Nice message, Ian, but I want to comment on this line from you:

That's perhaps one of the reasons I cannot understand how and why good people prop up such institutions.

Well, I don't think that's so, Ian. We only "prop up" such people if we support them and obey them. I claim the Catholic Church belongs to me, not to the bishops. My bishop and the Pope have very little say-so about what goes on in my parish. If you ask anyone in my parish, they will tell you that Joe Offer has a lot of say-so about what happens there - because in every parish where I have been a member, I have worked relentlessly to ensure that it is a good parish. So, we feed the hungry and we're working to reform the county jail, and we're campaigning against capital punishment - and very, very little is said about birth control, gay marriage, or abortion.

Our bishop withdrew Annual Appeal funding from a service agency whose director spoke in favor of gay marriage and Planned Parenthood. I wrote to the bishop and demanded a refund of my contribution - and I got my money back.

This is my church. If I disagree with the leaders, I stand up and say so - and on a local level, I play politics until I think things are right. Why should I abandon my church to the bastards?

I think the nuns think the same way. That's why they're taking a stand. It takes courage to stand and fight, and I applaud the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for doing just that.

-Joe-