UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Quote for Day: Institution’s Politics “Too Unholy to Abide Much Longer” (with Commentary on USCCB Meeting)
Joan Chittister at National Catholic Reporter:
We are at a tipping point.
The struggle has been too long; the confusion, too deep; and the politics of every institution, too unholy to abide much longer.
I can really relate to this observation, especially as the annual meeting of the Catholic bishops of the U.S. winds down. Not a whit of hope, not a table scrap of new energy for the people of God, from this meeting. More of the same tired politics that have proven so dysfunctional for some years now, as the USCCB allies itself overtly with the religious and political right.
Cordileone’s predictable attack on gay folks: disgusting. The predictable election of Kurtz and DiNardo: no new wine or fresh wineskins there. Those seeking hope, please move on. The same-old, same-old politics designed to undermine the Obama administration by attacking a healthcare mandate designed to expand access to healthcare for millions of people on the margins: sinful in the extreme.
John Gallagher sums up the situation aptly for Queerty, with an eye to the U.S. Catholic bishops’ attitude towards those who are gay, in particular:
[T]here are plenty of reasons to believe that, no matter what the pope says, things won’t be changing all that much among the U.S. bishops for quite some time.
I especially like his observation that the Catholic media are very much a part of the problem and not part of the solution:
The bishops have their own echo chamber. Even though the majority of Catholics are more liberal than the hierarachy would have you believe, especially on marriage equality, the Catholic media apparatus is overwhelmingly conservative. (After all, no one is about to bite the hand that feeds you, let alone blesses you.) After years of beating the drum about the intrinsic evils of homosexuality, they aren’t about to switch gears. Add to that the fact that the bishops have cast their political lot with the religious liberty lobby, which thrives within the right-wing bubble, and you have a lot of voices drowning out the pope’s (emphasis in original).
Michael Sean Winters proves Gallagher’s point in spades with his puerile NCR column yesterday attacking “goofy” groups promoting “various leftie causes” at USCCB. His suggestion that the goofy lefties should simply request meetings with their bishops, who are, most of them, Michael assures us, “very nice men,” is beyond silly.
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