Me and My Patriarchal Church

Mar 7, 2016 | 0 comments

Just in time for International Women’s Day, Cinnamon turns on the snark.

After giving it some thought, I have concluded that the Catholic Church is irredeemably sexist and oppressive. I will have to strike out on my own and found one that doesn’t treat women as second-class citizens.

Seriously, the Catholic Church has a patron saint of housewives (the docile little Saint Martha)

but I challenge you to find a Catholic woman who ever led an army

or turned one back in its tracks

or faced down a lion like a boss.

All through the ages, women have been forced to submit blindly to the pope

to the bishops

and even to their own brothers!

In my church, however, women will be valued for more than their virginity

or their beauty

or their physical fragility and dependence on men for protection.

The heroines of my church will be scientists

philosophers

writers

and physicians.

No longer will we take as our inspiration the passivity of the Virgin Mary.

We will find a role model who can empathize with us in our sufferings.

I want to belong to a Church that respects and values women

and treats them as the equals of men.

Don’t you?

Image credits: the image of Blessed Margaret of Castello is used under Creative Commons License, CC BY S-A 4.0. The owner is Judgefloro.