AFRICA/CHAD – The role of women in the Church and in Society: Pastoral Letter by Bishop Edmond Djitangar of Sarh

Sarh (Fides Service)- “Women are fully members of our Church-Family” Bishop Edmond Djitangar Bishop of Sarh, southern Chad, wrote in a recent Letter Pastoral addressed to the Church-Family-of-God “To draw attention to women and their role in the Church and in Society”. In his letter, a copy of which was sent to Fides, the Bishop underlines the importance of schools for promoting the role of women in society and in the Church: “Traditional education and that fact that many children do not attend school, prevent women from taking the rightful place in the communities of our Church-Family- of-God. This is true in many families. The village community educates the children and girls suffer discrimination. Traditional initiation customs are an example: these practices teach that men should dominate women and women should be submitted to men”.
To make things worse “traditional female initiation has lost much of its educational value giving too much importance to abscission (imported by Muslims)”. This is why the Bishop praises “the courage of associations of Christian women struggling to eliminate the practice which is prohibited by the Church-Family-of-God because it offends the integrity of the human person created by God. We do not condemn women victims of this practice, but we do condemn those who continue to believe that this custom is good and must be continued”.
The Bishop said “the sacredness of life taught by traditional education is threatened by the media’s lax attitude to human sexuality and by the irresponsible behaviour of adults which leads young people to engage in premature sexual relations and even use abortion”. The Letter speaks of abortion as a tragic social phenomenon, and a crime. “We call on parents not to repudiate their daughters with unexpected or unwanted pregnancies and never to push them to abortion what ever the reason”. The Bishop says that people must realise that abortion is a serious offence against life and God and a crime .
The Letter refers to the Bible. “God’s attitude to life and the human condition are described in the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis. When God created man and women he gave them his own dignity, image and likeness. Adam and Eve are the image of God, as individuals and as husband and wife. It was the first sin which caused the relationship of dominion (or submission) and violence of men over women. Harmony was re-established by Jesus Christ, God made man born of the Virgin Mary”.
The Bishop recalls that Jesus taught his disciples how women must be treated: “Jesus’ attitude to women was contrary to the customs of his people many of which are similar to our traditions. The Gospel tell us that Jesus showed respect, love and acceptance towards the women he encountered. And the women were the ones who were faithful to him even under the cross and the first to be messengers of the Resurrection. The fact that from the beginning of his public life, Jesus was followed by a group of women is a challenge for our attitude to women in the Church-Family-of-God. We must encourage and help women to take their proper place in Church and in society. We must help girls to grow up as women free of any inferiority complex ”.(L.M.) (Fides Service 9/2/2004, lines 46 words 590)