Apparently the Catholic Church has, in the past, canonized 12-year-old girls for choosing death over rape: wow (read another abuse survivor’s commentary). Certainly the idea that purity is more important than life has ancient roots: Lucretia of the Brutii, in Roman mythology (sorry Livy, can’t fairly call you 100% historical), killed herself rather than live with the shame of rape, but Lucretia’s torch is only carried today by Islamic fundamentalists… and, apparently, some Popes.
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So you’re griping about a canonization that happened over 50 years ago and a ‘martyr’ whose shrine was last visited by a pope 30 years ago?
Is that the timeframe you’re referencing these days on the Left? Because I would LOVE to go down that road.
Posted by Progressive Conservative | September 10, 2008, 2:45 pmI just heard about it through the context of the more recent articles discussing it; it’s still interesting commentary on the craziness of some in the religious sphere, and the over-emphasis on purity, so I took it as either relevant today or a cautionary example out of the past.
As for “that road,” I have no idea what you’re talking about…
Posted by Ames | September 10, 2008, 3:46 pmI’m talking about the road where we start discussing sins of the past. I’d love to talk about the Dems circa 1968 or so.
Posted by Progressive Conservative | September 10, 2008, 4:52 pmMan, you know what you should do? You should totally start a blog where you got to have whatever conversations you wanted, rather than being subjected to the whims of the blog owner. That would rule.
Wait, what?
He what now?
Is it any good?
It is?
Ok, now I’m confused. What is he griping about?
:p
~ John
Posted by John | September 10, 2008, 5:05 pmI too must admit that I’m a little confused about the relevance of this story.
Before being too condemning, I would also suggest considering the actual context of this canonization – such as the fact that it took place in the pre-Vatican II church of the 1950′s, which is a world apart from the modern church, or that it may have been a response to what one could call a “rape culture” which apparently was widespread in rural Italy at the time.
Posted by Lanfranc | September 10, 2008, 8:34 pmYeah, probably not timely; I just found it interesting…. but aberrational given the other stories frequently here.
Posted by Ames | September 10, 2008, 8:44 pmI’d say the relevance of this story is the fact that it is sometimes taught to young people, by groups such as the focus of Jill’s post on Feministe, the Goretti Group. While Maria Goretti herself may have allowed herself to be killed by her would-be rapist in order to escape from the “rape culture” of her time and place and avoid being forced to marry her rapist, modern religious groups seem to be twisting her act into a message that it’s better for people, especially young girls and women, to kill themselves than to not be virgins, even if the supposed loss of virginity happens through rape. It’s an unfair and damaging message, in my opinion; and though Goretti’s canonization is old news, what people do with that fact is still relevant.
Posted by Seraph | September 18, 2008, 12:26 am