59 Comments

• Smyrnian | Oct 01, 2012, 04:10 PM EDT

  Ah yes. The usual IC frequent love affair article on Christine Quinn. IC absolutely LOVES Christine Quinn- don't know why but it does get rather nauseating after a while!

• seanomelb | May 01, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT

  Now briano!! O'Dowd is entitled to her point of view as we all are.Do you consider yourself "brainwashed",just asking.

• SeanO | May 01, 2012, 02:57 PM EDT

  The Roman Catholic Church cannot survive without thought control of the sheeple. The low level shepards are not allowed to think for themselves, if they do it is A SACRILLAGE, and they RISK EXCUMUNICATION and will BURN IN HELL FOREVER, Amen.

• BrianO | May 01, 2012, 11:14 AM EDT

  Km, you are so right about Maureen Dowd her brainwashed mind and her arrogance make it virtually impossible to get her to look at what she is doing or saying, no matter how evil.

• cuddlybuddly | May 01, 2012, 10:02 AM EDT

  The Rules of this particular "club" is a million miles from Jesus and has become Evil in spite of itself

• KatieMurphy | Apr 30, 2012, 10:50 PM EDT

  Qutoe from jhmdeuce "I believe the so called perfect catholics are so smug....." your close, Jhmdeuce. its not exactly smug, its a wierd kind of pride that gets emplaced in minds as part of brainwashing people. Given the pride bit, then those people are virtually impossible to get to look at what they are doing or saying, no matter how evil they are.

• KatieMurphy | Apr 30, 2012, 10:46 PM EDT

  re jhmdeuce comment on having to join the club to comment..... Does that mean that you have to have eg been a guard at a death camp to tell what you saw? Or been a member of a drug gang to tell what you happened to see happen? Some people are so brainwashed.

• KatieMurphy | Apr 30, 2012, 10:41 PM EDT

  All you have to do is look at the sioko comments about this woman and know that RATZI's gang is here. The same pope who UNexcommunciated holocaust denier Bishop Williamson, and the sqame peope whose agenda was to hide the endless hidden molestation of children................What the pope did re the nuns is horrific.... Their job is to feed the poor, help the ill etc. And all he can do is stomp on them for not follwing his extremists agenda. Not surprising since the church is run by old men who think women should be second class citizens, or worse..............This btw reminds me of the congressional hearing where the repubs had 3 men and 2 priests as witnesses. Oh that men could get pregnant.

• seanomelb | Apr 30, 2012, 07:51 PM EDT

  Maggie's poo stinks just like her logic.

• Bob Werner | Apr 30, 2012, 06:34 PM EDT

  I can't believe the degree of hatred hurled against this woman who is speaking on behalf of thousand of women who have devoted their lives to their Church. Fortunately the practice of burning "dissenters" or "unbelievers" at the stake is no longer practiced by the Church because of the courage and faith of pesons to speak out...like those who had the courage to report those who harmed children. Thank you for speaking out on behalf of the nuns Miss Dowd, they have worked so hard. The names they are calling you are the names they don't realize they are calling the nuns.

• jhmdeuce | Apr 30, 2012, 04:16 PM EDT

  Miss Dowd is not a member of the club. Three rules for belonging to a club: 1) Make Meetings. 2) Pay the dues. 3) FOLLOW THE RULES. If you can't manage ALL three... JOIN ANOTHER CLUB... or start your own. This is for Miss Dowd and all those "priests" and "nun" who have taken, then forsaken a vow of obediance. Please leave us Roman Catholics alone in our beliefs and GO JOIN ANOTHER CLUB.

• BrianO | Apr 30, 2012, 03:31 PM EDT

  Inquisitors form the left are more dangerous.

• manhattan | Apr 30, 2012, 02:48 PM EDT

  I'm curious maggipoo, how did the rythm method work for you? Did you end up with a baby every year or did you just give up makng love? Did you ever know a scared young women who for whatever reason could not stay pregnant?. I believe the so called perfect catholics are so smug they never r have experienced the pain some people go threw. You are such a devout catholic who follows Jesus and you call Ms. Dowd a pig? I say it's the pot calling the kettle black.

• turzovka | Apr 30, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT

  "Read the Gnostic gospels." (?) Sure thing IrelandNorth. So apparently the Catholic Church has been the tool of the devil for 2000 years, Jesus message has been totally lost on his creation, and we are still waiting for God to reveal the truth. What a strange God that would act that way. As for Maureen Dowd, she is a pox on Catholicism and Christianity. She is a wolf in wolve's clothing. No clergy or nun is free to say whatever they want. But they are free to leave.

• mayoman | Apr 30, 2012, 09:20 AM EDT

  Maureen Dowd is absolutely right.

• IrelandNorth | Apr 30, 2012, 05:43 AM EDT

  Is "the Church" its architecture - hierarchy - or faithful? Or multi-national corporation with infinitesimal turnover of tax exempt remittances. As in politics, economy dic[k]tates [my]theology. Someone once said: "I had a very good Catholic education. It took me a lifetime to get over it!" As a citizen of an island nation granted to the English crown by a medieval papal bull to be 'Christianised', I am acutely aware of of the perniciousness of religious colonisation, and its temporal concommitant. Roman Catholicism (no more than any other Christian orthodoxy) isn't Christian, its theologised Constantinianism. Free your minds. Read the Gnostic Gospels!

• BrianO | Apr 30, 2012, 02:20 AM EDT

  Briano so my comment doesn't go to someone else.

• BrianO | Apr 30, 2012, 02:02 AM EDT

  Did any one read the article? if they did then they would know It's a Kennedy puff piece. Poor Vicki she only had to put up with Teddy and His wealth, until he died then she only had to put up with his wealth. We in Massachusetts have been putting up with this arrogant behavior for years. It's time to snub miss anti America dowd. and by the way she hates free Ireland as well.

• REM1875 | Apr 30, 2012, 12:39 AM EDT

  Maureen would slice her own mothers throat if she dared speak against her most precious liberal democrats. She does not even have a nodding acquaintance with truth. There is a great difference between social issues and moral Issues- working with the poor is a social issue and unrestricted abortion is a moral Issues and the Church has not wavered on moral Issues even if some liberal democrat "catholics" have.

• nancymo | Apr 29, 2012, 10:53 PM EDT

  I am so turned off by the catholic Church and bishops. My sister hs been a sister of St. Joseph for 56 years. She is devasteted by thie attack from the Vatican. I alwso have a cousin a sister of Mercy who runs a homeless sheltert in Maryland. she said she feels like she has been kicked in the stomach. we have too many bishops and not enough nuns.

• Sophium | Apr 29, 2012, 08:11 PM EDT

  Mr. James O'Shea, what are you thinking? Why are you placing Maureen Dowd on a pedestal? Is it because you are a rebellious lad and are looking for an excuse to bash the Church? You are not only rebellious but also hilarious! So, Miss Dowd is now some kind of an authority regarding the Church? How so? It shows your hilarity to choose someone as rebellious as you to be the voice of criticism toward the Church. I suppose if your local sports columnist waxes poetic about abortion, you will print it. To be consistent, and consistently hilarious, you should.

• JoePatAl | Apr 29, 2012, 08:11 PM EDT

  Well, she sure has my vote for Canonization!!! just do not want her to ever die, as she is a truly living Saint of reality who gives the people the TRUE MESSAGE of Faith and Hope!!!!

• pilib04 | Apr 29, 2012, 07:57 PM EDT

  This is the same Church that put Galileo on trial. You would think our hierarchy would learn. Apparently not. They continue even in this day and age to ignore reality.

• hollabackgurl | Apr 29, 2012, 06:57 PM EDT

  "I think Irish Central sucks with their continual Catholic bashing bulls--t." - mikehoulihan. Yet here you are, again, to offer the same three second estimation. It's not anyone else's fault if you haven't developed the power of critical thinking, mikehoulihan. And because you haven't everything you encounter looks like an attack. Stay home and study up. Save your foul language for your own home too, eh?

• seanomelb | Apr 29, 2012, 06:42 PM EDT

  many years ago the Catholic church had its own prisons usually under monastery's where dissenters were imprisoned in solitary confinement sometimes for life. Now the Pope and his fawning right wing bishops can only try to gag those with a contra view.The Church has made little progress since the inquisition only its methods have changed.

• AlaskanChick | Apr 29, 2012, 06:41 PM EDT

  I to a certain degree believe much of what ballylanger says except I do believe their is a God. BUT what I also believe is that most religions have become the same money changers that Jesus chased out of the church. For example a Religion (Catholic) who is the richest religion in the world yet lives of the backs of some of the poorest countries in the world and treats women badly and criminally abuses children. A religion who ordains almost everyone in their employ so that they can make ALL of their buildings tax free and the ministers can live in mansions all while their congregation struggles. A religion who twist their faith and uses their under educated followers to declare other infedels and become sucide bombers, stone women and girls, fight battles where they hide behind their own mosques, hospitals, schools and villages of innocent people. ALL religions have gotten to where they twist their holy books to excuse their horrible behavior. What many people forget weather you believe in God or not their are two Golden Rules: 1. Treat others the way you want to be treated 2. To get respect you have to give respect. It's not yours because of the postion you are in or you age. You get respect when you are a respectful person.

• peterson | Apr 29, 2012, 06:19 PM EDT

  Good for her !!!

• Rayosun | Apr 29, 2012, 06:06 PM EDT

  If I could escape from the Catholic Church after 24 years of education in Catholic schools and seminaries culminating with ordination to the priesthood and a teaching position in a Catholic seminary, almost anyone can. I'm not selling anything or telling people how to live their lives. All I want to do is to help people to free themselves from the tyranny and stupidity of the Roman Catholic church, by exposing the truth about this very human, very dishonest organization at a site you can find by Googling "Jesuswouldbefurious" or "CatholicArrogance" (one word).

• ballylanger | Apr 29, 2012, 05:38 PM EDT

  'God' is just a nasty little money-making scam that we perpetrate upon each other. How can it be difficult for an adult human to understand this concept. It does my head in to have to read 'conversations' here as if religion was REAL!

• EphraimKibbey | Apr 29, 2012, 04:48 PM EDT

  @PiperMac52 - When (if?) you read your bible, the RED PRINT is what Jesus taught. He rejected the stoning of the adultress and told the crowd of sinners to leave her. He counseled her to sin no more. He said that God made the LAW (Leviticus, Deuteronomy, etc.) to serve the people. He said that He did not make the people to serve the Law. I think the Nun in charge of the Women Religous organization said it best. She said that the church teaches that one's conscience should be the ultimate guide to one's actions. If you are ordered to do something that your conscience knows is evil, then you must obey your conscience, according to the church. She said that is what the nuns are doing. She said that she had been ordered to be silent before and that her conscience had directed her to continue to speak out. She said that the church could not silence a nun or priest who refused to be silenced based on their conscience. The Monsignor being tried for covering up and moving known serial pedophiles gave as his excuse that he was just following orders! I believe we elderly folk have heard that excuse before and shuddered and its toll. I personally stand with those who are guided by a sense of right and wrong rather than blind obedience to any totalitarian regieme.

• AlaskanChick | Apr 29, 2012, 04:21 PM EDT

  Question for PiperMac52....so the church stands against debasement of Society? What about the Pedohiles it hides within it's ranks? We no longer live in the stone age so the Troglodytes of the Catholic church must realize that God meant for man to move along (with honor, dignity and God's teachings...not the interpertations that the church has made for it's own purposes)as the world evolves with time. Question, do you think Jesus would want his mother Mary to be treated the way the Catholic Church is treating it's women? Like second class citizens? mmmmm....much like women are treated in the Islamic faith. VERY SCARY

• pilib04 | Apr 29, 2012, 04:11 PM EDT

  This Maureen Dowd article is her best in years. I'm proud of Maureen for this call to reason. The bishops do need to get a rap across their knuckles. They have gone off the deep end. Presumably they are showing off for their new-found buddies in the GOP. Banning of Vicki Kennedy was a low blow and this bishop should publicly apologize. As for the Republiklans on this board who claim to be Irish, you should be ashamed! Is feidir linn.

• PiperMac52 | Apr 29, 2012, 04:04 PM EDT

  Dowd is a liberal without a clue regarding the church and it's teachings. She think that the church should reflect the debased culture and embrace every hedonistic value that it entails. The Church's job however, is and always has been throughout history, to stand against the debasement of society and to reinforce those immutable teachings of Christ as handed to his Apostles. Abortion, the homosexual lifestyle, adultery... will never be acceptable. The church does more than any secular institution to alleviate suffering in third world nations and on social issues. The nuns in question are pushing for women priests which is against the doctrine. Truth is, liberals like Dowd want a church built in their image, which does not happen to coincide with that of Christ.

• rpbrown | Apr 29, 2012, 02:58 PM EDT

  The Catholic church is a joke and always has been. Just look at all the horrible things it has done throughout history. It embodies for the most part a primitive way of thinking and operating and I encourage the church to do more an more absurd things because it will only help that arcane institution fade in the West. Furthermore, if it is God you seek, just sit still for a moment or meditate and your mind will merge with God when you let it empty out completely. Do this enough and it will become obvious you don't need those buffoons in dresses and gold necklaces for anything.

• borefield | Apr 29, 2012, 02:03 PM EDT

  I'm with mikehoulihan, he espressed my feelings on Maureen Dowd and I C perfectly. She is looking for attention. Life has been pretty dull for her lately.

• tempranillo | Apr 29, 2012, 01:37 PM EDT

  ( read the Book of Leviticus)……why stop there? The OT prescription for a rebellious son is pretty clear. DEUT 21--"If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not listen to them even though they discipline him,h19his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders at the gate* of his home city,20where they shall say to the elders of the city, “This son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”i21Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and be afraid..............j….. I guess if you ended up stoning half your sons for rebellious behavior, it certainly would make sense to prohibit the wasting of seed.............hmmmmmmmmm

• miamicanes | Apr 29, 2012, 01:20 PM EDT

  “As a small, Catholic college that relies heavily on the good will of its relationship with the Bishop and the larger Catholic community, its options are limited,” it said in a statement. So, I have no idea who the "larger Catholic Community" is and would dump them all. And this statement really is comical, "In a blatant “Shut up and sit down, sisters” moment, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, noted, “Occasional public statements by the L.C.W.R. that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.” Teachers of faith and morals, give me a break.

• katieherk | Apr 29, 2012, 01:19 PM EDT

  Amen to Mikehoullhan!!! Brilliant

• mikehoulihan | Apr 29, 2012, 01:17 PM EDT

  I think Irish Central sucks with their continual Catholic bashing bullshit.

• padraigocleirigh | Apr 29, 2012, 12:47 PM EDT

  Was it not Garibaldi who urged, "Let's hang the last king with the guts of the last pope."

• PhlutiePhan | Apr 29, 2012, 12:46 PM EDT

  Another "Howdy Dowdy" comment from Maureen. All that she needs to do his "honk her horn" like Claribelle the Clown to get more attention. These so-called oppressed nuns include Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association who is a poor Daughter of Charity with a salary of 962K. So, she is going to take her red hair and freckles over to Rome and "b" slap the Pope. Good luck with that one. Teddy Kennedy intimidated Cardinal Sean O'Malley into supporting his decadent lifestyle. I seem to remember that Edward Kennedy had a previous wife, Joan, whom Vicki "wiki" slapped to the curb and was able to obtain an annulment to move into the Kennedy home and hearth. So, Maureen and Vicki are symbols of the gentle breed of American Catholic women who have "burned their bras" long ago and now want to move any men out of the way of their political ambition and "burn them at the stake" in the name of the new American mixture of religion and politics which is called socialism. As far as having any credentials, "badges, we don't need no stinkin" (Obama dropped g) badges".

• McNamara31 | Apr 29, 2012, 12:44 PM EDT

  Many nuns tend to lean democrat, while bishops are GOP all the way. Why...because the sisters are on the frontlines, living in the real world with the sick, the unemployed and the disenfranchised of our society, unlike the men in Rome dwelling in fine castles removed from all suffering.

• Bythebay | Apr 29, 2012, 12:06 PM EDT

  bobduggins, she's not ours in Ireland. She's born in Washington, DC. Don't ascribe your Americans to us please. She has no connection whatsoever to Ireland.

• weeknocky | Apr 29, 2012, 11:16 AM EDT

  Ms. Dowd,,,,who cares what she thinks or writes. A nasty woman full of hate. Sorry, she's a very self-serving person with her own agenda...hates anything that she see's that does not fit her left wing ideals.

• NYCsheridan | Apr 29, 2012, 10:56 AM EDT

  I particularly loved the reference to the Inquisition, since RATzinger used to head the organization formerly known as same.

• NYCsheridan | Apr 29, 2012, 10:54 AM EDT

  Iowa Mike, *I* care what Dowd thinks. I could care less about what you think, ya misogynist twit.

• NYCsheridan | Apr 29, 2012, 10:54 AM EDT

  AWESOME.

• IowaMike | Apr 29, 2012, 10:45 AM EDT

  First, MD is just another lost feminist. Author Warren Farell described feminism the single party of gender politices.....Dowd is the president. Second, who the hell cares what Dowd thinks?

• bobduggins | Apr 29, 2012, 10:37 AM EDT

  I like Ireland and I wish you the best, however I wish you would take MD back and get her and her extreme liberal views out of America!!

• knockatee | Apr 29, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT

  I agree wholeheartedly with Maureen but an even better read in today's NYTimes is that written by Nicholas Kristof "We Are All Nuns."

• hermitTalker | Apr 29, 2012, 10:25 AM EDT

  1. Their moral and dogmatic theological views are what the Vatican is concerned about after investigating them for a while. 2 The bishops are not obsessed by sex, it is the media who dwell on that topic when they object to the Bible's teaching on abortion and birth control ( read the Book of Leviticus) and BC pills that cause abortions AND twist their concern for being forced to pay for such in their insurance programmes. The Pope and bishops are concerned about lIFE from womb to tomb, and have a variety of statements as well as practical programmes to show money where mouths are. Ms Kennedy did not need to have a private meeting with her bishop, she favours abortion. That is one of the public topics whose advocates are asked not be invited to speak at Catholic events, as the bishops asked in 2004. I cannot imagine Mr Obama having a racist or a pro-unborn life speaker at his upcoming convention either. The GOP platform is not 100 % endorsed by the US bishops, check the agenda of both and the dissent. The Church's stand on child abuse is so strong now, the US department of education had a study done recently that public school students in the USA are in mlore danger from their teachers and coaches than RC clergy(Hofstra Uni. study done by a female professor) Dragging that sad and old story up and going back to the Inquisition is about as relevant as undermining the US Founders for having slaves as the revisionists did some years back. All normally emotinally developing humans and their organisations move forward. The immature are stuck in Park and always look into the rear-view mirror.

• bogsidebunny | Apr 29, 2012, 10:24 AM EDT

  GaelMcC...You have the uber-Socialist, America-hating Dowd and her equally repugnant employer pegged perfectly. Both are a discrace to the medium they represent.

• irishpjk | Apr 29, 2012, 10:22 AM EDT

  Maureen Dowd is a typical Democratic liberal; she got her education from the Catholic Church and her freedom from this Great nation now she like all left wing liberals and most of the mainstream media want to change both into another Europe. I hope Americans wake up soon because we are on a slippery slope and all slippery slopes go downhill. America has stabilized the world for the last century; if we don’t change there is no one to save us or the world.

• bunkerisland | Apr 29, 2012, 10:12 AM EDT

  ".....A good rap across the knuckles". Maureen knows from what she speaks. Elder clergy suffering from senility attempt to dictate while neglecting to clean up their own many messes. I'd suggest a bit of humility to each. Make your own bed, wash your own dishes and laundry and cook your own meals. Learn a bit of self-sufficiency and try less effort to control others.

• gaeilgesdamhsa | Apr 29, 2012, 10:07 AM EDT

  I agree with ellenfromcork.

• GaelMcC | Apr 29, 2012, 09:51 AM EDT

  "Influential NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd"...neither the NY Times nor Ms Dowd have much influence. Her unmitigated spin and audacity render her impotent to influence.

• biggles008 | Apr 29, 2012, 09:50 AM EDT

  We need a new Vatican

• Baker | Apr 29, 2012, 09:49 AM EDT

  I am surprised that someone like this can be so unfair and bigoted!!!! AXE TO GRIND!!! so shallow!

• ellenfromcork | Apr 29, 2012, 09:08 AM EDT

  The sheer unmitigated effrontery of the Vatican renders me speechless!!! I'm putting Jesus at the nun's table, not the Vatican's.