In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis criticized society for treating women like objects, sometimes forcing them to abandon their dignity to get a job.
POPE FRANCIS
“All this happens here in Rome, it happens in every city, anonymous women, women we can describe as 'faceless' because shame covers their faces, women who do not know how to laugh and many of them do not know the joy of breastfeeding their baby and what it is to be called a 'mom.'”
The pope assured that men must look at these women and consider why, in light of the freedom enjoyed by males, “women are slaves to throwaway ideology.”
EXCERPTS FROM THE POPE'S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Media)
“Jesus' doctrine about women changes history. Before Jesus the view about women was one thing but after Jesus they are another. Jesus dignifies women and puts them on the same level as men because he takes that first word of the Creator, both are 'the image and likeness of God', both of them; not first the man and then a little lower down the woman, no, both are. And a man without a woman beside him - whether as a mother, as a sister, as a bride, as a working companion, as a friend - that man by himself is not the image of God.”
“This is a sin against God the Creator, rejecting women because without her we men cannot be the image and likeness of God. There is an anger and resentment against women, a nasty anger. Even without saying it... But how many times do young women have to sell themselves as disposable objects in order to get a job? How many times? 'Yes, Father, I heard in that country...'. Here in Rome. There’s no need to go far away.”
“All this happens here in Rome, it happens in every city, anonymous women, women - we can describe as 'faceless' because shame covers their faces, women who do not know how to laugh and many of them do not know the joy of breastfeeding their baby and what it is to be called a 'mom.' But, even in our everyday life, without going to those places, there is this ugly way of thinking, of rejecting women or seeing her as a 'second class' person. We need to reflect more deeply about this. And by doing this or saying this, by entering into this way of thinking, we despise the image of God, who made man and woman together with his image and likeness. This Gospel reading helps us to think about the marketing of women, a trade, yes, trafficking, that exploitation which is visible but also that trade which we can’t see but is taking place out of sight. A woman is trampled underfoot precisely because she is a woman.”
