Linking evil to feminism (Is the Prospect of Female Power So Threatening To the Catholic Church?)

Not content to wage war on the civil rights of homosexuals, some leaders of the Roman Catholic Church chose the most sacred week in the Christian calendar to launch an assault on another of their favorite targets: women.

In Boston, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley identified "feminism" as one of the secular evils that make the United States "a hostile, alien environment" for Catholics. Feminism, the advocacy of equal social and political rights for women, lumped right in there during his homily with "the drug culture," "the sexual revolution," "hedonism," "consumerism," and "the culture of death."

In Atlanta, Archbishop John F. Donoghue banned women from participating in traditional Holy Thursday reenactments of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, their inclusion in the symbolic ritual inappropriate, he said, because women cannot be "called to the priesthood." (O'Malley, too, restricted the ritual to men but issued no edict requiring others to do so.) Donoghue instituted a similar ban 15 years ago when he was the bishop of Charlotte, N.C. To their credit, many Georgia parishes canceled scheduled reenactments rather than restrict participation.

In Britain, Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, applauded plans by a television outlet to broadcast an abortion procedure later this month. It would be educational, he said, "especially for women," the suggestion implicit that women have no idea what they are doing when they terminate a pregnancy.

The archbishops are attempting to maintain/regain traditional roles for men and women in the church.

I don't think they are going to get that genie back in the bottle. Future generations of women are not going to put up with it. They will not accept second-class status in the church, slaving away as their mothers did and never getting any honor or credit for all the hard work they do.

Future women are not going to do traditional womens' work in the church on a regular, year-in-year-out basis. They aren't stupid and have been slapped down too long.

A friend told me how she visited St. Patrick's Cathedral and the mass for that day was *specifically* in honor of some nuns who had done some serious, soul-wrenching work with the poor. A current event pre-empted their day of appreciation and they were given one or two sentences at the *end* of the homily, the rest of which was devoted to the event involving the men. Wish I could remember what it was. *That* is the memory my friend carried away from that mass, and she is *not* a feminazi, *but* she is educated and a professional and also more *liberal* than I am. She is the future of the church as far as women are concerned.

I went to a parish meeting in a building formerly housing nuns. It was a longish, stuffy room which had been shared by three nuns who taught for little or nothing at the adjacent school. What a contrast to the roomy rectory the priests lived in, and the head priest didn't want to live there but preferred his cabin on the river, so the junior priest had the whole place to himself.

My neighbor was not a catholic, but her mother worked at a catholic hospital. About the *only* impression she got during that time was how the nun had to ask the priest for pocket money. The priest would have had *plenty* of money of his own, as people give *extra* gifts generously to priests over and above what they give in the collection plate.

That is the kind of things women are starting to articulate. And *that* is how some people still want to treat the women.

I do not excuse their going overboard and advocating sinful causes, but I certainly support their quest for the right to feel that they really count and not just be talked down to telling them why they can't be a priest and their "genius" whatever that is. So they never can be a priest. They don't need to be looked down on, talked down to, and shoved out of the way like so many here want to do to put them in their proper place back like how it used to be in the good old days.

The *tenor* by so many discussing these matters involving women drips with male superiority. That makes women feel terrible about themselves if they let it.

I had a group of "friends" who went to extraordinary means to try to convince me that women like you are correct.

There were always far more nuns then priests, hence priestly residences were nicer. Most of the nuns I know or have known (and I have known many) are extremely well educated. Because there are now fewer nuns, they live quite comfortably and probably have it far easier than I have ever had it. There are nuns in my family,(one of them is unbelievably spoiled) I have been in and out of convents all my life. So I know of what I speak.

While we were growing up there were priests who acted "superior" but that changed long ago.

I don't doubt that there are inequities which must be changed, but that can be done without ordaining women priests or even having girl altar boys. As the church has matured many more opportunities have become available for women.

BTW, I don't see male roles as superior. Male/female roles are different but equal. You might even say, as do the men in my family, there is no more important role than mother.

Generally,I have found the personal circumstances and people in my life far more repressive to me, than has been the Catholic Church.

And I am someone who in gradeschool, used to count and tally the pronouns in our catechisms, male vs. female and had to get permission to read (I was one of the best readers in our class) on the altar for our 8th grade graduation. That was humiliating. My traditional father, however, was very proud of me.

Know that there will be women like me who disagree with you who will be moving the church in the opposite direction.

While we were growing up there were priests who acted "superior" but that changed long ago.

Maybe. Maybe not. The priest had to be first in line at a luncheon. It would have made my day if he had stepped aside and let the women who work so hard to serve him and others go first. I'd like to think that's what I would have done. And he seemed pretty nice otherwise.

Know that there will be women like me who disagree with you who will be moving the church in the opposite direction.

Disagree all you want, but future women aren't going to shut up and take it. I talk about it, but it's not my fight as I am too old to make a difference one way or another.

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