Joan Chittister sings praises to Mary. Mary Daly, that is.

Joan Chittister, whose contributions to Catholic culture are similar to Snoop Dogg's contributions to music (sorry, Snoop), eulogizes the late Mary Daly:

Indeed, Daly's work is an icon to women. She was a groundbreaking thinker, a threat to any patriarchal institution, a creator of an entire new way of seeing life, of being alive, of celebrating life. She touched a culture deeply. Indeed, we owe her thanks.

Never mind that Daly vehemently renounced the Catholic Church, hated Christianity, mocked the traditional Judeo-Christian understanding of God (and all forms of theism), and despised men. All men. Even the Jesuits she bullied at Boston College. In short, she was  angry, bitter, nasty, lesbian, pantheist, and unhinged. Yeah, thanks, Mary. Bravo. Who knows how many dissident nuns and National "Catholic" Reporter columns your loathsome rants have inspired? At least one.

From where I stand a person's influence is measured, not so much by virtue of their effect on the institutions that bred them, but by their influence on those who never knew them at all. It is the women who never knew Daly but now know the things she knew that are the real evidence of her legacy, her impact, her meaning not only to this generation but to generations to come. As in "all generations shall call her blessed."

I cannot even begin to express how disgusting it is for Chittister to take words from Scripture describing the Blessed Mother (Lk. 1:48) and to apply them to a woman who wrote this about the Mother of God:

The catholic Mary is not the Goddess creating parthenogenetically on her own, but rather she is portrayed /betrayed as Total Rape Victim—a pale derivative symbol disguising the conquered Goddess. ... The rape of the rarefied remains of the Goddess in the christian myth is mind/spirit rape. In the charming story of "the Annunciation" the angel Gabriel appears to the terrified young girl, announcing that she has been chosen to become the mother of god. Her response to this sudden proposal from the godfather is totaled nonresistance: "Let it be done unto me according to thy word." Physical rape is not necessary when the mind/will/spirit has already been invaded. In refined religious rapism, the victim is impregnated with the Supreme Seminal Idea, who becomes "the Word made flesh." Within the rapist christian myth of the Virgin Birth the role of Mary is "utterly minimal; yet she is "there." She gives her unqualified "consent." (Gyn/Ecology, 84, 84)

But here's the thing: at least Daly had enough integrity to leave the Church. At least she didn't attack, mock, and undermine Catholic doctrine while living off of the Church. However disgusting her writings are, I don't think Daly was a hypocrite. And I think its fair to guess she would have hated—truly hated—being eulogized with words meant for the Blessed Virgin. Meanwhile, what does it say about Sister Joan Chittister that she has more respect and admiration for Mary Daly than for Mary, the Mother of our Lord?

• Mary Daly, radical elemental feminist, God-hater, man-basher, self-described... (January 6, 2010)

Comments

[Thomas]

Interesting to compare Mary Daly and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's why I always say I have more respect for the apostate than the heretic. At least the apostate has the honesty to get out.

Of all the garbage that Chittister has spewed over the years, this hijacking of Scripture's words on the Blessed Virgin to describe the wicked Mary Daly is the most vile. Maybe when Trautperson retires and gets the "eff" out of the diocese, the new bishop will actually do something about her. Maybe.

[Salome]

I just followed the link & read Sister Joan's article. My goodness! Mary and Joan certainly do appear to have a lot of disciples! Men, women, priests--I clearly spend too much time on the sites I like and get a wrong view of what people out there are thinking. I'm horrified. You are welcome to tell me it's about time.

[Gail F]

Read her piece and all the commentary! It's unbelievable. What a wonderful gift to mankind she was. Oops, I mean womynkind. The woman was obviously deranged, and will somebody -- ANYBODY -- tell me how people who say that Mary was spiritually raped and Jesus was some sort of spiritual vampire get considered actual theologians?

[Ever Curious]

Okay, like the two ladies mentioned in the above story, I did not have a date to the Junior Prom. The difference? I got over the hurt and got on with life. It seems that Ms Daly was still pissed off even on her death bed.

[Roseanne Sullivan]

You wondered about how many dissident nuns and Catholic Reporter articles were inspired by Mary Daly's loathsome rants. I wonder if this one I recall from around 1976 fills the bill. A copy of The National Catholic Reporter was on the desk of the priest who was the Newman Center director at the University of Minneosota, Minneapolis, where I went looking for spiritual direction after I came back to the Church. The article's title was Should Divorce Be a Sacrament? And it was by a religious sister. That article was yet another horrifying indications to me that something terrible had happened to the Church I had loved enough to return to. I had tried living out all the intelligensia's heady amalgam of Marxist, feminist, deconstructionist, existential theories and found them destructive. In the meantime, to my dismay, it looked like the Church had embraced the very theories I was rejecting.