Should Catholics identify as feminists?

Should Catholics identify themselves as “feminists”? A panel of prominent Catholic thinkers explored this issue at a recent conference dedicated to the teaching of the Church about women at the University of Notre Dame, in the United States. Some speakers favorably welcomed the strategic use of the term, while others expressed uncertainty.

Those who were in favor of using the “feminist” label described it as a rhetorical tool to find common points with non -Catholic women who could support practices such as abortion and contraception but, however, they are open to look for what is good for women.

“It has an instrumental use if we want to establish that we are both on the side of addressing the needs of women,” he said Helen AlvaréCatholic lawyer and leader who has advocated the need for a “new feminism.”

The philosopher Melissa Moschella He offered a similar perspective, encouraging the attendees, among whom there were religious and infant mothers, to be called feminists if doing so is useful for a particular audience, “and if it is not, they do not.”

Abigail Favaletheologian and organizer of the conference, said that although he uses the term strategically to connect with various audiences, he feels “very ambivalent” about whether Catholics should continue to speak positively about feminism.

Part of this is due to the opposition that has acquired dominant secular feminism to several important elements of the teaching of the Church, but Favale also cited his own personal experience as a reason for concern.

Raised as an evangelical, Favale began to identify as feminist at the university while reading feminist literature and theology. Initially, he said, he got involved with the arguments based on his faith, but soon he found “adapting Christianity to secular feminism.”

“Everything changed in a very subtle way, almost without a conscious decision,” Favale shared, noting that he has seen something similar with Christian students to which he has taught and that they identify strongly with feminism.

But other panelists suggested that it is valuable that the Catholics appropriate the feminist label precisely due to the rise of the so -called anti -feminist positions of the “red pill”, even among the Catholics. These positions, the speakers argued, not only reject secular feminism, but also recent teaching teaching about the dignity of women.

“We have to defend full dignity and women’s rights,” said the jurist Erika Bachiochiwho has argued that nineteenth -century feminism was inspired by Christian principles. “We have to tell the young women today: ‘I am with you, not with them.”

And although the influences of “traditional wives” are popular among young Catholic women at this time, the theologian Angela Franks He said that defending a Catholic feminism will now be important in the event that a generalized disappointment with the anti -pattern turn occurs.

“There will be a violent reaction, and those women or their children will return to the radical feminist side” unless an alternative is offered, Franks said.

Regardless of whether or not the term “feminism” be used, all panelists in Notre Dame coincided in the value of the continuous approach of the Church in the singular mission of women and the need to promote justice for women in society.

“Women are the same in dignity and need a specific defense because they are different,” said the writer and political analyst Leah Libresco Sargearwho added that the world treats women “as defective men.”

Another point of agreement was the evangelical value that women hug their femininity. The theologian Rachel Coleman stressed the importance of “living a cheerful Catholic life and being happy being a woman”, while Deborah Savage, director of the Institute for Men and Women of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, encouraged the attendees to “not apologize” for being women and are proud of the gifts they “contribute.”

The panel took place after an exchange of somewhat controversial opinions about the merits of “Catholic feminism” in the Wall Street Journal.

The debate began on March 13 when Bachiochi wrote an article in which he described San Juan Pablo II as a “feminist Pope”. Carrie Gresswho, like Bachiochi, is a researcher at the Center for Ethics and Public Policies, responded on March 20 that the teachings of John Paul II about women They have nothing to do with feminist ideologywhile Margaret McCarthytheologian of the Juan Pablo II Institute, wrote a letter on March 24 in which he argued that Bachiochi had reduced to the Polish pontiff to “simplified phrases”.

In Notre Dame, the round table closed the three -day conference, entitled “True genius: the mission of women in church and culture”. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Letter to women of John Paul II of 1995the conference explored issues such as “the female body and the culture of life” and “female genius and Catholic history.” Perspectives on the complementarity between the sexes and the development of the church doctrine about women were also presented.

The closing panel participants also addressed other issues, such as the importance of women receiving education about their body and resorting to Mary as a model of femininity and protective mediator. They also addressed challenges such as the rise of gender ideology, social norms that suggest that children are oppressive and anxiety for body image.

Participants also talked about the need for Catholic women to have good mentors and be inspired by holy throughout the history of the Church, from mystical to mothers, from the founders to theologians.

“We need to open this world of holy women who lived radical lives at the service of the church,” said Favale. “We need many different models of holy femininity.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.