Wisconsin Catholic pastor who preached against Covid-19 vaccine ordered to step down

[cab67]

17. I used to be very active in my Catholic community.

I was from the left wing of the Church - the wing that took social justice and the daily lives of the working class and poor to heart. We worked to help the Church improve its attitude toward the role of women in the church and broaden its appeal to everyone - the divorced (which now includes me), LGBTQ, those who chose to use modern science in family planning, and those who might not loudly advocate for banning abortion.

I have no idea if such a wing still exists anymore, but one of the reasons (there are several) I drifted away was the increasingly strident tone of the right wing, which came to dominate the clergy in ways it didn't even as late as the 1990's. The focus was less on building a community and more on making sure we were part of the Religious Right. More on protecting embryos and less on helping those already born. More on promoting conservative economic policies that are best described as "every man or himself" (lack of gender-neutral pronounds intentional) and less on making sure everyone is treated with innate dignity.

I often say I gave up Catholicism for Lent, and it kinda stuck, but in reality, I feel like the church hierarchy began pulling the whole outfit further and further to the right, such that real heroes like Oscar Romero wouldn't even recognize it. It left me as much as I left it.