On Wednesday, the Vatican stepped into the fray between the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the American bishops. Not surprisingly, it came down hard on the side of the bishops. Saying the group, which claims to represent 80 percent of the 57,000 nuns in the US, had failed to make the “Biblical view of family life and human sexuality” the centerpoint of its teachings, the Holy See and company accused the group of promoting “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
In other words, in the opinion of the Vatican, the nuns were spending too much time worrying about poverty and social justice, and not enough time spewing anti-feminst, anti-gay propaganda. (Imagine that…women not attacking the rights of other women!)
This latest reprimand comes from an out-of-touch group of unmarried old men who apparently believe the only proper role for women is to be subserviant to their husbands and almost continuously pregnant. Its a group of arrogant men who believe there is no acceptable role in society for gays, except maybe as priests.
This is the same unbroken chain of clueless old farts who called for the slaughter of the heretics who left the Church, such as my Huguenot ancestors. Its a group whose predecessors virtually invented torture in order to make their victims admit to crimes against the Church. A group of men who, to this day, refuses to acknowledge that the Inquisition was a mistake. The very same group of men who allowed their subordinates to molest children for hundreds of years and then turned a blind eye to the victims who had the courage to step forward.
At this point, I should say that I have enjoyed the friendship of many devoted Catholic priests, nuns and parishioners over the years. For the most part, I find them to be joyful, caring and compassionate people. I dont blame the majority of Catholics for the anti-feminist, anti-gay, out-of-touch political action group that the heirarchy of Church has become. I blame the Vatican. And I blame those who use their positions and pulpits to push their political views like the nitwit Bishop Daniel Jenky who recently used his homily to compare President Barack Obama to Hitler!
Is it any wonder that the Catholic Church has been losing members faster than any other religion?