Think twice. There’s not much rhyme or reason in belonging to a church that protects men who rape little boys and girls, but almost instantaneously excommunicates women who save the lives of other women.
Lest you think that’s a bit harsh, read this.
Sister Sister Margaret McBride, the administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, a Catholic hospital, was confronted by a moral dilemma. An 11 week pregnant woman was admitted to the hospital “gravely” ill. So ill that the doctors expected that if she continued with the pregnancy, her chances of dying were almost 100%.So she chose abortion, and Sister Margaret approved. She was then unceremoniously excommunicated from the Church she worked for.
Fortunately, even the Catholic Church has a loophole in their ban against abortion. It’s called Directive 47, and allows abortion when it will mean saving the life of the mother. Most people, even the majority of those in the US who are anti-choice, usually allow an exception to save the life of the mother, and the Catholic Church seems to fall in line.
But not in this case. This happened just last November. I think we’re still waiting to see if any priests have been excommunicated as a result of their child buggery. It’s a long drawn out process, if and when it happens, and takes decades. But, if you are a woman saving the life of another woman, the usual patriarchal double standard applies, and you are fast-tracked out the door.
And it’s not as if the church had no choice! According to the Reverend Thomas Doyle (yes, a priest and a canon lawyer)
Olmsted could have looked at the situation, realized that the nun faced an agonizing choice and shown her some mercy. He adds that this case highlights a “gross inequity” in how the church chooses to handle scandal.
“In the case of priests who are credibly accused and known to be guilty of sexually abusing children, they are in a sense let off the hook,” Doyle says.
Doyle says no pedophile priests have been excommunicated. When priests have been caught, he says, their bishops have protected them, and it has taken years or decades to defrock them, if ever.
Sister Margaret can try to rejoin the church, but why would she want to, after being treated so shabbily?
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SPANISH INQUISITOR 
I don’t see the connection between this ridiculousness and the benefits of being a Catholic. The indulgence of Catholicism brings with it a hope in an afterlife, belief that some magical sky daddy and his kid care for you and look out for you as well as other magical beings known as angels, that praising and pleading with these beings as well as once mortal beings but now magical known as saints will get you stuff and cure your ills, that bad people will assuredly get their just desserts one day, and of course there’s the wonderful community aspect of belonging to a parish. Oh, and you can use your indulgence to justify other indulgences like hatred of gays and the belief in the inferiority of women. How does this story dissuade one from the benefits of such an indulgence? It’s like saying don’t use heroin because Sid Vicious was a douche. How does that affect my high?
Most people love rules and ceremony, the more rigid the better.
But we also secretly admire those who break the rules.
Voila! The Catholic Church.
Brilliant!
What’s also brilliant is Catholic confession. Make ridiculously impossible rules to follow and then have people torn up over breaking them, torn up so bad they just can’t take it and then…. confession! They come back to get relief from the problem the church put there in the first place. Sometimes I get what L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith saw in all this.
Stockholm Syndrome?
What woman hears a story like this and remains a Catholic? I honestly don’t get it.
SI:
I love the way you photoshopped the Emperor into pope jammies. It’s practically seamless. I would have left the blue lightning and Luke Skywalker in the picture, though.
I wish I had that Photoshopability.
I just shook my head continually as I was reading this one. As a woman, I know that in this world, and more so in religious environments, men rule and women are nice decoration in the picture. But this one clearly exemplifies how differently the RC church treats men and women… and children for that matter.
Really, catholicism should be deemed illegal.
As for why she wants to remain a Catholic, that I can understand. She probably hasn’t lived out there in the world for a long time. And the world out there is pretty scary. All of a sudden, she has to find a job, pay rent, and face life like the rest of us. She probably doesn’t have a penny in her retirement savings, since she was going to die in a convent, taken care of by the church.
Your final paragraph describes why pastors who don’t believe anymore have difficulty leaving the ministry.
My brother went to the seminary with Steve Kiesle, the priest that Benny refused to defrock. Steve officiated at my wedding in 1977.
Not that I’m condoning IN ANY WAY the terrible things he did, but Steve himself had been ASKING to be released from his vows. He knew he shouldn’t be around kids. His requests were refused. He pled “no contest” to molestation charges in 1978, and yet was still officially a priest until 1987.
And don’t forget. There is a distinct difference between being defrocked (i.e. being released from the vows of priesthood) and being excommunicated (being banished from being a member of the church, including the ability to partake of sacraments, which means a lot to Catholics).
I’ll bet Steve is still an official Catholic, albeit not a priest. Sister Margaret can’t say that.
I am votching you assholes!! I hav opened ze files on all off you. Saying bad thing about Mother church vile everybody knows it is actually Jesus on earth. You sinners vill die – unless you of course become Catholic. Or haf cute kiddies ….
Remember – I am vatching you.