Pope Francis has been criticized for his stance on the role of women in society after claiming it is ‘bad for a woman to want to be a man’.
Students at a Catholic university in Belgium, where the 87-year-old gave a speech yesterday afternoon, distributed a statement afterwards expressing their ‘misunderstanding and disapproval’ of his views.
“UCLouvain…deplores Pope Francis’ conservative positions on the role of women in society,” the statement said.
He had been to the educational institute, where some 38,000 students study at twenty faculties, to celebrate its upcoming 600th anniversary.
His speech largely called for global action on climate change, but he also responded to a letter to him from students and professors who had raised questions about the Catholic Church’s teaching on women.
Pope Francis has been criticized for his stance on the role of women in society after claiming it is ‘bad for a woman to want to be a man’
Students at a Belgian Catholic university, where the 87-year-old gave a speech yesterday afternoon, distributed a statement afterwards expressing their ‘misunderstanding and disapproval’ of his views
He had been to the educational institute, where some 38,000 students study across twenty faculties, to celebrate its upcoming 600th anniversary
“UCLouvain…deplores Pope Francis’ conservative positions on the role of women in society,” the statement said
The Pope said: “We must not forget that women are at the heart of salvation history. It is thanks to Mary’s ‘yes’ that God himself came into the world.
‘The woman is a fruitful welcome, care, vital devotion. That is why the woman is more important than the man. But it is bad if the woman wants to be the man.
‘No, it’s the woman. And this is tough, it’s important. Let us open our eyes to the many daily examples of love, friendship, work, study, social and ecclesial responsibility, from marriage to motherhood, to virginity for the Kingdom of God and for service.’
In response, the rector of the Catholic University of Leuven said: ‘We cannot agree with certainty on this position. We fight against discrimination against women and we want women to have a different role in society and also in the church.
“We are pleased that he agrees with other points of our brief, but on the place of women in society we cannot agree with his position.”
‘It’s very conservative, and we don’t want to do it that way in Leuven. We want to be open to the fact that everyone can develop at our university; women, men, regardless of their sexuality or sexual orientation.
‘It’s really not our position. So we disagree with him on this point.”
Pope Francis greets the audience as he meets students and members of the Catholic University of Leuven during his three-day visit to Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Pope Francis attends a private meeting with Jesuit brothers during a visit to the Collage Saint-Michel, a Jesuit school on September 28, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium
In response, the rector of the Catholic University of Leuven said: ‘We cannot agree with certainty on this position. We fight against discrimination against women and we want women to have a different role in society and also in the church.’
Pope Francis kisses a child yesterday during the Hope Happening youth festival at Brussels Expo, Belgium
The Catholic Church has an all-male clergy, and although Pope Francis has created two commissions to consider whether women can serve as deacons, the issue has still not come to fruition.
However, during his 11 years as pope, Francis also changed the Vatican’s main governing document to allow women to head departments, and also allowed women to vote for the first time at major global bishops’ assemblies, known as synods.
Victoria Coppin, a 21-year-old civil engineering student, said: ‘I am quite disappointed and deeply shocked by the Pope’s statements about the place of women.
‘We can see that he separates the roles of women and men in society by reducing women to their roles of motherhood, wifehood and ‘fertile welcome’.
“To me, that is extremely problematic right now, especially when we heard here just a few hours ago that he considered the position on abortions to be a deadly position.
‘When we hear him talk about dignity, the dignity that is in the flesh, for me this (comments about women) in his speech is a direct attack on the dignity of women to have this discourse about abortions, because their bodies are seen directly become like instruments, and I find that quite shocking.’