I was already excited to hear that the Nuns on the Bus were getting ready to go out on the road again – this time to collect stories from people who have been affected by the GOP tax law. But then today I saw this headline from Democracy Now!
Catholic Sex Abuse Stems from
“Monarchy” & Exclusion of Women from Power
(click here for full article)
This interview with Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, an advocacy group for Catholic social justice, is mostly about recent developments in the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.
- August 14 – the report from the grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania was released.
- August 17 – a letter began circulating calling “on the Catholic Bishops of the United States to prayerfully and genuinely consider submitting to Pope Francis their collective resignation as a public act of repentance and lamentation before God and God’s People.” To date, more than 1,000 Catholic theologians, educators and parishioners have signed.
- August 20 – Pope Francis addressed a letter on the subject to all 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, confessing, “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”
But what Sister Simone Campbell has to say here is a really, really important perspective on the subject (the bold italics are mine).
“. . . in allegations of abuse, it’s critical—critical—to have a comprehensive view. By eliminating women, by eliminating laymen in the decision-making process, they focused on the wrong piece. They focused on the institution, not on the children who were suffering. So we need a huge change in the church. But I’ll tell you, it’s going to take time to change the culture, change the orientation. I mean, our church is old. It’s like 2,000 years old. And it’s spent a long time building this, as the letter said. So we’ve got to begin the dismantling now.
I hope the Catholic Church pays attention.
As the mantra has become: listen to the women!
dismantlingpatriarchy753717292.blog 