Posted on 04/13/2004 10:12:15 AM PDT by presidio9
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
-Appropriately so, nonetheless.
Most women understand that they do a LOT of the work in their Parishes. They organize Parish functions, chair Parish councils and organizations that reach out to Parishoners and the wider community. I've also discovered from observations over these last 50 years and living in 5 different states in at least 7 different Parishes, that the women actually DOING this work are NOT the women bitching and moaning about second class status. The women who are actually DOING the work (as opposed to TALKING about the work) are doing it our of pure love for Jesus and their Church, and don't care what kind of status it attached to the work. They KNOW they are appreciated by the Pastor and many in the Parish even if no one ever comes up to them and says so. In my experience, I've never NOT been thanked by the Pastor or an Associate for things I've done for my Parish and my answer is always the same, "Thank you, but I love doing it."
We who do the grunt work in Parishes are not in it for the glory or the recognition. In motherhood, you don't get kudos from the 'world' when your child learns to walk, talk, and be a civil human being; it is something that you WANT to do because you feel it is your responsibility as a mother. Working in Parishes is something these women WANT to do, and don't feel put-upon by the fact that they're not up on the altar celebrating Mass. They know there are important things they can do to help the Pastor in the running of the Parish and they can free him up to do the things for which he was ordained.
The Paulist Center is most certainly a Catholic church.
It is staffed by Paulist fathers,who are a recognized men's Catholic religious order in communion with the Bishop of Rome, and it operates with faculties granted by the ordinary of Boston, currently Sean O'Malley.
If THAT'S not Catholic, what is?
On the other side of the fence, there was the episode of Mary and Martha in scripture and the unexpected answer (to me) that one had chosen the better part not to serve . . . but . . . which I am not saying women should not serve if they wish to do it for whatever reason they choose to do it.
And here is the root of the problem I suppose which I am quoting out of a book I just got from the library:
"The desire for equality, in large part rooted in self-pity and envy, is surely not a new emotion; why has it recently become the menace of radical egalitarianism?" (who would they be?)
It remains though that as all the praise, adulation (don't deny that it doesn't exist) and glory go upwards toward the top of the human pyramid which is the church in the world, and little or none to the bottom (which really supports the entire structure - the little people, male and female, who donate their time and resources (at personal cost) to keep things running nicely, may in future generations cause the erosion of the entire structure, some of what we have observed in sundry ways.
I guess the reason I have any thoughts one way or the other is that I was working with older women serving as you describe, and one lamented that future women aren't going to be willing to do as they have done and the services may have to be contracted and/or catered. And there were some younger ones with families who seemed burdened by having to take time away from home where work had to be left undone to do the community work, but they turned out because they seemed to feel that it was expected of them. It would be nice if they were made to feel more appreciated and not just by the parish priest who may have been one of the more sensitive, observant types.
We all get tired, and we all have responsibilities. People through the ages have complained when they feel burdened, and women tended to be more burdened by the day to day running of the household and rearing of the children while the husbands went off to earn their daily bread. Women have always complained about their lot in life as have men. T'was ever thus, and t'will ever be. The new wrinkle is the whole 'equality' thing layered over old arguments which has introduced an anger and bitterness which didn't seem to have been there before.
It wasn't there before because they didn't know any better and had no other options but the narrow choices laid out before them, and it is very unchristlike for women to complain, even if it is a justifiable complaint.
Ugly, angry women have a right to have their say whether or not anybody agrees with them. They don't want to be Rosa Parks in the back of the bus. The negative attention they are getting is better than no attention.
I doubt everything was so neat and tidy in the past as some would have it.
So true. Maybe it's from watching many in the Kennedy clan twist Catholicism to fit their political/power goals. It's been my experience, here in western PA where dissident Joan Chittester preaches all her ultra feminist drivel, that so many of the women who want women priests absolutely don't want to hear about encouraging male vocations among our youth. I have a high school age son and he is an altar server (one of the few older boys, most of the boys just stopped going when girls started serving several years ago) and as a result I am acquainted with many of his guy friends and their parents. I can only think of 2 who would encourage their sons to consider priesthood, and we've had reason to discuss it. And this was prior to the scandal breaking. They all want women's 'rights' and encourage their daughters to become altar servers and EEM's, but not their sons. Some of them support married clergy as well, but when pressed, wouldn't want to be married to a priest. So how does that work? They have no answer. It's all about feminism, which, for so many feminists, has strayed from equal rights and pay to everything for women only at all costs and at the expense of men. As though it has to be one or the other. And many men readily acquiese any responsibility or just don't bother with things to 'give women a chance' and appear as supporting feminism. As though there aren't roles for both.
The ugliness of the feminists you speak of is really the ugliness of the evil in them, made manifest by their vile rhetoric.
I've seen women who men in the world would think unattractive, but they are so filled with the Holy Spirit that they exude the love of Christ, which makes them truly beautiful.
Feminist are easy to spot, they're the ones with faces that look like clenched fists.
I agree...I am a woman, and I have always felt that I had a lot of power.
I am not a man, and therefore do not have a man's power, but I admire it, especially in my husband, sons, father...I don't want the same power they have, it would feel wrong...
Even as I age, I am aware of the power I have. My power is the power to do good--to make my patients comfortable, to help heal, to nourish, to teach, to change the tenor of the day by a gesture of love or humor, my power is about growing beauty all around me...nothing can take that away...
It has been said, "That it's a man's world". It should be added, that that world revolves completely around women, women just like yourself - women who are the heart and soul of American life, around which the lives of American men revolve.
God bless you for being a true American woman. It is for women like you that our cherished American sons are fighting and dieing in the God forsaken places of the world.
The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.
Without a doubt the most powerful women I knew were nuns in charge of hospitals;everyone,salesman,patient,visitor, doctor,priest,administrator,staff,reporter and the community deferred to them. Their legitimate authority combined with the respect given to their vocation and their holiness made them incredibly influential. I would say that good hospital care with the concomitant affordability this country enjoyed until just recently was due in a great part to their influence.
The same can be said for those many nuns who were principals in the thousands of parochial schools across the country. They made the policies and they were obeyed by all,includig "Father". They had that same legitimate authority,and the respect accorded to those who had publicly proclaimed they had chosen God. The teaching nuns and the nuns who worked with the dick were the most powerful influence for good that this country has known.IMO.
Women in the Church and the world today have no idea of what real power,authority and influence is.
Getting off the subject of "women religious",until very recently,I would say that the next most powerful people in the world were secretaries to men,who the world thought had great power,such as CEO's of large companies. Many times smart CEO's,who recognized a good secretary merely implemented her ideas.
Now you could read all this and not agree,because even I recognize that these powerful women may not have been awarded money or given a lot of publicity,but in my book that is not power. Power is the ability to put an idea into action.
I would argue that so many of the wonderful blessings this country has received came as a direct result of the influence of women,who were able to see things from a different perspective. A perspective that could be developed,because their minds were free of the burden of knowing that their future was going to include the responsibility of supporting and providing for others. This allowed them to pursue thoughts that were beyond the ken of most men and included how to use the power of persuasion to get others to put into action some of their extrordinary ideas.
Somewhere along the way women decided that power was fame and fortune and using their well developed powers of persuasion they startd to compete for a place at the table.Well,now they have it and isn't everything just swell. There is a natural complementarity built into males and females,abuse it and you lose it,and there goes the neighborhood.
Sorry this is so choppy but I am trying to put my thoughts together,I think feminism has taken Western Civilization several steps backward in the quest for a more humane,civil,ethical and moral society.
Why did you editorialize in the title of the article? No bias on your part, eh?
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