 |
| It looks like Bishop Lori of Bridgeport, the USCCB's front man on religious freedom is headed to Baltimore. Given his background even I admit he's a card carrying member in Benedict's view of reality--which I also think happens to be mostly unconnected to reality. |
I've been doing some thinking this morning about how utterly insane Catholicism can be. I don't think it used to be this insane, but I could be wrong. It could be the insanity went underground for awhile and now it's come out of the closet with a bang. Or maybe it's just that I am 'seeing' the insanity in a way I couldn't let myself see before. I too was caught up in the insanity. I suspect it's the latter.
I was thinking about Coach Joe Paterno. About how everyone and their Nitanny Lion is calling for his resignation over the Sandusky affair. And they probably should, but then I think about the other 84 year old man across the Atlantic Ocean. The one who doesn't coach a football team. The one who heads Roman Catholicism, and I think about the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sexual predators he failed to investigate with any sense of alacrity, and I wonder why it is that some of the same voices who are so indignant about the one transgression of the football coach have given the other man pass after pass after pass. I think that's insane.
And then I thought about the Spanish nun in yesterday's post. The one who owns a million+ dollars in property, lied to mothers about the deaths of their babies, got rich selling those babies to other parents, and says she is at peace because those mothers were in 'disgraceful' situations. I juxtapose that nun with Sr. Mary McBride whose actions actually saved a mother who was in a 'critical' situation, and for that act Sr McBride incurs excommunication. The other nun, well, she didn't. She's now rich on hideously ill gotten gains and apparently justified in her actions. I think that's insane.
And then I think about Bishop Lori, soon to take over in Baltimore, who back stabbed his way up the clerical career ladder while an Auxiliary bishop in Washington. I think about him dictating to Congress that they should reinvent the US Constitution to give the USCCB carte blanc to foist Catholic moral teaching-- teachings which most Catholics don't even agree with--on the entire country. I can't help but juxtapose him against Tom Gumbleton whose sin was to advocate for Ohio to open up a window in their statute of limitations so sexual abuse victims could press their cases and get some justice. Unfortunately for Tom, none of his fellow bishops were at all interested in that kind of legislation, the kind that opened them up for some accountability. No they are only interested in the kinds of legislation that restrict the choices of others, and that includes abuse victims. So Tom was quickly out, and Lori moves ever higher. I think that's insane.
I happen to know something about insanity. I work with legally defined insane people in my day to day occupation and I've seen and heard some truly insane things. The thing is, most of my people don't claim to be sane, or hold positions of authority over others, and it's the very rare one who claims to speak for God. I juxtapose that against our current group of bishops, who do claim to be ontologically superior especially to humans like me, a mere woman; who do hold great positions of power over others and want even more; who imperiously do claim to speak for God and I can't help but wonder who really is insane. I think it's the bishops.
