Dearly beloved friends,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
First, the whole notion of a bread-winning husband and home-making wife is a family pattern that is firmly rooted in Sacred Scipture (see Titus 2: 4,5). This arrangement, which gave stability to both the family and wider society, has sadly been gradually abandoned, reaping a bitter harvest in terms of family breakdown and emotionally damaged children. Only by a diminuition of Christian principles could our current situation ever have become possible, a situation where children frequently come home from school to empty homes (‘latch-key children’) and where mothers are no longer available as full-time guides and carers, always on hand to counsel and console and sharing in the daily ups and downs of young life in sympathy and understanding.
Whilst, dear friends, I do not think that we can argue that it is intrinsically evil for a woman to work and have a family in every single circumstance, I do not believe that it is desirable or in the best interests of the children. As the Catechism of the Council of Trent states: “The wife should love to remain at home, unless compelled by necessity to go out; and she should never presume to leave home without her husband’s consent”. Thus, for example, if a husband has a long term physical or mental health problem that precludes him from working, then there may be a necessity for the wife to go out and earn a living if possible.
Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical, Rerum Novarum, clearly favours the position that a married women will ideally be a ‘keeper at home’ and care for her husband and children:
“Women, again, are not suited for certain occupations; a woman is by nature fitted for home-work, and it is that which is best adapted at once to preserve her modesty and promote the good bringing up of children and the well-being of the family”.
It should be observed, dear friends, that Pope Leo does not establish his remarks upon any social circumstances or customs which can and do indeed change, but rather upon the nature of woman, which never changes from one generation to the next. Again, although it is manifestly obvious to housewives themselves, many others, especially today, overlook the fact that being a housewife* is* work. In Pope Leo’s remarks the Church acknowledges it as such, thus when other subsequent Popes speak of ‘working women’ we ought to see that as not excluding being a ‘keeper at home’ or homemaker.
Unfortunately, dear friends, owing to a barrage of aberrant feminist propaganda, especially since the permissive Sixties, woman have been made to feel unfulfilled and somehow incomplete unless they are a part of the workforce. This is a monumental tragedy of the first rank and is actually demeaning to women because it is tacit denial of the true ‘nature’ of womanhood. How very sad it was last year to hear Cherie Blair (wife of the former UK Prime Minister and a professing Catholic) launch an astonishing attack on women homemakers, warning that it was ‘dangerous’ for women to rely upon their husbands. Moreover, she criticised what she termed “yummy mummies” (where do they get these silly phrases from?) who marry wealthy men and put their energies into rearing children rather than concentrating on their careers. How deeply saddening to hear such remarks from someone who professes the holy religion of Christ!
