UNITED STATES
Huffington Post
Michele Somerville
Last week, Prefect of the Confederation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) Gerhard Mueller, condemned the Leadership Conference Women Religious (LCWR) for honoring Catholic theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson and her book Quest of the Living God. The CDF argues that the book fails to be in accord with Roman Catholic doctrine. This magisterial spanking aims to dictate to a group of highly intelligent, well-educated women which books are suitable for their honors — this promises to uber-boost sales of an academic work and, I believe, puts the pope in a tricky spot. (See my 2012 piece, “Just Buy ‘Just Love’ for more on how such condescending condemnation works.) The pope is the pope. He can speak when he likes. But I think this pope, this time around, unlike the last time around, will have to say something.
Today’s pope is, after all, everyone’s favorite pope. At present, Francis I is re-examining the way the church hierarchy looks at LGBT Catholics, divorced and remarried Catholics and so-called “artifical” contraception. This kinder and gentler pope has exhorted Catholics to respond more vigorously to the marginalized among us, and to look more closely at our (I’m Roman Catholic) obligations to be conscientious stewards of the environment. This more Catholic-in-the-pew-friendly pontiff even appears to be more dramatically rethinking celibacy for priests. (That he’s doing so as a means of staving off the clear call to examine more openly the case for ordaining women, though disconcerting to Catholic feminists, detracts only somewhat from the dramatic nature of this examination.)
We have seen a great shift in this Vatican’s tone. But what have we not seen?
We have not seen the shift fully extend to the women of the church.
And we will not see Pope Francis I come down on this Mueller, despite that he ought.
Let Catholics recognize, at the very least, that this cuddly pontiff supports these Inquisitions, which had the Vatican monitoring women in convents. Let Catholics in the pews not push away the truth that the Vatican is still trolling its women — and that this campaign is conducted with the imprimatur of Pope Francis. Let Catholics be aware, as well, that it is women’s ordination activists the inquisitors seek, who dwell, more often than not, in convents.
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