Tuesday, 10/30/12
Paul tells us that wives should be subject to their
husbands, but he also told us that a woman brings shame on herself by praying
with her head uncovered (1Cor. 11/5). At times Paul and Moses simply repeated
the rules that were in effect in their days. With Moses we see this in Exodus
21. That chapter says that a Hebrew slave must be released after six years of
servitude, however in verse 4 we read, “If a master gives a slave a wife and
she bears him sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall remain the
master’s property.” That was Egypt’s regulation not God’s.
We are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the opening
of the Second Vatican Council. With twenty-five hundred bishops coming together
for three-month-long sessions four years in a row, and with their prayerfully
debating every aspect of Catholic practices and beliefs, there is little on
which we should fault them or their decisions.
However, many who were raised on
the stricter principles of the Council of Trent choose to sing, “Give me that
old time religion. It’s good enough for me.”
Returning to the questions as to whether or not women must
be subject to their husbands and wear hats when they pray, one dominant
teaching of Vatican II frees them in both cases. That is Vatican II’s emphasis
on the dignity of persons as persons.
There was no individual document that drew attention to the
dignity of each person created in God’s image. No, all 16 documents taken
together are an Emancipation Declaration from the feudal attitudes that classed
humans as royalty or serfs, as shepherds or sheep. One sentence that repeats
Vatican II’s greatest theme is in the Declaration on Christian Education that
states, “All men (humans) of whatever race, condition or age, in virtue of
their dignity as human persons,
have an inalienable right to education.”
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