WOW, preach it, Darcy!!! I hear you & count myself as a Christian too!

Well, since we're all making silly over-reaching statements, I ACCEPT Anne Rice's resignation.

None of us had a clue that the RCC would become increasingly intolerant to gays and lesbians, refusing their children in schools and shutting down adoption services because they didn't want to extend spousal health benefits to same-sex employees. What happened to helping others and caring for the sick?

None of us had a clue that the RCC shuffled around so many pedophiles in one of the largest child abuse cases in history. Then, they lied and blamed the whole abuse fiasco on homosexuals. What happened to telling the truth?

While they wouldn't immediately excommunicate any of the abusers, they did opt to excommunicate a nun in the wake of life-saving emergency abortion. What happened to forgiveness?

None of us knew the RCC would refuse to discuss the ordination of women who are called to serve the Lord. What happened to having an open heart towards others?

I could go on and on....

This is not about being "contained" by the Church. This is about stepping away from a powerful institution that has become corporate and corrupted. If you want to claim that Anne Rice should just try another denomination please remember that Catholics are taught they are the one true religion....and everyone else is going to Hell. Most major religious entities preach the same. What a wretched lot.

Jesus might be equally infuriated with the exclusion and judgment happening in His name. We don't need to continue funding a criminal institution or wear special name tags in order to believe in Him and serve Him.

Cris - I'm not sure where your information about the Catholic Church's view on other Christians came from but in all my years I've never heard any Catholic bishop, priest, or other person say anyone not Catholic is going to hell. In fact such a notion contradicts the church's teaching.

CCC 818 - 819
However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church.

"Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity."

It is not true, Cris, that Catholics are taught they are the one true religion....and everyone else is going to Hell.

The Catechism clearly states that salvation is not possible for those who, once aware that the Church is necessary and was founded by Christ, then refuse to enter or remain in the Church. It does not exclude the possibility of salvation for those who “through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church.” The Church (and that means me and the other Catholic posters here) is obligated to evangelize all men and women and to dispel their ignorance of the gospel. But God will choose “in ways known to himself” how to lead those outside the Church to salvation.

This is all explained in sections 846 – 848 of the Catechism.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p3.htm

If you were not aware that the Church would never consider the ordination of women the fault is your own ignorance. The Church has always been clear on this prohibition.

Some of your other criticism are correct, but they are social and political, not ecclesial. In time they will be solved by men and women who remain with the Church. Leaving the church is no more a cure for homophobia (or other ills) than leaving America would have been a way of ending slavery.

I'm with you, Darcy!

"in Christ alone"

I agree with you Darcy, that is the right answer. The Catholic church has had the same position on the moral value of homosexuality for 2 millenia. Stop you whinning Anne, and get with the rest of us imperfect followers of the Lord.
I second the motion, Anne Rice's resignation is to be sent to a sub-commitee to investigate whether the resignation was properly formatted, and make there recommendations sometime in 2030.

If ya'll think gay people are peripheral to this discussion you are sorely mistaken!

Cris, yours is the only rational response on this comment board. My response to Anne Rice's resignation and her reasons for doing so is simply, "AMEN."