Roisin Davis writes—
Something’s Missing From Pope Francis’ ‘Radical’ Vision of Equality—Women:
Pope Francis this week embarked on a seven-day “homecoming” tour of Latin America on his unstoppable quest to defend the planet and the poor.
The continent—the most unequal region in the world, and the Argentine pontiff’s home turf—will likely provide fertile ground for more of his legendary sermons on poverty and inequality. After addressing a crowd of a million in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Monday, Francis is scheduled to attend a meeting of grass-roots political activists and visit one of the continent’s largest prisons, in Bolivia, as well as a slum and a children’s hospital in Paraguay.
While he advocates for South America’s impoverished and disenfranchised, its prisoners, its indigenous peoples and its children, one group is unlikely to feature in Francis’ apparently radical agenda: its women.
Despite his efforts to champion his constituency—the world’s poor, of which the vast majority are women—the pope tends to overlook the feminized nature of poverty and inequality. [...]
As much as he has advocated “rethinking the outdated criteria which continue to rule the world,” Francis has repeatedly embraced the traditional Catholic view that a woman’s role is in the home. [...]
Given the pope’s outspoken views, we’ve been hoping he’d get around to addressing gender inequality eventually. But lest we forget, the Vatican is—and always will be—a patriarchal institution based on sexual hierarchy. Asked on two occasions about the possibility of admitting women to the ranks of the clergy, Francis has given a firm no. “That door,” he said in 2013, “is closed.”
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2004—Kerry states the obvious:
Ha ha. We've said it around these parts a million times, but there's something satisfying about seeing Kerry say it:
Asked about the differences between Edwards and Cheney going into the November 2 presidential election, Bush replied tersely: "Dick Cheney can be president." [...]
Kerry said Bush was right one thing about Cheney. "He was right that Dick Cheney was ready to take over on day one, and he did and he has been ever since, and that's what we got to change."
Good one, John!
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today's Kagro in the Morning show:
Greg Dworkin discusses Dave Weigel’s recent article on Rand Paul’s Maharishi Effect. Should progressives be for Hillary or Bernie or Policy? The hole in Paul LePage’s pocket. The Confederate flag as a political issue, and gun safety as a public safety issue. And is China, Greece and the rest of the world in financial free fall, or not? Is the shooting in San Francisco a #GunFAIL or something else?
Joan McCarter urges us to cheer up and be thankful for last week, though more trouble is headed our way.
Arliss Bunny returns to suggest that we just take a couple deep breaths and relax about this China thing.
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