Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Why I Could No Longer Be a Catholic

Una giornalista americana spiega perche' vuole lasciare la Chiesa. Un
fenomeno in crescita, nelle ultime settimane.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/08/why-i-could-no-longer-be-a-catholic/
An old friend of mine recently posted the following sentence on his
Facebook page: "I know this is totally not a PC thing to say, but can
someone please explain to me why anyone is still Catholic?"
It's a fair question. And my Politics Daily colleague, Melinda
Henneberger, has one answer. In an honest and moving piece she wrote a
few days back, Melinda tells us that she's as put off as the next person
by the current sex abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church, as well as
by the Vatican's latest attempts to play the victim and point fingers.
At the end of the day, though, Melinda is going to hang in there with
this church, because being Catholic is integral to who she is. "In the
end," she writes,"it is not about them."
Melinda's argument is a variant on one that many of my pro-choice
Catholic friends use when defending their choice to remain in a church
even when its hierarchy (and -- it must be said -- most of its
adherents) condemn a practice which my friends find perfectly legal and
justifiable. They are somehow able to separate their personal beliefs on
this issue from official church doctrine, and can carry on as practicing
Catholics because they buy into other church teachings.
In both versions, these arguments imply that the messenger doesn't
matter. If you yourself can find solace and meaning in embracing
Catholicism at its "base," it doesn't really matter what the hierarchy
says or does.
I respect the views of all concerned and I strongly believe that
everyone has to find their own way toward religious practice. Lord knows
I do. But personally, I'm not convinced by this idea that we're free to
ignore the Pope. I'm currently contemplating becoming part of a faith --
Judaism -- which has its own issues. (Among others, it's not at all
clear that they'd be willing to take me.) But even if I were
contemplating re-entering Christianity, I doubt that I could stomach
becoming a Catholic right now, despite being raised in an observant
Catholic family. And while the sex abuse scandal wouldn't be the only
factor, it would certainly weigh heavily in my thinking.
This point was driven home to me this past weekend, when an old friend
from the States came to visit us at our home in London. She's a
practicing Catholic who would very much like to raise her children in
the Catholic Church. But she's increasingly troubled by the sex abuse
scandal, and has refused to give the church any money since the scandal
first broke in America back in 2002. Her husband, an attorney who was
raised as a Baptist but -- other than the scandal -- is reasonably
comfortable with Catholicism, wonders whether his wife would be willing
to continue to be a member of any other institution where all of this
was going on inside it.
He's got a point. You certainly wouldn't keep sending your kids to a
school whose management tacitly condoned pedophilia or looked the other
way. Nor would you work for a business that did so. I doubt anyone would
even join a gym with this track record, no matter how much they liked
the equipment and the staff.
Nor is it clear to me that it is just a management problem. As the
writer and former Catholic priest James Carroll noted recently, the sex
abuse scandal isn't just about the current Pope. It's about an
institution that systematically undervalues women, champions obedience
and authority over self-expression and democracy, and actively
suppresses normal (by which I mean any) sexual impulses through its
chastity vow.
My friend who just visited me is actively reconsidering whether she
wants to remain in the Catholic Church. Apparently, many of her friends
back home have been encouraging her for years to join the Episcopal
Church, often described as "Catholicism without the Pope." While she was
here in London, she attended an Easter service at a local Church of
England parish and felt quite comfortable there. What's holding her back
-- as I suspect holds many Catholics back right now -- is the cultural
betrayal she feels for her Catholic grandparents who've passed away but
instilled in her the service-oriented aspects of Catholicism that most
resonated.
The American Episcopal Church has already fragmented over issues such as
homosexuality and the ordination of women, and now seems headed for a
definitive schism with the broader Anglican Communion. Maybe the
Catholic Church will do the same. Or maybe change will come from within.
That's certainly Carroll's view. He thinks that a revolution is already
afoot at the base of the Catholic Church and that it's only a matter of
time before the church hierarchy is forced to follow suit. Others are
less sanguine.
Personally, I think the Catholic Church would have a lot of takers if it
undertook true, bottom-up reform or developed a free-standing liberal wing.
And who knows? Even someone as conflicted as I am over religion might
decide to show up.

 fenomeno in crescita, nelle ultime settimane.
visto che non si fanno ebrei, chettefrega?