Grailhunter
Well-Known Member
Take it up with Cardinal Newman.
Maybe the Catholic Church should allow libations of animal blood as one Catholic Archbishop suggested in 2000? Think of all the pagans who might convert.
Let Africans Honor Ancestors with Blood Libations in Mass Says Bishop
A Roman Catholic archbishop in South Africa has suggested that a libation of blood—a ritual pouring as a symbolic sacrifice honoring the ancestors of black Africans—should be incorporated into local Catholic liturgies such as the Mass. Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, of Bloemfontein, recently raised the issue in an article in South Africa's Catholic weekly publication, The Southern Cross."Sacrifice to the ancestors continues to be a very common practice among Africans," Archbishop Tlhagale said. "The slaughtering of an animal—cow or sheep—takes place wherever there is a funeral or a marriage feast, or in times of illness, unemployment, family feuds or the birth of a child."The practice should be considered within the context of inculturation, according to which local, indigenous culture and values are a means of presenting, reformulating and living the Christian faith, he suggested. In an interview with Ecumenical News International (ENI), Archbishop Tlhagale said that white Christians who balked at the idea of blood libations "are not talking from the same experiences" as black Africans. "There is a clashing of cultures. All I'm trying to argue is that even sophisticated black Christians slaughter animals as part of their tradition of communing with their ancestors at important occasions in their lives."Is there a way to integrate this custom with their Christian belief as a step towards meaningful inculturation?" he asked.The archbishop told The Southern Cross that he was not suggesting reverting to Old Testament times (when the Jewish people sometimes performed animal sacrifices), but the custom of spilling blood "is alive [in Africa], and cannot be ignored in the context of inculturation."
Constantine didn't run the Church - and all of that stuff is based largely on legend. From BOL!!!
Sorry Giuliano, just saw this, this is funny! I keep saying you have to know the culture and environment to understand the early church because.....its history, and it does not occur in a bubble. The Catholic Church would not have been there without Constantine and by no stretch of reality did the Church operate as an independent organization. The Roman Empire controlled all that it had power to control, definitely a hands on situation. The Church was continually under the protection of the Roman Empire and as the Empires continued they continued to attach themselves to the ruling party. "Constantine didn't run the Church!: He set the Church up in the Roman Empire, protected the Church, and funded the Church.....and influenced the Church. If it wasn't for the Greeks and Romans, I could say that the Church invented politics. "didn't run the Church!" Before Constantine the Church was not organized. Where do you think you got your Bibles from? Before Constantine they were loose manuscripts. The Catholic Church made it through the Dark Ages, but it did not do that without protection.