Two good pieces that complement each other quite well. Lots of talk about the Catholic church and the happenings of some abusive priests.
A Woman's Place is in the Church: Some folks think bringing more women into the inner circles of the church will help with some of the current dilemmas. What do you think? What do you think about the presentation of this argument?
What Went Wrong: Don't Blame Scandal on Celibacy: Some folks think celibacy has nothing to do with the issues facing the church. The church needs to reclaim more of its former conservative ways, clean house a bit, and then move forward. Any thoughts from you? A shorter piece than the first. Is this one more effective in presenting its argument?
4 comments:
A Woman’s Place Is In The Church--
While reading this article, all my thoughts and fears about women's power in the Catholic church were confirmed. Many of these men of power in the Catholic church have come together to create a cult. A cult where they can do whatever they wish, and the other members won't tell. This was much like the comparison made in the article of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and fraternities. Both of these groups believe, as the article says, that they are given positions of power, and because of this, they can do as they wish. If women were more involved, they would probably balance the men's unreasonable desires, since most men want the same things as other men. If women were involved, they would balance the men's desires with a fresh, often more peaceful outlook. I believe that women should be given much more power within the church! Now! After all, statistics show that 60 percent of the people that attend mass are women.
Overall, the presentation of this article was informative. I appreciate that talk of power to women is finally being discussed.
What Went Wrong
This piece was much shorter, however, it was smoother and neater than the other piece. But I would have liked more statistics, which the first article did provide. I disagree that the church needs to reclaim its former ways. Women cannot even be leaders in this church. Do they know the time we are living in? The Catholic church is still, clearly, stuck in the dark ages. They need to adapt according to the time we live in. Maybe this was okay 100 years ago, but not now. Celibacy has much to do with the issues. Men who are in power are now, instead of secretly having a relationship, preying on young people because they feel they have no power and cannot defy them. If the Catholic wants to stay afloat, they have to be able to adapt to the time we live in today so we can stop more problems like this in the future.
A Woman's Place in the Church
While reading this article I became infuriated however at the same time, I was not at all surprised. There was an article recently published in NewsWeek about women in the workforce and I did my term paper on this subject. This article stated, "the Catholic Church have willfully ignored one of the great achievements of the modern age: the integration of women in the workforce and public life". Excuse me, but we have yet to achieve the true integration of women in the workforce... It is true that women are working, however they hold the same jobs they did in the 70s and on average make about $36,000 less a year than men do. If women have yet to escape this "pink collar" ghetto, it will be a VERY long time until women have a say in the Catholic church. Especially since (according to Eve Ensler, author of Vagina Monologue) women in the Catholic religion are seen as sinful. Baptism is a "rebirth" that clears the baby from the sin of being born to a woman. How can more women be in power in the Catholic church if they are viewed in this negative light? I am glad an article like this is being written. The article however fails to address the difficulty of bringing more women into the church while they are still viewed in this negative, awful light.
What Went Wrong
I think that this article was more of an opinion piece due to lack of strong evidence. I think the Catholic church needs to move forward but I don't think celibacy is the problem. Even if a priest chooses not to have sex, their celibacy does not explain why they are preying on young children. They are sick because they are sick, not because they are celibate. I think that the terrible actions of many priests has been much more shocking because these are people that church-goers trust and see as "holy", they are public figures. If just as many gardeners violate young children, people don't say its because they are cutting grass... Overall, the issue of molesting young children is a problem for not just those in the Catholic church.
I saw these two pieces as very interrelated, so I'll review both of them here.
Though I don't always attend regularly (or even of my own volition), I am a confirmed member of the Catholic Church. I have been going to church for as long as I can remember, so I do recall the scandals from as early as 2002 and being very personally affected. I was even frightened of attending church, for a time. Back then, I was unsure as to what course of action should be taken to correct these scandals. My modern views on religion, and in part on Catholicism, have been shaped by these scandals. I have come to view religious life in the Catholic church as a bit of a dead end, as I could never achieve a status higher than a nun (if I even aspired to join the religious vocation). For this reason, I see religion as too strongly conservative, and believe that the church should become more open to modern ideals, including the integration of women into the church and the acceptance of various sexual orientations. This has in turn shaped my political opinions, and indeed much of who I am. I am unsure as to whether the integration of women into higher levels of the Catholic church would help to rid it of scandal, but I do know that it would certainly make religion much more accessible to younger generations who are increasingly apathetic towards the idea of faith. I feel that the Church would not be strengthened by becoming "more" Catholic; instead, I think that the church should re-evaluate what Catholicism means in the modern world. I also believe that the church would greatly benefit from looking at the teachings of Christ, which promoted love and acceptance. Jesus' idea was to reform the strict laws of traditional Judaism and to replace the image of God as a harsh punisher with on of God as a loving father and protector. I believe that if the church made these reforms, it would attract more people, and a wider variety of people would help to keep watch for trouble and prevent it from happening.
Also, just some quick responses to earlier comments:
Children are baptised in order to clean them of "original sin", or the sin of Adam and Eve defying God by eating the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil (traditionally represented by an apple, and given to the people by a snake). Basically, those given baptism are being forgiven for being descendants of Adam and Eve (i.e. being human). Despite this, women are still associated with lust, temptation, and deception: the snake gave the fruit to Eve, who then gave it to Adam. Thus, Eve is seen as the one at fault for getting humans kicked out of the Garden of Eden. As mentioned in the article, this theme continues throughout the Bible, with scriptures about women being omitted and other women (like Mary of Magdala, if you've ever read The DaVinci Code) being protrayed in a very negative light.
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