What Control Do Bishops Have?

In a piece of work that is generally representative of the popular voices seeking to expose the Church and others of traditional moral commitments in their supposed “partisanship, wonky indignation and misleading religious angst,” Soraya Chemaly writes “ I’m No Longer Catholic. Why Are You? ” for the Huffington Post. Ours is an easy choice, she says: “Either you are willing to support and participate in a culture in which men, refusing to accept women as fully human, use a perverted claim of divine right to control women and their bodies, or you don’t.”

The truth is exposed; Catholic bishops think women aren’t human. There is enough to chuckle or groan about in the article. But there is also a lesson to be gleaned from Chemaly: that the most often misunderstood feature of Church teaching is its clear orientation to human happiness, freedom, and fulfillment. What, exactly, do the leaders of the Church lose if its members practice contraception or have abortions? Be assured, it would not be to the bishops’ personal misfortune.