Furthermore, we should never forget that Catholic bishops represent institutionalized patriarchy. The Catholic bishops do not want to allow women to be ordained priests. The Catholic bishops do want even want to hear any discussion or debate about this possibility. They do not even want to allow diocesan priests to be married to women. Because legalized abortion in the first trimester obviously favors and empowers women, the Catholic bishops are against it, because they are the guardians of centuries-old patriarchy.
In any event, the Catholic bishops in the United States and elsewhere around the world live a rich fantasy life in which they imagine themselves to be the successors of Jesus's apostles. Their fantasy life includes a noncritical understanding of the four canonical gospels and the portrayal of Jesus and his apostles in them as based on some kind of defensible historicity. (By contrast, a critical understanding of those stories would challenge their historicity.)
But in one of the canonical gospels, the character named Jesus is portrayed as sending out his followers to preach, but he tells them to turn around a leave any village where the people do not want to listen to them and to shake the dust from their feet as they leave to show their contempt for the people that they are leaving behind. But the Catholic bishops in the United States and elsewhere are not following those instructions. Instead, they are following the example of certain ancient Hebrew prophets such as Amos.
Nevertheless, in the view of the Catholic bishops, O'Brien is not a successor of Jesus's apostles. Therefore, the Catholic bishops see their role as successors of Jesus's apostles as teaching people like O'Brien. In the bishops' thought-world, it is not O'Brien's role in life to try to teach the bishops. Unfortunately for O'Brien, he evidently does not understand this.
Therefore, the Catholic bishops are not likely to read O'Brien's book, because he's a nobody in their thought-world and because they want no debate about their position regarding abortion.
Conservative antiabortion Catholics are also not likely to read O'Brien's book, because they are not interested in why he or anybody else might dissent from the ridiculous teachings of the Catholic bishops.
So the only Catholics who are likely to want to read O'Brien's book are people who are skeptical about the bishops' antiabortion anguish or who already disagree with the bishops regarding abortion.
I mentioned above that the Catholic bishops appear to be acting like passionate ancient Hebrew prophets such as Amos. By contrast, O'Brien writes in a dispassionate way. As a matter of fact, he writes so dispassionately that there is scarcely an appeal to pathos in this book. Nor is there a call to action.
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