Holy Week 2010

Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times this morning is a must read.

Maureen Dowd offers her opinion and the opinion of her brother Kevin who is male and conservative since the New York Archdiocese and Bill Donohue have been so dismissive of her and her opinions because she is a woman. Kevin Dowd writes: “In pedophilia, the church has unleashed upon itself a plague that threatens its very future, and yet it remains in a curious state of denial.”

Maureen Dowd adds: “I’ve been wondering, given the vitriolic reaction of the New York archbishop to my column defending nuns and the dismissive reaction of the Vatican to my column denouncing the church’s response to the pedophilia scandal, if they are able to take a woman’s voice seriously. Some, like Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, seem to think women are trying to undermine the church because of abortion and women’s ordination.”

She continues: “We must reassess. Married priests and laypeople giving the sacraments are not going to destroy the church. Based on what we have seen the last 10 years, they would be a bargain.”

Read the whole column here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/opinion/07dowd.html?ref=opinion

In my opinion Holy Week 2010 will mark another turning point in the history of Vatican II. If it takes a hundred years after a council to get where it was pointing, the church today seems to be moving away once again from the grip of the conservative and fundamentalist Catholics. The reality of the Catholic Church in Holy Week 2010 was that of Humpty Dumpty smashed. Just look at the tortured face of Benedict and his defenders. Through all the weeping and gnashing of teeth, there are glimmers that the vision of the Church of Vatican II still lives.