Jamie Reidy comments on a Catholic diocese’s decision to fire a woman over her use of IVF.
CNN’s Leigh Remizowski reports on an ex-teacher’s lawsuit against the Ft. Wayne-South Bend Catholic diocese:
In its statement, diocese officials said that “the church promotes treatment of infertility through means that respect the right to life, the unity of marriage, and procreation brought about as the fruit of the conjugal act. There are other infertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, which are not morally licit according to Catholic teaching.”
Full disclosure: had I gone to Mass when I lived in Indiana from 1995-97, I would have been a member of this diocese. I’m pretty psyched I didn’t and wasn’t.
I want to root for the church in which I was raised, a dinosaur that hemorrhages flock members like it’s its J-O-B. But statements like this make me wonder whose side the Catholic Church is on. (So much so, that I ended a sentence with a preposition.)
We TOTALLY want you to procreate and backstroke through the joyful sea that is parenthood, but only if nature allows it. Pay no attention to the fact that, in 1998, the Pope said Viagra was a good thing.
Uh, HELLO, priests: 98% of Catholic women say they have utilized birth control. Get with the program, Padres!
What do you think of the strict adherence to Church doctrine that resulted in this career termination?
It is my understanding that the diocese is within its rights to discriminate on the basis of religious beliefs. She knew that going in. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be criticized for it. I won’t do that. I think it was made at the diocese level and unless this particular diocese had protected pedophile priests, I don’t see any hypocrisy. “We TOTALLY want you to procreate and backstroke through the joyful sea that is parenthood, but only if nature allows it. Pay no attention to the fact that, in 1998, the Pope said Viagra was a good thing.” To… Read more »
Circumcision is not a “Catholic” thing, it’s Jewish. And thank you for clarifying the Viagra issue. “A Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse by Dr. Thomas Plante of Stanford University and Santa Clara University states that “approximately 4% of priests during the past half century (and mostly in the 1960s and 1970s) have had a sexual experience with a minor” which “is consistent with male clergy from other religious traditions and is significantly lower than the general adult male population” I’m a CCD teacher for 6th graders and you wouldn’t believe the hoops I had to jump through to get certified.… Read more »
First, Tom, thank you for your comment. It was really beautiful to hear that perspective, and I really appreciate it. John, about the reason for opposing IVF. I’m reasonably certain it has nothing to do with impregnation “only through sex.” Instead it has to do with the usual need to destroy multiple fertilized eggs in order to successfully bring one to term. As the Catholic Church believes fertilized eggs are human life, even if just a single cell, then it is improper to destroy them. Thus, the doctrine is actually consistent, as opposed to what many others seem to be… Read more »
Does everyone else think of priests molesting little boys when they think of the Catholic church? I know I do.
Anyway, they may claim to have some good ideas about how to be moral, but if you look at the actions of the church or any fundamentalist religion, their effect on the world is entirely negative. They paint the world as a black and white place, when most of it is grey.
“their effect on the world is entirely negative. They paint the world as a black and white place, when most of it is grey.”
Kinda ironic to accuse them of seeing the world in black and white and then paint them in black and white, as if they don’t run countless soup kitchens, orphanages, homeless shelters, and charities in many parts of the world. It’s factually incorrect (black and white) to claim their impact has been entirely negative.
@Donna … The problem as I see it, the world is black and white. It’s when we introduce so much gray that things get screwed up. When there is clarity in life, life can be easier to handle. If I steal a loaf of bread, it’s stealing. If I steal a loaf of bread to feed my kids, the reason may be admirable but it’s still stealing. If you’re speeding and don’t get caught, you’re still speeding. The diocese that let this women go was within their right to do so simply because it goes against the doctrine of the… Read more »
I’m not Catholic and won’t comment directly on this doctrinal issue. However, what bothers me the most about this and other groups is not their ideologies, rather their hypocrisy. If you say you believe in a principle, live it, or at least try. For instance, I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with it them forbidding priets to marry (and have sex with their adult wives) if they hadn’t been, at the the very same time, permitting many of those same priests to sexually molest children. this is one example, but this kind of thing takes away much of… Read more »
There are all sorts of ways to create a family. Those of us who are multiethnic can testify to that!
I’m always glad to see the Catholic Church doubling down on their misogyny–it helps hasten their demise. But combined with their existing manufactured “outrage” about having to provide equal medical benefits with other employers AND their recent smackdown of American nuns who dared to open their mouths without getting permission from the pontiff… well, now they’ve really scored a hat trick.
Well done, Vatican. Get your agenda out there and proud for all to see–and reject.