You Brute! You Monster! You Beast!
We’ve heard the stories too often.
In the secrecy of the confessional and the (please, God) safety of the counseling setting… Too, too often.
They’re “pillars of the church” and “such a good Christian family.”
Except, the brutal truth is that they aren’t.
The too old (but true) story [Believe us. We know it’s true!] is of the mother whose family size teetered somewhere between a basketball and a football team; hers was the quintessential “good Catholic family.” Sunday after Sunday, they were there for the mid-morning Mass – the family choir occupying a full pew. The “ideal” – and ever-growing - Catholic family.
Of all places, the mask (Or was it make-up?) fell off when a powerful - in every sense of the word – nun saw daddy wheeling expectant-again mommy into a Catholic hospital for the delivery of yet another child.
Sister would not be restrained.
“You brute! You monster,” she yelled! Not accusingly. Stating a fact! “You beast!”
The masks were off! Husband and wife could no longer hide the black eyes behind the big Sunday sunglasses she wore – everywhere, including Mass, the “I slipped” explanations for bruises and, periodically, the “Mommy isn’t feeling well” disguise of hangovers.
The first oral contraceptive was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960.
There were so many children not because the parents were “good Catholics” caught in the Church’s condemnation of “the pill” but because sexual violence – including the husband’s insistence on sex during periods of fertility – is sexual violence and the wise German nun was right: the wife was being sexually abused and he was a brute.
Having witnessed it so often, it’s easy to recall both husband and wife lining up the oldest kids for Saturday afternoon confessions. Sure as God makes green apples, he never once spoke of all the evenings the couple spent at the local gin joint or his drunken violence, while twice a month she confessed her biggest “sin” was either “missing my prayers” or “losing patience with the kids.” Unfortunately (and almost certainly) some well-intentioned-but-completely-uninformed-on-the-issues priest probably repeated the old – and wrong - “stay and pray” mantra.
Weeks have passed since reports of a vice-presidential candidate’s comments about childless women brought those memories into clear focus. On July 29, The Washington Post described him as “Raised nominally evangelical [by a] beloved grandmother… (who) hated organized religion, didn’t go to church and hung a drawing of Jesus in her house that presented him as a kind everyman.” Reportedly, having joined the Marine Corps (2003 – 2007) after high school and serving as a combat correspondent, including six months in Iraq, the candidate dabbled in atheism. He was baptized Roman Catholic in 2019 and, in 2021, explained to a conservative Catholic think tank, “I really like that the Catholic Church was just really old.”
Wow!
Mr. Vice-Presidential Candidate, want to know what else is “really old”?
The role of (presumably) unmarried – sometimes widowed – (presumably because their children are never mentioned in Sacred Scripture) childless women who were supporters of Jesus – Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Susanna - and the “companions” and hosts of the Apostle to the Gentiles, St. Paul. In his letter to the Romans (16:3-4), Paul writes of his companions and fellow missioners Prisca (sometimes translated as Priscilla) and her husband Aquila. Paul calls them his “co-workers” and expresses his gratitude for their having risked their own lives on his behalf. He portrays them as refugees in Corinth after Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome. No mention of children.
In Romans 16, Paul writes of Phoebe – his benefactor and a “minister” of the Word (the modern translation of the Greek is “deacon”): “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a minister of the Church at Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me as well”
Paul also writes of Mary, “who has worked hard for you”; Julia, whom early Christian commentators Origen, Jerome and John Chrysostom all understood to be a woman. Chrysostom wrote: ““[T]o be an apostle is something great. But to be outstanding among the apostles — just think what a wonderful song of praise that is! They were outstanding on the basis of their works and virtuous actions. Indeed, how great the wisdom of this woman must have been that she was even deemed worthy of the title apostle.” No mention of children.
Paul wrote (Philippians 4:3) of Eudonia and Syntychi in Philippi: “They have struggled at my side in promoting the gospel.” In his Letter to the Corinthians (1:10-11) he writes of “Chloe’s people” – an ambiguous term that might indicate that Chloe was the leader of a local “house church. No mention of children.
The Acts of the Apostles (16:11-15, 40) introduces Lydia, a presumably wealthy woman (“presumably” because she was “a dealer in purple cloth” and purple dye was especially costly), who extended hospitality to the itinerant Apostle. He noted that “the Lord opened her heart” and she and her whole household were baptized. No mention of children.
Why speak of these women in the midst of an American presidential campaign?
Because there is not one reference to their children. It’s possible that – to use the word of a vice-presidential candidate – they were all “childless.”
The candidate is a relatively new Catholic. He might be excused for not knowing Claire of Assisi; Therese of Lisieux, the little-traveled Carmelite nun who died at age 24, yet is recognized as a Patron Saint of Missioners and a Doctor of the Church – the highest rank of theological honors – and whose feast day is on October 1 in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church; Doctor of the Church Catherne of Siena; the Spanish mystic and central figure in the renewal of both the Church and Catholic religious life during the Counter Reformation, Theresa of Avila; the American Catholic missioners martyred in El Salvador - Ms. Jeanne Donovan, Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, and Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel.
All unmarried. All childless. Heroic women honored by the Church into which the vice-presidential candidate was only recently baptized.
[We’ll forgive his slight of these outstanding, supremely intelligent, courageous, unmarried and childless women. After all he’s a newcomer and has spent most of his “Catholic life” running for public office and we’ve just skimmed 2,000 years of Church history.]
The Ecstasy of Theresa of Avila by Bernini
The tragic story of that family is so true and so old that Los Vegas bookies refuse to accept “over-under” bets on evangelical and Catholic votes in the upcoming presidential election. It’s an almost certain bet that the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overthrowing nearly half-century old abortion rights under Roe v. Wade will mobilize huge numbers of voters – on both sides of the abortion issue.
[EDITORS’ NOTE: Before going any further, we want to make one thing absolutely clear: Both of us believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Real Presence is a central teaching of our Churches and we’ve committed our lives and our priesthoods to that belief.]
On August 5, 2019, the Pew Research Center headlined “Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ.”
“In fact, nearly seven-in-ten Catholics (69%) say they personally believe that during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion ‘are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.’ Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31%) say they believe that ‘during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.’
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1324) teaches:
“[T]he Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ All sacraments, ministries, and works of the apostolate are bound up and oriented to the Eucharist.”
If, over time, the bishops have failed in their mission to teach this most critical – after the Resurrection of Jesus – element of their faith, their failure to convey their “genital theology” is understandable.
Millions of Catholics and other Christians will vote to restore or protect that right in their individual states and for members of Congress pledged to nationalize Dobbs or to pass federal legislation enshrining the Roe.
[Catholics – Roman and members of the twenty-three “Uniate” Churches allied with Rome and all of the Orthodox Churches - were always “Christian” – long before the Protestant Reformation, which began with Martin Luther in 1517 and is variously ended by historians between 1555 and 1648.]
St. Claire of Assisi
America’s Roman Catholic bishops and religious leaders of other Christian communities have lost the battle of “genital theology” and need to go back to the drawing board – or to Catholic and Christian traditions that can speak the “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12) of truths and values their people can hear, so that – fifty, sixty, maybe one-hundred years hence – they might hear the bishops’ messages about the sanctity of life and human sexuality.
Rachel K. Jones’ October 2020 opinion piece – “People of All Religions Use Birth Control and Have Abortions” - published at Guttmacher.org might serve as a warning about the lost authority of all religious leaders in the area of “no-no genital theology.”
“People of all faiths and religions want, need and use reproductive health care services. In fact, the most recent data show that more than 99% of people in the United States who identify as religious have ever used contraceptive methods such as the birth control pill, IUDs and condoms; only 1% have solely used natural family planning.
“The percentage of women who have ever used a contraceptive method other than natural family planning is nearly the same across different religions. According to newly updated 2017 data†:
99.6% of women with no religious affiliation have done so;
99.0% of Catholics;
99.4% of mainline Protestants;
99.3% of evangelical Protestants; and
95.7% of people with other religious affiliations.
“And if we break it down even further by current contraceptive type among women who are at risk of unintended pregnancy, we find that people across religious affiliations use the full spectrum of methods. For example:
Among Catholic women: 25% use sterilization, 15% use long-acting reversible contraceptives (like IUDs) and 25% use hormonal methods (like birth control pills).
Among mainline Protestant women: 26% use sterilization, 14% use long-acting reversible contraceptives and 28% use hormonal methods.
Among evangelical Protestant women: 36% use sterilization, 15% use long-acting reversible contraceptives and 20% use hormonal methods.”
Huge numbers – perhaps huge percentages – of Catholics and evangelicals – men and women – will vote for candidates committed to overthrowing Dobbs restoring Roe.
FROM TOP: Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford, Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland Dorothy Kazel, Lay Missioner with the Cleveland Diocese and the Ursuline Sisters Ms. Jean Donovan, Maryknoll Sister Maura Clarke
If our churches (and our Churches) are ever to regain teaching authority on the issues of life – “from conception to natural death” - and the dignity of the human person as the foundation of a moral vision for society, it is time for religious leaders to shout from the rooftops about
The rights of workers to unionize and receive fair and just payment for their labor and water- and heat-breaks and protection from unsafe working conditions
The rights of all men, women and children to adequate – and affordable – food and housing
The rights and dignity of the poorest of the poor and the responsibility of all persons of faith – to actually live the Gospel they proclaim (Matthew 25:31-46):
To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To welcome the stranger – the refugee and those escaping sexual abuse, government- and gang- (including drug cartels-) initiated violence
To clothe the naked
To visit the sick
To care for the imprisoned – including ending the death penalty
To honor and care for our common home, as advocated by Pope Francis in Laudato Si
Emphasizing repeatedly our Churchs’ value of democracy, condemning the lie that the 2020 elections were stolen, calling for free and fair elections this year, condemning the idea of loyalty to an individual over loyalty to the Constitution and the nation, teaching that making an idol of an individual violates the Commandments and our Churchs’ teachings
To live and practice Solidarity: We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be.
To end the international and intra-national arm races that each year cost millions of innocent lives
November 5 will mark an historic defeat for religious leaders – Catholic and others – whose almost sole focus since 1973 has been to overthrow Roe. They have allied themselves with a political party that, until 2024, made Roe and “right to life” central to their politics and quadrennial platforms but are now afraid to speak (or include in their platform) the word.
And their people have ignored their “leadership” and walked away from their often-emptying churches.
Just like the children of that “good Catholic family” with the “brute” and abusive father and their abused, “staying-and-praying and pregnant again” mother hiding behind the giant sunglasses.