I had a strange dream last night. Just before retiring, I had read Maureen Dowd's New York Times (NYT) piece on the Vatican's hysterical attack on U.S. nuns ( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/ sunday/dowd-bishops-play-church-queens-as-pawns.html?hp) . According to Pope Ratzinger and His Holy Office of the Inquisition (now renamed "The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" -- or something like that) the good sisters are spending too much time on social justice issues and the poor. They're not giving enough attention to the crucial issues of contraception, abortion, and same sex marriage.
Dowd was having none of that. And her editorial was right on target. But it was the responses below the on-line version of the column that I found even more compelling. Comment after comment not only supported the nuns, but expressed outrage at a church that covered up and minimized the importance of male pedophilia, while attacking its hard-working, self-sacrificial women for following the example of Jesus himself. New York's Cardinal Dolan attempted explanation by pointing out that only a "tiny minority' of priests has been involved in raping young boys. Technically he was right, I guess. One responder to the Dowd article said the figure is "only" 5-8% of priests worldwide.
With that comforting reassurance in mind, I closed my eyes. My dream soon unfolded.
There I was in my local church in Kentucky. I was sitting in my usual place in the third row on the lectern side of the aisle. Our pastor was preaching about abortion again, and I suspect my thoughts had wandered off. . .
But then I was suddenly snapped-to when just across the way from me, Mary Kelly (a former Sister of St. Joseph) stood up. Her husband, Ken, himself a resigned priest from the archdiocese of Chicago was standing beside her.
In a firm but gentle and clear voice, Mary called out: "Excuse me, Fr. Philip." She was interrupting the priest!
Flashbulbs erupted in the church. Three strangers who appeared to be newspaper people had run down the aisle and were taking pictures of Mary and of our startled pastor.
Mary repeated, "Excuse me, Fr. Philip." Behind her about 20 voices echoed, "Excuse me, Fr. Philip." And when 20 people who had just spoken stood up, I realized something "organized" was about to happen. Even a quick glance showed me that the ones who had repeated Mary's words all belonged to our parish's Peace and Social Justice Committee. Its members were using the "mic-check" technique perfected by the Occupy Movement. This will be good, I thought. It's like they want to occupy the church.
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