Apparently, in a recent edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, a lady by the name which gives title to this post (who is, apparently, “an Italian historian and journalist”), opined that the abuse crisis being faced by the Catholic Church is a result of a deficiency of women “in the ‘decisional spheres’ [whatever those are -- StA] of the Church.”
I say that Ms. (Mrs.?) Scaraffia is only a half-idiot, because I do think she raises a valid point about the moderating effect that women have on men, just in general (a quick wander through some of Chesterton’s writings on the subject of women would reveal a not-dissimilar sentiment):
According to Scaraffia, [St. Daniel Comboni] believed that the presence of nuns is “essential” in the missions because they are a “defense and a guarantee” of the missionary priest’s chastity. Otherwise, Scaraffia writes, the isolated priest would “not improbably” be tempted to unchastity with women or boys.
Pope John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem and a 2004 letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called for a “greater feminine presence in the Church,” Scaraffia adds, but these documents have yet to be fully implemented.
At the same time, that moderating effect only gets you so far. Witness the fact that, as I have previously mentioned, teachers are roughly 100 times as likely to commit sexual abuse against minors as are priests. And teaching is a profession which has quite a lot of women in its ranks.
Which would be Ms. (Mrs.?) Scaraffia’ half-idiocy. For it would indeed seem that what is really necessary is an appropriate, proportionate balance of men and women; too little or too many of either sex seems to set up the necessary preconditions for abuse to flourish. And indeed, given the example of teachers specifically, one wonders if the over-presence of women does not actually make greater the risk that abuses will occur.
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Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Catholicism - Education - Men and Women - Sex | Tags: Catholic Church, CDF, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, L'Osservatore Romano, Lucetta Scaraffia, Mulieris Dignitatem, nuns, the Church