Letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on cooperation between men and women

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Entitled: Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the cooperation of men and women in the Church and in the world. the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on July 31, 2004 . It comes from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. , dated May 31, 2004.

Content of the letter

In the letter, which was written by Ratzinger with the express approval of Pope John Paul II , he comments on the importance of men and women and the role of women and men in society. Ratzinger criticizes the view that humans are completely autonomous in determining their gender role . Instead, he emphasizes the difference between the sexes, which he believes was willed by God and laid down in the order of creation .

For Ratzinger, the perspective of the gender struggle is “illusion and danger”. The gender approach , which denies the biological difference between the sexes, is particularly strongly criticized. It leads to the questioning of the family , to the equality of homosexuality with heterosexuality and to the promotion of polymorphic sexuality. According to biblical anthropology , however, man and woman are “different from the beginning of creation” and remain so “for all eternity”. This applies to him not only physically but also mentally. The physical ability to give birth to children shows in the female personality in an intuitive way such "feminine values" as caring and motherhood as well as "the sense and reverence for the concrete that opposes the abstractions":

“Despite the fact that a certain current of feminism demands claims 'for themselves', the woman retains the profound intuition that the best of her life is to stand up for the good of the other, for his growth, for his protection . "

Women also play a special role within the Church. In this way, based on the merciful, humble and faithful attitude of Mary, she “contributes in a unique way to reveal the true face of the Church, the bride of Christ and the mother of the believers.” Ratzinger points out that women therefore despite the fact that ordination is reserved exclusively for men, have access to the full extent of Christian life. Under the condition of preserving her natural destiny, Ratzinger calls for full recognition of women in society and a new appreciation of the work she has done in the family . The overlapping of the areas of life “family” and “work” is different for women than for men. The aim should be a social order that enables women who voluntarily want to devote all of their time to domestic work to do so without social or economic discrimination.

Public reactions

As with previous Vatican publications on the subject, the letter aroused different reactions from the public . The spokeswoman for the Catholic Women's Community in Germany (kfd) Margret de Haan welcomed the fact that the letter took up legitimate concerns of women and opposed the reduction of the image of women to the role of the woman giving birth. The chairwoman of Austria's Catholic women's movement, Margit Hauft, described the document as patriarchal and unworldly. Representatives of the Vatican blamed German media like Spiegel and Bildzeitung for the negative public reception of the letter. The Bildzeitung had broken the blocking period for reporting, the presentation of the Bildzeitung was then taken over by many media.

literature

  • Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Ed.): The cooperation of men and women in the Church and in the world . Christiana-Verlag, 2004. ISBN 3-7171-1125-6
  • Margit Harbort: "On the cooperation of men and women in the Church and in the world". Presentation and critical analysis. In: Katholische Bildung, 106 (2005) 2, pp. 68–82.
  • Katharina Westerhorstmann: The Church on the Defensive? The document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Cooperation of Men and Women in the Church and in the World , in: ThGL 95 (2005), 463-480. Reprinted slightly changed in: Sedes Sapientiae 10 (1/2006) 33–54.
  • Theresia Heimerl , Other Beings. Women in church. Vienna u. a. 2015. pp. 105–119.

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