ON WOMEN IN THE FAMILY
AMBIGUITIES OF CONCILIAR AND POSTCONCILIAR MAGISTERIAL TEACHING
Keywords:
Africa, Family, Magisterium, Marriage, Women/Wife, Women’s RoleAbstract
The present essay centres around magisterial teaching on women’s role in marriage and in the family. The author surveys the conciliar pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, the apostolic exhortations on the family, Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia, documents from the two African synods of 1994 and 2009, as well as a local African book on marriage preparation. What appears is an ambiguous discourse, which on the one hand proclaims the equal rights of women, the legitimacy of their social aspirations, and the rejection of discrimination and inhuman treatment against women; and on the other hand, seems to equate women’s role and personality to domestic duties. One can also discern the association of women’s place in the family with women’s condition in the social realm. In the conclusion, the author argues for a robust use of social analysis and social sciences that will correct some limits and will ground the teaching in the concrete experiences of people.
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