Valentina di Giorgio
(ZENIT News / Dublin, 20.09.2022).- Mrs Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland (1997-2011) wrote to Pope Francis to express her objection to the work of a Christian writer of the second half of the 2nd century and first half of the 3rd. In fact, a work of Tertullian is on the Website of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. It is a work in which, in the vocabulary and expressions of another time, there are allusions to Eve and to woman in relation to sin. The former Irish President demanded that the Pope have that work removed from the site.
In her letter, dated September 6, Mrs McAleese not only requests the removal of the work but also asks for clarification of the reason why the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life published the work on its Website. ”So here we are, at the start of the implementation of the great curial reform, and it’s absolutely incredible that the worst offensive sexist material is published with the unequivocal approval of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, a Dicastery to which was entrusted the responsibility of women,” wrote Ireland’s former President in an anything but a conciliatory tone.
Mrs McAleese ventures to draw personal conclusions about Tertullian’s Theology with a sensibility that is certainly different from that of the author’s time. In an aggressive affront, the former President wrote: “The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life is manifestly driven by an ignorant and retrograde agenda, which will lead the Church to scandal and crisis unless radically reformed. The Church would be better if it were closed and all matters within its competence were referred to the national expertise. At the very least, this horrible material must be eliminated from the Magisterium’s official Website. It offends all women and the Creator that made them.”
