Humanities desk
< November 5	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 6[edit]

Pope Paul VI's views on feminism[edit]

What were they? 24.189.87.160 (talk) 01:19, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

His were most likely based on the history of Women in the Bible as well as the large contribution of Women in Christianity. 71.21.143.33 (talk) 13:43, 6 November 2010 (UTC)(schyler IP)[reply]

What kind of feminism? New feminism, difference feminism, pro-life feminism? Lots of types of feminism are embraced by Catholics, but probably not the kind that immediately springs to mind when we think of "feminism". Paul VI was the man behind Humanae Vitae, which is either pro- or anti-feminist, depending on what you think feminism is. (He was also an influence on John Paul II, who was also either pro- or anti-feminist, depending on where you stand.) Adam Bishop (talk) 13:57, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I mean specifically new feminism. 24.189.87.160 (talk) 17:03, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I don't think he specifically referred to it, but anyway, new feminism (in the Catholic sense) is pretty much based on Humanae Vitae and JPII's writings. So, he probably would have liked it a lot. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:13, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

He never criticized the movement at all? Never said anything negative about it? No pope ever did, for that matter? 24.189.87.160 (talk) 18:25, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I meant the radical feminists of the 60 and 70s. 24.189.87.160 (talk) 18:26, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, well, even when the church is at its most modern it is still pretty anti-modern, going back at least to Leo XIII in the nineteenth century, so you can be pretty sure that Paul VI wasn't fond of those kinds of feminists. I don't know if he specifically said anything about them, but all of his writings are on the Vatican website (although not always in English, which doesn't help). Adam Bishop (talk) 05:00, 7 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oddly, every time an encyclical or bull on the Vatican website uses the word "times", it seems to be autocorrected to "Times New Roman". It makes me extremely twitchy, and I know not everything is like Wikipedia, but I can't edit it and can't find a way to tell someone who could change it and ARGH. It's a bizarre error, consistent throughout all the documents as far as I can tell. Does anyone know how to let them know? 86.166.42.171 (talk) 21:58, 7 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, that's really strange. I'm sure they'd want to know. Not sure where you've been seeing that exactly, but the Vatican.va site suggests they do have people to contact, but then doesn't provide any links to those people. The Vaticanstate.va website has this contact page; they might be able to direct your feedback to the right people at their sister site. WikiDao ☯ (talk) 23:38, 7 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's bizarre, but maybe it is your computer, because that doesn't happen for me. Adam Bishop (talk) 05:15, 8 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure? A quick search for "Times New Roman" and vatican comes up with [1] [2] [3] and others. These show in the Google search result and Google cache and also the webcite archives [4] [5] [6] that I just took so I don't believe it's anything on my side. We weren't of course the first people to notice, [7] which suggest it isn't every instance, only those that are writings from Pope Pius XII. Nil Einne (talk) 09:12, 8 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The "Times New Roman" mystery[edit]

Those are interesting links, Nil. It does really seem to be a problem, and it's amazing that it's still a problem if others have already noticed it and talked about it on the internet. From your link to the Philippine Daily Enquirer:

'I mentioned this to a colleague whose satirical wit is one of the delights of my cloistered life at the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues. He suggested that it was a code “to activate all the ultra-conservative Catholic sleeper cells waiting for the call to vanquish the liberal infidels.” He explained the code thus: “Times (the end times are near); New Roman (time to establish a New Rome!).”'

Has anyone actually tried making contact with anyone at vatican.va yet? WikiDao ☯ (talk) 01:00, 9 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have sent email about this matter to the webmaster of my local Archdiocese. WikiDao ☯ (talk) 05:17, 9 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have received email back: they're on it now. :) WikiDao ☯ (talk) 12:01, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]