HER STORY
OK, they’ve decided which bits they want to protect and uphold, which bits are ‘sacred’.  Everybody does it, as I have remarked zillions of times before, from the most pacifist and vegan lovers of everything that moves, even cormorants, to the most vicious and psychopathic haters of practically everything that moves  and not entirely surprisingly the most important bits are between their legs. Nobody believes his or her holy book literally, every word, because they can’t, because the books are full of internal contradictions, which come to think of it is probably the foremost reason no government should pay the faintest attention to anyone whining, but it’s my religion, but it’s in my holy book.  Ah-ah-buster, it’s the bit that turns you on in your holy book.

These are not complex ideas, more basic history.  Some Catholics vigorously supported Hitler.  Others, including many heroic priests, monks and nuns, hid Jews and helped them escape.  Some Christians upheld apartheid and the slave-trade.  Others worked to bring about their downfall.  Both sides would claim they were motivated by the same religion.
Sin entered the world through a woman.  Cunt-for-brains enough is indicated by the notion this has anything to do with any other woman, every other woman.  Stalin murdered millions of people.  He was a man, therefore all men bear the stain of those murders.  Precisely the same cunt-for-brains of course informed centuries of anti-semitism.  A group of members of the Jewish religious establishment didn’t like what Jesus thought, therefore all Jews were and are responsible for his fate.  What sort of monkey-shit is that?

No religious establishments like what Jesus thought, least of all Christian ones.
 
{FNORD!}  {FNORD!}  {FNORD!}
Oh, RTFM.

No, tards, not fjords, those are what Slartibartfast was so good at designing.  Just remember he was very proud of Norway.  You might learn something thereby if you were capable of learning, but of course you are not.

The word, says Wikipedia drily, lacks clear definition, but one such is that which shuts down rational processes, one such being undoubtedly the capacity to analyse new information.

A fnord is a propaganda word conditioned in the masses from a very young age to respond to, usually with fear, anxiety, or uneasiness, but unable to be seen by the general populace, says the Urban Dictionary.

However, I cannot discuss an invisible word, so let me stick with conditioned responses to particular words, or indeed explore the concept of fnord more closely  Perhaps a fnord is rather a word that makes invisible the real word for something.  Thus devout or doctor may replace the real word thug or psychopath.

Religion is a particularly good fnord shutting down rational processes.  It Is Religion.  No, this person is not a feral psycho animal.  He Is Religious.  Ah, then, says anyone sane, his religion demands he be a feral psycho animal.  Who gives a fuck about such a religion.
After all, ‘fnord’ is shorter than ‘whited sepulchre’.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Matthew 23:27

Left {fnord!} is an exquisite fnord. 
 
We are the Left.  We are by definition good.  That most of us currently conduct ourselves and think like mentally defective psychotic fascists cannot be bad because we are the Left and we are good and so any who oppose us must be the Right and bad.

Indeed fnords® abound: The Holy Bible; The Holy Qu’ran.  On no account analyse what is and what is not holy about either.

Oh, but it is the Word of God, so it must be holy.  You believe it is the Word of God.  That is not to say it is the Word of God.  In the first instance anyone who cannot differentiate between what he or she believes to be true and what is demonstrable has stewed ape-shit between the ears.

Why does that mean it must be holy?

Why should the God whose Word it is supposed to be not be a complete shit?  Oh, I see: holy means complete shit.

Dear me am I Fal and have I discovered a project.  McAleese quotes may be one!  A collection thereof.  Particularly good is tearing into the Synod asking what exactly do 300 elderly celibates know about the family, has any of them ever changed a nappy?

Furthermore, it is solidly established that the peak period of witch-hunts was the century 1550-1650, with a slow increase preceding it, from the 15th century onwards, as well a sharp drop postceding it, witch hunts having basically fizzled out by the first half of the 18th century.[63]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_burning
 
The bit below didn’t cut and paste well and is a bit deformatted, about which I can’t be bothered to do anything.  It is not coincidental the witch-trials ground to a halt and died with the Enlightenment and the rise of men who though by no means necessarily gung-ho for women were at least rational. 

I by no means claim to have read every single piece of misogynist shit from everywhere and everywhen, but I still suspect this bit stands out: . And it should be noted that there was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent rib, that is, a rib of the breast, which is bent as it were in a contrary direction to a man. And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always deceives
HERSTORY
Fromwww.womenpriests.org,The case for ordaining women in the Catholic Church, an organization that clearly  believes that only by squarely confronting the past can we move on into a better future.
The Hammer of Witches
Characteristic of the opinion of post-scholastic theologians is the socalled "Hammer of Witches", a handbook on how to discover and punish witches. H. KRAMER and J. SPRENGER.
The Malleus Maleficarum
(Lyons 1486), here Dover Publications, Reprint, New York 1971.A
The influence of the Hammer of Witches
First printed in 1486, the book saw innumerable reprints in German, French, Italian and English and was responsible for  bringing thousands of innocent women to the stake. It may be objected here that the "Hammer of Witches" was an exceptional book and that quoting from it may prejudice us unfairly against post-scholastic theologians. The truth is that, in spite of its monstrosities, the book was universally accepted as containing good theology and sound Catholic doctrine. One of its authors, Jakob Sprenger, O.P., was Dean of Cologne University. The other, Heinrich Kramer, O.P., was prior and spiritual director in many places. Both men were appointed inquisitors for Germany by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. Both wrote many theological treatises.We quote from the introduction:
"There can be no doubt that the Malleus Maleficarum had in its day and  for a full couple of centuries an enormous influence. There are few demonologists and writers upon witchcraft who did not refer to its pages as an ultimate authority. It was continually quoted and appealed to in the witch trials of Germany, France, Italy, and England; whilst the methods and examples of the two Inquisitors gained an even more extensive credit and sanction owing to their reproduction (sometimes without direct acknowledgement) in the works of Bodin, De Moura, Oberlal, Cicogna, Peperni, Martinus Aries, Anania, Binsfeld, Bernard, Basin, Menghi, Stampa. Clodius, Schslharmer, Wolf, Stegmann, Neissner, Voigt, Cattani, Richardus and a hundred more" 
(Ibid, pg. XXXiX).In a preface to the book written
on October the 7th 1946
(!!) Fr. Montague Summers has some amazing things to say.After asserting that the writings of the two authors, "are well approved by many learned men, Pontiffs, Saints, and Theologians alike’’, he praises the virtues of the "Hammer of Witches":
"One turns to it again and again with edification (!) and interest. From the point of view of psychology(!), from the point of view of jurisprudence, from the point of view of history, it is supreme. What is most  surprising is the modernity of the book. There is hardly a problem, a complex, a difficulty, which they have not foreseen, and discussed, and resolved...with the greatest clarity, with unflinching logic with scrupulous impartiality (!)Yet, this is the book which describes in the most lurid details imaginary sexual orgies between penis-toting devils and human witches (all proved from Scripture, of course). This is the book that sanctioned limitless torture to extract confessions from the accused. It is a book full of superstitious belief, sadistic cruelty, bigotry and hatred for women.
 It is sad to reflect that while so many harmless books were put on the "Index" of forbidden books, a book of thisnature was continuously reprinted with an approving Bull of Innocent VIII (1484 AD) to give it ecclesiastical authority.
(Ibid,1948 Preface, pg. ix-x).
typical excerpt 
from this book shows incredible prejudices against women! The prejudices led to thousands of innocent women being executed as witches.
 
Here is the typical excerpt:
The Hammer of Witches
Excerpt from the
 Malleus Malificarum
by H.Kramer and J.Sprenger (1486 AD), translated by MontagueSummers, London 1928; reprinted by Dover Publications, New York 1971, here pgs. 43-47.Unfortunately, the
 Malleus Malificarum
had an enormous influence on the Church 
for at oleast three centuries.
 
 
Part I. Question 6
Why is it that women are chiefly addicted to evil superstitions?
. . . Others again have propounded other reasons why there are more superstitious women found than men. And the firstis that they are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rathers attacks them.See
 Ecclesiasticus
xix: He that is quick to believe is light-minded, and shall be diminished.The second reason is, that women are naturally more impressionable, and more ready to receive the influence of adisembodied spirit; and that when they use this quality well they are very good, but when they use it ill they are veryevil.The third reason is that they have slippery tongues, and are unable to conceal from their fellow-women those thingswhich by evil arts they know; and, since they are weak, they find an easy and secret manner of vindicating themselves by witchcraft. See
 Ecclesiasticus
as quoted above: I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon than to keep house with awicked woman. All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman. And to this may be added that, as they arevery impressionable, they act accordingly.There are also others who bring forward yet other reasons, of which preachers should be very careful how they makeuse. For it is true that in the Old Testament the Scriptures have much that is evil to say about women, and this becauseof the first temptress, Eve, and her imitators; yet afterwards in the New Testament we find a change of name, as fromEva to Ave (as S.Jerome says), and the whole sin of Eve taken away by the benediction of MARY. Therefore preachersshould always say as much praise of them as possible.But because in these times this perfidy is more often found in women than in men, as we learn by actual experience, if anyone is curious as to the reason, we may add to what has already been said the following: that since they are feebler  both in mind and body, it is not surprising that they should come more under the spell of witchcraft.For as regards intellect, or the understanding of spiritual things, they seem to be of a different nature from men; a factwhich is vouched for by the logic of the authorities, backed by various examples from the Scriptures. Terence* says:Women are intellectually like children. And Lactantius
(Institutiones,
III): No woman understood Philosophy exceptTemeste.t And
 Proverbs xi,
as it were describing a woman, says: As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.But the natural reason is that she is more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many carnal abominations. And itshould be noted that there was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent rib, thatis, a rib of the breast, which is bent as it were in a contrary direction to a man. And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always deceives. For Cato says: When a woman weeps she weaves snares. And again: When awoman weeps, she labours to deceive a man. And this is shown by Samson’s wife, who coaxed him to tell her the riddlehe had propounded to the Philistines, and told them the answer, and so deceived him. And it is clear in the case of thefirst woman that she had little faith; for when the serpent asked why they did not eat of every tree in Paradise, sheanswered: Of every tree, etc. —lest perchance we die. Thereby she showed that she doubted, and had little faith in theword of God. And all this is indicated by the etymology of the word; for 
 Femina
comes from
 Fe
and
 Minus,
since she isever weaker to hold and preserve the faith. And this as regards faith is of her very nature; although both by grace andnature faith never failed in the Blessed Virgin, even at the time of Christ’s Passion, when it failed in all men.Therefore a wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith,which is the root of witchcraft.And as to her other mental quality, that is, her natural will; when she hates someone whom she formerly loved, then sheseethes with anger and impatience in her whole soul, just as the tides of the sea are always heaving and boiling. Manyauthorities allude to this cause.
 Ecclesiasticus xxv:
There is no wrath above the wrath of a woman. And Seneca (
Tragedies,
VIII): No might of the flames or of the swollen winds, no deadly weapon, is so much to be feared as the lustand hatred of a woman who has been divorced from the marriage bed.This is shown too in the woman who falsely accused Joseph, and caused him to be imprisoned because he would notconsent to the crime of adultery with her 
(Genesis xxx).
And truly the most powerful cause which contributes to theincrease of witches is the woeful rivalry between married folk and unmarried women and men. This is so even amongholy women, so what must it be among the others? For you see in
Genesis xxi.
how impatient and envious Sarah was of Hagar when she conceived: how jealous Rachel was of Leah because she had no children
(Genesis xxx):
and Hannah,who was barren, of the fruitful Peninnah (I. Kingsi): and how Miriam
(Numbers
xii) murmured and spoke ill of Moses,and was therefore stricken with leprosy: and how Martha was jealous of Mary Magdalen, because she was busy andMary was sitting down
(S. Luke x).
To this point is
 Ecclesiasticus
xxxvii: Neither consult with a woman touching her of whom she is jealous. Meaning that it is useless to consult with her, since there is always jealousy, that is, envy, in awicked woman. And if women behave thus to each other, how much more will they do so to men.Valerius Maximus tells how, when Phoroneus, the king of the Greeks, was dying, he said to his brother Leontius that
 
there would have been nothing lacking to him of complete happiness if a wife had always been lacking to him. Andwhen Leontius asked how a wife could stand in the way of happiness, he answered that all married men well knew. Andwhen the philosopher Socrates was asked if one should marry a wife, he answered: If you do not, you are lonely, your family dies out, and a stranger inherits; if you do, you suffer perpetual anxiety, querulous complaints, reproachesconcerning the marriage port~on, the heavy displeasure of your relations, the garrulousness of a mother-in-law,cuckoldom, and no certain arrival of an heir. This he said as one who knew. For S. Jerome in his
Contra Iovinianum
says: This Socrates had two wives, whom he endured with much patience, but could not be rid of their contumelies andclamorous vituperations. So one day when they were complaining against him, he went out of the house to escape their  plaguing, and sat down before the house; and the women then threw filthy water over him. But the philosopher was notdisturbed by this, saying, "I knew that the rain would come after the thunder."There is also a story of a man whose wife was drowned in a river, who, when he was searching for the body to take itout of the water, walked up the stream. And when he was asked why, since heavy bodies do not rise but fall, he wassearching against the current of the river, he answered: "When that woman was alive she always, both in word and deed,went contrary to my commands; therefore I am searching in the contrary direction in case even now she is dead she may preserve her contrary disposition."And indeed, just as through the first defect in their intelligence they are more prone to abjure the faith; so through their second defect of inordinate affections and passions they search for, brood over, and inflict various vengeances, either bywitchcraft, or by some other means. Wherefore it is no wonder that so great a number of witches exist in this sex.Women also have weak memories; and it is a natural vice in them not to be disciplined, but to follow their own impulseswithout any sense of what is due; this is her whole study, and al] that she keeps in her memory. So Theophrastus says: If you hand over the whole management of the house to her, but reserve some minute detail to your own judgement, shewill think that you are displaying a great want of faith in her, and will stir up strife; and unless you quickly take counsel,she will prepare poison for you, and consult seers and soothsayers; and will become a witch.But as to domination by women, hear what Cicero says in the
 Paradoxes.
Can he be called a free man whose wifegoverns him, imposes laws on him, orders him, and forbids him to do what he wishes, so that he cannot and dare notdeny her anything that she asks? I should call him not only a slave, but the vilest of slaves, even if he comes of thenoblest family. And Seneca, in the character of the raging Medea,* says: Why do you cease to follow your happyimpulse; how great is that part of vengeance in which you rejoice? Where he adduces many proofs that a woman willnot be governed, but will follow her own impulse even to her own destruction. In the same way we read of manywomen who have killed themselves either for love or sorrow because they were unable to work their vengeance.S. Jerome, writing of Daniel, tells a story of Laodice, wife of Antiochus king of Syria; how, being jealous lest he shouldlove his other wife, Berenice, more than her, she first caused Berenice and her daughter by Antiochus to be slain, andthen poisoned herself. And why? Because she would not be governed, but would follow her own impulse. Therefore S.John Chrysostom says not without reason: O evil worse than all evil, a wicked woman, whether she be poor or rich. For if she be the wife of a rich man, she does not cease night and day to excite her husband with hot words, to use evil blandishments and violent importunations. And if she have a poor husband she does not cease to stir him also to anger and strife. And if she be a widow, she takes it upon herself everywhere to look down on everybody, and is inflamed toall boldness by the spirit of pride.If we inquire, we find that nearly all the kingdoms of the world have been overthrown by women. Troy, which was a prosperous kingdom, was, for the rape of one woman, Helen, destroyed, and many thousands of Greeks slain. Thekingdom of theJews suffered much misfortune and destruction through the accursed Jezebel, and her daughter Athaliah,queen of Judah, who caused her son’s sons to be killed, that on their death she might reign herself; yet each of them wasslain. The kingdom of the Romans endured much evil through Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, that worst of women. And sowith others. Therefore it is no wonder if the world now suffers through the malice of women.And now let us examine the carnal desires of the body itself, whence has arisen unconscionable harm to human life.Justly may we say with Cato of Utica: If the world could be rid of women, we should not be without God in our intercourse. For truly, without the wickedness of women, to say nothing of witchcraft, the world would still remain proof against innumerable dangers. Hear what Valerius said to Rufinus: You do not know that woman is the Chimaera, but it is good that you should know it; for that monster was of three forms; its face was that of a radiant and noble lion,it had the filthy belly of a goat, and it was armed with the virulent tail of a viper. And he means that a woman is beautiful to look upon, contaminating to the touch, and deadly to keep.Let us consider another property of hers, the voice. For as she is a liar by nature, so in her speech she stings while shedelights us. Wherefore her voice is like the song of the Sirens, who with their sweet melody entice the passers-by andkill them. For they kill them by emptying their purses, consuming their strength, and causing them to forsake God.Again Valerius says to Rufinus: When she speaks it is a delight which flavours the sin; the flower of love is a rose, because under its blossom there are hidden many thorns. See
 Proverbs
v, 3-4: Her mouth is smoother than oil; that is,her speech is afterwards as bitter as absinthium. [Her throat is smoother than oil. But her end is as bitter as wormwood.]Let us consider also her gait, posture, and habit, in which is vanity of vanities. There is no man in the world who studies
 
so hard to please the good God as even an ordinary woman studies by her vanities to please men. An example of this isto be found in the life of Pelagia, a worldly woman who was wont to go about Antioch tired and adorned mostextravagantly. A holy father, named Nonnus, saw her and began to weep, saying to his companions, that never in all his1ife had he used such diligence to please God; and much more he added to this effect, which is preserved in hisorations.It is this which is lamented in
 Ecclesiastes vii,
and which the Church even now laments on account of the greatmultitude of witches. And I have found a woman more bitter than death, who is the hunter’s snare, and her heart is a net,and her hands are bands. He that pleaseth God shall escape from her; but he that is a sinner shall be caught by her. More bitter than death, that is, than the devil:
 Apocalypse vi,
8, His name was Death. For though the devil tempted Eve to sin,yet Eve seduced Adam. And as the sin of Eve would not have brought death to our soul and body unless the sin hadafterwards passed on to Adam, to which he was tempted by Eve, not by the devil, therefore she is more bitter thandeath.More bitter than death again, because that is natural and destroys only the body; but the sin which arose from womandestroys the soul by depriving it of grace, and delivers the body up to the punishment for sin.More bitter than death, again, because bodily death is an open and terrible enemy, but woman is a wheedling and secretenemy.And that she is more perilous than a snare does not speak of the snare of hunters, but of devils. For men are caught notonly through their carnal desires, when they see and hear women: for S. Bernard says: Their face is a burning wind, andtheir voice the hissing of serpents: but they also cast wicked spells on countless men and animals. And when it is saidthat her heart is a net, it speaks of the inscrutable malice which reigns in their hearts. And her hands are as bands for  binding; for when they place their hands on a creature to bewitch it, then with the help of the devil they perform their design.To conclude. All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable. See
 Proverbs xxx:
There are threethings that are never satisfied, yea, a fourth thing which says not, It is enough; that is, the mouth of the womb.Wherefore for the sake of fulfilling their lusts they consort even with devils.More such reasons could be brought forward, but to the understanding it is sufficiently clear that it is no matter for wonder that there are more women than men found infected with the heresy of witchcraft. And in consequence of this, itis better called the heresy of witches than of wizards, since the name is taken from the more powerful party. And blessed be the Highest Who has so far preserved the male sex from so great a crime: for since He was willing to be born and tosuffer for us, therefore He has granted to men this privilege.
 
From
Guide to Goddess Craft,
Diane Stein:An all-out war on the female, on Mary as goddess and the goddess herself, on women who were pagans and witches andwomen and men who weren't, the Inquisition spread a reign of death and terror over Europe from the fourteenth toseventeenth centuries. Woman's crime at this time in history was the fact and power of her existence, of the existence of goddess worship despite all repressions, and of the survival among women of ancient knowledge and healing skills thatwere state of the art science of the time.Witchcraft was a woman's sin. In Sprenger and Kramer's
 Hammer of Witches
, the Inquisition Bible, it is stated that thevery word for female, femina, was said to mean lack of faith, and that women were viewed as the source of world evil.There was the popular saying "one wizard to 10,000 witches" and the Inquisition meant a female genocide that virtuallydepopulated much of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Though there are errors in Stein's work, it serves as a useful antidote to the self-serving drool vomited up by theapologists for patriarchy, wherein women were and are perfectly happy in a condition of terrorized servitude. The malemonkey is bigger and stronger. Cross him and he'll kill you. Not for nothing is a pistol known as 'the old equalizer'. Number of executionsEstimates of the numbers of women, men and children executed for participating in witchcraft vary wildly dependingon the method used to generate the estimate. The total number of witch trials in Europe which are known for certain tohave ended in executions is around 12,000[citation needed].Brian Levack, author of The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, took the number of known European witch trials andmultiplied it by the average rate of conviction and execution. This provided him with a figure of around 60,000 deaths.Anne Lewellyn Barstow, author of Witchcraze, arrived at a number of approximately 100,000 deaths by attempting toadjust Levack's estimate to account for what she believed were unaccounted lost records, although historians have pointed out that Levack's estimate had already been adjusted for these.Ronald Hutton, author of Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles and Triumph of the Moon: A History of ModernPagan Witchcraft, in his unpublished essay "Counting the Witch Hunt", counted local estimates, and in areas where estimates were unavailable attempted to extrapolate from nearby regions with similar demographics and attitudestowards witch hunting. He reached an estimate of 40,000 total executions, which appears to be emerging as the mostwidely accepted figure among academics. Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, p. 253 denounces as "fantastic exaggerations"numbers of several hundred thousands.[11]Wikipedia: Witch-hunt
 
For 1700 years of so they had a clear run with their disease.
Book I Chapter I. Introduction. Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women, in Memory of the Introduction of Sin
into the World Through a Woman. Tertullian (ca. 155–220)
If there dwelt upon earth a faith as great as is the reward of faith which is expected in the heavens, no one of
you at all, best beloved sisters, from the time that she had first "known the Lord," [80] and learned (the truth)
concerning her own (that is, woman's) condition, would have desired too gladsome (not to say too
ostentatious) a style of dress; so as not rather to go about in humble garb, and rather to affect meanness of
appearance, walking about as Eve mourning and repentant, in order that by every garb of penitence [81] she
might the more fully expiate that which she derives from Eve,'the ignominy, I mean, of the first sin, and the
odium (attaching to her as the cause) of human perdition. "In pains and in anxieties dost thou bear (children),
woman; and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination, and he lords It over thee." [82] And do you not know
that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: [83] the guilt must of
necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway: you are the unsealer [84] of that (forbidden) tree: you are the
first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded [85] him whom the devil was not valiant enough
to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of your desert'that is, death'even the Son
of God had to die. And do you think about adorning yourself over and above your tunics of skins? [86] Come,
now; if from the beginning of the world [87] the Milesians sheared sheep, and the Serians [88] spun trees,
and the Tyrians dyed, and the Phrygians embroidered with the needle, and the Babylonians with the loom,
and pearls gleamed, and onyx-stones flashed; if gold itself also had already issued, with the cupidity (which
accompanies it), from the ground; if the mirror, too, already had licence to lie so largely, Eve, expelled from
paradise, (Eve) already dead, would also have coveted these things, I imagine! No more, then, ought she
now to crave, or be acquainted with (if she desires to live again), what, when she was living, she had neither
had nor known. Accordingly these things are all the baggage of woman in her condemned and dead state,
instituted as if to swell the pomp of her funeral.
By 1912 what is essentially the same message had been stripped of the fear and loathing behind it.
I. Ulpian (Dig., I, 16, 195) gives a celebrated rule of law which most canonists have embodied in their works:
"Women are ineligible to all civil and public offices, and therefore they cannot be judges, nor hold a
magistracy, nor act as lawyers, judicial intercessors, or procurators." Public offices are those in which public
authority is exercised; civil offices, those connected otherwise with municipal affairs. The reason given by
canonists for this prohibition is not the levity, weakness, or fragility of the female sex, but the preservation of
the modesty and dignity peculiar to woman. For the preservation of this same modesty many regulations
have been made concerning female apparel. Thus, women may not use male attire, a prohibition already
found in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 22:15). The canons add, however, that the assumption of the
dress of men would be excusable in a case of necessity (Can. Quoniam 1, qu. 7), which seems to apply to
the well-known case of Bl. Joan of Arc. Women must abstain from all ornament that is unbecoming in a moral
sense (Can. Qui viderit, 13, c. 42, qu. 5). Some of the ancient Fathers are very severe on the practice of
using pigments for the face. St. Cyprian (De habitu virg.) says: "Not only virgins and widows, but married
women also, should, I think, be admonished not to disfigure the work and creature of God by using a yellow
colour or black powder or rough, nor corrupt the natural lineaments with any lotion whatsoever." It is not held,
however, to be a grave transgression when women ornament and paint themselves out of levity or vanity (St.
Thomas, II-II:169:2), and if it is done with an upright intention and according to the custom of one's country or
one's station in life, it is entirely unblameworthy (ibid., a. 1). Authors are even so benevolent as to say that if
the face is painted to hide some natural defect, it is entirely licit, owing to the words of St. Paul (1 Corinthians
12:12, 14): "And such as we think to be the less honourable members of the body, about these we put more
abundant honour; and those that are our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. But our comely
parts have no need." Canonists strictly condemn female clothing that does not cover the person properly
(Pignatelli, III, consult. 35), and Innocent XI issued an edict against this abuse in the city of Rome.
)))))))))
The second branch of the woman question, which of necessity follows directly after that of gaining a
livelihood, is that of a suitable education. The Catholic Church places here no barriers that have not already
been established by nature. Fénelon expresses this necessary limitation thus: "The learning of women like
that of men must be limited to the study of those things which belong to their calling; The difference in their
activities must also give a different direction to their studies." The entrance of women as students in the
universities, which has of late years spread in all countries, is to be judged according to these principles. Far
from obstructing such a course in itself, Catholics encourage it. This has led in Germany to the founding of
the "Hildegardisverein" for the aid of Catholic women students of higher branches of learning. Moreover,
nature also shows here her undeniable regulating power. There is no need to fear the overcrowding of the
academic professions by women.
In the medical calling, which next to teaching is the first to be considered in discussing the professions of
women, there are at the present time in Germany about 100 women to 30,000 men. For the studious woman
as for others who earn a livelihood the academic calling is only a temporary position. The sexes can never
be on an equality as regards studies pursued at a university.
Catholic Encyclopaedia: Women (1912)
To complement this article, which was taken from the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent recommends
a prayerful reading of Pope John Paul II's 1988 apostolic letter, "Mulieris Dignitatem."
OK, I have read it. It's mostly about Mary and Genesis. It appears the Church has finally discovered women
are also people, but nonetheless a different kind of people. Yup, you can be a mother or a virgin, girls.
 
 

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