Reginae Eclessiae

Jesu et Maria sit nobis in via!

In her April 11th op-ed column, Maureen Dowd compared her position in the Roman Catholic Church to the position of Saudi Arabian women, saying, “I, too, belonged to an inbred and wealthy men’s club cloistered behind walls and disdaining modernity. I, too, remained part of an autocratic society that repressed women and ignored their progress in the secular world. I, too, rationalized as men in dresses allowed our religious kingdom to decay and to cling to outdated misogynistic rituals, blind to the benefits of welcoming women’s brains, talents and hearts into their ancient fraternity.” What lamentable error! The Catholic Church has an exalted view of women, stemming directly from their understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In a belief which was first documented in the 4th century, the Roman Catholic Church has taught that God so loved His mother, that He made her the pinnacle of His creation. She was conceived entirely free from original sin, that she might remain the Mother of Divine Grace, Mother most Pure and most Chaste, and the Mother Inviolate and Undefiled, as she is described in the Litany of Loretto. Throughout the course of her life she remained in the same purity, being given the entirety of motherhood and virginity. And at her death, God, not content to see the mother of His Son turn to dust as we will, effected the bodily assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven. And as the Magnificat tells us, all this was given to Mary, the simplest of women, God’s lowly handmaiden! The Church has certainly not repressed this woman, but has revered her to such an extent that many confuse it with worship.

Mary is the ideal of womanhood. While no other woman will be given the gift of virgin motherhood, the purity of the Blessed Virgin is the object of every mother. Abortion, contraception, and other corruptions of pure motherhood are condemned for this very reason. In their place, the Catholic woman is given every guidance to lead her to the fullness of herself. The Mother of God cooked, cleaned and did the so-called menial house chores! The housewife has been made the ideal vocation. Men ought to feel slighted because women, and not men, imitate the very Mother of God.

For those women whom are not called to motherhood, they become the spiritual mothers of the world while remaining virgins. Far from just locking themselves behind the grille, the Roman Catholic nun embraces the entirety of mankind, praying and sacrificing the joys that other women enjoy for humanity’s sake. They go so far as to deny themselves sleep! These women no more throw away their motherhood than they throw away their femininity, even in its most obnoxious forms. The nun is even spiritually married to her Divine Spouse, Jesus Christ. At her investiture, where her hair is cropped and she receives the habit, a nun is adorned with the most decadent wedding dress, jewelry and makeup available, in full recognition of this spiritual marriage. In taking the habit, these nuns vow to remain virgins, in direct imitation of the Perpetual Virgin.

The Church has praised women throughout the centuries. At the very height of the Mass when the Eucharistic species become the very Body and Blood of Jesus, the names of Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, and Anastasia ring out in the loudest public declaration of the Church’s love for the great women saints or the past. St. Monica, the mother of the famed St. Augustine is remembered by faithful Catholics in equal esteem as her son. We know about her through a few lines in a work of her son, and yet she is celebrated as one of the holiest of women. Lest it be thought that the Church expects women to “keep their place”, three women, Sts. Catherine of Sienna, Theresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux are proclaimed Doctors of the Church, a saints highest title. The Church does not oppress women, is not blind to them, and in no way disdains them. Rather, with the Queen of Heaven as guide, the Church, who herself is feminine, makes all her women queens.

Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!