Cherie Blair credits contraception...

... for allowing her to do all of the really important things she does, as reported in The Scotsman:

The Catholic Church is losing congregations by alienating women and failing to give them a public role, Cherie Blair said last night.

Church leaders must modernise the role of women in order to halt the decline in church attendance, she said.  Mrs Blair, herself a Catholic, said: "One of the fundamental weaknesses of modern Christianity is its ambivalence to women, and particularly for Catholicism.

"Until the traditional churches fully resolve their relationship with the female half of the population, how can they expect Christianity to have a future in the modern world?

"Traditionally, it was women who passed religion on to their children and who kept the Church going through good times and bad, but when it comes to the public face of Christianity, women are virtually invisible."

Apparently Mrs. Blair hasn't been to a typical Catholic parish for some time. Of course, she is more likely talking about the pope, bishops, and Vatican officials, most of whom are indeed men, especially the ordained ones. Strangely enough, in what seems to be a related phenomenon, non-Catholic groups that do have female priests, even bishops, are witnessing an explosive growth in attendance, orthodoxy, missionary activity, and family life.

Just kidding. Sorry. Couldn't resist.

As for the Church being more modern, I'm wondering what the final goal is: to be more modern (whatever that might mean? That question, of course, has been addressed in different forums by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI), or to be better disciples of Jesus Christ? Is "modernizing" the Church ipso facto a good and obvious way of pursuing the mission of the Church? One thing is for certain, it seems to me: pursuing modernization is a sure way of pursuing the mission of modernity—again, whatever that might mean.

Anyhow, back to Mrs. Blair:

Mrs Blair also revealed that every time she did not use contraception, "I seemed to have a baby" in a discussion about the Church's attitude to birth control and abortion.

She said: "How could I have done all the things I have done if I hadn't used contraception?"

Indeed, how could she go about telling people what the Church must do to survive and grow if she hadn't been busy ignoring the teachings of the same Church? Whatever the intentions, the logic is sterile, although apparently not purposely so.

Comments

[Mel]

"Church leaders must modernise the role of women in order to halt the decline in church attendance"

Wow, apparently she hasn't been following the mainstream protestant demoninations decline even with the modernized role of women. In fact, that sent church attendance into a vortex.

[Thomas]

Good thing Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor took a personal role in receiving this woman's husband into the Church. Without that special attention Mr. Blair might never have recanted his public support for abortion and homosexual "rights."

Oh wait, that never happened. The Cardinal had no time or inclination to defend the Church's teachings and sacraments, but he had plenty of time to slap Archbishop Burke and Pope Benedict across the face.

[Bob Cavalcante]

The church doesn't need to be more like the world. Rather the world needs to be more like the church.

Bob Cavalcante
http://CatholicConservativeAmerican.blogspot.com/

[Tom Bombadil]

It is interesting that the prestigious University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome allowed her to come and have a public platform about women's rights. She said basically everything in this article to an audience of open ears.

[Stephen Sparrow]

Mrs Blair's comments are an insult to her own children. Inconveniences huh ?