Is feminism an evil that is comparable with the abuse of drugs? Apparently so - at least from the perspective of some Catholic leaders who can't abide by the idea of women having equal rights and opportunities in modern society. After all, women have a divinely ordained place in the church, the home, and society - any time they get uppity and seek something better, they are defying God.
Eileen McNamara writes in The Boston Globe:
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." ... Beyond his contempt for feminism and his veneration of obedience, O'Malley displayed his disdain for an entire generation, "the boomers born between 1946 and 1966." (O'Malley was born in 1944.) "The most educated and affluent group in US history," he said, "are heirs to Woodstock, the drug culture, the sexual revolution, feminism, the breakdown of authority, and divorce. Typically, they are religious illiterates, but they are interested. Not big on dogmas. My karma ran over my dogma could be their motto."
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." 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.
Sometimes, the only requirement for arguing that the Roman Catholic Church is backwards, reactionary, and a negative force in society is to simply allow certain Catholic leaders speak for themselves. Choose the right people, and they can do a better job at making Catholicism look like foolishness than any anti-Catholic critic.
Read More:
Comments
No comments yet. Leave a Comment