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“ ... Gospel as an idea is primarily a male sphere ... ” “We cannot leave the affairs of the Kingdom of God to women.”– Karol Wojtyła Why was John Paul II so opposed to the ordination of women as priests and how can we interpret his comment to a group of male university students, made in Poland in the late 1960s, that “the Gospel as an idea is primarily a male sphere,” and also telling them that “We cannot leave the affairs of the Kingdom of God to women.”? In trying to answer these questions, Ted Lipien has been guided by his knowledge of Polish history and traditions as well as more than 30 years of reporting on events in Poland as a journalist living in the United States and in Europe. Ted Lipien searched through Karol Wojtyła’s writings, particularly his early statements and books on issues affecting women, many of them published only in Polish and never made available to Western readers. He has also included accounts, previously unpublished in the West, of Wojtyła’s dealings with women who knew him as a priest, attended his university lectures, or helped him to promote natural birth control methods. In trying to examine his relationships with women in much closer detail than what his biographers have done so far, Ted Lipien relied on written accounts of people who knew him best from his younger years in Poland. | Send Comment |
“A Great Deal of Error” in “Social Advancement of Women” – Karol Wojtyła Promoting traditional family values and traditional roles for women as wives and mothers as a better alternative to life without God under a communist dictatorship or life in a secular democracy seemed perfectly natural to Wojtyła, the Polish Church and the majority of people in Poland. John Paul II told a group of Polish nuns in 1979 that in addition to a little bit of truth in the so-called “social advancement of women,” there was also "a great deal of error." John Paul II was absolutely convinced that his version of what he started to call “Christian feminism,” based on belief in God and different roles for men and women as outlined in the Gospels of Jesus Christ, did in fact guarantee women full equality and dignity and was a better alternative to secular Western feminism. | Send Comment |
"Civilization, which rejects the defenseless, deserves to be called barbarian ... " – Karol Wojtyła In 1977, Karol Wojtyła told parishioners in Zakopane, in southern Poland, that abortion represents a “shameful science,” even if “scientific methods” are used to murder a not-yet-born defenseless human being.” Twenty years later, he concluded, “a civilization, which rejects the defenseless, deserves to be called barbarian, even if it has great economic, technological, artistic, and scientific achievements” – a clear reference to Western societies. | Send Comment |
Male Selfishness John Paul II acknowledged in Evangelium vitae that because of sometimes “tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects, depression and anxiety about the future, subjective responsibility [of women] for the evil choices may be limited, but this does not excuse the public opinion, the legal establishment, or the medical profession which give their broad approval and support abortion." He also placed the blame for abortion on male selfishness. | Send Comment |
"To all in our age who offer selfish models for affirming the feminine personality, the luminous and holy figure of the Lord’s Mother shows how only by self-giving and self-forgetfulness towards others it is possible to attain authentic fulfillment of the divine plan for one’s own life." – John Paul II Wojtyła never advocated submissiveness for women. On the contrary, he often urged women to be independent. Self-sacrifice was to be – in his view – a gift of love. John Paul II either rejected out of hand or never seriously considered the argument that by stressing the image of Mary as self-giving – feminists would use the word “submissive” – he was actually encouraging the exploitation of women in male-dominated societies, particularly in the developing world. John Paul II was convinced that the cult of the Virgin Mary helped to improve the position of women in traditional societies and continues to moderate male hostility toward women. He saw many feminist arguments as a sign of an unhealthy preoccupation in the West with personal fulfillment and a manifestation of selfishness. | Send Comment
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The Clash of Civilizations The clash of civilizations theory does not account for the emergence of John Paul as a major critic of Western liberalism and Western secular societies. This theory also cannot explain the growing influence of evangelical Christians in the United States with their strong criticism of many aspects of the liberal Western culture and admiration for John Paul II but differing with him on a number of social, economic, and foreign policy questions. For John Paul II, the clash of civilization was primarily over the issues of abortion, euthanasia and contraception. It was a clash between the "culture of life" and the "culture of death." John Paul II was a strong critic of American society and U.S. foreign policy. He once described America as “a continent marked by competition and aggressiveness, unbridled consumerism and corruption.” | Send Comment Poster images on this site are from the collection of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA and are believed to be in public domain. |
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