Italian Priest to [battered] Women Everywhere: Stop Hitting Yourself

[PeaceNikki]

Father Piero Corsi of Liguria sparked outrage after members of his congregation posted his Christmas bulletin onto Facebook. The flyer, entitled “Women and femicide – healthy self-criticism. How often do they provoke?” said victims of domestic and sexual violence should question if they were themselves to blame for the incident.

Oh cool! So he’s like a men’s rights activist AND a priest all rolled into one? (Or is that redundant? We’re never sure.) Also: is it “self-criticism” when you are a dude (A CELIBATE DUDE) hating on the women? Isn’t that pretty much the exact opposite of being self-critical? Does “self-criticism” have a meaning in Italian of which yr Wonkette was hitherto unaware? No matter. Let’s get on to exploring how the evil ladies provoke men into raping and hitting!

The fact is that women are increasingly provocative, they become arrogant, they believe themselves to be self-sufficient and end up exacerbating the situation.
Children are abandoned to their own devices, homes are dirty, meals are cold or fast food, clothes are filthy.

Lolwhut? So ladies get all self-sufficient, but being self-sufficient makes them arrogant and makes them feed children and men cold meals, which means time for the hitting and the raping. Oh, and the murdering. Let’s not forget that this gem of a flyer is titled “Women and Femicide.” Ladies if you get murdered over letting dinner go cold or giving your hard-working man some Burger King, it is your own damn fault. It’s so clear! Why didn’t we see it before?

Read more at http://wonkette.com/494788/italian-priest-to-women-everywhere-stop-hitting-yourself#IKXBP46CFgrGY3ie.99

[backscatter712]

1. And people wonder why I have the opinion I do about religion... n/t

[PeaceNikki]

2. Not me.

I am witchoo

[gobama5962isi]

48. no, you're right

I'm no fan of religion either

[roguevalley]

60. sprirituality is my thing, religious dogma not so much. nothing like a CELIBATE

MAN talking about women. Nice.

[Taverner]

83. +1000

With you 100%

[yellerpup]

3. Umm...wait a minute.

Who's arrogant now? What a porkburger.

[RainDog]

4. Again, I ask: why would any self respecting woman associate with this gutter religion?

I can only assume those women are like victims of Stockholm Syndrome who love their abusers.

[PeaceNikki]

6. no. idea.

It's disgusting.

[RainDog]

8. It's sad

To make the claim that this institution does good at the local level ignores the WORLDWIDE harm they do to so many others.

[PeaceNikki]

10. Have you read Hitchens' piece on Mother Theresa?

I found it, like most of his work, eye-opening.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2003/10/mommie_dearest.html

[aquart]

30. Did he not like her, either?

How she always had a private jet to take HER to the doctor? How she wouldn't let her nuns use tampons? Did he include that?

[PeaceNikki]

33. Here's a snip

"MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan. Where did that money, and all the other donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any audit. But we have her own claim that she opened 500 convents in more than a hundred countries, all bearing the name of her own order. Excuse me, but this is modesty and humility?"

[aquart]

36. Yup, that's the Mother Teresa I despise.

Met an ex-monk who knew some ex-nuns. He could barely say her name without utter disgust.

[RainDog]

37. Wow. She benefited from Republicans' S&L deregulation

that Americans ended up paying for via the bail out... Keating was also good buddies with John McCain, who vouched for Keating and his organization.

And Bush's son, Neal, got a big bailout too.

While women who lack contraceptive services end up in some of the most miserable poverty in America, as well as the rest of the world.

[Odin2005]

71. Wow, I knew she sucked, but I didn't realize she was THAT bad!

She took money from Baby Doc? Good God in Heaven!

[PeaceNikki]

72. I know. There are a lot of stories we didn't hear. Hitch talked about that...

"Many volunteers who went to Calcutta came back abruptly disillusioned by the stern ideology and poverty-loving practice of the "Missionaries of Charity," but they had no audience for their story."

[Flabbergasted]

84. I read the article hoping to get a different perspective on mt...

However I just didn't feel like he made a very good case. Not to say that she didn't perform actions, and have beliefs, that others wouldn't consider immoral in some way, but he really just barely scratches the surface, offering little information that really proves the point. His article has an aire of hopeless cynicism and negativity that I just don't feel was very convincing. He paints her as a charlatan who was in it for the money and fame, and whose purpose was poverty not the alleviation of suffering. I felt like the article is more about hitchen's antithesism then about Mother Theresa's actual life, work, and beliefs.

I am not a fan of mt simply because I know little about her. I took the liberty to include some info...


From wik...

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor". The Missionaries of Charity at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; children's and family counselling programmes; orphanages; and schools.

For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Her beatification by Pope John Paul II following her death gave her the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

She was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India. Her awards include the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Pacem in Terris Award, an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, the Order of Merit from both the United Kingdom and the United States, Albania's Golden Honour of the Nation, honorary degrees, the Balzan Prize, and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize amongst many others.

Mother Teresa stated that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." In her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup's most admired man and woman poll as one of the ten women around the world that Americans admired most. In 1999, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In that survey, she out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young.

[Prometheus Bound]

86. Wow. That was quite a read. Thanks.

[Mariana]

73. Why would any decent man do so?

No one who has a conscience should be supporting this cult.

[PeaceNikki]

76. Good point.

[RainDog]

88. well, yes, of course

my point was that women are actively supporting the repression of other women by their support for this organization...and raising their daughters in this religion.

typically, if someone is part of a group under attack, they're more likely to see those attacks for what they are because of the direct impact. that's what I don't understand about people who continue to support the church after their relentless crusade to oppress women.

if the church was this outspoken against African-Americans, one would think that members of that group would not support them and, I think, most wouldn't.

why don't women act on conscience and leave the church to tell the church it has nothing to offer of worth with this continued mental illness, it seems, in regard to women?

cannot understand it and have no respect for those who continue to support the church.

[Dirty Socialist]

5. Out of Touch

Many priests are out of touch with reality, IMO.

[niyad]

7. WHY are there any women left in this patriarchal, woman-hating organization?

[PeaceNikki]

12. I have no answer here.

It's beyond comprehension.

[MADem]

13. They haven't died yet?

There aren't a lot of nuns around, anymore--they're pretty much required to earn their own way. Not a lot of convents about, these days--they're all condos!

[RainDog]

38. It's not just nuns - it's the women who participate as lay people

They are the ones who keep the seats warm and raise their daughters in this religion.

[MADem]

59. They want to buy their way into heaven.

It's a strong brainwashing, it is.

[richmwill]

9. Reason number... Oh, I've already lost count of reasons why I left the Catholic Church. (n/t)

[MADem]

11. How would he like it if people started punching out priests for giving bad advice?

"Well, gee, he was to blame...he MADE me do it with his teasing, hurtful words!"

Maybe he should hold seminars and teach his male parishoners how to cook and use an iron and a mop, broom and vacuum--then there will be harmony in the home.

What an ass!

Love the way these guys--who do not marry--feel so free to give horrible advice on how to keep a "happy home." They need to stop watching the Leave It To Beaver reruns.

[PeaceNikki]

15. Because that is LADY WORK LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS!!

or something.

[MADem]

29. I thought Catholics didn't read the Bible, though--that's for fundies.

Those liturgical faiths don't have a need to parse words, they "receive" the faith through instruction and, er, osmosis, or something....

[Rex]

14. Nothing like revealing your inner chauvinistic pig

on FB!

Stick a fork in that one!

This is why, while I am not overly religious - do tend to believe in karma.

[Deep13]

16. choosing to remain Catholic = "hitting yourself"

There are other churches. Time to dump the one that hates women most.

[backscatter712]

17. If you're religious, may I suggest this response to misogynistic religious leaders:

[ismnotwasm]

23. Ha! Another one for my collection

If you don't mind. I like to rotate wallpaper. This is a keeper

[PeaceNikki]

26. This speaks to one of the CORE components of nearly all Judeo-Christian religions. Eve tempted Adam

after all.

[aquart]

35. And Adam, like men ever since, admitted no responsibility for his actions.

Small point. ADAM received the order not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There is no record that he ever passed that news to Eve. Or that God included Eve in the restriction. Adam disobeyed. Eve just tried to share something nice instead of being selfish about it.

[KittyWampus]

45. I study the esoteric side of religions. That is, the symbolism involved & universal truths.

Your post is incredibly astute.

You actually made my day.

Funny thing is, I have no idea if you were just trying to be sarcastic. But regardless, I'd love to see an entire discussion on your post.

[aquart]

87. You want symbolism?

Check out the milk pail in early Christian art. It's a pun on Astarte who is portrayed offering her breasts. Ast Artet in Egyptian is "place of milk". I firmly believe no scribe born could ever resist a pun.

Now, the interesting thing about the Garden of Eden is that the Sacred Water, stream, river, whatever seems to have been left out of the story. Also the Sacred Cave. Check your fairy tales, they're all over the place. But Eve's name means "source." So she gets to be both cave and river EXCEPT that fluids of life were frequently one word or close to it in lots of languages so water, blood, and semen...even milk...flowing life, all of them. One dries up, they all dry up. Men could co-opt everything but the milk...and there it is in that lonely little pail...

[Prometheus Bound]

85. She does tell the serpent they are not allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge.

Man's Disobedience
1 Now the serpent Rev. 12.9 ; 20.2 was more subtile than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

http://www.bartleby.com/108/01/3.html

[abelenkpe]

41. Remember my mom telling me we were all sinners because of eve

Think I was around five years old. Stood there waiting for her to say that wasn't true. After a bit I said: "But I haven't done anything wrong yet." She said I was still a sinner. And as a female symbolic of temptation. Never really believed another word she said about religion or most anything else. Spent most of my time at school, or at the library studying my bum off counting the days I could escape to college or adulthood.

Love how this priest says women who work are arrogant, neglectful parents deserving of abuse or death. Too bad we live in a world that pretty much requires both parents work in order to get by. It's economically impossible for modern couples to live up to his fantasy. Not that they should anyway. He's insane and cruel.

[PeaceNikki]

44. "Who believe themselves to be self-sufficient"... fuck that guy.

women being self-sufficient in his eyes is bad. worthy of a bitch-slap.


UGH, this angers me.

[Chorophyll]

43. Excellent. That's a keeper. nt

[uppityperson]

18. Yup, serving a cold meal made me deserve getting my ribs and nose broken.

Next thing you knew I'd quit doing his laundry too. Good grief.

Edited to add this was a long long time ago, before it was acceptable to report such things. Actually the rib thing was when I dared ask why he was late picking me up to go to a party. Turns out he was there with someone else and I embarrassed him. The gall

Am much more uppity now.

[PeaceNikki]

19. :(

sick, sick shit.

[Rex]

20. I was kinda thinking that and saying 'no' inside my head

certainly it is not that brazen? Is it?

[riderinthestorm]

22. Aw dammit.

Hope you are well away (and he's in jail??? a girl can hope....)

[uppityperson]

25. It was a long long time ago, back when it wasn't acceptable to even report it.

It was an education and I've volunteered at women's shelters a lot over the years.

[Deep13]

28. bastard

felony assault

[riderinthestorm]

21. Triple play!! Patriarchal religion, domestic abuse, AND its the woman's fault!

Just grotesque on any level.

[RainDog]

24. And this is dogma for any and all Catholics

even tho they may say they don't believe it personally, anyone who participates in activities by this organization is giving aid and support to one of the most misogynist institutions in the world.

This is a religion that thinks women should die rather than have access to birth control.

That's why it's a gutter religion.

[PeaceNikki]

27. It speaks to one of the CORE components of nearly all Judeo-Christian religions. Eve tempted Adam.

[Rex]

32. My first thought.

All this goes back to just one thing, the Garden of Inequality.

[Le Taz Hot]

78. "The garden of inequality"

THAT is a great line. I'm so stealing that!

[RainDog]

34. Monotheisms are sexist - Islam too

And just about any other religion I can think of off the top of my head.

I would consider it a primary concern if I were the parent of a daughter, to keep her away from such gutter talk about females.

As the mother of sons, I told them lots of cultures had creation myths and the core myths for western culture included a systemic hatred of females as exemplified in their writings and teachings.

So, again, I have to wonder why any liberal female would raise a female child to think she is lesser in the eyes of god just because a bunch of idiotic asshole males told her so.

I don't care how "non-literal" someone takes these writings - they exist as a core - as the foundation for a belief system and as the "excuse" for Jesus on earth.

[MADem]

39. I always thought that story was a bad translation, and the guy (I'm thinking it was a guy) who wrote

it was a boastful little so-and-so, saying Adam tempted Eve with his "Big Snake." But hey, she'd have to be a wanton hussy in that case, wouldn't she?

There's definitely a power struggle going on in terms of sexual politics--the fundy fellahs do want to control the women when it comes to not just reproduction, but opportunities and freedom. That's why so many fundamentalist religious practices feel a need to lock the women up, keep 'em covered and in their place, and in the kitchen, barefoot, pregnant and up to their elbows in dishwater...apparently, way too many fellers think their little serpents are completely irresistible!

It's not just Judeo-Xtian philosophy; conservative Islam has the same vibe working (they're all coming from an Abrahamic POV, after all). A common theme that runs through fundamentalist thinking in Islam is that women are temptresses, and that men are "not responsible" if they see a woman, because the women have "powers" that render a man helpless...ergo, if a guy rapes a female person, it's not his fault, because she did something wrong (was out alone, didn't wear her chador/chaderi/burqua properly, said something "provocative" or wore tempting perfume) and was, in essence "asking for it." She "made him crazy" and therefore, she's to blame and he's not at fault--that's pretty much how it works. That's the rule in fundamentalist Islam, too--not the exception.

[RainDog]

50. The entire canon of western lit is grounded in sexism

Milton, who gains high praise for his respect for freedom from religious coercion, spends far too much time heaping scorn on females in Paradise Lost.

But the misogyny goes beyond current religions.

Greek society was extremely sexist as well. It was also a society that could justify slavery while expounding democracy.

We still see vestiges of this pro-slavery mentality in unregulated capitalism. We still see sexism in democracy in the application of law.

Native American nations in the northeast had the great treaty of peace long before any white person on these shores gave a thought to democracy. Their constitution was influential on the thinking of the founders - Franklin and others knew of the Great Treaty. However, Native American applications of democracy were left out of mention when teaching about the founders because those Iroquois and other nations had roles for females in governance - something that was anathema to the "civilized" Europeans who got their god from among the many women-hating groups in the middle east.

It took western Europe centuries to recover from the turn toward christianity with the conversion of Constantine. This has been termed "the closing of the western mind" with the turn from logic and demand for proof and the right to question authority that was part of the Greek system of philosophy.

Of course, the Greeks were sexist too, so even reasoning isn't enough to overcome fear of cuckholding and property rights.

[MADem]

53. It's not just western lit, either.

Female persons have been treated as property in many cultures down the years. Female infants, before the days of ultrasounds and abortions, always had a higher mortality rate than males, and not simply due to poorer health.

[Initech]

56. Ding ding ding ding ding!!!! The trifecta of evil!

[Warpy]

80. When god has a dick and men were made in his image and likeness

it's only natural that the whole rotten edifice considers women to be less than human.

And they wonder why I stomped off in sheer disgust at the ripe old age of ten.

[surrealAmerican]

31. I'm so conflicted about this.

On the one hand, it's a good argument for allowing priests to marry, because you could end up with priests who understand marriage better than this "Father" does.
On the other hand, it is definitely a good thing that Father Piero Corsi never married.

[RainDog]

40. This sort of religion belongs on the trash heap of history

and the sooner the better.

[MADem]

42. That guy could probably list himself on Match.Com, E-Harmony and Xtian Mingle and never get a bite!

Unless it was a "Bite my ass" invitation!

[Chorophyll]

46. I'm always gratified when some schmuck actually says this stuff out loud.

Because you know he's not the only one thinking it. And while Catholicism is an enormous patriarchal institution, you don't have to be religious to be a dick.

[justabob]

47. "look what you made me do!!"

That is always a winner.

[OldDem2012]

49. This coming from a group who supported and protected Nazis during WWII, and....

...has preyed on choirboys for who knows how long?

Is anyone really surprised that a Catholic priest would also spew such garbage about women?

[malaise]

51. The truth is that most religions hate women

and I mean hate

[RainDog]

52. It's all about control

and, in recent and past history, many women collude with those men in power to harm women... "For their own good."

[malaise]

54. That's the sad truth

Not me - I avoid every religion on the planet - I have no gawds.

[meow2u3]

64. The truth is that most MEN IN POWER hate women

Religion or no religion, men with too much power and too little responsibility abuse women because they can. Just look at the rethugs, especially the teahadists and you'll see what I mean.

[MissMillie]

55. "they believe themselves to be self-sufficient"

would that the men he's letting off the hook were self-sufficient enough to make their own meals and wash their own clothes

[UnrepentantLiberal]

57. Do I even need to ask if this priest will be punished for this?

[RainDog]

61. he decided to take a vaca after this

no doubt with encouragement from the PR hacks at the Vatican.

But, no doubt, this guy represents the misogyny that is at the heart of Catholic policies toward women in regard to birth control.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

63. I'm sure the church will do the responsible thing and move him to another city.

That'll teach him.

[PeaceNikki]

65. by whom? The church clearly has issues with women...

[UnrepentantLiberal]

66. That probably earned him a promotion.

[PeaceNikki]

68. no shit.

[AngryOldDem]

58. Damn them uppity wimmin!

And isn't it amazing that celebate men are all the experts about women????

(Sharing this with my college-age daughter, who is minoring in women's studies.)

[niyad]

62. all three of the abrahamic religions are incredibly sexist and woman-hating.

as I take pains to point out to fundies (and, living here in fundieville, there are a LOT) the bible, and in particular, the genesis nonsense, is basically the first truly powerful piece of political propoganda.

the whole point of genesis two is to wipe out the indigenous goddess beliefs--the serpent being one of Her most powerful symbols, as well as Her tree (which is why the old testament was always yammering about ashtoreth, (or however spelled in whichever version is being read).

"When God Was A Woman" by Merlin Stone is a very accessible history of how the patriarchy came to be. If you weren't mad before, you will be after reading this.

[PeaceNikki]

67. Thanks, I will check it out.

I grew up in a very conservative sector of Lutheranism. I attended parochial school K-8. We left the church after I graduated 8th grade... mostly because of the massive amount of classism, racism and misogyny.

[Le Taz Hot]

79. I just looked up this title

at our pubic library's website. It's not listed. Wouldn't you know it? It sounds like a fascinating read. I've written down the title so whenever I can find a couple of nickels to rub together I'll order it. Thanks for the tip.

[niyad]

81. if your library is part of the interlibrary loan program, they should be able to find it for you

(I get things from all around the country through ILL, and it is a free program of the public library system)

and, I just checked with amazon--there is a used copy for a penny, and a new one for 5.61.

that, and "the great cosmic mother: rediscovering the religion of the earth" by monica sjoo and barbara mor--must reading!

[Odin2005]

69. Go home, Catholic Church, you're drunk.

[DirkGently]

70. Borat-esque, if Borat was a completely serious idiot priest.

[malz]

74. What was Father Corsi wearing when he posted that?

The mind boggles!

[PeaceNikki]

75. a cloak of misogyny.

[malz]

77. Ah, yes, a Good Christian

Regardless of denomination, they ALL make me wanna

[niyad]

82. will be calling the archbishop of this diocese (a total twit) tomorrow to express my views

on this woman-hating jerk of a priest. won't do any good, of course, but will amuse me.

[lunatica]

89. He should just

go fuck himself.

That is all.