Woman and Man

What is their relationship according to the Catholic Church?

What does the Church say regarding the relationship between man and woman?

The Church, illumined by faith in Jesus Christ, affirms:

• The personal character of every human being: both men and women are human persons in equal measure;
• The equal dignity of persons, which is realised as a physical, psychological and ontological complementarity, giving rise to a relationship of harmonic ''unity-in-duality''.
• The importance and the meaning of sexual difference;
• The existence of man with and for woman;
• The relational approach, which is neither competition nor rivalry;
• The active collaboration, between man and woman, which begins with the recognition of the differences between them;
• The presence of sin, which disturbs but does not abrogate this positive relationship and collaboration.

On what does the Church base this conception?

It is based on Sacred Scripture, rich as it is in human wisdom as well as Divine Revelation, in which this conception is manifested progressively thanks to God's intervention for the sake of humanity.

How does the Old Testament present the importance of man and woman?

In various ways. For example, the Old Testament:

• Assumes the form of a history of salvation which simultaneously involves the participation of both the masculine and the feminine, the importance of man and woman;
• Uses the language of marriage: God reveals himself as the Spouse who loves Israel, his spouse. The vocabulary touches the very nature of the relationship which God establishes with his people, even if this relationship is broader than that which is experienced in the human experience of marriage;
•  Presents a love which is very human, which celebrates the beauty of bodies and the happiness of reciprocal searching, and through which is expressed God's divine love for his people (see for example the Song of Songs).

How does the New Testament present the relationship between man and woman?

The New Testament confirms and completes what is already present in the Old Testament:

• Jesus Christ, Son of God made man, in his masculinity, assumes in his person all that the Old Testament symbolism applied to God's love for his people, described as the love of one spouse for the other;
• The Virgin Mary, as the chosen daughter of Zion, in her femininity, sums up and transforms the condition of Israel/Spouse awaiting the day of her salvation;
• The Spouse loved by Christ is the Church; revelation itself ends with the words of the Bride and the Spirit which implore the coming of the Bridegroom: ''Come, Lord Jesus'' (Rev. 22,20);
• The total and indissoluble love of man and woman, lived in the power of the baptismal life, becomes a sacrament, that is, a reality which manifests and communicates the love of Christ and the Church;
• In the grace of Christ which renews their hearts, man and woman become capable of freeing themselves from sin and of knowing the victory of faithfulness over weakness, over pains experienced, and over the sins of the couple;
• Rivalry, hatred and violence which disfigure the relationship between man and women, in Christ, are able to be and are overcome. The differences do not become a source of discord to be overcome by denial or eradication, but rather as the possibility for collaboration, to be cultivated with mutual respect for their difference.

In Christian understanding, what is the importance of the sexuality of the person?

Sexuality, in Christian understanding, has a great importance from both the anthropological and theological points of view:

The anthropological dimension of sexuality: In Christian belief:

• It is the human person as sexual being who is explicitly declared to be the ''image of God'';
• Sexuality characterises man and woman not only on the physical level, but also on the psychological and spiritual, leaving its mark in every way in which they are expressed;
• It is a fundamental component of personhood, its way of being, of revealing itself, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and living human love;
• The nuptial character of the body is affirmed, in which is inscribed the masculinity and femininity of the person.

The theological dimension of sexuality:

• The distinction man-woman is desired and created by God: ''God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.'' (Gn 1,27).
• The relationship between man and woman is good, but was wounded by sin and therefore has need of healing: it is Christ who can and wants to heal it.

What are the negative aspects, today, in the relationship between woman and man?

Some negative elements are revealed today in the relationship between man and woman:

• Subordination of one by the other;
• Antagonism, rivalry between them;
• An attitude of competition;
• Opposition, diffident and defensive;
• Cancellation of the differences between man and woman, beginning with the biological-sexual, considered as simply effects of historical-cultural conditioning.

What consequences do the obscuring of this differences and duality of the sexes produce?

It produces, at diverse levels, enormous consequences, as for example:

• Calling into question the family, with its two-parent nature, that is, composed of father and mother;
• The equivalence of homosexuality with heterosexuality;
• A new model of polymorphous sexuality;
• Freedom for every person to behave as he finds pleasing;
• Refusal to be influenced by the fact that the Son of God assumed human nature as a male.

In particular, the non recognition of the sexual difference between man and woman can even lead to the rejection of Sacred Scripture, which would transmit a patriarchal conception of God, sustained by an essentially male dominated culture.

What is the originality of woman, according to the Christian vision?

Women preserve the deep intuition of the goodness in their lives of those actions which elicit life, and contribute to the growth and protection of the other. Women indicate the fundamental capacity of every human being to live for the other and thanks to the other. The promotion of woman within society should be comprised and desired as a humanisation of the human person, whether man or woman, realised through those virtues rediscovered thanks to women.

How does she express this intuition?

This intuition is connected to the physical capacity of the woman to give life. Lived out or in potential, this capacity is a reality which profoundly structures the feminine personality.

What does the biological capacity to give life permit to woman?

It permits her very early to acquire maturity, a sense of the importance of life and of the responsibilities which it entails.

It develops in her the sense and the respect of the concrete, which is opposed to abstractions frequently lethal to the existence of individuals and society.

Ultimately, it is woman who, even in the most desperate situations - and history and the present testify to this - who possesses a unique capacity to carry on in the face of adversity, to make life liveable even in extreme situations, to preserve a tenacious sense of the future, and to remember with tears the price of every human life.

Is woman to be considered only under the category of biological procreation?

Certainly not! The very existence of the Christian vocation to virginity radically contests the claim to limit woman to a life which would be simply biological.

What is the relationship between physical maternity and virginity?

There exists a relationship of complementarity. Just as virginity receives from physical maternity the reminder that there is no Christian vocation which does not involve the concrete giving of oneself for another, so physical maternity receives from virginity the reminder of its fundamental spiritual foundation: giving just physical life is not the same as truly giving life to another. This means that maternity may be realised even where there is no physical generation.

Pope John Paul II spoke of the genius of woman. What did this mean for the life of society?

It means first of all that woman should be present actively and strongly in the family, the primordial and, in a certain sense, sovereign society, where the human person learns to be loved and to love, to be respected and to respect, to know and to love God. It redounds to the honour of society to make it possible for women - without depriving her of freedom, without psychological or practical discrimination, without penalty in comparison with her companions - to dedicate herself to the care and education of children according to the different needs.

It further means that women be present in the world of work and of social organisations and that they have access to positions of responsibility which offer them the possibility to influence the politics of nations and to promote innovative solutions to economic and social problems.

How can women harmonise work and family?

The problem is not only a legal, economic or organisational one. It is, above all, a problem of mentality, of culture and of respect.

This is made up of:

• Laws and an organisation of work that are in harmony with the needs of the woman's mission within the family;
• Proper value given to the work done by women within their families;
• Respect for the characteristics of woman which are different from those of man;
• The presence of woman in the world of work and in political and social organisations.

What is the role of women in the life of the Church?

Women are called to be irreplaceable models and witnesses for all Christians of how the Bride (the Church) should respond with love to the love of the Bridegroom (Christ the Lord).

The figure of the Virgin Mary constitutes in the Church the fundamental point of reference, as model of the attitudes, which, being typical of every baptised person, are in fact characteristic of women, who live them with particular intensity and naturalness.

What are the attitudes in which Mary is model?

Mary is model:

• In listening to and welcoming the Word of God;
• In giving praise and thanks to God, for all his blessings (cf. the Magnificat);
• In knowing the infinite humility of God, who made himself man in His Son, who went to die on the cross for the salvation of humanity.

Mary is not just a model, but is also the One who intercedes for us in Heaven, in order that every human person might resemble her beloved Son Jesus more and more in holiness of life.