An incomplete path

On the problem of gender-based violence, there is a weakness in Christian thinking, argues Marta Rodriguez, who is the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Women and member of the steering committee of Women Church World. If we want to broaden our horizon and make a difference, moral condemnation is no longer sufficient; instead, it must be accompanied by equally incisive and systematic theological and pastoral reflection.

In the month in which the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women occurs, let us then investigate the reasons for this gap that must begin to be filled without delay. In fact, the critical aspects of contemporary culture on this issue cannot fail to prompt a more mature and conscious reflection on the relationship between men and women. In the Christian sphere too, from where we think a useful contribution can come to all, believers and non-believers alike. However, within the Church, this requires an overcoming of a certain resistance to openly address -not only from a theological but also from a social point of view-, the issue of gender relations and the consequences in terms of change that the Christian anthropological perspective strongly urges today. On the cover of the November edition, there is a photograph of Rebecca Cheptegei, the marathon runner, who was doused with petrol and set on fire by her partner on her way home from mass. She died just a few days after her return to Kenya from the Paris Olympics.

Pope Francis has stated that the scourge of violence against women has “deep roots that are also cultural and mental and that grow in the soil of prejudice, possession and injustice”. As an institution, the Church is certainly in the front line in offering concrete help to victims, through her charitable work, the welcoming offered and listening to those affected. However, the Church’s awareness, notes Lucia Vantini, president of the Coordination of Italian Women Theologians, is still weak and in any case, “We cannot think of healing violence against women without touching the question of power within the Church, its narrative form and its practical exercise”.

There is still a long way to go, in the Church as in society.

In this context, we have published a monologue by the writer Rosella Postorino who gave voice in the theatre to four biblical women who were victims of male violence. In addition, this issue contains a reflection by Maria Grazia Calandrone. Here, the poet and playwright has reworked into a novel a criminal case that concluded with a revolutionary sentence involving a woman who killed her husband, and then was acquitted, because the judges considered both the murder and the 20 years of abuse that had preceded it.