Maureen Dowd and Vatican disregard for women

Lisa Fullam calls our attention to Maureen Dowd's October 24 column linking "the Vatican investigation of US women’s apostolic religious communities to the welcome extended to disgruntled Anglicans."

Dowd, who recalls well her years in Catholic elementary school, writes:

As the Vatican is trying to wall off the “brides of Christ,” Cask of Amontillado style, it is welcoming extreme-right Anglicans into the Catholic Church — the ones who are disgruntled about female priests and openly gay bishops. Il Papa is even willing to bend Rome’s most doggedly held dogma, against married priests — as long as they’re clutching the Anglicans’ Book of Common Prayer.
‘Most of the Anglicans who want to move over to the Catholic Church under this deal are people who have scorned women as priests and have scorned gay people,’ [author Kenneth] Briggs said. “The Vatican doesn’t care that these people are motivated by disdain.”

The ongoing discussion provoked at the online Catholic publication dotCommonweal is intense and worth a look.