Is the Pope Catholic?

Undoubtedly he is, and that really bothers some people, according to the Christian Post:

Pope Benedict XVI may not see them or hear them, but aggrieved Roman Catholic activists hope his U.S. visit this week will help them draw attention to issues ranging from the ordination of women and gay rights to sex abuse by priests and the Vatican ban on contraception.

The groups have planned vigils, demonstrations and news conferences to press their causes as the pope visits Washington and New York. On Monday evening, the eve of his arrival, supporters of women’s ordination will host what they are calling “an inclusive Mass” at a Methodist church in Washington, presided over by Catholic women — including two who were recently excommunicated.

What they are doing is no different from little kids playing house, except they’re playing religion. They won’t be celebrating Mass, the leaders aren’t priests, and they aren’t Catholics except in the worst sense.

“We cannot welcome this pope until he begins to do away with the church’s continuing violence of sexism,” said Sister Donna Quinn, coordinator of the National Coalition of American Nuns.

Someone needs to provide Sister Quinn with a dictionary, and use it to point out that the meaning of violence is not, “what an institution is engaging in when it won’t give you what you want.”

Participants in the service will include Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie McGrath, who were excommunicated last month by Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis because they were ordained as part of a women-priest movement condemned by the Vatican.

“In the face of one closed door after another, Catholic women have been innovative, courageous and faithful to the church,” said Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference. “They continue to make a way where is none.”

Actually, what the continue to do is demonstrate that they would make fine Episcopalians. There’s nothing “innovative, courageous [or] faithful” about ideological temper tantrums. These women have gotten a final answer to their demands from the highest authority, and if they don’t like the answer, they should pick up their marbles and go elsewhere.

The thing about these women is that they don’t take Catholicism seriously, preferring to play at church. They have no problem flouting some of the most sacred elements of Catholic belief and practice, because they  apparently think none of it really matters. What matters is ideological correctness and getting what they want.

Gay Catholic activists, who plan to demonstrate Tuesday along the papal motorcade route in Washington, have compiled a list of statements by Benedict during his career which they consider hostile to gays and lesbians. These include forceful denunciations of gay marriage and of adoption rights for same-sex couples.

“He has issued some of the most hurtful and extreme rhetoric against our community of any religious leader in history, and we want to call him into account for the damage that he’s done,” said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA.

And no papal visit would be complete with homosexuals complaining that the Pope has been beastly to them by reaffirming what they Scriptures and the tradition of the Church has taught for 2000 years. Heaven forfend he should withhold the imprimatur of Peter from anything that the sexual revolution has declared to be good.

Another divisive issue being raised this week is the Vatican’s ban on contraception. Gay rights groups and others say the ban undermines programs promoting condom use to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Say what you will about the theological accuracy or appropriateness of Humanae Vitae, the fact is that condom programs have not had the success in stopping HIV/AIDS that advocates often proclaim. See the article “AIDS and the Churches: Getting the Story Right” by Edward C. Green and Allison Herling Ruark in this month’s First Things for a necessary corrective to gay and AIDS activists’ propaganda.

There’s more–read it all.