Damaging to Womanhood

Related to “Biden Marks Women’s History Month By Giving ‘Women of Courage’ Award to a Man,” (March 7, NCRegister.com):

While I may not necessarily agree with dedicating an entire month to any one group of people, there is value in celebrating others. Now as a father to two beautiful little girls, my worldview has evolved and taken an elevated interest in seeing to it that they are provided every opportunity for engagement, development and success. That interest is at the core of parenthood. 

For the longest time, women have fought for equal rights and opportunities in a world historically structured and dominated by men — still in some aspects today. 

Any honest person would acknowledge that reality. After great strides and each generation building off the tireless efforts of the last, what may truly be intended as goodwill and heartfelt inclusion from the current generation is in reality creating new barriers, stealing opportunities, redirecting aforementioned progress and damaging the spirit and sanctity of womanhood. 

Individuals have the freedom to choose how they want to live their lives and who their unique selves want to be, yet that freedom shouldn’t then impose on and replace the nature of others. 

The bestowing of an honor to a biological male on International Women’s Day is just another example of this ongoing attack — an attack that pains my heart, thinking about what my girls may have to grow up against if more is not done today to defend and defeat it. 

Individuals like the person honored can have their place in the world. They just need not be celebrated for nor in the same place as my daughters.

 Steve Miller

 Harleysville, Pennsylvania 

 

Brave Belgian Bishop

Thank you, Solène Tadié, for the interview of retired Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard (“Belgian Shepherd: Church Teachings Are Under Threat,” World, Feb. 26 issue). 

This is what we need in the period that we are in that he so well defines as “the end times.” 

I so admire him for bravely talking of what seems to be a forbidden topic in the Church today. 

He also alludes to Marian apparitions. 

May other Catholic writers and priests step up while there is time. How many know the weather but not the present time? 

Don’t refuse to read the signs and write them so others can know and see what is coming to be.  

 Jeremy Delvaille

 Riverside, California  

 

Synod’s Direction

Your coverage of the Synod Assembly for the Middle East (“Synod Members United,” World, March 12 issue) is seemingly extensive as to the continental-phase assembly in Lebanon. 

The buzzwords “listening,” “walking” and “dialogue” are reiterated, and Middle Eastern rites and Churchmen are mentioned. 

This is nice. But, the Syrian Catholic patriarch asks, as you point out, “Walking where?” We get a hint as to where the synod is going from the references to Cardinals Hollerich and Grech, the appointed synod leaders, whose views on sexuality and ordination are well known.

Moreover, a red flag is raised by the adjacent article on the same page — “4 German Women Exit Synodal Way” — but this short piece does not really explain their exit.  More to come. It is hoped that the Register will cover the full story behind the headlines.  

 Charles Molineaux

McLean, Virginia  

 

Respectful Inquiry

Relative to “The Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, 10 Years On,” (March 12 issue):

I come from a different perspective than Father de Souza. Having read Peter Seewald’s two-part biography and now completing my third reading of Pope Benedict’s trilogy Jesus of Nazareth, I not only hold the former pope in highest esteem, but find that I love him as a person, a man, a priest, a theologian, cardinal and pope.

Examining the decisions of a leader for their importance, their implications and their short- and long-term impact is both prudent and an obligation to provide security against mistakes and to find guidance for decisions that must be made in similar situations. 

Endlessly questioning someone’s rationale and picking over his life, his difficulties, his sufferings to do so calls into question his integrity, his character, his personhood. 

I’m sure that is not at all Father de Souza’s intent or motivation. However, I ask him and the Register to consider the value and boundaries of respectful inquiry. Rest in peace, Pope Benedict XVI.

 Douglas W. Price

 Albuquerque, New Mexico