Quote of the day

A soon-to-be-excommunicated Catholic priest on sexism.

Published November 24, 2008 4:00PM (EST)

"Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard or how long we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always immoral."

--The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, in a letter to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After Bourgeois, a Catholic priest of 36 years, gave the homily at an ordination ceremony for a woman last August, the CDF sent him a letter saying he had 30 days to recant his support for women's ordination or be excommunicated. In his response, Bourgeois points out that unlike him, the American priests and bishops involved in sexually abusing more than 12,000 children and covering it up have not been excommunicated. Snap!


By Kate Harding

Kate Harding is the author of Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture--and What We Can Do About It, available from Da Capo Press in August 2015. Previously, she collaborated with Anna Holmes, Amanda Hess, and a cast of thousands on The Book of Jezebel, and with Marianne Kirby on Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere. You might also remember her as the founding editor of Shapely Prose (2007-2010). Kate's essays have appeared in the anthologies Madonna & Me, Yes Means Yes, Feed Me, and Airmail: Women of Letters. She holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a B.A. in English from University of Toronto, and is currently at work on a Ph.D. in creative writing from Bath Spa University

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