In which I wonder if Rome & I have reached the end of the line...

So, yesterday I wrote about Lent and - briefly - about being Roman Catholic.  Then this morning I saw this post by one of my favourite bloggers of all time, Wife in the North.

Judith O'Reilly is one of the reasons I blog.  When I started writing online, she had just secured a contract for the book of her blog 'Wife in the North' and she's a far braver, more open, lay it out there blogger than I am or could ever be.  We met around 3 years ago and it's because she suggested it that I set up my twitter account (so now I come to think of it Judith, you're the one to blame for my inability to get things done...).

In the post I've linked to, she expresses perfectly the ambivalence I'm currently feeling towards the church of my childhood.

I teach my sons that girls are just as good as they are (and of course, that they are just as good as girls are), and that they should never assume something is off-limits to someone simply because of their gender.  And yet, here I am, using as a framework for their spiritual education a structure which is outdated and which preaches and practices a viewpoint of women's importance and relevance that frankly has few touchpoints or crossovers with my existence and experiences as a woman in 21st century western civilisation.

I want to be Catholic.  It's a deep and important part of who I am.  I am educating my sons as such.  But the fact that I care so little about who is the next man to wear the Pope's ruby slippers tells me something has to change, and I'm guessing it won't be the viewpoints of the dinosaurs in Rome.

UN-believable...

That was meant to be the title of a completely different post which will probably follow shortly, but in the meantime I just had to direct your attention to Wife in the North's blog where she has today highlighted the shocking absence of women at the forefront of the forthcoming UK general election, and in particular Gordon Brown's reaction to being confronted by a disillusioned female member of the Labour party faithful.

I'm sure that if you live in the UK you will have had the footage you can view via Wife in The North rammed down your throat, but for those who don't and who might have missed it, I heartily recommend that you click through to it and that - crucially - you watch it all the way to the end.

Apparently, having the nerve to express a dissenting point of view to the incumbent prime-minister's face in this spin-managed election makes you a bigot.

Gordon Brown is, of course, entitled to his opinion. As are the rest of us, on what exactly we think of someone in his position who forgets to tun off his mic.