http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/matthew-fox-talks-obedience-and-courage-young-adults-and-church
...Bishops who do not agree with the Vatican
on some issues and who see how some of the Vatican's positions do harm to
people, but they obey and cooperate with the Vatican anyway. Do you see
parallels to fascism there?
So often it comes down to preferring one's job security or career advancement
to the truth or to Jesus. Susan Sontag defines fascism as institutionalized
violence: violence in the name of institution and the act of hiding behind an
institution. A good example of this, of course, is the pedophilia crisis. I use
the word fascism in the book because all fundamentalisms, not just the Catholic
kind, are about freezing power.
John Paul II and Cardinal [Joseph] Ratzinger thoroughly opposed liberation
theology and instead snuggled up to those who believed in absolute obedience.
Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, was very close to
the Chilean dictator [Augusto] Pinochet. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, papal nuncio to
John Paul II and now dean of the College of Cardinals, appeared on TV to support
Pinochet, even as he was torturing and abducting people. Members of Opus Dei
served as ministers in Franco's fascist government. The movements that were so
attractive to John Paul and Ratzinger were authoritarian, rigid, patriarchal and
fundamentalist. It's a pity because Vatican II was an attempt to learn from the
sins of fascism and to override the history of extreme obedience.
What do you think is driving this fundamentalist strand in our church
and our political discourse?
Part of it is fear. When people are fearful, they want some kind of support,
some kind of clarity if at all possible. They are afraid of chaos, so law and
order take precedence. But I think an even deeper strand to this fascism is
misogyny. There is an anti-feminine bias to all of this. There is a dreaded fear
of the feminine. I think it goes back thousands of years when the goddess was
revered and integrated into the culture. When patriarchy took over around 500
BC, our myths changed. In the Babylonian myth, the feminine goddess, Tiamat, was
also the goddess of chaos. And the god Marduk killed her. The feminine was evil
and chaos was evil. And the goal became to enslave or even kill the feminine and
chaos. I think this has been played out for a long time, often in the name of
religion or science. ..."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
I think that Jamie Manson's interview with Matthew Fox is insightful. The deep hostility by the hierarchy to the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement speaks volumes about their fear of the feminine which is rooted in misogyny. They have tried every punishment possible, including excommunication, to intimidate our supporters and have come up empty. The Spirit of God blows where She wills. Let us rejoice that the Spirit of God is working in the women priests' movement to renew the church.
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