“Default Man” Standards
Christopher White reports in the Brooklyn Tablet of March 11, 2020 that “United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will receive the annual top prize from the Path to Peace Foundation – the major charitable organization established to support the work of the Holy See Mission to the U.N.”
This article briefly describes the qualifications of Guterres and how he and Pope Francis gave a joint presentation to the General Assembly last December. But the idea of the Holy See giving Guterres an award took me by surprise because I had just read the speech that Guterres gave recently at the New School in New York. This talk, entitled “Women and Power,” was a stirring call for gender equality: “Today, as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I see one overwhelming injustice across the globe; an abuse that is crying out for attention. That is gender inequality and discrimination against women and girls.”
Guterres goes on to detail many examples of inequality and its deleterious effects on the world in various ways. “A hidden layer of inequality is built into the institutions and structures that govern all our lives – but are based on the needs of just half the population. The writer Caroline Criado Perez calls this “default man” thinking: the unquestioned assumption that men are standard, and women the exception.” The Roman Catholic Church must be the largest, most entrenched “default man” institution in the world – where, literally, everything is designed for, decided by and measured by men. Were the Apostolic Nuncio and the Path to Peace Foundation aware of this irony when they chose Guterres for this award?
“We cannot and we must not look the other way in the face of injustice, inequality, the scandal of hunger in the world, of poverty, of children who die because they lack water, food and necessary healthcare,” Pope Francis said in his joint video message with the Secretary General last December. Yet, the injustice and inequality that exists within the Church – which has enormous influence outside the Church – is being ignored. Addressing hunger, poverty, and lack of healthcare are important issues that will take the collaboration of many forces in society to fix. But the Pope could address the “injustice, inequality” within the Church if he so chose, if only he would not look the other way.
The award is being presented to Guterres in May. What will he say in his acceptance speech?
2 Responses
A Biblical kind of plague allowed into our world because of hardness of hearts, from beliefs of inequality.
A God of All could be neither just a male or just female. We need to end our now wide spread inequality of false male/only images of God, perpetuated by use of patriarchal languages, with only male nouns and pronouns for God.
The Word Jesus used “ABBA” meant “Heavenly Parent” in the Aramaic language of people in Biblical times, and ancient Hebrew symbol ( ‘l ). What is the meaning of “Father” without a Mother! Genesis1:27; 5:1, tells us both male and female created in The Image of God.
To live together in Peace and Equal Respect, we need to forgive ourselves and others by leaving judgement to God by living the example of the universal found Golden Rule of Equal Concern, even for our enemies, as the best way to make friends instead! * John 3:3-7 for Spiritual Rebirth.
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The sociological arguments will continue to be rationalized away as irrelevant for the sacramental economy. It must be established, theologically, that man and woman are consubstantial in the same human nature that God assumed at the incarnation. The Theology of the Body encapsulates this truth via exegesis of Genesis 1 and 2. It also shows that the nuptial analogy of the Christ-Church mystery is culturally conditioned.