Idag ger jag ordet till en gästskribent - en av de katolska kvinnor som vigdes i somras i USA.
Hon berättar här bl.a. om hur en "demonstration" för kvinnliga präster under USA-biskoparnas möte nyligen ledde till ett enormt säkerhetsuppbåd. 300 biskopar kände sig uppenbarligen hotade av 20 vänliga och fredliga demonstranter. Kvinnor ses visst som MYCKET farliga från den kyrkliga hierarkins håll... :-)
Man kan också fråga sig varför biskoparna är så oerhört fixerade vid ett enda ämne - och förundras över de märkliga uppfattningar de tycks ha - uppfattningar som visar att de inte förstår sig på äktenskapets sakrament. Tragiskt - men kanske inte så konstigt?
***
My father, a humble man with a high school education, had this inborn "hypocrite meter" that went off every time someone in the church or the political arena did something that didn't jive with his/her words. One of his favorite anti-hypocrite quotes was, "Do as I say, not as I do."
I thought about my father's words after my experience this weekend in Baltimore at the bishops' convention where the self-defined servants of the Suffering Servant checked into their plush quarters at the Waterfront Marriott prior to their excursion to the Basilica of the Assumption accompanied by armed police officers on motorcycles. At the basilica, men who fully expect women to be willing to die in childbirth or from HIV-AIDS rather than use a condom, were surrounded by layers and layers of armed guards in jack boots who were removed from the impoverished Baltimore neighborhoods to protect the bishops from a group of 20 peaceful demonstrators. There were even armed snipers on the roof of the basilica. The cloaked and saber carrying Knights of Columbus provided an additional layer of protection. Only the French Foreign Legion was missing.
The bishops then spent a whirlwind two days doing what the average man will admit doing - thinking about sex. Like a starvation victim who dreams of hot crossed buns, the bishops spent the bulk of their time perseverating on when and how people have sex. The most obvious omission in this sex obsessed meeting was discussion about sex within the ranks of a celibate clergy. Since they don't understand their own sexuality, it is not surprising that their pontifications about married and homosexual sex bears little resemblance to the lived experiences of people in those groups.
The bishops are concerned about the ubiquitousness of sex in the secular society and then go on in the next sentence to reduce the whole of married life to sexual relations. I think that they believe that all married people ever do is have sex. Maybe for a bunch of celibates, marriage might seem to be all about sex, but for married people it's sex and a whole lot more. At the end of the day, it's the whole lot more that prevents the end of the marriage.
Then, in a breathtaking statement of profound ignorance, the bishops reduce the marriages of those who use artificial contraception to "casual sex," as if the long, hard years of working out the many problems associated with intimate relationships are the same as meeting up with a prostitute on the street corner.
The ignorance and cruelty continues in their discussion of homosexuality when the bishops place the unwanted burden of life long celibacy upon gay people, a burden which, according to Richard Sipe, few clerics have been able to bear. The bishops also put gay people back into the farthest reaches of the closet, expecting them to hide what God made them to be, denying them authenticity and personal autonomy. By labeling gay people disordered, they give tacit permission for God fearing, Eucharist receiving people to attack and otherwise malign God's holy children.
From the comfort of the Marriott and the opulence of their episcopal mansions, amidst lawyers, insurance companies, public relations firms, wearing vestments and other accoutrements that collectively cost thousands of dollars, the bishops admit that their sayings are hard. Meanwhile, the really hard sayings of Jesus, the ones that have nothing to do with sex and affect the entire human race, are blissfully ignored.
My father must be ringing his hypocrite meter from heaven.
Eileen DiFrancoEtiketter: katolsk, katolska präster, kvinna, kvinnliga präster |
Gert,
Ja, nog är det bra sorgligt att se hur snett det har blivit och hur långt saker har gått.
Vad skulle Jesus säga om det här?
Charlotte