Violence against women © shutterstock
With his prayer intention for February, Pope Francis draws attention to a very painful darkness: the suffering of women under violence. He also calls for fairer pay.
"You can't see those in the dark," Bertolt Brecht poetized in the Threepenny Opera. This violence takes many forms: Discrimination in the workplace, abuse in families, sexual exploitation. The pope rightly calls for these sufferings to be noticed and heeded.
This requires listening. Personal stories of suffering can sensitize people to this. Pope Francis recalled one such story of suffering of four women in his general audience on 2. December 2020.
Remembering the murder of women in El Salvador
It was 40 years ago that religious women Ita Fort, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Dovovan were murdered in the Central American country of El Salvador. They came from the U.S. and worked in poor rural communities. In the spirit of St. Oscar Romero, who nine months earlier had been murdered at the altar during the celebration of Mass, they took the option for the poor seriously and demanded greater justice. This was considered Marxism and communism by the rich landowners.
The brutality of the paramilitaries
In the fight against communists, any means was permissible. Paramilitaries stopped the car of the four women, raped them and killed them. Today, they are revered as martyrs in El Salvador. For Pope Francis, they are exemplary witnesses of faith.
Crises reinforce inequality
Like all crises, the Covid 19 pandemic reinforces gender inequalities. Women bear brunt of pandemic's consequences in households. Many work in nursing and health care, putting them at higher risk of infection.
Moreover, times of crisis are particularly dangerous for women, as they are less protected from domestic and sexual violence. U.N. Population Fund projects 31 million additional domestic violence cases with six-month lockdown.
"Dare to Dream"
Pope Francis addresses women's equality in his new book, "Dare to Dream!". Often the solutions to the great challenges of our time come from women rather than men. This is how countries with women at the helm of governments have fared better through the Corona crisis.
The pope praises "the fresh thinking" of women economists who have recognized the shortcomings of the prevailing systems. He mentions the names of economists Mariana Mazzucato and Kate Raworth, who teach in England.
More leadership, more money
In church institutions, too, some of the "most useful advice" has come from women who now hold higher offices there. That qualified women should have equal access to leadership responsibilities and be paid the same as men is self-evident to the pope.
Then appropriate consequences must also be drawn in the church itself. Theologian Dorothee Solle poetized 40 years ago, "We don't want to learn/What men can do/Ruling and commanding/Being served, conquering/Hunting, capturing and subjugating".
The church cannot speak of violence against women without confronting its own history of guilt. Clergy are guilty not only of sexual violence against children, but also against women. This is documented in a recently published book.