Vatican takes on feminism
“Eve was framed!” That bumper-sticker slogan gave us a welcome giggle when we first saw it, but now it seems an important rallying cry in response to a letter from the Vatican attacking feminism. Who knew that women’s quest for equality from “biological determinism” has brought about everything from the breakup of the family to gay marriage? Such a notion would be funny if it didn’t reflect how utterly out of touch the Church leaders in Rome are from the realities of women’s lives.
“Faced with abuse of power, the answer for women is to seek power,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the leader of the Church’s infamous Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the author of this remarkable document, charges. Entitled “On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World,” the 37-page letter, which was sent to bishops on July 31, continues, “This process leads to opposition between men and women.”
Well, yes. For a woman to achieve power means, in many cases, dislodging a man — opposing him. That doesn’t make the woman a man-hating witch, any more than it makes a man going for a powerful position one.
At least the cardinal admits “abuse of power” exists. How could he escape it given the pedophilia scandal in the Church, the ultimate abuse? But in his letter, there’s no mention of the many horrors inflicted on women every day. And then there are the garden-variety abuses, like sex discrimination in the workplace.
In fact, men aren’t taken to task at all in Ratzinger’s missive. The idea that most divorce is due to women’s quest for equality rather than men abandoning their families, often without paying any child support, is ludicrous.
We happen to agree that women are more likely than men to be concerned about others, imbued with a “sense of the seriousness of life and its responsibilities.” But arguing that those qualities derive from “women’s physical capacity to give life” lets men off the hook. No need to be mature, to take responsibility — boys will be boys.
Because they are so caring, the cardinal concedes, “women should be present in the world of work and in the organization of society,” and they should even “have access to positions of responsibility which allow them to inspire the policies of nations.” But only if they can get home in time to make dinner.
If the Vatican wanted to provide a real service, it might suggest to the employers of the world that everyone would be better off if family needs were given priority in the workplace. But the Church’s male elite is so sexist it doesn’t occur to them that others of their sex might want the opportunity to take time for their children. To the sentiment that women’s work within the family should be valued, we would add a hearty “amen” — with the amendment that “so should men’s.”
Of course, to call the Vatican sexist is to belabor the obvious. How many women would agree with Ratzinger’s breezy statement that “the reservation of priestly ordination solely to men does not hamper in any way women’s access to the heart of Christian life”? Catholic women struggle continually with their exclusion from the priesthood.
And thus it will be, world without end, amen. This offensive and oddly-timed letter from the Vatican includes the statement that, “From the first moment of their creation, man and woman are distinct and will remain so for all eternity.” It’s hard to know what to think about the eternity part. All those renditions of the heavenly hosts seem decidedly unisexual.
Alas, the cardinal has an explanation: Men will be men once they achieve eternal life — but they will be celibate men, just like him. We suspect that he hopes this means the rest of his gender will lose all interest in the opposite sex, and he won’t have to be bothered with thinking about women ever again.
Cokie and Steven Roberts are syndicated columnists.