On March 19, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN and Head of Delegation to the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), prepared opening remarks for a Side Event entitled “Protecting Femininity and Human Dignity in Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Policies Today,” which the Holy See sponsored at the UN together with the Center for Family and Human Rights. His remarks were read by Msgr. Tomasz Grysa, Deputy Permanent Observer of the Holy See Mission.

In the remarks, Archbishop Auza said the practical considerations concerning access for women and girls to social protections, public services and sustainable infrastructure all rest on a proper anthropology of women and asked whether the documents and discussions for the 63rd session focus too exclusively on women in the workplace, as if woman were just a female homo economicus. True respect for women, he said, starts with reverencing her according to all aspects of her humanity, including her capacity for marriage, motherhood and family life. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance,” he added, and social protections must be given all the more to women who choose to work part-time or make the care of their family their full-time occupation. Woman, he asserted, understood in the context of her full feminine genius, is the greatest social protection of all.

The intervention can be found here.