Posted on 11/09/2007 1:30:36 PM PST by Gamecock
LONDON (Reuters) - A Roman Catholic bishop in the city of Portsmouth is backing a campaign to legalise brothels without in any way condoning them.
The Right Reverend Crispian Hollis supported the local branch of the Women's Institute which wants to licence brothels.
"If you are going to take a pragmatic view and say prostitution happens, I think there is a need to make sure it's as well regulated as possible for the health of people involved and for the safety of the ladies themselves," Hollis said.
"That's not to say I approve of prostitution in any way. I would be very much happier if there was no prostitution in Portsmouth," he told The Portsmouth News.
"But it's going to be there whatever we do and it has been from time immemorial. So I think that is something we have to be realistic about."
His comments won praise from Rachel Frost, from the International Union for Sex Workers.
"The bishop should be commended for having the guts to come out and say that," she said.
Give him the can!
Ping
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Eternity Road
Foreign priests in U.K. undergo training in ‘Britishness’
Canterbury, England
A three-week course designed to introduce foreign priests to the British way of doing things in the Roman Catholic church has opened at Ushaw College outside Durham in Northumberland, England.
The first group of seven priests is from India, Nigeria and Poland.
“Some foreign priests working in Britain tend to be too dogmatic about the church’s moral rightness on just about everything,” said Rev. Terry Drainey the president of Ushaw College. “That’s not how we do things here. This course shows how we deal with a whole range of issues affecting Catholics, including the role of women, divorce, the lay ministry and homosexuality.”
It is the first course of its kind and is the brainchild of Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth.
The number of foreign priests in Britain is rising as the number of home-grown priests declines. The priests undergoing training in “Britishness” come from English and Welsh parishes.
The three-week program costs £1,500 ($3,000).
Mr. Drainey said most foreign priests have a sound knowledge of English. “But we have a teacher who comes in from Newcastle University to help with colloquialisms and pronunciation.” He noted, “I worked in Africa for six years and when I arrived in Kenya, I was put on a three-month course to learn something about local languages and culture and found that an enormous help.
Making a flippant remark about a cleric and altar boys. How original (sarcasm).
That's utter garbage. I'm sorry to see that a bishop is attached to it.
We need to be transforming the culture, not conforming to it. I hope priests who have to undergo this course on learning to teach error "be British" still maintain that rigidity of orthodoxy once they're done.
Because I don't care "how they do things there."
I know they threw away giant portions of scripture, but this man must have a blank copy that he fills in as he goes!
“Go along to get along”, right? So much for taking a stand for God and His word.
Just wanted to add:
>>”That’s not to say I approve of prostitution in any way.”<<
“Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-31
So the only reasonable alternative is to openly endorse such sin?
Alcohol abuse is a vice. More, it's highly destructive of its practitioners. But it's not against the law. The law tolerates drunkenness, even though nearly everyone condemns it. The alternative was tried once; it didn't work out so well.
Television addiction is a vice. So is excessive shopping. Care to argue for legal action against them?
Gluttony is a vice, as are wrath, vanity, greed, sloth, envy, and lust. All of these have ruinous effects upon those who succumb to them, which is why they're called the seven deadly sins. But anyone who would claim that it's therefore the obligation of the State to act against them with the force of law belongs either in a mental hospital or in John Calvin's Geneva.
It's forgivable to argue that a vice should be against the law before we have any information on the subject. But once that's been tried and has produced still worse conditions -- and not just in one or two places, but in a multitude of places and times around the world -- it's time to admit to the limits of the law as an instrument for human improvement. Not everything that's bad for you can be suppressed by force to good effect. In quite a number of cases, we have to allow people to choose their sins, and be punished by them rather than for them, simply because the alternative carries an unacceptable cost.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Eternity Road
We live in a values-free society where what is legal is what is moral.
Drinking, shopping, and even gambling are not in themselves sinful. Anything carried to excess can be sinful, of course, and society cannot legislate against it, except to control its effects (drunk driving laws, for example).
But using women to whom you are not married for sex is always sinful, so it’s not acceptable even in degrees, like alcohol use.
A society that thinks women are so worthless that the best thing they can do is sell their bodies deprives them of their dignity as human beings. And if this is legalized, the effect is to make it “moral” in the minds of most people.
Only feminists who call prostitutes “sex workers” could adopt your position.
This bishop is in rebellion against Rome and has essentially refused to permit the Motu Proprio (the decree permitting the old Mass again). I hope he gets the slap down FAST! Another bishop was recently removed for something similar.
Or is this an instance where we need to love the sinner but hate the sin?
Hot flash for you, livius: Many things are sinful by Christian standards that are, nevertheless, still legal! In all fifty states! This is a preponderantly Christian society, but it's a secular polity, by Constitutional design. If a devout Catholic such as myself can live with that, perhaps you can, too.
Learn how to argue before you cross swords with me again. All you've done here is embarrass yourself.
Freedom , Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Eternity Road
I may decide I support legalization of prostitution, but even if so, I would not equate laws that ban it with the ridiculous laws about what you can eat and where you can smoke. The people can decide that the legal sanction of prostitution would weaken the community. When the sex for hire is visible for all to see, folks will be more likely to view women in a degraded way.
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