The Church...love it or leave it.

Ah...the Catholic Church!  Some say love it or leave it.  Others just let it wash right over them.  Still others, like me, wonder why the church we were raised in is so blatantly women-phobic.

I am a "cradle" Catholic...born and raised in the faith of my mother.  Catholic school through college.  Mass every weekend.  All the sacraments.  Raised my own children in the faith...and so on.

But, I have to tell ya, I am one frustrated church-goer.  I still do attend mass, but am continually dismayed by the "new" language that was instituted a year ago.  The theory was that church leaders wanted liturgical prayers to be translated directly from the Latin...the language of the oppressors of Christ and the Apostles.   Why?  Who knows! 

Rather than work on inclusive language to draw us all closer, the men in Rome decided to push us further away.  Why?  Who knows?

Our new pope, Francis, says that women are important and should have leadership in the church; however, they cannot be priests...that's already been discussed...door closed.  The investigations of religious communities go on because, well...they were started and they continue....I guess even the pope is powerless to stop Vatican machinery.  In other words....he won't touch these issues.  Why?  Who knows?

So here's my idea:  all women who work for/attend church should go on "strike" for one month.  No church or church activities at all.  We could spend the time praying for all of those men who now have to wash their own clothes and make their own dinner and clean their own bathrooms!  Seriously, though...maybe it would draw attention to the fact that the half of the population that is patently left out of church language and decisions, are the half that does the work to keep the church going.  I think it would be very interesting!