THIS POPE'S BLIND SPOT...AND IT'S A BIG ONE.

We love this guy, don’t we?….I have been singing his praises…writing about his ability to change the world for the better….he deserves a lot of credit….maybe, just maybe, we will be a more compassionate planet…more empathetic…better steward’s to the earth…etc.. Fighting against the excesses of capitalism is a brave and desperate message…..it might be one of the keys to changing the world…..bravo to Francis for this reminder.

But, as New York Times Op-Ed writer, Maureen Dowd, states in her column today, “Is Francis a Perilous Pope”, this Pope is cool, but his coolness is what makes his reign so hazardous. “His magnetic magnanimous personality is making the church, so stained by the vile sex abuse scandal, more attractive to people—even though the Vatican stubbornly clings to its archaic practice of treating women as a lower caste.”

“Pope Francis would be the perfect pontiff if he lived in the 19th century”, Dowd states, ”But how, in 2015, can he continue to condone the idea that women should have no voice in church decisions? Francis has left many doors open...but the door to woman’s equality is closed.

In a scandal that cascaded for decades with abuses and cover ups, the church was revealed to be monstrously warped in its attitudes about sex and its sense of right and wrong.”

When asked about the issue of female priests Pope Francis replied, “The church has spoken and says “no”, That door is closed”

“Francis preaches against the elites while keeping the church an elite boys’ club.”

Pope Francis is careful not to ignore woman…but he does so in a patronizing and disingenuous tone...he told a group of female theologians last year that they were “strawberries on the cake”. That sounds like a line from the hit TV series, “Mad Men”. That is the equivalent of “don’t worry your pretty little head”.

Paul Vallely, the author of a respected biography “Pope Francis: Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism” calls women the pontiff’s “area of greatest weakness.”

“In practice he is a man of a certain age from macho Latin American cultural background who has limited understanding of women in the modern world.

At St. Patrick’s on Thursday night the Pope thrilled the American nuns present when he thanks them , asking “What would the church be without you? But, just the weekend before, a priest in San Francisco, Father Jack McClure, was being sanctioned for appearing at a conference on women’s ordination in Philadelphia.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, Father McClure got a message from his archbishop in San Francisco that he could no longer celebrate mass starting in October.

“I feel the pain of being silenced” the priest told the Catholic paper” and in this silencing, I am beginning to feel the deep pain women feel all over the church.”

We can only hope, in folly, that Speaker John Boehner’s uncontrollable tears were for the plight of women in the Catholic church, or for those who were so deeply betrayed and violated by Catholic Clergy all over the world, or for Father Jack McClure, who will now be sanctioned for apparently taking the Pope’s message of inclusion too far.

We all have our “blind spots” but this one by the Pope is especially painful and fatiguing , coming as it does at a time when the Pope and the Catholic church is experiencing a resurgence...a public relations resurrection. Before we go tripping over our robes in excitement...let’s take a complete inventory of it’s progress.

Maureen Dowd ends her column today by dropping the microphone at the end of an outstretched hand...and walking off the stage:

“If only the pope could apply this golden rule: do unto women as you would have them do unto you”

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. - Winston Churchill