More on the Women Thing

Tired of the discussion on the Vatican's women pronouncement? I'm not. Here's an excellent editorial on it from National Catholic Reporter.

Excerpt:
"So in the midst of this document on the 'Collaboration of Men and Women,' one finds an incongruous paragraph that seems intent on diminishing the sexual lives of married men and women and reestablishing celibacy atop some hierarchy of sexual expression.

"While married people 'characterize the love that never ends,’ their 'temporally and earthly expression of sexuality is transient and ordered to a phase of life marked by procreation and death. Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom seeks to be the prophecy of this form of future existence of male and female.'

"Such language is indicative of the ping-ponging back and forth between sex as a kind of cosmic symbol and sex as a limiting factor to real-life humans that often plagues discussion of sexual matters in Catholic documents.

"As with the taboos, celibacy has long ceased to be a valid measure of holiness for most Catholics.

"Coming 40 years late to a movement, feminism, that has had worldwide significance would be an embarrassment for most institutions, but it is excused in the church as an acceptable arc of progress for a 2,000-year-old organization not known for quick reactions."