Amos Stevens
New Member
Women Criticize Vatican Document on Feminism
Sun Aug 1, 2004 08:50 AM ET
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Women have reacted with anger
and amusement to a Vatican document on feminism, with
some saying the Catholic Church is run by men who live
in a time warp and want to keep women in their place.
The document, issued Saturday, said modern feminism's
fight for power and gender equality was undermining
the traditional concept of family and creating a
climate where gay marriages are seen as acceptable.
Frances Kissling, president of the U.S.-based
Catholics for a Free Choice, said she thought she had
"passed through a time warp" when she read the
document.
"I thought for sure I was the 1960s and Archie Bunker
had been appointed theologian to the Pope," she said,
referring to the character in an old American TV
series whose bigoted views included opposition to any
form of women's rights.
In a 37-page document "On the Collaboration of Men and
Women in the Church and in the World," the Vatican
said women should be respected and have equal rights
in the workplace, but differences between the sexes
must be recognized and exalted.
The document, which re-stated Catholic Church
positions, including the ban on female priests, said
that many women felt they had to be "adversaries of
men" in order to be themselves.
It criticized feminism's attempt to erase gender
differences, saying it had inspired ideologies
questioning the traditional family structure of a
mother and a father and making homosexuality and
heterosexuality virtually equivalent.
"Such observations could only be made by men who have
no significant relationships with women and no
knowledge of the enormous positive changes the women's
rights movement has meant for both men and women,"
Kissling said.
YESTERDAY'S WORLD?
Emma Bonino, a former European commissioner and
current member of the European parliament, said the
Vatican was writing about a world that she said no
longer exists.
"This letter could easily have been written by an imam
of al-Azhar," she said referring to Sunni Islam's most
respected institution of religious learning in Cairo.
"To be fair to the Catholic Church, no religion is a
great friend of women," she told the Corriere della
Sera newspaper. "They pay you a lot of compliments but
when push comes to shove they ask you to stay in your
place: wife, nurse, mother and grandmother."
The document said that although motherhood is a "key
element of women's identity," women should not be
considered from the sole perspective of procreation.
It said women who choose to be full-time mothers
should not be stigmatized and it appealed to
governments to make it easier for mothers to hold
outside jobs without "relinquishing their family
life."
Some women suggested that the Vatican was taking a
patronizing attitude that it would not take toward
men.
"Everyone knows that men and women are different and
the feminist movement has always held this view," said
Chiara Saraceno, a professor of sociology at the
University of Turin.
"What continues to shock me is this teaching attitude
that is always directed at women and never at men,"
she told the leftist newspaper L'Unita.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
Sun Aug 1, 2004 08:50 AM ET
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Women have reacted with anger
and amusement to a Vatican document on feminism, with
some saying the Catholic Church is run by men who live
in a time warp and want to keep women in their place.
The document, issued Saturday, said modern feminism's
fight for power and gender equality was undermining
the traditional concept of family and creating a
climate where gay marriages are seen as acceptable.
Frances Kissling, president of the U.S.-based
Catholics for a Free Choice, said she thought she had
"passed through a time warp" when she read the
document.
"I thought for sure I was the 1960s and Archie Bunker
had been appointed theologian to the Pope," she said,
referring to the character in an old American TV
series whose bigoted views included opposition to any
form of women's rights.
In a 37-page document "On the Collaboration of Men and
Women in the Church and in the World," the Vatican
said women should be respected and have equal rights
in the workplace, but differences between the sexes
must be recognized and exalted.
The document, which re-stated Catholic Church
positions, including the ban on female priests, said
that many women felt they had to be "adversaries of
men" in order to be themselves.
It criticized feminism's attempt to erase gender
differences, saying it had inspired ideologies
questioning the traditional family structure of a
mother and a father and making homosexuality and
heterosexuality virtually equivalent.
"Such observations could only be made by men who have
no significant relationships with women and no
knowledge of the enormous positive changes the women's
rights movement has meant for both men and women,"
Kissling said.
YESTERDAY'S WORLD?
Emma Bonino, a former European commissioner and
current member of the European parliament, said the
Vatican was writing about a world that she said no
longer exists.
"This letter could easily have been written by an imam
of al-Azhar," she said referring to Sunni Islam's most
respected institution of religious learning in Cairo.
"To be fair to the Catholic Church, no religion is a
great friend of women," she told the Corriere della
Sera newspaper. "They pay you a lot of compliments but
when push comes to shove they ask you to stay in your
place: wife, nurse, mother and grandmother."
The document said that although motherhood is a "key
element of women's identity," women should not be
considered from the sole perspective of procreation.
It said women who choose to be full-time mothers
should not be stigmatized and it appealed to
governments to make it easier for mothers to hold
outside jobs without "relinquishing their family
life."
Some women suggested that the Vatican was taking a
patronizing attitude that it would not take toward
men.
"Everyone knows that men and women are different and
the feminist movement has always held this view," said
Chiara Saraceno, a professor of sociology at the
University of Turin.
"What continues to shock me is this teaching attitude
that is always directed at women and never at men,"
she told the leftist newspaper L'Unita.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
