Is Catholic Feminism Working? by Carrie Gress

The idea that Catholics must embrace feminism to engage non-Catholic women has been repeated so frequently that it’s simply accepted as a truism. But is it actually working?

Before answering that question, let’s take a close look at the work of St. John Paul II. He is generally invoked as the reason why we must have a Catholic feminism. As pope, John Paul was clearly interested in upholding the dignity of every woman. His 1988 Apostolic Letter, Mulieris Dignitatem, delved deeply into the nature of womanhood and has provided a backbone of sorts to the contemporary understanding of Catholic womanhood. What we do not find anywhere in that roughly 25,000-word document is the word “feminism.”

In fact, he only used the word one time: in his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, where he called for a “new feminism.” In one short paragraph, he wrote: ….

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