From the AP this morning...


VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican assailed radical feminism for what it views as efforts to erase differences between men and women, warning in a document released Saturday that the movement threatens the traditional family based on a mother and a father.
Such a push for equality, the Vatican said, makes "homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality."

Er, uh... "radical feminism"...?

Everybody settle in, get a drink, whatever, this may be a bit long.

Was it radical feminism when ancient women got together to help each other take care of their kids and stuff when the men were out wandering around chasing down the meat? Was it radical feminism that left the women of this country to go into the factories during World War Two, to fend for themselves while their husbands were off at war, to keep the industrial and war production of the country on its feet so the GIs would have bullets to shoot, etc. etc.? It wasn't radical feminism that dictated that, it was neccessity. Women have always been independent. We had to be. In the past, the lives of our children depended on us and we had to do what was neccessary if for whatever reason our men were not there. In the last few decades we've been given the means to live for ourselves and to realize that not only can we be equal, we already are. But of course as usual the Catholic church is a couple thousand years behind the curve.

Let's move on...

The warning came in a 37-page document addressed to bishops on the role of women in the church, the latest salvo in a Vatican campaign to protect what it calls the Christian family. It has previously denounced same-sex marriages and called on politicians of all religions to block their legal recognition.

Yadda yadda yadda. What I want to know is which are they scared of more, men being gay or women being gay? Because I hope they realize that without having gays in the priesthood they probably wouldn't have a priesthood. They may deny it five ways from Sunday but the fact is there are gays in the Catholic priesthood -- closetted, probably, but a lot of guys go into the priesthood hoping to avoid the entire issue or to try to "cure" themselves. Given the historical repression of female sexuality throughout the tenure of the Catholic church, I'd bet they're more scared of lesbians. Heck, if those silly females suddenly realize they don't need men to keep them happy then that means -- gasp! shudder! -- no more sex for men! PANIC!

Er, uh... not all families in this world are Christian. Meaning we don't have to play by your rules anyway.

Idiots.

Drawn up by the Vatican's orthodoxy chief Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and approved by Pope John Paul II, the document reiterates the Roman Catholic Church's prohibition on women becoming priests but said this in no way hampers a woman's access "to the heart of Christian life."

Er, uh... Okay, so women can't become ordained. I'm sorry, but that seems to me to mean that women are not given full access to every aspect of the Catholic faith. Given the increasing thinness of the ranks of the priesthood, they'd better change their minds or pretty soon they're going to have major problems. But hey, what do I know, right? I'm one of those stupid women.

Again, idiots.

Reflecting John Paul's positions during his 25-year papacy, the document said women should not be stigmatized or penalized financially for wanting to be housewives. "Indeed, a just valuing of the work of women within the family is required."

We have a saying along these lines here in the South -- "Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen." And you people blame women for looking elsewhere?! The truth is and every shall be that men will not respect a woman who stays at home. If we want any respect and consideration we have to beat the guys at their own game. If that means conducting two or three live's work simultaneously, then that's what we do. It's beneath the dignity of a man to take care of his children. They have more important things to do, don't they?

But it also said that women who choose to work should be granted an appropriate work schedule and "not have to choose between relinquishing their family life or enduring continual stress."

Uh-huh. We can always be replaced, and most employers have no qualms about stating that fact whenever a woman tries to take control of her life.

The document reserved its toughest language for what it called recent "new approaches to women's issues," saying an emerging tendency is that "to avoid the domination of one sex or the other, their differences tend to be denied, viewed as mere effects of historical and cultural conditioning."

If you can't beat'em, join'em.

"The obscuring of the difference or duality of the sexes has enormous consequences on a variety of levels," the document said, asserting it has inspired ideologies that "call into question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father."

Mom, Dad and Kid is not the "natural" structure of a family. If it was, our species wouldn't have survived to dominate the planet. See, way back when the entire world was one big drive-through window for the lions and other assorted large animals, one man could not have defended his female and children from even one determined lion, let alone an entire hunting group. Lions don't stop to check in the Feline Idiot's Field Guide of Prey Animals -- "Oh, sorry, you're a human, I can't hunt you." The "natural" structure of the family is in fact tribal, with all the women pretty much hanging together to take care of living and the guys just sort of loitering about hoping for sex and sometimes going off to kill large animals when they can't get it. Or perhaps the large animals were bribes for sex, so you see guys really haven't changed their tactics much all these years later. They still think they can trick us into having sex by giving us food.

What version of the world is the Catholic church playing these days? This is what you get when you don't update your software!

It also warned of challenges to fundamentals of church teaching, saying the blurring of differences "would consider as lacking in importance and relevance the fact that the Son of God assumed human nature in its male form."

*Snort* Yeah, we're challenging Church teaching all right. We're ignoring it.

The document - "On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church in the World" - addressed what it said were "certain currents of thought which are often at variance with the authentic advancement of women." Instead, what the church seeks is "active collaboration between the sexes precisely in the recognition of the difference between man and woman."
In stressing that men and women are different, the document said, "From the first moment of their creation, man and woman are different, and will remain so for eternity."

So different means you're better than us? How many female saints are there? Look at Mother Teresa and tell me that women can't have a handle on God. She had more of a lock on God than anyone on this planet has had for a very long time.

I've got absolutely no problem with people who live their lives with true, honest faith. I have a huge problem with people who use their so-called "faith" with intent to cause divisiveness and discrimination. Your God supposedly made us all. You want to impress me, have a true sense of humility and wonder for your God's creation and respect even the tiniest blade of grass for the simple fact that your God made it.

But it said the "temporal and earthly expression of sexuality is transient," and cited Scripture suggesting that a married couple's existence in heaven would be celibate.

Whoops.

I thought marriage was suppoed to be eternal. So if you're not going to be together in heaven anyway what's the point of getting married here on Earth? Isn't it cute how they're attempting to invalidate the entire issue of homosexuality by saying we're arguing over trivial things? If it's so damned trivial why have they spent over 2000 years trying to suppress it?

All this makes me glad I'm a Jedi. Thank goodness it's just the priesthood that are complete idiots and not the majority of their flock. One of my best friends is Catholic and she quite possibly has more common sense than I do.

Oh well. Like most other idiocies in this world today, eventually they'll all die off. But I honestly don't think this latest pronouncement is going to win them any converts, not do much by way of pep talk to the home team.

Idiots.