catholic tastes.

JUDGE NOT ... Three theologians lost a lawsuit they had filed on behalf of Jesus Christ in a Munich, Germany court against both the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches. The plaintiffs took the churches to court for bringing Christ's name into disrepute. According to Reuters (May 25, 2000), the theologians, who called themselves "brothers in Spirit" of Christ, sued under a law that lets people defend their dead relatives' reputations. They argued that the churches' "bloody history," particularly their role in wars, made their calling themselves Christian "a fraud."

The judge dismissed the case, ruling that it would infringe upon the country's constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom. He also argued that, since Christians believe Christ rose from the dead, his "brothers" had no right to bring a case on his behalf.

EXORCISM JOKE

When the topic of exorcisms surfaced in the news again recently, we received the following joke via an anonymous e-mail.

"Question: What happens when you don't pay your exorcist?"

"Answer: You get repossessed."

FLOWER POWER "One of my colleagues recently moved into a new parish," writes the Tablet's columnist Pastor Ignotus (Sept. 2, 2000). "On his first day, he went into the church to have a look and saw two vases of flowers standing on the altar. Thinking that they looked a little awkward, he put them down on the floor.

"A few months later (months, not days) he went to his first local deanery conference. He introduced himself to another priest as the new man at St. Mary's. `Ah, you're the one that moved the flowers.'"

TRINITY, SCHMINITY "People don't care about this. They don't care about the Trinity. This is going to pass. What the women want is weight loss. They care about their bodies being a temple and their lives turned over to the Lord. That's what my ministry is about." --"Christian weight loss" guru Gwen Shamblin, whose publisher canceled the contract for her newest book over allegations that she rejects the Trinity (quoted in the Dallas Morning News, Sept 16, 2000)

TRIBAL RITES "The conceit used by Survivor, that is, throwing together a group of nervous strangers in an unfamiliar, high-pressure environment, their every move is carefully watched as they wait for the next person to bug out, seemed oddly familiar. Then I remembered: my novitiate? --Father James Martin, SJ. (America, July 15-22, 2000)

PREFERENTIAL OPTION OF A CHICK FLICK?

"Are the amazing animated chickens in [last year's] feature film Chicken Run under the influence of Catholic social teaching?" wonders the Tablet (July 15, 2000). The film, made by the Wallace & Gromit animators Nick Park and Peter Lord, "concerns a farm full of clay chickens who organize themselves to escape from the wicked limner and his wife. The idea of workers forming an organized front in order to overturn wicked landowners has a strong whiff of liberation theology about it. And high on the pecking order when the credits roll at the end is the film's production editor, Harry Linden. Harry is none other than the son of Ian Linden, director of the Catholic Institute for International Relations. Hmm."