{"id":14444,"date":"2012-06-18T05:04:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T11:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=14444"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:06:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:06:43","slug":"ny-times-columnist-i-cant-believe-im-saying-this-but-bill-donohue-is-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/06\/ny-times-columnist-i-cant-believe-im-saying-this-but-bill-donohue-is-right\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Times columnist: “I can’t believe I\u2019m saying this, but Bill Donohue is right”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That\u2019s how former editor Bill Keller starts his column<\/a><\/strong> this morning:<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m saying this, but Bill Donohue is right. Donohue, the chronically peeved president of the\u00a0Catholic League<\/a>, and I rarely see eye to eye, but he is right about one very big thing: how to resolve the crisis in Catholicism. My endorsement may horrify him as much as it surprises me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lest anyone think Keller has undergone a conversion experience \u2014 or reversion, since he\u2019s a lapsed Catholic \u2014 he makes his case a little later, suggesting the best thing for a sizable number of Catholics to do would be just to leave:<\/p>\n

\"\"What you learn if you listen to the Catholic Church in the plain language of Bill Donohue is that it is not about to change direction. Not in this century. The parishioners who hope for a kinder, more inclusive church, the\u00a0nuns who are now being rebuked by the Vatican<\/a> because they have doubts on subjects like gay marriage and the ordination of women \u2014 the church\u2019s message to them is: Shut up or go.<\/p>\n

Face it, even at the high-water mark of contemporary church reform, the Vatican II council, issues like the stained-glass ceiling and intolerance of gays were not really on the table. And that tide was been receding for nearly 50 years. Indeed, the church\u2019s 1960s effort to engage the modern world is now regarded in the current Curia as part of an era of degenerate individualism \u2014 Woodstock, Stonewall, Vatican II \u2014 that is blamed for all kinds of deviant outcomes, including the scandal of priests who can\u2019t keep it in their cassocks.<\/p>\n

Donohue notes that roughly a quarter of Americans identify themselves as Catholic. He reckons maybe half of those, the more conservative half, attend church regularly and contribute. \u201cThey\u2019re the ones who pay the bills,\u201d he said. \u201cCan we afford to ignore the other half? I think we can.\u201d And as for the unsettled religious orders, the nuns and priests who vowed allegiance and now preach dissent, why should the church put up with insubordination?<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have more than a handful of nuns who have totally lost their moorings?\u201d Donohue mused. \u201cOh, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

His point: \u201cQuite frankly I believe, as Pope Benedict the XVIth said just before he became pope, that maybe a smaller church would be a better church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much as I wish I could encourage the discontented, the Catholics of open minds and open hearts, to stay put and fight the good fight, this is a lost cause. Donohue is right. Summon your fortitude, and just go. If you are not getting the spiritual sustenance you need, if you are uneasy being part of an institution out of step with your conscience \u2014 then go. The restive nuns who are planning a field trip to Rome for a bit of dialogue? Be assured, unless you plan to grovel, no one will be listening. Sisters, just go. Bill Donohue will hold the door for you.<\/p>\n

Go where? Well, the history of Christianity is filled with schisms and offshoots. Last spring I attended Sunday Mass at a breakaway church called\u00a0Spiritus Christi in Rochester<\/a>, a congregation that describes itself as \u201cCatholic, not Roman Catholic.\u201d Spiritus Christi has a female pastor and began performing gay marriages long before the State of New York legalized them. Mass was packed with as joyous a crowd of worshipers as I have ever seen. I could imagine hundreds of Spiritus Christis \u2014 and leave it to the theologians to debate whether the Vatican or these defectors have the stronger claim to being the authentic heirs of St. Peter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s how former editor Bill Keller starts his column this morning: I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m saying this, but Bill Donohue is right. Donohue, the chronically peeved president of the\u00a0Catholic League, and I rarely see eye to eye, but he is right about one very big thing: how to resolve the crisis in Catholicism. My endorsement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[992,1167],"class_list":["post-14444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-catholic-league","tag-ny-times"],"yoast_head":"\nNY Times columnist: "I can't believe I\u2019m saying this, but Bill Donohue is right"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's how former editor Bill Keller starts his column this morning: I can't believe I\u2019m saying this, but Bill Donohue is right. 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