cmay, I’ll second your point on the story line being weaved to suit the Times’ writer. But I doubt it is too far from being accurate.

We used to fast way back when and it was associated with the little can that we would put the money we saved in. The Church used to do the work to feed the poor from that money donated.

I don’t see that anywhere in the story. I do see a reference to CAFOD which doesn’t say much about the Church doing that either. They do have “campaigns” galore though, from organizing protests to organizing sign-ups to carrying protest signs to writing e-mails to … whatever. And the emphasis always seems to be on the bad government — fair trade, yada yada yada — and bad businesses — exploitation of workers, stealing resources, yada yada yada. If it didn’t have Catholic in the title you couldn’t tell them from the anarchists and moonbats at the local Big 8 Summit or WTO meeting.

And that’s what is so pitiful about this message from Cardnial Cormac and, per the article, Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury: Say that you care, tell others to care, tell others to do something about it and eat a small bowl of soup for show.

The rather good thing about it though is that they aren’t visibly asking for money. They used to do a good job with feeding the poor and it was about the only thing they could do many years ago. But that’s s totally anachronistic now. It’s individuals taking it to the field and actually empowering people, via micro-loans and networking the poor with skills or talents and getting their products to market that will bring them the money they need to be the “fat and loving it” consumers Cormac and Williams want to help by eating a small piece of fish or “losing weight”.

Dusty on January 6, 2007 at 11:21 PM