Hypocrisy in action...

Apparently another thing holding back the Catholic church holding itself back (besides the ass hats at the top of the hierarchy) from joining the rest of the secular world in the 21st century is a bunch of people afraid of losing their social status and not being part of the club.  A couple of days ago, an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal raised awareness of the plight of the status of women in the Roman Catholic church.  And showed me why it's not just the cardinals and bishops holding them back.

The article in full by Charlie White is here:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20131208/NEWS01/312080047/Louisville-woman-ordained-priest-ceremony-meant-send-message-Catholics

Recently, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (which has been disavowed by the Vatican) held a ceremony in the city where they ordained three local women as Roman Catholic Priests and two others from outside of the state.  The ceremony itself had over 200 attendees.  It has been the second ordination ceremony held by the group here in Louisville in the past year.   One of the goals of the organization is to show the Vatican that women can be represented equally amongst the sausage-fest Catholic priesthood and that women have a voice.  They started ordaining members over a decade ago and their membership of women priests has been slowly climbing since.  While I commend these women and others in the organization, most of whom grew up in the traditional Catholic church, challenging a very misogynistic and sexist practice in their own way.  I am upset at another group discussed only briefly in the article quoted here:

“Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville officials have said Catholics should not support or participate in events held by the association, maintaining it has no connection to the Roman Catholic Church.
Some association supporters who attended Sunday’s ceremony sat on the upper level to avoid having their photos taken because they said they would be excommunicated if they were seen at the ceremony.”

We all know that the official Catholic top level hierarchy has a level of sexism that cannot be matched anywhere else, and will vocally confirm it when asked at every opportunity.  That’s been done enough.  Who I am taking to task right now are the spineless “association supporters” who support the ordination of Catholic women priests, but are afraid to be seen publicly supporting them because that would mean they get kicked out of the special club whose authority figures disagree with them.  That sort of hypocrisy just makes me seethe with frustration.
I would love to ask some simple questions to these nameless, faceless Catholic church members who don’t want to be seen for fear of excommunication:

If excommunication is what I would get if I were a traditional Catholic seen supporting ordination of women priests, then give me excommunication.  It’s the same thing as being a Catholic who supports contraception, abortion, or gay marriage in private but afraid to show it in public because they don't want to be kicked out.  It makes no sense.  If you are so afraid of being kicked out for showing that you disagree with the church, then why would you even risk being exposed?

I understand that getting kicked out of any religious organization such as the Catholic Church could cause issues like being socially ostracized, losing friends, family members and a support network.  And the only case I could possibly understand where a Catholic person would not want to be exposed is if they are employed by the Catholic church directly.  Getting removed from your job (for doing the right thing) without a fallback is a very risky choice especially if you are raising a family, and why I support movements like The Clergy Project.
 
There’s a movie that reminds me of this whole situation.  It’s a kids’ film, but I guarantee eight year olds would get the parallel easier than these adult scaredy-cat, not willing to take a stand Catholics would.  The 1994 film Little Rascals.  In that film, the little boys have a “He-Man Woman Haters Club”, where women are not allowed in.  Alfalfa, (best friend of Spanky, founder of the club) falls for a girl named Darla and tries to play both sides.  While his friends try to sabotage his lunch date rendezvous with Darla at the clubhouse, Alfalfa unwittingly burns the clubhouse down (which is what the club deserved for not letting women join in the first place).  While Alfalfa is trying to convince Darla he isn’t part of the club anymore and also trying to convince his friends that girls aren’t all that bad, Spanky decides to make Alfalfa test loyalty to the club by guarding the club’s go-kart before the big race. (Personally, this is the point where I would’ve said ‘Screw you, asshole.’)  When Alfalfa leaves his guard post to try to make up with Darla, the go-kart gets stolen.  The friends eventually make up when Alfalfa finds out the other boys sabotaged his date.  So, Alfalfa and Spanky build a new go-kart to win the race where the prize is given to them by a famous race-car driver that Spanky adores, with the name A.J. Ferguson, who turns out to be a female which blows Spanky away.  Alfalfa gets the girl and the trophy, Spanky and the He-Man Woman Haters have a change of heart and allow women into their club.  And the entire thing would’ve never happened if the club had just accepted women in the first place.  And then it only got resolved because a club member stood up for what he knew was wrong and was willing to give up his club and friends for it. Now if a group of kindergartners can watch this movie and learn that lesson and stand up for what’s right, then why can’t these spineless Catholics who avoided being publicly photographed at a Catholic women’s ordination ceremony they obviously supported tell their Catholic elders to go screw themselves.