Bridget O’Brien

Have I spent enough time in the Midwest on & off that I should understand tornados? Probably!

Do I understand anything except tornados? No!*

*that’s not true: I know that you SHOULDN’T actually open your windows.

Hey quick question to people who know things about tornados:

It’s VERY unlikely that a tornado would west come from Lake Michigan, right? If downtown Chicago is hit by a hurricane, it’s almost always approached from the west, right? Or could a Lake Michigan waterspout become a Chicago tornado?

me, earlier, to a friend: i don’t know, the hail was kind of cool to watch from the safety of my apartment; i almost wish the storm had lasted longer

The Weather: oh you DO, do you…???

loolllllll what the fuck indeed.

yeah a friend thought it was a Weird Trick that when we went grocery shopping together, she’d say “how much do you think this will be?” and i knew within a few bucks, but that Weird Trick was just my brain not yet forgetting the ice cold humiliation of frantically putting things back!

Yeah, I remain very critical of the Balthasarian Marian Principle / Petrine Principle move, and the whole section on Pope Francis left me thinking, "I love the man, St Francis of Buenos Aires pray for us, but OOOF"—BUT it's the least upsetting Vatican treatment of women or gender I've ever read.

4) But there is very much a move to establishing Marian Principle / Petrine Principle as having authority—Appendix IV is "The Marian Principle and the Petrine Principle: A Critical Look"—and while they very honestly include criticisms, which is good to see!... I land on the side of the criticisms.

say things like, "a view limited to certain characteristics—such as motherhood, tenderness, or care—...can leave little
room for other equally important feminine qualities, such as leadership, counsel, the capacity for teaching, listening, and discernment," and talk about inclusive language as good.

3) It's VERY refreshing to me to see a Vatican document talk about the challenges chauvinism & clericalism pose to women in the Church, say things like "[Juana de la Cruz's] literary output...allows her to be considered a sort of feminist ante litteram, a true icon of emancipation...,"

2) Connected to that, there's no articulated "therefore." There are gestures toward possible paths forward. That's not inherently a weakness, but as the Synod Final Document itself says, “Without concrete changes in the short term, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible...” So...?

Caveat that I've only read it once, and rather quickly, so this is very much a first-glance take. 1) I'd need to do considerably more reading on what these Study Group documents are meant to do. I know how we got from the Synod to the Study Groups, but I don't know what the next step is meant to be.

On the document?

www.synod.va/content/dam/...

I'm still reading it, so I make no final judgment.

I am NOT favorably predisposed (understating things) toward the emergence of "Petrine Principle / Marian Principle" in Roman Magisterial thinking—but despite myself, I appreciate the language around its first introduction in the final report of the Synod's Study Group on Women in the Church.

The flattening of training & experience on social media can be very frustrating, yes. “I’m glad this is a hobby and interest of yours! It is … what I do, every day. Please can we start from an assumption that I have a decent knowledge base.”

do not pick a fight via subtweet do not pick a fight via subtweet do not pick a fight via subtweet do not pick a fight via

Lord make my words unarmed, but not yet.

I would never claim that I am experiencing any form of oppression when, eg, a stranger decides to corner me at a mutual friend’s wedding and repeatedly interrogate me about my religious beliefs—but it’s rude to do so, and should be frowned upon.

This is not the most pressing issue in the world—good God I know that—but I do experience left/progressive spaces as needing more openness to naming behavior as rude & object to it on those grounds even if it is not oppressive.

“The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious, I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat.” —Joe Biden, 2005

But like guys. We JUST had a Democratic president, and before that vice president, who was VERY VISIBLE in his practice of his faith.

(This isn’t me pledging fealty to Joe Biden; this is just me observing that the single most visible Democratic politician for 4 years was very vocal about religion!)

Catholics don’t exist, I guess!

(My snark here is directed to the NYT paragraph, NOT Jenkins, who is an excellent journalist & consistently does yeoman’s work in complicating over simplified narratives re religion & politics.)

but surely if ANY survey of opinions regarding the patriarch of the west were meaningful, it would be one of registered voters in the US.

see that’s the problem: they went with registered voters when they should have done LIKELY voters

vicar of christ: better or worse than artificial intelligence?

no.

it's ABSOLUTELY misogyny.

things i do while waiting for my latte: smile at babies in the cafe; compliment strangers on their fashion choices; read the notices on the community bulletin board about upcoming local events etc.

"standing around in the same physical space as other people patiently waiting for a drink to be made is what is causing us to be lonely. no one would be lonely if your drink took 15 seconds to pour into a cup. i am very smart."

i dunno elvie, i AM both single and someone who enjoys iced caramel lattes, so qed, really.