Tag Archives: women’s issues

Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part IV: “My Body Isn’t Broken,” The Church and Contraception)

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Haley | 39 Comments

Another post about birth control, Haley? Really? It’s true. Sorry, folks. But I think Catholic teaching on contraception is really crucial to understanding the respect for womanhood that the Church affirms. This is Part IV of this series, so be sure to read about how Marian doctrine, the Catholic understanding of vocation, and the female saints and doctors of the Church empower women before starting on Part IV.

The Church’s stance on birth control is one of the most controversial issues of our day. Why should women be enslaved to pregnancy and child-rearing instead of pursuing something, anything else? Why should a woman’s right to contraception be taken off the table? Why is the HSS Mandate such a big deal? Does the Church just want all women to be oppressed, barefoot, and pregnant in the kitchen? These questions completely miss the point. Far from wanting to degrade women, the Church always wants to honor womanhood.

Before our conversion, I was on the Pill for a year and a half. We got married young, I was only 20, Daniel was 21, and we were both still in college. At the time we were attending a Baptist church. I can’t tell you how many of our well-meaning friends and members of our faith community asked when they heard of our engagement, “So, Haley, have you started taking birth control, yet? Because you gotta take it a couple months ahead of time for it to be really effective so you don’t end up pregnant!”

Apart from being a really invasive question, what kind of message did that send to me? A. Pregnancy is a disaster that needs serious prevention in order to be avoided. B. There is something flawed in the way your body works. You need a prescription to fix this problem you have so that you’re not the cause of a horrible inconvenience (at best) to yourself and your poor husband.

These folks had our best interests at heart. But far from feeling liberated by this push for the Pill, I felt ashamed of my womanhood, embarrassed of my pesky fertility. The way my body was created was clearly flawed. I had a serious problem and it hinged on the unfortunate fact that I was born a woman.

Fast forward to when I quit taking the Pill my last semester of college and got pregnant just after graduation. Unplanned, unexpected, but we were indescribably happy about it. Assuming we were disappointed, many of our friends attempted to commiserate with us. “Wow. Your life is really gonna change,” they’d grimace. “Things are gonna be different” was about the most encouraging phrase they could muster. The pastor at our Baptist Church even asked, “This wasn’t planned, was it? I mean, you’d have to be crazy to want to be pregnant right now, in your situation!” Our situation being that we were young and Daniel had another year of school to finish and a thesis to write

That attitude really was a storm cloud over my glowing happiness. I had failed. I had ruined us. There was something wrong with me and because I hadn’t altered the way my body worked with meds, I was supposed to feel embarrassed or stupid or ignorant for “getting us into this situation.”

I can’t tell you the striking difference between this mindset and the way Catholics responded to our big news. There was no pity in our Catholic friends and professors faces for this hapless young couple. They were actually excited! “Praise God!” they’d say. “What a blessing! How wonderful!” Maybe there isn’t anything wrong with me? I wondered. Maybe it’s not insane to be thrilled that we’re expecting before having our careers settled and being financially secure. Maybe this womanhood thing is something to celebrate?

As we began reading the teachings of the Church on marriage, fertility, and contraception, I started to think about my body differently. There wasn’t anything broken about it. There wasn’t anything to apologize for. By making procreation a central feature of sex, we were honoring each others’ bodies and their Creator. We were fearfully and wonderfully made and we could embrace the womanhood and manhood we brought to the marriage bed. We could be sub-creators, participants in God’s redemptive, creative work and that miraculous creation of a new soul could happen within me.

Instead of something to be ashamed of, I began to celebrate the unique honor of my womanhood. Because God has given women an opportunity to share in his creation that men will never have. My husband will never know what it is like to grow new life inside himself. Granted, he will also never know what it feels like to throw up everyday for several weeks due to extreme morning sickness. I’m not saying pregnancy is easy or without sacrifice, but it is cosmic and amazing. An eternal soul is entering the world and I have been chosen to participate in this work. I am honored. I am celebrated.

If we think that by denying our fertility we are being liberated, we have been sadly taken in. By divorcing procreation from sex, women are degraded. We have to apologize for our womanhood, the possibility that we might get pregnant and inconvenience someone. Better to have a surgical procedure render us sterile so that we don’t ruin any poor man’s life by landing him with, of all things, a baby.

One of the lies about contraception is that increased access to the Pill decreases the number of abortions performed. That’s rarely true and misses the big picture which is that when a country turns to a contraceptive mentality, changing it’s view of the purpose of sex, the abortion rate increases:

“Contraception has been shown to decrease abortion rates primarily in countries with already high abortion rates. These represent a minority of countries. Contraception has been shown to increase abortion rates primarily in countries with already low abortion rates. These represent a majority of countries. Contraception has been shown to slightly reduce abortion rates after its initial increase of abortion rates, but has never been shown to reduce abortion rates back to pre-contraception levels.” (Read more of this article about the studies on this topic in detail.)

When we no longer value the way God created women, and prescribe a medical fix for their natural fertility, are we really respecting womanhood?

Catholic teaching about marriage, sex, fertility, and contraception affirms the value of women and protects us from degradation. As a Catholic woman, I can fully embrace my body. I don’t need to apologize for my womanhood. I am honored and celebrated.

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Posted in catholicism, Family, Marriage, Motherhood

Tagged birth control, Catholicism, contraception, family, female empowerment, marriage, sexuality, the pill, women's issues

Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part II: But Women Can’t Be Priests!)

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Haley | 21 Comments

Last week I shared how understanding the Marian doctrine of the Catholic Church empowered me to celebrate my femininity. If you missed Part I: The Blessed Virgin Mary, go back to start there.

“But Haley!” you might be thinking. “Empowered? Really? Women can’t be equal to men in the Church because they can’t be priests!” We’ve all heard about this issue in the media lately ad nauseum. Certainly, Marian doctrine can give us another perspective. Pope John Paul II wrote in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,

“[T]he fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe.”

If Our Lady, first among Christians and saints, the Queen of Heaven, wasn’t included in the priesthood, it doesn’t bother me at all that I can’t become a priest, either.

But furthermore, perceiving the non-admission of women to the priesthood as a degradation misses the richness of Catholic teaching on the idea of vocation. There are four vocations: Priesthood, Religious Life (monks and nuns), Marriage, and Single Life. Lumen Gentium states that all Christians are called “to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” All vocations are paths to this end and all are equal and necessary to the Church. A priest is not holier than a married or single woman because of his status as a priest. A celibate priest doesn’t get “extra credit” while God shakes his head disapprovingly at the carnal existence of a married couple. Marriage is not base. It is just as holy and sacred as a priestly vocation. The same is true of the vocation of a woman who chooses single life or religious life.

But there is the undeniable truth that the Church sees men and women as different from each other and therefore fulfilling different roles. The reasoning behind having a male priesthood is partially because Christ our Lord and High Priest was a man and a priest stands in persona Christi, he represents Christ in a special way. Furthermore, there’s the inescapable fact that when Our Lord Jesus chose his apostles, he chose twelve men. This is the model he gives to his Church for ordination.

It’s notable that although Our Lord had many faithful female followers, like Our Lady, they were not included as one of the twelve disciples. Among these devoted women are St. Mary Magdalene, the first person to see Our Lord after the Resurrection and the women at the tomb who are first told of the Resurrection on Easter morning. These women show a deep love for Christ and faith in Him that seems to surpass that of the twelve disciples who respond to the news that Jesus is risen with shock and skepticism. So certainly, the exclusion of women from the priesthood has nothing to do with a woman’s capacity for holiness. It’s not that the Church doesn’t respect women and wants to be a grumpy ol’ stick in the mud instead of progressively getting with the times. The Church doesn’t have the authority to ordain women. Christ revealed his plan for the priesthood by example and the Church trusts in his plan.

I don’t feel oppressed because the Church says I am different from a man and fulfill a different role. I am different. I can no more be a priest than my priest could be a mother. Saying women are no different from men is truly insulting. I love my womanhood as it is honored and celebrated by the Church. I love that the Salvation of the world was born of a woman. I love that my unique biology makes it possible for me to participate in the creation of life in a way that no man has ever experienced. I am different and I want that to be celebrated, not ignored.

By affirming that women cannot take on the role of priest, the Church does not mean that women are second-class, less intelligent, less holy, less capable, etc. As I will discuss in more detail in Part III of this series (The Saints), women are not relegated to home and hearth. There are so many different paths women may choose for their lives that are lauded by the Church! Are there Christian sects in which a woman’s role is rigidly narrow, even to the point of keeping some women from using their God-given talents for his glory? Unfortunately, yes. But this is not the case in the Catholic Church.

I grew up in a Protestant church in which there were no women clergy; however, in addition to women being excluded from being in pulpit, a woman was not even allowed to teach a bible study that included men. Regardless of her skill as a teacher or theologian, “Women don’t have a teaching role in the church like men do,” I was told. Does it matter that the woman who wants to teach a study on one of the Gospels is the only scholar of biblical languages in the congregation? Nope, no woman can teach a man on matters of faith. So where does that leave women who aren’t great at making lemon bars for the church bake sale, but are skilled differently? The truth is that some of us feel painfully out of place. (Nothing against lemon bars. Although, I prefer a good chocolate chip cookie if anybody’s asking.)

I don’t share this experience to be overly critical of loving and faithful Christian brothers and sisters, and I want to make it clear that this exclusion of women from any teaching role is NOT the case in every Protestant congregation by any means. Other Protestant churches I attended differed widely on this matter and some even had female clergy. But I give this example to distinguish between affirming that women cannot be priests and boxing women into such a narrow role that some are left wondering, “Where is the place for me?” I am grateful to have found a place in the Catholic Church that celebrates and honors the various and valuable gifts of women and their contributions to the Church.

(Part III, coming soon)

Edit: please see the helpful comments below that clarify the vocations. Single life cannot be chosen as a secular vocation (outside of religious vocations) without choosing a life of consecrated virginity.

image source: worldvisitguide.com

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Tagged catholic church, Catholicism, priesthood, vocation, women, women's issues

Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part I: The Blessed Virgin Mary)

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Haley | 47 Comments

This is a series that I’ve been thinking about for months, but have been hesitant to dive into. Women and Catholicism is a hot button issue in so many circles. Story after story comes up on my news feed about how the Church oppresses women, discourages women’s rights, and promotes inequality between the sexes. According to media portrayals, the Church is stuck in the dark ages. “If only this hierarchy of men could get with the times!” is the common outcry. And yet, to me, it all sounds so very strange because since embracing Catholic teaching, I have learned to celebrate my womanhood for the first time in my life, instead of treating it as a somewhat embarrassing obstacle to be overcome. I think this has a lot to do with Catholic teaching on the Blessed Virgin Mary, vocations, the communion of saints, and fertility. So here’s Part I of this little series, starting with Our Lady.

Part I: The Blessed Virgin Mary (Because the Best Christian Ever is a Woman)

It is startling to me that Catholics are perceived as having a negative view of women when Our Lady is so highly honored. In the Catholic faith, The Blessed Virgin Mary is the most exalted of all Christians, she is the first Christian. Worship is reserved for the Holy Trinity alone. But Catholics honor and venerate Our Lady above all other saints.

Oftentimes, it seems that our culture celebrates women who “rise above” their female state. “Look what she accomplished even though she was a woman!” we’ll say, as if being a woman is a handicap or disability to be overcome. We don’t often praise women for being uniquely feminine, perhaps because we don’t hold femininity in high regard.

We don’t honor Our Lady because she overcame her unfortunate plight to be born a woman, but because she did what no man could ever do. Her humility, grace, maternal love, faithfulness, tenderness, strength, steadfastness, and sacrifice contribute to her glory. I’m reminded of Eowyn in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. She doesn’t save the day in spite of being a woman, she conquers because she is a woman: “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman.” It is the second Eve that has the power to crush the serpent under her heel, not in spite of her womanhood, but because of it.

Catholics don’t hold up Mary as the model for Christian women, we hold her up as the model for Christians. Women and men are asked to look at Mary and follow in her footsteps. Not only are men called to honor all women out of respect for Our Lady, but they are called to imitate her example themselves.

There is simply nothing comparable in Protestant life. I truly think that the Protestant avoidance of Mary as well as suppression of Marian doctrine significantly contribute to the experience I, and many women, encounter in the Protestant church. We feel like second-class citizens. When you grow up hearing of Eve’s fall and never understand that Mary is the New Eve who rights the wrongs, opens the gate, and carries our Hope, it’s easy to feel that being a woman is cursed and not blessed.

Doctrines such as the teaching that Mary is the Theotokos, or God-bearer, contribute to a celebration and exaltation of womanhood. Growing up Protestant, I was often told that Mary was the mother of Jesus, not the mother of God. This is a form of adoptionism (the heresy teaching that there was a merely human Jesus that was later adopted as God’s son) and not Orthodox Christian teaching which is that at his conception, Christ was fully God and fully man. By emphasizing that Our Lady is the Mother of God, the Church not only maintains a high Christology (highlighting that Christ was always divine), but also makes the shocking assertion that God himself chose to dwell in a woman’s body as his abode for nine months. Perhaps even more scandalous, is the emphasis the Church Fathers place on Christ being born of Mary, not merely from Mary. By this they meant that God allowed his very body to be created from Mary’s womb. God chose a plan of redemption in his Incarnation that honors all women.

Furthermore, this plan of redemption was not forced on Our Lady by God. The Incarnation hinges on Mary’s willingness to allow God to enter her womb: Let it be unto me according to your word, she says to Gabriel. In a sense, the redemption of the world spins on her answer, the answer of a woman. Because her answer is a faithful yes to God’s will, the Blessed Virgin is the example for all Christians. We must all say “yes” to God’s desire to dwell in us. In this metaphor, the Christian is taking on a feminine role. In Mary’s case, it was due in part to her literal femininity that it was possible for her to be the God-bearer.

My growing understanding of Marian doctrine makes me joyful that I was born a woman and causes me to celebrate the God-given gift of my womanhood. Part II coming soon : )

Please keep in mind: I’m not a theologian. If anything I say is ever in conflict with the teachings of the Church, I’m the one in the wrong. Feel free to let me know if this is the case since I like to avoid heresy as much as the next gal. K, thanks.

(image source: guardian.co.uk)