The head of the Catholic Bibelwerk organisation in Germany, theologian Katrin Brockmoeller, has criticised some recent remarks made by Pope Francis as misogynistic.
Francis had recently called on people not to be misled by populist statements and urged people not to be “enchanted by the sirens of populism”. On the website of Bibelwerk, Brockmoeller asked why the pope was needlessly employing a metaphor that “automatically resonates a negative association with regard to women”.
Furthermore, Francis, warning against gossiping in the Church, had told the directors of priests’ seminaries: “You are men, act like men, not like old maids”. This too was “language that is contemptuous of women”, Brockmoeller said. Gossip was not a gender-specific characteristic, but had to do with personal character, she said. If it was meant to be funny, the joke worked through devaluation and discrimination and was therefore not funny. “This comparison is patriarchal and unworthy of the Pope’s role,” said Brockmoeller.
Initially reported by KNA Stuttgart.
