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GMan · 02-19-2010, 08:08 AM

I'm only 15 minutes into the show, but I have to correct some information.

The article about giving up your ipod for lent was an article about the Church of England, not the Catholic Church. The C of E is a Protestant chruch. Protestantism, as the name implies, was formed as a "protest" against the Roman Catholic Church. As for me, this lent i've downloaded rosary mp3's so that I can pray the rosary while I run/commute/etc.

As far as the Communion wine issue: the six sundays of lent are considered celebrations, and are not counted in the 40 days of lenten pentience. so a person who gave up booze for lent would have no issue with communion wine even if it wasn't considered the Blodd of Christ. Many people choose to continue whatever their sacrifice is through the Sundays, but this is purely a matter of choice. Furthermore, communion is not always offered in both species (Catholics call the bread/body one "species" and the wine/blood the other "species"). Because serving a liquid to a large congregation is more problematic than handing out single-serving-sized solids, most catholic masses do not include the wine at all except for priest. (In the middle ages, this was actually the source of a war called the Hussite Rebellion).

As far as alcoholic priests, there are quite a few, both on and off the wagon. At one time, alcoholism was jokingly called the "priest's disease." It was thought that the stresses of priesthood (no family, life in the public eye having to appear beyond suspicion) lent themselves particularly to drinking problems. Obviously, anyone who is off the wagon has a problem, and this would probably be a source of controversey with their congregation. How any particular church handles that issue is up to the bishop or cardinal of the arch-diocese. But priests are human, and the whole point of the Catholic church is that all humans are sinners and without the regular exposure to Christ's grace, we'd really be even worse sinning douchebags than we already are.

I don't think the minimal amount of communion wine that a priest consumes would trigger a relapse, but I'm not an alcoholic and wouldn't know. Communion wine can be made with a minimal amount of alcohol (less than 1% I believe) and priests could use that if they had some concerns. If a priest for some reason could stand no exposure to alcohol (say because of some health issue) then--as Keith's dad said--they might have to give up the priesthood, or at least, celebrating the mass.

02-19-2010, 08:08 AM	#22 (permalink)
GMan Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philly Posts: 32	Lent I'm only 15 minutes into the show, but I have to correct some information. The article about giving up your ipod for lent was an article about the Church of England, not the Catholic Church. The C of E is a Protestant chruch. Protestantism, as the name implies, was formed as a "protest" against the Roman Catholic Church. As for me, this lent i've downloaded rosary mp3's so that I can pray the rosary while I run/commute/etc. As far as the Communion wine issue: the six sundays of lent are considered celebrations, and are not counted in the 40 days of lenten pentience. so a person who gave up booze for lent would have no issue with communion wine even if it wasn't considered the Blodd of Christ. Many people choose to continue whatever their sacrifice is through the Sundays, but this is purely a matter of choice. Furthermore, communion is not always offered in both species (Catholics call the bread/body one "species" and the wine/blood the other "species"). Because serving a liquid to a large congregation is more problematic than handing out single-serving-sized solids, most catholic masses do not include the wine at all except for priest. (In the middle ages, this was actually the source of a war called the Hussite Rebellion). As far as alcoholic priests, there are quite a few, both on and off the wagon. At one time, alcoholism was jokingly called the "priest's disease." It was thought that the stresses of priesthood (no family, life in the public eye having to appear beyond suspicion) lent themselves particularly to drinking problems. Obviously, anyone who is off the wagon has a problem, and this would probably be a source of controversey with their congregation. How any particular church handles that issue is up to the bishop or cardinal of the arch-diocese. But priests are human, and the whole point of the Catholic church is that all humans are sinners and without the regular exposure to Christ's grace, we'd really be even worse sinning douchebags than we already are. I don't think the minimal amount of communion wine that a priest consumes would trigger a relapse, but I'm not an alcoholic and wouldn't know. Communion wine can be made with a minimal amount of alcohol (less than 1% I believe) and priests could use that if they had some concerns. If a priest for some reason could stand no exposure to alcohol (say because of some health issue) then--as Keith's dad said--they might have to give up the priesthood, or at least, celebrating the mass.
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