Apologia roli kobiety w Kościele w świetle wybranych wypowiedzi Prymasa Tysiąclecia

Abstract

Today it is a quite often held view that the Roman Catholic Church depreciates a woman’s worth by impeding her way to numerous domains of contemporary life and religious life in particular. The most common reproach is saying that the Catholic Church has created a privileged place in its hierarchy for men, while women are marginalized. Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland, contended against those erroneous opinions. In his addresses he often related to The Book of Genesis, the ultimate source for Christian study of human dignity. In the Primate’s conviction it is a grand charter of social equality. The two stories of Creation show that a man as well as a woman are made in the image and likeness of God. It gives an incontestable evidence of the dignity of both of them. Both man and woman are equal in their nature and in the tasks they were given but are different in the matter of their predispositions to those tasks and the ways in which they execute them. This is why Christ had to come to the world and rehabilitate woman. A woman became mother of God – such a great elevation often forgotten. What is more, it is a woman first who encountered the Resurrected Christ. It was a reward for steadfast faith of Gospel women. Faith that led them beneath the cross and even farther. A woman was present in many sensitive situations the Church had to deal with, to exemplify: Saint Catherine of Siena made the papacy returned from Avignon to Rome or Dubrawka. Therefore, we can now say that the Christ, and following him the whole Church, contributed to the social advancement of woman. And if there happens to come forth a say as if a woman were discriminated in the Church, it usually concerns the exclusion of women from the priesthood. However, let us ask a question: is it really a discrimination or just the execution of the will of the Christ, who took into consideration predispositions of men and women to perform particular ministries in the Church. Women can not be priests by reason of other duties towards all baptized members of the Church. Since the Sixties we observe a revival of the question of woman’s role in the Church. Regulations change and woman’s dignity is frequently discussed.