It’s not every day (or decade for that matter) the pastor of a Catholic church is willing to stick his neck out and take on the powers that be in his own Church. But the recent Vatican crackdown on Catholic nuns has landed with a thud on the conscience of many faithful Catholics and inspired righteous indignation in unlikely spots.
Writing in the parish bulletin of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church in Cleveland under the simple headline “From the Desk of Fr. Doug,” the pastor unleashes a thunderous defense of Catholic sisters and a withering critique of Vatican power. A parish bulletin has rarely crackled with such scorching prose. Read the whole thing here. I’ve pulled some paragraphs that jump off the page and grab you by the hair.
The Vatican sounded like the Pharisees of the New Testament;—legalistic, paternalistic and orthodox— while “the good sisters” were the ones who were feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, educating the immigrant, and so on. Nuns also learned that Catholics are intuitively smart about their faith. They prefer dialogue over diatribe, freedom of thought over mind control, biblical study over fundamentalism, development of doctrine over isolated mandates.
Far from being radical feminists or supporters of far-out ideas, religious women realized that the philosophical underpinnings of Catholic teaching are no longer valid. Women are not subservient to men, the natural law is much broader than once thought, the OT is not as important as the NT, love is more powerful than fear. They realized that you can have a conversation with someone on your campus who thinks differently than the church without compromising what the church teaches.
The Vatican is hypocritical and duplicitous. Their belief is always that someone else needs to clean up their act; the divorced, the gays, the media, the US nuns, the Americans who were using the wrong words to pray, the seminaries, etc. It never occurs to the powers that be that the source of the problem is the structure itself.
US nuns work side by side with the person on the street. They are involved in their everyday lives. Most cardinals spent less than five years in a parish, were never pastors, are frequently career diplomats. Religious women in the US refuse to be controlled by abusive authority that seeks to control out of fear. They realize that Jesus taught no doctrines, but that the church, over time, developed what Jesus taught in a systematic way.
This investigation is not about wayward US nuns. It is the last gasp for control by a dying breed, wrapped in its own self-importance. It is a struggle for the very nature of the church; who we are, how we pray, where we live, who belongs, why we believe. The early church endured a similar struggle. The old order died. The Holy Spirit won.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is meeting this week to discuss how they will respond to the Vatican’s move. Catholic sisters are true heroes of our church and need little inspiration to firm up their already steely convictions, but they clearly don’t stand alone.
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What Ryan Missed
By Gerald J. Beyer — America, Opinion
Unfortunately, he badly misunderstands…solidarity and subsidiarity. He also misinterprets how these principles apply to the scourge of poverty in the United States.
Congressional Black Caucus Holds Faith Leaders Summit on Voting Rights
By CSPAN
Attorney General Eric Holder delivers the keynote address at a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Conference of National Black Churches.
Time to fight for a minimum wage increase
By Katrina vanden Heuvel — Washington Post, Opinion
We’ve seen who supports tax cuts on the wealthy and billion dollar subsidies to big oil. Let’s see who supports raising a minimum wage so a full-time worker can lift his or her family out of poverty.
Jewish groups, Senate Dems talk Iran and budget
By Ron Kampeas — Jewish Telegraphic Agency
And in a refrain familiar to such exchanges, senators urged Jewish groups to lobby not just for spending but also for tax hikes.
Nuns’ supporters plan vigil in response to Vatican crackdown
By Michael O’Malley — Cleveland Plain Dealer
The crackdown has caused an uproar among some Catholics, sparking dozens of vigils in cities across the country.
Kansas bans Shariah, Muslims eye legal fight
By Lauren Markoe — Religion News Service
Muslim civil rights groups are calling a new Kansas law that bans Shariah in state courtrooms an expression of Islamophobia that is vulnerable to a legal challenge.
After lawsuits and arson, judge’s ruling derails plans for Tennessee mosque
By Lateef Mungin — CNN, Belief Blog
The long-running battle between a Tennessee Muslim community and a group of critics over a new mosque took a dramatic turn Tuesday when a judge ruled that construction had to halt.
Thousands Protest Anti-Gay Pastor In North Carolina
By Annie-Rose Strasser — Think Progress
Worley came under fire last week after saying the U.S. should build an electrified fence to create a concentration camp for all gay people and “in a few years they’ll die out.”
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In a move that escalated the political controversy about contraception and religious liberty, 44 Catholic bishops and colleges filed lawsuits last week challenging the requirement that health insurance plans cover birth control without a copayment.
But it’s also notable that relatively few leaders participated – only 13 of America’s 195 Catholic dioceses joined the suits. And in a move that was little noticed outside religious media, a prominent bishop expressed concern that the entire debate is being co-opted by right-wing groups bent on attacking President Obama.
That might sound like inside baseball, but it’s a clear sign of significant internal fissures over the Catholic bishops’ increasingly politicized confrontation against the Obama administration. As Republican politicians accuse the president of waging war on religious freedom and extremist religious leaders compare the administration to totalitarian dictatorships, a warning against partisanship is welcome news.
Amid all the hyperbolic claims about supposedly grave threats to religious liberty, it’s worth taking another look at the facts of the contraception coverage debate.
Last year the independent Institute of Medicine reviewed medical research and public comments about which health care services should be classified as essential preventive services to be covered without a copayment in health insurance plans. Contraception was identified as one of these services. This was an evidence-based health policy decision, not an ideological attack on religious liberty.
Recognizing that some religions consider contraception wrong, the Department of Health and Human Services carved out an exemption to this requirement for religious institutions. After many moderate faith leaders criticized the exemption as too narrow, the Obama administration offered a further accommodation ensuring that institutions such as religious schools, charities, social service providers and hospitals won’t be required to pay for contraception coverage for their employees. Final versions of these regulations are being formulated right now. Unfortunately, many of the loudest voices in this debate either pretend this accommodation was never offered or inaccurately dismiss it as an “accounting gimmick.”
This controversy isn’t going away, and it’s not just a Catholic issue. Some evangelical leaders have suggested that they will join the Catholic bishops’ upcoming “fortnight for freedom” campaign to mobilize Christians nationwide to stand against alleged threats to religious liberty. I hope moderate voices who prefer dialogue and good-faith negotiation over litigation and inflammatory rhetoric become more influential. The debate we’re having now is rooted more in politics than it is in reality.
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The FPL News Reel is a daily round-up of the top faith and politics stories in the news. You can sign up for the email version of the News Reel here, subscribe to the RSS feed here, and follow it on twitter at @FPLNewsreel.
Conservatives used to care about community. What happened?
By E.J. Dionne Jr. — Washington Post, Opinion
[Romney's] moved to the right on tax cuts and twisted himself into a pretzel over the health-care plan he championed in Massachusetts — because conservatives are no longer allowed to acknowledge that government can improve citizens’ lives.
Catholics caught between bishops, Obama’s birth control mandate
By Lisa Miller — Washington Post, On Faith
…this dynamic is untenable, as any good family therapist will tell you. The real solution is, as Blaire suggests, for Mommy and Daddy to talk to each other, and work it out. Or the kids will find a happier home someplace else.
Conservative Activists Gather To Plot Defense Of ‘Religious Liberty’
By Lauren Markoe — Religion News Service
Like-minded religionists of several denominations — including Southern Baptist leader Richard Land and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori — gathered in Washington Thursday (May 24) to organize a response to what they see as the sorry state of religious freedom in America today.
Illinois legislature passes deep health care cuts
By Ray Long — Chicago Tribune
Hundreds of thousands of poor Illinoisans would lose health coverage, prescription drug discounts for seniors would be dropped and dental care for adults would be greatly curtailed as part of $1.6 billion in budget cuts lawmakers approved yesterday.
Christian witness for gays in Uganda
By Thomas Patrick Melady and Richard Cizik — Washington Post, On Faith
…we believe it’s time for more U.S. faith leaders to speak out against systematic efforts to demonize gay Ugandans before it’s too late.
Maine churches planning to collect cash to fund opposition to gay marriage ballot question
By Clarke Canfield — Associated Press
While many churches are joining the campaign against the referendum, others of various denominations are working to support the ballot measure.
Christie Accepts Monitoring of Muslims
By Associated Press
The determination, by the state attorney general, concerned tactics of the New York Police Department like videotaping mosque-goers and collecting their license plate numbers.
NYPD Muslim probe may have been legal, but wasn’t right
By Newark Star-Ledger, Editorial
And more important, the revelation of the NYPD’s actions violated the trust of the law-abiding Muslims they monitored, and their neighbors and supporters.
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The FPL News Reel is a daily round-up of the top faith and politics stories in the news. You can sign up for the email version of the News Reel here, subscribe to the RSS feed here, and follow it on twitter at @FPLNewsreel.
Analysis: Catholic bishops divided in legal battle against Obama birth control mandate
By David Gibson — Religion News Service
…the strategy has also exposed serious fault lines within the U.S. hierarchy, as some leaders are privately and even openly questioning the legal and political ramifications of the bishops’ latest battle with the White House.
The battle among Catholic bishops
By E.J. Dionne Jr. — Washington Post, Opinion
…in recent months, a series of events — among them the Vatican’s rebuke of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, encouraged by right-wing U.S. bishops — have angered more progressive Catholics and led to talk among the disgruntled faithful of the need for a “Catholic spring” to challenge the hierarchy’s shift to the right.
Payday loan bill invites greed
By Philadelphia Inquirer, Editorial
Churches, community groups, and civil rights organizations in Missouri have decided not to wait for government to protect them. They have collected 180,000 signatures on a petition for a referendum on legislation to stop usury.
EXCLUSIVE: Tea Party Icon Allen West Says He’s Willing ‘To Talk About Raising Taxes’ To Lower Debt And Deficit
By Scott Keyes — Think Progress
Perhaps the most beloved member of the freshman Republican class, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) made a startling announcement on Tuesday: he’s willing to discuss raising taxes in order to address the nation’s budget shortfall.
JPMorgan Hearing: Market Regulators Warn They’re Broke, Outgunned By Wall Street
By D.M. Levine — Huffington Post
The inadequacy of the SEC budget is an issue that Schapiro has raised in the past, and one that sits at the heart of criticism that the regulator is not able to fully monitor and regulate financial markets.
Voting Out Austerity
By America, Editorial
It would be a shame if politicians in the United States, who appear bent on repeating Europe’s recent mistakes, do not learn from the hard-earned wisdom of European voters.
Are the World’s Wealthiest Nations Doing Enough to Fight Hunger?
By Tobin Grant — Christianity Today, Politics Blog
Adam Taylor, World Vision’s vice president for advocacy, said the G8 nations need to fulfill their promises and distribute the remaining funds.
NJ Muslim leaders scheduled to meet again with attorney general on NYPD surveillance program
By Associated Press
Muslim leaders who have been demanding a formal investigation into the New York Police Department’s surveillance of businesses, mosques and Muslim student groups will meet Thursday with New Jersey’s top state law enforcement official.
Muslims to gather to combat anti-Shariah movement
By Omar Sacirbey — Religion News Service
Some 15,000 Muslims are expected at this weekend’s 37th annual convention of the Islamic Circle of North America in Hartford, where the theme of “Defending Religious Freedom: Understanding Shariah” reflects the worry that anti-Muslim activists are fanning fear of Islamic law to marginalize U.S. Muslims.
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