The Italian scene

As you'll all remember, back in the early summer, Italy had itself a referendum on a law governing IVF among other things. The Church's campaign of persuading voters to stay at home so that the referendum would lack a quorum was a complete success.

Here is a further and quite interesting look at the state of Italian politics and the revival of the Church's agenda:

[...] But the road to a left-center victory has proved exceedingly bumpy so far. Here's why:

For four decades after the end of WWII, the Catholic Church wielded power in Italy through the Christian Democrats, so thorougly discredited by corruption scandals that the party was dissolved in the early 1990s after its last Premier, Giulio Andreotti, was found by a court to have extensive Mafia ties. But now, following 15 years of enforced slumber, the Roman Catholic Church has made the decision to relaunch the Church in Italy as a political force -- and all signs are that it will work. And even as the front-running Prodi campaigns up and down the Italian peninsula from a proletarian yellow bus, the Vatican -- with a vintage1950 political ideology and strategy -- has moved into higher gear too.

Other events that should be getting attention are being stifled by the press...

Instead, day after day, the big headlines are going to the Church -- for example, to a debate over whether high school and university students in Siena had a right to boo the Cardinal Primate of Italy, the austere Cardinal Ruini, for saying that he opposes "de facto marital unions," meaning unwed heterosexuals as well as gay couples. In this September 23 incident, 40 students ousted from the hall where Riuni was speaking then congregated outside, waving placards like, "Free love in a free State," and "We are all homosexuals."

Ruini subsequently announced that he has not only the right, but an obligation to speak out on issues which concern the Church. Then Ruini went further, suggesting that a proposed law permitting legal recognition of civil unions between unmarried heterosexual couples and gay couples would be unconstitutional. Momentarily, at least, the fact that a cardinal spoke on the constitutionality of proposed Italian legislation put the cat among the pigeons. Curiously, what is now emerging is a groundswell of growing support for the Church and, tacitly, for what his opponents call Ruini¹s meddling.

Read the complete article Italy: The Church Re-enters Politics, Dividing the Left from ZNet.

O'Brien: It's my personal opinion

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The archbishop overseeing a Vatican-run inspection of U.S. seminaries said that he was not speaking for the Vatican or the U.S. bishops when he said he opposed admitting to seminaries men who have engaged in homosexual activity in the past or who have strong homosexual tendencies.

"I was reflecting my personal opinion and offering a prudential practice based on 12 years experience as rector (president) of two U.S. seminaries," said Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, in a Sept. 30 statement.

[...]

Read the complete article Archbishop says he's not speaking for Vatican on gays in seminaries from Catholic News Service.

Readers will no doubt remember the previous post when O'Brien made his comments.

A couple of observations

The archbishop wants to defend the visitation from becoming a one-issue affair. He's got his work cut out for him there.

The archbishop has seen the document and his position does not represent its contents. This may be true. I'm not going to speculate too much on the actual contents of the document, but regardless of the 'Italian' mentality of enforcement that has been kicked around this last week, I just have a hunch that the document will be far milder than than the apocalyptic thing it is believed to be.

The archbishop perhaps caught some flak for his comments before. As the head of the visitation, one would expect him to keep his mouth closed while on the job. This 'clarification' of the hat he was wearing when he made his comments is telling.

A lost idea

I was driving last night and a great idea for a post here came to mind. But alas, events unfolded and I forgot the idea until this morning. I remembered having the idea, but couldn't for the life of me remember what the idea was. It is a loss, I know.

Today is the feast of the Little Flower, St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

Tomorrow is Life Sunday (also known as the 27th (?) Sunday in Ordinary Time). Organizers are hoping to see 100 million Catholics say the Rosary with the intention of life and ending abortion tomorrow. Get to Mass early and take a moment to say the Rosary for the worthy cause.

From the NCRchive

From September 14th, 2001:

One unmistakable sign that a papacy is winding down comes when the figures that symbolize its most lacerating debates leave the stage. The next few months are likely to witness the exits of two such prelates: Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the archbishop of Milan, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

[...]

In recent months Ratzinger, who seems increasingly fatigued, has distanced himself from day-to-day operations. He planned to allow his lieutenants to handle a meeting with Jesuit theologian Fr. Jacques Dupuis in September 2000, for example, and had to be persuaded that he could not delegate such a sensitive responsibility.

[...]

Ratzinger and Martini may or may not have written the last chapters in their extraordinary careers. There are camps in the church that would like to see both men as the next pope, and given that John XXIII was just shy of 77 when he was elected in 1958, there is still time.

Read it all here.

An online quiz

From The City of God:

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!

Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Level | Score
Purgatory | Very High
Level 1 - Limbo | High
Level 2 | Low
Level 3 | Low
Level 4 | Very Low
Level 5 | Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis | Very Low
Level 7 | Low
Level 8- the Malebolge | Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus | Very Low

Level descriptions: http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html
Take the test: http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv

Into the Synod

The Word From Rome is updated and Allen covers the Synod, (cue dramatic music) the Homosexual Document and (cue happy music) the Meeting Between Kung and his old buddy/nemesis/buddy Joseph Ratzinger.

Allen as usual covers a lot of ground, so I won't quote anything directly. But one point on the Synod is in order.

Do I think a 'universal indult' will be granted?
No. Let's look back. Aside from the usual chatter on the subject, the issue of the universal indult really only came up due to the meeting with Fellay. Despite the relative positive outcome of the meeting itself, Fellay's words in the aftermath illustrated that a universal indult wasn't the panacea that would end the schism. Yet talk of the universal indult has left the context of the SSPX and continues on its own.

There may be a compromise of some kind to provide the Tridentine Mass on a permanent basis, but the universal indult is not going to happen.

* * *
Aside from that, most of the other questions outlined by Mr. Allen are pretty much 'executive' rather than 'legislative' questions. We'll see how it goes as the Year of the Eucharist reaches its conclusion.

Swiss Guards are doing better than the US Army

CHEAP holidays in Rome and a flashy website are just two of the weapons in the armoury of the 500-year-old Vatican Swiss Guard to lure recruits. And it seems to be working.

Television pictures of the guards in their colourful uniforms and bearing medieval weapons were beamed across the world after the death of Pope John Paul II, giving the Vatican's gatekeepers a rare place on the world's front pages.

The publicity has been so successful that they are now turning candidates away.

Read the complete article Vatican's Swiss Guard on a roll from The Age.

These guys are trained in the use of halberds along with more modern weapons. They learn hand to hand combat. I would not want to mess with them. It's nice that Swiss males are joining up in great numbers. Although, I have to say, if the trend from a few years ago had continued, the Holy See might have given Catholic males from the rest of the world a shot at serving the Holy Father.

But I don't begrudge the Swiss the privilege. They've done such a great job of it over the centuries, they've earned it.

On this date in history

In 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Read the other factoids here.

Was it murder? Was it a broken heart over his treatment by the Curia? Was it simply poor health? Only God knows. However he died, as ANSA reports, his canonization process is well underway.

From the daily email

SERBIAN PRESIDENT INVITES POPE TO VISIT HIS COUNTRY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2005 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls released the following declaration to journalists today, concerning this morning's meeting of the Holy Father with Boris Tadic, president of the Republic of Serbia:

"In the course of the cordial meeting which lasted 25 minutes, President Tadic illustrated to the Pope the current situation in the Republic of Serbia. Talks concentrated particularly on the need to teach values to young people, especially in the scholastic field.

"President Tadic also invited the Holy Father to visit the Republic of Serbia. In thanking him for his invitation, Benedict XVI expressed the hope that such a visit may take place in the future."

OP/SERBIAN PRESIDENT/NAVARRO-VALLS VIS 050929(130)

- The Archived press release for today

According to Wikipedia's List of John Paul II's travels, the Holy Father never made it to Serbia. If Benedict does indeed go, it will be a first.

Of course, now that he is has been invited, it is traditional to elicit an invitation from the local Christian authorities, namely the 91 year-old Pavle, Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovac and Serbian Patriarch. Judging by what Wikipedia has to say about him, I doubt Pavle would be against such a visit, unlike his brethren in Russia.

Survey says?!

No, this blog is not a homage to Family Feud. But at National Catholic Reporter, there is a very interesting look at a survey conducted on 'religious literacy' and its impact on dissent.

The Catholic hierarchy in the United States is very concerned about religious illiteracy and its link to dissent from church teachings. This concern contains two important assumptions: that religious illiteracy is higher among younger Catholics than among older ones, and that religious illiteracy fosters disagreement with church teachings. But, is there any empirical basis for these assumptions? Is religious illiteracy really more widespread among younger Catholics than it is among older ones? Is there really a link between illiteracy and disagreement with church teachings? We explored these questions using a combination of previous research and results from our 2005 survey. The results raise serious doubts about both assumptions.
[...]

Read the complete article: Challenging assumptions about young Catholics.

There is a lot of technical jargon and statistics analysis. I recommend reading through all of it. The conclusion, however, sums up nicely.

First, religious illiteracy appears to be rather widespread. If half of Catholics do not feel they can explain their faith to others, we are inclined to agree with the bishops that religious illiteracy really is a problem in today’s church. The question is how much priority to give to illiteracy compared to other problems facing the church. Bishops have clearly made it a high priority. So far at least, lay people have not. A 2003 national survey shows that lay people give much higher priority to dealing with the problem of sexual abuse and doing something about the priest shortage than to the problem of religious illiteracy.

Note the difference in priorities between the bishops and laity. In the instance of the sex abuse problem, solving religious illiteracy is not going to end the problem. But the priest shortage is something that could be directly affected by a fuller understanding of the faith and the priesthood.

Second, religious illiteracy does not appear to be any more widespread among today’s young adults than among other Catholics. If anything, it is more pronounced among pre-Vatican II Catholics than among post-Vatican II Catholics and members of the Millennial generation. One implication of this finding is a recommendation that church leaders view religious illiteracy as an ongoing concern, not as a problem that is peculiar to the current generation of young adults. The church’s efforts to increase religious literacy should be oriented to Catholics of all ages, not just young adults.

This conclusion is at once superficially surprising, but at the same time really not surprising. Young adults of my generation and after as demographers and sociologists keep reminding us are leaving being the selfishness of the baby boomers of the 60s. This generation is embarking on journeys to find meaning, since its parents didn't provide it with any. Only this journey is in the opposite direction of sexual 'liberation', etc.

The third conclusion is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't comment... Personally though, I found the 'surprise' at finding no correlation between illiteracy and dissent to be rather amusing.

Third, there appears to be little or no connection between illiteracy and dissent. This finding has two implications. If the church puts a priority on increasing religious literacy, it should not assume that its efforts in this area will necessarily have the effect of increasing compliance with church teachings. Understanding the faith and agreeing with its tenets seem to be two quite separate processes. Also, if church leaders believe dissent is a problem that needs to be fixed, they should look elsewhere for its root cause, not at illiteracy. In this effort, leaders need to appreciate the fact -- evident in this study and several other studies we have done -- that there is relatively little dissent on issues such as the Resurrection that lay people may not fully understand but consider core teachings of the church. Dissent is greater on issues such as the need for a celibate clergy, which lay people may very well understand but do not consider core teachings. Thus, dissent is not so much a result of a lack of understanding as it is a disagreement with specific teachings that lay people do not believe are central to the faith.

Comments on THE REPORT

In Rocco's latest post, he discusses the meeting Cardinal Rigali had yesterday with his priests. The clergy of Philadelphia were quite hostile. Read the entry for details and then check out this quote at the end after Rocco makes a rather interesting analogy between 'sweeping changes in the Church in the 60s' and the sex abuse scandal:

"You have the choice of staying and obeying, or leaving," Krol said. "Non datur tertium" -- "There is no third choice."

With those words, as practically every other See succumbed to the excesses of the Conciliar wave, John Krol drew his line and beat back the tide in his archdiocese.

Given these recent events and the newfound openness of the priests, is it safe to say that the tide averted for so long is back with a vengeance?

Sorry, but the tide Krol was averting back in 1964 is NOT the same tide that may be sweeping Philadelpha today. Comparing the zealousness of the Conciliar wave to indignation over the response of the archbishop's response to the grand jury report is just...

As the Inquirer quotes, a fourth priest told the cardinal it was "the wrong time to defend the indefensible."

That's not a wave of dissent, that's just plain common sense.

The coming conflagration

Ukraine is far away, but it is a popular topic of this journal. If you've read Papabile, you've probably seen his post on Cardinal Husar's comments on a unified patriarchate in Ukraine. That state is at the forefront of not ecumenism but direct confrontation between the Greek Catholics, two independent Orthodox patriarchates and the Russian Orthodox Church as represented by the Metropolitan of Kiev.

Today we have a piece by Daniil Spassky, who is quite sympathetic to the Russian Orthodox position. He writes on the increasing government interference in religious matters and the growing intrusion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Instead, the Fanar delegates have had intensive discussions on all this with the schismatics and state officials behind the back of Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev. So much so that a bishop from Constantinople even attended a council of the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church among the participants in which were anathemized Filaret Denisenko and Yuschenko’s adviser A.Sagan.

With regard to Constantinople, it is all clear: it cherishes the desire to enter the territory of Ukraine, to consolidate its grip on it and then to increase its presence disregarding the interests of the Ukrainian Church and its faithful. The matter is more complicated with regard to the state’s attitude. The present Ukrainian president nearly vowed in Maidan to prevent the state from interfering in church affairs, but now we see civil servants actively participating in the development and implementation of Constantinople’s project. It means that they either violate the will of the president thus setting him up or have his approval. But hasn’t he broken his word then?

Read the complete article Constantinople and Ukraine: church representations as a new turn in the church crisis from Interfax.

Husar is not a patriarch, but they refer to him that way. Alexei II of Moscow is trying to save the bulk of his church's income and vocations. The other two Orthodox churches are just doing their thing (if I were them, I'd be doing some serious unificaiton talks). And the Patriarch of Constantinople's guys are showing up and stirring the pot for some as-yet-unknown reason.

I'll take a moment and simply note on an academic, not-very-serious note that relativism needs to be fought in Western Europe if for no other reason than it is just so boring compared to places like Ukraine.

For richer, for poorer

In today's Off the Record entry of 'Pointing, guessing, and self-reporting' discusses just how one discriminates between heterosexual candidates and homosexual candidates for the priesthood when homosexual candidates may or may not be forthcoming in revealing their sexual orientation.

Diogenes suggests a change in lifestyle to 'weed out the non-hackers'.

It’s true that a diocesan seminarian isn’t signing up to become a Carthusian, but if he found a life closer to that of a monk than of a playboy, perhaps he’d have a chance to harden into a man of service. And if Spartan conditions were the norm for priests (and dare I add bishops?) perhaps we’d get the sort of men we need to be priests. If seminaries and rectories lacked TV, alcohol, soft furniture, and air conditioning, the kind of man who seeks pleasure in material things would self-select rather than have to self-report.

It comes down to this: you can’t provide someone with virtue, but you can provide him with the material pre-conditions for virtue.

It’s a lot easier to say, “this man has shown he can live a tough life,” than to say, “this man will be able to live a tough life.”

Do we have any readers out there in the clergy? I never realized you guys were living such opulent lives. I admit, I envied Father John's pretty cool sedan back in the day, but aside from that, the priests I've known were really not rolling in the dough.

But then I tend to forget that there are places like St. Louis, New York and Los Angeles and then there is the real world where the majority of us 1 billion Catholics live our lives.

As the visitation begins

This is an interesting article from The Des Moines Register. A lot of it is simply a recap of the visitation's mission and the reaction, accusing it of being a 'witch hunt'. The interesting part of the story is the reaction from parishioners at Pope Pius X in Urbandale:

Catholics interviewed after 11 a.m. Mass at Pope Pius X Catholic Church in Urbandale on Sunday said they approve of the policy change.

"I believe the Catholic Church teachings about homosexuality and the priesthood need to be made clear. I believe that after Vatican II homosexuals exploited loopholes (in church policy), and the fruits of that lax attitude are reflected in the abuses that have come to light," said John O'Connor of Des Moines.

Tanny Armstrong of Urbandale said: "I think it is a good thing if the church excludes homosexuals as candidates for the priesthood. I love homosexuals but I don't love what they stand for. I don't think they should be accepted as candidates for seminary."

Hanna Jones of Des Moines, a lifelong member of Pius X, is conflicted about barring gays from the priesthood.

"I guess it depends if you believe homosexuals choose the lifestyle or are born gay or not. It's kind of like being an alcoholic — is it a sickness or a choice? I'm thankful to God that I don't have to decide."

Read the complete article Vatican to review seminary operations from DesMoinesRegister.com.

Let's face it. While our good friends Fathers Reese and Fessio and others comment on the visitation and prognosticate, we have very little info on what on-the-ground Catholics are thinking about it. The last quote from Hanna Jones is instructive. It would seem though that suburbanites are generally positive on the visitation and do not interpret it as a witch hunt.

While you're thinking that Iowa suburbanites are not exactly representative of the whole, I'll provide a little background. Urbandale is a suburb of Des Moines. It and its fellow western suburbs along with other towns westward into Dallas County are among the fastest growing areas in Iowa and I think the nation (been awhile since I've seen those stats).

Weekend update

I went to Mass this morning and when I arrived, there was an ambulance and a firetruck double-parked out front. I went in and found my usual spot and watched out of the corner of my eye as paramedics worked on an older gentleman. They had an IV going from the looks of it and then they lifted him up onto the cot and wheeled him out. He appeared to be conscious, so I'm guessing he fainted and was revived immediately after.

Pray that he has an enjoyable stay at Mercy Hospital and is feeling better.

On another note, I 'officially' joined my parish awhile ago and two weeks ago we had a special induction blessing at the end of Mass. Afterwards, fellowship was had downstairs with cinnamon rolls and coffee. Amid other materials provided to us newcomers, there was a very interesting booklet on the statuary of the church. The most interesting discovery was that this statue of a saint dressed as a cardinal was in fact St. Bonaventure. I've been looking for an image online of Bonaventure dressed as a cardinal since then. If any of you know where to find good pictures, let me know.

In case you've missed my fellow bloggers who've covered these stories, the Swiss Guard is celebrating its 500th anniversary, the Pope has a cool new electric cart in which to scoot around the Vatican (Amy has an image) and Rocco continues his comments on the Philadelphia grand jury report and defense of his cardinal-benefactor. These stories and more can be found under the 'Daily Readings' heading on the left.

Happy reading and God bless.

A different image

A reader in the comments of the latest post on the Croatian issue included a link to the picture above, wondering about my comments on Mrs. del Ponte's appearance as 'scary'.

I don't find middle-aged women threatening by any means and Mrs. del Ponte does look fine in the above picture (though I'm not fond of that blonde look at any age).

The management apologizes for any misunderstanding.

Allen's warning

At The Word From Rome, John Allen addresses the homosexuals in seminaries question and publishes comments he made at a university on the global Church. I'd recommend reading both in their entirety because I'm not going to cite specific quotes.

On the seminary question, Allen says little and calls for patience until the actual document is released. He makes an excellent point. In the second part, Allen addresses the global Church and the variety of issues that confront it. He makes the point that the issues facing the American Church are not necessarily those that face the global Church in its entirety.

Taking this concept that the US is not the center of the Roman Catholic universe, one wonders what kind of reception the document on homosexuals in seminaries is getting in other lands around the world. It is going to be a global document, but in our Western pluralist milieu, it seems like a giant cleaver is about to fall and the homosexuals are about to be cut away in one stroke.

But what about Nigeria for instance? Lately, the Nigerians have been dealing with gas price increases due to the end of government subsidies. People are out protesting in the streets. Today we see a militia has taken control of an oil pumping station and shut it down. For a country that without oil would be just another dirt-poor African state (oh wait, I forgot. Due to corruption, it is dirt-poor anyway), this is national news. Is the Nigerian Church sweating a ban of homosexuals in its seminaries? I doubt it.

But why should we care? As Allen so ably points out with nice facts and figures, US Catholics number 67 million. That's high enough to stand at fourth place on the list of countries with the most Catholics. But what about the three that are ahead of us?

Brazil at 144 million, Mexico at 126 million and the Philippines at 70 million are all concerned with their own problems. Brazil has gone through a number of crises, Mexico has its ethnic divisions and the gap between rich and poor and the Philippines has been dealing with a major scandal and constitutional crisis for several months now that has involved the bishops (as the bishops have long been considered the watchdog of government, having toppled two sitting presidents). Do you think Catholics in those three countries are sweating the document? I doubt it.

Allen doesn't point it out directly, but it seems obvious that in joining the two different topics today, he wants us to connect the dots and realize that whatever major implosion of the American clergy we may be imagining is in the works, the majority of the Catholics in the world who will live under the same document probably aren't devoting much attention, if any.

EDIT: The reference I initially made about Brazil was based on my own recollection that I remembered offhand is was not correct. Thanks to BrazCath for the correction.

Reaction in Croatia

I'm just going to quote most of this and run with it from there. By the way, that's Mrs. del Ponte on the right. She's rather scary looking.

Del Ponte’s statement provoked a storm of protests within the Church hierarchy and Anton Suljic, a spokesman for the Croatian Bishops Conference, said Del Ponte’s accusations were absurd. “We know that the Hague prosecutor is frustrated, for whatever reasons, and we could only ascribe her qualifications to such emotional state”, Suljic said.

Reporters of the daily “Slobodna Dalmacija” made a tour of several monasteries and in today’s issue published reactions of monks who hurled insults at Del Ponte, bordering on obscenity. “Gotovina currently can’t come to the phone, because he’s sleeping”, was the flippant reply of Petar Odak, a monk at the monastery on the Adriatic island of Vis.

Father Ivan Iko Mateljan, the head of the Croatian Franciscan order, skipped the irony and was more direct. “The best thing would be if Carla herself came to the monasteries and checked where Gotovina was, possibly under the robe of each monk and whatever she finds, well found”, he said.

Most monks told “Slobodna Dalmacija” they wouldn’t report if they knew where Gotovina was hiding because he was a “martyr and patriot”, not a war criminal.

Gotovina has been indicted by ICTY for crimes against Serb civilians in Croatia’s 1991/95 war of secession from former Yugoslavia. Croatian authorities claim they have no knowledge of his whereabouts, though the European Union has blocked talks on Croatia’s accession until Gotovina is extradited.

Suljic said that the international community, which appointed Del Ponte, should explain to the Church, Croatia and Vatican her behavior and dismiss her. (Vpr)

Read the complete article CROATIA: CHURCH OFFICIALS INSULT WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR from AKI.

So the monks claim that the general is not there and invite the woman to check under their robes. If they want to be sarcastic, I suppose that's their perogative. What does give me pause is that some of them view Gotovina as a martyr and a patriot. The Holy See had better be damned sure he's not being harbored by some misguided Franciscans or else it is not going to look very good at all. With all the controversy surrounding the Church's alleged support for the puppet regime in Croatia back during World War II, it is hardly the time for the local Franciscans to be harboring this general.

Thoughts on Renaissance festivals

The redoubtable Amy referenced my post in the Renaissance Festival and that sparked some discussion at her blog. That in addition to the comments on my previous post have inspired me to respond a bit more fully on the topic.

One of Amy's commenters suggested that the Church should do something along the lines of a Renaissance festival and I think that would be an excellent idea. Most every festival you'll find today is run more as a muney-making and entertainment venture than as something that is meant to actually educate. That's the most important thing to keep in mind. This is not to say that festivals that focus on historical authenticity would not be money-makers, but as most of them stand today, 'RenFests' exist to for a specific niche of society and appeal to the larger population with pseudo-authentic crafts and shows.

Let's say a local diocese was to take up the challenge. What would it need, what would it want?

Goals
1. Education through entertainment. Finding episodes during the Renaissance and associated periods that illuustrate the Church's role in a positive way and presenting them.

2. Catechism. How could the Church present its teachings in the format of such a festival? Through plays? Though 'living history demonstrations'? What would be most effective?

3. Recreation. Recreating an authentic atmosphere would be absolutely necessary. 'Living history demonstrations' would serve here as well as the actors would do more than simply stand up on a stage and act. Others would actually live out village or town life, etc.

What would be needed to pull all this together? Funding of course would be at the top of the list. Experts from history departments would be there as well. Actors would act, etc. There would be the requisite craftspeople selling their stuff (though no devil's horns!). All this would definitely require someone with a clear vision and excellent fundraising skills. Would it be a success? I can't say. But I do think that if everything came together, such a venture would be an excellent tool for educating not only Catholics but the larger population as well.

Vatican denies hiding criminal

Vatican City, Sep. 20, 2005 (CNA) - The spokesman for the Holy See, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, and the Croatian Episcopal Conference both rejected the accusations of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for Ex-Yougoslavia (TPIY), Carla del Ponte, of protecting alleged war criminals.

Read the complete article Holy See rejects accusations of harboring Croatian war criminal from Catholic News Agency.
Navarro-Valls said the Secretary for Foreign Relations asked the UN prosecutor for specifics and was met with no reply. At the same time, the Croatian bishops' conference is also denying any knowledge as to the whereabouts of the general sought by the war crimes tribunal.

The prosecutor has made accusations and offered no evidence as to which Franciscan monastery the general is holed up in. Mrs. del Ponte's credibility is not getting any stronger.