Pope Says Sundays for God, Not Sports

Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | Fri, Mar 26, 2004 | Reuters

[Murtyo]

VATICAN CITY () - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) on Friday said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports.

"When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of 'weekend' dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens," the pontiff said in a speech to Australian bishops.

John Paul criticized the "culture of the 'here and now,'" urging Church leaders to "lead men and women from the shadows of moral confusion and ambiguous thinking."

The 83-year-old pope also encouraged Christians, especially young people, to remain faithful to Sunday Mass, saying the secular culture was undermining family life.

[Murtyo]

how come Seattle area St Vincent de Paul shops are open on Sundays??

[OXENinFLA]

SUNDAY!!!!SUNDAY!!!!SUNDAY!!!!

[Revolting cat!]

Waaaah! All the best department store sales are on Sundays!

[smith288]

Baptists unite!!!

[stylin_geek]

"And on the seventh day ye shall rest"

But Sunday is the first day of the week.....

[Revolting cat!]

Sunday will never be the same!

[Catspaw]

On Sundays here in Packerland, the priests wear vestments of Green & Gold and make sure everyone is out of church in time for kickoff. There's also a convent where the nuns are avid Packers fans. There's no way the Packers are going to change their schedule to accomodate the Pope. OTOH, if the devout decide to follow the Pope, it will free up some season tickets.

[alloysteel]

WHAT? And take away to only day the working class has to indulge in soccer?

And what about the leisure class, don't they NEED to unwind from all the tension they have incurred during the week, by lying supine before the TV?

[madison10]

Isn't watching sports considered to be "restful?" Of course, the players have to work...

Who said the Sabbath had to be on Sunday?

[TheBigB]

What if the Angels, Padres, or Cardinals are playing?

[patriot_wes]

Pope Says Sundays for God, Not Sports

no actually the sabbath is supposed to be for God and it ain't Sungod Sunday! AND THE SHOPS ARE ABOUT MONEY!

[Catspaw]

OMG, Brett Favre is Catholic. What if he decides not to play?

I may faint.

[Constitution Day]

That thang got a Hemi?

[onedoug]

"Remember the Sabbath, to keep it Holy."

The operative word is, "Holy". What sanctifies life?

[GreenLanternCorps]

But O'Charley's give you 10% off if you bring your church bulletin.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the great pitchers from the first half of the 20th Century (I think it was Christy Mathewson) never pitched on Sundays.

Also, these comments by the pope remind me of one of the two parallel themes in the movie Chariots of Fire, in which the Scottish track legend Eric Liddell refused to race in the 100-meter dash at the 1924 Olympics in Paris because the preliminary heats were held on a Sunday.

[FNU LNU]

In Mt. 28.1, the sabbath and the first day of the week were two different days. They still are:

"the women rested on the sabbath, but on the first day of the week..."

Besides, Christians were never commanded to keep the sabbath.

[Warren_Piece]

Here's a great story:

In (Cy) Young's day, some ballplayers would not play on Sunday; Christy Mathewson and Branch Rickey are two examples. Young didn't for several years, and when he deviated from that policy his reason was scriptural.

When Young was still with the (Cleveland) Spiders, they had a Sunday game scheduled, and a shortage of healthy pitchers. Pat Tebeau, the Cleveland manager, was at his wits' end; Young was exactly what he needed, but he knew better than to ask. Young, unlike a lot of ballplayers then or since, was a man of strict moral principle. But — to everyone's surprise, Young showed up shortly before game time, and informed a flabbergasted Tebeau that he was ready to pitch. Tebeau had sense enough not to ask why, but the reporter who interviewed Young after the game was under no such constraint. And did HE get an answer? What Young told him was, "I was reading the Bible last night, and I came upon a verse that says that if an ass or an ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath, it's permissible to rescue this. And I figured that Tebeau was in a pretty deep hole, and since he's the biggest jackass I ever met, I'd probably better give him a hand." (For those who want to know, the passage to which Young referred is Luke 14:5.)

[FNU LNU]

In addition, even Jews weren't commanded to assemble on the weekly sabbath. This was a tradition they brought back from Babylonian captivity. The sabbath was a day of rest.

[kellynla]

"One of the great pitchers from the first half of the 20th Century (I think it was Christy Mathewson) never pitched on Sundays."

And Dodger's Shawn Green and Sandy Kofax didn't play on
Yom Kippur.