The twentieth anniversary
of Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter on women

By Cardinal Justin Rigali

The Scriptures themselves reveal to us the equal role of women in the order of nature, as created by God. In the book of Genesis, which uses the word “man” as a collective term, we read: “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Referring to this passage, Pope John Paul II wrote: “The fact that man ‘created as man and woman’ is the image of God means not only that each of them individually is like God, as a rational and free being. It also means that man and woman, created as a ‘unity of the two’ in their common humanity, are called to live in a communion of love, and in this way to mirror in the world the communion of love that is in God, through which the Three Persons love each other in the intimate mystery of the one divine life. This ‘unity of the two’, which is a sign of interpersonal communion, shows that the creation of man is also marked by a certain likeness to the divine communion. This likeness is a quality of the personal being of both man and woman, and is also a call and a task” (Mulieris Dignitatem, 7). The Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II that we have just quoted from was presented just twenty years ago this August. This anniversary presents us with the opportunity to reflect on its content and purpose.

Women in the history of salvation
Building on the order of nature presented to us in the Book of Genesis, we repeatedly see the roles played by the great women of the Old Testament. We are familiar with the names of Sara, Rachel and Esther, just to name a few. As the events leading up to the Incarnation unfold in the Old Testament, we see the figure of Anna, the Prophetess, leading us, in the New Testament, to Elizabeth, cousin of Mary and mother of John the Baptist. The unique place of Mary in the history of Redemption has no parallel among any man or woman in all of creation. Due to her place in the history of salvation, foretold after the fall of Adam and Eve and fulfilled in the fullness of time, Mary is the most honored of women in all human history. No other woman has had more works of art painted or sculpted in her honor, buildings dedicated to God through her, hymns written in her honor or sermons and books reflecting her glory. While the foundation for the dignity of women in creation and in the work of our salvation runs like a thread throughout human history, their role has changed and evolved throughout the many changes that are constantly taking place in human society.

Women throughout the Church’s history
Throughout the history of the Church, we see great women being raised up over and over again, to proclaim the message of Jesus and live it out faithfully. From the very beginning, we see the famous martyrs and virgins of the early Church. The names of Agnes, Agatha, Cecilia and Lucy are familiar to us from the Roman Canon of the Mass and have been a part of that Eucharistic Prayer from the earliest centuries. With great courage, these early martyrs and all their successors down through the centuries have proclaimed by their life and their death their love for Jesus and His Church. Many of us are familiar with women such as Saint Clare of Assisi, who is the “mother” of the great Franciscan family, Saint Catherine of Siena, who called the Pope of the time to return to Rome, and Saint Joan of Arc, the great heroine of the French people. Closer to home and to our own times, we know of the many women religious who, with great courage and often with very little help or encouragement, founded great Religious Communities to care for the sick and dying and to teach the young. Many of us have benefitted from and continue to benefit from, the works of charity and work for justice began by generous and heroic women. The work of our own Saint Katharine Drexel among the Native and African-American communities is always a source of local pride for us, and the labors of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini among the poor and friendless immigrants to this country and to South America have given her the title “the mother of immigrants.” In his Wednesday General Audience of 14 February, 2007, Benedict XVI addressed the theme “Women at the service of the Gospel” studying the many female figures who played an effective and valuable role in spreading the Gospel from early Christianity until the present. This text is but one of his many expressions on behalf of the Church for the contribution women have made to the Church and society.

By no means is the heroic work of women limited to Religious Communities or consecrated virgins and generous martyrs! All of us know of the daily, heroic work of generous women, mothers of families, loving wives, single mothers living under the stresses of life in a particular way and single women living out their own unique vocation in the Church.

At the close of the Second Vatican Council, a special portion of the closing address of the Council was addressed to women. I was present in Saint Peter’s Basilica as these words, addressed to the women of the world, were read: “At this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid mankind in not falling. Our technology runs the risk of becoming inhuman. Reconcile people with life and above all, we beseech you, watch carefully over the future of our race. Hold back the hand of man who, in a moment of folly, might attempt to destroy human civilization. Wives, mothers of families, the first educators of the human race in the intimacy of the family circle, pass on to your sons and your daughters the traditions of your fathers at the same time that you prepare them for an unsearchable future. Always remember that by her children a mother belongs to that future which perhaps she will not see. And you, women living alone, realize what you can accomplish through your dedicated vocation. Not even families can live without the help of those who have no families. Especially you, consecrated virgins, in a world where egoism and the search for pleasure would become law, be the guardians of purity, unselfishness and piety. Jesus who has given to conjugal love all its fullness has also exalted the renouncement of human love when this is for the sake of divine love and for the service of all” (Closing Address, Pope Paul VI, 8 December 1965).

Summary of the goals of this anniversary year
In the Apostolic Letter, whose twentieth anniversary we are celebrating, Pope John Paul II reflects on the words and teaching of Jesus and the fundamental truths such as the equal dignity of men and women created in the image of God, the complementarity of their nature, the appreciation of the unique feminine “genius” and the universal call to holiness, presented to the faithful by the Second Vatican Council. In that same year, the post-Synodal exhortation of the Synod of Bishops invited the entire Church to “acknowledge the indispensible contribution of women to the building up of the Church and the development of society” (Chrisfideles Laici, 49). This year, in preparation for the upcoming anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem, an International Congress was held in Rome to celebrate the anniversary and reflect on the Church’s teaching concerning the invaluable role of women in society and in the Church. This Congress, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Laity had, among its goals, one that we can use here as we conclude this brief reflection this week, as we join with the aims of the Congress, which sought to: “remind women of the beauty of the vocation to holiness, encouraging them to respond with increasing awareness and, participating in the mission of the Church, to place at the service of the apostolate, family, workplace and culture, all the richness of the feminine ‘genius’” (“Woman and man, the humanum in its entirety,” Rome, 7-9 February 2008).
July 24, 2008