Bonnie, I think that your expectation is that the Catholic Church should have all the questions answered, and that all Catholics should support those answers. You wouldn't want to belong to an organization that dictated all that you're supposed to think and do, but you think that Catholics should have such an organization so that it's easier for you to condemn Catholics without your being thought of as bigoted. You want to redefine the Catholic Church in fundamentalist terms, to make it easier for you to feel smug about condemning it. Your line of thinking cannot account for the messiness that quite healthily exists in the Catholic Church.

But no, it's isn't all that clear-cut. There are many Catholics who are every bit as intelligent and well-meaning as you are. They also question the Catholic Church's discrimination against women and homosexuals, its scandalous failure to protect children from molestation, and its illogical condemnation of birth control. Thinking Catholics exist in the Catholic Church in large numbers, and they don't always buy the company propaganda. The balance of the discussion seems to be tipped toward those in authority, but those who "dissent" have one big thing in their favor: their participation in the Catholic Church is voluntary. And all those thinking Catholics are still there, slowly and quietly pushing for change.

Yeah, it was a heavy price for our nun to pay, to be excommunicated for following her conscience. It's how conscientious objection works, however - you have to be ready to pay the penalty, knowing that the Almighty has a far higher opinion of you that church authorities do. To be readmitted, she had to go through a demeaning process of renouncing her decision to allow the abortion. She was moved to another diocese where the bishop wasn't so intent on grandstanding on the abortion issue, and she's back at work doing good stuff. Her religious order, the Sisters of Mercy, supported her completely during this trying time. But if Catholics don't pay the price and stand up for what is right, can we ever make any progress?

No, that Catholic Church is not going to make abortion "allowable" for those who choose abortion in good conscience. Yes, the Catholic Church will continue to impose sanctions on those who choose to have an abortion. It takes the issue of abortion seriously, and it has to impose sanctions to make its position stick. Still, it acknowledges that those who choose abortion in good conscience do not have moral culpability - i.e., they can't go to hell for it unless they think it's gravely evil and freely choose to do it anyhow.

A woman I know and love had two abortions in the 1980s. This woman would have been a good mother to those two children, but she was unable to escape her relationship with the children's father, and didn't feel she could raise the children safely in his presence. So, she chose abortion, and took the lives of those two children. I think the loss of those two children was wrong, and it is cause for grief. Still, I think the woman made the decision that was right for her. Now, that might not be satisfactory to those of you black-and-white people who think that things must be either right or wrong. But in real life, we have to make a lot of decisions that don't offer clear-cut moral certainty.

I suppose that according to Jim Carroll's rules, if I'm a good Catholic, I should condemn this woman for her abortions for the rest of her life. But those abortions happened thirty years ago, and they can't be undone. Life goes on, and this woman is a wonderful woman It would be absurd for anyone to continue to condemn this woman for decisions she made thirty years ago.

Our lives are full of grey. It's not all black-and-white.

-Joe-