Mulieris dignitatem

Mulieris dignitatem (Latin: the dignity of the woman) is the title of the Apostolic letter of August 15, 1988 Pope John Paul II writes on the occasion of the Marian Year " on the dignity and vocation of women ". .

Image and likeness of God

In the Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem wants John Paul II the " basic truths" about men and women, their equality in the dignity and the "unity of the two" deepen (No. 6), he thereby assumes that this unit on the foundation the dignity of every human being is based. Because, as the Pope writes, everyone is after the " image and likeness of God ", the " made ​​them male and female ' people (Gen 1.27 EU) god just figuratively. From this common beginning, the essential equality of all human beings and appeal derives.

The dignity of women

The issue had always taken a broad space in the Catholic Church and led to discussions. After the Second Vatican Council, it had gained in importance and occupied space in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, in the Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People Apostolicam Actuositatem and in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Christ laici. In the Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem, which is divided into nine chapters, Pope John Paul II clearly points to the special dignity of women in Christianity.

Motherhood and virginity

In Chapter VI. John Paul II goes in detail on the " two different dimensions of the vocation of women in the light of divine revelation ", which of motherhood and virginity or voluntary celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. Both are in the doctrine of Christ, both interconnected and. distinguished from each other on this basis he builds the following chapter "The Church - the Bride of Christ " and " greatest is love ", which he decides with thanks " for all the charisms which the Holy spirit distributes to women in the history of blessed people of God, for all the victories which she owes to their faith, hope and love of women [ ... ] for all the fruits of feminine holiness. "

Thanks to the women

John Paull II concludes his Apostolic Letter with thanks to the women, " which - have shared in every age in the apostolic mission of the whole People of God - in fidelity to the Gospel. It is the holy martyrs, virgins, mothers who bravely bore witness to their faith and the fact that they brought up their children in the spirit of the Gospel, who passed on the faith and tradition of the Church. "The starting point of a mental dialogue must be the gratitude He continues: " in the Marian year the Church of the Holy Trinity would like to say thank you - for the mystery of the woman and for every woman, for that which constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for ' God's great deeds ', that of the course generations of people have done in her and through her. Has not happened finally in it and through it, what on earth is part of the greatest in the history of man - the incarnation of God himself. " ( No. 31).

In this view imaging incorrect complementarity of the roles of man and woman two indispensable dimensions of the church are better presented: the " Marian " and the " apostolic and Petrine " principle (No. 27).

In Mulieris dignitatem the Pope goes briefly to the topic of the call of men to be apostles and priests to one: " If Christ is calling only men as his apostles, he acted in a completely free and independent, he did it with the same freedom with which he in. his behavior the dignity and vocation of women stressed, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time ... you are at the Last Supper with Christ; receive them alone in connection with the establishment of the the sacramental order Eucharist: Do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22, 19, 1 Cor 11, 24) received on the evening of the resurrection day the Holy spirit to forgive sins: . If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (Jn 20, 23). " (No. 26). Later, in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis - "On Reserving Priestly Ordination to men only " - May 22, 1994, John Paul II goes on the subject, admit women to priestly ordination, detail and quotes this passage from Mulieris Dignitatem. ( Ordinatio Sacerdotalies, No. 2)

Women's Congress on the 20th anniversary of dignitatem Mulieris

On 9 February 2008, the first international congress with an audience of all participants was finished on "Women in Church and Society in Rome with Pope Benedict XVI. The event, entitled: "husband and wife, the fullness of the human element ," had brought together on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Apostolic Letter around 260 participants from 49 countries. The participants came to the following assessment:

It is " 20 years after Mulieris Dignitatem to look at what has changed and what remains to be done; that perspective, especially with regard to open view of woman identity and woman calling. There is but today even more than 20 years ago a mess of terminology. One defines the low range, woman, what man's name is ... The Church in general does not explain quite as concrete, " as the woman reflects God as a woman. It is said generally, the woman is the image of God as a person - as a person who loves and thinks ... they represented the image of God, who is in his selfless devotion and mother ... The woman in his own image, as a mother, therefore, as strong and be selfless, because it reflects God in it. " "