Man and Woman Together

Columns

June 22-29, 2015 Issue

Helen M. Alvaré

Pope Francis is onto something in his recent linking of the crisis of faith to the crisis in the alliance of the man and the woman and the radical task this link implies. This insight is as old as Genesis; but, as usual, Francis brings old truths to life in new and straightforward ways.

A few weeks ago at a papal audience, employing the classically Catholic method of “faith illuminating reason,” Pope Francis meditated on Gn 1:27: “God created man in his own image...male and female he created them.” Francis opined: “I wonder if the crisis of collective trust in God...is not also connected to the crisis of the alliance between man and woman. In fact, the biblical account...tells us that the communion with God is reflected in the communion of the human couple and the loss of trust in the heavenly Father generates division and conflict between man and woman.”
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