SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 11 - N. 10 - 2005 - March - II
From: CIOFS Bulletin, 2005, N. 7
Emanuela de Nunzio
Having attended in January 2004 the Study Seminar of the Council for the Laity with the theme “Men and women: Diversity and mutual complementarity” (see Bulletin CIOFS, n. 4), I read with extreme interest the Letter from Cardinal Ratzinger about cooperation between men and women approved by the Pope who ordered its publication on May 31, 2004. I made sure to read also the commentaries that were published in the Italian lay newspapers, always critical of the positions of the Magisterium on issues to which modern culture is particularly sensitive. A little simplistically, I can arrange the reactions in three categories: decidedly contrary, favorable “with reservations” and totally favorable.
Decidedly contrary are naturally the progressists, according to whom the Catholic Church remains “obscurantist” by not accepting gays and the ordination of women. The radical exponent Emma Bonino compared Cardinal Ratzinger’s Letter to the pronouncements of an imam in Cairo! From opposite positions, the Letter is also criticized for limiting itself to exalting the “healthy difference” of the male and the female and deprecating the ambiguous concept of “person”, which only serves to justify the spreading of homosexuality.
Favorable with reservations are the representatives of the “feminism of difference,” who accept the preoccupation of the Cardinal with the unisex, the flattening of humans into a “neutral” with a masculine mould. They show however a deep difference between their positions, developed in function of the freedom of the individual, and those of the Church, which continue to note the limitations of this freedom.
As for the favorable, we find a long list of thinkers and sociologists, preoccupied with the fate of a humanity confronted with a generation so inclined to sex, drug, and rock and roll while ignoring that the sense of life could have any relation to audacity, courage, virtue, and love. The most convinced in his adherence to the text of the Letter is the American philosopher Harvey Mansfield, of Harvard University. “I am not catholic, but I find myself in firm accord with Ratzinger’s affirmations,” he declared in an interview. And added: “it’s not necessary to fear religion ... The feminists deny that there is an essence of the women, because they want self-determination. However, this means an unlimited exercise of human will. Now, human beings have need of a guide and they find it in God or in principles”.
In this cloud of critics and of consensus, it’s surprising to observe the ... surprise of so many observers at the “new ideas” that the Church has always been preaching. Since its origins, Christian tradition has built an anthropology founded on the parity of the sexes, without ever doubting their different roles. A clear example is Christian matrimony in which sexuality is recognized as a central part, as gift of love and as an example of the bond between Jesus and the soul of the Christian, between Christ and the Church. A parity that has found its concrete realization in the ascetic life: which in fact has opened, for the first time, to all women the possibility of renouncing their proper biological role by choosing virginity, which is foreign to Hebraism and to Islam.
These are the premises, new and revolutionary, that Christianity brought to the Greco-Latin culture. The western world received it with difficulty, delaying for centuries, but finally adopting it, as the simple fact demonstrates that the idea of the emancipation of women is born and affirmed only in the Christian West. This doesn’t mean that the Church is acquiescing to the feminist claims. We would rather conclude that the Catholic Church – under the push of the transformations that are perceived in our society – is returning to reflect and calling to reflect on its ancient premises, overcoming a gynephobic attitude (conflicting with those premises), which she has showed all too often.
It would be a real sin if, after an initial curiosity, the document would be forgotten in the public opinion, thus losing the occasion for serious argument about the direction that western civilization is taking, exactly at this most intense and dramatic moment of confrontation with other cultures, especially with the Islamic.
It would be a real sin if the legislators and governments would leave unanswered the invitation to reconsider the social policies in the area of education, family, work, access to services, civic participation. Such policies, writes the Cardinal, “which on one hand must fight every unjust sexual discrimination, on the other, must learn to listen to the aspirations and spot the needs of everyone”.
It would be a true sin if the ecclesial life continued to hold in second place the women who, according to the Cardinal, “are called to be models and irreplaceable witnesses for all the Christians of how the Spouse must respond with love to the love of the Spouse”.
Doug Clorey - Chelito de Nuñez
A survey was conducted by the Presence in the World Commission in the fall of 2003. Its purpose was to describe the apostolic works undertaken by Secular Franciscans around the world, in the areas of family and family life, work and workplace, community and society, and Church.
The survey was sent to the Secular Franciscan Order’s 57 national Fraternities and 33 emerging national Fraternities. Of these 90 national Fraternities, 27 national Fraternities have completed the surveys to-date: Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, Congo, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Oceania, Panama, Philippines, Togo, USA, Venezuela, Zambia. Sincere thanks are extended to those national Fraternities who completed the survey.
The quantity and quality of information provided in the survey varied. Some national Fraternities expended much effort and provided detailed information, while others provided only minimal information. We understand very well that this is the first time such an effort has been put into effect on an international level. It stands without doubt that we are also not inclined to give much publicity to our Secular Franciscan activities in the society where we are living.
Because many actions of Secular Franciscans are individual actions that don’t necessarily get attributed to their own Fraternities, most national Fraternities have encountered difficulty in summarizing their initiatives on a national basis. The surveys that were most complete included information that had been collected from local and regional Fraternities. However, requesting this kind of information has once again underlined the communication challenge that national Fraternities face in soliciting information from their regional and local Fraternities, and the amount of time and effort required to do this.
Regrettably, some national Fraternities perceived the request for this kind of information as an imposition from above, and provided only a minimum of information. On the other hand a number of national Councils informed us that the survey has also helped themselves to review the initiatives of their members in their local situations.
It is important to emphasize that the information being requested is intended for distribution to all Secular Franciscans, so that they can be better informed about the work of the Order, and assured of the impact that is being made by Secular Franciscans worldwide. However, this request has underlined the need to understand the cultural differences of Secular Franciscans and the norms that exist in different countries.
In general, the results of the survey reinforce that the work being undertaken by Secular Franciscans is exemplary in nature and that it should not be “hidden under a bushel”. However, the survey also seems to indicate that Secular Franciscans lack the sense that they belong to a single Order and that all of its activity is linked worldwide. Secular Franciscans need to move towards ownership of their activities across the world and of the unity that Secular Franciscans share when engaged in apostolic work. It is also interesting to note that many of the surveys focus on the activity of Secular Franciscans within the Church, with little activity described in the family, workplace and community. This is significant in light of the fact that Secular Franciscans, above all, are called to serve in the secular world – in their families, their places of work and in their communities at large.
The information collected by the survey will be published in the International Bulletin and on the Web site of the International Council (CIOFS), so that the work of Secular Franciscans can be better known and the Fraternities motivated to follow the most interesting ideas.
Right now we can already mention here the more intense activities in the area of family and family life. In the following issues we will deal with activities relating to work and the workplace, the community and society, and the Church. We will further be enclosing articles written in order to highlight some specific apostolic activities that, for their innovation or repercussion in the society, will offer profitable suggestions to all the Fraternities.
Regarding the area of Family and Family Life, we find consensus in engagement, that is manifested by means of:
Wishing everyone peace and all that is good. Duc in altum!