New Feminism...what does this mean?

In the next few blogs, I will explore how women can impact cultural change, what roles and responsibilities as mothers we have to humanity and God.

"When you empower women, you empower the future for generations to come".

This quote hangs inside the foyer of a fistula clinic in Rwanda, Africa. For those of us who do not know, a fistula clinic provides medical attention to women and girls who have had the most unimaginable birthing experiences. Some girls as young as 9 are there because their bodies were too young and small to have a child, yet they still were married off and became pregnant. Fistula's develop because the girl cannot push the child out and it tears her from the inside out. Usually the bladder and intestines are torn, causing her to lose control of her body and causing her to leak and live in awful stench. Many girls walk for days in pain to reach help and seek medical attention. Many more die before they get help. If a woman has a fistula and does not receive care, she is shunned in her village and not attended to. Many girls who do not get help are destined to live a life of solitude and in poverty. Most of them have also lost the babies that they carried as they died during childbirth.

This is unimaginable for us to even think about, why would I want to blog about it? Two words: human dignity. We as a civilized culture wonder how it could happen and why it does not change. It is so easy for us to judge and stay silent to the suffering of women worldwide because we can retreat to the comforts of our suburban lives. So we ignore it, we maybe say a prayer for them and then continue on in our daily existence. What impact does it have for us in America or any first world country, except for the fact it makes us be thankful our daughters were born here, that we were born here, nothing more. When we live in a world that is sheltered because of not wanting to know, we become immune to the trauma that our sisters across the world live on a day to day basis. When we do not speak up or acknowledge their human suffering, we essentially are allowing that cycle trauma to continue. I know we are not all really sisters, but we are all children of God, in that, we are family with all of humanity. We sometimes forget that because our egos get in the way. We cease to understand other people and their cultures, we judge what we do not know and then we fear what we judge. That is not only the American way, it is the way of most human beings when they are not affected. Most of all, we wonder how our society has become so degraded and so far off what really resonates in our hearts and our souls.

Dear sisters, we have the power to change this. We are talking about a societal change, it may take years, but we have to raise our conscious levels to bring humanity back to the way God intended us to live. This means setting our egos aside, no more judgement or fear of things we cannot control. We have the power to raise our children to be better than we are, we have the power to set examples for them daily and we have the power to impact those around us to radiate who we are. That sisters, is free will. It will take time, but in questioning that it cannot be done, we are already surrendering to the change. It is easier to live daily in our existence, to do good when we have time and to forget what we are called to do, not just as Catholics, but as women of Christ. Pope John Paul II talks about the term "New Feminism" in his 1995 Encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), 99.

"In transforming culture so that it supports life, women occupy a place in thought and action which is unique and decisive. It depends on them to promote a "new feminism". Women first learn and then teach others that human relationships are authentic of they are open to accepting to the other person: a person who is recognized and loved because of the dignity which comes from being a person and not from other considerations such as usefulness, strength, intelligence, beauty or health. This is the fundamental contribution which the church and humanity expect from women. And it is the indispensable prerequisite for an authentic cultural change."

When we separate ourselves from others, either socially, spiritually, or egotistically we become unequal as human beings. We are not then open to receive God in all totality, we are putting Him on our level and are limiting him to our own ego. We are the change that needs to happen, among our homes, our children, our thoughts and the world. This term is not a political term hijacked to get someone elected, it is what we are called to do to return to our consciousness. This is New Feminism and it is not something that we can take for granted.

In the reflection for the next couple of days, egos aside, how are you affecting or hindering the awakening that God has called out for us?

Blessings and love.