’)The Catholic Church - Moving Sideways
By: Unwelcome Perspective
People are very excited because the Pope made a “pro-condoms” comment in his new book. What the Pope said was, “There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.”
AIDS activists and progressive Catholics are hailing this as a major step forward for the church. Until they are handing at condoms in Catholic school and showing kids how to slide them over unripe bananas, this is not a major step forward; it is a side-step.
Archbishop Dolan, the president of America’s Catholic bishops, made comments in the New York Times, that show the church has a long way to go. Dolan stated that he is worried by the recent statistic that 1 in 3 baptized Catholics have left the church, but that the church will not change its stances on same-sex marriage, birth control, abortion, and immigration. I think I can tell Dolan why so many Catholics have left the church: because the bishops have been such hardasses about the above issues as if they were presiding over witch hunt trials in A.D. 1500.
If Archbishop Dolan believes he can retain more Catholics without changing the church’s stance on birth control and same-sex issues, he is insane. If I were to tally up all the people in this country who have had an abortion, dated someone who had an abortion, use birth control, are gay, friends with someone who is gay; that’s a lot of people that might not want to confess their “sins” to Archbishop Dolan. The church hierarchy needs to accept the fact that people are not priests. As priests, you don’t have to worry about getting AIDs or an abortion, because kids don’t have AIDs or need abortions. I know most priests don’t have sex with kids, but the point is that the people that make the laws in the church are not affected by them.
Let’s imagine my perfect world, where the Catholic Church decides to step into its pope-mobile time machine and bring its lumbering theocracy out of the Middle Ages and into 2010. Gay marriage is cool, abortion is understandable, and, birth control is highly recommended. What would happen to the church? Would the Vatican City collapse? Would there be riots in Rome? No. Some old people would be pissed, and every church would be packed like it was Christmas every day.
I grew up Catholic, went to Catholic schools, went to church every Sunday, and had a great experience. That’s probably because I grew up Catholic in Seattle, where people including priests are a little more relaxed. The church has a lot of great things to offer: spirituality, community, public service, and guidance in challenging times. The only way to share these attributes and get people back in the pews is to stop upholding policies that exclude the mainstream of society and take the church to 2010.
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