Is the Roman Catholic Church downsizing into a sect?

[meow2u3]

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/roman-catholic-church-downsizing-sect

Much has been made in recent months about an ad placed in The New York Times urging liberal and nominal Catholics to "quit the church" because it can never be changed from within, and to participate in it is to cooperate with its oppressive system.

The ad was paid for by an organization called the Freedom from Religion Foundation. But the more I reflect on both the ad and the behavior of our hierarchy lately, there is part of me that wouldn't be surprised if we learned that the Vatican itself had secretly paid for the advertisement.

With its attacks on same-sex marriage, battle against providing adequate health care for women, hostile takeover of LCWR and inquisition into the Girl Scouts, the hierarchy continues to make itself an embarrassing media spectacle in a society that long ago refused to accept the teaching on birth control, believes in women's equality and increasingly supports same-sex marriage.

Even those who are not affected directly by these ideological battles find it odious that hierarchy is choosing to spend precious money and resources on lawsuits against the Obama administration and bizarre new campaigns like the Fortnight for Freedom.

Church leaders seem hell-bent on disenfranchising the greatest number of laity possible.

The question is, Why? Why is the hierarchy acting like the new boss who so wants to rid himself of the staff he inherited, he makes it as uncomfortable as possible for them to stay in the organization? Has the church leadership made a decision to downsize? Have they realized that the $2.2 billion in sex abuse settlements and the rapidly dwindling number of priests in the United States has rendered the church unable to provide for the needs of 72 million Catholics?

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B16 needs to be reminded that those who use ideology and doctrine as a weapon to lock Catholics out of Christ's Church will never get to see Christ (Catholic point of view is mine).

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/hildegard-bingen-no-ordinary-saint
In a sense, St. Hildegard of Bingen could be considered a 12th-centry combination of Joan Chittister, Hilary Clinton and Joan Baez.

Late in life, she did run afoul of church authority. A man who had been excommunicated for involvement in revolutionary activity died, and she gave permission for his burial in the abbey cemetery. With the local bishop absent, the canons of the church demanded Hildegard exhume the body from consecrated ground. She refused, claiming she knew the man's sins had been forgiven. So the canons authorized civil authorities to dig up the body. On the evening before their arrival, Hildegard, vested in her attire as abbess, went to the grave, blessed it, and then, with the help of her nuns, removed all the cemetery markers and stones, so the plot of the excommunicated man could not be identified. The irate canons placed the abbey under interdict; Mass, sacraments and the singing of the divine office were forbidden on its premises. Still, she would not yield. Church authorities finally lifted the interdict after Hildegard reminded them that those who prevent God's praises in this life will, in their own afterlife, go to "the place of no music."

[hedgehog]

1. Yet, if you go to the Right wing blogs, they attempt to

hold up Hildegarde as a supporter of the Powers that Be! She was a 12th century person, but somehow because she wasn't even thinking of female priests, she's a conservative!



She also founded a women's abbey separated from any link to a men's abbey!

[meow2u3]

3. Right-wing blogs ALWAYS spin the saints as conservative

Right wingers can't imagine anyone in heaven who isn't conservative.

They also think "orthodox" means marching in lockstep with people in authority, right or wrong.

[hedgehog]

2. On a very serious note, we're in for a bumpy ride as the hierarchy

bumps up against its limitations. Let's all remember to treat each other with charity here.