Lent fast re-branded as 'Christian Ramadan'

[Marcus Marulus]

Lent fast re-branded as 'Christian Ramadan'

By Bruno Waterfield

Last Updated: 2:23am GMT 12/02/2008

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the "Christian Ramadan" in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.



Four million Dutch describe themselves as Roman Catholics


The Catholic charity Vastenaktie, which collects for the Third World across the Netherlands during the Lent period, is concerned that the Christian festival has become less important for the Dutch over the last generation.

"The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent," said Vastenaktie Director, Martin Van der Kuil.

Three decades ago the Catholic Church was as strict as many Muslims are about Ramadan with a total ban on meat and alcohol during the 40-day Lenten period between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

Most Dutch Catholics now focus on charitable work after the Vatican loosened fasting strictures for all but the first and last days of Lent back in 1967.

Four million Dutch describe themselves as Roman Catholics and 400,000 people attend Mass every week but only a few tens of thousands still mark Lent by fasting, said Mr Van der Kuil

Vastenaktie organisers hope that by linking the festival to Ramadan they can remind Christians who may be less observant than Muslims of the "spirituality and sobriety" of Lent.

"The agreements are more striking than the differences. Both for Muslims and Catholic faithful the values of frugality and spirituality play a central role in this tradition," said Mr Van der Kuil.

[source]

[Gavril]

[Marcus Marulus]

This case is remarkable not for its monstrosity as it is for its banality.

Christians have absolutely no idea what Lent might be, so it has to be brought in relation with Ramadan, so that they understand.

Three decades ago the Catholic Church was as strict as many Muslims are about Ramadan with a total ban on meat and alcohol during the 40-day Lenten period between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

Most Dutch Catholics now focus on charitable work after the Vatican loosened fasting strictures for all but the first and last days of Lent back in 1967.

That is the key to understand the reason for this: the Church had a tendency to substitute living faith (whereof customs like fasting for Lent are constituent part) with a mere moralism.

[Milesian]

The Milesian Inquisition is always ready and standing by to purge the clergy of it's heretics - something several centuries overdue as you can say from the current state of the Church. We aim for a 99.98% success rate. Unfortunately, the downside is that we might be left with no clergy at the end of it

[Martín Zalacaín]

Muslims living in Europe will soon forget what "Ramadan" means, as well. It's easy to fast when you live frugally. It's not so easy when you live surrounded by temptation.