Religion Dispatches
Having now cracked down on U.S. nuns and the Girl Scouts the Catholic hierarchy is aiming to define womanhood. Problem is, both of those groups are held in far higher regard than the men at the helm of the crackdowns.
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When it comes to the Vatican’s crackdown on women religious, I believe it’s time to declare that for the purpose of this struggle: we are all nuns.
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How to “disappear” your opponent, and other nifty tricks.
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The egregious breach of decency that led a Catholic parish priest to deny communion to a lesbian woman at her mother’s funeral has received widespread and well-deserved condemnation. Even the Archdiocese of Washington DC admitted that the priest had violated their policy.
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Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño of the United Methodist Church is part of a new wave of women’s leadership in mainline Christian denominations—and if our recent phone conversation is any indication, she has her work cut out for her. She must assume the bishop’s role of watcher or overseer; she must surpass her male colleagues in competence to show that a woman, in her case an Hispanic woman, can be a good bishop; and, she must find a way to live out her own unique commitments with integrity. As was said of the legendary Ginger Rogers, she must do everything her male counterparts do, but in high heels and backwards.
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Efforts by the hierarchical institution to spin the current controversy as a matter of religious liberty are unconvincing. After all, it is not the Catholic Church whose liberty is impinged upon. Members, even bishops, can still teach and believe what they wish. No one forces them to use contraception. Rather, it is employees of Catholic institutions, including janitors and housekeepers, whose rights to make their own decisions about health care are impinged upon. Blaming the victim is an old trick, but, in this case, few people are buying it.
Read MorePanic over the possibility of same-sex marriage passing in NY drives Dolan‘s arguments.
Read MoreAs if feminist theology didn’t exist.
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Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, while he was a senior official for Pope John Paul II, envisioned a leaner, meaner church, one with conservative doctrine and compliant faithful. Now that he is Pope Benedict XVI, his dream is coming true.
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Catholic women priests are an oxymoron for the Vatican. It considers them automatically excommunicated before the holy oil is dry on their hands. Other Catholics accept them as sacramental ministers and are delighted with the innovation. Still, others, myself included, want far deeper structural changes in the Catholic Church such that priesthood loses its baked-on charm and ministry becomes the expected task of adult members. This is an important theological conversation that the Vatican wishes would go away. Memo to them: it is just starting.
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