[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I suppose in going to the nuns, you go to what you know, even if you > despise it. Maybe they were the ones who put the sense of > worthlessness into her in the first place.
Oh, please, that's giving way too much power to a group of people Joni had direct experiences with twice in her life. Not ALL nuns are like the ones in Magdalene Laundries. It just may be that she had some GOOD experiences with some of the nuns when she was hospitalized with polio. At the time of Kilauren's birth, Catholic services may have been the only or at least the most extensive "social services" available, and if Joni gave birth in a Catholic hospital (very likely since she had no way to pay for her healthcare; I'm assuming the Canadian healthcare-for-all system was not yet in place), then that would easily lead to the rest of the Catholic network, such as adoption services. I doubt that nuns were the only people suggesting that Joni's baby be adopted. As Mags has said, the entire society then was unwilling to acknowledge, much less assist, unwed mothers. Religious institutions do not exist separately from the society they're in. It was an uptight time in every way, throughout society. In general Joni's negative comments regarding the church are limited to specific people doing specific "unworthy of the ideals they express" things rather than dismissing the entire Church, which is very open-minded of her. It's obvious from some of the messages here lately just how easy and acceptable it is for some people, especially non-Catholics, to dismiss the entire Church. Joni doesn't do that. Off the top of my head I recall these positive specifically Catholic references: "in my blood like holy wine" "it takes a heart like Mary's these days when your man gets weak" "Rhine wine Milk of the Madonna Clandestine" "in the church they light the candles and the wax roles down like tears there is the hope and the hopelessness I've witnessed thirty years" Note that she does say HOPE along with the hopelessness. > ... it's important to keep young girls > (boys too, but for other reasons) away from people who will make them > feel inadequate or inferior - and sadly, the Catholic Church has a > reputation for excelling in those areas. This is a very ugly generalization. I get the impression that you don't even have any personal stories to tell about this. The Church excelled in many areas, including setting up the first health care system in the U.S. and probably Canada, too, as well as the first and still most extensive educational system, again my guess would be in both countries. Catholic nuns and priests were the people willing to assist the poorest, neediest, most marginalized people before (and sometimes even after) government agencies were established. The entire story of the Catholic Church is not the abhorrent behavior of the Magdalene Laundries nuns or the relatively few pedophile priests. To dismiss the good works of thousands, even millions, of other people is bigoted and ignorant in my opinion. Painting the Church (or any group) with one big sloppy disdainful dismissive brush, no, I can't go for that. Debra Shea
