Girl Scouts and Catholic Church

From: Robin D.

Sent: May 23, 2012

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: Girl Scouts and Catholic Church

Dear Dennis, when I read this I was so upset with the church. This peace of the article really got me going "the Scouts refrain from informing young women about the work of the Sierra Club, Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, because these groups believe that it is not immoral to use artificial contraception". Why would they want to do this? Please share, Robin

By Marianne T. Duddy-Burke
I was a Girl Scout. My daughter is a Girl Scout. As Catholics, we are stunned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ decision to investigate an organization that we both deeply love.

It is tempting to laugh off this news as further evidence of how profoundly out of touch many of our bishops are with the lives and concerns of the people who fill their pews. But the hierarchy’s attempt to exert pressure on an organization that has helped millions of girls grow into strong, self-reliant and public-spirited women is only the most recent episode in an increasingly troubling sequence of events.

In March of 2010, the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine authorized a statement critiquing “Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God,” by Sister Elizabeth Johnson, one of this country’s leading Catholic theologians. In compiling the report on a three-year-old book the bishops violated their own guidelines about communicating with a theologian whose work is under investigation, according to reports. Johnson said she was never invited to discuss the book with the bishops.

In January 2012, after years of pressure from Catholic bishops across the United States, Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced it would no longer provide grants that have allowed Planned Parenthood to provide mammograms to women who could not afford them. The decision was reversed after a public outcry.

In February, embroiled in a controversy with the Obama administration over the coverage of contraception in the Affordable Care Act, the bishops supported legislation that would have allowed any employer who voiced a moral objection to the use of contraception to avoid including it in employee’s health coverage. Had the “Blunt Amendment” passed, it potentially could have deprived millions of women of access to contraception—including many women who use “birth control” pills for non-contraceptive purposes.
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