In Defense of Women

"Is Modern Woman a Failure?" So read the program topic at a diocesan conference of Roman Catholic women in Boston last week, and some 1,500 women turned out to listen.

"Modern woman," Jesuit Father Joseph

F. Cantillon Told them, "has sold out to commercialism and allowed her God-given body to be exploited in the cheapest of ways, destroyed the home and the real meaning of family life." Moreover, she has "robbed man of his birthright by wearing the pants in the family."

Jesuit Father Gerard Murphy came to women's defense: "Just because the average woman wants to look her best doesn't mean that she has given up the sacred ideals of womanhood or motherhood . . . And the reason she has to wear the pants is because man has hung them up and there's no one else to wear them . . . Nowadays, a girl marries a fellow at 25, and 15 years later finds she is still mated with a Boy Scout."

Father Cantillon's summation: "Back in 1870 or 1880, women took the wrong road when, as feminists, they undertook the foolish course of demanding women's rights. It was as if they wanted to be half woman and half man, as if they were . . . ashamed of being women."

Then it was the women's turn to talk.

Their best answer to Father Cantillon: the rising U.S. birthrate indicates that motherhood is still going strong.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.