{"id":105770,"date":"2013-05-26T15:49:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T19:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=105770"},"modified":"2013-05-26T17:08:41","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T21:08:41","slug":"why-was-vatican-mentioned-in-womenpriest-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/05\/why-was-vatican-mentioned-in-womenpriest-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Why was Vatican mentioned in Womenpriest story?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>


\nThe editor will be announced in an LA Daily News<\/em> board meeting. The printing press, symbolizing publishing, will be made out of lollipops. The staff will agree to follow the direction of \u201cour editor and blackjack dealer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the real<\/em> departure from Los Angeles Times<\/em> tradition will be evident when Maria Eitz approaches the computer to write her first story.<\/p>\n

Does any of that make sense to you? How about this lede to a story that ran in the Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/em> this week?<\/p>\n

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The priest will be ordained in a purple Lutheran church. The Communion bread, symbolizing the body of Christ, will be gluten-free. The congregation will pray to \u201cour mother our father in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the real departure from Roman Catholic tradition will be evident when Maria Eitz approaches the altar Sunday for the laying on of hands that turns parishioner into priest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, according to the logic here, you can deny transubstantiation, get ordained in, literally, a Lutheran church (no, not my kind!), and get all gender-weird about God the Father and that\u2019s totally cool and not even a \u201creal\u201d departure from Roman Catholic \u201ctradition?\u201d In what world? Why is Roman Catholic even mentioned here? Seriously? <\/p>\n

Also, these aren\u2019t items of tradition, but doctrine. Someone who doesn\u2019t understand the difference between Christian doctrine and Christian tradition has no business writing a story on non-Catholics getting ordained in non-Catholic ceremonies. Period. When editors and reporters are so unfamiliar with Christian doctrine \u2014 and tradition \u2014 that they produce stories such as this, we all lose.<\/p>\n

These stories have been so bad for so long that I\u2019m beginning to wonder if journalists didn\u2019t, like, sign a pact with some agent of journalism darkness to see how much idiocy could be spread under one story topic. It\u2019s just that bad.<\/p>\n

Take the headline:<\/p>\n

Women becoming priests without Vatican\u2019s blessing
\nSmall numbers of Catholic women are ignoring the ban on female priests and are ordained without the church\u2019s acknowledgment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Roman Catholic church is an organization that sets it\u2019s own rules. This headline makes no more sense than saying:<\/p>\n

Auto mechanics becoming professors without UCLA\u2019s blessing
\nSmall numbers of auto mechanics are ignoring the rules on who becomes professors and are given tenure without UCLA\u2019s acknowledgement<\/strong><\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

Golfers becoming infielders without Yankees blessing
\nSmall numbers of golfers are ignoring MLB rules and are being named infielders without the Yankees\u2019 acknowledgment<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you could do better than me at this game.<\/p>\n

The story is riddled with errors and weirdness. <\/p>\n


\nWe\u2019re told, for instance, that \u201cmore than 120 women worldwide \u2026 have been ordained as Roman Catholic priests and deacons\u201d and then a line later that those ordinations weren\u2019t valid according to church law.<\/p>\n

It has all the trademark puffiness of every single other Womenpriests story you\u2019ve ever read. After acting like the women we\u2019re reading about are really good Roman Catholics, though, we learn:<\/p>\n

The congregation\u2019s core beliefs are another story too. Rue and Eitz support abortion rights, contraception, married priests and same-sex marriage. Rue is a married lesbian who has been out since 1973.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We learn that the sacrament isn\u2019t administered by the priests so much as the congregation. I\u2019ll just quote the last three paragraphs for your enjoyment about these faithful Catholic women who are held up only by the misogynistic leadership of Rome:<\/p>\n

What calms her mind? Hafiz, a Sufi poet from the 14th century, and Mary Oliver, whose poems weave the natural and spiritual worlds.<\/p>\n

With fog blanketing her Inner Richmond neighborhood and her cocker spaniel sleeping at her feet, Eitz opens a collection of Hafiz\u2019s work. She has marked her favorite poems with feathers. She begins to read out loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI \/ Have \/ Learned \/ So much from God \/ That I can no longer \/ Call \/ Myself \/ A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim \/ A Buddhist<\/a>, a Jew,\u201d she read, beginning to relax. \u201cThe Truth has shared so \/ much of itself \/ With me \/ That I can no longer call myself \/ A man, a woman, an angel \/ Or even pure \/ Soul.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, man! Was that poem published by the Vatican? Because it sure sounds about as Roman Catholic as anything else I\u2019ve ever heard, you know?<\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n

If someone can no longer call herself a Christian and her ordination takes place in a purple (why was that an important detail?) Lutheran church and she deviates from Christian teaching on most major points, one might wonder why there is any media coverage for her schismatic group, but one definitely wonders why the story was framed as it was to begin with.<\/p>\n

Better work next time, kids.<\/p>\n

Image of someone dressing up as a Politico<\/em> editor<\/a> via FishbowlDC.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The editor will be announced in an LA Daily News board meeting. The printing press, symbolizing publishing, will be made out of lollipops. The staff will agree to follow the direction of \u201cour editor and blackjack dealer.\u201d But the real departure from Los Angeles Times tradition will be evident when Maria Eitz approaches the computer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,4,1,48],"tags":[253,1663,388,1662,15474],"class_list":["post-105770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-social-issues","category-uncategorized","category-worship","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-maria-eitz","tag-roman-catholic-church","tag-roman-catholic-wom","tag-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy was Vatican mentioned in Womenpriest story?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The editor will be announced in an LA Daily News board meeting. The printing press, symbolizing publishing, will be made out of lollipops. 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