Charlie Rose

jpaulden  02/23/2013 04:50 AM Report

Mr Wills made a statement on this show as if it was unknown...something akin to, "...Jesus went to the Temple..." Being that Jesus was a rabbi and would only go to a Jewish Temple suggests Mr Wills statement indicates the continued hiding of facts by the Romans who became the Roman Catholics...to distort history to maintain fascist holds on people through fear by misinformation and harsher propaganda. Had he been writing about people who fly airplanes then his statement would have been as elementary as, "The Pilot sat in the cockpit..."...what , as if we supposed he sat in coach or business class to fly the plane? We need to banish Catholicism from the shores of America...we cannot have large groups of people being loyal to fascist dicatatorsand impeding our path for a better democracy. If we want democracy to continue to struggle free from its current bound form, then we must remove the Big C from our shores. The big C is a vine choking democracy in America. We have tasaxtion without reasonable representation of the peoples voice now...because Congress is fascist and supports business more than the people...Yes, Jesus was a rabbi in the Jewish Temple....John Boehner is a fascist supporter of Big Business pitted against the will of the people..... Mr. Wills is a minimally informed Catholic holding on to a thread of hope that somehow Priests can save the day....they cannot...just as John Boehner cannot lead...but simply be an obstacle impeding a more true democracy and is comparable to the big C church impeding a more true form of Christianity from blossoming here in the USA.

lenoredelorenzo  02/22/2013 08:05 PM Report

It is unfortunate that Mr. Rose chose to interview Garry Wills on matters of the Catholic Church. I wish he had chosen someone who is a Catholic.

lenoredelorenzo  02/22/2013 07:59 PM Report

It's unfortunate that Mr. Rose chose to interview Garry Wills on matters of the Catholic Church. I wish he had chosen someone who is actually a Catholic.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/21/2013 10:06 PM Report

Leo Cooney set up the geriatrics program at Yale University.

COONEY: Yeah, I thought it was a very wise decision. I know nothing about Pope Benedict's health, either cognitive or physical functions, but I think it's a good idea to step away from those kinds of responsibilities when you're 85.

COONEY: Yeah, the prevalence of dementia roughly doubles every five years after the age of 70. So, from 70 to 75, it would be 3 percent, 75 to 80, 6 percent, 80 to 85, 12 percent, 85 to 90, 25 percent and 90 plus, 50 percent. So it becomes a very prevalent condition as one ages.

The activities of daily living are the ability to get out of bed by yourself, walk by yourself, dress yourself, bathe yourself, feed yourself and toilet yourself.

The instrumental activities of daily living are the more advanced things, such as preparing a meal, driving a car, cleaning a house, shopping, using a telephone.

And those things are relatively easy to evaluate. A self-report is pretty good. People can tell you what they can do and they can't do.

As far as their cognition is concerned, we use a very simple test called a mini-cog. We'll give them three words, ask them to repeat the three words. We ask them to draw the face of a clock and put the hands in the proper position and we'll give them a time like 1:45 and then ask for the three words back.

That doesn't take very long, but it's a reasonably good screen of cognitive problems.

(Perhaps this Pope made the best decision of any priest anywhere considering the possible downside.)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/21/2013 09:58 PM Report

Gary sounds like he is at the Martin Luther end of Catholicism.

Gary, perhaps you should nail your book to a door?

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/21/2013 09:49 PM Report

Communion is remembering Christ, eating to remember him, his deeds, his teachings, his love.

Paul even writes not to gorge oneself because it is not a feast though the lack of food and the hunger pains of the time might have said otherwise.

Transubstantiation has to be cannibalism. You are drinking actual blood. You are eating an actual body. Does that sound like Christ to anyone?

If this were even remotely Christ-like then Christ would have cut himself like some Goth and had his 12 friends suck his blood.

(One can only imagine what he would have had to do for his body.)

GROSS!

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/21/2013 09:34 PM Report

Why priests, indeed.

Are priests the best of best in the Church? Then why no reproduction?

Are priests the ones with the lowest sex drives? Then what other drives are also sub-par?

Did God make orgasms and laughter two of his greatest gifts? Then why would he punish priests?

The Levites were the priests. This is the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance" (Deuteronomy 18:2). The Tribe of Levi served particular religious duties for the Israelites and had political responsibilities as well. In return, the landed tribes were expected to give tithe to the Levites, particularly the tithe known as the Maaser Rishon or Levite Tithe.

The New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews draws a distinction between the Jewish priesthood and the high priesthood of Christ; it teaches that the sacrificial atonement by Jesus Christ on Calvary has made the Jewish priesthood and its prescribed ritual sacrifices redundant, along with the rest of the ceremonial acts of the Mosaic law. Thus, for Christians, Christ himself is the only high priest, and Christians have no priesthood independent or distinct from participation in the priesthood of Christ, the head of the Church. The one sacrifice of Christ, which he offered "once for all" (Hebrews 10:10) on the Cross, provides eternal sanctification and redemption.

Why priests, indeed.

cybrzone  02/21/2013 08:31 PM Report

Regarding celibacy..check out the Swami order with celebacy. Their vows are of high spiritual order, relinquishing all attatchments to the material...the spiritual realm is the reality... Deacons serve the church, and the orthodox christian churches allow priests to marry... there should be more choice in the Roman C church but if a priest wants to remain celebate than that is between him and God...no need for interference from some peanut gallery!

cybrzone  02/21/2013 08:24 PM Report

Garry Wills before criticizing Holy Communion should listen very carefully to the prayers said before HC..Let Your Spirit descend upon these gifts so that they may become the body and blood of Christ... HC is not material it is spiritual as is the Communion with all Christians...

KathieBondar  02/21/2013 05:06 PM Report

I have two major issues with the Vatican

1. the denial of equal rights within the church to women

2. their unwillingness to address the celibacy issue

Women: I would not want to be part of any relationship where I am considered second class, and no woman should accept that role.

Celibacy: The sex abuse scandals are imploding the Catholic church. Pity. To my knowledge the church now has unordained layman priests male or female, who can be married and have children while performing certain functions. So, why not make this universal, delay ordination until one has raised a family and is ready to dedicate him/herself fully to the church.

kverkus  02/21/2013 02:13 PM Report

i agree with your correspondent from rome. ratzinger done one great action for himself and church. after this action of resigning door for reforms are widely open. maybe it is hard to change church organization but in chatolicism key for every reform is pope because he is autocratic ruler.

Ellen_Dibble  02/21/2013 01:22 PM Report

Institutions can be like a bit like the Titanic, unwieldy, or consider them as fabric woven of old ideas and ways that seem to hold it together. So a pope who had witnesses the Nazi rise to power, who I think must have developed a huge respect for the value of unifying institutions that could stand outside of political realities, a pope who had for years been the keeper of the doctrine, whatever that committee was called, he would be both radically conservative/dogmatic and potentially radically transformative. It seems to me what he prescribed for the church at large could have created an assortment of theological dilemmas worthy of Einstein's attention within his awareness. I doubt you can separate the man from those issues, but maybe he had got as far as God would let him go, as pope (so to speak). That's what I think. As for Garry Wills, I do admire Catholics who speak out. My experience is that the more dogmatic the church, the less people talk about it. It says something to me that St. Augustine is where Wills turns; that's quite a stretch. It seems appropriate that Latin was used for centuries, for a Catholic population who were not expected to understand the words anyway. I'm thinking that sitting in the same pews week-in/week-out is a large part of the cohesion in a church, and that the less there can be of debate the better. Conversation can stick to the weather and plans for holidays. If the next pope breaks that mold, I'll be listening.

anne4444  02/21/2013 12:58 PM Report

Please help for full disclosure of space stations (ISS and Tiangong), including major parts built by the Extra-Terrestrials. They may connect to human consciousness on earth. If not, there will be no space stations in the near future.

REMant  02/21/2013 12:10 PM Report

Considering how many ppl disliked this pope just a few years ago, it is rather amazing to me they are now treating him like John 22 or 23. It has to be chalked up to sheer idolatry. He has I believe appointed 67 of the 117 or so cardinals eligible to elect the next one, so I'd be surprised if it's one from Africa or Latin America.

I've always said the one thing which really describes Catholicism is that it is catholic, but Wills sounds like Ockham. It is not surprising he is fond of Augustine.

Jesus might have added priests to the poor we will always have with us. They rewrote, it appears, a good part of the Bible to suit themselves too, and tho in decline, still control the Holy Mother Church, as well as a good part of Protestantism, despite, or more likely, because of, an increasing belief in free grace.

It's a shame, in any case, that he didn't follow a similar line in writing about American history and institutions, particularly that ridiculous piece on the 2nd Amendment in NYRB some years ago, but it appears he's never seen the connection between confession and polity.