Me and My Patriarchal Church

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.

Annunciation

 

 

 

 

 

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

Saint Martha WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Sacred_and_legendary_art_(1895)_(14750412786) WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Witterschnee_Kirche_Decke_2c WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

to the bishops

SantaTeresa WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

and even to their own brothers!

scholastica-and-benedict+1

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Charles_de_La_Fosse_-_Christ_Appearing_to_Mary_Magdalene WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

or their beauty

Saint_Dominic_Parish_Church_Naval_Quezon_Cityfvf WMC CC Judgefloro

 

 

 

 

 

 

or their physical fragility and dependence on men for protection.

Saint Bakhita WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

The heroines of my church will be scientists

Saint Hildegard of Bingen WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

philosophers

Edith_Stein-Student_at_Breslau_1913-1914 WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

writers

Therese 2 WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

and physicians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Exterminatrix of Heresy

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Nd_des_7_douleurs_a_taisnieres_sur_hon WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

545px-Ghent_Altarpiece_D_-_Women WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

and treats them as the equals of men.

Don’t you?

Madonna Orvieto WMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.