The Catholic Church's Hypocrisy on Women

Having been raised Roman Catholic I am all too well acquainted with the subordinate position into which the Church seeks to force women.  In some U.S. dioceses, altar servers must be male, nus are subservient to priests, women are told to remain in horrific marriages, and woman cannot be ordained in any capacity.  It is patriarchy run amok and there is little sign that changes is in the offing.  Thus, the irony - can we say hypocrisy - of Pope Francis condemning wage inequality.  If Francis thinks women deserve equal treatment and opportunity, a great place to begin would be in the Church itself.  A column in the New York Times takes on the Church's hypocrisy.  Here are excerpts:

[N]either Pope Francis nor any other top official in the bastion of male entitlement known as the Vatican can credibly assert concern about parity between the sexes. Their own kitchen is much too messy for them to call out the ketchup smudges in anybody else’s.

Francis actually went beyond concern. He vented outrage, calling it a “pure scandal” that women didn’t receive equal pay for equal work.

He left out the part about women in the Roman Catholic Church not even getting a shot at equal work. Pay isn’t the primary issue when you’re barred from certain positions and profoundly underrepresented in others.

Pay isn’t the primary issue when the symbolism, rituals and vocabulary of an institution exalt men over women and when challenges to that imbalance are met with the insistence that what was must always be — that habit trumps enlightenment and good sense.

Let’s be clear. For all the remarkable service that the Catholic Church performs, it is one of the world’s dominant and most unshakable patriarchies, with tenets that don’t abet equality.

For women to get a fair shake in the work force, they need at least some measure of reproductive freedom. But Catholic bishops in the United States lobbied strenuously against the Obamacare requirement that employers such as religiously affiliated schools and hospitals include contraception in workers’ health insurance.

And how does their vilification of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents 80 percent of American nuns, square with women’s equality? In 2012 the group was denounced by the Vatican and put under the control of three bishops charged with cleansing it of its “radical feminist” inclinations, including more attention to the poor than to sexual mores.

[T]he church’s refusal to follow some other Christian denominations and ordain women undermines any progress toward equality that it trumpets or tries. Sexism is embedded in its structure, its flow chart.

Men but not women get to preside at Mass. Men but never women wear the cassock of a cardinal, the vestments of a pope. Male clergy are typically called “father,” which connotes authority. Women in religious orders are usually called “sister,” which doesn’t.

Isn’t it more important that there be enough priests to bring the Eucharist to Catholics than that all those priests be men?

Can the church afford to alienate a generation of young women mystified by its intransigence?  They’ve grown up in a world where all doors have been open to them,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. “And it just strikes a disconnect when they see the church with no female leadership — at least they’re not the ones at the altar.”

Francis hasn’t sanctioned any discussion of putting them there. When pressed about that by an Italian reporter last year, he reminded her that “women were taken from a rib.” . . . the metaphor remains, and it casts women as offshoots, even afterthoughts.

Five Reasons To Perhaps Stay off the Pope Francis Bandwagon

Many Catholics - at least outside of far right Catholic circles - and members of the news media are gushing over Pope Francis and acting as if he has already worked a revolution within the Roman Catholic Church.  Blogger Andrew Sullivan, for instances, reads much - perhaps too much - into some of Francis' statements and style, which is admittedly easy to do after the Nazi Pope, Benedict XVI.  Yet, the bottom line is that in reality, other than some nice sounding statements and actions which suggest Francis is more humble than Benedict XVI, nothing has really changed at the Vatican.  Only time will tell if Francis will make real, meaningful changes.  In the meantime, it is worth remembering some of Francis' troubling baggage.  A piece in the Global Post reminds one of these issues.  Here are excerpts:

Pope Francis. He loves the sick and the poor. He lives a simple life that reflects his values. He has criticized the Catholic church for its alienating obsession with social issues. And he has called out global capitalism for the greed it has produced and the social devastation it has wrought.
Sounds good? Not so fast.

Here are some reasons we should think twice before hopping on the Pope Francis bandwagon.

1) Unanswered questions about the Dirty War in Argentina

The past is good place to start when questioning the hype surrounding Pope Francis.  Specifically, what was he doing during the Dirty War in Argentina, when the military junta that ruled from 1976 to 1983 was undertaking the systematical mass murder of so-called “subversives,” all under the Western-supported banner of “anti-Communism.” As few as 9,000 and as many as 30,000 men, women, and children were killed or “disappeared” in the course of the purge.

The Catholic Church was complicit in many ways. Archibishop Juan Carlos Aramburu openly supported the military junta and its murderous purge. Some priests gave last rights to men and women as they were headed to execution.

So what was Pope Francis, then known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, doing during all this?  He was the Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus from 1973 to 1979, meaning he was the boss of the Jesuits in Argentina. His role in the Dirty War is hazy. According to some reports, he was a willing collaborator: at worst, pointing out liberal ministers to the military and, at least, refusing to protect priests who were seized. He denies all of this, insisting that he secretly helped priests who had been targeted.

We might never uncover all the facts about what happened. But there is enough there to at least be a little skeptical of Francis, his past, and his character.

2) Poor handling of the Church's child sex abuse crisis

Francis has made some headway on the child sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. He’s spoken out on the problem and instituted some new laws governing Vatican officials and employees.

That's a start, but there is much more to be done when it comes to putting words into actions.  This is especially true in Latin America, where some have questioned Francis' handling of molestation cases in Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Peru.  He has been largely silent on four shocking cases.

3) His new tone on abortion and gay marriage is really new

Francis’ softened tone on gay marriage and abortion is one of the things drawing admiration from socially liberal folks. He said that the Church shouldn’t “interfere spiritually” in the lives of gay men and women. And he warned that the Catholic ministry had become “obsessed” with abortion.  He hasn’t always held such views, it seems.

Just before Argentina legalized same-sex marriage, as recent as 2010, Francis called the bill “a plan to destroy God’s plan” and “a move by the fathers of lies to confused and deceive the children of God.”

[T]he less conservative tone is new for Pope Francis. We'll need to wait and see whether it translates into doctrinal change.

4) He’s continuing the Vatican “inquisition” against American nuns

Under the harrowing reign of Pope Benedict, the Vatican cracked down on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that represents most American nuns. A Doctrinal Assessment by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) accused the LCWR and American nuns of promoting “radical feminist themes” by tempering or even opposing the Vatican’s positions on gay rights and abortion. 

When Pope Francis took over for Benedict, he had the opportunity to reverse or change the CDF’s controversial decision. Instead he “reaffirmed the findings."

So maybe Francis was feeling some pressure as a new Pope in the unusual circumstances of evaluating decisions made by a living predecessor. Either way, he had an opportunity to do end a witch-hunt against American nuns and didn’t.

5) He might have performed an exorcism on live TV

In the scheme of things, this one isn’t nearly as important as Francis’s take on Church doctrine or his willingness to combat child sex abuse. But it’s disturbing enough to join this list.

During a Mass in St. Peter’s Square in May, TV cameras filmed Francis praying over a man in a wheelchair. They exchanged words and Francis placed two hands on the man's forehead for several seconds while then man appeared to convulse slightly and gasp for breath.

Almost immediately, people began to speculate that Francis, who often talks of demons and devils in his sermons, had performed an exorcism.

The Vatican released a statement denying it. Gabriel Amorth, formerly a chief exorcist for the Vatican, saw it differently.

“That was a real exorcism and what is more,” he told reporters, “the boy the pope exorcized came to me today. His name is Angelo and he is possessed by four demons. I performed a long exorcism on him.”

Don't get me wrong.  As a former Catholic, I would be thrilled to see change take place in the Catholic Church.  I just think that some who are having the vapors over Francis may be acting far too prematurely.

New Pope, Same Misogyny

Pope Francis has gone to great pains to appear more humble and less arrogant and imperial than his predecessor, Benedict XVI, but where it really counts, there has been no discernible change.   The Vatican orchestrated sexual abuse cover up conspiracy continues, the campaign to stigmatize gays and fan the flames of anti-gay animus continues -in France, even threats of violence have been disseminated as noted in a prior post - and the Church remains decidedly anti-woman.  Indeed, Francis has shown little tolerance for those troublesome Catholic nuns who actually seek to implement the Gospel message.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the continued misogyny under the new Pope. Here are excerpts:

[O]n Monday, it felt like it was back to business as usual when word got out that Francis is standing by his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI’s clampdown on American nuns for their “radical feminism.” For all the renewal that Francis promises, the cold, hard reality is still that the Catholic Church is still one of the most misogynistic organizations around, no matter how popular the new pope might be.

No one was anticipating a major change for women in the church, and no one expects Francis to start handing out condoms in St. Peter’s square or suddenly ordaining women. But a positive gesture toward recognizing women’s value in the universal church could have started with softening the strict stance on American nuns.

The sisters, it seemed, were staying silent on the church’s pet issues of abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, and the ordination of women. Their silence was interpreted as endorsement—by not speaking out against such “evils,” the report said, the sisters were effectively showing their approval for the practices. The clampdown was met with outrage across the United States, leading to a massive Twitter frenzy under the hashtag #whatsistersmeantome, started by James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of America, a magazine on Catholic issues. “There is a danger of backlash because of the esteem [in which] so many Catholics hold nuns,” Father Martin told The Daily Beast at the height of the scandal. “For many Catholics, sisters are the glue that holds the church together.”.

On Monday, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, met with LCWR leaders who had traveled to Rome in hopes of good news. Instead, according to a statement made by the Vatican press office, Muller “informed the Presidency that he had recently discussed the Doctrinal Assessment with Pope Francis, who reaffirmed the findings of the Assessment and the program of reform for this Conference of Major Superiors.” That’s not exactly what the nuns were hoping for.

Now the sisters must wait until the investigation concludes to see if they will have to disband their organization to continue their work or whether the Vatican will accept them as a vital component of the Catholic Church after all.

As with gays who remain Catholic, I wonder what is wrong with women who remain in the Catholic Church.   They are viewed with disdain by the priggish and often closeted members of the male hierarchy denied recognition for the key role that they play in keeping the Church in existence.  How many times must one be beat down and almost literally spit upon before you get the message that you need to simply leave and walk away.