Buenos Aires Herald
Bergoglio expected to tackle negative attitude to sexuality, women
by Mario Osava
IPS
RIO DE JANEIRO — Jorge Mario Bergoglio begins his papacy as Francis facing the challenge of a Catholic Church caught up in a burdensome contradiction with modern society, because of its negative attitude to sexuality and women.
“There would be much more common sense, efficiency and tenderness in the Church, rather than that immense wave of paedophilia and paederasty in the hierarchy and the Catholic schools” if the Catholic Church had incorporated women into the priesthood and the different leadership roles in the institution, said João Tavares, a married former priest living in São Luis, in northeastern Brazil.
Women, who are “the real pillar of Christian communities,” can no longer remain without equal rights within the Church, “as if they were second-class human beings,” he said.
As well as being excluded from the hierarchy, a woman cannot even become the partner of a priest without invalidating his ministry, unless they both live a secret, hypocritical life. In practice, women are depicted by the Church as a contagious source of sin.
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