The Los Angeles Times marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council with a scathing assessment of the current leadership of the Catholic Church written by John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, an advocacy group in Washington.
He writes: "The Vatican's tone-deaf scolding of self-sacrificing nuns is just the latest sign that church leaders may be dragging Catholicism, known for social justice and intellectual rigor, into the reactionary arms of fundamentalist Christianity. On the same day the Vatican sought to rein in American nuns, it reached out to reconcile with the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist group founded by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre that broke with the church in the wake of Vatican II. ….
"In the face of this embattled, defensive Catholicism, it's no wonder that many Catholics have been cheering as a Nuns on the Bus tour rolled through several states this summer and into the fall. The trip highlighted the inspiring work sisters do in leading service agencies that feed the hungry and care for the sick."
