To wit:
Item #1: An article in the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati fired an unmarried teacher after she became pregnant through artificial insemination. The woman has now filed a lawsuit alleging that she is a victim of gender discrimination. The grounds? Men who donate sperm are not likely to be fired while for women a pregnancy and baby are difficult to hide.
| Christa Dias with her 11-month-old daughter |
The Archdiocese fired Christa Dias---who is not Catholic---for violating her contract as technology coordinator at Holy Family and St. Lawrence schools in East Price Hill, Ohio. The original grounds were that Dias was pregnant and unmarried. The Archdiocese later changed the grounds to the "grave immoral" act of using artificial insemination to become pregnant. Why? Archdiocesan officials feared a discrimination lawsuit if Dias' marital status was an issue.
However, Dias says her lawsuit is really about a rigid religious institution that refuses to adapt to modern life and is punishing her for celebrating life with birth. Now the single mother of a 10-month-old girl and unemployed, Dias said:
I've always wanted to have a baby. That's why I became a teacher, because I love kids. I didn't think it would be a problem.
The Motley Monk asks: On what planet?
Item #2: The Los Angeles Times reports that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the early resignation of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, who recently acknowledged being the father of two teenagers.
 |
| Resigned bishop Gabino Zavala standing to the right of his mentor, Cardinal Roger Mahoney |
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez published a letter stating that Zavala told
him last December that he had two children is living with their mother in a
different state. Following that conversation, Zavala submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI. Canon law allows bishops to resign before the normal retirement age of 75 if they're sick or for "some other reason" that makes them unfit to fulfill their responsibilities.
The Motley Monk asks: Like being married and the father of two teenaged daughters?
Item #3: The New York Post reports that the Manhattan District Attorney's office is dropping a self-abortion case against a woman who was arrested after her fetus was found in the trash.
Last November, Yaribely Almonte, 20, was arrested on the misdemeanor charge of forcibly causing a miscarriage when she was more than 6 months pregnant. Abortion is illegal after that point in New York, unless the procedure is necessary to save the woman's life. It is believed that Almonte drank an herbal tea available from local bodegas that induced premature labor. The building superintendent where Almonte lives discovered the fetus in a plastic garbage bag.
The DA's office said it was declining to prosecute but would continue investigating.
The Motley Monk asks: Investigating herbal tea available at local bodegas that induce premature labor?
What a world we live in! A teacher in a Catholic school who thinks that bearing children out of wedlock wouldn't present any problem. An auxiliary bishop who has two daughters living with their mother in another state. A woman who self-inflicts an illegal abortion and throws her unborn infant into the trash, yet the Manhattan DA's office won't prosecute.
All The Motley Monk can do is shake his head at what seems to constitute the "new normal." What will next week's news bring?
Let the discussion being...
To read the Cincinnati Enquirer article, click on the following link:
To read the article in the Los Angeles Times, click on the following link:
To read the New York Post article, click on the following link:
Catholics have no concept of Catholic moral teaching or the stand of the Church on the majority of social issues but 'the intelligentsia' running the Church in Rome and throughout the US have spent decades dreaming up a "new Sacramentary' to satisfy elements in the Church who are still sulking about Vatican II.
ReplyDeleteThese intelligent few, have succeeded in producing a Mass that sounds as silly as the public pronouncements coming from the Bishops on social issues.