Mary KennyThe structure of the Church mirrors the world
The American Cardinal Raymond Burke – always described as ‘conservative’ (nowadays a damning adjective in itself) – has said in an interview that the Catholic Church has become “too feminised”. He told The New Emangelisation (online blog) that pressure from “radical feminism” for more female participation in the Church had diminished the “goodness and importance of men”.
He grumbled that “the sanctuary has become full of women…the activities in the parish and even the liturgy have been influenced by women and become so feminine in many places that men do not want to get involved. Men are often reluctant to become active in the Church.”he American Cardinal Raymond Burke – always described as ‘conservative’ (nowadays a damning adjective in itself) – has said in an interview that the Catholic Church has become “too feminised”. He told The New Emangelisation (online blog) that pressure from “radical feminism” for more female participation in the Church had diminished the “goodness and importance of men”.
You do wonder about Cardinal Burke’s sense of history; does he not appreciate the fact that, since the dawn of Christianity – from the Resurrection itself – women have always been active in the Church? Women were early martyrs and often the earliest converts.
Imperial Rome feared, justifiably, that the Roman matrons were secretly converting to Christianity, leading the whole family in that direction. And so it has been down the ages. In modern times, any missionary evangelist will tell him that in many undeveloped countries, women are the first converts. And it’s altogether right that women should be involved in the structures of the Church.
Yet in one detail, Cardinal Burke has a point, which is amply brought out in many studies and actively acted upon by market capitalism too: if any activity or even profession is seen as ‘too girly’, boys are reluctant join in. Call it social conditioning, or call it nature, but it ain’t going to change any time soon.
Just visit an airport newsagent and bookshop and observe the way that paperback mass-market books are sold differently to men and women – pink, girly covers for ‘chick-lit’, tough, weaponised jackets for the chaps.
That’s not a ‘conservative’ cardinal’s doing: it’s the marketing directors of corporations who know that most males will not buy books that look feminine. Some men won’t even read a newspaper article written by a woman – they feel it’s ‘beneath them’.
J.K. Rowling was told that boys would never pick up her Harry Potter books if they were authored by someone called Joanne. And so the authorial name of J.K. Rowling was born. The neuter, even masculine-sounding moniker brought in boy readers by the millions.
The structure of the Church mirrors the world, and it’s possible that if Catholicism and Christianity are seen as ‘too girly’, it could discourage men. That’s why it should be seen as balanced.
Repercussions of marriage break-up
It’s 20 years since Ireland voted – by a whisker – for divorce legislation, in what is sometimes described as ‘a bitter debate’.
I don’t (and didn’t) see anything ‘bitter’ about discussing the dissolution of a contract which, over the centuries, has been endorsed by both Church and State, and was traditionally regarded by all Christians as a sacrament. I think it’s healthy to have a national conversation about our values, and the Catholic Church – or any other faith group – is entitled to uphold its own values in this public conversation.
100,000 people have been divorced since 1995, and I daresay there will have been 100,000 different outcomes.
Some individuals will be relieved to have made a full break from, perhaps, an abusive spouse and will have found new partners: some, like the actor Jack Nicholson (pictured), will be bewailing the loneliness of their old age. (When ‘Jack the Lad’ complained of his lonesomeness recently, he was smartly told that you reap as you sow by the feminist press: if he had married and stuck with one of the wonderful women in his life – Angelica Huston writes in her autobiography that she suggested marriage and he replied ‘Are you kidding?’ – he wouldn’t be a crabby old singleton now!)
Yet the unforeseen victims of divorce are often grandparents who have lost touch with beloved grandchildren because the custodial parent, after a divorce, can withhold contact.
In Britain, Sir Paul Coleridge, a retired High Court judge has set up a foundation to try to save and promote committed marriage because he’s observed so much distress among children amid family break-up, which can mean the loss of the extended family.
Life without salt
I am relieved to be informed that older people are now allowed to eat salt without worrying about its effect on their health.
A study by Dr Andreas Kalogeropoulos of Emory University in Atlanta has found that “eating too much salt” does not pose a risk of death among those over 70.
My own hunch is that salt doesn’t pose much of a risk of death to those under 70 either.
The Bible refers to something valued as “the salt of the earth”, and life without salt on a boiled egg is the poorer indeed.