The term misogynist gets over worked at times, but an interview just given by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke would provide a text book illustration of the term.
Former highest-ranking U.S. cardinal blames ‘feminization’ for the Catholic Church’s problems
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke is a man with a lot of enemies. The former archbishop of St. Louis, who once said supporters of abortion rights shouldn’t receive communion, became the highest-ranking American in the Vatican during the tenure of former Pope Benedict on the strength of unabashed conservatism. But as soon as Pope Francis arrived on the scene, that same conservatism turned divisive when Burke criticized Francis’s progressive policies.
For example, Burke, who headed the Vatican’s highest court of canon law, lampooned Francis in a Buzzfeed interview late last year. He said Francis had “done a lot of harm. … The pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts.” Weeks later, the pope booted the rampaging cardinal, who had come to symbolize the so-called “Culture Wars” roiling the Vatican, demoting him to a ceremonial post with the charity group Knights of Malta.
Pope Francis may now be wishing that he had made him the primate of all Antarctica. He has now become the
mouthpiece for a group that calls itself The New Emangelization Project. Its purpose is to draw men to Jesus and his Catholic Church.
Burke wants to blame all of the problems faced by the Roman Catholic Church on women in general and feminist in particular. He seems to have formulated a doctrine that might be described as spiritual castration.
Unfortunately, the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men; the importance of the father, whether in the union of marriage or not; the importance of a father to children; the importance of fatherhood for priests; the critical impact of a manly character; the emphasis on the particular gifts that God gives to men for the good of the whole society.
The goodness and importance of men became very obscured, and for all practical purposes, were not emphasized at all. This is despite the fact that it was a long tradition in the Church, especially through the devotion of St. Joseph, to stress the manly character of the man who sacrifices his life for the sake of the home, who prepares with chivalry to defend his wife and his children and who works to provide the livelihood for the family. So much of this tradition of heralding the heroic nature of manhood has been lost in the Church today.
All of those virtuous characteristics of the male sex are very important for a child to observe as they grow up and mature. The healthy relationship with the father helps the child to prepare to move from the intimate love of the mother, building a discipline so that the child can avoid excessive self‑love. This ensures that the child is able to identify himself or herself properly as a person in relationship with others; this is critical for both boys and girls.
He goes on to blame the epidemic of child sexual abuse inflicted by male priest on the feminist influences that somehow warped their sexuality. The efforts of women to become more active participants in the life and liturgy of the church has frightened men away from their rightful place of dominant authority. The women should have stuck to rattling their rosaries and doing the flowers on the altar.
While I haven't been as optimistic about Pope Francis bringing radical change to the church as some, I definitely think that a pope that had the courage to put a guy like this out to pasture has done something right. Of course the problemn is that there are a lot more men both inside and outside of the Catholic Church who think like this. This group that he is speaking on behalf of sounds like an ecclesiastical version of the men's rights movement.