Berlusconi tells Vatican to lift ban on taking communion

[kskiska]

Source: The Guardian

After a week pushing for a change in the law to halt his corruption trial, Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, set his sights even higher at the weekend by demanding the Catholic church kill off a rule which stops him taking communion because he is divorced and remarried.

Evidently on a roll and wearing a white panama hat, a relaxed-looking Berlusconi sat in the front row at a service in a church near his Sardinian villa on Saturday as the bishop approached the congregation to offer communion.

"When are you going to change this rule that stops me taking communion?" Berlusconi asked the startled bishop, who had been planning to move swiftly past the prime minister without stopping to pop a wafer in his mouth.

(snip)

Until now, the Italian prime minister and media mogul has remained an unwavering supporter of the Vatican's policy of promoting family values and attacking single-sex unions. Berlusconi showed up at last year's church-run Family Day demonstration in Rome, prompting critics to joke that he was well qualified to do so since he had so many families of his own.

(snip)

"I told him he could take the matter to a higher level, given that he has just been received by the Pope at the Vatican," (Bjshop) Sanguinetti told the Italian daily La Stampa.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/catholicism.italy

[CatholicEdHead]

1. That rule has been around a long time and is not going anywhere soon

It is still a wacky rule, but it has been around for many, many years and the current group in the Vatican will not be changing it anytime soon. If anything expect more restrictions, not less.

[Gman]

5. I couldn't receive Communion either

until my previous marriage was annulled, my wife became a Catholic and we were married in the Church. That's the rules. I knew it and was fine with it.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Mussolini tried to give marching orders to the Pope.

On a side note, I'll bet Rudy Giuliani is appreciative of the gesture by Berlusconi.

[Scairp]

7. Yeah

These two should really get together. If they are such good Catholics they would accept this excommunication and live with it. Isn't that what devotion is all about, not being a "cafeteria" Catholic, picking and choosing the parts you like while rejecting others you don't? Such hypocrites.

[catrose]

8. I believe the Pope served communion to Giuliani

I was shocked, shocked I tell you. Particularly when American bishops deny politicians communion based on their beliefs.

[rox63]

3. Yeah, like they're going to change it just for him...

:eyes:

I hope he's not holding his breath. Then again, he is a RWer. So go ahead and hold your breath, Silvio.

[pattmarty]

4. Wasn't something like this tried in England a couple of hundred years ago?

[dipsydoodle]

6. There's a ban on me taking communion too

but then as I'm not Catholic it don't fuss me none.

[Ian David]

10. You can take communion. But then Jesus will hatch inside your stomach and leap from your chest. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

11. That's the other reason

:rofl:

[LiberalFighter]

12. Is that why? The church is scared of Jesus returning?

[Ian David]

13. Ever see the movie "Pet Sematary"? n/t

[Ian David]

9. Which one will be suicided first? Berlusconi or Der Popenfuhrer? n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. how does chewing on a piece of tasteless unleavened bread

make anyone a better person? How does attending a meeting in which make believe tales are repeated make one "blessed?" How many games have the Notre Dame fighting irish won only because enough people were on their knees praying?

[Javaman]

15. Because chewing on a piece of tasteless unleavened bread and

choaking it down takes guts!!! guts, I tells ya, guts!

:rofl:

[Nihil]

16. That's odd ...

I don't mean that Berlusconi is sufficiently out of touch as to demand that
the church reverse behaviour that dates back for centuries but this bit:
> ... wearing a white panama hat, a relaxed-looking Berlusconi
> sat in the front row at a service in a church near his Sardinian villa ...

Since when have *men* worn hats in the congregation of a Catholic church??
It used to be the rule that women wore hats or scarves, etc., but men always
had to remove their hat before entering ...

:shrug:

[LeftishBrit]

17. Just like Henry VIII! Maybe he'll start his own church.

In any case, I hope he ends up in jail.