had been called for by the bishops, actually still had not come about:

"If Europe really is and wants to stay a place of peace and focus on the respect of human dignity, then it cannot deny the most important component of this foundation - namely the Christian. Not all humanisms are the same, they are not necessarily equivalent in moral terms. I am speaking here not of the religious aspect, but will confine myself to the ethical and social. "

Depending on which image of humanity is taken as the basis, there are derived actually quite different rules for civil coexistence, Benedict said, not without a certain sharpness.

"If one sees people, for example, as individualistic - as many do today - how can one justify the trouble that the building of a just and caring society needs? Christianity is the religion of hope and brotherhood of all people - this applies to every continent, including to Europe. "

Many intellectuals in Europe still had difficulties with understanding that "reason and faith need each other," the Pope said exactly one week after his cancelled appearance at the Roman Sapienza University. Significantly Benedict condemned "Western-style secularism": This was "perhaps even more insidious than communist secularism" and displays "signs for concern " such as "greed for materials, declining birth rate and the waning of religious practice." Slovenia currently has the EU Presidency – for which reason the sharp words of the Pope this Thursday are also sent directly to Brussels.

Rubbish tip confessional

Also a notice board in Tervuren, near Brussels.



The liturgical arrangement implying an equivalence of the "table of sacrifice" and the "table of the word". The English speaking Church in Brussels actually has two tables.

Shock, horror I prayed in Latin

Undercover reporting from the Diocesan Sunday Newspaper in Brussels. He concludes that a reporter's life has to include reporting on distasteful matters. Next to it is a report of ecumenical progress in Switzerland to cheer readers up.