Pope Francis has been slammed over his stance on womens role in society, after he claimed it is bad when the woman wants to be the man.
Students at a Belgium catholic university, where the 87-year-old made a speech yesterday afternoon, distributed a statement afterwards in which they expressed their incomprehension and disapproval at his views.
UCLouvain … deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society, said the statement.
He had been at the educational institute, which has around 38,000 students studying across 20 faculties, to celebrate its upcoming 600th anniversary.
His speech largely called for global action on climate change, but he also responded to a letter to him from students and professors that had asked about the Catholic Churchs teaching on women.
Pope Francis has been slammed over his stance on womens role in society, after he claimed it is bad when the woman wants to be the man
Students at a Belgium catholic university, where the 87-year-old made a speech yesterday afternoon, distributed a statement afterwards in which they expressed their incomprehension and disapproval at his views
He had been at the educational institute, which has around 38,000 students studying across 20 faculties, to celebrate its upcoming 600th anniversary
UCLouvain … deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society, said the statement
The Pope said: We must remember that women are at the very heart of salvation history. It is thanks to the yes of Mary that God himself came into the world.
The woman is a fertile welcome, care, vital dedication. That is why the woman is more important than the man. But it is bad when the woman wants to be the man.
No, it is the woman. And this is heavy, it is important. Let us open our eyes to the many daily examples of love, friendship, work, study, social and ecclesial responsibility, from marriage to motherhood, to virginity for the Kingdom of God and for service.
In response the catholic university of Louvain rector said: We cannot agree on this position for sure. We are fighting against discrimination for women, and we would like women to have another role in the society and in the church also.
We are happy that he agrees on other points of our brief, but, regarding the place of the woman in the society, we cannot agree with his position.
Its very conservative, and its not the way we want to do in Louvain. We want to be open that everybody can develop in our university; women, men, whatever their sexuality or their sexual orientation.
Its really not our position. So we we are we are not agreeing with him on this point.
Pope Francis greets the public as he meets with students and members of the Catholic University of Louvain within the his 3-day visit in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Pope Francis attends a private meeting with Jesuit brothers during a visit at the Collage Saint-Michel, a Jesuit school on September 28, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium
In response the catholic university of Louvains rector said: We cannot agree on this position for sure. We are fighting against discrimination for women, and we would like women to have another role in the society and in the church also
Pope Francis kisses a child during the Hope Happening youth festival at the Brussels Expo, Belgium yesterday
The Catholic Church has an all-male clergy and although Pope Francis created two commissions to consider whether women could serve as deacons, but this issue has still not yet moved forward.
However, during his 11 years as pontiff, Francis has also changed the Vaticans primary governing document to allow women to lead departments, and has also allowed women to vote at major global meetings of bishops, known as synods, for the first time.
Victoria Coppin, a 21-year-old civil engineering student said: I am quite disappointed and deeply shocked by the statements of the Pope on the place of women.
We can see that he is separating the roles of women and men in society by reducing women to their roles of motherhood, being wives and fertile welcome.
For me, thats extremely problematic right now, especially when we here that just a couple of hours ago, he deemed the position on abortions as a deadly position.
When we hear him talk about dignity, the dignity that is in the flesh, in his speech, for me, this (comments on women) is a direct attack on the dignity of women to have this discourse on abortions because their bodies are directly being seen as instruments, and thats quite shocking to me.