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| Many Will be as Shocked as Belshazzar Was |
Edit: most of the world isn't going to understand the significance of the Mass, that it's the unbloody commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, the most sacred event a Catholic can experience in this life. What is a sacrilege? A sacrilege is a deliberate, or otherwise, confusion of divine and profane categories. At a bar in Baltimore, the rituals, ministers and symbols of Catholicism are offered as accompaniments to carousing and boozing.
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| Disgraceful! |
The owner doesn't plan on honoring the concerns of Catholics who do object to this sacrilege, and the anti-Clerical Baltimore Sun has written an article sympathetic of those who have no respect for Catholicism, and despite spending their lives being educated in Catholic schools have almost no understanding of the importance of the symbols that they hold in contempt.
In all fairness, we must also mention that these objects are no longer conseecrated, most likely, although they may have been purchased as part of a sacrilege from E-BAY.
In any event, what gets lost in the shuffle is that Catholic rituals and Catholic beliefs are held up to ridicule here. That owner insists that he intends no disrespect, but the lie is given to that in his public comments and the rude way he treats those who call with concerns about his blasphemy.
His patrons share his contempt for Catholic things, and they can be seen in blogs and comment boxes, building on to the offense which is this bar.
They refer to those who hold revere these symbols and don't want to see them manifestly disrespected (as they clearly are in the personal testimonies on the site and in the comments section on the first article we featured on this place) as "nut balls". Anti-Catholic paper writes:
Tom and Mary Rivers, who opened Ale Mary's about seven years ago, say they've gotten about a dozen angry phone calls and about the same number of emails in the last week or so. And, as both of them were raised Catholic in Baltimore, [Are Baltimore Catholics less Catholic than elsewhere? Being raised Catholic doesn't guarantee respect for others beliefs, apparently] they still can't believe anyone would have a problem with what they consider fun decor. "With the exception of these nut balls I've had one person in seven years say this is kind of in bad taste," Tom Rivers said. "And that person still comes in here." The couple says that all of their religious items were donated by customers, including the monstrance behind the bar.
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| Kiddish Cup |
Clearly, the owners of the bar and many of its patrons wouldn't be too happy if the things they find sacred or important were denigrated and held to ridicule in such ways. Imagine if a similar bar were in existence which featured and ridiculed Jews or Muslims. It's unlikely that a bar of this type would get insurance coverage, and would certain face closure.
In normal societies, like Singapore, for example, such disrespectful behavior toward Catholicism isn't tolerated, actually, like Singapore, for example. Imagine if a bar were build around a Jewish house of worship, complete with mezuzah's, satirical pictures of respected Rabbis hanging on the wall? Imagine too if the beginning of Colt's games were signaled at the bar with a shofar horn? Or instead of chalices, imagine if patrons drank from kiddush cups? How about a game of strip dreddle? Two can play at that game!
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| Shofar Horn |
