www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Madonna to be excommunicated for cross stunt in Rome?

I am afraid that publicly excommunicating Madonna would get her even more attention in the press. Since the "mainstream" press in Europe and the US tends to misunderstand and misrepresent Catholicism, she'd probably come out looking good. Dare I say? She's probably come out looking like some sort of secularist martyr... Grr.

Madonna doesn't care if she gets good attention or bad attention; she just cares if she gets attention - and sells albums. She's used religion and religious symbols as a marketing tool for their shock value. I doubt the woman believes in anything but making money. She's one of those fabulously wealthy people we can all be thankful we are NOT.

"Back in the day" when Catholicism ruled the west, excommunication was powerful. If you were effectively kicked out of the Catholic Church, where would you go in a time when most people wandered only a relative few miles from their homes? You truly were "anathema" in not just the (important) religious community sense, but in the secular community sense as well.

For a while it looked like motherhood and marriage were calming Madonna down and that she was finally 'growing up'. What a pity that it is not so. She has the beauty and the talent to be a success without shocking.

What is ultimately more disappointing than Madonna, is that when the Church in Russia called upon people to boycott her concert, they did not. Had they done this, she would have thought twice about insulting Christianity in the future. Money is the ultimate weapon which we have at our disposal in the culture war against Christianity. Unfortunately, too few are using it to make any kind of a difference.

Alice

Dear Alice,

Absolutely!

We Christians often forget that we can always vote . . . with our dollars.

If we attend such concerts and otherwise support individuals like that, we've no one to blame but ourselves for their growth and development.

What was interesting to me was the astute way in which the Russian Orthodox article summarized so succinctly Madonna's "passions" etc.

It was almost like an experienced Father-Confessor speaking!

You Orthodox are so insightful in that regard, you know . . .

Cheers!

Alex the Unstable

Excommunication of an ex-, a non-, a lapsed, Catholic is futile and useless!

Madonna doesn't know the conseqence(s) nor does she care, religiously speaking.

But, she surely knows the benefits of such a public and publicized act if ever the Catholic Church follows through.

I say, the Catholic Church should stand pat on this: no public or publicized excommunication! Probably, this is the "last hurrah" for Madonna.

On second thought, if lifes begins at 40, then Madonna is still a bratty, irreverent, and devilish 9-year old!

Amado

Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI said: "This time the limits have really been pushed too far.

"This concert is a blashphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the cross. She should be excommunicated."

"It is disrespectful, in bad taste and provocative," Father Manfredo Leone from Rome's Santa Maria Liberatrice church said late on Wednesday about the star's latest stage stunt.

"Being raised on a cross with a crown of thorns like a modern Christ is absurd. Doing it in the cradle of Christianity comes close to blasphemy."

------------------

Any different than Catholic parishes putting on Passion Plays over their altars with female Christs and Apostles? Like Howard Stern, the "shock" has gotten old and it is only expected now. Yawn! Nothing is sacred.

Joe

CDL, I'm afraid that Sinatra has reposed in the Lord a few years ago.

Madonna's a washed-up has-been who would not even sell 1 album were it not for homosexuals and my friend Terri (why she likes her, I've never figured out; nostalgia, I think).

Excommunicating her would just give her more attention than she needs, I agree. Let her go, she'll self-destruct soon enough.

We must pray! Satan has gotten his hands on another of Christ's children who has allowed herself to be tricked. Satan rejoices and Jesus weeps. We are ALL capable of great sanctity and great evil. Vigilance and openness to grace is necessary for all of us. We MUST pray that Satan does not win another soul.
Silouan, a sinful monk

Seems one cardinal has missed the news, one to many times. Madonna left us years ago. Yes years ago.

Last time I looked she had converted and is now a Jew, with particular interest in the Kabbalah. Am I the only one here who reads the magazine (which I only read as it has the TV guide in it...naturally) that come in the weekend papers.

Madonna is another one who knows how to get free advertsing for her shows and the same crew fall for it every time, so it works.

Of course she knows how to get the free publicity - she's going to set up a school or clinic or some such for kiddies in Africa somewhere [ I can't remember - I was sooooooooo disgusted when I read about it ] because she is so sorry for them .

If she was that sorry she would just do it quietly so we didn't know.

Lots of folk do lots of good things without getting the publicity - she just wants the publicity.

If we all stopped commenting on what she gets up to she would soon stop all this attention seeking behaviour

Yes I could not agree more. She has us onto our second page of talking about her and her latest show and she has not paid us a cent for the free publicity gained here in the forum.

Pavel,

I knew that she was into Kabbalah! She even went to Israel last year! SEE- I am very current on stupid entertainment news...if nothing else, it occupies one's time when one is bored and surfing the internet's news sites. It also reminds the kids that although one takes religion quite seriously, that doesn't mean that you can't also be current on cultural trivia.

Regards,
Alice

Hitler was never excommunicated form the Roman Catholic church, simply because he never violated any canon law. so, which canon law has Madonna violated? it seems to me that such a thing is the only grounds for excommunication. inquiring minds like mine want to know.
Much Love,
Jonn

People can put themselves outside the Church and not be actively put there by another person. They do it to themselves. They simply do something that put them out. Hitler would have put himself out there, he needed no help from anyone else to get there. Madonna like Hitler could not care less about any excommunication. Hitler certainly violated a number of Church laws in his lifetime. Not only was he a mass murderer, he persecuted the Church.

I find it hard to believe that there is nothing in the canon laws about organizing and carrying out the murder of thousands of people, the incitement to hate, the abuse of power and authority, the direct allowance of euthanasia, and ultimately, the suicide of oneself.

There is the canon that specifies anyone guilty of committing murder, contributing to murder, participating in murder, etc., is excommunicate ipso facto. Which canon includes abortion, by the way, but also those who have deliberately contributed to the murders of others or incited to it.