The Power of the Pope

by: Gina Loehr, Leader Couple, Mount Calvary, WI.

I wouldn’t be a wife or a mother if it weren’t for Pope John Paul II. I had sworn off marriage and motherhood as a college student, influenced as I was by university feminists who tried hard to convince themselves (and everyone else) that matrimony and maternity were traps set by misogynistic overlords to enslave innocent women. Anti-Catholic hostility was tied up with these sentiments, and I had started to buy in to it, in spite of my Catholic upbringing. But then, my younger brother intervened, and challenged me to read Pope John Paul II’s letter, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women.

Apostolic letters were not on my book list in those days; I made my judgements about the Church mostly based on rumor, hearsay, and misconceptions paraded about as fact. But by some miracle – perhaps the cumulative effect of the invisible graces of my Catholic upbringing – I agreed to read that letter. It turned my world upside down.     

I had been led to believe that most men, all priests, and certainly the pope, wanted me to suffer and shrink into oblivion. I was astonished that this letter, written by none other than the pope himself, said exactly the opposite. John Paul II argued that I had inherent dignity as a woman. He declared that women possess a special “feminine genius” which the world desperately needs. And what’s more, he recognized and apologized for all the ways in which women have been hurt throughout history by those who did not respect their true worth as beings made in the image of God. This guy did not match the description of a woman-hater. On the contrary, I had never heard anyone praise women the way John Paul II did.

(to be continued….) 

Gina Loehr is the mother of six children, the author of five books on Catholic spirituality, and the wife of a Wisconsin dairy farmer. She holds a master’s degree in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville and taught theology at Marian University before embarking on a decade long homeschooling career. Gina's essays on marriage and family life appear in various periodicals including Magnificat and Hearth & Field. Her books include The Church is Our Mother: Seven Ways She Inspire us to Love; The Four Teresas; Saint Francis, Pope Francis: A Common Vision; Real Women, Real Saints; and Choosing Beauty.