And while we’re on the topic of women priests, the New York Times reports:
VATICAN CITY — In its most significant revision to church law since a sex abuse crisis hit the United States a decade ago and roared back from remission in Europe this spring, the Vatican on Thursday issued new internal rules making it easier to discipline priests who have sexually abused minors.
But in a move that infuriated victims’ groups and put United States bishops on the defensive, it also codified “the attempted ordination of women” to the priesthood as one of the church’s most grave crimes, along with heresy, schism and pedophilia.
Terrific news! This means we’ll soon be hearing about how the Vatican spent decades looking the other way as thousands of women around the world were being secretly ordained by Roman Catholic priests.
Right?
again, exhausting…
I quit. Oh wait, I already did that…
So, let’s assume you’re an obedient Catholic, and you believe that heresy is a sin so grave that it should get you excommunicated, and that the ordination of women is heresy.
How can you not think the same of a priest who used his position of authority and trust to abuse his youngest, most vulnerable parishioners? How is that not also a sin worthy of excommunication?
After all, the first two are sins only against oneself, in that, if you believe in heresy, you believe that the person committing the sin will now be damned to Hell, or at least serious time in Purgatory. The latter is a sin against the community, another individual…
I just don’t. Effing. Get it.
I’d be very curious to know the reaction of church authorities to priests who were caught ordaining women versus their reaction to priests who were caught raping children. I’ve no facts to back up my intuition that they would be much stricter, less likely to move said priest to another parish, but, were I a betting woman, that would be what I’d put my money on.
@meg, I know it is confusing, but that’s because it is just too much for your little lady brain.
When I am not so tired and angry, I will come back and contribute something intelligent.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anne Marte, Pursuit of Harpyness. Pursuit of Harpyness said: The Vatican Keeps Digging Its Hole @ http://bit.ly/9tUxyv [...]
I can’t wait for the Big P to excommunicate the entire country of Argentina. Boys, the ground is eroding out from under you. That’s why you’re in a hole.
I’ve got to think that the CC is operating under the Big Lie principle. That is, they’re just going all out for the most egregious policies and declarations and hoping that people will think “well, if it weren’t true/okay/defensible, they wouldn’t dare do/say/justify it.”
I know faith and tradition generally can’t be flicked off like a lightswitch, but egad, if this doesn’t do it for some people… All I can hope is that these are the hideous death throes of a dying giant.
BeckySharper (and others): I probably know the answer to this already, but do you think that (some) Anglican schismatics are going to go “uhhhhhh, maybe not…” at some point?
@PhDork: In the New Yorker article about the Anglican schismatics, Jane Kramer made just that point and theorized that the child abuse scandal would keep a fair number of Anglican clergymen from switching, for PR reasons if nothing else.
@PhDork: I’ve been raised Catholic and being an active, practicing Catholic was really important to me in my youth (much to my mother’s disappointment, actually). I stopped going to Church about 6 or 7 years ago, but it still makes me really sad and really angry that I can’t attend Catholic Mass anymore.
I am NOT okay with so many things that the Church does, but it’s still the religious tradition I grew up in. I used to get a lot of comfort out of attending Mass and praying in an empty church and even sometimes from confession. Because of the disgusting actions of the Vatican, that comfort has really been stolen from me. And I’m pissed about it.
I think it’s really hard for some people to walk away from that comfort, to have to leave their spiritual home and religious tradition. I really, really, really wish more people would, but I also have a lot of empathy for people who love Mass and the traditions of the Catholic Church.
Also: the Catholic church is *set up* to have passive participants–we don’t read the Bible on our own the way Protestants do. We are trained to access God by going *through* a Priest or sometimes saints/the Virgin Mary. So Catholics aren’t used to standing up and participating in what they want their Church to look like.
Not that I know where we could even go to change things. I also have that vagina, so it’s not like my ideas or opinions are valid anyway.
(Longest comment in the history of the internet.)
@rainyday: I don’t know if you’re in the US or not, but if you are, you might check out the Episcopal Church in your area. High church Episcopal services are very similar to Catholic ones in terms of liturgy and ritual and the layout of the churches will feel familiar to you. I know many Catholics who’ve left the church and worship with the Episcopalians because they are progressive but wanted to keep the old-time religion feel. The main difference is that the person at the altar in an Episcopal church is just as likely to be a woman as a man.
Former Catholic says BOOOOOOOO.
@rainyday: I feel your pain. I won’t go back, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of things I don’t miss.