Pope says charism of consecrated virgins can help ALL PEOPLE.

OK I admit I am not up on such things, but how can a virgin living independently in society "help all people"?

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the rest of the world may think chastity is something "unintelligible and useless," the order of consecrated virgins is a charism that can be fruitful and beneficial to all people, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"With your righteous life, you can be the stars that guide the journey of the world," :crazy: he said in a May 15 private audience with about 500 consecrated virgins from across the globe.

He said he wished to encourage them in their vocations and hoped they would grow daily in their awareness that this charism is "as bright and fertile in the eyes of faith as it is unintelligible and useless (in the eyes) of the world."...

Consecrated by her local bishop, a consecrated virgin makes a promise of perpetual virginity, prayer and service to the church while living independently in society.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802657.htm

Like mind control or maybe the ability to change colors?

That would be cool.

In Italy, it seems like the Neo-Bushie-Fascists are starting up something akin to the Blood Libel when they burned down a Roma (gypsy) camp after "some woman" asserted a gypsy woman "climbed into her window and tried to steal her baby".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/italian-tolerance-goes-up-in-smoke-as-gypsy-camp-is-burnt-to-ground-829318.html

We're going backwards folks, and pretty damned quick. It looks like Italy wants to play the same role to Imperial Amerika as it did for Nazi Germany.

http://www.covenant.idc.ac.il/en/vol1/issue2/introvigne.html

salary, no pension.

A few years ago I went to an interfaith women's conference/retreat where I had some wonderful conversations with nuns around the age of 60. They'd had careers of service -- teaching, social work, nursing, and the like. But everything they earned went to their order, and was then ultimately controlled by the all-male hierarchy of the Church. Traditionally, the oldest nuns have relied on younger nuns to care for them -- literally, they are sisters to one another. This worked well enough for centuries. But now there is a shortage of young nuns, and the oldest are staring a rather bleak future in the face.

Mother Church is not taking care of its old nuns very well.

They also take vows of obedience. Male hierarchy again.

Here in Santa Barbara we had a mini-scandal in the community when three elderly nuns had their house sold out from under them to partially satisfy the debt incurred by the Los Angeles Archdiocese -- that is, Cardinal Mahoney has a court judgement from the lawsuits stemming from the priest molestations, so he is selling off some of the property owned by the Roman Catholic Church. Poof. Thank you for your decades of service in this poor neighborhood, now trot along. I don't know where they finally ended up, but for awhile the nuns in the Episcopalian convent took them in.

I think a consecrated virgin living in the world may be in better financial shape in the long run. It's not my choice of a life, but their prayers are supposed to benefit the world, so I'm inclined to say thanks for the effort.

Hekate

Surely if there is some inherent benefit in virginity (and I'd love to see an empirical study to that effect) men should also be encouraged to promise high-level Church officials that they will not sleep around.

reproduction is a reminder that we also are animals of this world. This bit of knowledge is too much for some people.

:P

:spray:

It's a term of service. After that, Vestals can marry and everyone is happy. Pope wants to be both pagan and patriarchal and it just doesn't work. Never did, really.

Think about it, if everyone in the world stopped having sex and kids we would not have to worry about future food shortages, increased oil prices and global warming.

and wash their underwear.

A penis does not make a woman dirty or unable to do prayer and church service. The misogynistic Madonna-Whore complex needs to stop. There's nothing magical about virginity.

Encouraging healthy and stable relationships is a good thing. It's also healthy to teach a young person to stop and think before acting on an impulse.

BUT making a person feel guilty about sexual feelings and making their sexual status a condition of service is cruel and sadistic. One of my friends is a member of the Catholic clergy and it pains me to see his struggle. The sad part is is that people have been brainwashed to believe that the rules are unquestionable and for their own good.

Some people get off on self-denial, but that shouldn't be a requirement for all. And sexual status is a personal matter and disclosure is up to the individual.

I'm not bothered by people who want to be life-long virgins. Whatever floats your boat. What bothers me is the way the Church wants to control the private sexual lives of its members. SICK.

this is just the Vatican's solution to the priest-boy love scandals... Now they can claim that the Lord commanded them to sleep with virgins.. because everyone knows that's way less creepy. :sarcasm:


perpetual virginity isn't a virtue, it's unnatural and denies one of the greatest gifts God gave to man (assuming you believe in god).


the Vatican should recruit and consecrate gamers... god knows none of them have ever gotten laid. :P