On her Monday show, CNN's Christiane Amanpour celebrated the same "Catholic" Salon.com writer who penned the revolting piece, "So What If Abortion Ends Life?" and who shuddered at an Olympic gold medalist being "so, so, so into Jesus."
Salon.com's Mary Elizabeth Williams is a "pro-choice, liberal Catholic," and Amanpour hyped her "fight" to change the Catholic Church – allowing women to be ordained to the priesthood and thus treated as "equal citizens." Apparently Catholic women are second-class citizens in Amanpour's book.
In her January column on abortion, Williams bragged that she would still have the "World's Greatest Abortion" if she was pregnant, and that she would know she was aborting a human being. "A life worth sacrificing," she devilishly termed it. Is this the type of woman Amanpour wishes to honor?
Amanpour's Monday show was dedicated to "a celebration of the women who fight to change our world every day." Along with Williams, she also honored a "great woman" Gabrielle Giffords who is fighting for "gun sanity." Gun control is "gun sanity," Amanpour thinks.
"Her spirit is undaunted and her cause is to stop the gun violence here in the United States. After the shocking attack on children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, she painfully and powerfully appealed for gun sanity here," Amanpour touted.
Below is CNN's transcript of the segment, which aired on Amanpour on May 27:
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN host: Hello, everyone, I'm Christiane Amanpour. And welcome to a very special edition of the program, a celebration of the women who fight to change our world every day.
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AMANPOUR: And now we turn to the epic changes happening in the Catholic Church. And while many Catholics, according to polls, are leaving their faith because they're angry at the abuse and corruption in the church hierarchy, one woman has chosen to stay and fight from within. Mary Elizabeth Williams is senior writer for Salon.com, where she wrote a personal essay called, "No Matter What, I Am Still a Catholic." I asked her what keeps her in the church.
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MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, Salon.com: I still philosophically believe in the groundwork of Catholicism. I believe in the virtues of simplicity and forgiveness and tolerance and inclusion that were taught to me as a child and what I try to teach to my children as well.
But the main thing is, I think that to be questioning and to call out hypocrisy and to eliminate injustice when you see it is about as Christ- like as you can get. So for me, I feel the work of those of us who still believe in the faith of Catholicism is for us to do what Christ would do, which is to make a lot of noise and roar and make trouble. That's what I think we're supposed to be doing right now.
AMANPOUR: Do you think, given all your studies, all your writing, all your academic work on this issue, that there is a chance that women might see themselves priests and treated as equal citizens in the church?
WILLIAMS: I think -- I think women priests are still a long way away. But I can tell you that when I was a little girl, I had to fight and I lost the fight just to become an altar server. And when I now go to my church and I see girls up there on the altar, that, to me, represents an understanding and a little bit of progress.
And I think that what we see in parishes across the world, certainly I see in my own parish, is so different from what we hear coming out of Rome.
And what I would love to see in the future is more of a connection and more of a consistency between the work that Catholics are doing on the ground, who really care about these progressive issues, who really care about poverty, who really care about equality, who really care about family in real ways and what we hear coming out of Rome that is just this very strict, very dogmatic and very backward-looking world view.
We live in a different world now, and I think that the church has revised itself philosophically in the past. There's no reason that it can't revise itself philosophically in the future and take an attitude that's just more encompassing. That, to me, is what being Christ-like is supposed to be about.
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AMANPOUR: And finally, we began our tribute with the courageous and determined Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan. And we'd like to conclude this program with another brave woman, former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was also shot in the head and is also speaking out.
She was attacked by a crazed gunman in her home district of Tucson, Arizona. And just like Malala she has had a miraculous recovery. Her spirit is undaunted and her cause is to stop the gun violence here in the United States.
After the shocking attack on children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, she painfully and powerfully appealed for gun sanity here.
(Video Clip)
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, former Arizona congresswoman: Speaking is difficult. But I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children.
We must do something. It will be hard. But the time is now. You must act. Be bold, be courageous; Americans are counting on you. Thank you.
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AMANPOUR: Behind every great woman like Gabby Giffords and Malala Yousafzai there is another woman waiting to be great.
And that's it for tonight's program. I hope it has inspired you and moved you. Thanks for watching and goodbye from New York.
