BOOK PRAISING FEMALE SUBMISSION PUBLISHED BY ONE OF THAT NICE POPE FRANCIS'S REGIONAL OFFICES

This morning I learned that Pope Francis was named Time's Person of the Year. This afternoon I read about this:

A book advising newly-wed women on how to be "submissive" has become a publishing phenomenon in Spain....

The polemic book by married Italian author Costanza Miriano titled 'Cásate y sé sumisa -- Get Married and Be Submissive -- was published by the Catholic Ar[ch]bishopric of the southern city of Granada in November and soared up the bestseller list.

The book, which was a bestseller in Italy, preaches a message of "loyal obedience, generosity and submission" on the part of the new wife and offers nuggets of advice for the newly-wed on how to please one's husband....

One passage suggests: "We [women] like humiliation because it is for a greater good."

The author claims the book is based on the teachings of St Paul and that a perfect wife should be submissive.

"It's true, you're not yet an experienced cook or a perfect housewife," she writes. "What's the problem if he tells you so? Tell him that he is right, that it's true, that you will learn. On seeing your sweetness and your humility, your effort to change, this will also change him....

Yes, that's right -- this was published by an archbishopric of the Catholic Church. The book has also been praised by L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

Here's a translation of another passage from the book:

In that very moment, perform an act of trust towards your husband. Get out of the logic of the world, "I want to get the better of him", and enter the logic of God, who put at your side your husband, that saint who bears you after everything, and who, incidentally, is also a handsome guy. And if something he does is not fine with you, it is God Himself you have to confront, to begin with: get down on your knees, and most time you’ll solve anything. Luigi is the way God chose to love you, and he is your way to heaven. When he says something, then you must listen to him as if God was talking to you. With full discernment, clearly, in wisdom and cleverness, of course, because he is a creature, but with respect, because he often sees more clearly than you do.

And another, from the English-language page at Miriano's own site:

You'll see, I can swear on it, a man cannot resist a woman who respects him, recognizes his authority, who makes a sincere effort to listen to him, to let aside her own way of seeing things, who tramples on her ever-biting, teasing, failure-highlighting tongue (we're very good at that, no doubt), who accepts to walk on paths that are extremely different from those she would naturally choose, just out of love.

Oh, and here's a translation of Miriano's open letter to the pope, which focuses on her opposition to letting women into the priesthood ("the true revolutionaries are women who want to, like Mary, to serve, not those asking for greater power in the Church").

It's good that the pope talks about the poor and gets up right-wingers' noses. It's good that he models charity and compassion. But then there's this gender thing. It's not changing.