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Vatican to UN: to truly empower women, honor motherhood

Honoring motherhood as women's unique service to others in the heart of the home is essential to the true empowerment of women, Archbishop Celestino Migliore told a United Nations meeting on gender equality and women’s empowerment this week, reports Kathleen Gilbert, LifeSiteNews.com.

Representing the Holy See, Migliore said that the Vatican "notes with concern that ... various forms of discrimination, exploitation and oppression of women and girls persist."

He said that "the empowerment of women presupposes universal human dignity and, thus, the dignity of each and every individual." The archbishop pointed out that recognizing the natural complementarity of men and women in society, where “equality is not sameness, and difference is not inequality," is necessary to safeguard women’s unique dignity.

"Empowering women and respecting their dignity mean also honoring their capacity to serve and devote themselves to society and to the family through motherhood which entails a self-giving love and care-giving," he continued. "Altruism, dedication and service to others are healthy and contribute to personal dignity.

"If domesticity can be considered a particular gift of mothers in cultivating a genuine intrapersonal relationship in the family and society, then family-friendly working arrangements, shared family-care leave and redistribution of the burden of unpaid work will be given the attention they rightly deserve."

Migliore also emphasized the legitimate need to provide women with adequate health care to reduce maternal mortality – a goal that is often hijacked by activists to promote contraception and abortion.

"Scientific studies have shown remarkable improvement in the reduction of maternal and infant mortality, revealing the importance of complementary investing in other areas relevant to women and girls including nutrition, general health and education," said Migliore. "The real advancement of women is not achieved by concentrating on a particular health issue to the neglect of others but by promoting their overall health which necessarily includes giving more attention to addressing women-specific diseases."

The massive Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C. last month, heavily funded by the UN, used the goal of improving maternal health to repeatedly push for "safe, legal abortion" worldwide. The fact that third-world countries with less restrictive abortion laws, such as India, generally suffer higher maternal mortality rates, whereas the opposite is true for pro-life countries, such as Chile, was not mentioned.

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TAGS: Vatican UN empower women motherhood abortion maternal mortality maternal health

[07/11/2010]

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