Critical Analysis Essay

            In her article “Women, Reproductive Rights and the Catholic Church,” Rosemary Radford Ruether discusses the history of the Catholic Church’s opposition towards women’s rights dating back from the time of St. Augustine to modern day. Ruether begins her article simply with her thesis, which is that the “Roman Catholic Christianity has a problem with women” and that this problem is “deeply rooted in history” (Ruether 184). She immediately begins describing the history of this problem, starting with St. Augustine in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. The article’s thesis is stated very clearly, and is backed up well with examples of actual events in which the Catholic Church has fought to keep women’s rights to a minimum.

            Ruether’s first point is that the Catholic Church’s view of women and sexuality dates back to the writings of St. Augustine. According to St. Augustine, women were created by God to serve men. Ruether also points out that “Augustine’s view of woman was complicated by his view on sex and reproduction” (Ruether 185). According to Augustine, before the fall of mankind into sin, sex was only for procreation and there was no such thing as sexual pleasure. However, after the fall into sin, human sexuality became “distorted,” causing every sexual act to be “concupiscent” and sinful (Ruether 185). Ruether’s next point is about how the church’s view on women and sexuality has been challenged by the feminist movement and how the Catholic Church fought against the movement, including women’s suffrage and reproductive rights. She makes her next point by mentioning John XXIII, who was somewhat liberal compared to his predecessors. John XXIII said that “women have the right to equal inclusion in all the rights of the human person in society, […] public life, work, and politics” (Ruether 185). This pope wrote that “women are gaining an increasing awareness of their natural dignity” and deserved the rights they were now demanding (Ruether 186). Ruether’s next point is the Catholic Church’s reaction to the feminist movement of the 1960s. Pope Paul VI takes a step backwards from John XXIII’s liberalism by combating the feminist movement with the creation of the Birth Control Commission. When the Catholic Church realized that the battle against birth control was a lost cause, it began focusing its attention on the prohibition of abortion. Under John Paul II, the church “launched a global crusade against abortion, birth control, and redefinitions of the family” that included homosexual couples (Ruether 188). Ruether makes this point by providing various examples of how the Catholic Church has fought against women’s rights in many parts of the world.

            Ruether uses evidence dating back from the Middle Ages to events that have occurred in the 1990’s. The first piece of evidence Ruether provides to support her argument is St. Augustine’s teaching on women. Ruether states that St. Augustine believed and taught that women were created by God “to be under male subjugation” because women were guilty for the fall of humanity into sin and that women can only be “redeemed” by obeying men (Ruether 184). Ruether also states that women have been left out of leadership roles in the Catholic Church because they have been seen as inferior to men. According to the teachings of the Catholic Church, the women’s place is not only to serve men, but also to produce children. This makes the church’s view on sex as something that should strictly be done for procreating and that any use of birth control hinders this, thus making it wrong and immoral. A modern example of the Catholic Church’s battle against women and women’s reproductive rights occurred in the 1990s in El Salvador. El Salvador’s laws restricted abortion only to cases of rape, fetal malformation, and circumstances in which the mother’s life was in danger. Pope John Paul II appointed the bishop of San Salvador to ban abortion in El Salvador in all circumstances, and a bill was passed that defines abortion as murder. The abortion provider could face a prison term of six to twelve years, and anyone who assists in the abortion could face two to five years. The mother of the child could face two to eight years in prison if the fetus is in the first trimester and thirty to fifty years if the abortion occurs after the first trimester. This example supports Ruether’s argument that the Catholic Church has a problem with women because it demonstrates how the church will stop at nothing to prevent abortion, even if it causes the woman and anyone who helps her to suffer in prison.

            The author, Rosemary Radford Ruether, is a professor of feminist theology at the Pacific School of Religion and a professor of applied theology at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. She is a scholar, teacher, and activist in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as “groundbreaking figure” in Catholic theology (“Rosemary”). She has published many books including Sexism and God-Talk and In Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of American Women’s Religious Writing.  She is currently collaborating on a multi-volume Encyclopedia of Women in American Religion with Rosemary Skinner Keller. Ruether’s background influences this article because she has clearly done a lot of studying and writing on feminism in religion, particularly in the Catholic Church. She is also an authoritative figure on this topic. This article was written in 2008, which means the article relates to the issues of women’s reproductive rights in today’s society. It was published in Feminist Theology: The Journal of The Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology. This suggests that the article was written mainly for an academic audience.

            The writer’s tone in this article is pretty objective, although it is clear that she does not agree with the church’s stance on women’s rights and reproductive rights. The parts of the essay relate to each other because they are all examples of the teachings and actions of the Catholic Church that have been directed against women and, in modern times, their reproductive rights.  The arrangement of ideas in this essay is chronological. Her first point dates back to medieval times, and she continues her arguments by relating the church’s stance on women’s issues to the each time period and events that relate to women’s rights at the time, for example, the feminist movement. Although this essay talks about the problems the Catholic Church has against women, it also discusses how there are some groups standing up for women’s rights. For example, she discusses Catholics for a Free Choice, which is a Catholic group that fights for women’s rights and their right to choose what they want to do with their own bodies.

            In her conclusion, Ruether discusses the SeeChange Campaign, which is run by the organization Catholics for a Free Choice. This campaign is working to change the Catholic Church’s status in the United Nations so that the Church participates “in world politics as a religion and not as a quasi-state,” which would prevent the Church from having a strong influence in laws outside of the church (Ruether  193).

            This article is important because it brings awareness to the issue of women’s rights in modern time. Many people assume that women have gotten equal rights and so there is no need for women’s rights activists. However, this is not the case at all. The Catholic Church is very powerful, and since it does not allow many rights for women, women are still oppressed in many ways because of the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Works Cited

"Rosemary Radford Ruether: Women's Studies in Religion." Rosemary Radford Ruether. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cgu.edu/pages/3563.asp>.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. "Women, Reproductive Rights And The Catholic Church." Feminist Theology: The Journal Of The Britain & Ireland School Of Feminist Theology 16.2 (2008): 184-193. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.