The Vatican issued a “new” set of rules yesterday in response to the clerical abuse scandals of the past few decades, and critics say it’s just a polished version of the old rules that don’t address the systemic cover-ups of abuse of which many accuse of the church.

But one new thing it added was this:

One new element included lists the attempted ordination of women as a “grave crime” subject to the same set of procedures and punishments meted out for sex abuse. … That drew immediate criticism from women’s ordination groups, who said making a moral equivalent between women priests and child rapists was offensive.

Leave it to the Catholic Church to use an opportunity like this to show just how retro they really are.

— Monica Potts

Monica Potts is a former senior writer at The American Prospect. She is working on a book about low-income women in her rural Arkansas hometown. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York, Vogue.com, The Daily Beast, The Trace, and Democracy.