Having been raised Catholic, I absolutely love this story.

[WilliamPitt]

Vatican enraged by confessional expose
Italian magazine sought to prove priests’ teachings differ from official line

Reuters

VATICAN CITY - An Italian magazine report which sought to prove that what some priests tell Catholics in the confessional is not always what the Church preaches in public has enraged the Vatican. To write the cover story in this week’s L’Espresso, reporter Riccardo Bocca visited 24 churches in five large Italian cities and confessed sins he never committed or invented ethical dilemmas for the priest.

In one confessional in Naples he told the priest he felt guilty over his father’s death after the family allowed a doctor secretly to detach a respirator. The father had for years been paralysed, confined to a bed and unable to breathe autonomously. Although euthanasia is officially condemned by the Church, the priest told him not to worry too much because God would be the ultimate arbiter.

“If I had a wife, a father or a son who for years was alive only because of artificial life support, I would pull the plug too,” said the priest, who then gave him absolution.

In another confessional box he faked being HIV positive and was told by a priest that whether or not he used a condom in order not to pass the virus to the woman he loved was “a very personal matter of conscience”. The Church teaches officially that abstinence and monogamy -- not condoms -- are the best way to stop the spread of AIDS.

The author said the article was a piece of investigative reporting, but the Vatican reacted with scathing vehemence.

(snip)

Bocca said it was not his intention to show disrespect for the Catholic church or its sacraments. “What I wanted to show was the difficulties facing these priests as they try to carry out their duties in good conscience,” he told Reuters. “The differences I found were shocking even to me.”

On homosexuality, one priest told him: “Well, homosexuality is a tendency which is a valid human expression. There are even homosexual priests and lesbian nuns.” Asked if he should openly declare his homosexuality, the priest told him: “Generally the best thing to do is to be yourself. Come clean. Do what the English call ’coming out’.”

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16901892/

[PDJane]

1. I once helped edit a book

Written by a Jew and a lapsed Catholic on Catholic confession.

It was an eye-opener, and I will say that the church, like ivy and facial hair, covers a multitude of sins. There is also a fair amount of generosity by individuals within the church, which is an amazing dichotomy.

It's yet more proof of the difference between religion and faith.

[redqueen]

2. :)

Thanks for posting this.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. Ratzy must be apoplectic

However, nothing in that article surprises me. The "conservatives" tend to rise up through the Church hierarchy and more liberal priests remain in the trenches. :shrug:

[SaveElmer]

4. We former Catholics prefer the term "Recovering Catholic"...

You never quite eliminate all of the guilt no matter how hard you try!!! :-)


I've known quite a few Priests over the years who the Vatican would dissaprove of...

[etherealtruth]

9. Not all of us ...

Though, I consider myself agnostic, at most ... my experience with Catholicism left me nothing to recover from:shrug:

I definitely do have issues with the Catholic hierarchy and official church positions ... my experience being raised in an Irish Catholic household and attending a parochial school were really very good. I credit the Catholic church with my progressiveness. I learned to have a deep commitment to the most fragile among us and our environment.

Somehow, I missed all the guilt that is supposedly attached to Catholicism (?)

[redqueen]

10. Same here.

Well, I did get the guilt thing... I find it extremely easy to find some reason to feel guilty about the smallest and most ridiculous things... but I have nothing to recover from that is church-related.

[Bridget Burke]

14. Yet another lapsed Catholic who escaped unharmed.

It wasn't the Church, but the God concept I outgrew. I was raised far from the Irish Catholic part of the family (my father's side) & attended public school.

As far as guilt goes--it's hard to top Texas Fundamentalism! (We could get absolved.)

[JNelson6563]

13. Same here

I grew up in an Irish Catholic family, went to parochial school, etc. Am now an atheist but not due to any issues particular to Catholicism. My years in Catholic school were pretty happy.

Julie

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. What the Vatican says and the reality on the ground...

for Catholic priests and sisters have always been two different things, in my experience. Some of the sisters, brothers, and fathers I have had the pleasure of learning from when I was younger had no problem taking realities of modern life into consideration when teaching Catholicism or advising.

Big Bang and evolution? No problem, just so long as you believe God created the Big Bang. Birth control? No, the Catholic Church is against it, but I completely understand why you feel you need to use it and I think God will too.

I remember when I was four years old and the new parish priest scandalized us when he proclaimed we could chew the Host if we wanted to (!) -- and here we had thought we had to let the Host slowly melt in our mouths because it had been literally transformed into the Body of Christ by the blessing and it wouldn't be nice to chew the shit out of Christ! :rofl:

Thank the gods for the Catholic representatives who keep it real.

[Mandate My Ass]

6. LOL. Comedian Dane Cook did a bit about that

He said when he was a kid and had to fast before communion he fantasized about taking the chalice full of hosts off the priest, pouring milk in it and eating a bowl of Christ Chex. You have to be a Catholic to really appreciate that joke. :rofl:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. "Christ Chex"?!?!?!?!

That is fucking hysterical!!!! I hadn't heard that before. :rofl:

I had totally forgotten about the Sunday morning fasting thing -- yeegads. Oh, the many, many years of Sunday 9:00 mass followed by as many donuts as I could stuff in my face.

[Peace Patriot]

7. You will generally find more compassion and humanity at the bottom of the

Catholic Church's monolithic organization than at the top. Some of the finest progressives and humanitarians I have known are priests and nuns. If the Catholic Church could jettison its very un-Jesus-like topdown monarchy--with all its pretensions of royal robes and grandiose "absolutism" (claiming to speak for God, claiming to be the arbiter of who goes to Heaven and who doesn't)--its prejudice against women, and its scandalous associations with fascist governments and the super-rich, it could then truly claim a lineage back to its founder. The break from true Christianity occurred in the 5th century A.D. That rightwing turn needs correction.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Some real advice for the real world

Sometimes the harshness of having to deal with life on a daily basis is not trumped by dogmatic belief.

My uncle is a Catholic priest, a retired Naval Chaplain (twenty-eight years, retired a Lt. Commander), and was the Papal delegate to the Palestinian Authority, was once having a discussion about Catholic teachings with my tounger brother (who is Opus Dei). I was driving everyone to a family function at the time.

At the end of the discussion, which at times was somewhat heated, the ex-Navy man came out of my uncle. He said, "You know , ******, most of the things that are bothering you could be solved with a good f**k!"

Needless to say, I almost wrecked the car laughing.

[MissB]

12. There was a story on here yesterday

about a nun and a dying young man and how she helped procure the services of a prostitute for the guy.

I don't buy into the whole religion thing, but I find that many of the religious folks get grouped together as fundies. They're not all fundies.