MSNBC's Mike Barnicle: Selfish Catholics have a new Pope, rules are rules

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/



To Catholics in America: Doctrine isn't like tax code (Mike Barnicle)

Today, Catholicism in America has become the religious equivalent of ordering from an a la carte menu. We like the tradition but figure some rules are old-fashioned and can be ignored, like picking and choosing between the vegetables and dessert. Unfortunately, a lot of Catholics— after witnessing more than a few members of the hierarchy becoming tone-deaf and complicit in a felony called sexual abuse of minors— have said "Check please."

So we wake up today figuring a Vatican bag-job resulted in the selection of a pope who was quite mute about a scandal that cost a whole lot more than money from a second collection.
Clearly, Pope Benedict XVI had the job wire to wire. He had clout and connections acquired across a quarter century making sure John Paul II's desk was clean at the end of every day.
He's been handed a tough task. He's following a fellow who smiled, danced and prayed around the world. For many Catholics, John Paul II was the first Pope who was more than a framed photo on the wall of a school. He was alive and might be coming to your town soon.

The new guy isn't Henny Youngman in a white cassock. He's German and they are not exactly beloved for their sense of humor. But maybe the big job changes him and allows a personality not yet seen to flourish and be admired. One thing is for sure: Despite the selfish and often parochial wishes of American Catholics, doctrine isn't like a tax code, a health plan or a bill aimed at developing stem-cell research. It isn't going to be amended simply because it's unpopular with those who want married clergy, women priests, or a more charitable view of homosexuality.

Benedict XVI, by background and record, appears to be a pope who will proclaim that the rules are the rules. His dilemma—ours too—is that many Catholics no longer march lock-step like good Christian soldiers in the army of Christ simply because that's what they're told to do.

[Dave Sund]

1. Dear Mike:

I will not take my orders from someone who condones the molestation of children, which this Pope did.

Thanks, but we are not sheep.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

2. Dear Mike

Did you really write this?
Sorry, couldn't resist...

[MADem]

6. My thoughts EXACTLY

Better check George Carlin's website, to be sure he didn't "inadvertently" lift this bit of wisdom from him, as well!

[Bunny]

3. Well, that's the gist of the problem, then, isn't it?

At least in America, anyway. The Church can continue to watch their numbers decline, and their relevancy lessen. Or they can become more responsive to the needs of the populace. Either way, the ball is in their field.

[SnowGoose]

4. Let the "free market" decide

There's no greater religion here in the US than the 'wisdom of the marketplace' and maybe this time it's right.

Barnicle says "It isn't going to be amended simply because it's unpopular with those who want married clergy, women priests, or a more charitable view of homosexuality."

Doctrine won't be changed because it's disliked by people "who want married clergy, women priests, or a more charitable view of homosexuality" but if those same people are paying the bills, maybe it will get changed. I think even the catholic church has to pay the electric bill.

[sandnsea]

7. The market is working

Republicans are better tithers, that's why the US church has moved right.

[SnowGoose]

11. I wonder if that's true.

About conservatives being better tithers... it's fascinating if true. I wonder how one would measure that - surveys with self-reporting or tax records or what?

[calimary]

14. And, by the way, it goes a LOT farther than simply the tastes of those

"who want married clergy, women priests, or a more charitable view of homosexuality." A LOT farther.

Dear Mike - the molestation issue is HUGE. HUGE. THIS Catholic (a LIFE-LONG Catholic whose next birthday will be her 52nd) is deeply affected by it, even just as a mother - a mother of a young son who's the age of many of the victims when they were being victimized. And I'm not the only mom at my parish who started frowning at the collection plate, wondering how much of my money was going into it - and directly out to some out-of-court settlement involving a molesting priest who was merely moved out of range instead of dealt with directly. I'm also not the only mom at my parish (here in Los Angeles) who balked at donating because I couldn't be sure that money was going directly to the missions or to help others in poverty or sickness. For awhile there, we couldn't help being suspicious that we were all actually funding the "Taj Mahony" downtown - the fancy-schmancy new ultra-extravagant, five-star cathedral and compound for Roger Mahony, to replace earthquake-damaged St. Vibiana's. That money's supposed to be going to support the missions and schools, AND ESPECIALLY THE POOR. Mahony's not exactly starving. Nor are any of his other pals in the fancy red robes. "Selfish," you say?

And it goes a LOT farther than that, even. It goes to the story my late father-in-law (a doctor) told me, about driving a hemmorhaging young girl to the hospital in the 50's when no one else would touch her because of the taboo of an illicit pregnancy and the illegal abortion she'd sought out of desperation. It goes to the swath of death that AIDS is cutting through Africa - both sorry situations with the same link - the Dark Ages attitude toward birth control and a woman's right to determine (and access to) what health care is best for her without judgment and condemnation - especially from those who, because of their celibacy, can NEVER understand what it's like to face such crises. Not to mention the persistent condemnation of poverty and hunger that are the OTHER children - the children of your pre-Cambrian era policies about birth UNcontrol. Our planet is busting at the seams with people for whom there's not enough food, shelter, clothing, warmth, safety, education, or medical care. And insisting birth control OF ANY KIND is still a mortal sin is only contributing to increasing that problem exponentially, NOT in ANY way solving it. There isn't ANYTHING in the Bible about gay marriage, but there's TONS AND TONS about the poor. Is THAT why the church seems hell-bent on making sure there always will be TONS AND TONS of the poor, with more added every day? That was "selfish" you said we were, with our complaints, right?

And it's not just the simplistic notion of "women priests." It's women treated as second-class citizens - good only for producing more Catholics, and blamed for the original sin that condemned man to sweat and suffer and struggle outside the comforts of the Garden of Eden. It's the story my mother once told about going to confession (also during those lovely, innocent, blissful 1950's) and being denied absolution by a cold-hearted, closed-minded priest who condemned her because she had only one child at the time. And how dare he even ask about this, to begin with?!?!?!? He declared her unworthy of forgiveness because she hadn't "done her wifely duty" and popped out a litter of children as though she was some human mimeograph machine. Further, I saw my Aunt Anne deteriorate from a vibrant, vigorous, active woman to an almost complete invalid because she, by contrast, DID do her wifely duty and kept popping out those babies year after year. Six of 'em - whether she was up to it or not. She very literally wrecked her health. The fact that women are barred from full partnership in the priesthood is just one chapter in a very thick book of grievances. We're good enough to dust the pews and scrub the floors and bake the cookies and serve the coffee and wash the vestments and answer the phones and make, wash, feed, tend, teach, and raise the babies, but not good enough to stand at the altar as equals and celebrate the Eucharist. Oh, yeah, that's just plain "selfish," alright.

Sorry, Barnicle, but I have a PROBLEM with that. ALL of that. Every last drop and CRUMB of that. Especially the most measly, piddly crumbs my church still expects me to be satisfied with, when I and my sisters have every bit as much to bring to the Lord's table as ANY man does. We're FIFTY percent of the world's population, Mikey-boy. MORE than that, actually. And if you and the others in the boy's club can't figure out how to make room for us, then we WILL go elsewhere and find others who do. You can take your superiority complex and your judgmentalism and read a little bit of Matthew's Gospel (especially the part about judging not lest ye be judged) and shove it. Or maybe try embracing that celibacy you think is so important to maintain at all costs. I think you're quite worthy of it, myself. Yeah, "selfish," I know.

[One_of_8]

15. You said it all

Especially the most measly, piddly crumbs my church still expects me to be satisfied with, when I and my sisters have every bit as much to bring to the Lord's table as ANY man does. We're FIFTY percent of the world's population, Mikey-boy. MORE than that, actually. And if you and the others in the boy's club can't figure out how to make room for us, then we WILL go elsewhere and find others who do

I was raised Catholic, but grew increasing dissatisfied with many of the tenets, most especially the concept that women are second class citizens, and should be subservient to men. I've long since left the Catholic Church, and found a wonderful home with the First United Methodists.

[Catt03]

5. Dear Mike

Sounding like a very devout Catholic, what do you think the Pope would say to you and your behavior a few years ago?

Pleeezzzee don't lecture us about "selfish and parochial wishes of
American Catholics". You know that saying; "people in glass houses...etc."

[Bunny]

8. WWJP?

Who Would Jesus Plaigiarize?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. Where does this guy get the nerve

to preach to anyone about anything?

He's a flamed-out old hack without an original thought in his head, and he should have buried himself deep down in the ground out of sheer shame for what he did.

Plagiarist forever - that's all he is, that's all he'll ever be.

I cannot believe anyone would publish anything he wrote.

[progressivejazz]

10. He missed one.

"It isn't going to be amended simply because it's unpopular with those who want married clergy, women priests, or a more charitable view of homosexuality."

The big one is the one he didn't mention: BIRTH CONTROL. That is the single issue American Catholics disagree most with Ratzinger's traditionalist interpretation on. Now if Ratzinger had any balls, he'd deny communion to anybody who practices "artificial birth control" and take the consequent enormous damage like a man. But he won't.

Barnicle ignores the elephant in the room, and so will Ratzinger.

[flpoljunkie]

12. Absoutely. Forbidding Africans from using birth control when AIDS is

ravaging their continent is criminal.

[GreenArrow]

13. most of the "doctrine" is pure politics

and God has nothing to do with it. Rules preventing women from being priests, priests from marrying, prohibitions on birth control and abortion, and the castigation of gays are simply political decisions.