Once Again: Catholic Journalists Pushing Back Vs. Viganò's False Claims Are Not Pushing Back Vs. His Homophobia — See Austen Ivereigh's Recent Tweet re: Mary Hunt

In my last posting, I shared a Twitter conversation I had several days ago with Catholic Democrats. It was about his claim that there had been "tremendous push back" against the ugly homophobia now surfacing all through Catholic conversation circles following the McCarrick revelations and Viganò's accusations about a "homosexual network" in the church that is responsible for the abuse crisis. 

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:

Mary Hunt on Next Phase of Abuse Revelations: "Adult Women Who Have Been Sexually Involved with Priests Represent the Third Element of This Complicated Problem"

What Mary Hunt says here is so critically important to be heard, as the hateful, homophobic Catholic right works overtime — once again — to frame the abuse story in the Catholic church as a narrative that's all about homosexuality, in light of the McCarrick story:

It's Never About Racism: White Catholic Voters, Abortion, and How the Religious Right Culture Wars Began (Hint: It's About Racism)

In 1958, Jerry Falwell wrote the following:

“When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line,” and said that integration of “blacks & whites...will destroy our race eventually.”

This is the root of today’s #MAGA movement. They haven’t changed.

— Chris (@goingglocal) January 27, 2018

It's never about the racism with white Catholics who have signed onto the culture wars of the U.S. Catholic bishops, and who vote — or so they say — primarily on the basis of the single issue of abortion (with same-sex marriage also often thrown into their calculus as they choose predictably to vote Republican). It's never about racism with the alliance those white Catholics made a long time ago with white evangelicals who got the religious right ball rolling because of overt racism.

"Some People Get Uninvited from Talks. Some People Never, Ever Get Even an Invitation to the Table at All": Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, Jamie Manson NCR Podcast Conversation

I've previously recommended to you Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson's essay at National Catholic Reporter entitled "Kick-Starting a New Catholic Conversation." I'd like now to recommend a podcast conversation between the three that NCR published several days ago. I've embedded it above for your convenience in listening. 

In this discussion, Mary, Marianne, and Jamie talk with NCR's Brittany Wilmes about their essay and what they intended in co-authoring it. Some key points that stand out for me as I listen:

An Apology from New Ways Ministry Official for His Comment About Me on Facebook

I do want to acknowledge that I have received an emailed apology from the New Ways Ministry official who left the comment on Facebook yesterday that I have discussed in the past two postings. He generously tells me that I may share the apology, and I appreciate that. I'm doing so now.

On the Characterization of Some Catholic LGBTQ Voices as Uncharitable Garbage: Continuing the Necessary Conversation

Because I think this conversation is extremely important — if the goal of any reformist group within the Catholic church really is to create conditions for open, honest dialogue about same-sex love — I want to capture some of the conversation as it is occuring here (and on Facebook) in response to my posting yesterday about how an associate director of New Ways Ministry has publicly characterized me and my work as "uncharitable garbage." He made the comment in response to my recent essay recommending some wonderful analysis offered by Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson, which critiqued the response of Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry to this analysis.

Associate Director of New Ways Ministry Responds to My Essay about Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy Burke, and Jamie Manson's Recent Proposal as "Uncharitable Garbage": My Reflections

A number of days back, I recommended to you an essay by Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson calling for kick-starting a new Catholic conversation about same-sex love. My posting notes some criticisms of this essay made by Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry.

Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson Propose Reframing Catholic Conversation re: Same-Sex Love; Francis DeBernardo Responds — My Reflections

Recently, at National Catholic Reporter, Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson published an essay calling for kick-starring a new Catholic conversation about same-sex love. Several days ago, at New Ways Ministry's Bondings 2.0 blog, Francis DeBernardo posted a response to this essay. 

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.

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.

As Their Party Puts Forward a Reality-Show Star Who Spouts Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia, Catholic Bishops Use "Religious Freedom" Video to Attack Hillary Clinton

Did I just say that the yuuuge affection of large numbers of (white) Catholics in the U.S. for the outright racist (and misogynist and xenophobic) Donald Trump bespeaks colossal moral and pastoral failure on the part of the U.S. Catholic bishops — as do the ugly comments now piling up at the website of the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal, some from Commonweal subscribers, after that journal dared to publish an editorial chastising the Republican party for seeking to deny the right to vote to minority voters? As all of this happens, here's where the U.S. Catholic bishops are, where they want to lead their flock:

Keeping the Conversation about Amoris Laetitia Real: New Commentary by Mary Hunt, Jeannine Gramick, and Massimo Faggioli

Good morning! Are you as tired as I am of hearing about Amoris Laetitia? I know full well I have made myself tiresome talking about it to some folks connected to me on social media, who have entrée of a kind I will never have in Catholic institutional circles, though they're gay — and who do not want to hear that this papal exhortation betokens no good news to LGBTQ human beings. One of those gay friends, who has just come back from an audience with Pope Francis and who has always had entrée in the Vatican because her family is extremely wealthy, tried to shut me down on Facebook yesterday by telling me we all are broken, after all — a bullying tactic designed to shame me for calling on her institution (it's far more hers than mine) to live what it proclaims when it talks about mercy and justice.

Mary Hunt Sums Up Amoris Laetitia: "Alas, the Hetero Monogamous Ideal Remains in Place While Lip Service Is Paid to the Remote Possibility of Other Options"

For The Tablet, Catholic theologian Mary Hunt sums up what a missed opportunity Amoris Laetitia is (though those dancing to the tune of the church talkers will not see or admit this, I suspect):

Mary Hunt Asks, Should Barbie Get Her Feet Washed at Church?

Should Barbie get her feet washed at church? theologian Mary Hunt asks in a sharp new essay at Religion Dispatches noting the interesting coincidence of the Vatican's announcement that women can have their feet washed on Holy Thursday coming down the same week that Mattel announced three new sizes for Barbie and a number of other variations in its old model. And then Mary Hunt says:

Louder and Meaner Trump Talks, Higher His Poll Numbers Surge: Mary Hunt's Call for a National Theological State of Emergency to Address Islamophobia

And about ten minutes into the Trump rally, this happens. pic.twitter.com/65pXHjsJ3x

— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) December 15, 2015

Mary Hunt on Synod: "'Membership' Is Made Up of All Men All the Time. What Possible Justification Can There Be for This in the 21st Century?"

Catholic theologian Mary Hunt on the him-nod synod on the family now taking place in Rome:

If Catholic Leaders Are Permitted to Convince Us That Symbol Represents Substance, Who's to Blame? If We Choose to Believe That the Telenovela Is Real . . .

You realize, don't you, that probing the uneasy interface between symbol and substance, in the case of authority figures, is a revolutionary act? It's a necessary act, if religious and social authority figures are to be called to accountability.

Clouds of Witnesses: More Testimony About How Obergefell Affects Real Human Beings and Real Human Lives — The Challenge for Catholics

Some more testimony for you today: two days ago, I offered you some testimony from my own spot about what Obergefell and its extension of rights to LGBT citizens meant to me as an openly gay, married Catholic theologian who has been shut out of employment, my vocation, health insurance coverage, and the manifold benefits that come from being part of a community. Shut out, quite specifically, by Catholic institutions and by the men running the Catholic show, who love to talk endlessly about human rights and love as they continue doing this to LGBT folks . . . .

Quote for Day: Mary Hunt on Most Important Takeaway of Vatican Attack on U.S. Nuns — "Women's Equality in the Church Is No Longer Negotiable"

Mary Hunt at Religion Dispatches in a post-mortem statement about the Vatican attack on American nuns: