Thursday, May 27, 2004
No Catholic has been a major party presidential nominee since John Kennedy. A large issue of that 1960 campaign was Catholic obedience to the Pope & the priestly hierarchy. Now, 44 years later, it's still an issue; as a segment of American Catholic Bishops uses Holy Communion - the central article of The Mass & in a sense of Catholic life - as a political weapon. Governor McGreevey no longer receives the Eucharist because of his pro-choice public political view (his private belief may be the opposite). & now, Senator Kerry may face the same dilemma. & not just him but all Catholic elected officials who express a pro-choice view, & all Catholics who vote for them. Of course, the Bishops deny that this is any kind of attack on church/state separation. I suppose that by the letter-of-the-law, Catholic law, it is not. But why has this nation had only one Catholic president in its history? & why would Catholic Bishops, who collectively lean "liberal" in their calls for the kinds of social services that Democrats traditionally support, play into the hands & hopes of the protestant Christian Right? If the Catholic Church's priestly authorities (who are NOT by definition the Church) turned away from the communion railing every parishioner who wasn't in 100% agreement on all important Catholic doctrines, they would save a lot of money on holy wafers.
The Catholic Church hierarchy is really screwed up right now. They have the tragic sex abuses & shameful coverups, of course. & they were running out of priests before that scandal exploded. They are closing parish churches everywhere - many of which would be viable if there were priests to assign to them. This authoritarian exclusively male leadership, which I dislike anyway, ought to be handing over much of its authority in practical church affairs to the Church body, which is all Catholics united in Christ; opening up the priesthood first to married men & then to women; & certainly not engaging in tactics that try to divert public attention from the real problem, which is the Bishopry itself. Talk about choice - hah, the Bishops can't stop making bad ones.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
The Catholic Church hierarchy is really screwed up right now. They have the tragic sex abuses & shameful coverups, of course. & they were running out of priests before that scandal exploded. They are closing parish churches everywhere - many of which would be viable if there were priests to assign to them. This authoritarian exclusively male leadership, which I dislike anyway, ought to be handing over much of its authority in practical church affairs to the Church body, which is all Catholics united in Christ; opening up the priesthood first to married men & then to women; & certainly not engaging in tactics that try to divert public attention from the real problem, which is the Bishopry itself. Talk about choice - hah, the Bishops can't stop making bad ones.
