"Priest suspended for conducting orange mass". this title is fantastic.

[demoleft]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A Roman Catholic priest who made headlines around the world by holding an orange soccer-themed mass to pray for the Dutch team before its World Cup final against Spain has been suspended by his bishop.

Bishop Jozef Punt of Haarlem said in a statement issued late Thursday that Rev. Paul Vlaar's packed service in the village of Obdam north of Amsterdam "did not do justice to the sacred nature of the Eucharist."

Vlaar wore an orange robe and decorated the church with orange flags. During the service he acted as a goalkeeper when a parishioner kicked a soccer down the aisle.
ap, http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100716/world/soc_netherlands_orange_mass

the pics:
http://www.repubblica.it/sport/calcio/2010/07/16/foto/prete_olanda_sospeso-5633078/1/?rss

spain won. amen.

[NightWatcher]

1. Show team spirit, get suspended. Sexually molest kids.....

[valerief]

10. +1 trillion and counting! nt

[Stevenmarc]

2. It wasn't really the mass that was the problem it was the Vuvuzela version of Ave Maria

[msanthrope]

9. DUZY!!! n/t

[fishwax]

14. lol

:)

[Renew Deal]

15. lol

:rofl:

[xchrom]

3. Really? Much ado about a little 'team spirit? Nt

[Contrary1]

4. I figured this had something to do with Boehner.

My bad. :evilgrin:

[Towlie]

5. Of course Spain won! They have over 35 million Catholics vs. only 5 million in the Netherlands.

Spain: 80% Catholic with 35,766,769 members

Netherlands: 31% Catholic with 5,050,629 members

With statistics like that it looks like he should never have brought the game to God's attention in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country

[demoleft]

6. hehe, god had the yellow/red shirt on then that night. n/t

[BurtWorm]

7. I thought this was going to be about some Satanic mass involving Boehner

:evilfrown:

[SpiralHawk]

11. "You rang?" - The Boehner (Chickenhawk R - of course)

[dmallind]

8. Sorry - too much experience with N.Ireland troubles not to make a silly assumption here!

I somehow imagined a priest doing a Paisley imitation....

[KatyMan]

13. My first thought as well, especially given

marching day was last week...

[Generic Other]

16. I thought hell froze over!!

Faith and begorra!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Mass, schmass. Spain had JESUS on their side!

I kid you not!

[anarch]

17. title is fantastic...I only wish the team color happened to be black

because...lol.

[kenny blankenship]

18. The Catholic hierarchy probably doesn't like the color orange - due to its role in Protestantism

Orange is the national color of the Dutch soccer team and of the Netherlands due to the leading role of the princes of the House of Oranje in rebelling against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. First an "Orange" prince, William the Silent, led a campaign for the official tolerance of Calvinism in the northern provinces of the Netherlands (which weren't a country yet). Then he started a rebellion against the practices of the Spanish governor, and later converted to Calvinism himself and enlarged the rebellion to dispute the authority of the King of Spain over the Netherlands altogether. Although the color orange and the principality of Orange aren't related etymologically, and even though Orange is actually in France not the Netherlands, the Princes of Orange in the Netherlands put the color orange in their flag, cementing a symbolism with the Netherlands and Protestantism that would last and spread. William the Silent's sons by various marriages would complete the secession from Spain in 1648, making the Netherlands a Protestant kingdom on the European mainland, and aligning with Protestant England. A grandson of William of Orange, William III would become King of England in 1689 and the symbolism of Orange as a color linked to Protestantism would spread immediately to Ireland, where William III led an English army to defeat the deposed Catholic claimant to the throne, James II, who was also William's uncle AND father-in-law, in 1690.

[Wednesdays]

19. Maybe the bishop was secretly a Spaniard?

:shrug: