I came across a quote from St. John Paul II recently and I loved the "counter cultural" nature of it. He once said, “God has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman.” Of course, most in today's world (and, sadly, many in the Church) would hate this statement and all the presumptions that go along with it. What are those presumptions? At the barest minimum, we can see that God has assigned roles to men and women that are different, and should not be confused. There is also the presumption that men are called to be protectors and women are called to be protected.
This last point does not mean that men have nothing to do other than protect, nor does it mean that women should just sit back and do nothing other than be protected. Rather, it means that there is a reason that women are supposed to be protected. The traditional Catholic understanding of this (like what we find in the Catechism of Trent) is that women are to be protected, because the work that they are called to do is so important, and because that work is done best when it is undisturbed. In essence, we could say that women are called to nurture the world, and men are called to protect women while they nurture the world (parents, take note here; please!).
How does each woman do this? Certainly, no two are called to the exact same role of nurturing. Even two women called to the married life are not called to marry the same man; each has distinct aspects to what their calling is. Nurturing, however, is a perfect way to describe the calling that God has given to women as a whole and to each woman in particular. When a little girl is being raised, she should be taught how to nurture, in the general sense. This will help her to learn to apply that role to whatever calling she fulfills. If she chooses the religious life, she will apply it there; if she chooses the married life, she will apply it there.
Furthermore, even a woman who chooses the married life, will have the role of nurturing continue beyond the time that her children are at home (and I do not mean just with her own children). Each married woman will be given different and various opportunities to nurture in some fashion once her "nest is empty". One might find a calling that she had never considered before when the children were in the home, and another might put herself into the work of her local parish in a new way (with religious education for children, or many other areas). This is all to say that women are to nurture--and when they are protected properly by the men, they can do it quite well.
This leads to the original point once again. Men are called to protect. How do they protect? Notice that St. John Paul II made the point quite broad. "Men are to protect the dignity of women". When men think of women as means to their own pleasure, they are not only not protecting, but they are also attacking the dignity of women (in one way, they do this to every woman in the world at the same time!). It should be obvious how a man protects the dignity of a woman that he is married to, or who is his own daughter. Yet, he is also to protect the dignity of those women that he sees at the workplace or next door, or at the grocery store; especially if they do not hold to the Catholic understanding of morality (since they usually do not know that they need to be protected).
If men (whatever calling they have chosen in life) were to be about the business of protecting women's dignity, and if women (whatever calling they have chosen in life) were to be about the business of nurturing, then things would be quite different in society today. In addition, if parents would teach their children what this means (even from the youngest years), then the next generation might see greater holiness in the homes, and that would lead to the end of the modern attack on the family.
What a revival of holiness this could all lead to. The repercussions are far beyond the scope of what we can see today. At a minimum it would definitely have an impact on lessening the numbers of those who fall into the trap of temptation to sodomy. It would also impact the security of many marriages. Finally, we can easily see that it would help many people to understand better what their calling is in life. Let us each take to heart what God has called us to, and never forget that He created us male and female, and then glory in the differences.
