New Boston Bishop Sean O'Malley has made a bit of news this holy weekend by breaking with Law's practice of washing the feet of both men and women during an Easter ritual that mimicks Jesus' washing of his disciples feet. O'Malley, pointing out that all the disciples were men, says he will only wash men's feet.
I have a certain amount of respect for the catholic church. Liberation theology, the Catholic Worker, great stuff.
But the Boston diocese has got to be amongst the most disgusting mockeries of religion God has ever seen (a lot of competition, granted.) O'Malley has a tough task to reform its image in the wake of a sex scandel that included such details as several priests who individually abused more than 100 boys, traded cocaine for oral sex, and pimped out teen parishioners, while O'Malley's predecessors shuttled the worst abusers from church to church. But fortunately for him, there's a ready made issue sure to distract the faithful with even more lurid perfidity: Gay Marriage.
The rich are richer than ancient gods, 6,000 homeless live on the streets of Boston, we're mired in an unnecessary war, and the best the church can manage is an all-out assault against the secular rights of gays and lesbians. That's funny, because I remember a lot about rich and poor and war and peace and nothing about gay marriage written in the red letters.
Christ said, after the prostitute had washed his feet: "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."
But the Boston diocese doesn't give a fuck about what Christ said. In desperate need of forgiveness, has it loved - foul puns aside - at all?
Take off the mask O'Malley! Let's see your horns.