The following comes from a March 28 AFP article by Don Kavanagh:
A bar being run by the Catholic Church might sound like the setting for a lame Irish joke, but it’s not Irish and it’s no joke.
AFP reports that a bar recently opened in northern France with the backing of the Catholic Church. Bar Cana in Lille launched this month as part of an effort to reach out to younger people, who might be more willing to interact in a bar on a Saturday night than in church on Sunday morning.
“It is, at heart, an effort to reach young people and those who have never had the idea of entering a church. And perhaps it is easier to go into a bar,” said Benjamin Florin a 29-year-old Lille diocesan worker who was one of the initiators of the project.
Bar Cana was inspired by the Pope, who has told the church to think outside the square when it comes to going about its pastoral business and this is certainly a left-field idea. It took two years of planning applications and a financial kick-start from the church to get started, but customers have seen it as a blessing.
The bar has one full-time employee and a dozen volunteers who will be serving food, slinging drinks and performing the traditionally sacred bartender service of offering a friendly ear, presumably in lieu of an official confession session.
“They will be there mainly for talking to people, if they wish, and for listening,” explained Régis Héaulme, a deacon and president of the Bar Cana Association.
There are nods to traditional Catholicism throughout the bar: the wifi password is Deo Gratias (God be thanked), and a carafe of house wine is referred to as a Madonna. Above the beer pumps (all the beers come from abbeys and monasteries, naturally) is a figurine of Pope Francis, and Biblical verses adorn the walls.
While it might not sound like the sort of place to hit up for a raging Friday night, the bar does focus more on the “good works” end of religion, rather than the “thou shalt not” side. Patrons come in and buy two coffees and get one; the other is paid forward for someone who can’t afford one. And the profits from the operation go towards humanitarian projects in needy areas.
In FRANCE “Alcohol report lays bare France’s drink problem”. They consume too much alcohol. According to the report published by the European Journal of Public Health, alcohol consumption was responsible for the deaths of around 49,000 people a year.
“Alcohol is an important cause of premature mortality as it is responsible for 22 percent (almost a quarter) of deaths between 15 and 34 years of age, 18 percent (almost one in five) of deaths between 35 and 64 and 7 percent of deaths of over-65s,” Hill told AFP
If Selling alcohol (aiding and abetting alcoholism) is what the teaching of Pope Francis is producing – we are all in trouble.
Is Selling drugs next to reach out to addicts?
( Let’s not forget that just a few years ago, the GERMAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE was selling books promoting pornography, Satanism, the occult, esoterism, and anti-Christian atheist propaganda.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-bishops-caught-in-massive-porn-scandal-why-didnt-they-listen-to-the )
Pope needs to teach about SIN and the REQUIREMENT for REPENTANCE as taught by Jesus. And that JESUS said, “MANY will NOT be Saved”. Mt 7:13-14 and Lk 13:23-28.
The Pope needs to combat relativism. Teaching right from Wrong. Truth from Lies.
Regarding “good works”:
CCC: ” 1759 An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention” The end does not justify the means.”
A lot of people, myself included, hit the local sports bar after mass, so why not make it convenient and raise funds for the parish?
CCC: ” 1759 An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention” The end does not justify the means.”
Too many people in France are addicted to alcohol. One should not contribute to an addiction.
Joyce, well, then, let’s go all the way, and outlaw all unhealthy things in France, especially those that make you fat, or destroy your lungs.
Go to jail for smoking!
End up prison for enjoying foie gras!
Be lined up for the firing squad for ordering a martini!
Whatever happened to the successful Catholic Action youth groups, of pre-Vatican II?? Many modern saints also got lots of spiritual help, from these groups! What the world needs to see– is SUCCESS from our Church! That means– to see the beautiful results, of a holy life, and to then be greatly impressed– and want to follow Christ! It is a danger, serving alcohol, perhaps some eventually even getting addicted to alcohol, in a bar run by a church! We do not need secular places dressed up falsely, as a place to encounter Christ! We need Christ’s True Church, of holy, saintly Catholics, truly practicing their Faith!! Christ never fails to impress people, when people see His True Church, of holy Christians, who have left the secular world– to follow Him!! When St. Francis of Assisi was told in a vision by Christ, to save Christ’s fallen Church– St. Francis did just that– by leading a holy life! All the world then saw this, and wanted to follow St. Francis, who was following Christ!
People can be addicted to ANYTHING: booze, sex, gambling, food.
This doesn’t mean that running a bar is evil, or that nuns running as restaurant in Rome is bad, or that a married couple making love is wrong.
For ages and ages, monasteries have been producers of beer, spirits, wine, etc., including the good Christian Brothers, whose wine my mother so enjoyed.
It’s not the thing that’s evil, but the abuse of the thing!
And the Church should not contribute to ABUSES – when they are well known in a certain population.
And one should NOT knowingly participate in the sins of others, or aid and abet in those sins.
CCC: ” 1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
– by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
– by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
– by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
– by protecting evil-doers. ”
The French society has a significant problem with alcohol and we should not feed that problem.
The Pope Francis bobble-head doll reminds me of Bishop Thomas Daly, whom we ADORED as the president of Marin Catholic High School here.
When he was still “Father Daly” the students, who admired him, made a bobble-head of him, but then he became a Bishop and was moved to San Jose.
We still miss and pray for him, especially now that he will head the Diocese of Spokane up in Washington.
God bless Bishop Daly, and the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, whom he brought to Marin Catholic High School as his parting gift to us!
This has got to be an April Fool’s Day joke !!!!!!!