Patricia GarryFri, December 31, 2021, 12:35 AM
It has been clear for quite a while, but it really crystallized for me when the Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced that in this big archdiocese, reaching way up into northern Ohio, the church is consolidating down from parishes to families of parishes, called Beacons of Light. There have been several big Enquirer stories about this.
And, of course, they did it the way the church has always done everything – by fiat, by announcement, telling folks about how wonderful it will be. “They” even exclaimed piously that it is the shortage of priests bringing about this shrinkage.
What is really bringing about this drastic change is quite simple – it is the Catholic Church’s misogyny; its hatred and fear of women – that has created this need. (The other side of that story is that fewer and fewer men want to be priests, even with all the perks that come with the “job.”)
Even though women have served the church and kept it going for years – always as an underclass, as maidservants, propping up the men who are very busy with aimless and unneeded administrative tasks – the church will not admit women’s equality, that women and men are equal. It is women who do and have done the work of this rich church.
Historically, Christ was not afraid of women. He had women friends, women supporters, women he consoled and woman who consoled him. There were women among the Apostles, especially Mary Magdalene. There were women bishops in the early centuries of the church. Lots of this information is available, but not widely known.
Christ did not cut off half of those working to grow the church in the early days and neither did the early church leaders, many of whom were women. Celibacy was not mandated by the church until the 12th century – and that was because the sons of priests wanted their inheritances, and threatened the growing financial and political power of the European church in the middle ages. And the popes needed their money to build those enormous edifices across that continent, and to support their often decadent lifestyles. Many were as wealthy and as powerful as kings. (The Knights Templar were destroyed because their wealth was coveted by those kings and popes.)
When parishes become parish groups/families – Beacons of Light – there will be no light. Women and their families will lose even more of the community and spirituality they want from their churches. And will have even less reason to support the institution that no longer supports them in any meaningful way.
To me, it is as though the Catholic Church has realized that it is in trouble, and has joined the fight to destroy itself. Foolishness, man-splaining are everywhere.
All because of their fear of emasculation (at the deepest level), fear of losing political and religious power (at the median level), and simple fear of losing status as important men in the community.
Where is God in all this? Nowhere to be found.
Patricia Garry is a Walnut Hills resident. She was raised Irish Catholic in St. Raphael’s Parish in Springfield, Ohio in the 1940s.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Catholic church would rather die than accept women as equals
