Tep, scanning through the official letter, they don't even say the words "birth control" - they do, however, note that the LCWR doesn't fall in line with the Church's Biblically based stances on human sexuality and homosexuality, and, under "radical feminist themes," notes that some of their writings use the word "patriarchy."

And, yeah, you beat me to it. But, damn, that concluding letter just makes my eyes roll until they hurt. They used the word Patriarchy! Burn the witches!

Seriously, that really does make my heart hurt for women religious. This is their whole life -- they've given their whole selves to fulfilling Christ's mission, and they're DOING IT, and they're getting smacked down in a huge way and being told that they're committing spiritual wrongs.

Fuck that. Fuck that hard.

Do you think that there's any understanding that the world has moved on from them? My understanding, based completely on anecdata, is that it's the women who take the kids to church, sunday school, plan all of those things.

Oh, that understanding is crystal clear, and it scares the SHIT out of them. Hence all the investigations and scolding and disciplining and shaming and all the rest of it. They're fucking terrified.

Once you've gotten in their faces and made it very clear that you don't want them, your church will just die off without them. Is this way overly simplistic?

I don't actually think it is.

My parish is attending a special screening of Pink Smoke Over The Vatican at The Embarcadero next month (with Roy Bourgeois speaking afterward). I should probably try to grab a couple of the organizers and ask for a dinner or coffee date, and start seriously talking about "What next? No, really, what next?"

"What next? No, really, what next?"

"SCHISM! SCHISM!"

They're fucking terrified.

I see. So they're trying to hasten it by doubling down?

This is really just the same stuff that's happening with all the War on Women laws in the US. I want to believe it's the terrified death rattle of a dying mindset. "I AM TAKING YOU ALL DOWN WITH ME!" But it will take years to undo this all.

"SCHISM! SCHISM!"

Judean People's Front! People's Front of Judea!

Sorry.

Maybe we need an Anti-Pope again.

Maybe we need an Anti-Pope again.

Yes. With superpowers.

it will take years to undo this all.

This is my main worry. I have no doubt at all that all this ugly backlashy stuff is going to look like death throes from 100 years' distance -- but they're working their asses off right now to stick it to us as hard as they can in the mean time. Hence crap like trying to push through an anti-marriage amendment in NC even though the dude who wrote the thing as much as admits it'll be a dead issue in 20 years time.

Twenty years, and you want to amend a fucking constitution for the explicitly stated reason of making it harder for your opposition legislatively. Fuckers.

"SCHISM! SCHISM!"

You could be like the Cathars, JZ, only successful. The Cathars had some great names, such as Esclarmonde De Foix. They were anti-church corruption and vegetarian and, arguably, had the best music (a number of troubadours were Cathar or at least Cathar sympathetic).

Go Cathar 2.0! Choose Cathar 2.0!