Vatican Fears Feminism Threatens Families

[Generic Other]

Are we also blaming feminists for pedophile priests? Please. This is altogether too much for my blood to bear! I wish I could be excommunicated but I'm already among the damned! Good for me. How do Catholic women stand for this?

<snip>

AP VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Saturday denounced feminism for trying to blur differences between men and women and threatening the institution of families based on a mother and a father.

The drive for equality, the Vatican said, makes "homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/ap/20040731/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_women

[bluestateguy]

1. The Vatican: No standing, no moral authority

n/t

[Manix]

2. ....so out of touch with the real world..this man is irrelevant!

[noahmijo]

3. I don't think most Catholic women stand for this

nor do they obey everything the Catholic church preaches. It's widely known that American Catholics especially are so far removed from the "kooky old men" segment of the church.

Check out the new sig line!

[Generic Other]

5. It would just make me so mad if I was a Catholic woman

I'm not and I'm mad. Like listening to jerry Falwell froth at the mouth. Where are the goood Christians of faith? Why aren't they strong enough to combat this mindset?

[noahmijo]

12. The good Christians of faith are right here

and everywhere, take a trip outta freeper country and visit a Catholic church that is largely Mexican for example, see how many of them will be quick to jump on you for defending gays or women's rights.

[lastliberalintexas]

4. The Catholic Church

is becoming the new Southern Baptist Church. I say this as a former SB myself, so I can certainly empathize with the caring, intelligent and liberal Catholics who are being forced out the door by these Opus Dei type policies. Very sad, since the Church used to be such a champion of social justice issues. Certainly not perfect, but not the evil entity into which it is morphing, either.


Unfortunately, they just took a play from the fundie Protestant handbook. This is basically Pat Robertson redux, and he's been saying these things since the 1980s.

[Classical_Liberal]

23. It's been this way all my life.

.

[LittleApple81]

6. I am glad I saw the light when I was 13. Fewwww! And they will

go even more conservative when THIS POPE dies. he has surrounded himself with the most conservative, retrograde group of prelates you can imagine. The Latin American ones (a Colombian, Trujillo? was the one telling people not to use condoms because they don't work! Killing people like this is not "compassionate" in my book).

I AM SO SAD. Because the Catholic church could be such a force for humanity and true compassion. And I have seen catholics who show these qualities and who do GREAT THINGS all over the world. Taking care of the sick, looking after the destitute, feeding the hungry. But with leadership like this... It just makes me very sad.

[Fleshdancer]

7. I think the institutional cover up of pedophilia threatens families more

But what do I know. I'm just a family destroying feminist hell bent on equality and control over my own body. :grr:

[mermaid]

14. No. Feminism Does Not Destory Families

It THREATENS the patriachal power structure of the Roman Catholic Church...and some societies.
Learn to read between the lines.

[October]

29. Huzzah!

You nailed it.

[Ms. Clio]

8. Feminism? What's that?

Feminism is little more than a historical artifact, sadly.

But you can always count on the fundies to blame women for everything.

[Swede]

9. But fucking little boys is a okay!

[Raven]

10. I am a Catholic woman by upbringing.

I left the Church when Boston blew up and I have never looked back. The way to really tell if the Catholic Church has any sway over women is to notice how few of them have huge numbers of children...not many. Catholic women have been ignoring the Church's teachings on things like birth control since the 60's...their lives depended on ignoring the Church. Unfortunately, many of us carried around some guilt about this, until the breath and depth of the pedophile scandal became known.

My relationship with my God is not going to be brokered by a bunch of filthy, corrupt old men!

[Generic Other]

15. Thank you, Raven

You raised an excellent point.

I worry because I have a boy being raised Catholic in Boston. I don't even know his name. This causes me a great deal of sadness. I can only hope he's growing up to be like Will Pitt. :)

[Raven]

18. If he's yours,

he has a brain in his head and he will figure it out.

I've told this story here before and it's absolutely true. I sent Will to first communion classes when he was 6 or 7 with the son of a friend of mine. They attended classes at the church in Newton, MA that Paul Shanley ran. When the whole thing blew up in Boston a few years ago, I was watching TV one night and they were giving a chronology of Shanley's activities. I realized that he had molested children in Will's first communion class. I took many deep breaths and then called Will. After much hemming and hawing, I asked him if he remembered Shanley. Fearing the worst, I waited for his answer. He said "Don't worry Mom, that guy never laid a hand on Frankie and me because we skipped out on all of those classes. We went in the front door and snuck out the back." I was never so happy to know he was a truant. However, one of Frankie's older brothers was molested by Shanley when he served as an altar boy at that Church.

Will refused to make his Confirmation and I never pushed him on that. People need to come to religion their own way by their own path. Don't worry about your son, he has your genes, he will be fine! :-)

[mermaid]

19. I Left The Catholic Church Also When I Was 13

I confided in the priest who had married my parents, and who had baptised me...and whom I'd known my whole life...that I was a transsexual.
From that moment on, the Church made clear, in many subtle ways, that my "sin" was unforgiveable, and I was hellbound, and I could not be saved, and I was not welcome in the catholic Church of my upbringing.

I am so glad now...looking back! Because I'll be DAMNED if I will allow the Church to insert itself into my relationship with my Lord and Savior.

I remember, all us Catholics were taught that we could not have personal relationships with God or Jesus...but that the Churh was our CONDUIT to God...and thus, one could not have any relationship with God or Jesus that did not include...and was not brokered by...the Roman Catholic Church!

So, when the Church effectively slammed the doors in my face...it was to me as if GOD...Himself...had slammed the doors in my face! This led to a period of ten years where I alternated between atheism, and agnosticism...and apathy for, and rage against, God.

At age 24, I became a Unitarian Universalist. I have since re-discovered my Christian faith...but, since all Christian churches seem filled with nothing but right-wing assholes, I continue to practice my faith in a UU church, and consider myself a Unitarian Universalist Christian. I'm now 33.

I regained my Christian faith after discovering one did not have to be an intolerant, bigoted, prejudiced, right-wing asshole to be a Christian.

The Roman Catholic Church, and most so-called Christians...and most so-called Christian congregations are, in my not-so-humble opinion...actually engaging in the work of Satan...driving people FROM God and Jesus.

[pop goes the weasel]

11. this comes

from men who wear lace and dresses and have a reputation for liking little boys in inappropriate ways. Methinks they are not feeling too sure of their own manliness, and so are taking the time-honored path of bludgeoning women because of their own sexual confusion.

[InkAddict]

13. Perhaps if men were not being

sissyfied, women's roles would maintain at least some "traditional" aspects. Some one needs to support the children. It seems that men are useful to society one day but not the next. This makes women defensive and more agressive in their fight to maintain better lives for themselves and their children.

[Nikia]

21. The real enemy is the economy, not women

I realize that some men are having a hard time because they are having a hard time fullfilling their "masculine" role of doing useful, valued work and being the bread winner. Some men become depressed and angry after losing good jobs. Younger men become depressed and angry when they can't get those jobs in the first place. They feel that they have failed where in the past their fathers succeeded. Instead of blaming the companies that have failed them and corporatism in general, they blame women who seem to be succeeding while they are failing. As wages go down and unemployment goes up, this is bound to happen.
A man who tries to protest in traditional masculine ways, by fighting, whether physical or verbal ends up unemployable and/or a criminal.
Corporations treat men (and women) like disposable machines. Men who grew up thinking that work was their purpose are bound to be sad and angry about this. It is not women who are the enemy though.

[Ms. Clio]

26. The idea that men have "traditionally" supported the family

is completely inaccurate, in the first place. Most women throughout history have labored long and hard (at menial, grinding jobs that have always paid less than those of men) to feed, clothe, and shelter their families.

[Generic Other]

25. I sissyfied my man by being a strong woman?

Maybe the Vatican was right. I do hate traditional roles.

[Pithlet]

30. "Sissyfied"

Classic liberal feminism right here at DU! It warms my heart. :puke:

[SemperEadem]

16. Break from Rome!!!!

It's time for the American Catholic Church to break from the Roman Catholic Church. The Bishop of Rome is not relevant to America, nor is the Roman church, obviously.

[mermaid]

17. Just Break From

Papa Polack!

You think an AMERICAN would EVER be elected Pope?
Time the American Catholic Church break away and form it's own heirarchy, and fuck Rome.

[greekspeak]

20. Since the heady days of Vatican II

The Catholic Church has seemed to be losing touch with the times. I think that it will become irrelevant in most of the first world before much longer. Also, the church is fighting pentacostals for the souls of the second and third world. The church is choking to death on its own dogma.

[mermaid]

28. Speaking Of Dogma

Did you ever see the movie, "Dogma?"
Goddamn, I luaghed my ASS off over that movie.

I'm betting the fucking Vatican didn't much appreciate it, though!

God, they are such repressed buttheads!!

I have always said the church should have NO role, no voice, no opinion in ANYTHING having to do with sex...after all, you no playa da game, you no make-a da rules!! Who knew they WERE playing the game...with little boys??

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAH...

Sick, repressed, power-hungry, egomaniacal, dying-out bunch of old crocks...

[Classical_Liberal]

22. I doubt they personally cited anyone.

Feminists certianily aren't opposed to creating more child care opportunities.

The Church has been making these sorts or pronouncements for years. It isn't new.

[ck4829]

24. According to some of these religious people...

I am not speaking about all of them, but some of them believe that:
Feminism is a threat
Women in gereral are a threat
Islam is a threat
Secularism is a threat
Liberalism is a threat
Their followers having wealth is a threat
They themselves not having wealth is a threat

[Generic Other]

27. I guess the Pope and Pat Robertson are sissyfied bedfellows

"Feminism is a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

--Pat Robertson