UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe
Boys and girls, a strange week it is indeed, and it’s only Monday. First, I read an article by Sr. Mary Ann Walsh in “America” magazine touting the Catholic Church as superior in offering career advancement opportunities for women as compared to secular industries. Then I gazed upon the bizarre female bondage artistic choice for the cover of the Pontifical Council on Culture’s working document regarding women. (see image below…)
It must be “happy irony week” in the Catholic Church because what else explains all this?
Let’s first enjoy the “America” magazine article’s irony in and of itselt. However, I will preface my comments with this thought: I work in the secular world as an executive and I’ve also done a lot of volunteering in the Catholic Church. “Career advancement opportunities for women” just has never been a phrase I use when describing the Catholic Church…never…not once.
Sr. Mary Ann’s article highlights statistics indicating the percentage of women CEOs for Catholic affiliated organizations such as hospitals is a higher than for secular companies. She fails to mention that those institutions cannot call themselves “Catholic” without the approval of the reigning bishop, the CEO of the local diocese. How many of those bishop/CEOs are women? The answer is “the empty set.”
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