MetaFilter posts tagged with catholic

Dias v. Archdiocese

roomthreeseventeen — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 05:03:52 -0800

A jury has awarded teacher Christa Dias $170,000 in an anti-discrimination lawsuit in Ohio against the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Dias charged that the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati and two elementary schools where she taught violated state and federal anti-discrimination laws by firing her in October 2010 because she was pregnant. The archdiocese says she was fired because artificial insemination is immoral and violates church doctrine and a contract requiring all employees to "comply with and act consistently in accordance with the stated philosophy and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church." In March, U.S. District Court Judge S. Arthur Spiegel refused to dismiss the pregnancy discrimination lawsuit, stating that the Supreme Court's "ministerial shield" ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelic Lutheran Church and School vs. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al. did not apply as "defendants here did not hold plaintiff out as minister, they did not give her any sort of religious title or commission, and the congregations of the defendant churches took no role in reviewing” her ministerial skills or responsibilities “because she had none.” Dias also has claimed that the church policies are not enforced equally against men and women, as a male former employee who worked in the youth ministry program testified that his wife was artificially inseminated and he was not fired or disciplined. Dias herself is a lesbian, though her sexual orientation was not considered by the jury in this case, as it was not a stated reason for her being fired. Ohio does not have protections for private employees on the basis of sexual orientation, but Cincinnati does. This case may be seen as a test for how far religious entities can go in controlling the life activities of their employees. The archdiocese is expected to appeal.

You're alive a short while and dead forever. Might as well have company.

FAMOUS MONSTER — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:30:06 -0800

In the 19th century, in Roermond, The Netherlands, lived a man who was Colonel of Cavalry, and a Protestant. He married a Catholic noblewoman (likely quite a scandal in a country which was heavily segregated along religious lines at the time). The husband died in 1880 and was buried on the Protestant side of the cemetery. When his wife died eight years later, she could not be buried next to him, as a wall separated the Catholic and Protestant sides. A novel, and rather touching, solution was found.

Mominus Vobiscum

issue #1 — Sun, 26 May 2013 18:03:04 -0800

The Los Angeles Times' Women becoming priests without Vatican's blessing The world's oldest corporation has a problem. The same one it's always had. Well, at least since the founder died. If you've been to mass recently, I'd bet the female attendees outnumbered the men...in the pews. There's a ways to go, but... "The more than 120 women worldwide who have been ordained as Roman Catholic priests and deacons say their faith gives them comfort and hope. But that same faith also is bound by Canon Law 1024. Short and blunt, the church edict states that "a baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly." "The first female priests were ordained in 2002 on a boat on the Danube by a bishop who previously had broken ranks with the Vatican. A year later, bishops who asked to remain anonymous until after their death for fear of reprisal ordained the first female bishops so that they, in turn, could ordain other women. "According to Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA Inc., more women are expected to be ordained as priests and deacons in 2013 than in any previous year. "To Eitz, the threat of excommunication is meaningless. It has happened to her once already, when she became a deacon in 2012. She ignored it then and ignores it now, she said, because "if you are baptized, you cannot be unbaptized. If you are called to the table that God calls people to, you cannot be excluded."" You go, Eitz. I don't know what her formal title is, but I'd guess it's not "Father."

A Cultural History of Syphilis

Mister Bijou — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:46:20 -0800

How syphilis took Europe by storm during the 1490s, and the far reaching effects it's had ever since

Is Pope Francis a Fraud?

Glibpaxman — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:52:50 -0800

After a right-wing coup crushed the reforms of Vatican II, one scholar says the last two popes are illegitimate. It comes near the end of a thousand-year history of the Vatican’s global rise to power, ambiguous flourishing and rapid decline. It also comes after 40 years of internal counterrevolution under the previous two popes, during which a group of hardcore right-wing cardinals have consolidated power in the Curia and stamped out nearly all traces of the 1960s liberal reform agenda of Pope John XXIII and Vatican II. A handful of intellectuals, both inside and outside the church, quietly believe that means Pope Francis isn’t a legitimate pope at all.

Butch Heroes

showbiz_liz — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:35:02 -0800

"In this series of portraits I am using the format of traditional Catholic holy cards to represent butch, queer women and queer female-to-male transgendered individuals from history." Via Autostraddle.

Ecce homo

growabrain — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:29:33 -0800

"Footage of Pope John Paul at an indoor batting cage during his 1987 visit to California"

Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily.

ActionPopulated — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:19:21 -0800

“I am convinced [Dorothy Day] is a saint for our time,” Cardinal Dolan said at the bishops’ meeting. She exemplifies, he said, “what’s best in Catholic life, that ability we have to be ‘both-and’ not ‘either-or.’ ” "When Cardinal Dolan talks about why he supports Day, he tends not to mention her arrests at protests of nuclear weapons or at a farm labor protest with Cesar Chavez. Instead, he describes her as a sinner whose life was transformed when she converted". Day's legacy includes over 200 Catholic Worker communities across the world. The Catholic Worker newspaper she co-founded with Peter Maurin is still published seven times yearly. While Day herself has been quoted as saying not to call her a saint, Robert Ellsberg, compiler of her journal and letters, writes that "Dorothy's own relationship with saints was anything but cynical"

Conservative politics, German-style

acb — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:30:51 -0800

Jens Spahn is a parliamentarian in Germany's centre-right party, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and a committed Catholic. He is also gay, and has been openly so throughout his 11-year political career. While he does not focus specifically on gay issues, he advocates equal civil rights for gays and lesbians (including gay marriage, tax parity and adoption rights) from a conservative position. He does not regard this to be a contradiction.

"I am done making excuses for the pro-life movement."

flex — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:01:46 -0800

How I Lost Faith In The Pro-Life Movement: "What I want to share here is how I came to this realization. And if you, reader, are one of those who opposes abortion because you believe it is murder and you want to save the lives of unborn babies, well, I hope to persuade you that the pro-life movement is not actually your ally in this, that you have been misled, and that you would be more effective in decreasing the number of abortions that occur if you were to side with pro-choice progressives. If this is you, please hear me out before shaking your head." The author, Libby Anne:

"As a brief introduction, I was raised in a large homeschooling family influenced by the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements. I grew up an evangelical Christian, though with some fundamentalist aspects. I found my beliefs challenged in college and am today an atheist and a feminist... ...If you’re just here because you liked my article on the pro-life movement, I’d invite you to stick around because I have several followup posts already planned and in the works, including posts tentatively called “Pro-Life, Anti-Abortion, or Anti-Choice? Sorting through the Labels,” “What Being Pro-Life Would Look Like,” and “Science, Young Earth Creationism, and the Pro-Life Movement.”"

These are her follow-up posts since this piece "went viral" a week and a half ago: *A Response to Objections on My Pro-Life Movement Post *Seven Recent Articles on Abortion Worth Reading *More on Laws and Abortion: A Response to Marc of "Bad Catholic" (another blog on Patheos) *If You Don’t Want a Baby, Just Don’t Have Sex? *Okay Then, Let's Talk About Natural Family Planning The rebuttals so far on Bad Catholic: *How I Lost Faith In The Pro-life Movement: Rebuttal Up In Hurrrrr (Part 1) *All Banning Abortion Does Is Make It Unsafe (Rebuttal Part 2) *Does Contraception Reduce the Abortion Rate? (Rebuttal Part 3)

'Silence seems to keep me from idealizing myself.'

the man of twists and turns — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:35:50 -0800

How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations With Four Trappist Monks

Something About Mary

DarlingBri — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 05:46:46 -0800

"The convent would have been seen as a way for women to gain status. Nuns had a particular mystique and attraction about them. There was one in particular, and I would in hindsight say I definitely had a crush on her." Former nun Mary Skelley on coming out. [Vimeo]

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.

laconic skeuomorph — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:52:30 -0800

Football's Most Dangerous Rivalry: Celtic v Rangers But with Rangers F.C. crumbling, many are left wondering what will become of the Old Firm rivalry. The decline and fall of the Old Firm. Timeline of Rangers financial turmoil.

Brown Moses Blog

furiousxgeorge — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 22:04:35 -0800

Brown Moses Blog curates and analyzes news regarding the Syrian uprising, the wider Arab Spring, and the UK phone hacking scandal. It is written by Something Awful forums moderator Brown Moses. Recent entries include discussion of the increasingly well armed Free Syrian Army, senior members of the Catholic Church criticizing pro-Assad clergy, and a look at the evidence of more sophisticated IEDs being used in Syria. The blog is beginning to attract attention from professional journalists, including mentions in coverage from The Guardian and The Christian Science Monitor.

A Coordinated Assault on Women?

bardic — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:22:55 -0800

In the wake of so many recent controversies over women and their right to safe, affordable health care and the supposed desire of working women to be "put in their place" by aggressive men in the bedroom, Penny Red suggests that "Right now, we are in the middle of a sexual counter-revolution." Recently Katie Roiphe wrote that the unexpected popularity of 50 Shades of Gray means that for all their advances in the workplace, women secretly want to be spanked and dominated by men. (Many on the internet LOL'd heartily.) Presidential candidate Rick Santorum had no shortage of comments regarding the evils of birth control and how they are "harmful to women." Meanwhile, members of the Catholic hierarchy are freaking out that in the 21st century, safe, affordable birth control is considered by an overwhelming majority to be an essential part of any woman's health care. And oh yeah, let's not forget Republican mouth-piece Rush Limbaugh's sensitivity to feminine issues. As we move further into the 21st century, are women's rights being left behind?

Vatican reprimands US nuns.

apparently — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:21:55 -0800

The findings of a multiyear Vatican study on US nuns have been announced: the largest and most influential group of nuns are promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church."

Pie In the Sky

reenum — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:37:54 -0800

Tom Monaghan had a dream: To create a law school and surrounding community that would adhere strictly to Catholic values. Things have not gone according to plan. Previously.

"Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic."

jquinby — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:23:11 -0800

Flannery O'Connor reads A Good Man is Hard to Find aloud at Vanderbilt University in 1959. Mary Flannery O'Connor wrote two collections of short stories - A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge - and two full-length novels (Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away). A devout Catholic in the deep and Protestant South, she also contributed regular essays and book reviews to the local diocesan newspapers. She wrote in what has come to be called the Southern Gothic tradition: grotesque and supremely flawed characters are nevertheless touched by moments of grace in a bleak and 'Christ-haunted' landscape. O'Connor was diagnosed with Lupus in her 20s and lived many years longer than the doctors thought she would. She lived with her mother on the family farm near Milledgeville, Georgia, where she spent her time raising peacocks and other game birds, resting between lecture tours and voluminously corresponding with friends, colleagues and fans of her work. A single-volume collection of more than 800 of these letters, The Habit of Being, was published in 1988. Flannery O'Connor died in 1964. Her mother, Regina, died in 1997.

Sex and the Single Sinéad

the young rope-rider — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:45:50 -0800

"So I admire those artists that are actually spiritually concerned. And have the balls to be concerned about that, and not concerned with fuckin’ George Bush’s dick. It’s very hard to sing when you’ve got someone’s dick in your mouth.” She shoots a mischievous grin before adding, 'I’ve tried.'" Sinéad O’Connor on the pope, her music, dating, buying condoms, and everything in between.

Machisma

the young rope-rider — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:46:53 -0800

Machisma: How a mix of female empowerment and steamy soap operas helped bring down Brazil’s fertility rate and stoke its vibrant economy.

I dressed up as Martin Luther for Halloween

Deflagro — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:36:16 -0800

Besides Halloween, today also marks another holiday: Reformation Day. On October 31st, 1517 (warning: auto-playing video) Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, Germany essentially starting the Protestant Reformation. Johann Tetzel, a Dominican priest, was sent by Pope Leo X to Germany to sell indulgences as a way of financing the renovation of St. Peter's Basilica. Whoever received an indulgence did not have to undergo penance for a sin that was forgiven. "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings / the soul from purgatory springs." (a popular saying by Tetzel) Martin Luther did not agree with the selling of indulgences along with several other practices. He wrote what he called the Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences but it became popularly known as The Ninety-Five Theses (Project Gutenberg, file also contains original Latin). On the Vigil of All Saint's Day, Luther wrote a letter to archbiship Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg (listed as "Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz") which included a copy of his Theses. He then nailed a copy to the door of Castle Church that same night. However nailing it to the door was not an aggressive act but was meant to start scholarly debate. The chuch door commonly acted as a bulletin board and since Luther's Theses were written in Latin, only the clergy could read it. In January of 1518 it was translated to German and quickly spread. The Archbishop never responded to the letter but instead sent it to the Pope. After several debates and attempts to quiet Luther, the papal bull Exsurge Domine (trans: "Arise, O Lord") was issued on June 15, 1520 demanding Luther retract some of his statements. Luther did not comply and publicly burned the bull in Wittenberg on December 10 and then wrote Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles. On January 3, 1521 Pope Leo X issued Decet Romanum Pontificem (link to Word doc) (trans: "It Pleases the Roman Pontiff") which excommunicated Luther from the Roman Catholic Church. Emporer Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire was directed to by the Pope to try Luther as he was a threat to the nation. So Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms which lasted from January 28-May 25, 1521. During his defense is when he reportedly said one of his famous quotes, "Here I stand. I can do no other. May God Help me. Amen." However the first two sentences are not believed to have actually been said by Luther. On May 25 the Edict of Worms was issued declaring Luther an outlaw. It was planned that Luther would be captured as he left Worms, however Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony abducted Luther to safely hide him in Wartburg Castle. While at the castle Luther continued to write and translated the New Testament into German. Luther went on to continue spreading the Protestant Reformation by writing, giving sermons, and organizing churches. He died at the age of 62 on February 18, 1546 and was buried underneath the pulpit of Castle Church. (previously)

Surely this..

FatherDagon — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:33:01 -0800

A new BBC Documentary titled This World: Spain's Stolen Babies alleges that up to three hundred thousand Spanish infants were stolen from their mothers at birth over a fifty year period, and then sold by the Catholic Church through illicit adoption services.

Indicting a Bishop and a Diocese in Missouri

2bucksplus — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:33:53 -0800

Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph have been indicted by a Jackson County, MO grand jury on misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse. Finn is the highest-ranking Catholic official in the U.S. to face criminal prosecution in a child sexual abuse case, and faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine (the diocese only faces the fine). Both Finn and the diocese entered not guilty pleas. The significance of this indictment is not fully reflected in the potential penalties, Rev. Thomas J. Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, sums up the sea change: “For a bishop to be indicted is absolutely extraordinary...This is a first. And in terms of the Catholic Church, this is an extraordinary move which is going to signal that the times have changed. Neither people nor government are going to put up with any kind of activity that looks like a cover-up.” Finn was called to testify to the grand jury in September and testified that he would do "the best we can to cooperate with law enforcement." The indictment alleges that Finn and diocese had reasonable cause to believe that the Father Shawn Ratigan, a priest in the service of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, may have abused a child but did not report it to authorities. After the diocese discovered that Ratigan had hundreds of nude and sexualized photos of children on his laptop on December 16, 2010, Finn and the diocese restricted Ratigan from being around children but did not report their discovery to police until May 11, 2011. Ratigan is currently facing 11 counts of producing or attempting to produce child pornography and 2 counts of possessing child pornography.

Catholic? Had an abortion? Here's your chance to be forgiven.

Vibrissae — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:44:22 -0800

Church forgives abortion during Pope's visit to Spain Special powers have been given to all priests in Madrid to absolve women who confess to abortion in the sacrament of penance during Pope Benedict's four-day visit to the church's World Youth Day event. Here's a history of the Catholic Church stance on abortion. Here's a thumbnail history of celibacy in the Church.

Irish stew. Papal hide the pickle.

markkraft — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:56:36 -0800

Irish PM condemns Vatican interference in sex abuse cases. Enda Kenny, the new Taoiseach of Ireland, has scathingly criticized the Vatican, citing the Cloyne Report and a recently-leaked Vatican letter intended to prevent sex abuse cases from going public, despite their public policy of reporting all abuse claims to the authorities. (Similar claims of the Vatican not reporting recent child abuse cases have also been made in the US.) Ireland's Minister for Justice has cited an extensive list of The Church's failures to comply with their policies, and is supporting legislation to make it a crime not to report child abuse claims. The Vatican's envoy was asked to report to Parliament and explain The Church's position on this matter quickly, with the implied threat that they might be forced to testify. Today, the Church, citing "surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions" has recalled their envoy. "(This) should be interpreted as an expression of the desire of the Holy See for serious and effective collaboration with the (Irish) Government."