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Family Groups -Mothers - Vatican speaks out for mothers
1.The Church, expert in humanity, has a perennial interest
in whatever concerns men and women. In recent times, much
reflection has been given to the question of the dignity of
women and to women's rights and duties in the different areas
of civil society and the Church. Having contributed to a deeper
understanding of this fundamental question, in particular
through the teaching of John Paul II,1 the Church is called
today to address certain currents of thought which are often
at variance with the authentic advancement of women.
After a brief presentation and critical evaluation
of some current conceptions of human nature, this document
will offer reflections – inspired by the doctrinal elements
of the biblical vision of the human person that are indispensable
for safeguarding his or her identity – on some of the
essentials of a correct understanding of active collaboration,
in recognition of the difference between men and women in
the Church and in the world. These reflections are meant as
a starting point for further examination in the Church, as
well as an impetus for dialogue with all men and women of
good will, in a sincere search for the truth and in a common
commitment to the development of ever more authentic relationships.
2.Recent years have seen new approaches to women's issues.
A first tendency is to emphasize strongly conditions of subordination
in order to give rise to antagonism: women, in order to be
themselves, must make themselves the adversaries of men. Faced
with the abuse of power, the answer for women is to seek power.
This process leads to opposition between men and women, in
which the identity and role of one are emphasized to the disadvantage
of the other, leading to harmful confusion regarding the human
person, which has its most immediate and lethal effects in
the structure of the family.
A second tendency emerges in the wake of the
first. In order to avoid the domination of one sex or the
other, their differences tend to be denied, viewed as mere
effects of historical and cultural conditioning. In this perspective,
physical difference, termed sex, is minimized, while the purely
cultural element, termed gender, is emphasized to the maximum
and held to be primary. The obscuring of the difference or
duality of the sexes has enormous consequences on a variety
of levels. This theory of the human person, intended to promote
prospects for equality of women through liberation from biological
determinism, has in reality inspired ideologies which, for
example, call into question the family, in its natural two-parent
structure of mother and father, and make homosexuality and
heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous
sexuality.
3.While the immediate roots of this second tendency
are found in the context of reflection on women's roles, its
deeper motivation must be sought in the human attempt to be
freed from one's biological conditioning.2 According to this
perspective, human nature in itself does not possess characteristics
in an absolute manner: all persons can and ought to constitute
themselves as they like, since they are free from every predetermination
linked to their essential constitution.
This perspective has many consequences. Above
all it strengthens the idea that the liberation of women entails
criticism of Sacred Scripture, which would be seen as handing
on a patriarchal conception of God nourished by an essentially
male-dominated culture. Second, this tendency would consider
as lacking in importance and relevance the fact that the Son
of God assumed human nature in its male form.
4.In the face of these currents of thought, the Church, enlightened
by faith in Jesus Christ, speaks instead of active collaboration
between the sexes precisely in the recognition of the difference
between man and woman.
To understand better the basis, meaning and
consequences of this response it is helpful to turn briefly
to the Sacred Scriptures, rich also in human wisdom, in which
this response is progressively manifested thanks to God's
intervention on behalf of humanity.3
5.The first biblical texts to examine are the first three
chapters of Genesis. Here we “enter into the setting
of the biblical ‘beginning'. In it the revealed truth
concerning the human person as ‘the image and likeness'
of God constitutes the immutable basis of all Christian anthropology”.4
The first text (Gn 1:1-2:4) describes the creative
power of the Word of God, which makes distinctions in the
original chaos. Light and darkness appear, sea and dry land,
day and night, grass and trees, fish and birds, “each
according to its kind”. An ordered world is born out
of differences, carrying with them also the promise of relationships.
Here we see a sketch of the framework in which the creation
of the human race takes place: “God said ‘Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness'” (Gn 1:26).
And then: “God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female he created them”
(Gn1:27). From the very beginning therefore, humanity is described
as articulated in the male-female relationship. This is the
humanity, sexually differentiated, which is explicitly declared
“the image of God”.
6.The second creation account (Gn 2:4-25) confirms
in a definitive way the importance of sexual difference. Formed
by God and placed in the garden which he was to cultivate,
the man, who is still referred to with the generic expression
Adam, experienced a loneliness which the presence of the animals
is not able to overcome. He needs a helpmate who will be his
partner. The term here does not refer to an inferior, but
to a vital helper.5 This is so that Adam's life does not sink
into a sterile and, in the end, baneful encounter with himself.
It is necessary that he enter into relationship with another
being on his own level. Only the woman, created from the same
“flesh” and cloaked in the same mystery, can give
a future to the life of the man. It is therefore above all
on the ontological level that this takes place, in the sense
that God's creation of woman characterizes humanity as a relational
reality. In this encounter, the man speaks words for the first
time, expressive of his wonderment: “This at last is
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gn 2:23).
As the Holy Father has written with regard to
this text from Genesis, “...woman is another ‘I'
in a common humanity. From the very beginning they appear
as a ‘unity of the two', and this signifies that the
original solitude is overcome, the solitude in which man does
not find ‘a helper fit for him' (Gn 2:20). Is it only
a question here of a ‘helper' in activity, in ‘subduing
the earth' (cf. Gn 1:28)? Certainly it is a matter of a life's
companion with whom, as a wife, the man can unite himself,
becoming with her ‘one flesh' and for this reason leaving
‘his father and his mother'(cf. Gn 2:24)”.6
This vital difference is oriented toward communion
and was lived in peace, expressed by their nakedness: “And
the man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame”
(Gn 2:25). In this way, the human body, marked with the sign
of masculinity or femininity, “includes right from the
beginning the nuptial attribute, that is, the capacity of
expressing love, that love in which the person becomes a gift
and – by means of this gift – fulfils the meaning
of his being and his existence”.7 Continuing his commentary
on these verses of Genesis, the Holy Father writes: “In
this peculiarity, the body is the expression of the spirit
and is called, in the mystery of creation, to exist in the
communion of persons in the image of God”.8
Through this same spousal perspective, the ancient
Genesis narrative allows us to understand how woman, in her
deepest and original being, exists “for the other”
(cf. 1 Cor 11:9): this is a statement which, far from any
sense of alienation, expresses a fundamental aspect of the
similarity with the Triune God, whose Persons, with the coming
of Christ, are revealed as being in a communion of love, each
for the others. “In the ‘unity of the two', man
and woman are called from the beginning not only to exist
‘side by side' or ‘together', but they are also
called to exist mutually ‘one for the other'... The
text of Genesis 2:18-25 shows that marriage is the first and,
in a sense, the fundamental dimension of this call. But it
is not the only one. The whole of human history unfolds within
the context of this call. In this history, on the basis of
the principle of mutually being ‘for' the other in interpersonal
‘communion', there develops in humanity itself, in accordance
with God's will, the integration of what is ‘masculine'
and what is ‘feminine'”.9
The peaceful vision which concludes the second creation account
recalls the “indeed it was very good” (Gn 1:31)
at the end of the first account. Here we find the heart of
God's original plan and the deepest truth about man and woman,
as willed and created by him. Although God's original plan
for man and woman will later be upset and darkened by sin,
it can never be abrogated.
7.Original sin changes the way in which the
man and the woman receive and live the Word of God as well
as their relationship with the Creator. Immediately after
having given them the gift of the garden, God gives them a
positive command (cf. Gn 2:16), followed by a negative one
(cf. Gn 2:17), in which the essential difference between God
and humanity is implicitly expressed. Following enticement
by the serpent, the man and the woman deny this difference.
As a consequence, the way in which they live their sexual
difference is also upset. In this way, the Genesis account
establishes a relationship of cause and effect between the
two differences: when humanity considers God its enemy, the
relationship between man and woman becomes distorted. When
this relationship is damaged, their access to the face of
God risks being compromised in turn.
God's decisive words to the woman after the
first sin express the kind of relationship which has now been
introduced between man and woman: “your desire shall
be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gn
3:16). It will be a relationship in which love will frequently
be debased into pure self-seeking, in a relationship which
ignores and kills love and replaces it with the yoke of domination
of one sex over the other. Indeed the story of humanity is
continuously marked by this situation, which recalls the three-fold
concupiscence mentioned by Saint John: the concupiscence of
the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of
life (cf. 1 Jn 2:16). In this tragic situation, the equality,
respect and love that are required in the relationship of
man and woman according to God's original plan, are lost.
8.Reviewing these fundamental texts allows us
to formulate some of the principal elements of the biblical
vision of the human person.
Above all, the fact that human beings are persons
needs to be underscored: “Man is a person, man and woman
equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness
of the personal God”.10 Their equal dignity as persons
is realized as physical, psychological and ontological complementarity,
giving rise to a harmonious relationship of “uni-duality”,
which only sin and “the structures of sin” inscribed
in culture render potentially conflictual. The biblical vision
of the human person suggests that problems related to sexual
difference, whether on the public or private level, should
be addressed by a relational approach and not by competition
or retaliation.
Furthermore, the importance and the meaning
of sexual difference, as a reality deeply inscribed in man
and woman, needs to be noted. “Sexuality characterizes
man and woman not only on the physical level, but also on
the psychological and spiritual, making its mark on each of
their expressions”.11 It cannot be reduced to a pure
and insignificant biological fact, but rather “is a
fundamental component of personality, one of its modes of
being, of manifestation, of communicating with others, of
feeling, of expressing and of living human love”.12
This capacity to love – reflection and image of God
who is Love – is disclosed in the spousal character
of the body, in which the masculinity or femininity of the
person is expressed.
The human dimension of sexuality is inseparable
from the theological dimension. The human creature, in its
unity of soul and body, is characterized therefore, from the
very beginning, by the relationship with the other-beyond-the-self.
This relationship is presented as still good and yet, at the
same time, changed. It is good from its original goodness,
declared by God from the first moment of creation. It has
been changed however by the disharmony between God and humanity
introduced by sin. This alteration does not correspond to
the initial plan of God for man and woman, nor to the truth
of the relationship between the sexes. It follows then that
the relationship is good, but wounded and in need of healing.
What might be the ways of this healing? Considering
and analyzing the problems in the relationship between the
sexes solely from the standpoint of the situation marked by
sin would lead to a return to the errors mentioned above.
The logic of sin needs to be broken and a way forward needs
to be found that is capable of banishing it from the hearts
of sinful humanity. A clear orientation in this sense is provided
in the third chapter of Genesis by God's promise of a Saviour,
involving the “woman” and her “offspring”
(cf. Gn 3:15). It is a promise which will be preceded by a
long preparation in history before it is realized.
9.An early victory over evil is seen in the
story of Noah, the just man, who guided by God, avoids the
flood with his family and the various species of animals (cf.
Gn 6-9). But it is above all in God's choice of Abraham and
his descendants (cf. Gn 12:1ff) that the hope of salvation
is confirmed. God begins in this way to unveil his countenance
so that, through the chosen people, humanity will learn the
path of divine likeness, that is, the way of holiness, and
thus of transformation of heart. Among the many ways in which
God reveals himself to his people (cf. Heb 1:1), in keeping
with a long and patient pedagogy, there is the recurring theme
of the covenant between man and woman. This is paradoxical
if we consider the drama recounted in Genesis and its concrete
repetition in the time of the prophets, as well as the mixing
of the sacred and the sexual found in the religions which
surrounded Israel. And yet this symbolism is indispensable
for understanding the way in which God loves his people: God
makes himself known as the Bridegroom who loves Israel his
Bride.
If, in this relationship, God can be described
as a “jealous God” (cf. Ex 20:5; Nah 1:2) and
Israel denounced as an “adulterous” bride or “prostitute”
(cf. Hos 2:4-15; Ez 16:15-34), it is because of the hope,
reinforced by the prophets, of seeing Jerusalem become the
perfect bride: “For as a young man marries a virgin
so shall your creator marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you”
(Is 62:5). Recreated “in righteousness and in justice,
in steadfast love and in mercy” (Hos 2:21), she who
had wandered far away to search for life and happiness in
false gods will return, and “shall respond as in the
days of her youth” (Hos 2:17) to him who will speak
to her heart; she will hear it said: “Your bridegroom
is your Creator” (Is54:5). It is substantially the same
reality which is expressed when, parallel to the mystery of
God's action through the male figure of the suffering Servant,
the Book of the prophet Isaiah evokes the feminine figure
of Zion, adorned with a transcendence and a sanctity which
prefigure the gift of salvation destined for Israel.
The Song of Songs is an important moment in
the use of this form of revelation. In the words of a most
human love, which celebrate the beauty of the human body and
the joy of mutual seeking, God's love for his people is also
expressed. The Church's recognition of her relationship to
Christ in this audacious conjunction of language about what
is most human with language about what is most divine, cannot
be said to be mistaken.
In the course of the Old Testament, a story
of salvation takes shape which involves the simultaneous participation
of male and female. While having an evident metaphorical dimension,
the terms bridegroom and bride – and covenant as well
– which characterize the dynamic of salvation, are much
more than simple metaphors. This spousal language touches
on the very nature of the relationship which God establishes
with his people, even though that relationship is more expansive
than human spousal experience. Likewise, the same concrete
conditions of redemption are at play in the way in which prophetic
statements, such as those of Isaiah, associate masculine and
feminine roles in proclaiming and prefiguring the work of
salvation which God is about to undertake. This salvation
orients the reader both toward the male figure of the suffering
Servant as well as to the female figure of Zion. The prophetic
utterances of Isaiah in fact alternate between this figure
and the Servant of God, before culminating at the end of the
book with the mystical vision of Jerusalem, which gives birth
to a people in a single day (cf. Is 66: 7-14), a prophecy
of the great new things which God is about to do (cf. Is 48:
6-8).
10.All these prefigurations find their fulfillment
in the New Testament. On the one hand, Mary, the chosen daughter
of Zion, in her femininity, sums up and transfigures the condition
of Israel/Bride waiting for the day of her salvation. On the
other hand, the masculinity of the Son shows how Jesus assumes
in his person all that the Old Testament symbolism had applied
to the love of God for his people, described as the love of
a bridegroom for his bride. The figures of Jesus and Mary
his mother not only assure the continuity of the New Testament
with the Old, but go beyond it, since – as Saint Irenaeus
wrote – with Jesus Christ “all newness”
appears.13
This aspect is particularly evident in the Gospel
of John. In the scene of the wedding feast at Cana, for example,
Jesus is asked by his mother, who is called “woman”,
to offer, as a sign, the new wine of the future wedding with
humanity (cf. Jn 2:1-12). This messianic wedding is accomplished
on the Cross when, again in the presence of his mother, once
again called “woman”, the blood/wine of the New
Covenant pours forth from the open heart of the crucified
Christ (cf. Jn 19:25-27, 34).14 It is therefore not at all
surprising that John the Baptist, when asked who he is, describes
himself as “the friend of the bridegroom”, who
rejoices to hear the bridegroom's voice and must be eclipsed
by his coming: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom;
the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices
greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine
is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease”
(Jn3:29-30).15
In his apostolic activity, Paul develops the
whole nuptial significance of the redemption by seeing Christian
life as a nuptial mystery. He writes to the Church in Corinth,
which he had founded: “I feel a divine jealousy for
you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a chaste
virgin to her one husband” (2 Cor 11:2).
In the Letter to the Ephesians, the spousal
relationship between Christ and the Church is taken up again
and deepened in its implications. In the New Covenant, the
beloved bride is the Church, and as the Holy Father teaches
in his Letter to Families: “This bride, of whom the
Letter to the Ephesians speaks, is present in each of the
baptized and is like one who presents herself before her Bridegroom:
‘Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her...,
that he might present the Church to himself in splendour,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might
be holy and without blemish' (Eph 5:25-27)”. 16
Reflecting on the unity of man and woman as
described at the moment of the world's creation (cf. Gn 2:24),
the Apostle exclaims: “this mystery is a profound one,
and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church”
(Eph 5:32). The love of a man and a woman, lived out in the
power of baptismal life, now becomes the sacrament of the
love between Christ and his Church, and a witness to the mystery
of fidelity and unity from which the “New Eve”
is born and by which she lives in her earthly pilgrimage toward
the fullness of the eternal wedding.
11.Drawn into the Paschal mystery and made living
signs of the love of Christ and his Church, the hearts of
Christian spouses are renewed and they are able to avoid elements
of concupiscence in their relationship, as well as the subjugation
introduced into the life of the first married couple by the
break with God caused by sin. For Christian spouses, the goodness
of love, for which the wounded human heart has continued to
long, is revealed with new accents and possibilities. It is
in this light that Jesus, faced with the question about divorce
(cf. Mt 19:3-9), recalls the demands of the covenant between
man and woman as willed by God at the beginning, that is,
before the eruption of sin which had justified the later accommodations
found in the Mosaic Law. Far from being the imposition of
a hard and inflexible order, these words of Jesus are actually
the proclamation of the “good news” of that faithfulness
which is stronger than sin. The power of the resurrection
makes possible the victory of faithfulness over weakness,
over injuries and over the couple's sins. In the grace of
Christ which renews their hearts, man and woman become capable
of being freed from sin and of knowing the joy of mutual giving.
12.“For all of you who have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ... there is neither male nor
female”, writes Saint Paul to the Galatians (3:27-28).
The Apostle Paul does not say that the distinction between
man and woman, which in other places is referred to the plan
of God, has been erased. He means rather that in Christ the
rivalry, enmity and violence which disfigured the relationship
between men and women can be overcome and have been overcome.
In this sense, the distinction between man and woman is reaffirmed
more than ever; indeed, it is present in biblical revelation
up to the very end. In the final hour of present history,
the Book of Revelation of Saint John, speaking of “a
new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21:1), presents the
vision of a feminine Jerusalem “prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). Revelation concludes
with the words of the Bride and the Spirit who beseech the
coming of the Bridegroom, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
(Rev22:20).
Male and female are thus revealed as belonging
ontologically to creation and destined therefore to outlast
the present time, evidently in a transfigured form. In this
way, they characterize the “love that never ends”
(1Cor 13:8), although the temporal and earthly expression
of sexuality is transient and ordered to a phase of life marked
by procreation and death. Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom
seeks to be the prophecy of this form of future existence
of male and female. For those who live it, it is an anticipation
of the reality of a life which, while remaining that of a
man and a woman, will no longer be subject to the present
limitations of the marriage relationship (cf. Mt22:30). For
those in married life, celibacy becomes the reminder and prophecy
of the completion which their own relationship will find in
the face-to-face encounter with God.
From the first moment of their creation, man
and woman are distinct, and will remain so for all eternity.
Placed within Christ's Paschal mystery, they no longer see
their difference as a source of discord to be overcome by
denial or eradication, but rather as the possibility for collaboration,
to be cultivated with mutual respect for their difference.
From here, new perspectives open up for a deeper understanding
of the dignity of women and their role in human society and
in the Church.
13.Among the fundamental values linked to women's actual lives
is what has been called a “capacity for the other”.
Although a certain type of feminist rhetoric makes demands
“for ourselves”, women preserve the deep intuition
of the goodness in their lives of those actions which elicit
life, and contribute to the growth and protection of the other.
This intuition is linked to women's physical
capacity to give life. Whether lived out or remaining potential,
this capacity is a reality that structures the female personality
in a profound way. It allows her to acquire maturity very
quickly, and gives a sense of the seriousness of life and
of its responsibilities. A sense and a respect for what is
concrete develop in her, opposed to abstractions which are
so often fatal for the existence of individuals and society.
It is women, in the end, who even in very desperate situations,
as attested by history past and present, possess a singular
capacity to persevere in adversity, to keep life going even
in extreme situations, to hold tenaciously to the future,
and finally to remember with tears the value of every human
life.
Although motherhood is a key element of women's
identity, this does not mean that women should be considered
from the sole perspective of physical procreation. In this
area, there can be serious distortions, which extol biological
fecundity in purely quantitative terms and are often accompanied
by dangerous disrespect for women. The existence of the Christian
vocation of virginity, radical with regard to both the Old
Testament tradition and the demands made by many societies,
is of the greatest importance in this regard.17 Virginity
refutes any attempt to enclose women in mere biological destiny.
Just as virginity receives from physical motherhood the insight
that there is no Christian vocation except in the concrete
gift of oneself to the other, so physical motherhood receives
from virginity an insight into its fundamentally spiritual
dimension: it is in not being content only to give physical
life that the other truly comes into existence. This means
that motherhood can find forms of full realization also where
there is no physical procreation.18
In this perspective, one understands the irreplaceable
role of women in all aspects of family and social life involving
human relationships and caring for others. Here what John
Paul II has termed the genius of women becomes very clear.19
It implies first of all that women be significantly and actively
present in the family, “the primordial and, in a certain
sense sovereign society”,20 since it is here above all
that the features of a people take shape; it is here that
its members acquire basic teachings. They learn to love inasmuch
as they are unconditionally loved, they learn respect for
others inasmuch as they are respected, they learn to know
the face of God inasmuch as they receive a first revelation
of it from a father and a mother full of attention in their
regard. Whenever these fundamental experiences are lacking,
society as a whole suffers violence and becomes in turn the
progenitor of more violence. It means also that women should
be present in the world of work and in the organization of
society, and that women should have access to positions of
responsibility which allow them to inspire the policies of
nations and to promote innovative solutions to economic and
social problems.
In this regard, it cannot be forgotten that
the interrelationship between these two activities –
family and work – has, for women, characteristics different
from those in the case of men. The harmonization of the organization
of work and laws governing work with the demands stemming
from the mission of women within the family is a challenge.
The question is not only legal, economic and organizational;
it is above all a question of mentality, culture, and respect.
Indeed, a just valuing of the work of women within the family
is required. In this way, women who freely desire will be
able to devote the totality of their time to the work of the
household without being stigmatized by society or penalized
financially, while those who wish also to engage in other
work may be able to do so with an appropriate work-schedule,
and not have to choose between relinquishing their family
life or enduring continual stress, with negative consequences
for one's own equilibrium and the harmony of the family. As
John Paul II has written, “it will redound to the credit
of society to make it possible for a mother – without
inhibiting her freedom, without psychological or practical
discrimination and without penalizing her as compared with
other women – to devote herself to taking care of her
children and educating them in accordance with their needs,
which vary with age”.21
14. It is appropriate however to recall that
the feminine values mentioned here are above all human values:
the human condition of man and woman created in the image
of God is one and indivisible. It is only because women are
more immediately attuned to these values that they are the
reminder and the privileged sign of such values. But, in the
final analysis, every human being, man or woman, is destined
to be “for the other”. In this perspective, that
which is called “femininity” is more than simply
an attribute of the female sex. The word designates indeed
the fundamental human capacity to live for the other and because
of the other.
Therefore, the promotion of women within society
must be understood and desired as a humanization accomplished
through those values, rediscovered thanks to women. Every
outlook which presents itself as a conflict between the sexes
is only an illusion and a danger: it would end in segregation
and competition between men and women, and would promote a
solipsism nourished by a false conception of freedom.
Without prejudice to the advancement of women's
rights in society and the family, these observations seek
to correct the perspective which views men as enemies to be
overcome. The proper condition of the male-female relationship
cannot be a kind of mistrustful and defensive opposition.
Their relationship needs to be lived in peace and in the happiness
of shared love.
On a more concrete level, if social policies
– in the areas of education, work, family, access to
services and civic participation – must combat all unjust
sexual discrimination, they must also listen to the aspirations
and identify the needs of all. The defence and promotion of
equal dignity and common personal values must be harmonized
with attentive recognition of the difference and reciprocity
between the sexes where this is relevant to the realization
of one's humanity, whether male or female.
15.In the Church, woman as “sign” is more than
ever central and fruitful, following as it does from the very
identity of the Church, as received from God and accepted
in faith. It is this “mystical” identity, profound
and essential, which needs to be kept in mind when reflecting
on the respective roles of men and women in the Church.
From the beginning of Christianity, the Church has understood
herself to be a community, brought into existence by Christ
and joined to him by a relationship of love, of which the
nuptial experience is the privileged expression. From this
it follows that the Church's first task is to remain in the
presence of this mystery of God's love, manifested in Jesus
Christ, to contemplate and to celebrate it. In this regard,
the figure of Mary constitutes the fundamental reference in
the Church. One could say metaphorically that Mary is a mirror
placed before the Church, in which the Church is invited to
recognize her own identity as well as the dispositions of
the heart, the attitudes and the actions which God expects
from her.
The existence of Mary is an invitation to the
Church to root her very being in listening and receiving the
Word of God, because faith is not so much the search for God
on the part of human beings, as the recognition by men and
women that God comes to us; he visits us and speaks to us.
This faith, which believes that “nothing is impossible
for God” (cf. Gn18:14; Lk 1:37), lives and becomes deeper
through the humble and loving obedience by which the Church
can say to the Father: “Let it be done to me according
to your word” (Lk 1:38). Faith continually makes reference
to Jesus: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5)
and accompanies Jesus on his way, even to the foot of the
Cross. Mary, in the hour of darkness, perseveres courageously
in faithfulness, with the sole certainty of trust in the Word
of God.
It is from Mary that the Church always learns
the intimacy of Christ. Mary, who carried the small child
of Bethlehem in her arms, teaches us to recognize the infinite
humility of God. She who received the broken body of Jesus
from the Cross shows the Church how to receive all those in
this world whose lives have been wounded by violence and sin.
From Mary, the Church learns the meaning of the power of love,
as revealed by God in the life of his beloved Son: “he
has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart...
he has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:51-52). From Mary,
the disciples of Christ continually receive the sense and
the delight of praise for the work of God's hands: “The
Almighty has done great things for me” (Lk1:49). They
learn that they are in the world to preserve the memory of
those “great things”, and to keep vigil in expectation
of the day of the Lord.
16.To look at Mary and imitate her does not
mean, however, that the Church should adopt a passivity inspired
by an outdated conception of femininity. Nor does it condemn
the Church to a dangerous vulnerability in a world where what
count above all are domination and power. In reality, the
way of Christ is neither one of domination (cf. Phil 2:6)
nor of power as understood by the world (cf. Jn18:36). From
the Son of God one learns that this “passivity”
is in reality the way of love; it is a royal power which vanquishes
all violence; it is “passion” which saves the
world from sin and death and recreates humanity. In entrusting
his mother to the Apostle John, Jesus on the Cross invites
his Church to learn from Mary the secret of the love that
is victorious.
Far from giving the Church an identity based
on an historically conditioned model of femininity, the reference
to Mary, with her dispositions of listening, welcoming, humility,
faithfulness, praise and waiting, places the Church in continuity
with the spiritual history of Israel. In Jesus and through
him, these attributes become the vocation of every baptized
Christian. Regardless of conditions, states of life, different
vocations with or without public responsibilities, they are
an essential aspect of Christian life. While these traits
should be characteristic of every baptized person, women in
fact live them with particular intensity and naturalness.
In this way, women play a role of maximum importance in the
Church's life by recalling these dispositions to all the baptized
and contributing in a unique way to showing the true face
of the Church, spouse of Christ and mother of believers.
In this perspective one understands how the
reservation of priestly ordination solely to men22 does not
hamper in any way women's access to the heart of Christian
life. Women are called to be unique examples and witnesses
for all Christians of how the Bride is to respond in love
to the love of the Bridegroom.
CONCLUSION
17.In Jesus Christ all things have been made new (cf. Rev
21:5). Renewal in grace, however, cannot take place without
conversion of heart. Gazing at Jesus and confessing him as
Lord means recognizing the path of love, triumphant over sin,
which he sets out for his disciples.
In this way, man's relationship with woman is
transformed, and the three-fold concupiscence described in
the First Letter of John (1 Jn 2:16) ceases to have the upper
hand. The witness of women's lives must be received with respect
and appreciation, as revealing those values without which
humanity would be closed in self-sufficiency, dreams of power
and the drama of violence. Women too, for their part, need
to follow the path of conversion and recognize the unique
values and great capacity for loving others which their femininity
bears. In both cases, it is a question of humanity's conversion
to God, so that both men and women may come to know God as
their “helper”, as the Creator full of tenderness,
as the Redeemer who “so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son” (Jn 3:16).
Such a conversion cannot take place without
humble prayer to God for that penetrating gaze which is able
to recognize one's own sin and also the grace which heals
it. In a particular way, we need to ask this of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the woman in accord with the heart of God, she
who is “blessed among women” (cf. Lk 1:42), chosen
to reveal to men and women the way of love. Only in this way,
can the “image of God”, the sacred likeness inscribed
in every man and woman, emerge according to the specific grace
received by each (cf. Gn 1:27). Only thus can the path of
peace and wonderment be recovered, witnessed in the verses
of the Song of Songs, where bodies and hearts celebrate the
same jubilee.
The Church certainly knows the power of sin
at work in individuals and in societies, which at times almost
leads one to despair of the goodness of married couples. But
through her faith in Jesus crucified and risen, the Church
knows even more the power of forgiveness and self-giving in
spite of any injury or injustice. The peace and wonderment
which she trustfully proposes to men and women today are the
peace and wonderment of the garden of the resurrection, which
have enlightened our world and its history with the revelation
that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16).
The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, in the Audience
granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved the
present Letter, adopted in the Ordinary Session of this Congregation,
and ordered its publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, May 31, 2004, the Feast of the
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
+ Joseph Card. Ratzinger
Prefect
+ Angelo Amato, SDB
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary
1Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris
consortio (November 22, 1981): AAS 74 (1982), 81-191; Apostolic
Letter Mulieris dignitatem (August 15, 1988): AAS 80 (1988),
1653-1729; Letter to Families (February 2, 1994): AAS 86 (1994),
868-925; Letter to Women (June 29, 1995): AAS 87 (1995), 803-812;
Catechesi sull'amore umano (1979-1984): Insegnamenti II (1979)
– VII (1984): English translation in The Theology of
the Body, (Boston: Pauline Books Media, 1997); Congregation
for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love
(November 1, 1983); Pontifical Council for the Family, The
Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education
within the Family (December 8, 1995).2On the complex question
of gender, see also The Pontifical Council for the Family,
Family, Marriage and “De facto unions” (July 26,
2000), 8.3Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et ratio
(September 14, 1998), 21: AAS 91 (1999), 22: “This opening
to the mystery, which came to him [biblical man] through Revelation,
was for him, in the end, the source of true knowledge. It
was this which allowed his reason to enter the realm of the
infinite where an understanding for which until then he had
not dared to hope became a possibility”.4John Paul II,
Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem (August 15, 1988), 6:
AAS 80 (1988), 1662; cf. St. Ireneus, Adversus haereses, 5,6,1;
5, 16, 2-3: SC 153, 72-81; 216-221; St. Gregory of Nyssa,
De hominis opificio, 16: PG 44, 180; In Canticum homilia,
2: PG 44, 805-808; St.Augustine, Enarratio in Psalmum, 4,
8: CCL 38, 17.5The Hebrew word ezer which is translated as
“helpmate” indicates the assistance which only
a person can render to another. It carries no implication
of inferiority or exploitation if we remember that God too
is at times called ezer with regard to human beings (cf. Ex
18:4; Ps10:14).
6John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem (August
15, 1988), 6: AAS 80 (1988), 1664.
7John Paul II, General Audience of January 16, 1980, reprinted
in The Theology of the Body, (Boston: Pauline Books Media,
1997), 63.
8John Paul II, General Audience of July 23, 1980, reprinted
in The Theology of the Body, (Boston: Pauline Books Media,
1997), 125.9John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem
(August 15, 1988), 7: AAS 80 (1988), 1666.
10Ibid., 6, l. c., 1663.
11Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance
in Human Love (November 1, 1983), 4.
12Ibid.
13Adversus haereses, 4, 34, 1: SC 100, 846: “Omnem novitatem
attulit semetipsum afferens”.
14The ancient exegetical tradition sees in Mary at Cana the
“figura Synagogae” and the “inchoatio Ecclesiae”.
15Here the Fourth Gospel presents in a deeper way an element
found also in the Synoptic Gospels (cf. Mt 9:15 and parallel
texts). On the theme of Christ the Bridegroom, see John Paul
II, Letter to Families (February 2, 1994), 18: AAS 86 (1994),
906-910.16John Paul II, Letter to Families (February 2, 1994),
19: AAS 86 (1994), 911; cf. Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem
(August 15, 1988), 23- 25: AAS 80 (1988), 1708-1715.
17Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris
consortio (November 22, 1981), 16: AAS 74 (1982), 98-99.
18Ibid., 41, l.c., 132-133; Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae (February 22, 1987),
II, 8: AAS 80 (1988), 96-97.19Cf. John Paul II, Letter to
Women (June 29, 1995), 9-10: AAS 87 (1995), 809-810.
20John Paul II, Letter to Families (February 2, 1994), 17:
AAS 86 (1994), 906.21Encyclical Letter Laborem exercens (September
14, 1981), 19: AAS 73 (1981), 627.22Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic
Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis (May 22, 1994): AAS 86 (1994),
545-548; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responsum
ad dubium regarding the doctrine of the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio
sacerdotalis (October 28, 1995): AAS 87 (1995), 1114.
Vatican, Jul. 31 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican
has released an important new
document on the roles of men and women in the Church, countering
the claims
of feminism and emphasizing the Christian understanding of
women's dignity.
The "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic
Church on the Collaboration of
Men and Women in the Church and in the World" was made
public on July 31.
The 37-page letter was issued by the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the
Faith, and signed by that congregation's prefect, Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger
(bio - news); and secretary, Archbishop Angelo Amato. The
full text (
http://www.vis.pcn.net/doc/040731x_en.htm
) is available on the Vatican web
site.
Prior to the document's appearance, secular
news accounts had speculated
that the Vatican would offer a new explanation of the Church's
teaching that
only men may be ordained to the priesthood. But that topic
is mentioned only
once in the new document: in a single sentence near the conclusion.
The longest and most important part of the document
is a profound meditation
on the Bible's approach to the question of human sexuality.
Following the
analysis that Pope John Paul II (bio - news) has presented--
for instance,
in Mulieris Dignitatem -- the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith
argues that in society and in the Church, man and woman play
distinct roles,
equal in dignity, complementing each other.
The "Letter to the Bishops" explains
that today's society urgently needs to
recapture a proper understanding of these respective roles,
in order to
avoid the dangers of an ideological approach that denigrates
women and
threatens the family.
(In the analysis that follows, the numbers in
parentheses refer to the
section in the Vatican document.)
The Letter opens by identifying the ideological
challenge to a Christian
understanding of sexuality, beginning with militant feminism:
A first tendency is to emphasize strongly conditions
of subordination in
order to give rise to antagonism: women, in order to be themselves,
must
make themselves the adversaries of men. Faced with the abuse
of power, the
answer for women is to seek power. (2)
However, the Vatican also notes a second strand of feminist
ideology, with
equally dangerous consequences:
In order to avoid the domination of one sex or the other,
their differences
tend to be denied, [which] inspired ideologies which, for
example, call into
question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of
mother and
father, and make homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually
equivalent, in
a new model of polymorphous sexuality. (2)
To counteract these ideological influences, the Vatican urges
readers to
deepen their understanding of how the Scriptures point toward
a proper
understanding of God's plan for man and woman. The document
continues with a
detailed analysis of the two accounts of Creation presented
in the Book of
Genesis.
In creating man and woman, the document explains,
God made each sex to live
in communion with the other, thus reflecting the life of the
Trinity. "This
is the humanity, sexually differentiated, which is explicitly
declared 'the
image of God.'" (5) The Biblical account also points
to the different roles
of men and women, the "Letter to the Bishops" observes,
noting that "the
ancient Genesis narrative allows us to understand how woman,
in her deepest
and original being, exists 'for the other.'" (6)
The complementary relationship of man and woman
should not be understood as
merely a biological accident, the Vatican document emphasizes.
By explaining
the origins of human sexuality, the Biblical account also
offers a blueprint
for the way in which men and woman should understand their
respective
vocations. "The human dimension of sexuality is inseparable
from the
theological dimension." (8 )
The ideal relationship between man and woman,
embodied in Adam and Eve
before the Fall, is ruptured by Original Sin, the Vatican
document
continues. The "Letter to the Bishops" continues
with a treatment of the
imagery that occurs throughout the Old Testament, in which
God's
relationship to his Chosen People is frequently compared to
that of a
jealous husband with an unfaithful spouse.
This nuptial imagery of the Old Testament is
fulfilled in the New Testament,
as Christ become the bridegroom, and his Church-- including
both men and
women-- plays the role of the bride. Unlike any fallen human
husband, Jesus
offers his entire life in a perfect sacrifice for his spouse.
Through the power of his Sacrifice, Jesus also
gives a profound new meaning
to Christian marriage.
The love of a man and a woman, lived out in
the power of baptismal life, now
becomes the sacrament of the love between Christ and his Church,
and a
witness to the mystery of fidelity and unity from which the
"New Eve" is
born and by which she lives in her earthly pilgrimage toward
the fullness of
the eternal wedding.(10)
Strengthened by grace, and guided by this understanding of
their marital
vocation, Christian spouses now strive to model their relationship
on the
love of perfect Christ for his Church. "The power of
the resurrection makes
possible the victory of faithfulness over weakness, over injuries
and over
the couple's sins." (11)
Having completed this Biblical analysis, the
"Letter to the Bishops" now
focuses specifically on the role of women. A woman's nature,
the document
observes, is defined by her "capacity for the other."
It allows her to acquire maturity very quickly,
and gives a sense of the
seriousness of life and of its responsibilities. A sense and
a respect for
what is concrete develop in her, opposed to abstractions which
are so often
fatal for the existence of individuals and society. It is
women, in the end,
who even in very desperate situations, as attested by history
past and
present, possess a singular capacity to persevere in adversity,
to keep life
going even in extreme situations, to hold tenaciously to the
future, and
finally to remember with tears the value of every human life.12
The most obvious and distinctive characteristic of woman's
nature is her
capacity to conceive and nourish new life. But the Vatican
document notes
that childbirth is by no means the only way to realize the
woman's vocation,
and cautions against "serious distortions, which extol
biological fecundity
in purely quantitative terms and are often accompanied by
dangerous
disrespect for women." (13) Some women realize their
feminine vocation
through a life of consecrated virginity, serving the Church
and society in a
radical fulfillment of their capacity to live "for the
other." Other
Christian women find that they can serve others in different
ways. "This
means that motherhood can find forms of full realization also
where there is
no physical procreation." (13)
The crucial point, the "Letter to the Bishops"
explains, is that in living
out their vocations-- whatever they may be-- women should
recognize their
feminine gifts. And far from relegating women to a sheltered
life in the
household, the Vatican document emphasizes that women should
have the
opportunity to offer their distinctive insights and contributions
in every
part of society:
It means also that women should be present in
the world of work and in the
organization of society, and that women should have access
to positions of
responsibility which allow them to inspire the policies of
nations and to
promote innovative solutions to economic and social problems.
(13)
At the same time, the Vatican demands a proper appreciation
for the unique
and vital role of women who serve as mothers and homemakers.
Indeed, a just valuing of the work of women
within the family is required.
In this way, women who freely desire will be able to devote
the totality of
their time to the work of the household without being stigmatized
by society
or penalized financially, while those who wish also to engage
in other work
may be able to do so with an appropriate work-schedule, and
not have to
choose between relinquishing their family life or enduring
continual stress,
with negative consequences for one's own equilibrium and the
harmony of the
family. (13)
A brief final section of the "Letter to the Bishops"
considers the role of
women in the life of the Church. In this analysis, the Congregation
for the
Doctrine of the Faith observes that the model of the Church
is the Virgin
Mary, who fulfills in her life the woman's vocation to live
in perfect
fidelity to Jesus. All Christians-- not only women-- are called
to follow
her example, the Vatican document notes.
Here the "Letter to the Bishops" makes
its only allusion to the question of
ordination, noting: "In this perspective, one understands
how the
reservation of priestly ordination solely to men does not
hamper in any way
women's access to the heart of Christian life." (16)
The example offered by the Virgin, the document
reminds readers, is not only
a single example of feminine virtue. Rather, as Mary models
the Church, the
spotless Bride of Christ, her life fulfills God's original
plan for man and
woman-- offered at Creation, violated by sin and faithfulness,
and finally
consummated in Christ.
Far from giving the Church an identity based
on an historically conditioned
model of femininity, the reference to Mary, with her dispositions
of
listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting,
places the
Church in continuity with the spiritual history of Israel.(16)
The Vatican document concludes by urging all Christians to
pray for the
grace of conversion, asking especially for Mary's intercession,
so that all
believers might live in fidelity to God's plan.
Only in this way can the "image of God,"
the sacred likeness inscribed in
every man and woman, emerge according to the specific grace
received by each
(cf. Gn 1:27). Only thus can the path of peace and wonderment
be recovered,
witnessed in the verses of the Song of Songs, where bodies
and hearts
celebrate the same jubilee. (17)
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Glossary Terms: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
http://www.cwnews.com/news/biosgloss/definition.cfm?glossID=32
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