MSNBC Features Liberal Nun Slamming Catholic Church: 'One Of The Last Bastions Of Sexism'

Newsbusters ^ | February 15, 2013 | Jeffrey Meyer

[NYer]

It seems as though MSNBC’s liberal agenda doesn't concern itself simply with secular politics. They want the Catholic Church to "lean forward" into fundamentally changing themselves to reflect liberal values. In service of this pulpit-pounding, MSNBC's Jansing & Co. program brought on two liberal Catholic women over two days. At no point did she turn to a traditionalist, orthodox Catholic to defend the church's traditional teachings.

On February 14, fill-in host Richard Lui interviewed Sister Louise Akers, of the Sisters of Charity to rail against the Church, in what she views as, “the last bastion of sexism.” Lui began the segment with the liberal nun by noting:

There’s certainly been criticisms in the past. For instance, Maureen Dowd in the New York Times criticizing the Vatican saying that they accused nuns of pushing radical feminist themes this is from a year ago. There's also the issue of women in the priesthood.  [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

On February 15, Chris Jansing brought on Kate Childs Graham, a columnist at the liberal National Catholic Reporter, to continue MSNBC’s anti-Catholic agenda.  Neither segment offered guests to challenge the liberal ideology espoused by the guests; instead Jansing and Lui acted as cheerleaders to promote radical changes in church doctrine.

Jansing tossed softballs at Graham, enabling the liberal activist to claim that:

There's clearly a consensus in the pews about issues like transparency, accountability, women’s equality and LGBT equality, and we need a pope that's listening to that.

Jansing then played a clip of Sister Akers calling the Catholic Church sexist to push her belief that the Catholic Church needs to add women into the priesthood.  Jansing concluded her segment by asking Ms. Graham:

 Why would you be a member of this church that seems to be anti-women, anti-gay?

 

MSNBC

Jansing & Co.

February 14, 2013

10:44 a.m. EST

RICHARD LUI: The Vatican this morning is revealing Pope Benedict hit his head during last year's visit to Mexico, but officials deny it had any significant role in his resignation. Today the pontiff has been meeting with the pastors of Rome’s parishes a day after celebrating his final public mass at Ash Wednesday observances at St. Peter’s Basilica. The conclave of cardinals will meet next month to pick Benedict's successor. Let's bring in Sister Louise Akers the former director of the Office of Peace, Justice, and Integrity of Creation for the Sisters of Charities. Sister, good to see you.

LOUISE AKERS: Thank you. Good to be here.

LUI: Let me start with this. As the Cardinals get ready to pick the next Pope, what issues would you like the next Pontiff to address first? There’s certainly been criticisms in the past. For instance, Maureen Dowd in the "New York Times" criticizing the Vatican saying that they accused nuns of pushing radical feminist themes this is from a year ago. There's also the issue of women in the priesthood.

AKERS: Well, certainly the role of women in the church is a critical issue in the church today. And for the world today. And so I would whole heartedly support an expanded role and that expanded role based really on the dignity, the value, the equality of women to the men in the church. And I think if that’s recognized, then women will become part of the body of decision makers and more active in the church universal and in local churches.

LUI: Do you believe, sister that the next Pope that is chosen from the Conclave might move that way? And what roles as you were just describing would you see as good roles for women to move in to?

AKRES: Who knows what the next Pope will do or who the next pope will be. My first thought with regard to future Pope was a hope and prayer really that we would have another person like John XXIII who brought us Vatican Council which reformed the church 50 years ago and it's ongoing today. I think, in light of the renewal and reform from Vatican 2, that's based upon the church being the church in the modern world that the role of women needs to be recognized as it's recognized really in most major institutions of the world. I think the Catholic Church; the Roman Catholic Church is probably one of the last bastions of sexism. And so in whatever ways that can be rectified, I think there's a growing resistance to the status quo today and a growing movement to suggest changes. Among those changes would surely be the option for women who feel so called to be ordained as priests. I think priesthood needs to be transformed and women could help do that. I think also women's role as I said before decision makers, policy makers would be another way to go.

LUI: At the top, at the middle, everywhere is what you're saying throughout the Catholic Church.

AKRES: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

 

MSNBC

Jansing and Co.

February 15, 2013

10:47 a.m. EST

CHRIS JANSING: We're learning new details about what life will be like for Pope Benedict XVI after he steps down. The Pope has told a farewell audience of priests and clergy of the Diocese of Rome he will remain, quote, hidden to the world in retirement. Indicating he will not have a public role once his resignation takes effect February 28th. Joining me now, Kate Childs Graham, columnist for the Young Voices Series at the National Catholic Reporter and an activist in the progressive catholic movement. Good morning.

KATE CHILDS GRAHAM: Good morning.

JANSING: After learning of the Pope's decision to resign, you actually sat down; you spoke with a group of young progressive Catholics. If there was a kind of overriding theme to their thoughts, what was it?

GRAHAM: I think what we’re looking for is a pope who's a good listener. There's clearly a consensus in the pews about issues like transparency, accountability, women’s equality and LGBT equality, and we need a Pope that's listening to that.

JANSING: When you say that transparency is a key issue to the next pope, what do you think that this Pope hasn't done or even Pope John Paul II that can change that perception?

GRAHAM: Sure. I mean think that this Pope certainly has had a papacy kind of plagued with scandal and division. He even spoke to that on Ash Wednesday, he said, he spoke about the divisions in our church. And I think that was a clear signal to the next Pope that their key task is going to be healing those divisions and that certainly is going to come with some transparency and certainly transformation in our church.

JANSING: Sister Louise Akres is a member of the Sisters of Charity. And she was on the program yesterday here on Jansing and Company. And here's what she had to say about women in the church.

LOUISE AKRES: I think the Catholic Church; the Roman Catholic Church is probably one of the last bastions of sexism. And so in whatever ways that can be rectified, I think there's a growing resistance to the status quo today and a growing movement to suggest changes.

JANSING: Sister Akres went on to say that women in the priesthood could be one possible solution and I'm wondering what your reaction is to those comments?

GRAHAM: Absolutely. I think women in the priesthood is one component of the transformation we need to see. But we can't just add women in stir, right? We need to fully transform our church, look at those policies and practices that we have that are great and keep them and lift them up and change those that just aren’t working and women's inequality in the church isn’t working for many Catholics.

JANSING: There has been a lot of talk about the church and modernization although to be fair the conversations that we are having right now are the same conversations that we had when Pope John Paul II was ill and then when the next conclave came to be. But are there other areas not just that you think the church should kind of quote/unquote modernize but areas in which you think there is real hope for progress. 

GRAHAM: Sure. I don't know if it’s about modernization so much as it is about transformation. We need a bringing up to date to borrow a phrase from the Second Vatican Council, but we need more than that. We need to look at the teachings and practices around economic justice and social justice that have served Catholics so well and lift those up and we need to change those that aren't working, those around banning women from the priesthood is just one example but certainly those that condemn homosexuality is another

JANSING: It is interesting when you look just at the raw numbers of what's going on in the Catholic Church after years and years frankly of the number of vocations going down. They seem to be slowly on the rise, even here in the United States. There are some surprising numbers, I think, in the number of young people who are part of the Catholic Church or even joining the Catholic Church and I'm sure people asked you the question, Kate, why would you be a member of this church that seems to be anti-women, anti-gay? I'm sure you get this question. What do you say?

GRAHAM: I say that this church is as much my church as it is Pope Benedict's church. This church is home for me. And I think we see young Catholics and progressive Catholics, members of call to action, an organization that I'm on the board of, that are building inclusive justice-seeking, loving faith communities at the local level and we're going to continue to do that no matter who the next Pope is.

[LastNorwegian]

‘She’ is a good example of the failure of Church leadership. Creatures like that should be excommunicated.

[grimalkin]

Why do so many radical women look like freaky men?

[Little Ray]

I’m a good Methodist.
Not the whacked-out gun-grabbing, pro-abortion, social justice type that seems to populate the leadership, but a “Grace of God through Jesus Christ” type.
But I do like cookies.

[Pinkbell]

Rachel Maddow has a twin sister who is a nun? Who knew?

[mrs. a]

Why does she call herself Catholic if she doesn’t believe in the tenets of the Catholic Church?

Could it POSSIBLY be a bid for attention?

[don-o]

Gee whiz. Bafflegab from msnbc. Who saw THAT coming?

[jtal]

That's not Louise Akers on the right in the picture.

Those dissident sects of nuns don't have anyone that young.

This is Louise Akers:

The person on the right is Kate Childs Graham.

[kearnyirish2]

The Catholic Church has survived much worse than these heretics and enemies; people were fed to the lions rather than give up their faith. As I read in a book on the Spanish Civil War, the Church is fed by the blood of its martyrs. Let these freaks bring it; the Catholic Church claims descent from St. Peter, and the last 2,000 years won’t be erased so easily. Catholics survive in Red China, Vietnam, etc.; the can survive the Obamanation.

[COBOL2Java]

Looks like Nikita Khrushchev in drag.

[jtal]

I prefer this classic:

[SuziQ]

What other kind of ‘Sister’ would MSNBC bring in? You think they’d find a nun who truly believes in Jesus, and agrees with the teaching of His Church? I’m sure the names of any of those nuns do not appear in MSNBC’s rolodex.

[Ouchthatonehurt]

Thank you, but I stand by my observation;
“...that’s a man, man.”

[SuziQ]

Catholics survive in Red China, Vietnam, etc.; they can survive the Obamanation.

Absolutely!

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

Who is the guy on the right in that picture?

---

I don’t know but the woman on the left looks like she could suck-start a Chevy.

[JCBreckenridge]

http://www.osv.com/Portals/0/kXGallery11709/105-0561_IMG.JPG

We have lots of wonderful cookies. :)

We can always use good men and women. We need all the help we can get.

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

How about a good fish fry? :) We pack ‘em in on Friday nights during Lent.

[Salvation]

MSNBC Features Liberal Nun Slamming Catholic Church: 'One Of The Last Bastions Of Sexism'
NCR teams up with Ford Found backed entity to hide truth about Holy See’s ‘Doc Assesment’ of LCWR
Bishop Robert Morlino Cracks Down on Madison Nuns for Espousing 'New Ageism' and 'Indifferentism'
Sister Simone Campbell, ‘Nun from the Bus,’ rips Republicans at Democratic convention
The plot sickens (LCWR)
US nuns facing Vatican order to reform, quash dissent will hold talks with church leaders
Cardinal Burke on nuns’ group: ‘If it can’t be reformed, then it doesn’t have a right to continue’

LCWR Assembly Update: How did keynote speaker Hubbard do?
LCWR Assembly Begins. What their keynote speaker brings to the Nuns. VIDEO
LCWR assembly begins; Vatican representative told attendance 'would not be helpful'
LCWR Prepares to Discuss Response to Vatican Mandate to Reform
Bishop Explains Vatican's Criticism Of U.S. Nuns (promoting non-Catholic theology)
Sr Patricia Miller in op-ed canonizes St. Obama for his respect for religious liberty. No, really.
LCWR nuns: “Catholic Church is pro-foetus but keeps silent on other essential issues”
Analysis of NPR’s interview of LCWR Pres. Sr. Pat Farrell: like a 7-y/o’s manipulative obfuscation
Biden brings cookies and ice cream to (dissenting) LCWR president’s motherhouse
Oh Sisters! Renegade Catholic nuns engage in media campaign (Nuns on Bus Alert!)

GUEST POST: “the sisters chose to put this out there for the public”
American Nuns Say Questions Not Defiance
Sister Keehan, CHA push dangerous compromise on HHS mandate (again)
Traditional Sisters Big Hit With Trendy Teens
LCWR reform is not criticism of religious orders, [Archbishop J. Peter Sartain] says
Sisters of Mercy doctors say LCWR is injecting politics into dialogue
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley Laments Discord on Nuns
Vatican Official Warns of 'Dialogue of the Deaf' with LCWR
Bishop Blair Pounds the Facts; LCWR Pounds The Table
Nun Who Leads Network Disparages Bishops, Hesitant to Call Herself Pro-Life

Analysis: Dispute With US Nuns Began Decades Ago
Vatican: LCWR under direction of the Holy See; must promote doctrine "taught through the ages"
“The Biggest Distortion of All” [LCWR vs CDF]
Nuns Brace for Vatican Meeting
Catholic Identity Once Again
Crisis of sisterhood: ‘Radical’ U.S. nuns clash with Vatican doctrine guardians
Franciscan Friars Back American Nuns in Vatican Spat
Pastor Completely Loses It Over LWCR
Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA stands behind LCWR
Nun Too Accurate Reporting

Sisters of Mercy President Defends Farley, Criticizes CDF
Major Vatican Assault Coming in October, Says Former Maryknoll Provincial
Vatican Warns Against Errors in Mercy Nun's 2006 Book on Sexual Ethics
Priests Come to Nuns’ defense
Leaders of U.S. Catholic Nuns to Address Vatican Reprimand About 'Radical' Feminism
Toldya About the Lesbian Nuns in Leavenworth [Ann Barnhardt]
Split over nuns' role plays out online (LCWR nuns complain about blogosphere)
ANOTHER WAY TO BEAUTIFY THE CHURCH or 10 REASONS NUNS SHOULD WEAR HABITS (Warning-graphic images)
Dallas bishop ‘communicating’ with nuns on their support for Gates’ global contraceptive campaign
When Reverend Mothers Cease Being Motherly
Nuns Issue Statement Defending Billionaire Contraceptive Campaigner Melinda Gates

Important Background Information About the CDF-LCWR Situation
Nuns Gone Wild: A Trip Down Memory Lane
Exhibit A for Explaining the LCWR Report
Vatican Crackdown on U.S. Nuns a Long Time Brewing
LCWR: getting to the truth of the matter (the blogosphere response to CDF document)
Radical feminist nuns’ group ‘stunned’ by Vatican criticisms, reform plan
Vatican announces reform of US women's religious conference (more details)
Citing doctrinal problems, Vatican announces reforms of US nuns' group
In hard-hitting document Vatican launches clean-up of feminist nuns in United States
LCWR Having a Bad Day. Vatican Names Archbishop Delegate to Continue Watching LCWR and Network

[Salvation]

Check out the second bolded link on the above list — to see more pictures like this one. Consider yourself warned. LOL!

[Kenton]

The guy on the right looks like Jon Cryer, the guy who plays “Alan” on Two and a Half Men...

[Revolting cat!]

WAIT! Rick is a nun now?