Commentary: Political Fall-Out as Catholic Bishops Face Reckoning for Covering Abuse Crimes; German Catholic Discussion of Bible and Homosexuality

More commentary today that catches my attention, and is especially interesting when read side by side: 

Patricia Miller, "Is This Finally the Reckoning for the Catholic Church on Sexual Abuse?":

Back from Trip, Thinking About American Catholicism, the "Both-Sides" False Equivalency Argument, and Ethics of Survival

I'm sorry to have been silent for a week. Steve and I spent last week in New Orleans visiting friends and family, and as we did so, I couldn't keep up with blogging — even, to any great degree, with following the news. I'm back now, and among all that I might talk about (the dire situation in Puerto Rico and the morally bankrupt response of the Trump administration to it; the event of mass murder in Las Vegas last evening), what is foremost in my mind today, for the purpose of this blog, is a discussion I read in the past day or so at the National Catholic Reporter site.

Mary Hunt and Patricia Miller on Why U.S. Bishops Have Blown Abortion Out of Proportion: A Reminder About Why Many Catholics No Longer Listen

Mary Hunt's reminder here, by way of Patricia Miller's book Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church, is well worth remembering as the head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference Archbishop Kurtz (and Aquila in Denver and Chaput in Philadelphia) seek to drum up Catholic support for Donald Trump by beating the very tired old anti-abortion drum.

Patricia Miller on Catholics Driving Exodus of Nones, Kaya Oakes on How Nones Aren't Coming Back — And Why Should They, Considering What the Church Is Offering?

Two more helpful pieces of commentary on the recently published PRRI report about why Americans (and especially younger ones) are leaving religion behind — both at Religion Dispatches:

Francis Effect for Gay* Folks? Still Elusive, As Bishops Around Globe Throw His Harsh Words in Faces of Gay* People

Yesterday, I drew your attention to a just-published essay by Patricia Miller which suggests that the U.S. Catholic bishops have done less saber-rattling this election cycle than in previous election cycles, in part, "due to the influence of Pope Francis, who has let it be known that such blatant politicking is no longer welcome." And so, Patti Miller proposes, there's a discernible trend of church-going John-Paul-II-type white Catholics away from the GOP ticket this election cycle, since the bishops are behaving differently in a church now led by Pope Francis.

Patricia Miller on Why White Catholics of the John Paul II Church May Be Rejecting Donald Trump: "Seems Awfully Quiet in the Catholic Trenches This Year"

In a just-published essay at Religion Dispatches, Patricia Miller takes a sharp look at the discernible trend of white Catholics towards Hillary Clinton and away from Donald Trump. I discussed this trend several weeks ago, calling it slight. Patti Miller offers persuasive evidence for it as more than a slight trend, and notes, in particular, the movement of white church-going Catholics of the John Paul II church in the direction of the Democratic candidate and away from the Republican one — a noteworthy trend, when that demographic has been trending "with alacrity" to the GOP since 2000, as she states.

Commentary on U.S. Catholic Bishops and "Religious Liberty" Crusade As "Fortnight for Freedom" Begins: "Fair to Say Religious Liberty Has a Damaged 'Brand' These Days"

This week, the U.S. Catholic bishops began their latest "Fortnight for Freedom" shindig, whose purpose is to drive Catholic voters to the polls to vote Republican (as they claim) to defend a "religious liberty" now under siege because gay people have the legal right to marry civilly, because the Obama administration is mandating contraceptive coverage in its Affordable Care Act, because denying rights, goods, and services to targeted others while claiming that one has a religious warrant to discriminate is increasingly distasteful to more and more Americans, etc. 

"They Put Us in Closets and Do All They Can to Keep Us There": More on the Catholic Erasure of LGBTQ People from the Narrative About Orlando

"Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy takes the rest of the week." - Alice Walker

— Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) June 15, 2016

And now some more resources that focus specifically on the erasure by top Catholic pastoral leaders of queer people from an act of mass murder of queer people:

Want to Know Why "Pro-Life" Democrats Are Vanishing Breed? Go See "Spotlight," Fred Clark Advises: On the Catholic Bishops, the Culture Wars, and Mr. Trump

Want to know why the "pro-life" Democrats have vanished, Fred Clark asks? And then he recommends: "Go see 'Spotlight.' " Fred writes,

Patricia Miller on Firing of Tony Spence: Reveals Just How Cynical U.S. Catholic Bishops' Manipulation of Principle of "Religious Freedom" Really Is

As with all she writes, Patricia Miller's take on the recent firing of Catholic News Service's Tony Spence is illuminating: Patti writes, 

From Bad to Worse in News Of Catholic Abuse Crisis: Vatican Tells Bishops They Don't Have to Report Abuse to Authorities, Indian Bishop Places Criminally Convicted Priest in Ministry

This week, as Carnival was in full swing in many Catholic regions of the world and as the body of Padre Pio was paraded in Rome in a glass coffin, things appear to have gone from bad to worse in news of the response of Catholic officials to the abuse crisis. Patricia Miller sums up the response of many thinking Catholics (and non-Catholic observers) to the papal abuse commission's recent silencing of Peter Saunders by noting that "[f]or abuse survivors, the move to silence Saunders confirms their fears that the commission was largely a PR tactic."

Recommended: Joe Biden on LGBT Rights, Catherine Wallace on Gay Marriage and Anglican Anxiety, Patricia Miller on What Pope Benedict Knew When

God bless Joe Biden (the section I've transcribed from his recent remarks at the World Economic Forum begins at about the 1.55 mark):

More Commentary on Frederick Clarkson's New Essay about Religious Freedom: Patricia Miller and Bill Berkowitz

More valuable commentary today about Frederick Clarkson's report on religious freedom entitled "When Exemption Is the Rule: The Religious Freedom Strategy of the Christian Right":

Belmont Abbey College in National News Again: Claims Catholic "Right-to-Discriminate" Title IX Exemption Targeting Transgender Students and Staff

I have shared with you the story of how a Catholic college in North Carolina owned by a Benedictine community destroyed my career as a Catholic theologian and that of my now husband Steve in the early 1990s, though we were abiding by the unwritten rules of the Catholic academy that required us to be closeted and to keep our relationship hidden as we taught at this college. In a series of postings here this past October (here, here, here, here, here, and here), I shared with you a detailed document I compiled and circulated in October 1993 recounting the story of what Belmont Abbey College and monastery did to end my career as a Catholic theologian.

The Francis Effect: Putting Rhetoric Together with Reality on Eve of Pope's Visit (1)

On the eve of Pope Francis's visit to the U.S., I've been collecting information that, to my way of thinking, provides something of a snapshot of the Catholic church in the U.S. at this point in time. This is not a systematic project, but rather an anecdotal one, one in which I am gleaning information simply by reading the news day by day, rather than searching for it intentionally.

Patricia Miller's Takeaway re: Recent Pew Study Showing U.S. Catholic Church in "Demographic Free-Fall," with Notes about Recent Débacle re: LGBT Youth Conference in Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis

As I noted last week, the most recent Pew Research Center "Religious Landscape" report on the state of religious affiliation in the U.S. finds that, among Christian groups, the greatest loss of adherents in the period 2007-2015 has been in the Catholic community. Pew finds that nearly a third of American adults report having been raised Catholic, and of that group, 41% no longer identify as Catholic. 12.9% of American adults are former Catholics. As the Pew study notes, "No other religious group in the survey has such a lopsided ratio of losses to gains."

Patricia Miller on Who Was Not at Georgetown Confab on Poverty, and William Greider on Recent IMF Banking Conference: Difference Women's Voices Make

Everywhere I turn online today the news at religion and religion-and-politics websites is the recent panel discussion at Georgetown on the theme of poverty, at which President Obama made an appearance. Commonweal is featuring a statement today from E.J. Dionne, who was a contributor to the discussion, and in his "Morning Briefing" column at National Catholic Reporter this morning, Tom Roberts points readers to a version of Dionne's statement that has just appeared in the Washington Post.

Things I'm Reading at Week's End: Marriage, Bible, Catholics, Women's Rights, Recovering from Religious Trauma, Pope Francis and Women

Things I'm reading as this week ends — these items all connected in that they talk about issues of religion in the public square:

Patricia Miller on Pope Francis's Breeding Bunnies Remark: Challenging the "Breath of Fresh Air" Spin

I like how Patricia Miller calls the bluff of all the adulatory (heterosexual, male, married) Catholic journalists who have been trying to spin Pope Francis's remark about breeding bunnies as some kind of breakthrough on birth control for the Vatican, a breath of fresh air. As she asks,

Patricia Miller on What the U.S. Bishops Have Wrought, Michael Sean Winters on USCCB Meeting, James Carroll on Francis Effect

Recent commentary that has caught my eye, about various Catholic issues: