In think that many of the places that do this one would not wish to eat in anyway. However a certain fast food chain in France apparently chose to do this but not across all their branches. If you live in certain large cities you need to be careful. It's always boring to have to ask of course. In supermarkets the labelling should be clear (eh?) I am not naming names but you can search Google!
No way would I willingly eat Hala meat. i disapprove of that sort of nasty killing (have seen videos). I would boycott the restaurant.
I agree the Jesuits are good educationalists Carol. I also sent my (unbaptised) daughter to a Catholic school and she's done very well academically without any religious collateral damage. Many, many priests and nuns on the ground are doing a fine job. If only the Vatican also adopted their Christian values the Church would have a lot to offer :-) I don't hold out much hope though as this right wing pope has stacked the electorate with 67 like minded cardinals.
Mark - I think the answer to your original question, "Do Catholics have a sense of humour?" must be, " NO! not for the most part anyway" Anyway, I am going to go out in my car today and I shall wear a silver outfit, well actually - silver with grime and mud splatters. I hope your suitably coloured armour is still holding up to the battering! (yellow smiley face winking).
Ben, Let me draw your attention to the bit that says “This totally untrue statement comes from the belief that the pope insisted that any vehicle he rode in must match his outfit exactly."
The car is white.
Hi Brian, I thought we were all in that state anyway. How went Budapest?
Exactly right. Personally I am largely vegetarian since having move from being a city dweller to the country about ten years ago. Closer proximity to animals gave me at least a greater appreciation of their characters, personalities and family affections (and I am not being a romantic, stand by a field of cows and watch them interact).
Then I lived in the Middle East and a whole nest of foulness and cruelty appeared - stoning of dogs (dirty), beating to death overladen donkeys, and the disgusting Halal method of 'slaughtering' which is too polite, 'torturing to death, by drowning in their own blood' is better.
I read now that you cannot buy anything other than Halal meat at Stadt de France or even Twickenham for crying out loud! God knows what the fastfood industry serves up as hamburgers, despite the claims.
Yes, Mark in my youth and stupidity I also ate horsemeat, and found no problem with it, and as you know there are horsemeat butchers in many markets here in France, with to me mostly ailing customers who seem to have read of the 'goodness' of the meat, which may be true for all I know.
I confess to an ignorance here, is horsemeat acceptable to Muslims? It never came up as an issue in my three years there.
Just as a side issue, three years ago I was diagnosed as Diabetes 2 and 'grossly overweight' at 100kg, at 6'1", which seemed a bit extreme. To lose weight I gave up red meat (too expensive and lacking in taste for me anyway), cut down on beer, and started reading food packaging - which is a frightening exercise even when honest. I lost 25kg in 3 months without major effort.
Now I have kicked the Diabetes out (18 months now and clear). I wonder just how much of that has been down to not eating red meat?
Or, Norman, end up spinning out of control!
I love circular arguments, don't they make the world 'go round'?
About 20 years ago there was a joke in circulation. One version of it was the typical Eastend Jewish and the other was Irish Catholic. I barely remember the joke but what I do is the different responses. Not one Jew took it badly, even a local rabbi began to repeat it. Not one Irish person thought badly of it, indeed some probably put it in their repertoire of 'Paddy' jokes. Other people who were all sorts took it as it came. However, just a few RCs and Anglicans, all English (I don't mean this prejudicially) got rather politically correct and were cross about the joke.
At present Rome is not dealing with quite a hefty list of things such as child abuse, Vatican money laundering and the Mussolini money they have increased tenfold and some without reparations to the people his family took assets from to make that wealth. There are other issues such as gay marriage, women's right to choose abortion and more that are losing the church membership in Europe and has certainly begun to bite into their credibility in Latin America. Thus far there have been plenty of political cartoons preceding this man's resignation. There are now court cases beginning against the Vatican Council for their inaction in stopping and preventing child abuse.
I have seen much about Joseph Ratzinger's time as a Hitler Youth, that his Down Syndrome cousin was taken from the family and never heard of again. He has never commented on that part of his family history. I am the father of a Down child and find that somewhat offensive. Since 1945 he has had plenty of time and also as much as one might say it is a private family matter, in fact this man has been far too in the open since he was a bishop, let alone Pope, to get away with that silence. In comparison, what is the harm in a little humour?
So, for anybody to pick this comparatively little thing up is perhaps more a distraction than anything else. Belief is for each individual to make what he or she wants of it, if they dislike Mark's rather little contribution then they can simply biblically turn the other cheek or simply not look.
A catholic with a sense of humor would have thought: "I'll leave it, the Lord might have a reserved a place for him where countless hands and fingers will be placed in areas where a pride heterosexual uncomfortably doesn't expect it at all"
To be honest:for me personally this would do excellent in an editorial on the pedophile abuse that's been going on, but I fail to see the link between your car and the pope. You might have also chosen the link between your car and that underaged prostitute that's been linked to the footy-game, no?
OK but if you are not Muslim should you have the right to insist on NON halal meat? I only ask this because I am informed that certain establishments in France only serve halal (some quite big names) but don't really make this public knowledge unless you understand arabic symbols or logos. Similarly I am informed that in certain quartiers in Paris stalls in markets selling charcuterie have been forced out of business due to non customers spitting on pig products. As for meat balls (as opposed to beef balls) any decent chef knows that a mixture of pig and beef helps the flavour and the cooking.
No Celeste, I haven't sold THE car, it was another one!
Horse meat? Good eating - give me the mis labelled stuff.
Quite right, its the pig products in halal meat which should be a concern. Serving pig to muslims? Now that IS offensive!
Please refer my earlier post! Quezham!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Par contre I am off to the local gendarmerie tomorrow morning to sort out a local Brit who got breathalised last weekend. Not sure if he is a practising you know what but he went far out of his way to give a lift to a near neighbour and suffice it to say his reward may be in heaven but not in France in the immediate future.
The day has certainly produced some interesting views on this subject & reactions have varied considerably. Many have seen things from my perspective, some have felt that the humour was inappropriate & a few have been so far off the mark (no pun intended) as to be just a bit worrying. The saying goes "never discuss religion or politics" - never heeded by me! Some responses, I feel, were written as a reflex action & as such those lack a little credibility - one reply could not even bring himself to refer to me by name! I have gone through the replies so far & it seems to be 66% of contributors not finding it offensive. To the other 33% I wish to say thank you for your opinions & I'm sure you feel that you have made a point, but not one of you have told me exactly where in the text I overstepped the mark?
The advert was never meant to be offensive to anyone -if you are trying to sell something to someone it's a good idea to have them like you. People like to laugh so the quickest way to get people to like you is to make them laugh, even if it is at you. I am not daft! Picking a fight with a potential customer will not endear him to you but most people can see the funny side of most things. At no point was the Pope linked to putting hands in inappropriate places. There is no hint of this! The advert clearly refers to YOU - "you can go anywhere in a long white gown & when you emerge..." It then goes on to say "YOU could kiss anyone & nobody would doubt YOUR motives, even if YOUR hands were inappropriately placed!" The emphasis on you & your is to emphasise the targetted person only. The joke is that if the new owner were to dress up as A pope, the new owner might be mistaken for the real thing & as such would be held in high esteem to the level where social gaffes would be overlooked. No accusation of the Pope ever behaving in any way other than properly! Any insult lies in the readers interpretation of the ad. I refuse to be held responsible for the thought patterns of a minority. If someone wants to be offended by my ad, be my guest. Just don't tell me that you know I deliberately set out to upset you! ( That would require a level of perception few ever obtain!)
To the others that thought I went too far can I firstly thank you for your candid & honest replies. It is what I asked for & indeed got back in spades. May I ask you to go back & read the ad one last time?
By the way, this afternoon I was delivering a car with my lorry & pulled up across a minor road junction to check my satnav. Having sorted my route I went to pull away only to find that the air tanks had dumped all the air which locked the brakes on! I spent the next 3 hours waiting for a fitter to effect roadide repairs, a state of affairs I found uncomfortable as I'm sure the Gendarmes would not approve. Inevitably they arrived but just after the fitter. I was given a short time to do the repairs or they would have me recovered - at my expense! It was a long, cold, wet afternoon - divine retribution?
As I got older most of my reading became non-fiction and I found it hard to find some lighter fiction just for amusement. One author I found (and on an Indian theme) was H. R. F. Keating and his Inspector Ghote novels. Ripping good yarns (as they say).
It might be a good idea to start a sort of book club where we could just write a couple of line on what we're reading and what we think of it?
You're right Celeste. It's amusing that the RCC still see Ireland as "home turf" when so much has changed.
I couldn't agree less Veronique. I am very much an ex-Catholic. I made my first holy communion in London and found the UK Roman Catholic Church to be a friendly unthreatening organisation. Religion was fun. When I was eight we moved to Dublin and I discovered that this was in complete contrast to the Irish Roman Catholic Church's authoritarian and bullying approach. I've in no way been surprised by the revelations of child abuse and associated cover-ups by priests, brothers and nuns, only by the scale. The man running the RCC in Ireland today was himself involved in a serious cover up but has refused to resign, so the old arrogance is still there but the power is gone. I left the Irish Catholic Church in my early teens and I've been proved correct in my assessment of them. They are certainly not part of anything I am now.
Midnights children a book by Rushdie....all about the birth of India and the children that were born at the stroke of midnight that day.....really fab film..
I think the most popular name in England now for a boy is Mohammed...so you are right there Celeste..