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Tuesday, 03 November, 2009
New National Pastime
(with comments)
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan is upset because some people don't fall for his dying religion: Anti-Catholicism Is the Nation's Other Pastime.
Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-Catholicism. It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime.
What
really set him off was an
opinion
article by Maureen Dowd. Dolan writes:
She digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription -- along with every other German teenage boy -- into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans...
But her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850's, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.
It's odd that he uses the word prejudice. To me, that word applies to bias against traits that people can't control: race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic class, or age. The Catholic religion is something that people choose, so the word prejudice doesn't apply.
People like Maureen Dowd (and millions of others) have examined the Catholic Church and realize that it's nothing but a huge con, with two goals: To gain power and to control people. Stating facts isn't prejudice.
- By RobertSeattle. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:02am:Hey Archbishop, to quote our real national pastime, your playing the victim card is a "swing and a miss".
- By Curtis. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:03am:While I don't agree that Dowd is "stating facts," I do agree that her criticisms of the Catholic Church are not "prejudice."
Are you saying if one states a fact it can't be prejudice? I don't think that's so. Or are you saying specific criticisms of a religion can't be a prejudice because it's a choice rather than a given like skin color? I basically agree with that. However, if one's disagreements with people's religious choices rises to a level of hating those believers or considering them guilty of hastening the ultimate destruction of humankind, I would call that prejudice. - By Shel-tone. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:24am:Her opinion offended his opinion. My opinion is that everybodies got their own opinion.
When I was a young boy in American on "national prejudice against the Catholic Church day", I too participated in the
"running of the preists...". - By fancypants. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:29am:1. an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
2. any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.
3. unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group. - By Gee.... Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:33am:"How dare you point out the bad things we've done!"
- By Evil Klown. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:51am:He's learned to put the word "anti" in front of a cause and then point & holler "witch" (prejudice/racism.) He has learned well.
- By Redwood. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @10:55am:Oops. I guess I breached protocol. My apologies.
- By Curtis. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @11:47am:
It's odd that he uses the word prejudice.
What's most odd to me is that he doesn't bother to address the real point Dowd is making - that it is wrong for the Church to be carrying on two investigations into the "lifestyles" of American nuns, that it is sexist and obviously foolish in that the average age of American nuns is 70.
After carefully detailing her "prejudiced" contentions, he allows:
"True enough, the matter that triggered her spasm -- the current visitation of women religious by Vatican representatives -- is well-worth discussing, and hardly exempt from legitimate questioning."
Yeah? So why not discuss "the matter?"
Because Dowd's criticism is apt, the Church's position is indefensible, and you, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, are, intellectually, a coward.
Dowd is right, the Church knows nothing of the lives of women nor, as Dolan's editorial makes clear, does it want to. - By julia. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @11:50am:Nodding until you said being Catholic was something people only choose. I think it's a bit more complicated, like being Jewish. Yes, religious beliefs are a choice, but there's often also a strong ethnic component for many "cultural Catholics" that has nothing to do with religious beliefs or lack thereof.
- By Don Coyote. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @01:03pm:"...the Church knows nothing of the lives of women nor, as Dolan's editorial makes clear, does it want to."
With the notable exception of Mary, God's mom. - By acronombe2012. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @01:11pm:You mean you didn't know?
http://www.pocm.info/ - By Gee.... Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @06:57pm:I'm pretty sure you can't tell a Catholic by their genetics, julia, Jews, on the other hand are a genetic group...well 2 genetic groups.
Ethnicity and culture are way different things. - By chazunga. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @07:18pm:So Hitler, by your logic, wasn't prejudiced against the Jews?
- By Kaleberg. Comment posted 04-Nov-2009 @07:48pm:Prejudice doesn't have to do with whether the target is chosen or not. Prejudice comes from the same roots as the prefix "pre-" and the verb "judge". It means to judge in advance. If you are prejudiced against someone, you have judged them before finding out about them. If you form a negative opinion of a group after having actually learned something about them and confirmed it, that is not prejudice.
- By Spokane Mary. Comment posted 04-Nov-2009 @08:05pm:Well said, Kaleberg.