If you're going to discuss Catholicism, you must perforce discuss doctrine..Morticia. wrote:I'm not going to argue doctrine, which is set by fiat and political and financial expediency.
Yes, it is, and that practice is dictated by doctrine, down to the smallest detail.This is about the PRACTICES of the organisation. Mass is a practice.
Yup.I really don't give a flying fuck about beliefs. You and everyone else and every organisation can believe whatever they bloody well want. It's called freedom of belief.
Ah, well, sorry, but you're still wrong, at least in the US, where what is expressly stated is that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibition the free exercise thereof. (emphasis added)Practices , there is no freedom of practice, practice comes under the aegis of law and is subject to question.
"Free exercise," you see, does happen to include "practice" as well as belief. And when the doctrine of belief demands particular practice, that practice is protected. There are, of course limits, to forestall your inevitable red herring and strawman parade. Human sacrifice, for example, is not permitted even though it is a religious practice, but the criteria for suppressing or prohibiting a particular practice are quite strict and very limited in scope, generally limited to instances where the practice causes involuntary physical harm to others. Snake handling, for example, which causes harm to the handler, is a protected religious practice in the US, as would be, for example, self-flagellation. Flagellating someone else without their consent would not be. Flagellating someone WITH their consent would be. Human sacrifice is always prohibited because the legal presumption is that no person can consent to his own killing.
So, the issue of female priests is not subject to regulation by the state. It's a part of Catholic doctrine that women cannot be priests, and nobody can gainsay that doctrine.
Get a grip, you have no real clue what you're talking about.Get used to it, it's called the Enlightenment and it's been around for a while.