** An experience.**
I was at Yankee Stadium when Benedict XVI conducted mass there. What heavily impacted me as I sat high up in the stands was the way in which women seemed totaly subordinated.
In and around the altar were many dozens of men, the Pope, bishops, priests galore, etc. Behind them sat 4-5 women (I forget the precise number), carefully segregated, who read scripture passages. The subordination of women in the Church was never more abundantly clear to me than at that moment. I wondered what most women were thinking as they witnessed this. When the Eucharist was brought to those of us in the stands, not a woman appeared to be among those distributing it. Only priests.
So often, in watching special events on EWTN, whether from the Vatican or from some cathedral in the States or another country, it is the same scenario. Often long lines of men in robes file down a center aisle without one woman among them. Women clearly play a very minor part in such ceremonies. No wonder the Church comes under such sharp attack by many women (and others) who feel keenly that the day for such wholesale male domination has passed.
Sadly, traditional Catholicism seems to be a prisoner of the past, justifying antiquated customs by appealing to ancient traditions or scripture to buttress its case, It has made a little progress, It has defied Paul who said that women should cover their heads at worship and that women should ‘keep silent’ in the churches, etc. It must go further or eventually become a relic no longer relevant to the world we live in.
I know that many will respond by quoting Christ that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Fine. But one must wonder if the true Church would retain such discrimination. I wonder. I have visited Protestant churches where women are the ministers and observe no bolts of lightning nor roofs caving in. In Christ there is neither male nor female. I believe we’ll fijnd that in the Bible, too.
Roy, I’m a woman. And you know what? I"m an older woman (54). I have lived through the ‘good old days’, I’ve lived through the feminist revolution, etc. I have been the ‘superwoman’ who ‘brought home the bacon, fried it up in a pan’ yadda yadda. I’ve also been the ‘dumped for the younger model’ forced into single motherhood and poverty woman.
Am I ‘grateful’ that, for example, unlike the early 19th century, my children were not automatically taken from me and given to the male? That I was able to have an independent bank account? That I was able to find paying work? Yes, I’m grateful.
Am I grateful that society’s expectations for women have led (for a vast majority) into a climate where men have objectified women
far more than in other eras? Where women and men are more
adversarial than in other eras? Where ‘game playing’ doesn’t mean a nice outdoor workout but means people trying to get ‘as much as they can’? No, I’m not. Most of us 50 somethings have NOT had a ‘richer fuller life’ (unless we already ‘had’ one by being wealthy to start with). In fact, more of us have wound up not only materially poorer but also have far less self-esteem because of the inability of the modern woman to live up to the ‘hype’. Not only that, we have seen men’s self-esteem likewise ruthlessly ripped and seen many men twisted into hedonistic jerks who simply can’t have a ‘normal’ relationship with a normal woman.
You know what, Roy? If one examines the fabric of society over the last 5000 years of recorded history, today’s men and women might have a few more material goods, but they have ‘lost’ a lot more when it comes to intangibles. I think a lot of your Protestant brothers who stress 'family values" are a lot closer to the Catholic position than you realize. . .because it is not about ‘inferior women and superior men’. That’s a twisted lie that Satan is using because right now he has convinced a lot of otherwise intelligent men and women that the only ‘god’ is ‘equality and power’.
Roy, I’ll bet your mom was the ‘equal’ if not the superior of your dad (and your grandparents and great grans too). But I’ll also bet that they are rather puzzled at the idea that because they didn’t have some of the ‘opportunities’ of sending their children to day care so they could get a paycheck to ‘get things’, that they were somehow ‘less’.
Most of the ‘stories’ told (the horror ones) are anecdotal (the reputable historians acknowledge this) and ignore the vast majority of (likewise anecdotal) evidence that our ‘foremothers’ were not only content with their (by today’s judgment)’ inferior position’, they did NOT SEE THEMSELVES AS PERSONALLY INFERIOR.
We women have been carefully engineered to think of ourselves as ‘victims’ and pushed into doing things in order to ‘be equal’ that many of us would not have freely chosen to do. Our ‘real choices’ have been derided and mocked, made to appear ‘stupid’, and in many cases, we have been mocked when we have chosen to pursue them. . .in the cases where we have been ‘allowed’ to pursue them and not the societal ‘judgment’ of ‘appropriate things for women.’
Just wait and see, Roy. Another 20 years or so and you’ll be surprised at how the ‘equality experiment’ will be shown up for something that, for many people and in many ways, was far different from the way it had been presented to be. . .
