Viewpoint: Phyllis Zagano reflects on clerical attitudes towards women

Man Ray bondage sculpture

American Catholic journalist and writer Phyllis Zagano reflects on Lent, the bureaucracy in the Catholic Church and clerical attitudes towards women, in her commentary, entitled The Twilight Zone, published today in the National Catholic Reporter.... She writes:

''' Christians are moving through Lent gently, turning away from sin and toward the Gospel. But the bureaucracy chugs along in its own dimension, ignoring the retrograde backdrop, unknowing of the ways ignorant clericalism crushes the hearts and minds of women looking for the truth.

To read on, see: http://ncronline.org/blogs/just-catholic/twilight-zone

Note: The Pontifical Council for Culture chose the 1936 Man Ray sculpture (pictured left) to illustrate the Plenary Assembly Working Document on Women's Cultures. The Council said in a statement: 'Some complaints have reached the Dicastery concerning the image.... While acknowledging the anger, Cardinal Ravasi has chosen not to remove the image as it speaks clearly for one of the central points of the document: many women, alas, are still struggling for freedom (bound with rope), their voices and intellect often unheard (headless), their actions unappreciated (limbless).'