Mary McAleese hits out at ‘misogyny’of Pope

Pope Francis is holding women back due to misogyny, former president Mary McAleese has warned.

In outspoken remarks regarding the attitudes of the Catholic Church, the ex-head of State insisted that the Pope is “blind” to improving the role of women.

Ms McAleese caused a stir in 2013 when she condemned the Vatican’s attitude to gay rights.

While saying she admires Pope Francis, the former president urged a radical change in the Church’s thinking towards women.

“There is a blindness here that comes from a kind of a priestly formation that leaves so many good, decent, gentlemanly men like Francis still carrying an element, a residual element, of misogyny that closes them off to the dangers of not dealing with these issues,” Ms McAleese told RTÉ.

“I think that’s where there’s a problem with Francis, I don’t think that he gets it. Still. He’s very gentlemanly, he’s a lovely person, everybody likes him and women like him. We love his smile, we love his openness, we love his accessibility, we love his frankness, we love the ease of him. But we also know that that’s not enough.”

She said the rights issue went further than the ban on women priests.

“Many of them think that, if they go there, they think it’s to do with the ordination of women. It’s not. It’s an issue alight but it’s by no means the issue,” said Ms McAleese.

The former president, who studied canon law in Rome after standing down from the presidency in 2011, expressed concern there was no way for women’s views to be heard in the Church

“I’m talking about an altogether different phenomenon and that is the structure of a universal Church that comprises 1.2bn people, half of whom are women, and who do not have appropriate vehicles at parish, diocesan or universal level that fully respect the role they play in the Church or could play in the Church,” Ms McAleese said.

She previously caused a stir by stating that “a very large number” of Catholic priests are gay and the Church is in denial about the fact. “It isn’t so much the elephant in the room but a herd of elephants,” she said.

“I don’t like my Church’s attitude to gay people. I don’t like ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’. If you are the so-called sinner, who likes to be called that? We also know that within the priesthood a very large number of priests are gay. Things written by Pope Benedict, for example, were completely contradictory to modern science and to modern understanding, and to the understanding of most Catholics nowadays in relation to homosexuality.

“Nowadays, it is not something that is perceived as something that is intrinsically disordered. Homosexual conduct is not seen as evil.”

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