NYT Trumpets Female Catholic 'Priests' For Second Week In a Row; HuffPo Fumbles
For the second week in a row, the New York Times has embraced the mission of trumpeting the fruitless cause of female "priests" in the Catholic Church. What gives?
As faulty as Laurie Goodstein's article was last week, the offering from Dirk Johnson (Sun., 7/31/11) doesn't fare much better. Johnson's one-sided piece omits a number of important facts in reporting the issue.
Johnson's article is essentially a positive profile of a dissident, Chicago-based group named Call to Action (CTA). In the name of "reform," for the last several years CTA has been attempting to push the cause for female "priests" in the Catholic Church. It has forcefully supported a schismatic priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, from the Maryknoll Order, who has openly opposed Church teaching and supported female "priests."
Johnson's article leaves out a number of important facts:
1. In reporting the dissident Fr. Bourgeois' conflicts with Church authorities, Johnson makes no mention of the fact that the priest was reportedly excommunicated from the Catholic Church on November 24, 2008. (Goodstein made a similar mistake last week.)
2. Johnson makes no attempt to explain that Holy Orders, by which men are ordained to the priesthood, is a sacrament in the Catholic Church. This is an important distinction. Most Protestant denominations and other "churches" don't recognize this. The Catholic Church affirms that sacraments were instituted by Jesus Himself, and the Church simply "has no authority whatsoever" to change the nature of something that Jesus established. (See Pope John Paul II's 1994 "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.")
As with Goodstein a week earlier, Johnson attempts to portray Call to Action and the movement for "womenpriests" as being much larger and influential than it is. As we relayed last week, the "womenpriest" movement is a contingent that is small, geriatric, and schismatic.
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As slanted as Johnson's profile is, an ugly piece on the same issue by Michele Somerville at Huffington Post may be even worse. While committing many of the same mistakes as the NYT's Goodstein and Johnson, Somerville actually characterizes the Pope and those who surround him as a "gang of mean, power-drunk perverts who aren't all that interested in God." Wow ...
Somerville then goes on to falsely claim that the impossibility of female ordination in the Catholic Church is "arbitrary and flimsy, it's a variation on 'because we said so.'"
In claiming that the all-male priesthood "is a man-made 'law'," Somerville illustrates perfectly that one can write for HuffPostReligion without actually knowing much about religion.
Interestingly, Ms. Somerville identifies herself as a poet.
Amen to that.
-- Dave Pierre is the author of the book, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church. Dave is also the creator of TheMediaReport.com and is a contributing writer to NewsBusters.
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Comments
Why not have priestesses with burquas?
Submitted by deadeyedan on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 12:48am.
If that was the case, Islam could have female clerics as well.
Liberalism - government of the people by the theories and for the ideologists - deadeyedan
Why not have blonde-haired,
Submitted by Mazzi on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 7:50am.
Why not have blonde-haired, blue eyed, female, former porn stars as Imams in Islam? If these morons are going to demand changes to the administration of a VOLUNTARY organization like a church, then they need to stop being hypocrites and go after all of them, equally.
Alternatively, they are free to create their own church, with women, gays and idiots as the power-holders. That is what freedom of religion stands for. Instead they want to take away MY freedom to worship at a church that doesn't meet THEIR expectations.
That is so incredibly ignorant. My daughter could have seen the logic holes in that - at age SIX!
Hey!
Submitted by GW on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 10:15am.
"with women, gays and idiots as the power-holders"
Hey! Quit picking on the DNC!
I'm waiting to the New York
Submitted by Thoreau on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 4:10am.
I'm waiting to the New York Slimes to write the same article about Islam. But they won't, because muslims will stab them to death while they're picking up their pastrami on rye and laugh while doing it.
They won't because they are
Submitted by Soldat44 on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 7:39am.
They won't because they are cowards who hide behind their desks.
They are hiding behind Jill Abramson's skirt.
Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 8:53am.
!
Hear, hear!!
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 4:18am.
It's time for male lesbians to stand up against the discrimination that the current White House has against them. We need more male lesbians in positions of power and in civil service in order to show how great our country truly is.
Male Lesbians need to become Imams.
Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 8:56am.
Get behind that NYTs.
As long as were on the subject..........
Submitted by Qtaug on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 6:27am.
Ms. Goodstein, how about "Barbecue for Peace"? Let the Jews and Muslims sit down for an old fashioned pork barbecue picnic to work out the Middle East problem? Lets not let the Bible or the Koran get in the way anymore!
PORK FOR WORLD PEACE!
Wishful thinking
Submitted by LaVallette on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 6:36am.
Roma Locuta Causa Finita!!
One thing the Catholic Church is not: i.e. suicidal. Just look at all the other denominations that have female ministers. Those denominations have basically become "small, geriatric, women's business" dying institutions, which have ditched the Christian Agenda for the current progressive social fads!.Even the concept of sin and conversion has been redefined to "do what you will and if it feels good its OK!! And the church will affirm you in that OKness."
It is the refusal of the Catholic Church to join in this new theology that has made it the enemy of every progressive modernist individual and organization and MSM.
a "gang of mean, power-drunk
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 7:15am.
a "gang of mean, power-drunk perverts who aren't all that interested in God."
Further proof that liberals can't simply argue the matter at hand; they have to viciously attack and insult their opponent too.
one can write for HuffPostReligion without actually knowing much about religion.
In fact, that's a PLUS!
The religious authorities
Submitted by dr-go on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 9:48am.
at the NYT and the Huffy Post? A laughable concept indeed. Again and again their lazy daze homework produces yet more written foolishness. Why one even bothers to read this delirious mumbo jumbo is beyond my ability to reason and well above my pay grade.
The religious authorities
Submitted by dr-go on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 9:48am.
at the NYT and the Huffy Post? A laughable concept indeed. Again and again their lazy daze homework produces yet more written foolishness. Why one even bothers to read this delirious mumbo jumbo is beyond my ability to reason and well above my pay grade.
It's never just about women priests.
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 10:17am.
Call to Action also advocates gay and lesbian priests, same-sex marriage, and welcoming back into the sacramental life of the Church divorced Catholics who have remarried.
IOW, they want a liberal, politically correct RCC.