The maternal instinct of the church
Pope Fluffy had a few kind words for the women yesterday. He reminded them that they’re the strawberries on the cake source of tenderness and motheryness.
Calling himself “a bit feminist,” Pope Francis praised women religious for always heading to the “front lines” to bring the church’s tenderness and motherly love to those most in need.
“The church thanks you for this, it is a beautiful witness. This is being close. Be close! Close to people’s problems, real problems,” he said during an audience Sept. 17 with young consecrated women and men from around the world, including Iraq and Syria.
So feminist. So a bit feminist. He didn’t tell them to stay home and knit, he praised them for being on the front lines to pretend the church is all tenderness and motherly love despite the fact that the church bars them from all the jobs that actually matter.
It was a big event for 5000 young people who all crowded into one hall for the papal audience.
When talking about how successful evangelizers have a heart filled with fire and are driven to warm other people’s lives with Christ, the pope said he wanted to add something to that.
“Here I would like to — forgive me if I’m a bit feminist — give thanks to the witness of consecrated women. Not all of them though, some are a bit frantic!” he said to laughter and applause.
Hahahahaha yay clap clap clap clap. Those crazy feminists are so frantic that they think an officially all-male church is not friendly to women. How frantic can you get?!
Women religious “have this desire to always go to the front lines. Why? Because you’re mothers, you have the maternal instinct of the church, which makes you be near” people in need, he said.
He told a story of three South Korean sisters who went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to help staff a Catholic hospital in the archdiocese he once led, but “they knew as much Spanish as I know Chinese — nothing!”
Nonetheless, the three sisters immediately went to the wards, helping patients, holding them, giving them a smile, and the patients kept praising how wonderful the sisters were even though they never said a word.
“It was the witness of a heart on fire. It is the motherhood of nuns,” he said.
“You truly have this function in the church, to be the icon of the church, the icon of Mary, icon of the church’s tenderness, the church’s love, the motherhood of church and the motherhood of Our Lady. Do not forget this. Always on the front lines, but like this.”
Know your place, laydeez. Be mothery, get out there and be mothery for the church, but don’t try to be anything besides that. Don’t try to be fathery. Fathery=priest, and that’s not for you. Hands off! Hahaha, don’t get too frantic now, stay sweet.
I don’t know if I have just had a sheltered life, but I haven’t experienced much of this so-called maternal instinct. None of the women in my family had it. None of my friends had it. I don’t have it. What I have seen is that you can manage to be a mother (even a good one) without a so-called maternal instinct. You can learn to be a good mother. You can even be a good mother by being a snarky wise-cracking tough as nails woman.
I realize this is anecdotal, but in my experience, women aren’t soft. They can’t afford to be. Even women who live their whole life sheltered inside the family home – first their father’s, then their husband’s (never theirs) – have to be tough. But a lot of women I know put on a show of soft and nurturing when there are people watching, because society has put this expectation on them. You must always put your children first, your husband first, and yourself last. You must nurture. And if you aren’t nurturing you are an unnatural, shrewish bitch of a harridan who fails at the “womanly arts”.
So all I can say in conclusion is – Fuck the pope
Silly habits, authority is for men!
Does he think Koreans speak chinese??