Olivia Hunter Directs Valery Kuklishyna in a ‘Phoenix Rising’ Moment AOC Private Studio

In honor of the solemn commotion in Rome as the Cardinals meet to elect a new pope, I thought it appropriate to lead readers to this The Creatives editorial ‘Rising of the Phoenix’. The Phoenix is typically considered to be female (although not exclusively) and represents female-centric values. I’ve been using the terms Phoenix Rising to signify women fighting back against patriarchal values and leading with a new human voice.

You can rest assured that whatever is going on in Rome this week, women priests will not be on the menu. This is an old boys club of the worst kind. Theologian HANS KÜNG, who attended Vatican 2 with Benedict, writes an ‘insider’ op-ed for the New York Times called A Vatican Spring?

Today’s ultra-conservative Catholics — including the Pope and Cardinals — have amnesia on the reality that until the 11th century when an autocratic regime swept into power from above, the church got along without a monarchist-absolutist a. Its equivalent is the Catholic bishops demanding the unlimited freedom of religion to control every aspect of women’s lives granted them by the US Constitution — when the Catholic Church was banned in 10 of the original 13 colonies. How these guys forget the truth of history.

It was not until the 11th century that a “revolution from above,” the “Gregorian Reform” started by Pope Gregory VII, left us with the three enduring features of the Roman system: a centralist-absolutist papacy, compulsory clericalism and the obligation of celibacy for priests and other secular clergy.

HANS KÜNG continues:

One shouldn’t be misled by the media hype of grandly staged papal mass events or by the wild applause of conservative Catholic youth groups. Behind the facade, the whole house is crumbling.
In this dramatic situation the church needs a pope who’s not living intellectually in the Middle Ages, who doesn’t champion any kind of medieval theology, liturgy or church constitution. It needs a pope who is open to the concerns of the Reformation, to modernity. A pope who stands up for the freedom of the church in the world not just by giving sermons but by fighting with words and deeds for freedom and human rights within the church, for theologians, for women, for all Catholics who want to speak the truth openly. A pope who no longer forces the bishops to toe a reactionary party line, who puts into practice an appropriate democracy in the church, one shaped on the model of primitive Christianity. A pope who doesn’t let himself be influenced by a Vatican-based “shadow pope” like Benedict and his loyal followers.

I wonder if the Cardinals really do understand that the Catholic Church is crumbling. In America, like the Republican party, it is in deep disarray. My sense is that the Cardinals do not understand — not do they care. When you build a wall of infallibility around yourselves and your institution, there is no longer a reality check. Essentially, the band plays on while the institution that refuses to relate to humanity sinks into irrelevancy.

The only problem with this analysis is the reality that in America the Catholic bishops are deeply engaged in a decisive battle to control all of women’s reproductive health. And that includes birth control, which Cardinal Dolan says is next up on the national legislative docket. THAT reality is not irrelevant. ~ Anne

1. A new study on the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet has delivered results so outstanding that the study ended early, after five years. The results came to participants who were already taking statins, blood pressure or diabetes drugs to lower their risk for heart disease.

The measures used in the study were clear: heart attacks, stroke and death. Researchers decided this is what counts. Study participants were either on a low-fat diet or the Mediterranean diet, where olive oil is allowed and nuts, too. The results were so conclusive that the researchers believe that 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease can be prevented in high risk people simply by switching to a diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables — while drinking wine with meals. Read on at the New York Times.

2. More Science News:

* Pessimism about the future may lead to a longer and healthier life, according to the American Psychological Association. “Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions.” The study was published online in the journal Psychology and Aging.

* A comprehensive examination of diabetes rates from 175 countries over the past decade has convinced Stanford researchers that there is a direct link between increased sugar in a population’s diet and rates of diabetes, independent of obesity rates.

6. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scallia offered his assessment of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, calling it a “perpetuation of racial entitlement” in arguments before the court. Justice Sotomayor asked the attorney challenging the Voting Right Act whether he thought voting rights are a racial entitlement as soon as he took the podium for rebuttal. via Think Progress

3. British Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigns over sexual harassment accusations. Just last week we quoted O’Brien on his views promoting married priests. In a heart beat, the British cardinal found himself the subject of a scandal, one that caused him to resign at the insistence of Pope Benedict, writes The Guardian. Three priests and a former priest accused O’Brien of inappropriate sexual propositioning in the 1980s.

The four complainants went public before the papal conclave began, arguing that he should not be involved in electing the next pope.

Professor Tom Devine, a prominent Catholic, said O’Brien’s resignation was “the gravest single public crisis to hit the Catholic church in Scotland since the Reformation and its effects in the short term are incalculable”

O’Brien’s departure meant that only three out of eight Scottish dioceses now have a full-time, permanent bishop in charge.

4. Republicans for gay marriage made big news, with 70 Republicans including Daily Beast commentator David Frum signing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to preserve California’s same-sex marriage rights. Other signatories include: Alex Castellanos, James B. Comey, Stephen Hadley, Jon Huntsman, James Kolbe, Ken Mehlman, Steve Schmidt, William F. Weld, Christine Todd Whitman, Meg Whitman.

In his own essay, Frum acknowledges that he is well aware of the damage the culture wars have done to the Republican party. “Culture-war politics have isolated the GOP from the America of the present and future, fastening it to politics of nostalgia for a (mis)remembered past. Culture-war politics have substituted for relevant cultural policies aimed at encouraging the raising of children within married families. Worst of all, culture-war politics has taught the GOP to talk to America as if the nation were split into hostile halves, as if more separates Americans than unites them.”

5. Robin Kelly celebrated her special primary election win for Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District in Chicago yesterday. As a young state representative, Kelley sponsored gun-safety legislation with then state Senator Barack Obama. She was the only white candidate in a race where more than a dozen contenders split the African-American vote.

Kelly’s “Help Me Fight Gun Violence” message resonated with African-American and progressive white voters against her opponent Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson, who had accepted NRA support in previous races and embraced NRA positions on many issues.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has pledged to fight the NRA’s political influence nationwide, used his Independence USA political action committee to air more than $2 million to oppose Halvorson and back Kelly. Read onThe Nation.