Garry Wills hits a time warp
By Phil Lawler (bio - articles - send a comment) | April 30, 2012 4:22 PM
Defending the Leadership Conference of Women Religious against that nasty old Vatican in the New York Review of Books, Garry Wills invites the reader to step into a time machine and travel back to the early 1960s:
The priests drive their own new cars, while nuns ride the bus (always in pairs). The priests specialize in arrogance, the nuns in humility.
No, wait. Wills says that is happening today. It’s been many years since the women of the LCWR were traveling humbly in pairs. But perhaps Will hasn’t been paying careful attention to developments within the Church over the past 50 years or so. He certainly didn’t pay much attention to the Vatican’s actual statement on the need for LCWR reform.
Now the Vatican says that nuns are too interested in “the social Gospel” (which is the Gospel), when they should be more interested in Gospel teachings about abortion and contraception (which do not exist).
That’s not what the Vatican said, of course, on either count. But if you read the Gospel carefully, you’ve find that exactly the same number of words devoted to federal health-care spending as to contraception. (Regarding abortion, the phrase “thou shalt not kill”—from the Old Testament, but repeated several times in the New--comes to mind.) Yes, certainly you’ll find a mandate to care for the sick and the needy. But you won’t find detailed descriptions of preferred government policies. Yes, the “social Gospel” is the Gospel. But so is the Gospel of Life.
|
An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus: Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you! |
Easter Campaign: Progress toward our Spring 2013 goal ($34,091 to go):
$80,000.00
$45,908.77
43%
57%
|
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
