Pope Francis has caused some surprise within the Catholic Church by hailing the women's movement for doing God's work in his long-awaited statement on the family.
“History is burdened by the excesses of patriarchal cultures that considered women inferior,” he said. We must “see in the women’s movement the working of the Spirit for a clearer recognition of the dignity and rights of women”.
While the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia draws on existing Vatican doctrine, such overt papal endorsement of feminist campaigning is without precedent.
“There are those who believe that many of today’s problems have arisen because of feminine emancipation. This argument, however, is not valid, it is false, untrue, a form of male chauvinism,” the pope said.
“The equal dignity of men and women makes us rejoice to see old forms of discrimination disappear.”
He added: “Surely it is legitimate and right to reject older forms of the traditional family marked by authoritarianism and even violence.”
‘Not rigid categories’
Further challenging traditional gender roles, he said it was “true that masculinity and femininity are not rigid categories”.
It was the case “that we cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore”.
But “a husband’s way of being masculine can be flexibly adapted to the wife’s work schedule. Taking on domestic chores or some aspects of raising children does not make him any less masculine or imply failure, irresponsibility or cause for shame”.
The pope also urged the church to be more compassionate towards “imperfect” Catholics, while restating the church’s position that there are “absolutely no grounds” to equate gay unions to heterosexual marriage.
