(upbeat music)
KAI: Well, Libby, I'm gonna let you take the lead today,
'cause I obviously can't call myself a feminist.
LIBBY: Because you want to slack off, while I do all of the work.
KAI: I'm holding this for someone.
LIBBY: Uh-huh.
KAI: I better go give it to him ...
her ... it's a woman.
I'm gonna give this to her.
LIBBY:Who hired him?
(upbeat music)
LIBBY: Hi, I'm Libby.
KAI: And I'm Kai.
Welcome to Catholic Central.
LIBBY: Today, we'll be diving into Catholic feminism.
Can you be a Catholic and a feminist?
CHURCH LADY LIBBY: No, feminism is evil.
Feminists hate men but also want to be them,
hate marriage, family, and hate the Church.
LIBBY: Sounds to me like a hysterical, inferior, weak person
who needs to shut up and get back in the kitchen.
KAI: Whoa, Libby.
LIBBY: Hey that's what some people think of women.
And that attitude is why we need feminism.
KAI: So, the short answer to whether a Catholic
can be a feminist is yes.
LIBBY: At its most basic, feminism means supporting equal
social, political and economic rights and opportunities
for women and men.
KAI: So, nothing heretical so far.
But the implications of that belief have looked different
throughout history.
Allow me to mansplain.
Generally we've got three waves.
LIBBY: Feminism, as a movement, started in the 19th to
early 20th Centuries.
When women sought the same legal rights as men,
such as the right to vote and own property.
KAI: Think Susan B. Anthony and the mom in "Mary Poppins."
As legal rights increased, the focus of feminism
shifted in the 1960s to sexual liberation,
gender roles, an end to discrimination based on sex,
and workplace equality.
LIBBY: Feminism rode that wave until the late '80s,
which brings us to the third wave.
KAI: Third-wave feminism, reacted to the perceived
failures of the second wave.
While not really an organized movement, third-wave feminists
focused on the intersection of women's rights
with those of other minorities,
and the breaking of gender boundaries.
LIBBY: Why does any of this matter?
Because even with feminism, there is a lot
of disagreement about the way things should be
and how to achieve that.
KAI: For example, you'll find feminists
who believe in marriage.
LIBBY: And those who don't.
KAI: Those who hate lipstick.
LIBBY: And those who love it.
KAI: There are also a movements within feminism.
LIBBY: So that means that: A, you can't talk about feminists like
they are all the same;
and B, there is no inherent contradiction when we
talk about Catholic feminism.
KAI: At least nowadays.
Historically some people ...
(Libby clears throat)
OK, some men in the Church haven't been super pro-woman.
LIBBY: Many Church fathers and saints
blamed Eve's weakness
for the introduction of sin into the world,
and described all women as inferior and morally weak.
Saint Clement of Alexandria theorized that "when God
created Eve from Adam's rib,
He purged man of all softness and weakness."
Saint Augustine said that women were of "small intelligence"
and couldn't see why women were created except to procreate.
Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that "women are morally
defective and misbegotten."
Wow!
Yikes.
KAI: But official Church teaching recognizes that misogyny,
prejudice against women, has been practiced by people
in the Church over the years, and it condemns that.
LIBBY: True. John Paul II apologized for people
in the Church's past treatment of women.
He emphasized that sexism is a sin,
and Catholics have a mandate from the Faith
to root it out of our hearts and out of society.
KAI: The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit,
is always called to renewal.
In an effort to uphold the equality of men and women,
John Paul II also called for a new feminism.
"To reject the temptation of imitating models
of male domination in order to acknowledge and affirm
the true genius of women in every aspect of the life
of society and overcome all discrimination,
violence and exploitation."
LIBBY: The oppression of women is one of the many effects
of Original Sin.
But that's not how things were supposed to be when
God created us.
In fact, it's together that men and women fully represent
who God is.
KAI: So, what are some of the qualities
women bring to the table?
SCIENTIST LIBBY: The feminine genius.
KAI: In his 1998 apostolic letter On the Dignity
and Vocation of Women,
John Paul II praised what he called the feminine genius.
It speaks to the unique way that women interact
with the world and uphold the human person.
LIBBY: Broadly, it means intuitive receptivity,
emotional capacity, generosity and maternity.
KAI: These qualities aren't meant to be an invisible
measuring stick for women to feel like they can
never live up to.
LIBBY: Each woman expresses them differently.
So, that doesn't mean that you're better doing womanhood
if you get married at 19 and homeschool your family of nine,
or if you get a PhD, or become a CEO.
In fact in John Paul II's 1995 Letter to Women,
he thanked us for a varied, active presence at home
and in the workplace.
KAI: To see varied womanhood in action,
look no further than the tons of female saints
who have busted cultural norms throughout history.
LIBBY: Through her receptivity to God, Saint Joan of Arc
fought as a soldier.
Saint Catherine of Siena exercised her emotional capacity
to heal and to bring an end to a major schism in the Church.
KAI: Saint Katharine Drexel expressed her generosity
by giving up a comfortable life and fortune
to feed and educate the poor.
And then, of course, there's Mary.
PROTESTER LIBBY: Don't tell me to imitate Mary as a way of telling me
to sit down and shut up.
KAI: OK, Mary is often portrayed as quiet and submissive.
But that ignores how powerful and active she was
in the life of Jesus,
and doesn't do justice to her choice to do God's will.
LIBBY: Catholics try to imitate Mary.
not because she didn't seem to talk a lot
but because she was fully the woman God
created her to be,
and did everything she did out of love for God.
KAI: Catholics want all women to have the freedom
to pursue that in their unique vocations.
And part of fighting for that freedom
is fighting against injustice and oppression,
especially those that particularly impact women,
like poverty, violence, education, discrimination,
sexual harassment and assault.
LIBBY: This doesn't mean that Catholic feminists hate men.
KAI: Whoo!
LIBBY: But that does mean that all of us, even men,
have to recognize that inequality and abuse exist.
Everyone benefits when women are empowered and respected.
[PROTESTER LIBBY: But you can't tell me the Church really respects women
when it won't make women priests.
LIBBY: OK, this is a touchy subject.
Let's start by saying that ordination is not a right
for anyone.
KAI: The Catholic Church teaches that priests get
their authority to be priests from Christ Himself,
who, for reasons maybe only He knew, selected only men
to be priests.
KAI: Even though He didn't hold back when it came
to reaching out to women in other ways.
Not even His mother, who Catholics believe is
Queen of Heaven, got to be a priest.
So the Church's position is that there is no authority
to ordain women.
But that doesn't mean women are lesser,
that they'd be bad priests, or that they are not essential
to the Church.
KAI: Women actually hold a lot of influential positions
in the Church.
LIBBY: In other words, Catholic women do have a lot of power.
And speaking of power, I'll use mine to end this episode.
I'm Libby.
KAI: And I'm Kai.
Thanks for watching.
LIBBY: Be sure to subscribe to our channel and check out
our website at CatholicCentral.com for more resources
on being both Catholic and a feminist.
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