Thank you for your wise words about the dire incompetence and unfitness of the male clerics to be shepherds of the Catholics and how very much women are needed in ordained orders and in decision making structures and governance of the Roman Catholic Church.
 
Thanks for noting too that Jesus said if anyone injures the "little ones" a millstone is to be put around their neck s.
 
Truly,  really the way the  pedophile  Catholic clergy sex scandal has  certainly put a  massive "millstone" of deserved shame and  severe disdain for the Catholic Vatican and clergy hierarchy.
 
 It  is the words of Jesus coming back to ensure justice on the institution of the RC Church.
 
 Jesus faught against such rank abuse and intolerable corruption and injustice that sadly the Catholic Curia  still continue to inflict on the world and the Catholic community, as evidenced again by this Brazilian tragedy which was made worse by insensitive, unjust, unmerciful  and intolerant Catholic clergy.

Church credibility harmed by 'hasty' excommunication
by Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
March 16, 2009

VATICAN CITY -- A 9-year-old Brazilian girl and the doctors who performed the girl's abortion needed the Catholic Church's care and concern, not its condemnation, said a leading Vatican official.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, criticized what he called a "hasty" public declaration of the excommunication of the girl's mother and the doctors who aborted the girl's twins.


Brazilian Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said an abortion performed on a 9-year-old girl raped by her stepfather was "a crime in the eyes of the church." (CNS photo)

The girl "in the first place should have been defended, hugged and held tenderly to help her feel that we were all on her side" he wrote in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, March 15.

"Before thinking about excommunication, it was necessary and urgent to protect her innocent life and bring her back to a level of humanity of which we men of the church should be expert witnesses and teachers," he said.

"Unfortunately, this is not what happened and it has impacted the credibility of our teaching, which appears in the eyes of many as insensitive, incomprehensible and devoid of mercy," he said.

Doctors at a hospital in Recife, Brazil, performed an abortion March 4 on the girl, who weighed a little more than 66 pounds and reportedly had been raped repeatedly by her stepfather from the time she was 6 years old. Abortion in Brazil is illegal except in cases of rape or if the mother's life is in danger.

After the abortion, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife said it was "a crime in the eyes of the church" and that human laws can never override the laws of God.

He told a Brazilian newspaper that, while it was true the child ran health risks if she continued the pregnancy, "the end does not justify the means. The good aim of saving her life cannot justify the killing of two other lives."

The Vatican's prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, said excommunication against those responsible for the abortion was legitimate.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa March 7, the cardinal underlined that according to canon law anyone who procures an abortion incurs automatic excommunication, meaning there is no need for an official decree from church authorities.

However, canon law indicates several conditions -- for example, not yet having turned 17 years old -- that would render an individual exempt from the penalty of excommunication.

The church officials' statements puzzled Brazilian Catholics and were criticized in the media. Many priests were called upon by their parishioners to explain the church's position. Nongovernmental organizations criticized the fact that the stepfather would not be excommunicated.

Fisichella criticized the way Archbishop Sobrinho handled the situation.

"Only because the archbishop of Olinda and Recife hastily declared the excommunication of the doctors" did this story of despicable, yet all too common, violence against girls and women make newspaper headlines, he said.

Fisichella said that because of the Brazilian girl's young age and her "precarious state of health her life was in serious danger" by continuing the pregnancy.

"How should one act in these cases?" he asked, underlining that the girl's case represented an "arduous decision for doctors and moral law itself."

Doctors deserve respect for the difficult decisions they must often grapple with, he said, adding that no one nonchalantly makes life-and-death decisions and to even suggest it "is unjust and offensive."

He said the Catholic principle that upholds the sanctity of life is unshakeable and "abortion has always been condemned by moral law as an intrinsically evil act."

However, because excommunication is incurred automatically at the moment a direct abortion is carried out, "there was no need to declare with such urgency and publicity a fact that occurred automatically," he said.

Fisichella said the church can still be firm with its moral principles and at the same time reach out and show mercy toward others.

He told the young girl in his written article: "We are on your side. We feel your suffering and we would like to do everything that would help you restore the dignity that you have been deprived of and the love that you will still need.

"There are others who deserve excommunication and our forgiveness, not those who have allowed you to live and who will help you regain hope and trust despite the presence of evil and the wickedness of many people," he said.

At a press conference at the Brazilian bishops' conference headquarters in Brasilia March 12, church officials seemed to backpedal on Archbishop Sobrinho's comments.

Sobrinho "did not excommunicate anyone," but simply cited the norms that exist in canon law, said Auxiliary Bishop Dimas Lara Barbosa of Rio de Janeiro, secretary-general of the Brazilian bishops' conference.

Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana, president of the bishops' conference, said to reduce the issue to a simple question of excommunication was to push to the back burner the issue of violence against children, which needs to be discussed by the country. This year the bishops' annual Lenten fraternity campaign, "Fraternity and Public Security," addresses domestic violence as a source of insecurity among Brazilian women and children.

At the press conference, Archbishop Rocha said: "Rape is such a repugnant act that the church does not need to call attention to it. Abortion, however, is not seen as such by some, and that is the reason for excommunication: not only to punish but to show those who practiced the act the gravity of their deeds."

(Contributing to this story was Lise Alves in Brazil.)

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/church-credibility-harmed-hasty-excommunication

Oh how awful of these Roman Catholic clerics!
 
"Only because archbishop Olinda and Recife hastily publically declared the excommunication of the doctors did the story of the despicable yet all too commom violence against girls and women make newspaper headlines."
 
Archbishop Fisichella , Pontifical Academy of Life, said this. 
 
 The concern is only for the doctors ' excommunication
 
not the mother,  who is also excommunicated
 
 and thus the daughter is denied church too as she is only 9 years old.
 
The concern is all about it being made public and "newspaper headlines."  Secrecy is what clergy wants.
 
Fischella says it is an automatic excommunication and no need to go public. 
 
 It is all about whether the church gets embarassed or not due to a massive public outcry about the church's callous and cruel treatment of Catholics.
 
Catholics who through no fault of their own are put in such horrific circumstances, like the mother and daughter who suffered this horrific abuse, repeated rape by the unexcommunicated step-father.
 
No, it is all about keeping things quiet, not letting the public know about the barbaric treatment of girls and women by Catholic clergy.

Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariano stated "Domestic violence is a source of insecurity among Brazilian women and children."
 
Really?  Insecurity?  How about domestic violence is a source of
 
Death
Maiming
Paralysis
Permanent Disability
Terror
 
The clergy at Bishops Lenten Fraternity campaign.
 
 

Distressed assets: Women's lives in a bad economy
By Nicole Sotelo
Young Voices
National Catholic Reporter
March 19, 2009
 

Nicole Sotelo

Home foreclosures are up. Stocks are down. And many countries around the globe have begun to see a rise in prostitution, domestic violence and other systemic abuses against women. People may talk about their retirement portfolios suffering, but the real distressed assets are women who carry some of the greatest wounds in this global recession.

How is the recession linked to a rise in violence against women? Abusive partners or customers of sex workers do not so much seek to be consoled, as to control. So as our economy spirals out of control, people feel powerless and, in turn, often seek to control something, anything, including women, and often violently.

Already, the wage gap between men and women spans 22 percent globally, with women earning 78 cents to every dollar earned by men, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s study published this month. With decreased incomes and increased job losses, women are faring poorly and groups working with prostitutes report a rise in women entering the sex trade in order to help themselves and their families survive.

The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective has indicated a rise in women entering the sex trade since the global recession began, and a recent study in that country revealed 93 percent of sex workers named financial reasons as their motive for entering the field. The same is true across the globe. In Prague, a woman can make the equivalent of $150 for a half-hour of work at some of the more expensive sex clubs, whereas, the average yearly income for a teacher in the Czech Republic a few years ago was approximately $15,000.

In China, a woman may work in a factory 12 hours a day and earn approximately $50 a month or may enter the sex trade and earn the same amount in one day. Many Chinese women have families still living in the countryside whom they support. It is clear that the choice to enter the sex trade is really no choice at all.

As more women enter the sex trade in the economic downturn, competition increases and women find themselves capitulating to more risky situations in order to gain clients -- putting them at increased risk of violence in the process. A Project Manager at the U.K.-based Magdalene Group, which works with prostitutes, told a local newspaper two weeks ago that, “Violence is a form of control and I think the amount of violence used against sex workers will also increase.”

Not only do more women feel forced into an increasingly risky sex trade, but the economic recession is also linked to a spike in women experiencing domestic violence. News articles from Las Vegas to Niagara have reported increases linked to downturns in the local economy. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that the National Domestic Violence Hotline observed a 21 percent increase in calls in September 2008 at the beginning of the financial crisis over the same month in 2007 and that more callers are linking violence to economic problems.

This rise is not limited to the United States. Countries ranging from Britain to Malaysia have expressed concerns that domestic violence incidents are increasing or will increase based on the faltering economy. For example, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry in Malaysia recently added 50 male counselors to assist families with the stress and potential violence that changing financial conditions bring.

As world leaders seek solutions to the global economic recession, any solutions must be created from an understanding of the recession’s cost to women’s lives. With millions of women experiencing not only home and job loss, but violence, too, we can’t afford not to pay attention to the unique ways women’s lives are entwined with the fate of the global economy.

Nicole Sotelo is the author of Women Healing from Abuse: Meditations for Finding Peace, published by Paulist Press, and coordinates www.WomenHealing.com. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she currently works at Call To Action.
 
http://ncronline.org/blogs/young-voices/distressed-assets-womens-lives-bad-economy

March 8 - International Women’s Day--Day to mourn victims of gender-based oppression and misogyny (past and present), make peace, and celebrate women’s empowerment.

It would be interesting to know how these stats compare to men. And what are the numbers of men who bear primary responsibility for child rearing?

Having Kids Costly for Educated Moms
by Carly Weeks
The Globe and Mail
March 25, 2009

Highly educated women face a much more severe loss of earning power when they have children compared to mothers with less education, says a report published yesterday by Statistics Canada.

The findings help shed light on the social and economic realities that are pushing more Canadian women to delay childbirth and have fewer children.

The report, which looked at the earnings of women with and without children from 1993 to 2004, also highlights the consequences of government decisions to steer away from pay equity, establish a national child-care program and improve unemployment insurance and other benefits for women, according to gender equality experts who predict the problem will only worsen in the current economic climate.

Mothers who are highly educated earn less than childless women with similar degrees of education, the report found. But the wage gap between less-educated mothers and childless women with similar amounts of education is far less evident. The only significant gap existed among those between the ages of 27 and 34.A possible explanation is that highly educated women have careers that require specialized skills, said Xuelin Zhang, senior research analyst in Statistics Canada's Income Statistics Division and report author.

When they leave the work force to have children, they may lose some of those skills or have difficulty catching up to those who didn't have an extended interruption in working, Mr. Zhang said.

Women without a university education, however, are more likely to be in jobs that don't have a high skill requirement, which means they don't face as big a learning curve when they return to work.

But one law professor said the demands of family life mean many university-educated mothers are forced to leave high-paying, demanding careers for part-time work or jobs that pay less but offer shorter hours, more benefits and security.

"It's a huge burden for women," said Kathleen Lahey, a professor in the Queen's University Faculty of Law who does work on gender analysis.

Adopting strong pay-equity legislation could help blunt the impact of the wage gap mothers experience, according to Sue Calhoun, president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs.

But an even bigger issue may be the fact that Canada doesn't have a national child-care program, which means spaces are often costly and hard to find, Prof. Lahey said.

In some situations, that means women step away from their careers to stay at home or take jobs with reduced pay, while men assume the role of primary breadwinner.

It's a reality that helps to explain why so many Canadians are having children later and reducing the number of children they have, she said.

"It's really quite out of date to think that people are just going to have an unlimited number of children without regard to the cost," Prof. Lahey said.

University-educated women may see the biggest drop in earning power after having children, but single mothers earn significantly less and face greater struggles to raise children as a result.

The report said that over all, women with children earned 12 per cent less per hour than childless women.

But single mothers earned about 20 per cent less than single childless women. Meanwhile, married or common-law mothers earned 10 per cent less than married women who didn't have children.

The wage gap between mothers and childless women doesn't seem to become significant until a woman is well into her 20s. The report found that in 2004, at age 20, the hourly gap in earnings between mothers and childless women was $8.60 and $9.50, respectively, a difference of 10 per cent.

At age 30, hourly earnings of mothers averaged $15.20 in 2004 compared to $18.10 for childless women.

The wage gap between mothers and childless women also increased depending on the number of children. Women with one child earned 9 per cent less than childless women, a gap that jumped to 12 per cent for women with two children, and 20 per cent for women with three or more children.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090325.wmothers25/BNStory/lifeMain/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp

On March 26 in 1973: Stock Exchange admits women: Women are allowed on to the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange
 
From the BBC News on that day: 1973: Stock Exchange admits women
 
Women have been admitted to the London Stock Exchange for the first time in the institution's 200 year history. Ten newly elected lady members entered the Stock Exchange today on the first working day since their election took place.


The move ends years of campaigning
 
The decision to break a time-honoured tradition and introduce equality was announced on 1 February and ended years of campaigning by women in the financial sector.

Muriel Wood, a dedicated campaigner and newly elected member, arrived with her husband Walton, both of Sternberg, Flower. Mrs Wood said: "There is a great deal of activity and bustle but it seems it is going on at a rather leisurely pace."

Susan Shaw said it was a breakthrough for women in finance which allowed them to forge contacts in the industry.

Bumpy ride

Although today's admission is a major victory for the debate on sexual equality the next hurdle will be allowing women dealers on to the floor. Bookies have placed long odds - 10 to one - against this taking place in the foreseeable future. Mr Wood said he thought it would take "a little time" before that decision was taken.

The admission of women today is the latest development in the Stock Exchange's history which has been at times a bumpy ride.

The original concept of the London Stock Exchange was first bandied around in 1760 when 150 brokers, fired from the Royal Exchange for misconduct and rowdiness, set up a club to buy and sell shares. Thirteen years later members voted to change the name and the Stock Exchange was born.

It was not until 1801 that the exchange was regulated and it remained in action until The Great War forced the closure of the Exchange market at the end of July until the new year.

The Stock Exchange Battalion of Royal Fusiliers was formed - 1,600 volunteered, 400 never returned.  Last year the Stock Exchange moved to a new 26-storey office block with a 23,000 square foot trading floor.

In Context

The media at the time described the London Stock Exchange as the "last bastion of misogyny" and the admission of women was a major step forward in modernising it.

But it was another 28 years before a woman landed one of the most senior posts at the London Stock Exchange. In 2001, Clara Furse took over as chief executive, a post created 27 years earlier.

But modernity came in other guises for the LSE and one of the significant advances came in 1986 when trading was no longer carried out face-to-face on a market floor but via computer and telephone from separate dealing rooms. It was enabled by two computer systems displaying share price information in brokers' offices around the UK. 
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/26/newsid_2531000/2531145.stm