It is church leadership, from the popes all the way down, that hasn’t been able to tell right from wrong. Yet how can this be, in an institution at least nominally dedicated to precisely that task? I think there are two interrelated reasons.
The first is an age-old problem. Since its alliance with the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, the Catholic hierarchy has been tempted by power. It has cloaked itself in mystery to rule by edict rather than by example. At root, this scandal springs from idolatry: Bishops employ secrecy and deceit to promote the heresy that the priesthood is superior to the people in the pews. The words of John A. Hardon, a Jesuit priest, are as true now as when he wrote them 20 years ago: “Most of the chaos in the Catholic Church today is due to the pride of priests.”
.. The second is the church’s unfortunate negative obsession with sex — a problem it shares with many conservative Protestant congregations. To a broken world they offer a gospel of no-nos. The church exalts, from the Virgin Mary to the parish priest, the sexless life, as though the very engine of God’s creation were a sign of spiritual failure and source of shame.
Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”
Originally written and performed by Otis Redding, “Respect” became a feminist and civil rights anthem by the “Queen of Soul.” Here’s how that happened. (Sarah Hashemi, Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)
Brock Turner Wanted Only ‘Outercourse,’ Lawyer Argues in Appeal
A lawyer for Brock Turner, whose six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman prompted outrage in 2016 and beyond, argued this week that the former Stanford swimmer shouldn’t have been convicted of intending to commit rape because he merely sought “outercourse.”
.. Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor who led a committee to recall Judge Persky, said the appeal tactics confirmed what critics had said during the sentencing: that Mr. Turner hadn’t been remorseful or taken responsibility.
Review: In ‘SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome,’ Mary Beard Tackles Myths and More
About Caligula, for example, she writes: “The idea of some modern scholars that his dinner parties came close to orgies, with his sisters ‘underneath’ him and his wife ‘on top,’ rests simply on a mistranslation of the words of Suetonius, who is referring to the place settings — ‘above’ and ‘below’ — at a Roman dining table.” Yes, this is how rumors start.