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Pope Rails Against Rise of un-Christian Names
The Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1/11/10 | Nick Squires

Posted on 01/11/2011 9:57:46 AM PST by marshmallow

The Pope has warned parents against giving children celebrity-inspired names and urged them to turn to the Bible for inspiration instead.

While names such as Sienna and Scarlett have become fashionable in recent years, Pope Benedict XVI called for a return to tradition.

During Mass at the Sistine Chapel, he said: "Every baptised child acquires the character of the son of God, beginning with their Christian name, an unmistakable sign that the Holy Spirit causes man to be born anew in the womb of the Church." He added that a name was an "indelible seal" that set children off on a lifelong "journey of religious faith".

According to the Office for National Statistics, celebrity names such as Ashton – after the actor Ashton Kutcher – and Lily – after the singer Lily Allen – are among the most popular in England and Wales. The names celebrities give their own children can be even more exotic.

Sir Bob Geldof has daughters named Pixie and Peaches, while Victoria and David Beckham called their first son Brooklyn, after the district of New York. Katie Price, the glamour model, named her daughter Princess Tiaamii.

In Italy, the name of a child has particular significance. Children are often named after saints, who are considered a guiding force in their life.

The tradition, however, is increasingly under threat. Francesco Totti, the footballer, recently decided to call his daughter Chanel, while Flavio Briatore, the Formula One boss, named his newborn son Falso Nathan.

Cristina Odone, a former editor of The Catholic Herald who grew up in Italy, said: "There are so many of the church's traditions which we have come to ignore and which are actually meaningful and have a big spiritual significance. To deprive our children of that sense of having a protecting saint is to rob.......

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Culture
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To: TSgt

My daughter is 40. When she was baptized, I gave her a name that is a variant of Joan. I also called her Susanne. He balked at using her first name and invoked Santa Susanne. The pope is only suggesting that we give our children names that identify them as Christians. Sort of like naming a girl Maria rather than Courtney.


21 posted on 01/11/2011 10:13:08 AM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: marshmallow

While I personally prefer biblical names and all my children were given them, there is absolutely no scriptural requirement for them, and creating such a requirement unscriptural and un-Christian.

The idea that a child has a “protectting saint” is polytheistic and anti-Christian.

I do think that parents who give their children stupid, gimmicky names show a lack of love and respect for those children, though.


22 posted on 01/11/2011 10:13:27 AM PST by Above My Pay Grade
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To: Floribama; GeronL
I think if you named her Holy Spirit you’d be on stable ground.

Would Holly Spririt be close enough?

23 posted on 01/11/2011 10:15:10 AM PST by matt1234 (0bama's bunker phase: Nov. 2010 - Jan. 2013)
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To: TSgt
Yes, actually: the practice of supposed Christians giving profane or silly names to their kids in an attempt to be cool is "akin to your father putting on those ugly tube socks with shorts and being completely clueless about his awkward, nerdy, appearance."

Congratulations! That's an excellent analogy.

24 posted on 01/11/2011 10:15:22 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: marshmallow
We also have Madison, Ashley, Willow, Jaden, Bradley, etc.

While "Anquan Washington" may sound like a ridiculous name, I don't see how "Bradley Rizzuto" is much better.

25 posted on 01/11/2011 10:15:49 AM PST by wideawake
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To: matt1234

lol.

Holly Spirit, that might work.


26 posted on 01/11/2011 10:17:43 AM PST by GeronL (How DARE you have an opinion!!)
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To: ClearCase_guy
My sister-in-law is a Catholic.

So she says.

But clearly she doesn't attend Mass too frequently.

Last January, the first readings focused specifically on the Book of Nehemiah, in which Ezra features prominently.

27 posted on 01/11/2011 10:20:49 AM PST by wideawake
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To: ClearCase_guy
She thinks I'm a bad person because I am a Protestant. In her eyes, I am not a Christian.

Fascinating. There seem to be a huge number of folks, even supposed conservatives on this forum, who think folks are bad people because they're Catholic. In some folks' eyes, the Catholics are not Christians.

Now, I completely disagree with your SIL, and note further that her position is contradictory to that of the Church to which she professes membership.

I was NOT about to start an argument with her about "who knows the Bible better".

No need. "Ezra was a priest and teacher of the Hebrews in the Old Testament." No need to make a production of it.

28 posted on 01/11/2011 10:21:44 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: wideawake
True.

On my daughter's (largely Catholic) soccer team, we once had an "Autumn", a "Stormy", a "Summer" and a "Sky".

I guess it must have been a time when weather was playing a big part in peoples' thinking........ :-)

29 posted on 01/11/2011 10:25:11 AM PST by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future" -Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: Mitch86

He has no fascist power....he informs adults about what makes lives more meaningful to children....gives them more worth and connection to their traditions and family history. It connects the generations and creates traditions which is the most powerful aspect of transmitting culture to the next generation and create stable societies.

Marxism wants all history and traditions destroyed. Why? It is to destroy the Natural Family so he can redesign man and woman into his ungodly image. The Pope is the main force against this Marxian utopia which has always led to annihilation and a Culture of Death.

The German Pope understands the evil he is against. He also understands child psychology which you do not.

Ideas are the most important aspect of life. The Pope is reminding people that if cultures are to survive, they must have traditions that are meaningful.

I think the Pope is a voice of sanity in a world which is descending into the Nietzschean abyss and orgy of paganism where the origin of ideas are just uncritically adopted with total absence of reason and logic and concern with future of societies. It is nihilism.


30 posted on 01/11/2011 10:29:37 AM PST by savagesusie
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To: ClearCase_guy
In her eyes, I am not a Christian.

In the eyes of the Pope, you are. That underlines her tenuous grasp of the faith she claims to profess.

31 posted on 01/11/2011 10:29:46 AM PST by wideawake
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To: wideawake

She’s a MA Liberal in a big way. Very pro-Abortion. Very pro-Homosexual agenda. I don’t know why she considers herself Catholic, but she does. It’s not my place to declare that anyone is “not a good Christian”, but I have to say that she may be missing the mark by just a bit.


32 posted on 01/11/2011 10:34:30 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: marshmallow

“Rat Singer”

How’s that for a name?


33 posted on 01/11/2011 10:36:15 AM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: savagesusie

“Marxism wants all history and traditions destroyed. Why? It is to destroy the Natural Family so he can redesign man and woman into his ungodly image. The Pope is the main force against this Marxian utopia which has always led to annihilation and a Culture of Death.”

Also I sense, Pope Benedict has never forgotten his predecesor who had to stand up so many times to the oppressive forces of marxism in his own home nation, which even included celibrating Christmas midnight mass outside in a park of a city that was built but did not have a church to worship in.


34 posted on 01/11/2011 10:40:55 AM PST by Biggirl ("The Best Of Times, The Worse Of Times", Charles Dickens)
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To: Mitch86
Well, if he doesn't tell people whats what, then children will continue to be named Princess Pixie Peaches.
35 posted on 01/11/2011 10:41:26 AM PST by Celtic Cross
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To: ClearCase_guy
Theres a lot of people who never go to Church, hold every liberal notion under the sun, and yet continue to call themselves Catholic. Why? If they don't stand for a single thing The Church does, and in fact stand AGAINST The Church, whats the attraction?

Its a liberal in-your-face defiance thing, I guess.

36 posted on 01/11/2011 10:43:59 AM PST by Celtic Cross
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To: fishtank
Making fun of people's last names - great stuff. It may not go over so well for you in third grade next year, though. Their humor is a little more sophisticated.

BTW, in German "Ratzinger" is dialect for "councillor."

37 posted on 01/11/2011 10:44:25 AM PST by wideawake
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To: Celtic Cross

I’m sure that in spite of Benedict’s comments, some folks will continue impose names like “Princess Pixie Peaches” on their sons ... and then get upset when some prominent public figure (or even a regular schmoe like me) suggests that it is a ridiculous thing to do.


38 posted on 01/11/2011 10:47:38 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: marshmallow
All the pope need do is visit the US A-A "community"....giving their kids names from the old "homeland" when it's been .... what .... at least five generations since their "ancestors" were brought to the US???

"Proud of my heritage", my A$$!

39 posted on 01/11/2011 10:50:59 AM PST by Logic n' Reason ("Don't start coloring until you know where the lines go.")
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To: fishtank
Hey, its Rat ZINGER.

As in, he zings rats.

Perhap there were some rats crawling around in his pope-house, requiring him to purchase a pellet with which to zing them.

Just a thought.

40 posted on 01/11/2011 10:56:13 AM PST by Celtic Cross
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