Catholic A2Z - W is for Women

There is, in the secular popular culture, a view that the Catholic Church is anti-woman because it will not ordain women as priests.  I will not deny that both history and current events show us lots of subtle and often openly vicious misogyny in all cultures around the globe.  Some of customs of the Catholic church have reflected the historical bias in Western cultural norms.  However, I will assert that the teachings of Christ and the Church herself (Bride of Christ that she is!) has always been a place of reason and freedom for women, seeing no division when it comes to salvation through Christ.  And while most worldly careers are things both men and women can do interchangeably, there are vocations they can not interchange.  Instead these things reflect the differences our Creator gave us, so instead of being interchangeable, they become complementary roles.  To put it very simply, women do the lion's share of bringing forth new souls for God, and a very, very tiny percentage of men are called by God to act in Jesus' place in offering His Body and His Blood at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  

Laura Wolk

If you want to read an interesting article that explains the Catholic Church's attitude toward women, and its inherent attractiveness to women because it so justly acknowledges their humanity, read this recent Crux interview with Laura Wolk.  None of this fits well on a bumpersticker, so it is a little hard for us modern types to understand.

Many of my previous posts in this A to Z series reference intelligent, discerning, creative women who have converted to Catholicism.  Raissa Maritain, Heather King, Kimberley Hahn, Karen Edmisten, Edith Stein, Sigrid Undset, Gertrud von Le Fort and I probably missed somebody.  What do these women understand that the current popular zeitgeist doesn't?

Polish Madonna

And of course, one of the biggest inconsistencies in the argument that the Catholic church is anti-women is Our Lady, the most powerful woman in history!

The truth is the more you learn of Catholicism the more you see the love for women that Jesus has and that love reflected (albeit imperfectly) in His Church.

From the beginning of Christianity women and slaves were quick to convert to this new faith that revealed the truth that God is love.  From St. Felicity and Perpetua who were venerated early as saints to  St. Lucy, who to this day has her own holiday in some European countries, to St. Joan of Arc who led an army, to St. Catherine of Siena, advisor to popes, to the first businesswomen, that is, nuns who ran hospitals, schools and huge monasteries that supported themselves through their own vineyards and farms, woman have made their mark on the Church.  The more you know, the more you realize that while the Catholic understanding of the role of women in the world doesn't fit well into the Gloria Steinem zero sum game view, there is indeed a powerful role women have always been able to play in the living out of our faith.

So I thought I'd just list some books I've read about women in today's world, who embrace Catholic teaching and who are making their mark on the Catholic church (at least in the U.S.):

Mother Angelica; the Remarkable Story of a Nun, her Nerve and a Network of Miracles.  This book tells the story of a how Mother Angelica, who recently passed away, founded the largest religious global network in the world.

Unplanned  How does a woman go from being a manager of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility to an impassioned pro-life activist?

Something Other than God  A life-long atheist tells her story of conversion.

Full of Grace; Women and the Abundant Life by Johnette Benkovic, host of a popular show on EWTN, strives to understand, explain and encourage women in their femininity as understood by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Long Loneliness  Dorothy Day, founder of The Catholic Worker and Hospitality houses for the poor, wrote a moving memoir of her conversion.  Day died in 1980.  There is a movement for her canonization.

Strange Gods  Elizabeth Scalia explains how to avoid modern day idolatry.  Scalia also runs the wonderful Aleteia site.

A Sinner's Guide to Natural Family Planning  Simcha Fisher explains NFP to those who struggle.  Fisher is bitingly funny at times.

Adam and Eve After the Pill  Mary Eberstadt's excellent and incisive analysis on how contraception has further exploited women and reaped all sort of unintended and degrading consequences.

Sexual Authenticity by Melinda Selmys, a lesbian, tells her story of conversion to Catholicism and how she reconciles her understanding of sexuality with Church teaching.

My Sisters, the Saints   Colleen Carroll Campbell is a modern woman trying to do it all - career, family, God.

There are just some examples of today's modern woman embracing Church teaching in a fresh, innovative and faithful way.

Happy reading!