- Feb 5, 2002
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Many otherwise orthodox Catholics are uncomfortable with the Scriptural teaching on authority in marriage. “Catholic feminists” may embrace other Church teachings hated by secular feminists (anti-abortion, anti-contraception, the all-male priesthood). But when it comes to marriage, they often share the view of their secular counterparts that authority and hierarchy are to be feared as inherently oppressive. Indeed, this is where feminism is seen most clearly to be a subspecies of Enlightenment liberalism.
Thus many Catholic women immediately become defensive when they hear the New Testament verses in which wives are told to obey and submit to their husbands. They jump to cite Pope St. John Paul II’s language of “mutual subjection” (from Mulieris Dignitatem and one of his “theology of the body” audiences), wielding this phrase effectively as a riposte to Scripture and tradition.
In Ephesians 5, St. Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, laying down his life for her and loving her as his own body. It is not as though it took the Church 2,000 years to discover that there is mutuality here—it is explicit in the text! What Pope St. John Paul II did was to emphasize the broader context of the preceding verse, where St. Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He contextualized, but did not eliminate, the inequality of authority established by St. Paul.
Continued below.
www.catholicculture.org
Thus many Catholic women immediately become defensive when they hear the New Testament verses in which wives are told to obey and submit to their husbands. They jump to cite Pope St. John Paul II’s language of “mutual subjection” (from Mulieris Dignitatem and one of his “theology of the body” audiences), wielding this phrase effectively as a riposte to Scripture and tradition.
In Ephesians 5, St. Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, laying down his life for her and loving her as his own body. It is not as though it took the Church 2,000 years to discover that there is mutuality here—it is explicit in the text! What Pope St. John Paul II did was to emphasize the broader context of the preceding verse, where St. Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He contextualized, but did not eliminate, the inequality of authority established by St. Paul.
Continued below.
An orthodox reading of “mutual subjection” in marriage
www.catholicculture.org
