Sex abuse on a par with ordination of women says Vatican

After perpetrating years and years of cover up, secrecy, criminal collusion and downright evil, the Vatican issue a decree about sex abuse. Catholic leaders have singularly failed in their task of protecting the faithful. The decree tries to bring the practices of the Roman Catholic church into the late 20th century. There are some moves to get rid of abusing priests quicker but - and it is a big but - there is no acceptance that all cases of abuse are to be reported to the civil authorities. So too little and far too late.

But just to show that it really really doesn't get it, the men in frocks use the same decree to place the ordination of women into the priesthood as an evil on a par with sex abuse. Why on earth do any self-respecting Catholic women listen or pay any heed to this rubbish? As John Hooper reported, "It was meant to be the document that put a lid on the clerical sex abuse scandals that have swept the Roman Catholic world. But instead of quelling fury from within and without the church, the Vatican stoked the anger of liberal Catholics and women's groups by including a provision in its revised decree that made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes in ecclesiastical law.

The change put the "offence" on a par with the sex abuse of minors.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, called the document "one of the most insulting and misogynistic pronouncements that the Vatican has made for a very long time. Why any self-respecting woman would want to remain part of an organisation that regards their full and equal participation as a 'grave sin' is a mystery to me."

Vivienne Hayes, the chief executive of the Women's Resource Centre, said the decision to raise women's ordination to the level of a serious crime was "appalling".

She added: "This declaration is doubly disempowering for women as it also closes the door on dialogue around women's access to power and decision making, when they are still under-represented in all areas of political, religious and civic life. We would urge the Catholic church to acknowledge that women's rights are not incompatible with religious faith." Guardian online 15/07/2010

It appears that misogynistic Catholic men in frocks are sending a message to misogynistic Anglican men in frocks to come and join them. To paraphrase Wilde, the unspeakable in pursuit of the detestable.

Anyone with Catholic female friends could run the Terry Sanderson quote past them, "Why any self-respecting woman would want to remain part of an organisation that regards their full and equal participation as a 'grave sin' is a mystery to me."

 Ask them what they think about what this decree says about their position in the church- and more importantly - what are they prepared to do about it?