In brief, when your church is the center of your community’s social life—whether in a rural village or an urban enclave—being alienated from it (even when you’re still participating in it) makes it much more difficult to define yourself, whether by or against—or outside—of it. Read more
While “forgiveness” of “sins” might give the perpetrator a clean slate, it does nothing to alleviate trauma and its effects in victims. If anything, asking (or, more precisely, guilt-tripping) a victim to “forgive” a perpetrator only re-traumatizes that victim. Read more
Given the repressive conditions I’ve described—one in which authority is not questioned, church leaders have absolute authority and children do not learn about their own bodies, let alone how they can be used against them—is it any wonder that most victims don’t recount their abuse by priests to anyone but themselves—if, indeed, they ever do—until they are well into adulthood? Read more
On the basis of the evidence of past action, it does not seem to me that the far-right tabloid crowd has any interest whatsoever in defending victims, while it is quite heavily invested in undermining the pope. Read more
Above all, though, I feel that I have spent my life as a Catholic with my hands bound, with heavy burdens placed upon me, and now when I am bent and exhausted asked to join in the rescue of those who bound my hands, and laid the burdens on me. Read more
To give up because “it’s all in God’s hands” is a kind of nihilistic rejection of the good and profound meaning of this earth, this life, these living bodies - and our moral obligation to be instruments of peace, love, and liberation. Read more
The problem is power. Any concentration of power in a single demographic will lead ultimately to injustice and abuse. If women held absolute authority, we'd probably become predatory, too. Read more
It’s important to distinguish between scapegoating and the pursuit of justice, and not to try to quell the latter out of fear of the former. Similarly, it’s important not to condemn the legitimate and honorable rage or pain that many are feeling now, as though it were on a par with the hysteria of a violently scapegoating community Read more
In an intellectual arena where Catholic speakers and writers feel comfortable openly mocking the church’s social teachings, and frequently misrepresent the church’s fundamental moral definitions in order to show how hardass they are, there is a taboo on questioning the teaching on contraception, in any way. Read more
Time is, we know from philosophy, theology, and physics, something of an illusion. This is both a terror and a comfort. The fools and liars will always be with us. The fools and liars will always be gone Read more
suspended in her jar
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