Mr. Podgers, the Rose Campaign last Thursday (Feb. 13) was trying to accomplish a good, to challenge a mindset that limits sex to pleasure or an action that is not completely giving of one’s self. You incorrectly identified the goals of the campaign by Badger Catholic and claimed the idea that the men involved were imposing views on women through the passing out of roses with short notes attached.
Commonly, it is men in society today who are promoting a hook-up culture and rape culture against women by using women and women’s bodies for their own satisfaction and pleasure. In some of these cases, women do not have the choice and stop this from happening. The Roses Campaign itself was freely offering a rose and a short message to a woman, who could accept it or deny it, from a man who saw her for being a person, not an object or some lower class citizen.
You limit the individual’s own decision making ability by implying that chivalry is an old-fashioned idea and that this way of thinking is inferior. If indeed you believe in choice, you should have no problem with informing people of all ways of thought on a particular subject because everyone has an ability to evaluate an issue and decide how to act based on the information they have. To quote William F. Buckley, Jr., “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.” Mr. Podgers, you claim to be a “liberal Catholic.” Therefore it does not surprise me that you find Badger Catholic’s prerogative challenging. You are misinterpreting the goal of the campaign. Misinformation is a common occurrence in society these days, and you are deluding others of your inaccurate opinion of the Catholic Church, “patriarchal stereotypes,” and “gender roles.”
I wish to address your comments with regards to the campaign itself first. Your “assertions” about the Badger Catholic campaign are that men are the only individuals who can define women’s dignity. In no way was this campaign pushing an agenda where men define beauty and dignity of women. Men were given a choice to purchase a rose, write a short note, and hand it off to a random lady of their choosing. As I stated before, the women could accept or deny the rose itself. In fact, some women did decline the rose offered. But as men are the key perpetrators in a culture where women are used for men’s sexual pleasures, the intention of only having men hand out the roses was to demonstrate to women there are men who do not support such a use of women and want to uplift women as persons, not objects. Where in these actions was the implication that “only” men can tell women what is beautiful and from where their dignity is derived? Can one individual man not tell another individual woman that she is beautiful, not remind her of a dignity she poses inherently, and not encourage her in efforts to be proud of being a woman? As I have stated before, information is a good in that it broadens people’s abilities to choose an action corresponding to bringing them a good.
Mr. Podgers, I am offended by the fact that you limit Badger Catholic to a single event and limit the Catholic Church to a social progressive mentality. Hundreds of students participated in service trips sponsored by Badger Catholic around the country during Winter Break. The Badger Catholic Service Team goes to the Catholic Multicultural Center in Madison regularly to help serve food to the homeless and needy.
Pope Francis has called us to live out the Gospel message, which is a difficult task. He has called the Christian people to unity and to look for ways to unite others. In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, he calls us, you and me, to serve the poor in all ways and bring the Gospel message in peace to others. Evangelization is challenging and showing charity to others in all forms (providing them with shelter, visiting them in the hospital, feeding and clothing them, offering them spiritual direction, comforting them with counsel) is difficult to live out. However, Badger Catholic, through its many efforts, has tried to bring about these things on campus and in the Madison area.
Pope Francis also discussed the inherent dignity of the human person. In discussing many ways the Church has helped society understand civil rights, defense of life, responsibility for the environment, and many others facets that have attributed to better unity and peace in society, Pope Francis states, “we find it difficult to make people see that when we raise questions less palatable to public opinion, we are doing so out of fidelity to precisely the same convictions about human dignity and the common good” (Evangelii Gaudium 65). What Pope Francis is saying is that at the core of all these societal matters the Church speaks about is the upholding of all human dignity. We are not imposing a view on other people, but allowing them to see how they are truly valued.
He goes on to say that the family, the building block of society, is under attack because marriage is only seen for its “emotional satisfaction.” According to the Catholic Church, marriage is a sacramental commitment by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring. When someone uses marriage and the family for other means or limits marriage to only its emotional facet, it disrespects the union and devalues the other people in the family unit.
You stated that there is a lot of beauty in consensual and judge-less sex. My question to you is: where is this found most fully? Without a condom, in the marriage bed, with the option of procreativity, not hindered by artificial or intellectual constraints. At the heart of the sexual act is the free self-giving of the person to the other so that it expresses the unity between the couple and life has the ability to spring from this interaction. The Rose Campaign was trying to provide a view that sees the true beauty and self-gift in the sexual act.
Women can make decisions for themselves. Free will has always been held as a good in the Church. But when others start limiting that will by imposing thoughts that do not bring about a good, then we as men must step up and ensure those thoughts are challenged and contemplated to their fullest extent while offering another thought that ensures the dignity of others and highlighting the good that should be sought.
Mr. Podgers, we are not perfect. But we must seek the good and uphold the dignity of all others around us. This was the purpose of the campaign and to misspeak about it disrespects all those involved, the givers and the recipients.
