Alas, a Blog

Okay, here’s my first post on Alas….

As Cardinals lock themselves within the confines of the Vatican and observers watch the billowing smoke from a chimney to see if the next Pontiff has been selected, members of the Catholic Church wonder what, if anything, will this next pope have in store for its followers. Specifically–the women of the faith. The Church hasn’t exactly been up to speed on women’s social progression to equality and it certainly hasn’t recognized women’s reproductive rights. And the prospect of female priests, bishops, cardinals, and who knows–pope?! Viewing women as more than just wives and mothers or even accepting and respecting a woman’s choice to not become a wife or a mother, and still view her to be a “good Catholic?” A woman’s right to divorce? How about a woman’s right to control her own reproduction and use contraceptives, and even obtain an abortion? Women’s sexual freedom?! Will the Church and the next pope retain their Medieval view of women or as society at large has, become more progressive in regards to women’s social status?

In my opinion–they’ll stay Medieval in their views of women for a long time to come. I foresee more women feeling alienated from the Catholic Church and even abandoning it, and certainly, there will be more women rightfully demanding to have their voices heard. Faithful women flock to Sunday Mass and yet their Church can, and many times over, turn a deaf ear to them. And some women are doubtful of seeing the Church absorb more progressive, even feminist ideals in its view of women any time soon. A recent article from Women’s eNews reported on the concerns of Chilean [Catholic] women who anxiously await the announcement of the next pope and his own gender politics.

As the world waits to hear who is chosen to lead the Catholic Church, women in Chile are divided on whether a new pope is likely to bring any change to the status of women in this deeply conservative and Catholic country.

SANTIAGO, Chile (WOMENSENEWS)–Sister Maria Ines Concha, dean of the faculty of theology at the Catholic University of Chile in Valparaiso, remembers Pope John Paul II as a staunch proponent of women’s rights.

“I think it’s irrelevant who is chosen when it comes to women’s issues,” said Concha, referring to the naming of the next pope, “because no one is going to regress in terms of the progress that has been made. I don’t think you can stall those advances.”

Concha recalled how the pope allowed women to serve at the altar and said that by expanding women’s church participation John Paul may have paved the way for his successor to permit the ordination of female priests.

She recommended the following passage from his 1995 letter to women:

“As far as personal rights are concerned, there is an urgent need to achieve real equality in every area: equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, fairness in career advancements, equality of spouses with regard to family rights and the recognition of everything that is part of the rights and duties of citizens in a democratic state. This is a matter of justice but also of necessity.”

But while multitudes of women in Chile look back on the deceased pope with gratitude for his advocacy of women’s rights, others chafe at his opposition to divorce, female ordination, abortion and contraceptives.

Behold, the mixed legacy of John Paul II; good here and there, but over there….not so good. It’s more a schizophrenic legacy, really.

“In all international conferences on women, the Vatican has consistently been against us on issues like divorce, contraception, homosexuality, abortion,” said Loreto Ossandon, a researcher with the Foundation Institute for Women, a Santiago-based think-tank. “So where is their advocacy of women’s rights?”

I doubt there’s any advocacy for women’s rights. The Vatican’s gender politics are pretty cut and dry when it comes to its treatment of women. But that’s just my cynicism of the whole issue.

Ossandon believes that since John Paul chose the majority of the voting cardinals, his successor will likely toe his line.

Which means Catholic women might have to wait another twenty-six years before another opportunity for progression within the Catholic Church’s position on women’s rights. Or they might have to wait another millennia or so. Will there even be women within the Catholic Church if they remain so constant and backward in their view of women, a thousand years from now?

Others said that female priests in themselves would not necessarily mean a shift on issues such as reproductive rights.

“It would likely be a female wearing the same pants and professing the same ideas of the current male-dominated church,” said Veronica Diaz, a coordinator with the Valparaiso-based grassroots organization Catholic Women for the Right to Choose. “It would only make a difference if we had a feminist female priest.”

Given the scarcity of feminist Catholic organizations in Chile, Diaz shrugged off the issue as a non-starter.

And women compromising their reproductive rights in order to receive “scraps from the Vatican’s table” continues.

Divided on Legacy
In Chile–one of the most conservative countries in the most Catholic region of the world–women are divided about John Paul’s legacy on women’s rights.

Divorce was only legalized last year. Abortion in all forms is illegal and prosecuted. Children of separated parents are barred from attending some Catholic schools. Last month, the long hand of the Church was widely suspected as playing a role when a health minister was fired for expressing support for free distribution of the morning-after pill.

And they say Papal interference within national governments went out with Henry VIII’s grandstanding against the Catholic Church.

[…]…”On some issues, like divorce and abortion and that stuff, the church needs to be more tolerant nowadays,” said 20-year-old Fernanda Farcuh, a student at Chile’s Catholic University in Santiago. “It’s a very conservative Church here in Chile and it has very much power over politics. It can stop things that people need. I think we need a more open-minded church.”

Best of luck convincing those Cardinals over in Vatican City.

Farcuh believes young people might stop leaving the church if leadership changes brought new policies on issues such as birth control.

Diaz, with Catholic Women for the Right to Choose, said young people are alienated by a Church removed from their day-to-day reality.

“Asking that women enter marriage as virgins, not have abortions, not get divorced,” are all examples, she said. “And I don’t think any of the papal candidates will change any of those fundamentals.”

Hence why some women are simply fed up with the Church and are leaving, or staying and working for change.

Monica Silva is a researcher at Chile’s Catholic University in Santiago and a member of the National Commission on Women in the Church, an organization created by the Episcopal Conference of Chile to advise on women’s issues.

It’s debatable what can be labeled women’s issues,” said Silva. “Take an issue like abortion. That’s not a women’s issue to me. That comes down to the most basic right of all human beings; the right to life.”

I can’t believe she said that. Well yes actually I can. If women can’t even form a consensus on what are “women’s issues and rights” (or what constitutes women’s reproductive rights) and what we feel the Church needs change, then how the hell can Catholic women, longing for change, convince the Church what are women’s rights, especially reproductive rights?! Personally it doesn’t matter to me what the Church does as I am not Catholic, and not even a believer in a supreme being or souls. However, I do sympathize with the many frustrations that the women of the Church hold. The institution constructed around the faith you follow barely holds you to a second class status, ignores your rights, and simply ignores your voices? Sure you’re noticed every once in a while, but is it merely a condescending novelty act from the Vatican?

Women have struggled and succeeded in gaining access into once male-dominated/controlled institutions and even re-constructing those particular institutions. Progressive Catholic women happen to be struggling with the Roman Catholic Church; a male dominated/controlled institution with very little regard for women’s rights. For this feminist onlooker, it’s just another “women versus patriarchal institution and its teachings” scenario. But it’s actually occuring within the institution. There are women within the institution but they are shut out from positions of authority and ‘say’ on the institution’s teachings. I’m quite certain the struggle and women’s strong disagreements with the Church has nothing to do with the Church core belief in an all powerful deity who sired a son, who would be named Jesus Christ (duh), with a woman named Mary, and later on Christ would nailed to a cross and all that. No, the grievances of progressive Catholic women concern the Church’s stubborn and even arrogant backward position when it comes to women’s “place” within the faith. And even within society as a whole.

In a nutshell, a significant number of Catholic women don’t like their ‘just barely’ second class status within the Vatican’s teachings and views concerning divorce, contraceptives, abortion, sexuality, and “what makes a good Catholic woman.” How will this next pope treat the women of the Church? What will those Cardinals take into consideration when choosing the next pope and will the “woman question” play a roll in that at all? Will some Catholic women be left disappointed yet again by another staunchly anti-feminist pope? Yeah probably. So I’m not getting all giddy over the Conclave as I doubt the Cardinals will elect a progressive pope. I’m betting on an ultra-conservative yet anti-war, anti-excesses-of-capitalism, and pro-humanitarian pope with Medieval views on women’s role (and rights) in the Church and society at large. But once again, I’m just a cynic.

There! My first post. Chatter amongst yourselves.

An interesting Forward article discusses “what feminism can teach jewish organizations.” I particularly liked this bit:

A nationwide study released recently by Ma’yan: the Jewish Women’s Project, “Listen to Her Voice,” reveals that feminism has had a transformative effect on the Jewish community over the last 30 years. Respondents to the survey were not only thrilled with the many changes that have occurred … the ordination of women as cantors and rabbis, unprecedented access to learning and sacred texts, women’s leadership on the bimah and in the boardroom … but they also believe that there would have been little to hold their interest in the Jewish community without these changes.

Many of the women reported leading their families to synagogues in which they could be counted as full participants. Others note the sweeping effects that feminism has had on Jewish theology, liturgy and ritual over the last three decades. One would hardly know it from the rhetoric of most of the organized Jewish community, but without feminism, Jewish continuity today would be much more seriously jeopardized than it is. Feminism has given many women and men a reason to again be involved Jewishly.

So that all sounds good. But, on the other hand:

Is that good enough? Can a community that purports to value families and the rearing of children above all else offer no paid parental leave to most of its employees? Is it feasible that Jewish women … who are the most highly educated women in America and who, according to numerous studies, are also singularly dedicated to the Jewish community … are unqualified for positions of leadership in the Jewish community? If feminism has transformed Jewish religious life in just 30 years, might it not have an equally powerful contribution to make to the communal world?

How might we transform this reality? We can begin by simply listening to what Jewish women are saying. Nearly half the women surveyed by Ma’yan reported being discriminated against in the Jewish community on the basis of gender. Forty-two percent have experienced pay inequity. Roughly two-thirds believe that women are underrepresented as communal leaders. Only three in 10 feel that they “often” have a way to make their voices heard about issues of local concern to them.

Read the whole thing.

My favorite thing I’ve read about Dworkin today is this Guardian article by Katharine Viner. Here’s a sample:

Dworkin’s feminism often came into conflict with the more compromising theories of others, such as Naomi Wolf. “I do think liberal feminists bear responsibility for a lot of what’s gone wrong,” she told me in 1997. “To me, what’s so horrible is that they make alliances for the benefit of middle-class women. So it has to do with, say, having a woman in the supreme court. And that’s fine – I’d love a woman, eight women, in the supreme court – but poor women always lose out.” She did concede, however, that her radicalism was too much for some: “I’m not saying that everybody should be thinking about this in the same way. I have a really strong belief that any movement needs both radicals and liberals. You always need women who can walk into the room in the right way, talk in the right tone of voice, who have access to power. But you also need a bottom line.”

It was this bottom line that Dworkin provided. She was a bedrock, the place to start from: even when you disagreed with her, her arguments were infuriating, fascinating, hard to forget. Feminism needs those who won’t compromise, even in their appearance; perhaps I’m alone, but I find it pretty fabulous that, as a friend told me, Dworkin would “go to posh restaurants in Manhattan wearing those bloody dungarees”. She refused to compromise throughout her life, and was fearless in the face of great provocation.

Rad Geek has done a good job collecting links to posts about Dworkin – here and here.

Update: Heart posted a link in comments to the Andrea Dworkin Memorial site.

Update 2: Moderation Announcement from Amp, to everybody here:

Can the Dworkin-critics among us (me included) please save your criticisms of Andrea Dworkin for later or for elsewhere?