Posted on 12/06/2005 10:33:19 AM PST by NYer
Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury, who was banned from performing in a Vatican Christmas concert, said on Monday she was outraged at a Vatican claim that she had threatened to promote condom use during the show.
"I am surprised and outraged with the declarations made by the Vatican's representative," Mercury, one of Brazil's biggest musical stars, said in a statement.
"I never stated that I would advocate the use of condoms at the Vatican's Christmas concert."
The dispute has shot back and forth across the Atlantic since Mercury first said her offer to take part in the show had been withdrawn. She said last month the Vatican had excluded her because she took part in a campaign promoting the use of condoms to fight AIDS.
Mercury, who is an ambassador for UNICEF and the U.N. anti-AIDS program, had been invited to sing as part of an international cast that also included South African singer Miriam Makeba.
The concert is a traditional fund-raiser for charities broadcast on Italian television on Christmas Eve. The Pope does not attend but dozens of cardinals and Vatican officials do.
On Friday, the Vatican defended its decision to exclude Mercury. It said the reason was not her convictions about contraceptives but because she had said she would openly promote the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.
"Their allegations are incongruent with the facts," Mercury said in her latest statement.
The church opposes the condoms because they are a form of contraception. It says promoting condoms to stop the spread of AIDS fosters what it sees as immoral and hedonistic lifestyles and behavior that will only contribute to its spread.
Amid all the fuss the government of Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country, announced last week it planned to distribute 1 billion free condoms next year to fight AIDS.
Mercury is from Bahia in northeast Brazil and burst onto the scene in 1993 with the album "O Canto da Cidade" (Song of the City). Since then she has become one of the country's top entertainers with highly energetic shows and music that mixes "Axe" northeastern percussive music with techno styles.
She appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland last July.
I didn't see this is a good fit for a Vatican Christmas concert anyway. Anyway, our Pope is more of a classical person anyway. ;-)
She's no Bebel Gilberto, Fernanda Porto, or Cibelle. Mercury is called the queen of the axe music.
Who else performed at the Montreux "Jazz" Festival? Madonna?
Funny how those who are determined to live in immoral ways get mad at the church for not blessing their actions.
Sex outside of marriage is wrong, the church teaches. "Contraception leads to the downfall of the family and all the other reasons the church says NO." says the church.
"But people are going to have sex outside of marriage anyway." says the world. "If you tell them to use condoms, we could cut down on disease."
"We tell them to do what is right." says the church.
"It's your fault that people are dying," says the world. "Because you won't bless the sacred condom, they get aids."
"Aids happens because people live immoral lives, against the teachings of God," says the church. "We can't bless what is against the teachings of God."
"It's still your fault," says the world. "If only you would bless the sacred condom, then all those people who are having sex like they are outside of marriage, would use condoms and not get AIDS because the church said so."
The question people like this refuse to consider is, if people are willing to sin by having sex outside of marriage, what difference would the church's sanctions on contraception have on whether to use condoms or not?
Love it!
:-) about my writing.
:-( about the reality of this type of thinking.
She's hot.
Not really. Besides, she's got man-hands. Call me old fashioned but a lady's fingernails should not be as short (or shorter) than a guy's. Eh, just a quirk of mine I suppose. *shrug*
She has hands???
Now, nobody go getting all offended, I'm just a single guy showing healthy heterosexual interest :)
Now don't you be going all like my teenager who I have to poke in the ribs at church cause "She's so hot" pops out of his mouth at inappropriate times....
Touché. But seriously, she's not very good looking. She's got that annoying Chelsea Clinton smile in that photo you posted. Sure, she has other ample... assets... but man-hands and a Chelsea Clinton smile make me run in fear.
Any "Christian" running around promoting condoms for queers is so hot she is likely to be contagious
You should be avoiding the near occasion of sin and heeding Matthew 5:28.
Valid point!
You would be surprised at the non-jazz acts the let in.
Besides, from the looks of the stuff she wears, it would only cause even more confusion at the concert. Who wants to hear the Italians stage-whispering: "Lei e una butana!"?
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