Fathers of the Church Were Misogynists: Challenge to Pope Francis and Vatican

I appreciate this summary of quotes from the Fathers of the Church by John Chuchman.

Pope Francis and the Vatican could take a major step forward by renouncing this false teaching and affirming women as spiritual equals in every area of the Roman Catholic Church's ministry including an inclusive priesthood in a renewed community of spiritual equals!

Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org

Against Women

Following Emperor Constantine's acceptance of Christianity,

 Hellenistic attempts to insulate women from the priesthood increased.

St. Gregory of Nazianzum, 389AD, wrote

Fierce is the dragon and cunning the asp;

but women have the malice of both.

St. Ambrose from Milan wrote:

Remember, God took the rib out of Adam's body,

not a part of his soul, to make her.

She was not made in the image of God, like man.

The Ministerial Office must be pure and unspoiled

and must not be defiled by coitus.

St. John Chrysostom, c.407AD, Bishop of Constantinople,

was classically misogynistic.

 It does not profit a man to marry.

For what is a woman but an enemy of friendship,

an inescapable punishment,

a necessary evil,

a natural temptation,

a domestic danger,

 delectable mischief,

a fault in nature,

painted with beautiful colors?

Today this man is considered both a Saint and Doctor of the Church.

 The whole of her body

is nothing less than phlegm, blood, bile, rheum and the fluid of digested food.

If you consider what is stored up behind those lovely eyes,

 the angle of the nose,

 the mouth and the cheeks

you will agree that the well-proportioned body

 is only a whitened sepulcher.

St. Jerome, 419AD, the most ardent advocate of celibacy

regarded St. Peter as a lesser saint than St. John

because Peter was married and John wasn't.

St. Jerome considered marriage an invention of Satan

and encouraged married couples who converted to Christianity

to renounce their marriage vows:

 How many there are who,

by consent between themselves,

cancel the debt of their marriage,

eunuchs of their own accord

through the desire of the kingdom of heaven.