The Vatican admits that it doesn’t fully understand youth culture. Really? I am so surprised. Who would have thought that adopting reactionary views towards women and the LGBT community would alienate young people? In order to combat this failure, the “Pontifical Council for Culture invited sociologists, Web experts and theologians to a three-day, closed-door event Feb. 6-9 [2013] aimed at studying “emerging youth cultures.””
I hope they sent a special invitation to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who gave an interview to The Catholic Herald newspaper where he said that “Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to marry is like legalizing male breastfeeding.” Oh, that Cordileone, such a card, always with the funny gags. Give that man a prize for sensitivity!
The Catholic church and other groups that oppose same-sex marriage are fighting a losing battle for the hearts and minds of the general public with many of the waverers slowly shifting to the pro-equality side. In such a situation, you want to avoid being flip about what many young people see as a serious issue because it makes you seem even more out of touch.
“Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to marry is like legalizing male breastfeeding.”
I wasn’t even aware that it’s illegal for men to breastfeed.
Not only does the Catholic Church not understand youth culture, they don’t understand how analogies work either.
Well, locking a bunch of celibate old men in a room is certainly the right way to study youth culture.
My kingdom for a stink bomb.
“a three-day, closed-door event Feb. 6-9”
That’s a three-night closed-door event. I don’t want to speculate what they were doing…
…the “Pontifical Council for Culture invited sociologists, Web experts and theologians to a three-day, closed-door event Feb. 6-9 [2013] aimed at studying “emerging youth cultures.””
I’m going to guess that they’re really not interested in learning about youth culture as much as they’re interested in manipulating youth to toe the party line. In that case, I think meeting with marketing experts would be more productive.
“I wasn’t even aware that it’s illegal for men to breastfeed. Not only does the Catholic Church not understand youth culture, they don’t understand how analogies work either.”
Don Cordeleone apparently means this: even if gay people gave a wedding ceremony and are legally wed, it is as effective and practical in God’s eyes or in reality as a man breastfeeding a baby. So even if gays have full secular legal right to wed, he will not recognize those weddings. That’s nice, Bishop. Now instead of telling me what to do, go and fix things you actually have power over, like the “No child’s behind left” policy.
I actually love the idea of a bunch of old priests and bishops binging on pop culture and then earnestly analyzing it to understand those crazy youth these days. It’s a good thing (for many reasons) that Pope Benidict is retired. He might have been a little too inspired by Lady Gaga`s costumes.
I imagine that the participants drank a lot of Red Bull to stay awake and maximize the amount of “study” possible in a three day period. They listened to a lot of rap and tried to write their own rap song in Latin. They didn’t have the time to fit in all the Harry Potter and Twilight movies, but watched the first two of each series.
To study gays, they saw several stereotypical gay-themed comedies. To understand Jews and women, they studied Sarah Silverman. The Kardashians were the subject of much debate. A committee was set up to look into the idea of a Vatican reality show.
It was decided that the Long Island Medium is a dangerous witch. Opinions were divided about whether the makers of popular paranormal investigation shows are also witches or whether they are doing a good thing by exposing the works of Satan.
The menu was exclusively fast food takeout and junk food. Everyone got the tattoo or piercing of their choice as long as it could be covered by their robes. A concluding mass was performed with lime flavored beer and Doritos. Next month’s session will be an in depth study of the effects of marijuana use and a viewing of various 3D movies.
Right. Because why should it be a question in the first place that we need a law to make sure people who want to do so are protected in their basic human rights?
This is known as “connecting with reality”, and one conference every 500 years really is Doing It Rong.
One might have thought that the clergy of RCC Inc would be among those most accepting of , and empathetic to, same sex marriage -- if only because of their own oft-demontrated proclivities.
In San Francisco no less…
That’s not the analogy they’re trying to make IMHO.
timberwoof almost gets it I think, but he’s a little off. It’s not about “practical or effective”. You have to put yourself in their mindset.
I think the intended analogy is something like: It’s impossible for males to breastfeed according to physics, genetics, etc. A new law which asserts men can breastfeed does not change the scientific impossibility of male breastfeeding. Similarly, marriage is defined by god to be between one man and one woman, and any man-made law which asserts to the contrary cannot change the fundamental nature of reality where marriage is between one man and one woman.
They get wrong a couple of things. First, male humans sometimes can breastfeed. It’s not as clear-cut as they make it out to be. Second, they are relying on a particular moral ontology where marriage is an intrinsic part of our reality. This is closely linked to the concept of divine command theory. Whereas, in the real world, marriage is just a cultural construct, a fiction -- like fiat currency.
“Understanding youth culture” is done to help priests lure…I mean, to interest children in the church.