Femen feminists attack Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium

"Scantily clad activists of feminist group Femen invaded a conference at a university in Brussels. During the act, demonstrators threw water on the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Andre-Joseph Leonard. The priest did not react and avoided looking at the activists. The protest was against homophobia, according to international agencies. At the end of the demonstration, the archbishop kissed a picture of the Virgin Mary to leave the room. Born in Ukraine and with subsidiaries in several countries (including Brazil and nations with a Muslim majority), the Femen often campaigning for the rights of women and minorities. One of their banners is the defense of gay marriage."

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The Catholic Church in Belgium on Wednesday angrily denounced Femen topless protesters who targeted its primate at a conference though the archbishop himself remained composed and apparently at prayer throughout.

The four protesters leapt out of their seats at a debate on blasphemy and freedom of expression held at the Brussels' Free University (ULB) campus Tuesday evening, baring their breasts and squirting water at Archbishop Andre Leonard as they accused him of homophobia.

Security guards threw the women out of the hall within minutes as the archbishop remained quietly seated, his hands crossed apparently in prayer.

The Belgian religious leader, a known conservative, has often been criticised for his stand on gay issues.
In March he said homosexuals should practise "a form of celibacy and abstinence" and welcomed protests in France against its gay marriage legislation.

The Church in a statement denounced "the attitude of a few persons... in total contradiction with the theme of the debate and with the manner in which the Catholic Church hopes for dialogue".

"At the end of the demonstration, the archbishop kissed a picture of the Virgin Mary to leave the room."

Link to AFP story

Men - Emasculated by the Culture

From Tim Drake at the National Catholic Register, an interview with Doug Barry:

One of the crises facing men is that they’ve been emasculated by the culture, haven’t they?

 
Yes: One of the key reasons that men have lost the fighting spirit is because so much culturally has made men look like fools. The feminist movement has made men look like they’re not the heads of the family, that they don’t know what they’re doing or that they are little better than animals. These things tear at what men are supposed to be. Unfortunately, this even comes from good, holy women who’ve lost touch with what a man is supposed to be.

God gives men a spirit of adventure and the desire to be a warrior that has to be shaped and nurtured. You can’t destroy the fighting spirit in a young man and expect him to go out and conquer the world for Christ or protect his family or parish from the attacks of the enemy. A lot of men have never been given permission to be a warrior. If you take that out of him, you forget that one day he’ll have to battle other dragons with much graver consequences. - Doug Barry

Link:

• Equipping Men for the Spiritual Battle

Related:

• The Emasculation of the Priesthood

Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism

By Cathy of Alex

I’m re-reading Donna Steichen’s book Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism. I realized, recently, that this book was originally published in 1991 – right when I was an undergrad in a Catholic women’s college and focusing on Feminist Theology as part of my Theology minor. I’m not kidding.

It also recently occurred to me that it is too bad that I did not read Steichen’s book at the time it was published. Instead, I was reading Starhawk, Fiorenza and Ruether (the “trinity”) along with the latest from Timmerman (who was one of my profs, btw), Daly, Kyung, Hellwig. I read them because their books were required or optional reading for courses. In other words; they were the theology textbooks.

I never had the Catechism as a required text in any Theology courses. I had the Catholic Bible (NAB) as a required text in one Theology class. I recall doing a lot of exercises in the hermaneutic of suspicion against Biblical texts and encouraged to find evidence in Scripture that the Church put women down. Did I mention this was (still is) a nominally Catholic college?... (continued...)

Read More Here

Young person tells experience of defending Cathedral from feminist horde

Buenos Aires, Oct 10, 2008 / 01:28 pm (CNA).- Pablo is one of the one hundred Argentinean young people who stood outside the Cathedral of Neuquen on August 17 to shield the church from protests by feminists who want abortion to be legalized.

Thousands of people have been moved by a video of the young people posted on CNA’s YouTube channel, which shows the ferocity of the confrontation by the feminists who were gathered for the National Encounter of Women in Neuquen. They shouted insults and threw objects at the young people who were shielding the Cathedral.

One of the young people at the Cathedral was 21 year-old Pablo, who was interviewed by Javier Tebas of the website ReligionEnLibertad.com and revealed details about what happened that afternoon.

“Everything lasted more or less an hour and forty minutes. It was terrible. They wouldn’t go away. They screamed at us, they spat on us, they threw cans and rocks, they tore up an Argentinean flag and burned it. We were only praying one Hail Mary after another, without stopping, praying for each one of them, praying for each aborted child, praying for our Church and her pastors, and also in reparation for the blasphemies,” Pablo said.

Despite the tension, “we felt an extraordinary peace, and all of us who were there agreed [it was] a peace that cannot come from anyone else besides our Lord and God. We felt his consolation in our souls.”

Asked if they felt tempted to respond to the aggressions with violence, Pablo responded that all the young people came with the intention of “resisting to the last drop of our blood. Some guys up in front became very upset, because they insulted the Virgin Mary, calling her a lesbian. You feel like doing everything, but we know that our testimony needs to be different, and the virtue of fortitude is more perfect when we resist than when we attack.”

According to Pablo, after that experience in Neuquen, the young people were more committed to “living life as it truly is: a battle, a war.” “I think it is time to wake up, we must be aware that if we don’t do it, nobody will. Nobody will bear witness to hope if we Catholics do not do it. The world is waiting, the world expects that we go out to find it and conquer it.”

The video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0oMKGFTyk .

• Link
  

"Get rid of the disgust. Priests must be MEN!"

Fr. Z wrote:

"To counteract to wyrdwymynpryst thing, how about listening to some Don Camillo stories?

Priests are MEN!"

Part I

1) The Little World
2) A Confession
3) A Baptism

Part II

4) On the Trail ... and
5) Night School

08-07-25 don Camillo (part I): VM - advice on getting TLMs & "pro multis" [57:12m]: Download

08-07-29 St. Augustine on Martha; don Camillo (part II) [47:58m]: Download