Welcome to the first ‘study’ episode. My hope for these episodes are that we are able to dive into important works, whether books, letters, or quotes, and discuss them together. 

Up first is John Paul II’s Letter to Women

This letter is often quoted and referred to as an important work of John Paul II and the Church’s approach to women and women’s issues. Let’s dive in to see why.

This letter was written in June of 1995 and was addressed to ‘women throughout the world’. It is the first letter from a pope addressed specifically to women. The occasion for the letter was stated by JP II as being the eve of the United Nations Organization Fourth World Conference on Women. This letter comes after a document that he sent to the Secretary General of the conference stating some basic points of the Church’s teaching regarding women’s issues. 

He now shifts his focus and speaks “directly to every woman” on the topic of “the essential issue of the dignity and rights of women, as seen in the light of the word of God.” And he begins this discussion with a word of thanks. This often quoted part of the letter goes through each category of women and thanks them for their role and the work that they do. 

“Thank you, women who are mothers!… Thank you, women who are wives!… Thank you, women who are daughters and women who are sisters!… Thank you, women who work!… Thank you, consecrated women!… Thank you, every woman, for the simple fact of being a woman!” 

After these deep and concrete thank you’s, he goes on to say that he recognizes that saying thank you is not enough. “Women’s dignity has often been unacknowledged and their prerogatives misrepresented; they have often been relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude. This has prevented women from truly being themselves and it has resulted in a spiritual impoverishment of humanity.” (3) He goes on to say that the Church herself is not entirely faultless in this and apologizes on behalf of the Church and calls for a “renewed commitment of fidelity to the Gospel vision”.(3) Taking Christ and the Gospel as the example. 

Examining the past in order to assign responsibility where it is due, John Paul II goes on to say: “Women have contributed to that history as much as men and, more often than not, they did so in much more difficult conditions. I think particularly of those women who loved culture and art, and devoted their lives to them in spite of the fact that they were frequently at a disadvantage from the start, excluded from equal educational opportunities, underestimated, ignored and not given credit for their intellectual contributions… To this great, immense feminine ‘tradition’ humanity owes a debt which can never be repaid. Yet how many women have been and continue to be valued more for their physical appearance than for their skill, their professionalism, their intellectual abilities, their deep sensitivity; in a word, the very dignity of their being!”(3) 

What is important to note here is that this is not just a historical problem - there are still ways where women are being treated shy of their dignity. “We need only think of how the gift of motherhood is often penalized rather than rewarded, even though humanity owes its very survival to this gift. Certainly, much remains to be done to prevent discrimination agains those who have chosen to be wives and mothers.” (4) John Paul II goes on to predict the role of women in the solution of serious problems that we face, such as: “leisure time, the quality of life, migration, social services, euthanasia, drugs, health care, the ecology, etc.”(4) 

Then he shifts his focus to speak about the dark history of violence agains women in the area of sexuality. He condemns this history and calls for the defense by law for women who find themselves treated this way. Going further and speaking about the pressure and often choice to abort a child conceived in such circumstances he says something incredibly important. “But before being something to blame on the woman, it is a crime for which guilt needs to be attributed to men and to the complicity of the general social environment.”(5) Why is this statement so important? 1) It is important that this is said by the pope because so often the “religious” argument against abortion is equated to punishment for the woman who finds herself in this situation. And 2) because not only does he call men to take responsibility for their actions, he calls upon the “general social environment”. If such societies continue to do nothing about violence in this way, they too are held accountable. To this he says “My word of thanks to women thus becomes a heartfelt appeal that everyone, and in a special way States and international institutions, should make every effort to ensure that women regain full respect for their dignity and role.”(6) 

With that we will end here, stay tuned for part 2!

Website: www.theblvedcollective.com

Instagram: @theblvedcollective.com

Youtube: The BLVED Collective