You've got to be kidding me

From the same nation that spawned the bishop who calls God Allah and whose Dominican province gave us priestless “masses” celebrated by Joe and Jane Bloggs, married or single, male or female, gay or straight, comes this latest howler:

Lent is now the “Christian Ramadan”!

From The Telegraph:

Lent fast re-branded as 'Christian Ramadan'

By Bruno Waterfield

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.

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.

H/T to Dhimmi Watch.

What Melancholicus finds most disturbing is that in the Netherlands, apparently, Catholics are more familiar with Ramadan than with Lent. The chickens of Dignitatis Humanae have truly come home to roost. Furthermore, what kind of idiot could possibly think that the “agreements” between Catholicism and Mohammedanism “are more striking than the differences”? Let us not sully our holy Catholic faith with such a blasphemy now, please.

Out of a Catholic population of four million, only 400,000 attend weekly Mass. That’s 10%. Melancholicus is surprised by this statistic, since he was under the impression that actual Mass attendance in the Netherlands was closer to 2%. But since what passes for “Mass” in the Netherlands may not in fact be Mass at all, the true figure is probably much lower.

The Netherlands presents us with a case study of vital importance; this is a place where, prior to the council, the numbers of vocations and levels of Mass attendance were on a par with Ireland. Being one of the birthplaces of the conciliar revolution, it is the one country on earth in which the conciliar deformation has been carried to its furthest extent. What has happened to the Netherlands should serve as a salutary warning to the Church in other parts of the western world. The Dutch Church — if one can still speak of such a thing — is today a basket case, having descended to the lowest gibbering depths of self-worshipping congregationalism. It is not unreasonable to ask whether anything even remotely resembling Catholicism still exists in that unfortunate country.

Since our Dutch friends are so enamoured of Mohammedanism, why don’t they just observe Ramadan and have done with it? In fifty years the Netherlands will be a sharia state anyway.