I have reason to believe that the Chicago Tribune is one of the most voraciously anti-Catholic newspapers in the United States of America. Today, it ran Katha Pollitt's Men of the Cloth piece, and under the title it printed, "When it comes to keeping women pregnant and in their place, polygamous Mormons and the pope have a lot in common. But the pope does it on a wider scale."

Now, Ms. Pollitt is certainly no fan of the Church or the Pope, and she makes some rash overstatements for the sake of embellishing her points. (For instance, I find this piece, while still critical of the Church, to be much more enlightening and complete than her glib assertions, but whatever...)

However, no where does she make such an outrageous claim as the Tribune's title would suggest. True, she makes the completely ridiculous claim that if it was "up to Benedict" [women would] "be trapped in marriage and have 15 children just like [the plural wives of FLDS]." Well, that's a crock of shit. I do believe Catholic universities offer women classes beyond Home Economics, to name just one example that refutes her inflammatory claim.

Am I to understand that I, as a Roman Catholic woman, am in the same position as these women? And my fellow religious women? That the pedophilia in the FLDS case is the same as the scandal that racked my church recently? That the family structures and treatment of young girls remotely resemble how Roman Catholics live and raise their daughters? Frankly, them's fightin' words.

I know better than to try to advise the Tribune, whose editorial board is filled with Republican bigots. But Ms. Pollitt, in your zeal to make a point, please do not insult me or embarrass yourself by exaggerating your case.