This woman has got to be a convert, because no “real” Catholic woman would be upset over a foolproof excuse to miss Mass.
That said: rad trads are the worst when it comes to screaming babies at Church (followed closely by, well, me) so it is pretty rich seeing them complain about breastfeeding, i.e. God’s gobstopper.
Also: too many women make a big Earth Mother show of public breastfeeding.
Yes, it is “natural.” So are lots of bodily functions. And some of us prefer the artificial to the real anyway. I go to Church to see and hear lots of baroque manmade grandeur and angels painted on ceilings and stuff, not to be reminded of the awfulness of messy, mundane reality.
And please: enough with the Theology of the Body already. A Pope writing about married sexuality is like Stephen Hawking writing about the Tour de France. I’m sure that by some miracle the resulting prose could be moving, poetic and even more or less accurate. (Brian Wilson wrote great songs about surfing but couldn’t swim and hated “fun”.) But there’d be a core of fake-itude to the results that no honest person could really get over (just as there is in Beach Boys music, the greatness of which lies in its amazing use of — decidedly un-waterproof — electronics, and the quirk of genetic harmonies, not in its [in]accurate evocation of surfing life. Their amazing albums were recorded in dark, cramped studios — not out in the sand under the sun. )
Of course, too many people just want to believe stuff cuz it sounds all spiritual and lyrical and whatnot. And because the alternative — thinking for yourself — is too awful to contemplate.
And yeah: what is this Cheerios thing and why do they have to be everywhere I am, like tribbles?
Distracting others during Mass is I believe SINFUL. While I am trying to stay recollected during the consecration, I have children left, right, front and behind getting out their baggies with cheerios, animal crackers, pretzels and even yesterday an apple fell from the pew and rolled to my foot which caused a scene for the mother, father, child and siblings until it was fetched.
