feminine-genius

I'm stunned

It would seem that the Church is turning a corner, but I'm not at all sure where the new road leads.

THE Catholic Church will give greater leadership and ministry roles to women on the proviso they take a vow of celibacy.

Bishop David Walker, from the Diocese of Broken Bay, has created the scheme, which stops short of ordaining women.

When it is launched next year, it will create a new vocation in which women will take a vow of celibacy and be consecrated ministers to help in the pastoral care mission within the diocese.

While the scheme will also be open to men, the emphasis will be on formally recognising women in greater ministry roles within the diocese.

Bishop Walker emphasised that the move was not a precursor to the ordination of women as deacons or priests. "This is a legitimate way of women entering in a full-time way into the Church," Bishop Walker said.

This has got to be a strictly local initiative, just for this Australian diocese. I cannot imagine what the thinking behind it is, because it only leads to confusion. It is a surrender to the notion that "bureacracy = Church" or some such. It also says, by default, that until now women haven't been taken seriously or been full-fledged members of the Church -- also nonsense. Not only have women always been taken seriously, they have been the paradigm for the very institution that is called to mother us.

Even the title of the article, "New Role ... With a Catch" implies that the total gift of self is a negative thing, or a trick. Of course, we cannot judge an initiative strictly by the nature of its supporters, but I also find this worrysome:

Bernice Moore, NSW convenor of Women and the Australian Catholic Church, an organisation that agitates for greater inclusiveness in the Church, said she welcomed the scheme.

"I see this whole proposal as positive action to include women in the life and leadership of the Catholic community," she said. "The path is made by walking and this is definitely a step on the path of being a more inclusive church and to using the gifts of all of us."

Maree Kennedy, a member of WATAC, said she saw this as a step in the right direction. "But I think it's a very slow step in something that needs to be moving a bit faster," the mother-of-two said.

I've always thought that the "gifts" some folks find rejected by the Church were not welcome for a reason -- perhaps because they conflicted with the mission of the Church, or contradicted Catholic theology. Authentic femininity has always been welcome in the Church I joined, and it doesn't need a title or a stipend to give it legitimacy.

Poor Bishop Walker may be priming himself for an enormous headache -- this is one experiment I think we could have all done without.

Fathers to the Rescue

I'm delighted that this has happened. Another raunchy product proposed, another intervention on behalf of kids, but this time, it was the dads!!

Plans for a line of dolls based on pop group "The Pussycat Dolls" have been shelved after a successful protest campaign by Dads & Daughters.  The Pussycat Dolls is a six woman music group that performs highly eroticized dance routines and songs and helped launch a sexual cabaret show in Los Angeles. Despite lyrical content like "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?" toy maker Hasbro planned on launching a line that would be marketed to girls as young as six.

On Wednesday, Hasbro said it decided the dolls were "inappropriate" for the company to market and that the pop group catered to a more mature audience.

Joe Kelly, president of Dads & Daughters responded, "We asked Hasbro executives to imagine encouraging their own six-year-old daughters and granddaughters to engage in developmentally unhealthy behavior.  It appears that they did that, and then made the right decision for their families, our families, and the company."

Information on this Dads and Daughters group here. Perhaps a good Father's Day present for the man in your daughters' lives.

(Hat tip to Parent'sTV.org, an excellent resource!)

Important petition

John Mallon has brought this urgent petition to my attention, and we cannot let this opportunity go by without acting on behalf of our sisters who will suffer here.

To prepare for the World Cup, Austin Ruse notes:

The Germans have already built a mega brothel in Berlin, right next to the main World Cup venue to accommodate 650 male clients. Wooden "sex huts" called "performance boxes" that look like toilets have been built in fenced-in areas the size of a football field, with condoms, showers and parking for the buyers and a special focus on protecting their "anonymity."

Who will staff these huts?

With official support from the German government, up to 40,000 young women will be "imported" from Central and Eastern Europe into Germany to "sexually service" the men.

These women come from desperately poor circumstances. According to reports, most will not speak German. Most are being "sex trafficked" against their wills.  They are told that they are going to be models, waitresses, or some other harmless occupation.  Many will be brutally assaulted by intoxicated fans.

Whatever their circumstances, each and every one of these young women is someone's daughter, a child of God and deserves our protection! They DO NOT DESERVE to be exploited and sentenced to a life of misery to satisfy the sexual appetites of soccer fans.

Please join your prayers and your signature to this effort to stop this travesty.

Congratulations Sister Misericordia

Bishop Robert Finn welcomed to his diocese of Kansas City the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, a monastic community of fourteen women who have relocated from Pennsylvania.

During Mass, Bishop Finn blessed the convent chapel, read a decree erecting the Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus, and appointed Sister Therese McNamara as prioress.

They explained the invitation and their vocation in this way:

"We are a monastic community following the rule of St. Benedict, with a special call to pray, sacrifice for, and encourage priests in their apostolate," Mother Therese said. "Bishop Finn has invited us to be to the priests of our diocese what our Blessed Mother was in the early days of the church to the Apostles, (to provide) behind-the-scenes assistance and support.

"We are most happy and blessed to be called to help our bishop in this way and help the priests work for the sanctification and salvation of all those souls in their care," she said.

Lovely and faithful handmaids. True humility -- how lovely. There was also a new clothing over which he presided:

When Communion was finished, Bishop Finn presided over ceremonies clothing Sister Greta with the habit of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Sister Greta, the novice-to-be, dressed as a bride, approached the altar, accompanied by two older sisters.

In Latin, Bishop Finn said, "Quid petis?" (What do you ask?)

She responded, "Misericordiam Dei et habitum sanctae conversationis." (The Mercy of God and the habit of holy conversion.)

Following prayer, Sister Greta's wedding veil was removed and the bishop cut her hair.

After she changed from her wedding gown to her tunic, Bishop Finn presented Sr. Greta with her cincture, her scapular (the monastic garment that rests on the shoulders), her veil and a candle.

Sister Greta became Sister Misericordia, Latin for "mercy." Her smile at that moment was brighter than any ray of sunshine.

Bishop Finn then blessed Sister Misericordia. The newly-named prioress already knew her order had been blessed. "We have very much for which to be thankful," she said.

Deo gratias, indeed!

Love, not Domination

Mark Shea has done a marvelous job in explaining the "hard teaching" of Saint Paul, namely the meaning of submission within marriage.

If Paul is not simply assuming Man is superior to Woman, what is he up to? The Church believes he is trying to teach the world about a radically different order of relationships. For Paul makes it quite clear that his view of Man and Woman is rooted, not in contemporary notions of the inferiority of Woman, but in eternal truths about the mutual, self-giving love of the Trinity and God's self-sacrificial love for His Church. As the Church believes the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are absolutely equal in divine dignity, so she believes that Man and Woman are absolutely equal in human dignity. As the Church distinguishes the Persons as God, so she distinguishes the persons in a human family. And as the Church proclaims the self-offering of Christ Crucified for His Bride, so she exhorts husbands and wives to enter into that life of mutual self-offering. In short, the Church's understanding of marriage is rooted in the life of the Trinity and in the relationship of Christ to His Church.

As with any portion of our daily lives, understanding the supernatural underpinnings and deeper meaning to such arrangements should give us pause -- and peace! All to be discussed in soon-to-be-released-book, though I'm not sure I've done it as beautifully as Mark. Bully for him. He's nailed the essence of the dignity of marriage.

Attention reviewers

Anyone with a desire to write a review of The Authentic Catholic Woman (or the title as my five-year-old interpreted it last night: "The Athletic Catholic Woman") please email me. Kindly send your name, mailing address, and periodical/audience for which you could write a review and a book will be sent poste haste. Gracias!

"Proud of her daughter"

Choice. It is enshrined as sacred, and an 11 year old in Britain has made many:

A girl is to become Britain's youngest mother after becoming pregnant at 11.

The girl smokes 20 cigarettes a day despite being eight months' pregnant. She conceived aged 11 when she lost her virginity to a boy of 15 on a drunken night out with friends.

The girl, who has shoulder-length dark hair, began smoking at nine and started drinking tonic wine and vodka cocktails at ten. She claimed her cigarette habit was not harming the health of her unborn child.

She said: "I can give up smoking at any time, but I don't find it affects my pregnancy."

Her mother's proud of her, and will raise the child along with her own. The child-mother has some mixed feelings about the upcoming responsibilities:

She told the Sun: "I didn't think I'd get pregnant because it was my first time. But I'm really excited and looking forward to being a mum.

"I can't wait to take the baby swimming and out for walks in the pram. I think I'll be able to cope as I've had lots of practice looking after my brothers.

"I know how to feed a baby its bottle and I can change nappies. But I panic and cry if they're sick and I don't like giving them a bath because I'm a bit frightened.

Yes, terrifying. This girl could use some guidance, and maybe someone over 21 could make responsible decisions.

Darn those genes!

This man and his son reveal a deeply buried gene that cannot be eradicated.

Johnny, our 14-year-old, switched on the television on bank holiday Monday, hoping for his daily fix of news and views about the Premiership. To his horror, he saw that, instead of discussing Middlesbrough's chances against Manchester United that afternoon, or Liverpool's in this weekend's big match against West Ham, BBC1 was showing the Women's FA cup final at Millwall.

He looked at his watch, and then at the women footballers on the screen, and exclaimed in disgust: "But it's one o'clock! Shouldn't they be cooking lunch?"

I suppose that I shouldn't have laughed. It only encourages the boy, who has fancied himself for as long as I can remember as a politically incorrect stand-up comic, the Bernard Manning of West Norwood. I don't know where he gets it from, I really don't. He has attended thoroughly PC state schools since he was three, having it drummed into him that any sort of discrimination against other people on grounds of sex, race, religion or sexual orientation is a far more grievous sin than, say, failing to produce his maths homework.

Now relax. He clarifies thoroughly that women are not born simply to cook, but he admits that he's delighted when women want to nurture their babies.

My only explanation is that every schoolboy in the country has a gene, buried deep in his DNA, which tells him that it is the natural order of things for a mother to take charge of looking after the children, and for a man to play football and bring home the bacon. When the Government tries to indoctrinate young boys, by telling them that there is absolutely no difference between the functions of fathers and mothers, it is legislating against human nature - a totally futile exercise.

That must sound like a sexist thing to say. But my defence is that a lot of women have exactly the same gene. Certainly, my wife has. When we started to breed 20 years ago, she gave up her career as a top-flight secretary and PA - not because she had to, but because she really wanted to. I didn't have the slightest inclination to stay at home, looking after our young (much as I love the Bernard Manning of West Norwood and his three brothers).

She had that inclination, and I count it one of the greatest blessings of our lives - hers, mine and our sons' - that I earned just enough on my own to be able to afford it (with a lot of help from the building society, and from the rising value of our house).

My wife is far from alone among women in having that child-rearing gene, as a great many surveys have shown. It is a fact that more than half of mothers of pre-school children say, when they are asked by the pollsters, that they have no desire to go out to work. They want to stay at home with their babies and toddlers. It is also true that children brought up by stay-at-home mothers tend to be happier than those who are farmed out to child-minders. (I am not saying that they are always happier, but only that they tend to be.)

The occasion of his essay is the request by a government minister that English mothers on the dole get off their duffs and find a job, which will reduce the number of children living in poverty. While this author defends the inclination of mothers to stay with their babies, he misses the obvious point: where are the fathers of these children? Lazy women don't create poverty, but father-absent homes leave them in dire straits. Sadly, women (and their children) are caught in the crossfire when their poor choices end up isolating them from the protective layer of manhood.

I applaud this man's support of women; now his next installment should provide a kick in the shorts to his brothers-at-arms.