Laurence England writes a really good blog. He also is fortunate enough to attend an excellent parish (Fr. Ray Blake, the PP, is a really wonderful priest!)Laurence has been reading up (via The Telegraph) on Cherie Blair's latest project: speaking on Channel 4's History of Christianity programme tonight, she is apparently complaining that,
...Women were "virtually invisible" in the public face of Christianity and that its failure to recover from the social changes of the 1960s was one of its "fundamental weaknesses. "Until the traditional churches fully resolve their relationship with the female half of the population, how can they expect Christianity to have a future in the modern world?" she asked.
Laurence's reply to this is very tongue-in-cheek, and deliciously witty... he uses yellow for his own comments, but that would look frightful on my blog, so I'm just picking them out in bold.
"Traditionally it was women who passed religion on to their children and who kept the church going through good times and bad, but when it comes to the public face of Christianity, women are virtually invisible." ("Why can't I be a priestess?")
She was filmed interviewing Britain's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, about the issue. "If you actually look at the formal structures of the Catholic Church you don't see a woman's face when you see people speaking for the Catholic Church... can we change that?" she asked. ("You and me, Cardinal, let's take on the Holy Father and march on Rome with an army of 10,000 women to be ordained! I know all the Apostles called by Christ were men, but Christ was, like, so 2,000 years ago. Get with the programme, man!")
Finally, when challenged about her use of contraception, Mrs. Blair replied,
"I'm a feminist…(rather than a Catholic?) How could I have done all the things I have done if I hadn't used contraception? Because actually every time I didn't use contraception I seemed to have a baby." (Publicly confessing your sins is one thing...but it sounds like you want to nail condoms to the church door in some German town and make Church teaching in your own image.)
I saw her once at Westminster Cathedral Mac...she is no Catholic (at least in the sense that I understand the term) and her husband's ''conversion'' was rather farcical.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what line Janne Haaland Matlary takes on this? It isn't as though she's a stay-at-home mum.
ReplyDelete"How could I have done all the things I have done if I hadn't used contraception?"
ReplyDelete-Cheri Blair
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"
-Jesus Christ
I wonder who wins that arguement?
Mac:
ReplyDeleteFour days in and I'm tempted to break article 3 of my Lenten resolutions!
I'll content myself with the repetition of a story, perhaps anecdotal, which lets B16 have the last word. You've surely heard it before but I think it's worth repeating. See Oasis.
All best,
J
Hi Mac, just wanted to pop by to say hi and thanks for your comment. I'm not blogging at the mo, as the family is taking up so much time just now. I'm still reading blogs, but on Google reader, as it's quicker, hence the lack of comments. Your book reviewing task sounds brilliant! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteA cafeteria catholic and complete fruitcake!
ReplyDeleteI'm so angry right now, after watching this programme. To see the hatchet job this woman has done, with women this, women that, nasty Church, discriminating here and there, but look at these lovely American churches, so inclusive, so lively, look at our boring Churches, so divisive, so discriminating, on and on and on.
ReplyDeleteI'd better stop now, because I'm almost verging on saying hateful things about this, but I am so angry that this woman has been given a platform on a national tv network so dissect the faith she claims to profess
Well, I never, now that she is no longer a Prime Ministers wife she thinks she can run the Catholic Church. Look out Pope Benedict she is after your job!!!!
ReplyDeleteHas the oracle never heard of Natural Family Planning???????
ReplyDeleteI spoke to someone 14 years ago who came over from the US, who told me that they now have small programmers available in shops to check our fertility. Even Boots have something on their shelves.
But being a career orientated oracle I guess she never did/does the shopping.