Here's a thought: Sr. Jane Dominic, O. P. and the role of women in the Church.

In Sister's case, the O. P. could maybe stand for "Oh Please!"

The role of women in the Church.  We hear all the talk about giving women a greater role - beyond the traditional service roles they already have.

Pope Francis: "Women must have a greater presence in the decision-making areas of the church," he said.  

Hear, hear the episcopate says.  Yet in the case of Sr. Jane Dominic, is there no one to defend her?  What about her role as a woman religious in the Church?  As a teacher?

Where are the priests and bishops who either defend - or condemn - the Nuns on the Bus and the LWCR and its affiliates?  Where are the "bravas" for this woman?

Just sayin'.

Canned Pope

Berlin, Germany-based artist Miriam Jonas sculpts detailed portraits of popes out of Play-Doh in fish tin cans.

How cool is that?  They remind me of South American relicarios.

Some consumers do not know that what they throw away can be turned into art by third world type people.  Haitians and other poor people often make decorative objects out of tin cans and scrap metal.  Some Latinos make retablo and relicarios out of such recyclables.

Song for this post here.

Dumb stuff...

Palin on Ukraine: "Yes, I could see this one from Alaska."

She's still hot!

"Get me to my car!"

Cat fight!  Yay!

"I don't want anymore."

She's sick of the snow.

Glenn Close as Norma Desmond.

The Oscars are tomorrow night.

"What?"

Since it is "Oscar Sunday" I wonder if the Pope will address the audience?

Loose ends...

Edward Hopper - Soir Bleu, 1914, Whitney Museum of Art, NYC.

Stuff

Some people may find my posts uncomfortable lately.  A couple anonymous commenters certainly do.  What can I say?

I have nothing to add to that BTW.

Instead, I've got a few points I want to document regarding what I know about sexual abuse.

Since I was first molested/abused as a kid, I learned about deception.  I too learned how to lie from the perpetrators and those who covered for them.  More importantly, I got to be really good at detecting liars.  The upshot is that I usually can see through, or around the facades men try to hide behind... the mask, the costume, the mime, as it were.   

That said - don't fool yourself - men who have sex with boys are gay or same sex attracted.  I don't know why I have to repeat that so often.  To be sure, not all gay men have sex with boys or young men - nor are they even interested, attracted, or tempted in that way.  Likewise, not all men who have been sexually abused turn out to be abusers themselves - in fact, most do not.  Most do not even turn out to be gay or bisexual.  Yet one cannot deny that there is a category within gay culture not included in its LGBTQ handle - and that is man-boy love - NAMBLA.


Random anecdotal experience #1.

I was aware of other men's interest in young men and boys at almost every stage in my early life.  From those who used me, as well as the neighborhood perverts and the boys who serviced them.  The neighborhood guys would buy kids booze in exchange for a BJ - so the pervs were servicing the boys?  As a kid I had a friend within that milieu whom I later came to find out slept with his much younger nephew - whenever the kid spent the weekend.  It went on for years.  As an adult the same friend complained to me that an acquaintance of ours forced himself upon my my friend (not the nephew) - they were both adults - but my friend pretended he was 'assaulted' or forced into it.  These people are liars and live in denial - they actually believe they are not guilty of crimes.*

I know - that paragraph is really random and ill constructed.

Random anecdotal experience #2.

When I began working in the presentation department of a major department store, I found out the predatory nature of gay men interested in young boys and younger men.  "Young and dumb and full of ___!" they said of them as if they were an entree on a restaurant menu.  I've mentioned before the president of the company seduced boys in the Varsity department fitting rooms - it was common knowledge.  One of my early managers was well known to prefer really young boys.  Management and the goodie two shoes amongst the department and general store employees knew his profile.  not unlike the recent Sandusky scandal - no one ever did anything but shake their heads and gossip about it.

Predator - enabler.

Factoid:  Like Christopher Isherwood's boys of Berlin - the boys were either dismissed as street life, or opportunists looking for advancement or money.  Perhaps they were.  Yet those who ignore, dismiss or excuse homosexuals who have sex with young boys are in fact enablers.  They help perpetuate the cycle of abuse.  Those who deny its existence do likewise.

Random anecdotal experience #3.

I almost forgot.  I had a priest friend once tell me about a brother in his community who taught in one of their schools.  (Not here.)  The brother's appetite for young males was thought to be insatiable - he was considered a sex addict.  He battled it, going to confession after each fall, seeking spiritual direction month after month, year after year.  My friend chuckled and said, "The poor brother will wrestle with this until he dies."  No one in authority put a stop to it.  The brother lived amongst enablers - enablers who protected him.

Factoid:  Did you know - historically - many of the men who like boys work in occupations where they can meet them?  Did you know some are dads or single mom's live-in boyfriends?  Many of the people I have met-known or known-of over the years, were teachers, coaches, priests, brothers, display directors, waiters, and even a florist and a barber. 

Stuff to think about.

*Bonus factoid:  Adult males are not victims of sexual predators - adults can usually resist and defend themselves - unless they are drugged or threatened with a weapon or something.  

Once someone told me that she slept with her priest.  She was an adult woman.  I don't see sexual abuse there - just cooperation in evil.

Policy note:  Remember, Anonymous comments will not be published, nor will comments with links embedded. 

Does the devotion of Hispanics embarrass the Bishops and other Catholics?

Or are we just dismissive church-people?

A New Jersey woman claims to have discovered a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a natural scar on a tree trunk on a West New York street.  Crowds have been gathering to view and venerate the image they consider miraculous.  Indeed, there is a resemblance to the Virgin of Guadalupe, although it is the reaction and spontaneous devotion of the people which seems to me to be the evidence of the presence of something spiritual and supernatural.  Like sheep without a shepherd, the people flock to the image they hope is a sign of Our Mother's love and protection.

Miraculous images and occurrences might be considered commonplace in the rich history of Spanish and Spanish Colonial Catholicism.  Many miraculous images were discovered throughout the centuries, some dug up from the earth, others floating in a river, still others appearing in the trunk of a tree, or on the sides of cave walls.  Were these images perhaps later embellished by artists to bring out the details or features only hinted at in the original?  Or simply to decorate or embellish what was already there?  Or did angels and saints do the artwork as legends suggest?  The most famous image not made by hands is the tilma of Juan Diego, the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  Everyone agrees, no artist ever created that.

Don't be  so smug.

Is it so unusual that Spanish Catholics continue to recognize the presence of the Holy Virgin in contemporary urban environments?  The latest case of the Virgin's image on a tree trunk in New Jersey could be a modern version of a 13th Spanish  miracle of El Rocio in Andalucia.  What if the original statue of El Rocio had to be carved away from the tree wherein it was discovered, then finished and polychromed?  There is another famous miraculous image found in a tree trunk in Mexico in the 16th century, revered as the Virgen of Ocotlan. 

There are similar stories told over the centuries, attested to by miracles as well as spiritual conversions and vocations.  Perhaps those occurring in our day are not always instances of pareidolia - random perceptions of religious imagery in nature or matter.  What if the response of simple, ordinary believers leads to an increase of devotion and amendment of life?  What if the image seen most recently, was extracted from the tree, embellished by fine artisans, and venerated in a shrine at the local parish, which would become a place of pilgrimage?  I'm not saying it should be done, I'm just saying I think that may be what used to happen in ages past - perhaps in the cases of El Rocio and Ocotlan? .

And yet today - these days of declining church attendance, when even the traditionally devout Hispanic Catholics leave for more charismatic denominations, Church authorities seem to be embarrassed by such popular expressions of piety and devotion - spontaneous outbursts of hope and cries to heaven for help - on the streets where these good people live and work amidst hardship and discouragement.  While the well-off travel on luxurious religious vacations called pilgrimages to European shrines, and promote excursions and unofficial tours to unapproved religious-commercial sites such as Medjugorje - a place far more curious than an innocent knot on a tree resembling the Blessed Virgin, which inspires devotion and prayer - in the public square.

No wonder many Hispanics do not feel welcome in predominantly 'white' Catholic parishes.