Blasphemy Watch:

Dutch bishop gives priest red card for orange Mass (BBC)

A Catholic priest in the Netherlands who held an orange-themed Mass in support of the national football team has been suspended.

The Reverend Paul Vlaar wore an orange robe and decked out his church in orange before Sunday's World Cup final.

During the service he even acted as a goalkeeper as a parishioner kicked a football down the aisle.

But the Bishop of Haarlem said he had not paid sufficient respect to the sacred nature of the Eucharist.

Maybe we allowed ourselves to be swept along a little too much in the 'Oranje' euphoria

said Win Bijman Obdam parish vice-chairman.

Footage of the service in the village of Obdam north of Amsterdam made it on to YouTube and was broadcast around the world.

However, it failed to impress Bishop Jozef Punt.

In a statement, he said the service had "caused outrage" in the Netherlands and overseas. He ordered Mr Vlaar to enter "a period of reflection" and suspended him from his duties.

Another case of "the spirit of Vatican II". A Mass that doesn't call the popular culture to conversion, but allows the popular culture to corrupt the worship of God. This would have been unnoticed if the involvement of the priest was merely to show enthusiasm for the team in a secular setting, but to infiltrate it into the Mass reveals a disturbing lack of insight into what the Mass is:

The Eucharist is the very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus which he instituted to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until his return in glory. Thus he entrusted to his Church this memorial of his death and Resurrection. It is a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet, in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us. (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 271)

Barack Obama: blasphemer

I thought that when the occasion would come for mentioning the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, and if we are to take Obama at his word, his Savior as well, he would do so with the same respect he has shown for the faith of Islam. He is careful to say add to the mention of the Prophet Mohamed "Peace be upon him". His pronunciation of the Holy Q'ran (Koran) is with a clipped "k=" and not a "ko-" as in "coconut". He is correctly respectful to Islam. What about his own faith, Christianity?

At an appearance at Georgetown University, a nominally Catholic university, his advance team demanded that sacred images be covered up. The greater scandal here was that the Jesuit administration of Georgetown complied.

But when it came to Obama mentioning the Holy Name with the same respect he has shown for the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the name of The Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, he has failed, in fact he has blasphemed.

"And then you've got ads that are scaring the bejeezus out of everybody."

There are "mock oaths" -- a legacy of film and television codes of decency. Perry White had "Great Caesar's Ghost" and Yosemite Sam had "Jumping Jehosphat". We can only hope that this only a lame attempt at humor.

I have been looking for a sincere and respected invocation of the name of Jesus by the President and have yet to find it. I will keep looking.

Are you shocked?
Octomom Nadya Suleman's Pregnant Nun Halloween Costume: AOL

There's no consensus among various sources on the Internet and no first person interviews in which she states her religion. However, none of them suggest that she is Roman Catholic. What's remarkable is how these stories and interviews avoid the question of her religion, if any.

There's a crude term to apply to people without talent or ability who keep doing outrageous things in order to extend their 15 minutes of fame as long as they can. I won't use the term, but Suleman is one.

The online media I think would have avoided this story but for the Catholic ridicule aspect of this. I wonder if Suleman has actually met a religious sister or her encounter with the religious habit has been only in the companionship of the other blasphemers. Certainly with Halloween coming, we can expect to see the usual mockery of Christianity, but woe to them who would blaspheme against Islam.

I will pray a Rosary tonight for reparation for all the Halloween-enabled mockery of Christ, the Catholic Church, and all that is Catholic and Christian.

Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of The Lord, Thy God In Vain.

I swear to God, I'm fucking taking this ball and I'm shoving it down your fucking throat.

New York Times

I am attempting to find the orgin of this image, but enjoy it in the present moment.

Blasphemy Dept.

The Local: Germany's News in English. Klinsmann suing daily over crucifixion cover

Bayern Munich coach Jürgen Klinsmann is taking legal action against a German daily after it printed an image of him being crucified on the front page of its Easter edition, the paper said on Tuesday.

It's a post-Christian world over there.

The only time you see Christian imagery is when it is being mocked.

Christian Post: Malaysia Bans Catholic Paper for Use of 'Allah'

The Malaysian government has put a stop to a Catholic newspaper over the use of the word “Allah” in its Malay-language edition, the paper’s editor reported Thursday.

Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of The Herald weekly newspaper, said the government ordered the Malay edition to stop running until courts resolve a ban on the paper’s use of “Allah” to refer to God, according to the news site Malaysiakini.com.

“The prohibition amounts to persecution,” Andrew told The Associated Press. “It curtails our freedom of expression and diminishes our rights as citizens…. We are perplexed and we do not think that the prohibition is on solid legal ground.”

Malaysia has a Muslim-majority. It often, with Turkey, is near the top of the lists of Muslim-dominated countries which claim to have a tolerance of non-Islam religions. This action doesn't seem to be an expression of that.

"Allah" is not a name but the generic word for God which is an Arabic word which predates the prophet Mohammad. Its use by a Catholic newspaper is not blasphemous.

Street-level church bell stolen

WABC
WCBS-TV
New York Daily News

The parish St. Mary Help of Christians, is the neighbor of my own. The 650 pound bell was cast for the old church in 1888, moved into the new, and then recently removed to be part of a commons.

The scrap value is about $1,000. A replacement could could $6,000 to $10,000 if they chose to replace it.

They cried out -- Give us Frosty

Man protests commercialized Christmas by crucifying Santa - literally : New York Daily News

If you've stood in one line too many at the mall as you watched your bank account dwindle and your credit debt rise this holiday season, you might find a kindred spirit in Art Conrad.

The Bremerton, Wash., resident is fed up with the commercial aspects of Christmas, and he's voicing his protest in the form of some unorthodox holiday decorating: Santa on the cross.

Conrad has nailed jolly old St. Nick to a 15-foot crucifix in front of his home.

"Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be," Conrad said. "Now he's the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff."

For his far flung friends who may not be able to see the holiday decor up close, Conrad used a photo of his crucified Santa for his Christmas cards, along with the message "Santa died for your MasterCard."...

Could Art not have predicted that this would be a national story and even bigger, a Drudge headline?

It is shocking on its own. The great problem I have is that it denigrates the real symbol of the passion of Jesus Christ to make a point with which I have some sympathy.

For some, Santa is a sacred symbol. For others, the cross is a sacred symbol. Art Conrad offends us all.