I’ve read the article that you have suggested and I ask again, where is the evidence that the Church and its institutions hated unwed mothers and their children?
Surely the fact that the Church invested buildings and nuns in an effort to help unwed mothers and their children would speak against the charge that they hated them.
I know there have been past attempts by secularists to argue that guilt is bad and portray the Church as evil because its dogmas ‘create’ and ‘encourage’ guilt. With this in mind it has tried to paint the Church in the most evil of lights. The worldwide beat-up with this story is just the latest attempt.
The manufactured morality of removing guilt from society has been far more socially destructive and uncompassionate than even any imagined bogey man historical Catholic Church.
Again, I ask for evidence.
The Church has invested billions of dollars in Africa caring for those with the terminal condition of AIDS. Does the Church hate those outcasts also?
Mother Theresa and her nuns cared for the poor in Calcutta. Does the Church hate those outcasts also?
I find your charge that the Catholic Church hated unwed mothers and their children to be as offensive as it is ridiculous.
I think part of the problem is that we may have a miss communication. I never said that the Catholic Church hated unwed mothers. What I did say was that:
"MacBP:
We were certainly complicit in creating and enforcing a culture where illegitimate children were stigmatized and their mothers were made to suffer.
Given the great prominence of the Catholic Church in Irish society, I think it’s fair to say that the Church had a hand in creating and maintaining Irish culture. Disputing that would require you to either claim that the Catholic Church was not influential in Ireland or that influential religious groups do not affect culture.
The question, then, should be whether unwed mothers and their children were stigmatized in Irish society. In addition to the overwhelming amount of commentary saying that this is the case, we have Tuskar Rock’s post which suggests this to be true.
This book review summarizes a scholarly book on the subject which discusses how that stigmatization lead to the practice of infanticide.
You may, rightly, point out that I have yet to demonstrate where the Church has specifically taught that unwed mothers are bad or to stigmatize their children. On this point I will concede that I cannot. I would, however, challenge you demonstrate how the Church worked to end the aforementioned stigmatization. I would bet that you can’t. This is despite the fact that She had the power, influence, and means to do so. This would suggest that the Church is at least complicit in maintaining the status quo.
I absolutely agree with you that there is a widespread and unfair attempt to cast the Church in a negative light for holding definitive moral stances on unpopular issues. I’m also in full agreement that the Church does a lot of wonderful things for the poor and sick. Unfortunately, while Church has much to be proud of She has also caused some evils. We should expect that! The Church is made up of sinners, and those sinners will sometimes do bad things. The important thing to do is to acknowledge our flaws, seek forgiveness, provide restitution where possible and resolve to do better in the future.
I find it a critique that is shallow, self-serving and mis-representative.
You have to define what the writer means by ‘the Church will punish you’. If it is in reference to the manufactured morality mentioned above which tried to ‘eliminate guilt’ then it is the writer who should be made to defend his view in the light of modern history.
I think the writer was pointing out that because of the existing stigma, an unwed woman who became pregnant would either have to have an abortion or face considerable societal stigmatization. This is unique to the Irish situation. Even on the CAF I have seen people making disparaging comments about teenage mothers who become pregnant. On the one hand, I understand why. I think we can all agree that the young woman in question should not have been having sex when she was not prepared to raise a baby. On the other hand, shaming and criticizing these women only motivates them to have an abortion.
There is a time and place to teach the evils of premarital sex and of having sex without being open to the possibility of new life. That time is not after the act has happened. Women in these situations are extremely vulnerable and need support, protection and the assurance of safety. Promoting a truly pro-life culture requires all of us to treat children, regardless of the circumstance of their conception, as gifts and it requires us to treat the mother accordingly.
I understand that it is extremely difficult to tread the line between loving the sinner and hating the sin. I don’t think the Church should be hated for missing the balance, but I do think it’s fair to acknowledge when we have gone too far the other way.
