General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMaureen Dowd lands on the Catholic Church hierarchy with both feet in her column:
'Father Doesn't Know Best'
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The poll appeared on the same day as headlines about Catholic Church leaders fighting President Obamas attempt to get insurance coverage for contraception for women who work or go to college at Catholic institutions. The church insists its an argument about religious freedom, not birth control. But, really, its about birth control, and womens lower caste in the church. Its about conservative bishops targeting Democratic candidates who support contraception and abortion rights as a matter of public policy. And its about a church that is obsessed with sex in ways it shouldnt be, and not obsessed with sex in ways it should be.
The bishops and the Vatican care passionately about putting women in chastity belts. Yet they let unchaste priests run wild for decades, unconcerned about the generations of children who were violated and raped and passed around like communion wine.
They still have not done a proper reckoning, and the acrid scandal never ends. In the midst of a landmark trial in Philadelphia charging Msgr. William Lynn with covering up sexual abuse by priests and then recirculating the perverts, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday that two priests in their 70s who worked in parishes and hospitals had abused minors at some point and were unfit for ministry.
This follows five priests sidelined earlier this month because of substantiated claims of sexual abuse or other violations, plus 17 others suspended after last years sickening grand jury report on rampant sexual abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/opinion/dowd-father-doesnt-know-best.html?_r=1
You may not agree with MoDo a lot, but she has consistently been a critic of the Catholic Church and their policies.
Her brothers are staunch Catholics who she admits are much more consevative than she is, but she does talk to them about their views to gain another perspective. They don't drive her opinion though.
Bolo Boffin
(23,796 posts)After the gross violations of conscience on display in the child sex scandal, the Catholic Church figures the best way back to their moral purity perch is to crack down on those slutty women folk with their abortion and their birth control.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Ministers and priests have been taking political positions from their pulpits for years now...well before President Obama. Taxing churches (especially the super-wealthy Catholic church) would be a big help to the entire country.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)most do not involve themselves in politics but in saving souls,moral guidance,and community outreach. most churches do not have the money to pay taxes. i know my churches operating funds are around 68 thousand a month which is not a lot of money. if we were taxed we could`t open the doors. there`s a store front church just opened a few blocks from me..tax them? there`s probably 20 families and a preacher who works a full time job.
where would the civil rights movement be without the churches across the south and those in the north who supported the movement? the ministers,priest,and nuns who supported and in some cases gave their lives in central america and stood for the anti-war movements.
on the other hand the catholic church is a foreign sate that has an elected leader who dictates policies or laws contrary to those of our government. there is no reason why they should not be taxed
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)Mc Mike
(9,106 posts)Maybe her brother, maybe her stuff against Pres. Clinton's zipper issues. She blasts the ultra-right Vatican a lot, and attacked the repugs brilliantly in her column, all thru l'il bush's years.
I quit looking at the daily howler ~ '06, because of how much time they spent bashing Ms. D. She sure doesn't come off as a repug, to me.
It was interesting to hear the priest at church last week talking about the church as 'she', 'her', the 'Mother Church'. That's the only 'female' the hierarchy esteems. An orgainzation composed of voting and ruling members that are 100% guy.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)I am now one of the "unchurched". Still a seeker of spiritual gudance, but not going to church. I was born and raised in "the" church, but cannot stomach the patriarchy and hypocrisy any more.
butterfly77
(17,609 posts)rest of the gang been occupied yet?
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)The world would be a better place if the Vatican just vanished.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)discrimination against women, it has done far worse. It has made that discrimination part of its religious doctrine and claims that such discrimination is the will of the deity that church worships. In doing so, they have extended a social evil to the status of a commandment from God. What that does is allow men who claim association with the religion to discriminate against women freely, since the church says that God told them to do so. Further, for women who believe in the tenets of that church, it depersonalizes them and tells them that they must submit to such discrimination, under penalty of going against a deity, something that religious people fear.
For this, I cannot support the Roman Catholic Church in any way, and consider it to be a plague on modern civilization for keeping ancient prejudices alive and thriving, despite all we have learned over the centuries. I do not understand how any woman can subscribe to that church's noxious doctrine, and have little respect for men who do so as well. Human beings have learned many things since the RCC was founded. We have learned, but the Church has not.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)For all of the reasons you stated.
yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)Ouch. Direct hit!
Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)One of her best.
K&R