It is beginning to seem as if the the Catholic Church has a very serious case of foot in mouth disease. A few weeks ago we were informed that birth control pills are the cause of male infertility according to evidence that the church did not wish to share with us mere mortals. Now this:
Portugal’s Cardinal Jose Policarpo has warned young women in the predominantly Catholic nation against marrying Muslims.
“The advice that I give to young Portuguese girls is — be careful with relationships, think twice about marrying Muslims,” the patriarch of Lisbon said.
“It is getting into a pile of troubles, that not even Allah knows where would end.”
A pile of troubles? Seriously? A pile of troubles is when you’re a Catholic woman or girl who wants to get an abortion or use birth control and the Church makes it difficult for you to do so. A pile of troubles is when a woman can’t get a divorce from an abusive spouse. And then there is this helpful explanation of why marrying a Muslim is a bad idea:
“I know that if a young European of Christian background marries a Muslim, as soon as they go to his country, they’ll be subject to the regime of Muslim women,” Policarpo said. “Just imagine it.”
Imagine it? I’m trying to but I can’t even figure out what that means and why no similar pronouncement regarding Christian men marrying Muslim women? “His country” What country exactly are we talking about, when did Muslim become a nationality? Oh never mind.
“Policarpo also said dialogue with Muslims was not easy in Portugal.
“It is only possible to dialogue with those who want to have dialogue, for example with our Muslim brothers dialogue is very difficult,” he said.”
Or perhaps it is difficult to have a dialog because Cardinal Policarpo is a misogynist, xenophobic mouthpiece of a very damaging patriarchy? Just a thought.
2 Responses to “Catholic Church Warns That Marrying Muslim Men Will Get You “Into A Pile Of Troubles””
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Just a point: christian men cannot marry muslim women. The men must convert to Islam in order to marry a muslim woman.
muslim men are allowed to marry women of whatever religion they want, but muslim women can only marry fellow muslims.
oh how i hate religion.
I’m a Catholic woman from a predominantly Muslim country, so I find the Cardinal’s remarks very strange – intermarriage has been happening here for centuries, with no devastating consequences. I can see that there might be some tensions in an interfaith marriage, but most partners will surely discuss possible sources of conflict at the outset and will be more than capable of dealing with disagreements in a mature and caring way. It’s what committed couples do all the time. I’m getting very tired of all this anti-Muslim fear-mongering.
“A pile of troubles is when you’re a Catholic woman or girl who wants to get an abortion or use birth control and the Church makes it difficult for you to do so.”
I do take issue with this, though. As a Catholic woman (meaning a woman who believes in and does her best to live out the Catholic faith) I don’t agree with abortion or the use of contraception. The Vatican didn’t whack me over the head and stuff these beliefs into the space between my ears while I was unconscious. I chose them for myself and made them my own. It isn’t fair or accurate to present Catholic women as victims of the Church hierarchy because we hold different beliefs about the nature of sex and when life begins.