Pope Francis on Women Priests and Related Recent News Items: "I do not know whether to laugh or cry at Pope Francis’ suggestion about women’s position in the Church"

Altar of Veit Stoss, descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, St. Mary's Church, Krakow, Poland, photo by Robert Breuer at Wikimedia Commons

As Virginia Saldanha, "Why I find pope’s ideas on women priests disturbing," notes, Pope Francis recently nonsensically (and all over again) said that men in the Catholic church are meant to follow a "Petrine principle" that allows men — but not women — to be ordained, run things, and mirror Christ. Women are called to follow a "Marian principle" and mirror the feminine church, not — heaven forfend! — the male Christ. (Translation: women are called to serve). 

Having Left Twitter Because Musk Acquired It, I'm Resuming This Blog

 

Photo of Leslie Jordan by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress, from discussion of his book How Y'All Doing?: MIsadventures and Mischief from a Life Well-Lived with Megan Mullally on the Main Stage at the National Book Festival, 3 September 2022; Library of Congress Life - 20220903SM2320, from Wikipedia, available for sharing via Creative Commons

Because I've now left Twitter after Elon Musk acquired it — I refuse to do anything to enrich that man in any way — I'm going to switch back to this blog to provide the kind of religious-political commentary I was providing on Twitter. I will appreciate it if anyone who happens to read my postings here and thinks they're worth sharing would do so, so that I can re-establish an audience for the blog.

Centering Religion on Possession or Lack of a Penis Seems to Have Some Significant Downsides

Tina Beattie, "A 'frozen idea of the feminine," The Tablet, 20 Feb. 2020

I think this morning of three famous men in the world of religion I met while I was active in the religion academy as a scholar and teacher. One was a theologian whose work has been very influential in the area of peace studies, especially in his Protestant world.

Southern Baptist and U.S. Catholic Leaders Meet in Same Week, Both Confronting Serious Sexual Abuse Problems: A "Gender Hurricane" Results

It's a gender hurricane out there this week. Come Holy Spirit. https://t.co/ebDdAKIsEc

— Natalia Imperatori (@nimperatori) June 11, 2019

At the same time, the Southern Baptist Convention is holding its annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Catholic bishops are meeting in Baltimore. High on the agenda of both sets of gentlemen: what to do about sexual abuse of minors and other vulnerable church members? What to do about the fact that the public knows and will not now unknow? 

"Scapegoating Gay Priests and Pining for a World in Which Most Catholics Agree with Church Teaching on Birth Control Is No Way to Confront the Abuse Crisis"

It needs to be said again: the call of some Catholic pastoral leaders and of some sectors of the church for "purification" & acts of penance (not to mention, showy reactionary piety) in response to the abuse crisis is embedded in analysis targeting queer people. /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) November 25, 2018

Liz Dodd on the Damage That Youth Synod's Game-Playing with LGBTQ Lives Does to Those Lives and to the Church Itself

Liz Dodd on the damage that the youth synod's game-playing with LGBTQ lives does to those lives and to the church itself, in "Synod's decision to drop 'LGBT' from its final document is a missed opportunity for the Church":

Me, Talking Back to National Catholic Reporter and Michael Sean Winters re: Resignation of Donald Wuerl

Wuerl hounded from office for becoming face of abuse crisis https://t.co/N2pHeSpgcP via @ncronline

"He has been for 30 years a force of nature in the Catholic Church in this country, a workhorse for the conference and for the Vatican and for the dioceses he served." /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 12, 2018

Important Statement from Catholic Women Speak re: "Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women": Who's Promoting It and Why

This is an important statement from Catholic Women Speak in response to the "Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women" being pushed by EWTN and other hard-right homophobic Catholic media outlets and websites:

Daughter of Argentinian Priest Speaks Out: "When Carlos Gamboa and the Church He Represents Talk About 'Yes to Life,'" What Do They Mean by That?

The following is the testimony of Agustina Maria Gamboa Arias, a young woman who was fathered by — but never supported or acknowledged publicly by — an Argentinian priest, Carolos Gamboa, who recently went on Argentinian television to speak out against a bill to legalize abortion, stating, "Every life is worthy," and that all children who are alive deserve support:

Story Links to Story: In Recent News, Female Church Member Accuses Megachurch Pastor of Sexual Assault, Catholic Women Come Forth to Tell Stories of Assault, Political and Religious Right Keeps Pinning Abuse on Gays

Pieces of commentary I've read in the past few days that are, in my view, much more illuminating when read side-by-side:

As Men Lift Up the Cross in Holy Week Liturgies Around the World, Some Theological Questions

In a just-published article entitled "In an age of Trump and Stormy Daniels, evangelical leaders face sex scandals of their own," Sarah Pulliam Bailey quotes Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who states,

Mary McAleese on Catholic Church As "Primary Global Carrier of the Virus of Misogyny" and on Theology Denying Ordination to Women as "Pure Codology"

This is really Sarasi's post and not mine. In the past two days, she has provided a wealth of links to commentary about the stellar address former Irish president Mary McAleese gave in her opening address to the Why Women Matter conference in Rome this week. I'm simply passing on to you now links Sarasi has gathered and generously shared.

David Martin, "#MeToo in the Pew Next to You," with Preface by Cameron Altaras

It's my privilege today to be able to offer you a valuable statement by Rev. David Martin, Executive Minister of the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, entitled "MeToo in the pew next to you." As Cameron Altaras notes in her preface below, Rev. Martin's essay has been published in Canadian Mennonite, and is thematically linked to the article she posted here at Bilgrimage — synchronistically — almost simultaneously with Rev. Martin's essay. Here are Cameron's preface and David Martin's essay, which I'm publishing after Rev. Martin has kindly given written permission for the republication of his essay here. A link to its original publication at the Canadian Mennonite site is below:

Standing Ovation at Highpoint Church, Memphis, for Pastor Who Sexually Assaulted 17-Year-Old Girl: Churches Still Not Intending to Get It

Church: When the prevailing word is boys will be boys,
then we are saying girls will be garbage.
And the church needs to not dismiss "incidents" --
but call it what it actually it is: a sexual assault on a minor. #MeToo #SilenceIsNotSpiritual #ChurchToohttps://t.co/CEMEuzQfDE

— Ann Voskamp (@AnnVoskamp) January 9, 2018

A week ago, Jules Woodson told a painful story of her sexual assault by youth pastor Andy Savage at Woodlands Parkway Baptist church in Houston. She was 17 years old when he drove her to a secluded place, unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis and asked her to suck it, and unbuttoned her shirt and fondled her breasts. As her account states, after this occurred, she notified church leaders about what had happened and met a stone wall until she told an all-women's discipleship group at her church what had happened.

Rachel Held Evans Responds to Rev. Mike Huckabee's Defense of Trail of Tears: White Male Christian Leaders Pounce on Her

Hard to believe there are some like @GovMikeHuckabee who see the Trail of Tears as a bright spot in American history. https://t.co/4M9xEa8mJU

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) March 16, 2017

Trail of Tears went through my hometown. There are markers. @GovMikeHuckabee's nostalgia for that event is evil. He is no follower of Jesus.

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) March 16, 2017

Rachel Held Evans made the preceding two tweets yesterday after Southern Baptist minister Reverend Mike Huckabee had tweeted that he hoped Mr. Trump would treat the ruling of Judge Derrick Watson putting a hold on his anti-Muslim travel ban the same way Andrew Jackson treated the Supreme Court ruling declaring the eviction of the Cherokees from their homes unconstitutional. The result of Jackson's defiance of the Supreme Court was the Trail of Tears, on which some 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokees forcibly removed from their land and homes died.

Michael Moore: Men, Your "10,000-Year Reign Is Over"; Pope Francis: Female Catholic Priests Never Happening — Two Headlines Worth a Thousand Words

When I woke in the wee hours of the morning and scanned the news before trying to catch a few more hours of sleep, Huffington Post had these two articles juxtaposed on its main page — the first is at the head of the posting, Michael Moore warning men that our "10,000-year reign" is over.

Another Footnote to Discussion of Role of Women in Early Christian Rome: Patricia Miller on Stepped-Up Exodus of Women (Especially Catholic Ones) from Church Life

#AChurchForOurDaughters https://t.co/frMLqsvLU8 pic.twitter.com/Q3OPZ2soGH

— WomensOrdinationConf (@OrdainWomen) May 18, 2016

Another footnote to my discussion two days ago of Nicola Denzey's Bone Gatherers, a study of the roles played by women in early Christian Rome: at Religion Dispatches this week, Patricia Miller points to a new Pew Research Center study which shows that while religious attendance continues to decline among Americans across the board, it is now declining more among women than among men. Why is this the case, Patti wonders?

Footnote to Discussion of Role of Women in Early Christian Rome: Women Priests Project's Rome Poster Campaign Challenges Ban on Women's Ordination

#Rome poster campaign challenges Catholic ban on female priests #ordainwomen https://t.co/Bn5sncka4j

— WomensOrdinationConf (@OrdainWomen) May 26, 2016

I cannot say this better than Chris Morley says it in a comment in response to my posting yesterday, which ended with the following statements: 

Nicola Denzey's The Bone Gatherers: The Lost Worlds of Early Christian Women — Book Notes

My last posting was, in some respects, a piece of historiographical commentary. It was a meditation of sorts on how historians might face the challenge of the lacunae, the aporias, the silences (along with the lies and secrets, to echo Adrienne Rich) buried within historical documents, artifacts, texts, etc. My posting pointed you to a recent Salon essay by openly gay Irish novelist Colm Tóibín in which he argues that the pro-marriage equality side prevailed in the Irish referendum about same-sex marriage because gay Irish people — and the families of gay Irish people — chose to make themselves visible in a new way in Irish society, so that many of their fellow citizens could fill in a blank that had not been filled in previously, and recognize that they knew gay people, that they had close ties to families with gay sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers. Tóibín's essay is an excerpt from his foreword to a forthcoming book by Charlie Bird — A Day in May (Dublin: Merrion, June 2016)— about how the marriage equality battle was won in Ireland.

More Commentary on Pope Francis and Women Deacons: Jamie Manson and Mary Hunt — "He Believes That God Simply Cannot Work Through the Female Body in the Way in Which God Works through the Male Body"

Here are two more pieces of good commentary I'd like to recommend to you, regarding the discussion of the possibility of studying the place of women deacons in the Catholic church and Pope Francis's recent remarks to a group of women religious about this. I discussed this topic last week.