Authority in the Church
The Church has always upheld the dignity and rights of women, says AVERTHANUS L D’SOUZA
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There has been a spate of articles of late, by a few women religious, which manifest a disturbing trend of denouncing the Catholic Church for being “paternalistic” in the pejorative sense of the word, a questionable term imported from the radical feminist movement in the USA. The Indian nuns who seem to relish this term have obviously not applied their minds to examining the origin of the word or to its sociological and theological implications. The tone of their articles can, at best, be described as being intemperate and inflammatory. Examples of such inflammatory usage have appeared in a recent article by an Indian nun which states: “the Catholic Church can little afford to leave its women religious oppressed under the unjust structure of double patriarchy, all in the name of the mission of obedience, in its blind best…” The general tenor of this article, and the impression that it seeks to convey, is that the Catholic Church is characterised by its oppression of women, especially those who have taken the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; that it needs to be radically changed not only in its attitude, but also in its structure.
The article, in question, asserts that the mission of the Church can be achieved “only when women religious too, are included in the core-team of the Church where decisions are made, policies are formulated, strategies are chalked out and the modus operandi of the implementations are drawn up.”
Quite obviously, the author of this article is ignorant of the nature of the Church. She is ignorant of the fact that the Church is not an “organisation” in the political sense, nor even in the sociological sense of the word. To describe the “structure” of the Church as being oppressive of women, nay of even thriving on the oppression of religious women, is to display colossal ignorance of what the Church really is.
The demand that women religious (sic) be included in the “core-team” (sic) of the Church, where decisions are made is simply preposterous in its distortion of the understanding of the nature of the Church. This nun is under the misimpression that the Church is a highly centralised political organisation – something like the politburo of the communist party – and that unless women are included in this politburo, the organisation will continue to oppress women and deprive them of their fundamental rights…
To analyse her arguments even more closely, we have to ask: which exact “core-team” of the Church is she referring to? Is it the Standing Committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India or is it the Roman Curia under the chairmanship of the Pope? She fails to make this clear in her article. One can also enquire whether she can cite any specific documents or instructions in which the Catholic Church has officially promoted any discrimination against women. She asserts, and rightly so, that “Respect for women is one of the non-negotiable demands of human dignity.” However, contrary to her general condemnation of the Church as being structurally oppressive of women, her studies should have shown her that the Catholic Church is the only one universal institution which has consistently upheld the dignity of the human person, irrespective of sex, race, colour, language, ethnicity or place of origin.
The Church has been, and continues to be, in the forefront of the movement to uphold the dignity and the rights of women as human persons. The countless documents of the Popes, of the Synods of Bishops, statements of the Conferences of Catholic Bishops, from all over the world, and the Pastoral letters of individual Bishops, bear ample testimony to the fact that the Church is particularly and emphatically vociferous that women should be respected and honoured. It is the feminist movements that are responsible for the degradation of women. They are the voices which preach that women can only be “equal”, if they are masculinised. They endorse the murder of human babies in their mothers’ wombs. The feminist movement has pioneered partial birth abortion, and the “right” of women to abort their babies at any time, during pregnancy. One has only to read the writings of the high priestesses of the movement, who are the real threat to the dignity of women.
It hurts when some of these Indian nuns condemn the Church in such virulent language: “Be that as it may, what is important is that we own up the fact that the Church in India, heavily institutionalised and highly patriarchal in structure, has descended deep into moral degradation.” (sic). Such wholesale condemnation of the Church by a woman religious, leads one to wonder whether she can justify her continuation in the religious order to which she belongs, or even whether she should continue to remain a member of the Church. She asserts that “The horrendous ill-treatment and sexual abuse meted out to women religious in the Church has certainly turned them into an ‘endangered species’”. Her article gives readers the impression that the Church is a cesspool of sexual abuses of women, especially religious women.
The article under consideration, mentions one or two incidents, which, if true, deserve to be condemned in the strongest language. However, to conclude from a few incidents that the Church (in India) is by its very nature “patriarchal” (whatever that may mean) and abuses religious women, is to defy both logic and common sense. It is like proposing to amputate the entire leg, because a toe has been injured.
We cannot deny the reality that a few priests and nuns, fail to live up to their chosen vocation. They often falter and even cause grave scandal. There is room in the Church for reprimand of such priests and nuns, and, above all, for compassionate assistance. But to launch upon a general crusade against the Church, because some of her members have sinned, is equivalent to demanding that marriage, as an institution, be abolished because there are many married persons who commit adultery. The “world” has already slipped into the error of legitimising practices, because they have become widespread: prostitution, drug abuse, homosexual activities in public, and paedophilia are some examples. Some of our religious women are unable to distinguish between the cultural corruption which has enveloped the world, and the moral values for which the Catholic Church stands – against great odds, it must be added.
There is no disputing the fact that the Catholic Church is in constant need of reform and renewal. The Church is constantly being challenged to bear witness to a “counter culture” which does not conform to the prevailing culture of the times. As loyal members of this Church we, and particularly the religious women and men who have been consecrated to the service of the people, should bear witness to the values for which the Church stands. It ill behoves religious women, and even priests, to subvert the Church for causes which they think are desirable and true.
Heresy has dogged the life of the Church throughout her history. We are not surprised that it continues to do so even today.
But we should remember the warning of Jesus: woe to him (or her) from whom the scandal comes.
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The only way is up
By Adelmo Fernandes
Know the answer to this riddle? What goes up but never comes down? Many would say it is the age of a person. Well, in today’s world, the more appropriate answer would be the prices of essential commodities. Of late, the price of vegetables has been going only one way, upwards. The news of prices coming down has become a rarity. Every housewife will complain that her shopping bag does not get filled with vegetables, even after spending a five-hundred rupee note in the market. Well, that is the modern day truth. The size of a five-hundred rupee note may be the same, but its buying capacity has definitely shrunk tremendously.
Mind you, it is not just the price of onions which brings tears to the eyes. Now, buying almost every vegetable brings a lump in the throat. The price of tomatoes is enough to make you see red. The price of potatoes may have not have gone the way of the price of onions and tomatoes. But then, one cannot survive on potatoes alone. Milk, which is so essential for the growth of bones of little children, may soon be out of reach of the poor man. The price of milk seems to be increasing every alternate month. If only we reared goats and buffaloes in our backyard, we would have been self-sufficient in the supply of milk. Egg is another essential food item which could disappear from a poor man’s dining and breakfast table. From a modest Rs18 per dozen, just a few weeks back, the price of the poultry product has shot up to Rs45 per dozen. This works out to Rs3.75 an egg. I sometimes wonder how can the price of eggs rise so drastically? The logical answer would be that most of the hens have stopped laying eggs. Another reason could be that the eggs tend to break in transit. So to make good the losses incurred, the traders have been increasing the price. With the price of eggs and onions skyrocketing, one can only imagine the price we have to pay (no pun intended) to make an omelette. If those politicians who have been incapable of bringing down the prices were around, they would probably get rotten eggs thrown at them.
The other day while travelling by rickshaw, I was shocked to find that the driver had charged me a whole five rupees more than the actual fare. I asked him the reason for the increased fare. “Can’t help it sir, we are charging extra fare because the price of onions has gone up” he said matter-of-factly. Had this been an election year, the present government would probably be shown the door. As it is, the common man finds it difficult to make both ends meet. Now with the increase in the price of food items, the poor man may even find it difficult to have a square meal a day. To top it all, the price of petrol has also gone up. In the past, travelling in your own vehicle has never been an expensive proposition. Now all this has changed. Where do we go from here? For how long are we going to bear this seemingly endless rise in price? Does anyone have an answer?
