Monday, May 25, 2015

Progressive Thoughts on Recent Developments in Ireland, El Salvador and the U.S.

Writes Francis DeBernardo about both the overwhelming Catholic support for marriage equality in Ireland and the latest step in the journey to sainthood for Oscar Romero in El Salvador . . .



Meanwhile, Fred Clark writes of how the U. S. bishops comprise a "culture-war vanguard without an army."

For Americans accustomed to the politicized culture-warrior bishops of the American Catholic church, it is startling to watch a pervasively Catholic country like Ireland mobilize in such a massive expression of support for the rights and dignity of LGBT people. After three decades of watching our nation’s Catholic bishops scrambling to enlist in the partisan culture-war of the white evangelical religious right, we’ve started to accept the American hierarchy’s claim that their church is, or must be, intrinsically right-wing and anti-gay. The news from Ireland is a reminder that this claim has never been true. The right-wing American hierarchy is a culture-war vanguard without an army.






See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Singing Their Own Song in Ireland
Remembering Oscar Romero
Catholicism's Future is "Up to the Laity"
Roman Catholicism's Fundamental Problem: The Cultic Priesthood and Its "Diseased System" of Clericalism
A Clerical Leadership Unresponsive to Voices of Reason
Re-Forming "the Vatican" Doesn't Mean Destroying the Church

Related Off-site Links:
A Great Day for Irish Lay Catholics! And for Lay Catholics in El Salvador, Too! – Francis DeBernardo (Bondings 2.0, May 23, 2015).
Irish Catholicism Supports Same-Sex Marriage! – Mark Silk (Religion News Service, May 23, 2015).
Ireland’s Social Revolution: Traditionally Catholic Nation Makes History with Marriage Equality VoteDemocracy Now! (May 26, 2015).
Dublin Archbishop: "The Church Needs to Do a Reality Check" – Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, May 23, 2015).
For One Irish Catholic Couple, Backing Gay Marriage Is a Matter of Family Values – Hanna Ingber (The New York Times, May 22, 2015).
Vatican Newspaper Views Catholic Support for Marriage Equality in Ireland as "a Defeat" – AFP via Yahoo! News, May 25, 2015).
Catholic Hierarchy Ponders Future After Same-Sex Marriage Vote in Ireland – Danny Hakim (The New York Times, May 25, 2015).
Oscar Romero, Slain Salvadoran Archbishop, is a Step Closer to Sainthood – Tracy Wilkinson (The Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2015).
300,000 Celebrate Beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Romero, 35 Years After U.S.-Backed MurderDemocracy Now! (May 26, 2015).
Former Salvadoran Officials Tied to U.S.-Backed Atrocities in 1980s Face Deportation, ExtraditionDemocracy Now! (April 9, 2015).
Oscar Romero, Saint for Our Times – Pat Marrin (Celebrations, May 2015).
Pope’s Focus on Poor Revives Scorned Theology – Jim Yardley and Simon Romero (The New York Times, May 23, 2015).
Romero Beatification Signals Pope Francis' Plan for Catholic Church – Tracy Wilkinson and Tom Kington (The Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2015).
Oscar Romero Brought a New Pentecost to the Church – Thomas Gumbleton (National Catholic Reporter, May 28, 2015).
A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Canonizing Romero – Grant Gallicho (Commonweal, February 11, 2015).


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