The Vatican and Women: Are We Pushing Back?

RedTracker| Maureen Dowd’s column The Nuns’ Story, is winning praise and criticism today.

We wrote last July about the investigation into American nuns by the Vatican: A ‘Beyond the Veil’ Look at American Nuns Launched By Vatican. Dowd takes up this’inquisition’ and also the patriarchal mentality of Pope Benedict.

Nuns who took Vatican II as a mandate for reimagining their mission “started to look uppity to an awful lot of bishops and priests and, of course, the Vatican,” said Kenneth Briggs, the author of “Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betrayal of American Nuns.”

Maureen reminds us that Pope Benedict wrote a document as Cardinal, urging women to be submissive partners, resisting any adversarial roles with men and cultivating “feminine values” like “listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting.”

I have an extensive comment posted on the article. Alas, I slept on my “send” button for a long time on my long comment am nowhere near the beginning. Presently, my post is on page 5 in Recommended.

The more I reflect on religion and international women’s poverty and submission, I cannot ignore the fact that patriarchal religious values might be holding women back as much as trying to help them forward. Thie is a complex issue. Anne