AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Bishops' plenary focuses on the “role of women in the Church and in society”. Archbishop Castro Quiroga: “may women be once again energetic defenders of life, marriage and motherhood”

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

Bogota (Agenzia Fides) - “The world expects Christian women, made bold by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be courageous apostles and missionary disciples of Jesus Christ; firm defenders of life, marriage and motherhood - aspects which feminism of the 1970s denigrated erroneously considering them obstacles to real promotion of women-; continue to show themselves as creative builders of peace and justice in order to help all women escape from an unprecedented situation”. This was part of an opening discourse given by Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, Archbishop of Tunja and president of the Colombian Bishops' Conference, at a plenary assembly of the Bishops focussed on the role of women in the Church and in society (see Fides 24/1/2008).
According to the president of the Colombian Bishops, “in the past women lived an experience of marginalisation, reduced to a mere substitute for man, systematically underestimated and considered even incapable of making decision concerning the community”. This condition led women to rebel and claim respect for their value in front of the world. But the feminist movement was not unanimous in its decisions. Archbishop Castro Quiroga said, “there is a form of feminism which is distant from the Christian vision. It is closed in rigid gender dichotomies connected with biological determinism”. He spoke of a “Christian feminism ” “which finds the dignity of women in all fields on the basis of the profound truths of the Gospel. This feminism is a hymn to life and hope which lives in the heart of every women of faith ”.
The Bishops appeal to women to “continue to announce Jesus Christ with their lives and words, and to offer the female intuition proper to the Gospel which often still escapes even the wisest of men”.
In his opening address the president of the Colombian Bishops' Conference, denounces "ambiguous campaigns promoted by the ministry of social protection and the activity of various NGOs involved in promoting the wellbeing of women, which is important, but apparently completely indifferent to the joy experienced at the birth of a child”. For the Archbishop of Tunja, “campaigns which stress a woman's right to be mistress of her body, and therefore to easily eliminate a baby in the womb, fail to understand that the child is not part of the body of the mother who is simply carrying it ”. The Bishop said it is opportune for campaigns of the ministry for social protections to “encourage women to face pregnancy positively, and never sacrifice the new life developing in the womb”. It is necessary to fight administrative decisions “connected with sexual and reproductive health such as for example the inclusion of free ‘day after pills' and preservatives in the Compulsory health plan. We are dismayed by this decision because we are aware of the gravity of the problem of health in our country”.
In his introductory address the President of the Bishops' Conference recalled the imminent centenary of the Conference and thanked God for all that has been achieved in this time, urging the Bishops to continue to work to alleviate the most painful situations in Colombia. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 29/1/2008; righe 40, parole 548)


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