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Is the Pope Catholic?: A Woman Confronts Her Church

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Joanna Manning presents in a logical and well-thought-out manner how those who "lead" the Catholic church have systematically (and illogically) kept women "in their place." Nothing I could say in my comments would say it any better than Manning does throughout her book. She is not bitter or angry, and with her historical perspective, well-documented, she is easy to follow.

Those of us who truly believed that the Vatican Council II would bring about positive change and an evolution of new respect for all of the People of God have watched as officials attempted to "put the toothpaste back into the tube," at least regarding the true definition of "Human Rights." Manning is hopeful that these current times (i.e., these very hard and challenging times in the church) will pass and the legacy of John Paul II will not be viewed in a favorable light. For those of us who are hanging on by a thread of slim hope, Manning reminds us that the Church is not the Vatican. This book is a bright light. You won't want to read this only one time, but the first time will be the most exhilarating. Highly recommended for women and men, Catholic or not. Would love to see it discussed in parishes throughout the U.S.

It is unfortunate that this book _had_ to be written. It is not about the most pleasing topic, it is not the most gentle presentation of the issues, nor is it very original. What it lacks in pleasantry, gentility, and originality, it makes up for in integrity. Here is yet one more voice being added to the chant for change, a chant being sung by the Holy Spirit at the cosmic level. Joanna Manning is one more person hurt by a sometimes unhealthy, sometimes unholy, and sometimes all too human institution. It is a call for compassion and change. It is directed to a Church which has forgotten that "Magisterium" is not just authority but consensus, and not just faith but reason; a Church who has forgotten that the Table belongs not to itself but to the Lord who invites all and turns none away; a Church who has forgotten that the Holy Spirit is a Wild Goose, to use the Irish image, and cannot, no, will not be contained or controlled, but will glorify God equally in men and women.

This book is another call to accountability for a Church needing to repent, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. . . or has the Church forgotten how to do that, too?

"The rigor and vitality of the best of the Catholic intellectual tradition had always attracted me," Joanna Manning writes in the opening chapter. She brings the same rigor to the problem of the self-contradiction at the heart of the contemporary Church, where human rights and dignity are maintained rhetorically, while women are accorded a separate-but-equal status which, as the author shows time and again, implies that women enjoy less than human rights while being subjected to de-humanizing conditions and restrictions, in marriage as well as in vocation.

In the same chapter she recounts the anguish of an African woman in the Cameroon explaining " 'You know how Africans love children, and we would never reject any of them. But we don't want to have so many. We want a better life for our children, but we can't even clothe and educate them. Yet we are desperate, because the Church tells us that we can only use the rhythm method. It doesn't work, but we don't know how to argue with the priests.'...I had spoken and written about the injustice, the lack of credibility, and the health risks which are the result of the Vatican's intransigent opposition to contraception. Never before had I heard such a direct statement of the pain of poor families, especially women, when faced with the autocracy of the Church. I knew then that my decision to defend women's rights wihtin the Church, whatever the cost, ahd been the right one...As a white Canadian woman, I do not have to face the struggle for survival, which is a daily reality for most women in two-thirds of the world. I have also enjoyed unique opportunities in my life to become theologically educated and literate in the language of the Church. I can read Latin, and I am in a position to 'argue with the priests.' But with this privilege comes the responsibility to struggle against injustice."

Some of the concrete examples of the tragedies and absurdities include the beatification of Elisabetta Canori Mora, who jeopardized her own life and her children's in what moral theology would recognize as an overscrupulous interpretation of the sacrament of marriage; a young Canadian student, also a lector, inspired by a social justice encyclical, whose parish pastor screamed that she was possessed for 'criticizing the Church' by suggesting that bequest money be used to start a homeless shelter; the fact that the Pontifical Biblical Commission, having studied the question of ordaining women at Paul VI's instruction, found that the New Testament could not of itself support the exclusion, and that the Commission supported women's ordination by a 12 to 5 vote.

Her love for the Church is evident, as is her strong disapproval of the abuse of reason to claim divine origin for irrational stereotypes imposed by clerical fiat under the guise of infallible authority. Grounding all is her argument that "to accommodate a theological position based on genitalia rather than one based on the Genesis account of male and female both made in the image of God, Pope John Paul II and those who aagree with him have been forced to distort othe doctrines of the Catholic Church. These include what theologians call christology, or teachings on the nature of Jesus; soteriology, which describes the work and redemptive mission of Jesus; the resurrection of Jesus; and ecclesiology, or the nature of the Church and in particular, the sacrament of baptism."

Perhaps her remaining faithful to the Church despite rampant clerical abuse will be seen as heroic as Elisabetta Canori Mora's.

To begin, I consider myself a feminist (or, to those die-hards who insist a feminist be a woman, I have feminist sympathies). Yet I have struggles with what's been labeled "gender feminism" and the urban myths and lies that have come from it.

Some of the critics here are more preoccupied with subjects that don't obsess me. I think abortion is important--though I don't see it so much a feminist issue, and I certainly don't see it as an alternative to contraception--the importance of which I attest to as I experienced dire consequences of very crowded countries. Divorce is an issue I consider important after having lived in a country where it didn't exist. The alternative to women who couldn't live with abusive husbands was prostitution, which, then became the city's economic base.

My concern with Manning's book is that she's caught into the feminist buzzwords. She mixes authoritarianism with "patricarchy," thereby giving a gender to a despot. She tells tales that I believe were apocryphal, yet tells them as the nature of her experience, thereby justifying an only distantly related, if real, ideological stand.

I can tell stories too, of the worst boss I've ever had, inept, despotic, in some ways abusive, who was a woman. Or a relative who constantly wears the most revealing clothing stressing her figure and everything female about her, yet relies on the woman-as-victim label to shun what little attention she receives that's unwanted, e.g., by men who don't charm her adequately. But they don't cause me to blame women for everything evil.

That kind of Manichean stuff gets us--men and women--and our relationships nowhere.

Yes, I think SOME women--many of whom I know--should be ordained (while some others I know should not!); yes, I think spousal abuse is a crime (and acknowledge what many feminists do not, that women's abuse of their husbands makes up a far greater proportion of that crime than is generally assumed). What's more, I think the present administration in the Vatican is an anachronism the consequences of which I fear may be a schism. But I don't believe that we men are, therefore, to blame for women's condition.

While Manning's points may be well-taken, I reject her approach to them.

After reading this anti-Catholic book, one must wonder if Ms. Manning dons a white hood and burns crosses on the weekend.

The author offers a liberal-left cariciature of the Church's teaching on sexuality and procreation. She screams that it oppresses women, but she offers no indictment of how modern American culture oppresses women. Where is the indictiment of the abotion industry? Of the pronographer? Of woman-impoverishing divorce? Of the pharmaceutical giants plying impoverished women with demeaning devices men would never accept?

Save your money and read some Mary Anne Glendon instead.

As a college professor of theology I am, obviously, very interested in Joanna Manning's presentation. Humanity tends to ignore the sociological and political aspects of religion. There is no better example of this than the Roman Catholic Church. I have found that the majority of 'professed' Catholics quit their religious education after high school and either consciously or unconsciously have failed to continue a personal study and exploration of their faith. A faith that should become their own rather than a religion that was handed to them, often times without choice. It is because of such individual's blind acceptance of the Church's controlled and filtered rhetoric that the full picture that Manning provides needs to be available to Catholics. Her information is to the point and not always nice to hear. I found myself gettting angrier and angrier as I read each page. This institution (as most religious institutions) struggles to practice what it preaches. And that is understandable if we remember that it is a human institution. But the people, still manipulated out of fear of damnation, are told and required to accept that such actions are Divine. It is this sad portrayal that Manning fully uncovers.

While Manning makes a good presentation of the discrimination so active in this Church, I thought she naively believes that this patriarchal institution could be righted in her lifetime. It is important that her message be shared and shouted with an on-going effort to expose such blatant discrimination. Manning's hope and belief in a re-vitalized and truly Christian Church will totally depend on John Paul II successor and the removal or retention of the current Magisterium.

Food for thought: What would happen if excerpts from this book could be read to the people from the pulpit? How many people would be enlightened? How many people would be able to continue to follow this institution that claims to speak for the Divine, who is Love, in such a biased and controlling manner? I, like Manning, believe with exposure these followers might rethink this current authority's decrees.

Manning's experience as a teacher in the Catholic School system made her intimately aware of how church policies affect her students, both the boys and the girls. And beyond the classroom she watched her church practice growing hypocrisy on the world stage. On one hand it issued general affirmations of universal human rights. On the other it sought alliances with repressive Muslim regimes to fight legal equality for women around the globe. Manning traces the post-Vatican II retrenchment for defense of a separate and unequal potential for each sex. She examines the flimsy theological excuses why only males bear the likeness of Christ, why only they can speak for the Lord, why this potential is determined by biology rather than spirit, and why all this is eternally God's will. Despite insults from the clergy, both to herself and to her students, she continues teaching what she regards as the real message of her Catholic faith, that love means equal regard between souls.

Manning is an excellent teacher, in the classroom, in writing, and in practicing what she preaches in her life. The book covers events between WWII and the late 1990's, but it speaks to the whole history of her Church.

--author of Correcting Jesus

After reading Joanna Manning's book Is the Pope Catholic?, I feel as if I've made a new friend. Although I have never met Manning, my life and hers are somewhat similar. Being gay, I can easily identify with the oppressive and mean-spirited treatment women are subjected to in the Catholic Church -- this kind of treatment is often directed against gays and lesbians. The culture of patriarchy so pervasive in the Catholic Church leads many of us to feel unvalued. The church argues pointedly that women are not and cannot be Christlike simply because they are not men. In her impassioned book, Manning argues that this patriarchal culture -- the idea that God is male -- bears responsibility for many of the ills we are now experiencing in our church. Is the Pope Catholic? Examines this oppressive ideology and the bitter fruits it has come to bear. Manning gives special attention to the church's prohibition on ordaining women. The male image of God is responsible, she writes, for the misguided notion that "women are incapable of acting in persona Christ, or as a personal representative of Christ." The Vatican believes that only men can represent Christ, because, as she writes, "only a man bears a natural resemblance to the human Jesus." But what does the church mean by "natural resemblance?" Some women can look like men, and visa versa. Some women are stronger than some men. Was Jesus a Caucasian? If so, can an Asian priest represent Jesus? Can a gay man represent a straight (as we are told) Jesus? What exactly is this "natural resemblance," Manning asks. She writes that it seems to boil down to the physiological "accident" of whether or not one has a penis. "Just as the Vatican teaches that the womb makes the woman, is it the penis that makes the priest?" In Genesis, both male and female are created in the image of God. Manning believes that by placing maleness above humanness John Paul II has forced the Catholic Church "into a heretical position." Most Catholics, including myself, feel that we emulate Christ by trying to live our lives in a like manner, not by what we may or may not have dangling between our legs. As a former nun with over thirty years of teaching in Catholic schools in Canada, Manning is well positioned to delve into the devastating effects of the church's patriarchy, most notably in the Catholic school classroom, where, she writes, "the Catholic Church continues to legitimize male dominance through sexist attitudes and practices in church structure, which in turn have an impact on the school and the family." Young men are taught early on that women are second to men, a point illustrated by the indignant remarks of one of Manning's young male students. During a discussion of the effects of sexual harassment, he exclaimed, "You can't change thousands of years of attitudes by passing laws. And, anyway, you know God is a man, and the church will never ordain women, so you will never be equal." Manning concludes that a church that essentially teaches male dominance and sexism also teaches boys and young men to devalue girls and women, and ultimately, girls and women learn to undervalue themselves. These hateful views of women not only influence the lives of Catholics but also of non-Catholics. Manning illustrates how the Holy See is using its observer status at the United Nations to perpetuate its misogynist views. She details how the Vatican aligned itself with the Reagan and Bush administrations and with the religious right here in America. Opposition to abortion, gay rights, and feminism are mainstays of their mutual agenda. This in spite of the fact that the majority of Catholics do not share John Paul II's extreme views on women and sexuality. We know that each year over 600,000 women worldwide die during pregnancy and childbirth. Many of these deaths could have avoided if women had access to contraception. The Holy See uses its voice in the UN to limit access to family planning and to block the distribution of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. It even uses its influence to deny emergency contraception to women who have been raped in war. Apparently, the Vatican believes forcing a rape victim to bear the child of her rapist is a way to promote good "family values." Where do we go from here and what can be done to change this dismal situation? A good place to start would be to challenge the idea that God is male, an idea, Manning argues, with no theological basis. We also need to rethink the antiquated notion of a God who has given "man" dominion over earth, its people and material resources. She writes that these patriarchal views "now threaten to destroy the planet." We need to move beyond dualistic and hierarchical concepts of reality such as the split between mind and body, and the human and non-human world. Manning believes we must "emphasize the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life, including animal, plant and inanimate life." Many Catholics -- progressive and otherwise -- might wonder if Manning has in fact moved beyond Catholicism into something else entirely. But with over 60 million Catholics in the United States alone, it would be naïve for anyone to think we all view God in the same manner. Advancing ideas of social and ecological balance seem to be the only way the lives of women --

and men -- and the future of our planet will improve. Now is the time for change. Ordaining women in the Catholic Church would be a big and necessary first step. Manning contends that "despite threat of excommunication, the people of God must continue to use all means possible to challenge the Vatican's heretical stance and to oppose their bishops on the issue of the ordination of women until the Vatican is either discredited or is released from this delusion." Many other Christian denominations have already ordained women. Read Manning's amazing book and discover why it's time the Catholic Church followed suit.

With excellent research and writing, Joanna Manning intelligently and passionately proves that the pontificate of John Paul II is truly mysogynistic. Yet, in this spirit-filled book, she provides a lifeline to women and others among christianity's thoeologically dispossessed.

The author drills right to the core issues concerning the cowardly actions that the present Pope has used to stifle and even reverse much of the direction of the Second Vatican Council.The author is very credible when you consider her academic background, present work and former life as a nun. Every Catholic should read this if they want a better understanding of how the Vatican is trying to keep the Holy Spirit from having an active influence on Catholics today.