“From the moment most women learn that they are pregnant, they are aware that the new life inside of them is a miracle from God. This is one of the reasons so many women experience terrible psychological suffering after having an abortion,” said the founder of the organization Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women.
Polacovic cited the Pope’s 1995 Letter to Women, in which he states that historically women have not received the recognition that they deserved. He adds, however, that “their beneficent influence can be felt as a force which has shaped the lives of successive generations, right up unto our own. To this great, immense feminine ‘tradition’ humanity owes a debt which can never be repaid.”
She also cited Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s statements that while motherhood is a key element of women’s identity, this does not mean that women should be considered from the sole perspective of physical procreation. Like men, women are not meant to be used.
Polacovic also spoke of “spiritual motherhood” that can find forms other than physical procreation, “in all aspects of family and social life involving human relationships and caring for others.”
“The proper condition of the male-female relationship cannot be a kind of mistrustful and defensive opposition. For humanity’s sake, their relationship needs to be lived in peace with cooperation and in the happiness of shared love,” she said.
Rossana Goni wrapped up the panel discussion on the subject of Mary “who has realized in her being a woman, the plenitude of the calling that every faithful Christian, that every woman, is called to be in the Church.”
Goni, an editor of El Pueblo Católico, said there is a misunderstanding about the role of Mary in human history and in the Church. She also noted that Evangelicals put her in a secondary place and radical feminists consider her submissive.
Mary displays the “feminine genius” in the Gospel account of the wedding at Cana, said Goni, a consecrated of the Marian Community of Reconciliation
“There are countless examples of women who have lived the fullness of being woman, women of God. Mothers, religious, missionaries, laywomen, doctors of the Church,” said Goni. “Whatever the vocation, [women] are called to display that ‘feminine genius’ … so that the Church may reflect, as Mary does, the face of Christ that men and women today need.”