I was doing some research on Church reform groups for our list and happened upon this.
In a system that cared more for its clerical image than it did for the people it purported to serve, theologians, canonists, scholars and women all went unattended with their questions, ignored in their concerns. The balance of hierarchy, laity and scholars, which Thomas Aquinas defined as the fullness of the church, seemed lost forever. The clerical culture of silence, exclusion and sacred domination simply stopped the church cold, struck questioners dumb, drew up the drawbridge on discussion after discussion: birth control, homosexuality, celibacy, married clergy, divorce, the role of women in the church. Those questions, we were told, had been answered once for all, were determined in heaven, were answered in male clerical synods, were not to be broached by the likes of the barbarians at the gates.
It was St. Teresa of Avila who said “God preserve us from stupid nuns.”
