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| Real progressive thinkers |
I see the old misogynists that run the Catholic Church are
not too happy with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious the US umbrella
group representing nuns in the US. The Vatican crowd is concerned that "certain
radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." are being talked about by
these women in contradiction to Church principles. Not only that; these uppity
women seem to be a bit lax on the official teachings on the priesthood as well
as homosexuality.
As far as I can recall without some research here, the pope of Rome excommunicated some women for practicing the Mass. This is an organization that couldn’t bring itself to excommunicate Hitler; women power is more threatening I gather. What I’m worried about is will assassinations follow as occurred with the Liberation Theologists in Latin America? I am half joking here and to my knowledge there is no direct evidence that the church of Rome was involved directly in the right wing’s murder of priests and nuns that stood up for the poor against Latin America’s oligarch’s and their Washington backers. But I am convinced that that the Catholic hierarchy stood aside and washed its hands of the affair like Pontius Pilate. The Fascists could not have accomplished the crushing of the Liberation Theologists quite so easily without Vatican acquiescence.
And this homosexuality thing has to be nipped in the bud. Pedophiles are one thing but grown men having consensual relationships, being loving and kind to each other is a no-no. And as far as Rome is concerned, these nuns are far too quiet on the “right to life from conception to natural death.”. The Catholic hierarchy is big on the right to life from conception. What sort of life and what constitutes a “natural” death is another matter. The Catholic Church was once the church of Europe’s feudal aristocracy but it accepted the inevitable and switched allegiances to the ruling class and the system that supplanted its former allies, capitalism.
The pope, a former member of the Nazi youth might want to be informed that the deaths from the following are not “natural”: Millions of deaths from starvation amid food abundance. Death from diseases due not to the absence of medical science and means to prevent them but conscious decisions not to allocate the resources to prevent them because its not profitable. And deaths from wars that are the product of the struggle between the ruling classes of nation states for control of the world’s resources that belong to us all.
Yet the Catholic Church is the most ardent supporter of the system of production that causes these deaths. It actively assists and has successfully assisted in the orchestrators’ of these disasters crushing any movement that might arise to change this situation. It is the only religious organization with its own state. It has its own army, bank (with much corruption) and as a state it has diplomatic relations with the governments of the countries where it has a presence. It is complicit in the starvation, misery and environmental destruction that the so-called free market system wreaks on the people of the world and our planet.
Millions of workers and poor people count themselves as Catholics. But we are not talking about them although it is hard to understand why someone would want to belong to an organization of this nature with such a violent and repressive past as well. People find comfort in the social connection, the security of the collective that religious association brings. Among the poor, desperate and illiterate masses it is a straw that can be grasped to give them some hope, some explanation for the misery around them and the hope of peace and happiness in the afterlife. The opium of the masses indeed.
The Vatican means business, “An American archbishop was appointed to oversee reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, writes Rachel Zoll on the Huff Post, “which will include rewriting the group's statutes, reviewing all its plans and programs -- including approving speakers -- and ensuring the organization properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual.” The overseer is naturally a man.
We hope the nuns, who face vicious sexism and discrimination as women in the male dominated Catholic Church, will hold their ground and continue their struggle for change. For those ordinary folks who find it hard to leave this organization, hopefully they will come to their aid.
As far as I can recall without some research here, the pope of Rome excommunicated some women for practicing the Mass. This is an organization that couldn’t bring itself to excommunicate Hitler; women power is more threatening I gather. What I’m worried about is will assassinations follow as occurred with the Liberation Theologists in Latin America? I am half joking here and to my knowledge there is no direct evidence that the church of Rome was involved directly in the right wing’s murder of priests and nuns that stood up for the poor against Latin America’s oligarch’s and their Washington backers. But I am convinced that that the Catholic hierarchy stood aside and washed its hands of the affair like Pontius Pilate. The Fascists could not have accomplished the crushing of the Liberation Theologists quite so easily without Vatican acquiescence.
And this homosexuality thing has to be nipped in the bud. Pedophiles are one thing but grown men having consensual relationships, being loving and kind to each other is a no-no. And as far as Rome is concerned, these nuns are far too quiet on the “right to life from conception to natural death.”. The Catholic hierarchy is big on the right to life from conception. What sort of life and what constitutes a “natural” death is another matter. The Catholic Church was once the church of Europe’s feudal aristocracy but it accepted the inevitable and switched allegiances to the ruling class and the system that supplanted its former allies, capitalism.
The pope, a former member of the Nazi youth might want to be informed that the deaths from the following are not “natural”: Millions of deaths from starvation amid food abundance. Death from diseases due not to the absence of medical science and means to prevent them but conscious decisions not to allocate the resources to prevent them because its not profitable. And deaths from wars that are the product of the struggle between the ruling classes of nation states for control of the world’s resources that belong to us all.
Yet the Catholic Church is the most ardent supporter of the system of production that causes these deaths. It actively assists and has successfully assisted in the orchestrators’ of these disasters crushing any movement that might arise to change this situation. It is the only religious organization with its own state. It has its own army, bank (with much corruption) and as a state it has diplomatic relations with the governments of the countries where it has a presence. It is complicit in the starvation, misery and environmental destruction that the so-called free market system wreaks on the people of the world and our planet.
Millions of workers and poor people count themselves as Catholics. But we are not talking about them although it is hard to understand why someone would want to belong to an organization of this nature with such a violent and repressive past as well. People find comfort in the social connection, the security of the collective that religious association brings. Among the poor, desperate and illiterate masses it is a straw that can be grasped to give them some hope, some explanation for the misery around them and the hope of peace and happiness in the afterlife. The opium of the masses indeed.
The Vatican means business, “An American archbishop was appointed to oversee reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, writes Rachel Zoll on the Huff Post, “which will include rewriting the group's statutes, reviewing all its plans and programs -- including approving speakers -- and ensuring the organization properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual.” The overseer is naturally a man.
We hope the nuns, who face vicious sexism and discrimination as women in the male dominated Catholic Church, will hold their ground and continue their struggle for change. For those ordinary folks who find it hard to leave this organization, hopefully they will come to their aid.
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