Undoubtedly,
Francis's encyclical " Laudato Si [Praised Be]: On the
Care of Our Common Home" is historic and will have an impact on
the global community and its economy. The encyclical's emphasis
on how climate change has a direct negative impact on the global
poor is laudatory and apparent.
Since the global poor
are comprised of primarily women and children ,if Francis is
really serious about making significant inroads into eradicating
poverty it would behoove him to issue a follow up historic
encyclical elevating the status and role of women commencing with taking action in his own Church. He could start by
placing women in leadership roles and recognizing their Divine call to
Holy Orders and the Episcopate. This would be sign to the rest of the world
that women are, according to scripture, equal to men in source divinity
and it would be consistent with the Vatican II Documents.
The
encyclical should state in clear unequivocal terms that because
women are equal children in the eyes of our Creator they can no longer be
morally ,culturally, and legally viewed as subservient to men ,nor are
they property ,or second class citizens.. Women are to be treated with
dignity and respect ,have wage parity with men for the same work they
perform and are to be free of practices and laws that are misogynistic, patriarchal, bigoted , discriminatory
oppressive and result in all forms of emotional and
physical violence. Behavior, actions or laws falling short of those
prohibitions would be viewed as grave sins .
It is my belief that such
an encyclical would challenge backward cultures, secular
and religious institutions and governments to improve the lives
of women and reduce the number of poverty stricken peoplein the world.
At the minimum it would invite serious global discourse of
the scourge of gender inequality and its connection to poverty, misogyny,
patriarchal oppression, discrimination and violence, and overtime be a segue for positive social change and
justice.
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