Focus on her

Catholic Feminism, unlike its secular counterpart, seeks to focus on doing what is good and most empowering to the woman as a woman:

Now we hear very different voices in our daily practice. Young women –in the majority non-believers– are sad, even indignant, because they were never told that they could live without contraceptives.

Sometimes they have even had to go through an abortion, simply because they trusted blindly in those contraceptives. They often suffer from being in very precarious relationships. Once they have discovered the NM, they feel well again as women, they feel truly emancipated for the first time, owners of their body and their sexuality. Moreover, now they want to be something more than a sexual couple; they want to be wives that love and are loved, and also live maternity fully.  These young women feel themselves victims. They no longer want a Pastor that assumes that the “ideal” isn’t for them, who approves contraception, minimizes abortion and regards divorce as inevitable. Pastoral approaches used in many places during these years no longer make any sense, because women have endured their physical and psychological consequences. They want to fulfil the dream the Church has had for centuries. Perhaps some don’t know this good news, because they didn’t get a Christian education, but boys and girls are attracted by this proposal  when it’s explained to them. Instead of continuing to live the mirage of false hopes of the ‘60s, which are old and have failed, the Church can embrace more forcefully the whole experience and progress achieved for those of us who work in this field to have a renewed pastoral role  and be a hopeful sign for a youth hungry for the Truth and that wants to live to the maximum their plans as a couple. 

... To discourage this work of accompaniment can deprive many spouses from reaching fulness in their marriages and can lead them to a worsening of their mental, physical and sexual health, for trusting in chemical alternatives, such as the contraceptive pill, or even those that are less effective, such as condoms. What certainly is more necessary is a greater effort, if possible, in which we, the laity, health professionals and Universities of Christian inspiration do more, much more to facilitate and improve attention to these  marriages. It’s time to abandon the failed paradigms of the sexual revolution (15). It’s time that the Church develop a real and renewed pastoral care, which is sustainable, following an integral ecology, centered on free and responsible men and women. At the service of marriages that acknowledge their fertility, manage it autonomously and protect it, and live an equal commitment to their children. The teaching of the Church is healthy and promoter of public health. The NM foster dialogue in marriage and respect for the other, in addition to strengthening the bonds and ends of the couple. When they proceed from love, they increase true love; when they proceed form freedom, they increase freedom.

The PAL should be listening to these men and women of genius, medical professionals, who have integrated their faith into their careers in science.