Mary Daly's first book "The Church and the Second Sex" helped me a great deal to believe that I wasn't the only person hurt by the Catholic church. I was raised in a devote Catholic family in Michigan during the 1950's. Almost everyone I associated with was Catholic and I attended parochial school for 12 years. I think even at the age of 7 when receiving my first communion I understood that something dreadful was going on around me. Yes, I guess I was probably more sensitive than most kids because I was raised in a very dysfunctional home with a lot of absurd patriarchial rules.
I only understood later that the nasty disposition of the nuns who were our main teachers in school was caused by the humiliation and degradation that they endured at the hands of the priests. The nuns were basically slaves to these narcissistic, pompous men whose vows of chastity, poverty and obedience drove them to sexually abuse any vulnerable child with impunity.
In Mary Daly's first book she was hopeful that the Catholic church would eventually address these primitive patriarchial attitudes; however, she eventually understood that this would not happen in her lifetime because patriarchy is so pervasive in christianity and our culture. She died in January 2010 deprived of any good news for women. I, too, have left the Catholic church behind and only look forward with hope for the generations to come.
The Mary Daly group and other femminists feed my spirit in order that I may have a brief respite from the dysphoria that haunts me.
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