The Neo-Pharisees
Defenders of the Catholic Church complain that people don’t talk about all of the ‘good things’ that the Church does, and emphasize the problems. The majority of the ‘good things’ are projects by Nuns, and the Church leaders obviously don’t think they are very important or they wouldn’t be attacking the Nuns.
As CNN notes the American Nuns are not going down without a fight:
(CNN) – The leadership representing most of America’s nuns came out swinging Friday against the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, in the face of charges from the Vatican that the nuns are espousing “radical feminism” and straying from church teaching.
The Vatican’s criticism of the American nuns has “caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization,” the Leadership Conference of Women Religious – which represents about 80% of American nuns – said in a statement Friday.
…The Leadership Conference of Women Religious said Friday that the assessment “was based on unsubstantiated accusations and (was) the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency.”
“Moreover, the sanctions imposed were disproportionate to the concerns raised and could compromise (the nuns’) ability to fulfill their mission,” the statement continued.
As Digby notes the Vatican anti-abortion stance allows no exceptions, even for the life of a nine-year-old. In the Church’s official judgement, raping your step daughter can be forgiven, but not saving the life of your daughter.
Charlie Pierce noted that newly public documents revealed that Cardinal Dolan, the current leader of US Bishops, paid priests who molested children up to $20,000 to leave the priesthood while Bishop of Milwaukee. Of course, the Church doesn’t excommunicate child-molesters.
Steve Bates noted that at least one Bishop is saying that Catholic hospitals will limit themselves to serving only Catholics, if they are required to abide by US laws and regulations.
Ellroon notes that some are already following that path as a Catholic hospital in New Jersey denied a gay man his HIV medication because he was ‘going against G*d’s will.’
The majority of my first cousins, and my niece and nephews were all nominally Catholic, but almost none of them are still in the Church. A lot of them are still very Christian, but it doesn’t involve the Vatican.
8 comments
It;s things like this which make this ex catholic have views on the Vatican which would make a member of the Orange Order blench…
(Blench.. variation of blanch… love it.)
My husband lived under the rule of nuns at his Catholic elementary and high school. Some nuns were really inspiring… and others should never have had access to kids. Especially teenaged boys. Those kind had joined the order to escape from reality and hormones, not cope with it on a daily basis.
My husband made it through with greatly honed survival skills….
But nice to see that nuns are trying to educate the Vatican as to how real people actually live.
I don’t get it – they act like they want to pick a fight and get beaten to a pulp. They are chasing the younger people out of the Church with every new attack. This is going to end with the entire Church living in the Vatican with room to spare while Italian developers start planning projects to use the space when the current ‘tenants’ are gone. This is institutional suicide in slow motion.
At this point, even before the latest insanity, lapsed Catholics were the only kind I knew.
If US CCB ever contemplated how many UUs are lapsed Catholics… sometimes “lapsed” with a vengeance… they might exercise more restraint. The individuals are just as good, and do works just as good, as UUs as they did as Catholics. And UU ministers don’t, as a rule, bugger boys, so there’s less guilt to deal with.
My tolerance of Catholic exceptionalism is diminishing as rapidly as my tolerance of American exceptionalism. Freedom of religion truly entails freedom from religion; Catholics have no more right than any other religion to impose their beliefs on Americans of any stripe. Many of us have had quite enough of that, thankyouverymuch.
I find it amusing that I am viewed as a lapsed catholic. I left the church in 79 or 80 and my views on the church have turned from disagreeing on a social issues to wishing the whole edifice is destroyed… And yet I’m seen as lapsed. 10,000,000/10 for optimism but o.oooooooooooooo1/10 for common sense!
I think it’s the implied arrogance, Steve, as evinced by that Pratchett quote from Monstrous Regiment on my left sidebar. No one has all the answers, mostly because we haven’t figured out what the questions are…
“Lapsed Catholic” is a bit of an oddity, Jams. No one is labeled a ‘lapsed Baptist’, and Jews are ‘non-observant’, not ‘lapsed’. It is a strange choice, like they stopped paying their subscription. The Queen’s English Society might have researched the matter, but you tell me that they have given up their effort. The answer is probably in the Oxford dictionary, they track everything.
Practicing Catholic; Observant Jew… gotta be able to tell them apart!
There isn’t a lot of difference between the Vatican and ultra-Orthodox Jews when it comes to reporting child molesters – they both regard it a public relations issue, rather than a crime.