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Author Topic:   The Annual War over Christmas -- by christians
caffeine
Member (Idle past 1045 days)
Posts: 1800
From: Prague, Czech Republic
Joined: 10-22-2008


(1)
Message 46 of 63 (645101)
12-23-2011 7:55 AM
Reply to: Message 44 by Buzsaw
12-23-2011 12:37 AM


Re: Scrooge Weighs In
The Roman Emperor Constantine professed Christianity in the year 312? or so after he won a battle, before which he had an unusual revelation. I don't remember the specifics. He became the first pontifix maximus (pope), declaring that there should be only one religion. Thus he became ruler of both the only lawful church and the state/empire.
You've got things a bit confused here. Constantine wasn't the first Pontifex Maximus, and he didn't acquire this position due to his conversion. Pontifex Maximus was the traditional post of the leader of religious life in Rome. He was the one with the job of arranging religious festivals. It was originally a temporary position but, like many of Rome's significant public offices, it was one of the titles taken by Augustus at the creation of the Empire that was inherited by subsequent emperors. You're right that it was in his role as Pontifex Maximus that Constantine Christianised the festivals of Rome. The Emperor Gratian gave up the title of Pontifex a few decades later, recognising that religious things were the province of the Church, and the Bishops of Rome took the title for themselves.

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 Message 44 by Buzsaw, posted 12-23-2011 12:37 AM Buzsaw has replied

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caffeine
Member (Idle past 1045 days)
Posts: 1800
From: Prague, Czech Republic
Joined: 10-22-2008


Message 62 of 63 (646542)
01-05-2012 5:36 AM
Reply to: Message 61 by Artemis Entreri
01-04-2012 11:55 AM


Re: ORLY
Dia de los Muertos, y los Inocentes, y Angelitos are holidays that were more recently pagan (Aztec) that have been adopted by the local people who converted, and have spread (Araw ng mga Patay in the Phillippines) to some places but not others. It was not an active church policy to create this celebration, but more of something that happened. You can say they shouldn’t let it happen, but to say that the RCC specifically created these combinations is silly. The Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), is not big in the United States except in areas with a large Mexican population (Arizona, California, and Texas), if you were correct and the church was actively promoting aspects of paganism then Irish Catholic kids in Massachusetts would also be instructed in the Day of the Dead, and it would be another holiday here in the USA. Just as people in Honduras would celebrate St. Patrick's day with a big parade and a day of fun in the middle of Lent, but that is not the case, is it?
More's the point, many of the cults, saints and celebrations in Mexican Catholicism are specifically condemned by Rome as non-Christian, but a community's folk beliefs evolve on their own, regardless of what someone in a position of authority may have to say on the matter.

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 Message 61 by Artemis Entreri, posted 01-04-2012 11:55 AM Artemis Entreri has replied

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