The Pope Stands With Women
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Monday, March 23, 2009 1:00 PM
Women looking for a little encouragement and parenting advice need only consult the texts from Benedict XVI’s journey to Africa last week.
(He comes home today.)
Though he had several important goals to further, the over-arching theme of his addresses was support for the family: it came up in every talk, every homily, to every audience.
Interestingly, in speaking to an audience of members of new movements, the Holy Father made his theme the promotion of women. Since the new movements are particularly engaged in evangelization, it’s reasonable to infer that the Pope sees women as the bulwark of culture, and therefore gave the African continent’s most dedicated apostles a mission of sorts: they’re to be the defenders and promoters of the dignity of women.
It’s a lovely address, but two items particularly stood out for me. The first is this remark, which comes after a discussion of the equal dignity of women and the need for men to repent of injustices for which they are responsible and for the law to support women’s right to full participation in public life.
a woman’s personal sense of dignity is not primarily the result of juridically defined rights, but rather the direct consequence of the material and spiritual care she receives in the bosom of the family.
That’s striking, isn’t it? In other words, of course the law must be just towards women, but we make a mistake if we think feelings of self-esteem and confidence in our own personal dignity can be transmitted by law alone or by material means alone. The Pope is highlighting how limited the laudable effort to educate girls and lift the women of third world nations out of poverty will be if the family is neglected or destroyed in the process. He goes on:
The presence of a mother within the family is so important for the stability and growth of this fundamental cell of society, that it should be recognized, commended and supported in every possible way. For the same reason, society must hold husbands and fathers accountable for their responsibilities towards their families.
So, all you SAHMs, all you men and women making sacrifices to prioritize family time, rest assured you’re making an important contribution to society at large and specifically to women’s liberation: perhaps the best contribution that can be made. You’re creating the emotional and psychological platform from which stable, self-confident women (and men too) are made.
Also in this address is a topic the pope took up several times during the past week (notably in this homily about St. Joseph): our inability to parent properly without trust in God and the support of the Church.
Dear families, you have undoubtedly noticed that no human couple, alone and on its own strength, can adequately offer children love and a genuine understanding of life. In fact, in order to say to someone, “your life is good even though you don’t know what the future will bring”, there needs to be a higher and more trustworthy authority than parents alone can offer. Christians know that this higher authority has been given to the larger family which God, through his Son Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, has established within human history, namely the Church. We find at work here the eternal and indestructible love which guarantees to each of us that our life will always have meaning, even if we do not know what the future will bring. For this reason, the building up of every Christian family takes place within the larger family, the Church, which sustains the domestic family and holds it close to her heart, giving it the assurance that it is protected, now and in the future, by the “yes” of the Creator.
Call it our Christian variation on “it takes a village.” Actually, it takes a Church.
There’s a slideshow of wonderful photos from the trip to Cameroon & Angola here.
And if you’re up for additional reading, these are my favorites from among the many addresses (they’re all wonderful, though—any of them well repays the time spent):
*The previously mentioned homily for St. Joseph’s day
* Meeting with the sick
* Meeting with youth.
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