But even if I did love clowns, I'd still say: What the heck is wrong with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee?!? The inimitable Diogenes over at the Catholic World News blog draws attention to the archdiocesan newspaper's puffing of a priest who gads about in clown drag -- Father's nom de clown is "Stripes" -- and calls it "ministry." Writes Diogenes:
Why not feature a man who finds the spiritual satisfactions of his priestly life -- not in social work or dance or twisting balloons into animal shapes -- but in sacramental ministry? After all, do we want to entice into the priesthood the kind of 22-year-old male that would be attracted by Stripes?
Clowns belong in the circus. Priests belong in church. Any priest who dresses up like a clown forfeits any claim to spiritual authority, as far as I'm concerned. One of these days, the "Godspell" generation will pass from our midst. Hurry!
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Don't like clowns either. Would rather priests not dress up as clowns even off duty, but can't say there ought to be a canon law against it. Priests ski, keep many birds and build special aviaries for them in the churchyard, ride motorcycles, grow flowers, drive the schoolbus, serve on the emergency squad, have two big dogs, have one small ugly dog, have cats, have several aquariums full of fish, listen to and play rock music, listen to and play polkas, are chess fanatics ...and many many other not specially priestly but essentially innocent attachments, interests and passions. So if one wants to be a clown, ok. I'd prefer that it not be called a "ministry." Never never never never to "clown masses" or any such travesties. Susan Peterson
I very heartily agree with Susan on this one. No to the "clown masses" and etc. something we have thankfully never seen in our diocese. We do however have a wonderful Orthodox priest in the area who dressed up as St. Nicholas similar to one that was mentioned in another post. Both Orthodox and non-Orthodox kids had a blast meeting him at a St. Nick festival held here in town. By far the only truly wacky thing I can remember a priest in this diocese doing was many years ago -- way back in the late 70s -- when a priest connected to my Catholic school agreed to be one of several "parish celebrities" to get in a dunking booth to raise money desperately needed to fix the school's air conditioning and heating system. (We live in South Carolina -- 95 degree summers, often 30 degrees in winter.) The pastor and bishop approved it. The dunking booth was a hit. We had air conditioning when school started a few weeks later...
"Man judges by outward appearances, but God judges a man's heart" - rebeccat Do you know why scripture validates this aphorism (thanks for the reference, Sigaliris)? Because God is the only one who can judge the heart. Everyone else, in the absense of other information, judges by appearances... and should.
St_Irenaeus, I looked that up in the New International Version, but it's not too different in the other Bibles I have around here. New American Bible: Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart. New Jerusalem Bible: God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart. New Revised Standard Version:for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. I don't know why your program didn't find it. btw, if what you are saying is that you seek an incarnational, sacramental faith that treats humans as integral creatures rather than ghosts in a machine, I'm with you there.
I think clowns are kinda creepy too. So are baby dolls that have the moving eyes. Scary, I tell ya! Maybe I've been watching too many horror movies again. LOL
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