Vatican City, Jun 15, 2018 / 06:09 am
In his daily homily Friday, Pope Francis issued a scathing critique of the ways in which women are often exploited and mistreated - whether it be through a revealing television ad, or when getting a job is contingent on sexual favors.
He said there is a tendency in many environments to view women as "second class" or as an object of "waste," and called the ways in which women are at times abused and enslaved "sins against God."
The pope offered his June 15 daily Mass at the Vatican's Santa Marta residence as a prayer "for the women who are discarded, for the women who are used, for the girls who have to sell their own dignity to have a job."
He took his cue from the day's Gospel reading from Matthew, in which Jesus said: "everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart" and "whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery."