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Occupying the Vatican
As we all know, within the last few weeks, the Bishops have been harping on President Obama to make a broad exception to the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) mandate to have insurance companies cover birth control 100%, without co-pay. The Bishops are on their misogynistic rage, and they have been for decades. The Catholic Church hasn’t always been this way though. In the Middle Ages, St. Antoninus, a Pope, allowed for abortions to save the life of the mother, which back then was a very large category. It was during the enlightenment period, (when people began to question authority and use their reason as authority), when the Bishops began to make this huge one brush stroke rule in regards to abortion. Why? Most likely because they wanted to keep their power. Here is an article on the subject.
St. Antoninus wasn’t the only pro-choicer around in Church history. St. Augustine actually did not believe a fetus to be a person until the time of ‘ensoulment’ began, which in today’s language would be around the time of fetal viability. St. Thomas Aquinas held the same views, and those views were normal until the enlightenment period. So the question is, do we need to Occupy the Vatican and get them to change their views. Because, according to the article I just posted, the hierarchy is only one source of truth in the Catholic religion. The other two are: the experience-fed wisdom of the laity, and according to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Magisterium (teaching) of the theologians. In the abortion/contraception debate, it is actually two against one. The laity and theologians are in opposition to the Bishops in their views on birth control and abortion. Maybe we do need to keep pressure on the Bishops until they cave in. Maybe we do have power. I believe we do. It is time for us to Occupy the Vatican and change the course of history.