Making the connection to the Fortnight crystal-clear, the archbishop emphasized: “St. Thomas More could be said to represent that conscientious private employer or employee who seeks to avoid doing or facilitating moral evil in course of daily work while striving to live and work in accord with the demands of social justice. He stands for those who go about their daily work in accord with their faith . . . and those who understand how dangerous it is to the common good to separate faith from life, the Gospel from culture.”
Yes. St. Thomas More would be all OVER making non-Catholic (and Catholic, too, but we’ll get to that after more quality crazy) women pay out of pocket whatever wealthy pharmaceutical companies wanted to gouge them for the privilege of not having a fifth kid in six years, or a kid out of wedlock, or LET’S NOT FORGET MEDICAL ADVANCES LIKE NOT BLEEDING TO DEATH FROM BENIGN TUMORS. St. Thomas More would be all, “Let the bitches pay $80-$100 or just die already.”
Take it away, K-Lo:
We got to this point in United States history, in which religious liberty is being redefined and eroded before our eyes, in part because we haven’t been answering our call as the laity — to be authentic Christian witnesses in our daily lives. Think of what it means to be a Catholic in public life. Is it distinguishable from anyone else’s, in ways beyond rhetoric? Do we live differently? Do we vote differently? Do we have different priorities and approaches based on authentic discernment of Christ’s daily call to us?
Clearly somebody fucked up somewhere, because something like 90 percent of Catholic women use birth control in some form. What we need to have happen here is for all good Catholic ladies to abandon their lifestyles of the “modern day” and renounce birth control.
Or, you know, Holy Mother Church could get Her shit together and, instead of basing policy on an archaic system of doing things that hasn’t been operative since dinosaurs ruled the earth, allow people to use their God-given consciences to make the best decisions for themselves, while concentrating on boring shit like feeding poor people.
This shit makes me so crazy. The Rules are only the point if they actually help somebody. Forcing women to live as if it’s 1855 and they have to have a child every time they have sex helps nobody. Forcing women to live with preventable illness and pain helps nobody. Forget the women, even, since these people seem to: Forcing women to have unwanted children doesn’t help those children one bit. It doesn’t help their husbands, either, really: More kids to feed and corral and send to college isn’t an automatic in the win column if you have less money than, say, a Romney. Theoretically, we put The Rules in place in order to make people’s lives better, and perpetuate them in order to continue that work.
This is perpetuating The Rules for the sake of The Rules, which is kind of what a very nice man got himself nailed to a tree for trying to tear down in the first place.
A.



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Allison!
Fuck the Catholic Church (and pretty much all the rest of them) and their pious moaning. They cover up the rapes physical abuse of children. They promote intolerance and bigotry and advocate terrorist acts against those who disagree with them. They do not protest wars or poverty or discrimination. They are standing on the left hand side of the Rabbi Yeshua and have no moral force.
It’s interesting that the Catholic Church wants to make birth control a taboo for ALL women, not just Catholic women. I’m not Catholic, or anything else for that matter, and I resent the fact that any church would do that.
Their policy of restricting reproductive health available at their hospitals is why I decided 20 years ago to boycott all Catholic hospitals and medical groups affiliated with them.
Howdy ‘pups.
There is an ancient joke about the Pope and birth control. His not-so-Holiness was meeting with a group of Italian women. He told them, “You must not use birth control: it is a mortal sin, as Pope Paul taught us.”
One of the ladies said, “Holy Father, if you don’t play the game you shouldn’t make the rules.”
It seems that American Catholics get it. It’s a shame the bishops haven’t gotten it yet.
The Catholic Church and many other denominations, treat women and LGBT persons like they are sub human in an age of growing tolerance among everybody else. Yet they whine about not having any money in their coffers, about not having enough young people going into the clergy, about people “turning away from god”, etc. I’m atheist but even I can see that people aren’t turning away from god, they are turning away from a church which tells them that they and/or their loved ones aren’t worthy to be treated as full, equal citizens. They are turning away from you and your rigid, inflexible do as I say, not as I do ideology.
I’d like to comment but the topic enrages me into incoherence, forty years after we thought this subject had been resolved.
So…what everybody else said, esp. Margaret. The church may be coming to its End of Days with this foolish stand.
They are all a bunch of power hungry bastards who want to control everybody and are pissed because increasing numbers of Americans don’t want to put up with their bullshit anymore.
“… aren’t worthy to be treated as full, equal citizens.”
More than that, Holy Mother Church
wasprobably remains a pedophile-infested swamp, and the parish families responsible for providing grist for their child-abuse mill.Given the doctrinal incoherence of the Church on this, they reveal their own hypocrisy. The actual “pro-life” doctrine also opposes war and capital punishment and demands more help for the poor. So what do they go to the mattresses for? Stopping birth control and abortions. They do not speak out on one other item on the list and do not condemn conservative politicians whose policies go against it.
It is not just child rape, but also physical abuse of children under their care.
Well… mostly. When New Mexico was fixing to eliminate capital punishment, the bishops were somewhat helpful in providing arguments against the death penalty. They’ve also been somewhat helpful in extending Medicaid coverage in the state.
But you’re right that they won’t go to the mat on those issues. Frankly, I was a little surprised they went b**s*** over birth control. I really thought that behavior was reserved for abortion.
I didn’t limit the case to sexual abuse… I’m a righty made by teachers who wouldn’t allow me to be a lefty…
Them wimmins is getting too uppity and needs to put in their place! Papa Razi sez so!
This church has lasted two thousand years and some have been around far longer but there’s no going back now. In fits and spurts, humanity is outgrowing religion.
That is fairly mild compared to the scandals in Ireland and the Canadian Indian boarding schools. Brutal beatings and outright torture were not uncommon.
Papa Razi Nazi???
Not sure about that, but people certainly seem to be loosing their attachment to the established religions in the developed countries. the Us is by far the most religious of the developed countries and church attendance and membership is steadily dropping here. Religion is still strong and even growing in much of the developing world.
The one and only!
Leave it to The Vatican to manage to find the only remaining WWII era Eastern European Cardinal left in the world and install him. Way to move forward there Catholics…
Yea. I know. And it wasn’t just Catholic kids.
Deaf kids were punished for using ASL for ages, even after it was shown that ASL (and sign systems generally) are grammatically complete languages.
I guess the moral was, “Don’t be different.” Or, remember that the Japanese idiom applies: Nails that stand up get pounded down. Let’s hope it never gets back to that.
I didn’t mean to suggest that the demise of Christianity is imminent but clearly adherence to religious doctrine has been trending down for centuries.
It’s not like they had to look hard. Karol Wojtiwa [sp?, alias John Paul 2] brought him into prominence heading up what used to be the Office of the Inquisition.
In the Canadian boarding schools, it was both the Catholics and Anglicans. Had to beat civilization into those heathen savages! Along with occasionally molesting and raping them.
JP2 represented the ascendance of the reactionary bishops against the actual followers of the teachings of that first century radical communist Jewish carpenter.
Ayup. I’d purely love to know what happened to his immediate predecessor.
Oya. Tomorrow’s another day.
He is sitting at the right hand of his prophet.
Touche. You sure you don’t mean proFIt?
Good rant sistah!
When men are scared, they look for victims. I makes them feel powerful. They’ve pretty much lost the gay, at this point…..who knows in the future, if there is one….so they have to re-enslave the wimmin, blacks and poor.
We are so out of balance we’re tipping off the edge of the flat earth
Night! Hope it is not too hot to sleep down there. We are getting some of what the rest of y’all have been having. Can’t say I am at all happy about it. If I wanted a week in the 90s, I would have stayed in Oklahoma or Chicago.
I’ve mentioned this before, but it still cracks me up. I was raised Catholic (didn’t take) and then raised my kids Catholic/Episcopal (didn’t take), and I was sharing with one of my daughters some things I’d been reading about Mormonism….. you know, God & and Goddess up on some star creating new souls, everyone gets their own planet, magic underpants…..and all of that.
My daughter turned to me and said, “Oh, Mom, tell me the one about transubstantiation again; that’s one of my favorites.” My kid has kids of her own and she loves to tweak me. And learning about transubstantiation was one of the things that cured me of Roman Catholicism…..for sure!
I do so hope we’ll get someone who knows Mormonism to drop by now and then to fill us in on the specifics. It’s all such fun!
Come to Cincinnati. It was pretty nice here today — only got to 90 and about 70% humididity. It’s 76 right now… I may need a parka!
No, that is where Papa Ratzi hopes to be.
One of the nice bicycle boys in the white shirt and tie won’t discuss that stuff with you at all. In fact, revealing that you know too much about their mystery religion is a way to get them to stay away.
Not in my forkin’ neighborhood. Mormons everywhere. And Xtians everywhere. They scare the crap out of me. But I do love it when the little Mormon boys come to my front door. I tell them how I loath the support their church gave to taking away the rights for all to marry. Then I order them off of my property. They usually spurted a little and then remember I am going to hell.
mmaaahaaahaaahahaaa!
We need a sequence of rhymes for nazi… ratzi, nazi, hotsy-totsy…
It has been up around 90 or better since the 4th and will be over 90 for at least the next week her. It was 101 yesterday and 98 today. That almost never happens here. Normal highs are in the mid to upper 80s this time of year and we normally only have about 5 days a year over 90.
I had one promise to have my Mormon cousins get baptized for me (presumably after my demise), to get me out of hell. I quoted that eminent sage, William Joel: “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.”
Oh, I know the still-en-undied or even just wanna be undied with the magic pants will never share secrets (which is one of my problems with Mormonanism….too damned secretive….a cult like Scientology), but there are fallen-away Mormons and maybe they’d share some insight. For me, the funniest and funnest folks I know are all fallen-away Catholics…..just love life and love to laugh.
We seem to have an over abundance of Mormons and Pentecostals around here (though overall church membership is rather low).
It is going to be 103 tomorrow and 105 on Wednesday. I may have to head over to the bay area where it is cooler. But this is normal weather for Sac. I still hate it.
The temperatures nationwide are scaring me. It feels rather hopeless.
I have publicly let it be known that I will come back and haunt any SOB who posthumously baptizes me in the most horrific fashion imaginable for the rest of their lives.
Hey, the time to freak is when you start seeing hobo signs on your parking space, courtesy of the cult.
Over 4500 all time record highs set in the past two months. No global warming, however. George Will assures me that it is just summer.
We bought fresh eggs from someone we found on Craigslist. As we were paying for them, the lady said that she was headed up to Folsom to the Mormon temple. We had a hard time eating those eggs. It is rather like buying them from a Klan member who had an exaggerated smile on her face.
Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue
Neil Bush was a founding director, along with Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger), of the Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue (FIIRD). The foundation promotes ecumenical understanding and publishes religious texts and was founded in 1999. Bush is no longer on the board of the foundation.[17]
The Pope is in bed with the Bush Family and the R Party. How can the Church fight poverty and wars when it is enmeshed with these Milton Friedman, Laffer Curve warmongers?
George Will is an idiot. I know that is not news.
Nice. I’ll remember that, if I ever find the secret code mark that tells the nice bicycle boys to stay away from my house.
When did he get the upgrade to idiot?
Ha!
Lol. One of my grad students is a nice Mormon girl. She is really good, but has a conflict with that whole Mormon baby-making machine thing, which has set her back at least a year or two on finishing her dissertation (which should be excellent if she ever gets it done). Doing a dissertation with one kid was hard enough, I cannot imagine what it is like with 4 little ones.
I think the Catholic Church in America is pretty well over. I will never forget one of my friends who is still caught in the web. We were talking about what one would do if a daughter got raped and pregnant at, say, 13. I’d be at the doctor holding my daughter’s hand while the problem was terminated. My friend insisted that her daughter would have to have the baby. And then what, I asked. Oh, we’d place the baby for adoption. That Catholic’s grandchild would be placed for adoption. Boggled me.
Among other things, asserting rules is what rulers do. They make rules, and they enforce them. To require observance of rules establishes rulers as rulers. The Pope is asserting the Church’s dominance. It would be cute but for the harm it does.
Time for me to toddle off. I have young minds to corrupt tomorrow and need to keep my strength up. Take care all.
Yeah. Like every other PhD I know, I was consumed by my dissertation for a period. But it’s acceptable for men to do that — I’m curious as to how your grad student fares.
From your lips to God’s ears.
Good night, Dr.D.
absolutely– so many are surprised to learn how progressive many Church positions are; but as you say, they don’t go to the mat for them; i don’t ever hear about them from the pulpit; it’s a shame; it’s all this persecution bullshit; many Catholics all over the world are truly persecuted and would trade places with american catholics in a heartbeat;
I think I’m going to slope off, too.
But I want to leave you all with one more dose of irony:
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, formerly CEO of Columbia HCA which paid $600M in fines for fraudulent Medicare billing, has announced that Florida will not be participating in the Medicaid expansion. I guess the guy doesn’t want his successors at CHCA to have the opportunities he had to defraud CMS. Or to try to defraud CMS, anyway.
Nice rant, right up to the dinosaur reference.
It is an article of faith, among evangelical Christians, that since the earth is only 6000 years old, dinosaurs must have lived right along with man. False. Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. Homo Sapiens have been around for 5 or 6 million. No human being has ever seen a living dinosaur.
I realize you were just trying to make a point, but when discussing foolish religious beliefs, you’ve got to be careful not to use one yourself.
sar·casm noun ˈsär-ˌka-zəm
Definition of SARCASM
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2:a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual
Maybe you missed my point. Even if the comment was sarcastic, it referenced a widespread false belief. The very definition of religion.
know–it–all /ˈnowətˌɑ:l/ noun
[count] informal + disapproving : a person who talks and behaves like someone who knows everything
▪ My neighbor is a real know-it-all, always telling me what to do. — often used before another noun ▪ my know-it-all neighbor —called also (Brit) know-all
I don’t think ‘birth control’ is synonymous with contraception. The RCC accepts so-called natural birth control, last I heard.
Unlike rules, distinctions are meant to be kept.