ARCHBISHOP Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia has agreed to let an eleven-year-old girl, Caroline Pla, play football in a Catholic league, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. The archbishop overruled a panel of experts who had advised against allowing girls to play, partly for safety and — most disturbing of all — legal reasons. The girl’s parents, friends, teammates and coach all hail the decision as a great advance for Caroline and for girls in general.

Pla can already participate in an array of athletic activities, from field hockey to basketball, softball and soccer. And yet we are supposed to believe it a serious injustice that she is excluded from this one sport. She may say in all innocence that she passionately loves football, but her eagerness to play is not ultimately about a love of football. That’s not possible. Only a girl who dislikes or who misunderstands football would want to play the sport. Football is inherently and inalterably masculine.  It can accommodate girls only by becoming an entirely different sport.

Pla — again, the innocent mouthpiece of a sports-obsessed, feminist mentality — explains why this is a good development for her. It has nothing to do with sports:

“I did learn a really important lesson in life,” she said. “If there’s something you don’t like, you can change it. In the end, it can turn out the way that you want.”

Caroline has learned to disregard athletic traditions; to overlook what others want (not many boys want girls to play football) in order to get what she wants, to cross dress as a boy and to value rough aggression.

For years Catholic schools and colleges have been encouraging feminist careerism and assertiveness in girls. Girls altar servers have replaced boys to a large extent. Catholic femininity has been eclipsed. Of course, not many girls want to play football. But that’s beside the point. Even if only a few play, girls in general will be further masculinized by this additional refusal by idiotically immature adults, such as Pla’s parents and coach, to reinforce sex differences.

The archbishop has shown extraordinary weakness. Or I should say, he has shown the very ordinary weakness of men in positions of authority today.

—- Comments —

Kevin M. writes:

Eventually this girl is going to get hit hard and then it will be over. I spent over ten years coaching football from high school down to nine year olds. Little kids are not heavy enough or fast enough to inflict pain and injuries. I would always give an internal sig when young moms would object to a bunch of eight- and nine-year-olds slogging around and falling down. Once one reaches age 11 and 12 that starts to change. This girl will eventually come across an opponent who will treat her like a male and not hold back on his intensity.

But you are absolutely correct. This is not about her love of the game. It’s about upsetting the apple cart and her and her enablers getting their way.

SJF writes:

I read the Philly.com article, and couldn’t tell if this young girl had brothers.  My bet is that she does not, and her push into male-dominated sports is the function of a father who wanted a son. [Laura writes: Or he may have a son or two, but unconsciously wants more sons.]  I recall a close friend who is an orthodox Catholic with an only daughter.  He was resolutely against female altar boys and could make a strong argument for this position . . . until she became of age.  Now he calls me close-minded.

In addition, I find it objectionable that it is always the men (or in this case, the boys) who are told that they have to adjust if they feel uncomfortable with women inserting themselves in traditionally masculine roles.  (I’m not talking about women in the workplace, but in the foxhole, the locker room, and in this case in Pennsylvania.)  Why shouldn’t women have to adjust and deal with their uncomfortableness if I want to use their locker room at the health club because the men’s locker room is so busy?  They should just get over it.  We’re all the same anyway, aren’t we?

Terry Morris writes:

Every adult who encouraged and supported this girl is an idiot. What Caroline has learned is that whenever she sees something she doesn’t like, this means it must be wrong, and she can become an activist and change it. It is the rule disallowing girls to play football today. Tomorrow it will be something far more important, far more destructive. Looks like she’s headed for a lifelong career in politics.

Mario writes:

It’s over! When political correctness and feminism touches the most sacred thing America has ever created (I am talking about football) it’s time to pack it up and leave Continental U.S.A. as soon as possible. I am a Mexican male and a long time fan of both college and professional football, and the idea of having a girl playing probably the most masculine sport ever created (along with rugby) just doesn’t make any sense to me. Football is about strength, speed, strategic thinking, brutality: masculine traits that are exploited to the maximum in sixty long and painful minutes of effective game. That’s why football has surpassed baseball as the most profitable sport league in the U.S., and why it has so many fans overseas. We love to watch those male super athletes fighting mercilessly in turf. And when they score how they are awarded by a hysterical crowd and the charm and beauty of a cheerleading squad.

I understand MSM making big news about this stupidity; I even understand why two idiotic parents are pushing their daughter to fulfill her ‘dreams;’ what I don’t understand at all is having a Catholic archbishop indulging and promoting something that contradicts the ‘natural’ roles the two sexes are given by divine authority, one of the most important dogmas of the Catholic Church. Catholic Americans must be desperate to play political correctness big time and not be left behind the rest of America. Shameful! By the way, I am an atheist.

Don Vincenzo writes:

 What seems to be missing here is the role of the good Padre as a spiritual and religious leader.

Archbishop Chaput, often noted as a “conservative” prelate, as well as the only Native American (Potawatomie tribe) in the ranks of the bishops within the Catholic Church, seems to have accepted the fact that girls can – and should be – allowed to play the game of football with boys, despite the possibility of injury. I believe that the Archbishop had been informed that failure to allow such an idiocy is subject to legal action by the girl’s parents, for under Title IX, women have the same right to sports activities as boys.  Hence, when men’s wrestling teams do not have a female counterpart, their budget is subject to be cut until such a distaff team is fielded.

Most of the problems that now face Catholic schools are the result of what is known as “the Land of Lakes Conference” held in Wisconsin in 1967, in which the educational institutions of higher learning of the Church decided that they must accept the “coin of the realm,” that is, federal monies, to survive.  In so doing, however, their autonomy and independence was mortgaged to the will and whim of congressional requirements. It should be pointed out that the conference’s final declaration was signed by the then President of Notre Dame, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, and the heads of many Jesuit schools, and one cannot help but wonder if the infusion of federal dollars changed not only the institutions, but the clergy who administered them. Amongst the most notable in that category is America’s oldest Catholic institution of higher learning, Georgetown University. Today, Georgetown calls itself not a Jesuit school, but “a school in the Jesuit tradition.”

Federal funding has now infected every aspect of higher and secondary education of Catholic schools. I suspect that Archbishop Chaput knew the legal ramifications of refusal, and therefore acceded to the demands of the child and her parents. Yet, he also knew that as the spiritual and religious shepherd of the archdiocese, he had a responsibility to stand firm for the right and moral thing to do, and allowing Caroline Pla to play football was not part of that equation. The archbishop’s decision is a harbinger of things to come, for federal funds have become indispensible in keeping Catholic schools afloat.

I believe that Catholic education has suffered severely as a result of the Wisconsin Conference, and unless and until the Church’s hierarchy accepts that there is a steep price to pay for accepting “the coin of the realm,” the case of Caroline Pla will be duplicated ad infinitum, with or without a “conservative” prelate making the final decision.

After all, just about everyone knows that there is no such thing as “free lunch.”

Mary writes:

All I can think of is her poor developing breasts and reproductive system. And how she will handle it when she is finally outclassed or seriously injured by the “boys,” who are actually well on their way to being young men? But our local public high school recently accepted a girl on the WRESTLING team. Can’t decide which is worse. My head is spinning.

Please follow and like us: