The one, true Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church is under attack from haters like Garry Wills:
The Vatican has issued a harsh statement claiming that American nuns do not follow their bishops’ thinking. That statement is profoundly true. Thank God, they don’t. Nuns have always had a different set of priorities from that of bishops. The bishops are interested in power. The nuns are interested in the powerless. Nuns have preserved Gospel values while bishops have been perverting them. The priests drive their own new cars, while nuns ride the bus (always in pairs). The priests specialize in arrogance, the nuns in humility.
More prejudice can be found at The Guardian:
he most shocking revelations are in a letter addressed to the Vatican’s secretary of state by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the deputy governor of Vatican City, denouncing the signing by employees of inflated contracts with friendly companies. As proof, Viganò said he had discovered the price of the Christmas nativity scene in St Peter’s Square was €250,000 (£204,000) more than it should have been. […]
After telling all, Viganò was reassigned to the US as papal nunzio, an appointment he describes as punishment for his honesty in a plaintive letter to Benedict in which he begs for a commission to look into his claims.
Since then, the Vatican has instead focused on finding out who leaked the letters, which it describes as “biased and trivial”.
If you guessed that Benedict made Opus Dei his rat squad, perhaps you need to look into your own soul for the irrational bias that seems to be dogging the Church lately.
El Cid
There are a lot of nice fellows throughout Latin America who gained experience in the 1980s seeking out and removing annoying Catholic rabble-rousing dissidents. I’m sure the old band could re-unite for a nostalgic US tour.
geg6
Heh. Just made a similar point about Benedict = Opus Dei in the last thread. Great minds and all that.
beltane
Lately? It’s been this way since the fourth century A.D. at the latest. The nuns are to the Catholic hierarchy as Christ was to Caesar.
amk
ratzi, the nazi further downgrading the rc. Hope he doesn’t die soon.
Villago Delenda Est
Yes, former Jesuit Garry Wills is an anti-Catholic bigot.
Well, he’s critical of the boy buggering red beanie brigade. Which is the same thing!
My nominee for the first to be fed to Dr. Bloor’s robotic lions: the gargantuan asshat Bill Donohue.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: If Bill Donohue had been alive in the 1200’s, Dante Alighieri would have found a choice spot in hell for him to occupy.
Clime Acts
Don’t get these people.
Leave the church already and organize your own communal means of living the gospel
Even the nuns suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.
amk
birther, deather, racist pig – a 3-fer troll
gaz
If anyone can “save” the church from itself, it’s the nuns.
As for everyone else? Pack it in, or own their shame. Putting money in the collection plate only furthers child rape and rank bigotry.
Clime Acts
@amk:
stalker, loser, psycho – 3-fer hole
amk
@Clime Acts: coming from a birther, deather, racist pig – a 3-fer troll
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Okay, I’m going to jump into the onslaught. I feel an acute sense of betrayal and embarrassment, having grown up in the Catholic faith. I attended a private school (taught entirely by U.S. nuns). I went to church and was an alter boy. I was never assaulted by anyone in the church. It was the 60’s and early 70’s, so, yes, I did see the nuns hit the occasional child with a ruler (please do not see my use of the word “occasional” as some sort of passive defense word — hitting any child once with a ruler should be a prosecutable crime). And I am certainly not saying that just because I experienced no assault meant others did not (though I never heard whispers even of such things in my particular church).
I believe I received an excellent basic education. At the school, I was truly an average student; I can recall receiving maybe one A- on a paper ever. Then I transferred to public school and overnight was suddenly an A student, tops in math, science and English (or among the elite anyway at my rather standard public school in northern California).
So what’s my point finally? I am no longer a practicing member of the church… haven’t attended a service (save a funeral mass) by choice in some 25 years. And yet, I can say that I am still in part grateful for the instruction I received, academically and even spiritually. I can recall a priest read a passage from the bible then pause and say, “Well, that’s what the bible says, but, of course, it was written by man and is therefore subject to error.” I don’t think you’ll find that sort of thing said in every Christian church (though I may well be wrong, having never attended every Christian church).
I feel like I have to keep posting caveats in my comment so that no one accuses me of a full-throated defense of “the church”. I am pro-choice; I don’t support the death penalty. I think we should treat the environment with reverence. I vote Democrat and have since I’ve been voting (though I did support Barry Commoner in 1980).
Here is perhaps where I am misreading some of the postings here on this blog when the subject is Catholicism. I think I see a lot of not merely anti-pope, anti-vatican commentary, but even a bit of “round ’em all up” rhetoric. Am I 100% mistaken? Am I just too sensitive having come from a Catholic background? It makes me nervous any time I see an entire body criticized, be they Muslims, Mormons, blacks, whites, wiccans, Republicans, even, dare I say it, tea partiers. (I have an aunt on my wife’s side who is not entirely stupid, who raised children who turned into nice adults, who is generous, but who is also a tea partier.)
No, I don’t think I’ve yet seen the sort of vitriolic anti-everything-Catholic commentary yet in this particular post (but the post is young). I’m referring instead to a general feeling I get sometimes (often) when the subject is Catholicism.
So there, I’ve had my say. I’m not trying to start a fight but a dialogue. Have at thee….
handsmile
Glad to see that this scathing essay by the invaluable Garry Wills has finally made it to the “front page.” I posted a link to it in a comment on mistermix’s Wednesday night thread “Another shocking case of anti-Catholic bigotry.”
At that time I also linked to a Guardian article that demonstrated that the Church hierarchy is not content merely to bully nuns: “Catholic Church urges pupils to sign anti-gay marriage petition”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/25/catholic-church-schools-gay-marriage
Ash Can
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): As collectively sharp and principled as this commentariat is here, it’s not immune to laziness of thought. All practicing Catholics are complicit in the crimes of the Church and are equally reprehensible, but hey, isn’t that Stephen Colbert guy great? Everyone who believes in sky fairies is an idiot, but boy, we loves us some Barack Obama/Al Gore/MLK/(fill in the name of just about any of our favorite political leaders). There’s nothing but bad stuff in the Bible, but somehow the nuns have it right. Religion is a pox on the nation, but the people who want to prevent the construction of an Islamic cultural center in Manhattan are moronic bigots. And so on.
Whatever. People just need to vent sometimes, and it’s a fool’s errand to argue with them.
geg6
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I pretty much disdain all religion but reserve a special hatred for the RCC due to having grown up within it and having been a victim of their misogyny. And in a literal way, not some sort of general feminist way. I will never quit hating the church and I will never forget who they really are.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Hi, geg6… I can certainly understand your feelings. Were I victimized, I would feel much the same I suspect. I have not replaced Catholicism with any other ‘ism’ and am very comfortable agnostic with atheistic leanings.
I appreciated your clear and concise observations as well, Ash Can.
JPL
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): ditto. I probably saw a little more abuse but Monsignor quickly sent them to the homes for bad nuns and bad priests. Okay I was naive and didn’t realize he just transferred them someplace else. The Church we were affiliated with did good things. The current Pope and his administration needs to disappear to one of those homes.
Arclite
These two stories in a nutshell pretty much cover what is so wrong, wrong, wrong with the church these days. First the contrast betw the hierarchy and the nuns couldn’t be more stark. And “€250,000 (£204,000) more“??!! Christ on a stick, why does it need to cost more than 10,000 total?
TenguPhule
Of course they do, otherwise how would they get away with all of the many many bad things they do?
Another Halocene Human
It is unfair to blame all Catholics for the things the hierarchy does but perhaps it is fair to blame them for sending money during “Bishop’s Appeal” when we damn well know where it is going. But that is because in US society you have a choice where your money goes whereas as a lay person in the church you really have little say in what the church does. Any attempts at pushback are being dealt with increasingly harshly. And there is a rump of superconservative Catholics who are maybe disgusted by the church’s excesses but are actually pushing the anti-woman “moral” agenda.
I quit being Catholic when I saw the mask peeled back and I no longer could be a part of that organization in any way. A lot of American Catholics have come to the same realization and it is certain that the good old days are certainly over for the American Catholic Church. They are truly hoist on their own petard.
“Anti-Catholic bias” is a joke, promoted by jokers. It is no bar to office to be a Roman Catholic. Hell, it’s almost a calling card in these times, yessiree, I am a pious dimwit who hates women. I know something of the virulent anti-Catholic bigotry my ancestors faced in this country and I know those days are all but over. It isn’t anti-Catholic bias to tell the truth. If the truth hurts, maybe they should stop blame shifting (blaming the victims, for fuck’s sake! blaming the innocent children they raped!) and take a hard look at themselves.
But they will never, ever do that.
I hope they enjoy lording over their rump church.