Mulieris Dignitatem twenty years later: an overview of the document and challenges.

• Author: Allen, Prudence

INTRODUCTION

August 15, 2008, marked the twentieth anniversary of the promulgation of the apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem. (1) This Article provides an overview of Mulieris Dignitatem, looking at some of the key principles Pope John Paul II articulates. This Article describes how the principles were innovative with respect to previous teaching about women, evaluates the principles in light of present developments in our American culture, and suggests some possible ways we might consider acting on these principles for a new evangelization. Reflections proceed chronologically and thematically through Mulieris Dignitatem.

This Article discusses the following themes: Part I, the truth about the human being; Part II, Mary, the Mother of God, as our pilgrim guide; Part III, communio in the Holy Trinity as analogous for communio of women and men; Part IV, the rupture within a person and among persons through sin; Part V, encountering Jesus Christ as enabling this rupture to be overcome; Part VI, the mandate to release each woman's genius in the face of evil for the good of all; Part VII, paradigm dimensions of women's vocations in the Church; Part VIII, complementarity through spousal bonds; and Part IX, plans of action through educating on the nature and dignity of women and through ransoming language.

I. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HUMAN BEING

In this meditation on the dignity and vocation of women, John Paul II returns to the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), promulgated in 1965. (2) An integral part of Mulieris Dignitatem comes from a famous passage in Gaudium et Spes. (3) The passage states, "Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear." (4) How does Jesus do this? How does Jesus Christ reveal one to oneself, as this particular woman or man, at this particular time and place in his or her life? Mulieris Dignitatem helps answer this question.

This call to discover the greatness of the human being is in both Gaudium et Spes and Mulieris Dignitatem. (5) Compare those texts with the following observation from Cardinal Ratzinger:

Today there is a remarkable hatred among people for their own real greatness. Man sees himself as the enemy of life, of the balance of creation, as the great disturber of the peace of nature (which would be better off if he did not exist), as the creature that went wrong. His salvation and the salvation of the world would on this view consist of his disappearing, of his life and soul being taken back from him, of what is specifically human vanishing so that nature could return to its unconscious perfection in its own rhythm and with its own wisdom of dying and coming into being. (6) The call to overcome this "remarkable hatred among people for their own greatness" brings a kind of new urgency to our reflections during this year, the twentieth anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem. Reflecting on this call is not simply an intellectual exercise; it is also a way of participating in the new evangelization of the Church and the world. This call to overcome self-hatred begins with the truth about the human being, about woman and about man. Each of us has been created with the possibility of eternal life in communion with God and the saints. (7) This is the true greatness of our unique personal being.

Pope John Paul II explores this truth at the beginning of Mulieris Dignitatem, and he shows how it relates particularly to the dignity of women. John Paul II says that understanding woman's dignity and vocation requires us to

understand[] the reason for and the consequences of the Creator's decision that the human being should always and only exist as a woman or a man. It is only by beginning from these bases, which make it possible to understand the greatness of the dignity and vocation of women, that one is able to speak of their active presence in the Church and in society. (8) This is an issue the Pope addresses throughout the letter, especially in chapter three concerning communio between a man and a woman as analogous to the Trinity. (9) The Pope then identifies the two theological roots of the great dignity of a woman and a man. First, "every man and woman ... [has] a fundamental inheritance," namely, being created "in the image of God ...; male and female he created them." (10) Second, Jesus Christ came to earth and assumed our human nature, and in our Baptism he adopted us into his relation with the Father, sharing his inheritance of eternal life with the Divine Communion of Persons. (11) Our great dignity is thus rooted theologically in our creation in the image and likeness of God and our Redemption through the Son, the Eternal Word made flesh.

In Fides et Ratio, the 1998 encyclical letter On The Relationship Between Faith and Reason, Pope John Paul II says, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth...." (12) This leads us to consider how our great dignity as human beings can be defended by reason, as well as by faith. In an earlier essay, Karol Wojtyla offers evidence for the dignity of the human person based on observation and human reason:

The human being holds a position superior to the whole of nature and stands above everything else in the visible world. This conviction is rooted in experience .... Our distinctiveness and superiority as human beings in relation to other creatures is constantly verified by each one of us, regardless of how inferior we might feel because of our physical or spiritual deficiencies. In the latter case, the superiority and natural dignity of the person is confirmed as though by contrast. It is also verified by the whole of humanity in its ongoing experience: in the experience of history, culture, technology, creativity, and production. The effects of human activity in various communities testify to this dignity. (13) Karol Wojtyla understood this philosophical source of human dignity as intimately connected to the truth about the human person. In his own words:

Human beings do not live for the sake of technology, civilization, or even culture; they live by means of these things, always preserving their own purpose. This purpose is intimately connected with truth, because the human being is a rational being, and also with the good, because the good is the proper object of free will. (14) John Paul II's approach to the nature and dignity of woman is summarized in the following way. First, our nature is a human nature, as evidenced by faith in Revelation and by reason. Second, dignity flows from its supernatural origins, each one of us being created unique in the image and likeness of God, with the spiritual faculties of an intellect capable of knowing the truth and a will capable of freely choosing to act on the basis of this truth. Third, dignity is further elevated by the fact that Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, assumed our human nature--not an angelic nature and not some other kind of nature, but our specific human nature. Finally, we observe the difference between our human nature and the nature of other living things by looking around and seeing that we are the only kind of living thing that keeps its own written history, creatively uses advanced technology for its own purposes, and develops its own culture collectively and individually to the highest degree. (15) This is true of human beings in general. Now we will return to our study of Mulieris Dignitatem and ask how these characteristics of the dignity of the human person particularly relate to woman's identity.

II. MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD, OUR PILGRIM GUIDE FOR DIALOGUE

In chapter two of Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope John Paul II unfolds a new depth of understanding of Mary's place in the Church and world, definitively revealed through what he calls "[t]he whole Annunciation dialogue." (16) In his words, "This event is clearly interpersonal in character: it is a dialogue." (17) Mary engaged her intellect first in the dialogue when she asked the angel Gabriel, "How can this be ...?" (18) Then, after hearing the angel's response that she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she freely chose with her will to accept this invitation for her sublime vocation. (19) John Paul II elaborates that "through her response of faith Mary exercises her free will and thus fully shares with her personal and feminine T in the event of the Incarnation .... All of God's action in human history at all times respects the free will of the human 'I." (20) Mary's intellect and will are those very gifts she inherited by being created in the image of God.

John Paul II describes the personal dimension of the Annunciation event this way:

At the moment of the Annunciation, by responding with her "fiat," Mary conceived a man who was the Son of God, of one substance with the Father. Therefore she is truly the Mother of God, because motherhood concerns the whole person, not just the body, nor even just human "nature." (21) From the perspective of the nature and dignity of woman, he states that the model of Mary at the Annunciation "also signifies the fullness of the perfection of 'what is characteristic of woman,' of 'what is feminine.' Here we find ourselves, in a sense, at the culminating point, the archetype, of the personal dignity of women." (22)

Pope John Paul II discusses the significance of dialogue further in two documents, Ut Unum Hint and Vita Consecrata. (23) In Ut Unum Sint, he writes:

The capacity for "dialogue" is rooted in the nature of the person and his dignity .... Dialogue is an indispensable step along the path toward human self-realization, the self-realization both of each individual and of every human community. Although the concept of "dialogue" might appear to give priority to the cognitive dimension (dia-logos), all dialogue implies a global, existential dimension. It...