God Gave Marital Headship to Men, part 4 of 5

In Casti Connubii (1930), Pope Pius XI wrote ample text affirming the dignity and strength of women. (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii,
https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html, 26-29.) His writing here was a perfect sample of Catholic teaching on the great dignity of women and the harmony of this great dignity with God’s bestowal of marital headship on husbands. Pope Piux XI beautifully explained, “For if the man is the head, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love.” (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, 27.) In a shining example of Catholicism’s unchangingness and continuity, Pope Pius XI also restated the writings of his predecessor Pope Leo XIII, in explaining God’s creation of male headship in marriage:

"With great wisdom Our predecessor Leo XIII, of happy memory, in the Encyclical on Christian marriage which We have already mentioned, speaking of this order to be maintained between man and wife, teaches: 'The man is the ruler of the family, and the head of the woman; but because she is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, let her be subject and obedient to the man, not as a servant but as a companion, so that nothing be lacking of honor or of dignity in the obedience which she pays. Let divine charity be the constant guide of their mutual relations, both in him who rules and in her who obeys, since each bears the image, the one of Christ, the other of the Church.' " (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, 29.)

The above quote is only one of countless examples of Catholic writers drawing upon marriage as an eschatological sign of Christ as a bridegroom and the Church as his bride, to explain that God gave marital headship to husbands. One example of such comes from Arcanum, an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Christian Marriage, in which Pope Leo XIII clearly and unequivocally stated that the husband has headship in the marriage and that this is in perfect harmony with the dignity of the wife:

"The husband is the chief of the family and the head of the wife. The woman, because she is flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, must be subject to her husband and obey him; not, indeed, as a servant, but as a companion, so that her obedience shall be wanting in neither honor nor dignity. Since the husband represents Christ, and since the wife represents the Church, let there always be, both in him who commands and in her who obeys, a heaven-born love guiding both in their respective duties. For 'the husband is the head of the wife; as Christ is the head of the Church. . . Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let wives be to their husbands in all things.' " (Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum, https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_10021880_arcanum.html, 11.)

Continuing with Pope John Paul II, in Mulieris Dignitatem, he beautifully upheld the dignity of women and their importance before God:

"Everything that has been said so far about Christ's attitude to women confirms and clarifies, in the Holy Spirit, the truth about the equality of man and woman. One must speak of an essential 'equality', since both of them - the woman as much as the man - are created in the image and likeness of God. Both of them are equally capable of receiving the outpouring of divine truth and love in the Holy Spirit. Both receive his salvific and sanctifying 'visits.' " (Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem,
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19880815_mulieris-dignit atem.html, 16.)

In this same papal encyclical, Pope John Paul II later affirmed male headship in marriage in especially romantic terms when he drew upon St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: 

"When the author of the Letter to the Ephesians calls Christ 'the Bridegroom' and the Church 'the Bride', he indirectly confirms through this analogy the truth about woman as bride. The Bridegroom is the one who loves. The Bride is loved: it is she who receives love, in order to love in return." (Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 29.)

In Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, Pope John Paul II addressed secular messages that presumed that male marital headship meant tyranny of husbands over wives, and he warned that such would undermine family structure:

"Recent years have seen new approaches to women's issues. A first tendency is to emphasize strongly conditions of subordination in order to give rise to antagonism: women, in order to be themselves, must make themselves the adversaries of men. Faced with the abuse of power, the answer for women is to seek power. This process leads to opposition between men and women, in which the identity and role of one are emphasized to the disadvantage of the other, leading to harmful confusion regarding the human person, which has its most immediate and lethal effects in the structure of the family." (Pope John Paul II, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_e n.html, 2.)

Pope John Paul II elaborated that women share dignity with men and implied that it is only the secular culture that paints it as a presumption of male tyranny if men have marital headship:

"Their [women’s] equal dignity as persons is realized as physical, psychological and ontological complementarity, giving rise to a harmonious relationship of 'uni-duality', which only sin and 'the structures of sin' inscribed in culture render potentially conflictual." (Pope John Paul II, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, 8.)

Part 5: https://www.catholic365.com/article/36914/god-gave-marital-headship-to-men-part-5-of-5.html