The contribution of women

The general papal intention for March is: “That the whole world may recognise the contribution of women to the development of society.”

This intention is a powerful one, because through the centuries people have questioned the role of women in the Catholic Church. Are women worth less because they can’t be priests, people have asked, and are they born only to serve lesser roles in society?

Blessed John Paul II’s “Letter to Women” addresses these issues and makes it quite clear that the Catholic Church values women and what they give to the world.

Women have had their dignity questioned for centuries, Blessed John Paul II wrote, and this is a shame. If one simply looks back to the “attitude of Jesus Christ himself,” they will see that He transcended “the established norms of his own culture,” and “Jesus treated women with openness, respect, acceptance and tenderness.” This message should be heard and acted upon in Third Millennium, Blessed John Paul II said. Women deserve affirmation because they are children of God, he wrote, and society greatly benefits when they participate:

…a greater presence of women in society will prove most valuable, for it will help to manifest the contradictions present when society is organized solely according to the criteria of efficiency and productivity, and it will force systems to be redesigned in a way which favours the processes of humanization which mark the “civilization of love.”

Our society needs the beauty, “the genius of women,” Blessed John Paul II wrote. The Church needs the cultural and spiritual motherhood that only women can offer. And the fact that Jesus chose men for the ministerial priesthood does not detract from the role of women. It was a woman, in fact, who said “yes” to God and now reigns as “Queen of heaven and earth.” Mary is the epitome of the “feminine genius,” Blessed John Paul II said. Women need only to give themselves as she did, to reflect into the world the love of Christ:

…in giving themselves to others each day women fulfill their deepest vocation. Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts. They see them independently of various ideological or political systems. They see others in their greatness and limitations; they try to go out to them and help them.

Women give themselves to others in a variety of ways and in a variety of places. They work in nurseries, universities, parishes, and political groups. In all of these places, women use their femininity to teach the world what beauty really is.

Blessed John Paul II’s letter shows that the Church not only appreciates women, She needs women. Let us pray with Pope Benedict XVI this March “that the whole world may recognise the contribution of women to the development of society."