While writing about Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem, I came across a superb essay by Garry Wills on controversies in Christianity today.  It seems the Pope is coming down hard on nuns who are emphasizing social work and care of the poor (i.e. the Gospel and Christ’s work) over the Pope’s priorities of stamping out contraception.

Not only is the Pope seeking to exert control over the nuns’ organizations in the U.S., he is apparently seeking to rehabilitate some reprobate, anti-Semetic priests who happen to share his hard line against the idea of allowing women priests or gay marriage.  This is the same Pope, of course, who sustained the problem of child abuse among priests by refusing to treat it as a serious matter.

Read Wills essay; it makes clear that the problem with religion is that it leaves virtue behind when it gets enmeshed in power.