The Catholic Denomination is Filled With Smoke and Mirrors


The self-appointed "Catholic intellectual" George Weigel wrote a blistering column criticizing Pope Francis' "synodal" meetings.  Wiebel is correct in saying the Pope's Vatican is using hype and its own press to try to increase the influence of the meetings. The Vatican, unlike Wiebel, has bills to pay and needs numbers in the pews. 

Wiebel has caught the Pope doing the same thing his own right-wing branch of the denomination has done since forever. By drumming home over and over again the notion that one fertilized human egg is a human being with a complete set of rights defended by government, the Catholic right was quite successful for a long time. It did something similar with Latin Mass. They have blasted the married or female priest. How dare the left with Pope Francis introduce and accept ideas that are sound in Catholic theology and practical? Right wing demagogues like Wiebel are mad.

The Catholic right is no different than the Protestant right in glopping on to ideas that serve its interest and blocking efforts to change when they appear. Several Southern Baptist women went public with cases of sexual harassment in the denomination's administrative offices. The Administration pretended to investigate and concluded so such thing was true. When an outside agency looked into it some apologies began to come along.

Gay and trans rights has been helped by repeated story telling by individuals and parents. That bad treatment of gay and trans people happened because such folks allowed other to know about themselves was seen as self inflicted pain. Women who have been raped have been accused since forever of inviting rape by dressing incorrectly. Any problems are caused by gay, trans or females themselves. 

We can credit the Pope for trying to out-maneuver and out hustle the Catholic right.  

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