13. Sister Helena Burns: From Radical Feminist to Catholic Feminine Genius

Episode Transcript
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Sheila Nonato (00:04):
Hello and Welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast.
This is your host, SheilaNonato.
I'm a stay-at-home mom and afreelance Catholic journalist,
Seeking the guidance of the HolySpirit and the inspiration of
Our Lady.
I strive to tell stories thatinspire, illuminate and enrich
the lives of Catholic women, tohelp them in living out our
vocation of raising the nextgeneration of leaders and saints

(00:27):
.

Co-host (00:27):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens and mother's heart.

Welcome to this week's episode.
We are honoured to have SisterHelena Burns, who will share
with us her story of being aformer Radical Feminist and how
she embraced the Feminine Genius, her feminine identity, in
Christ.
The interview took place onJuly 3rd (corrected date).
We are now in August, duringthe month of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary.
Let's hear Sister Helena guideus on her journey from Radical

(00:58):
Feminism to the CatholicFeminine Genius.
This is a little different thisweek in that the interview is
an hour long.
If you need to hit pause andcome back for the next 30
minutes, please do.
I know how busy it gets withmotherhood.
It is well worth it and was aremarkable conversation with an
amazing New Media Evangelist.

(01:18):
Sister Helena, Welcome to theVeil and Armour podcast.
This week we have as our guestSister Helena Raphael Burns.
Welcome, Sister Helena.
Thank you, glad to be here.
Thank you, and I'm sure many ofour listeners know who you are
through your media ministry.

(01:39):
I'll expand a little bit onthat, but I was wondering if you
could please lead us in aprayer.

Sister Helena Burns (01:44):
Sure In the name of the Father and of you,
could please lead us in a prayer.
?
Sure In the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, amen.
Heavenly Father, we thank youfor gathering us for this
wonderful time together,especially focusing on women and
feminine identity, the FeminineGenius in Christ.

(02:07):
We thank you for making us women, Lord.
We thank you, our mostwonderful Creator, who gave us
this design, the desires that wehave and the destiny that we
have as women.
Please help us to embrace thisand not to rebel against it.
We thank you for being human,which means body and soul, and
we thank you for how you createdus, differently from men.
We thank you for your beautifuldivine order in creation, in

(02:31):
the world, in the family, in thechurch, in society.
We ask you to give us thisbiblical worldview.
Open up your word to us so wewill see our incredible but
unique dignity as women.
We want to follow your ways,Lord, which are hard, but
they're also the ways of truth,beauty and goodness and
fulfilling our purposes.

(02:52):
We ask all of this through ourBlessed Virgin Mother, through
your Son Jesus Christ and Hismost precious blood, in this
month of July dedicated to themost precious blood.
Amen, In the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, Amen.

Thank you very much and I just wanted to, if
you would allow me, I justwanted to add a little bit more
about your work.
So you are a member of theDaughters of St Paul, an
international congregation ofRoman Catholic sisters founded
to communicate God's wordthrough the media.
Sister Helena Burns has aMaster of Arts in Media Literacy

(03:32):
Education and a Bachelor ofArts in Theology and Philosophy
from St John's University in NewYork City.
She studied screenwriting atUCLA and Act I Hollywood writing
at UCLA and Act One Hollywood.
Sister Helena holds acertificate in pastoral youth
ministry and she wrote anddirected a documentary on the
life of the church's new mediasaint Blessed Father James

(03:53):
Alberione, calledMediaApostlecom and is a
co-producer on The40Filmcom.
Sister Helena has written aTheology of the Body curriculum
used in her online Theology ofthe Body certificate course
through Sacred Heart College inPeterborough, ontario, canada.
And Sister Helena gives medialiteracy and Theology of the

(04:14):
Body workshops and courses toyouth and adults all over Canada
and the United States.
She believes that media can bea primary tool for sharing God's
love and salvation.
She is a dual citizen of Canadaand the United States and an
international woman of mystery.
Happy Canada Day and happy 4thof July, sister Helena.

(04:34):
Oh same to you?
Yes, and I am very fascinatedabout this topic of the Feminine
Genius and Feminism in general,which is the topic of our
podcast, and can you please tellme what is radical feminism?

Sure, and you know we've been having these
long chats off air, Sheila, youknow, and both of us have a
background in radical feminism,meaning that we embraced it
right.
We thought it was the way to go, we thought that was the right
thinking about women to embrace,and I don't know about you, but
I feel like very damaged fromit and it took me a very long

(05:16):
time to get out of it.
So just to define our terms,because a lot of times people
just talk about feminism andthey never exactly say what they
mean by it, and there's manydifferent kinds of feminism
today.
So what I like to say, Feminismin its most simple form, is the
protection and promotion ofwomen, and to me that's a good

(05:38):
thing that we'll always needsome form of protection and
promotion of women.
Now, what you believe a womanis that's where that's going to
go in all different directionswhat you think her good
protection and her goodpromotion is and by promotion I
don't mean some sort of falsemyth of progress or
progressivism and change, change, change.

(05:59):
Promotion could be something assimple as finding a way for
moms who don't have a lot ofmoney to be able to stay at home
and raise their own kids, youknow, without working, maybe
three jobs or something, andhaving others raise her kids for
her.
So Radical Feminism is thedenial that there are
significant differences betweenmen and women.

(06:20):
There's just a few differentreproductive body parts.
That's really only.
What makes us different is theway that we reproduce, and that
has no impact on our mind, oursoul, how we do things, how we
experience life, etc.
Etc.
Which is patently false,because we are body and soul and
our souls are also gendered,because the body is an

(06:42):
expression of the soul.
The body reveals the soul.
Human beings are not angels,we're not pure spirits and we're
not animals who have materialsouls, or rather mortal souls
that die when the organism dies.
Plants have plant souls,animals have animal souls.
We have immortal souls, andthat is all part of our
personhood.

(07:03):
You know, animals are notpersons.
Angels are persons, but they'repersons with no bodies, you
know.
So we have to understand thatour body has so much to tell us
about who we are, and not justin the reproduction sense, but
in so many other ways, eventhough that's key.
The sexuality is key, but noteveryone's going to get married,

(07:24):
not everyone's going to havechildren, et cetera, but it
still matters.
We're still spiritual mothersor spiritual fathers or brides
and bridegrooms in relation toGod.
Even so, Radical Feminism isbiologically incorrect and
scientifically incorrect,because now we have so much more
science that we didn't evenhave in the 70s, when this all

(07:45):
kind of the 60s and 70s, whenthis came to the fore, which was
called second wave feminism,which was what I was most
impacted by and we know thatthere's the feminine brain, the
masculine brain.
We know that baby boys, theyhave a testosterone wash in the
womb and even when they'relittle toddlers testosterone

(08:06):
wash in the womb, and even whenthere's little toddlers, the
testosterone is forming them ina different way than girls.
So then this, of course, ledright into eventually,
transgenderism.
Well, if there's no, you know,if we're all the same, then
we're interchangeable, which, ofcourse, is not true either,
because if we're going tocelebrate diversity, there's got
to be some diversity, right?
Okay, now I am no longer aradical feminist and for a while

(08:31):
I called myself a theology ofthe body feminist, but I don't
even say that anymore becausethe word feminism comes with so
much baggage and again, even ifwe stop and define our terms,
it's almost like it's going totake a whole conversation to
really explain what feminism isand how both men and women have

(08:51):
felt hurt by Feminism.
Some women know they stillobviously buy into it and I feel
like it's so embedded in theculture now that even our young
women, they may not have evenheard some of the slogans of the
second wave or third wavefeminists, but it's just being
lived out in the culture and sothey sort of jump onto it.

(09:12):
You know, and it's this, "ou go,girl, I'm all about.
You know, self-esteem, a properself-esteem.
But you know, if you're aChristian, we believe in
humility.
You know, and it's like you go,girl, I can do whatever a man
can do.
I'm better than men.
Men are so stupid and women areso amazing.
And I'm a 10, all these women,they think they're 10s and they
deserve a high value man andlike what the heck?

(09:34):
And yet they're like sellingtheir bodies on OnlyFans and
like it's all messed up, right,and a lot of this stuff.
It yeah, it did come right outof feminism.
The one thing about RadicalFeminism is women.
These women, as I did, theyreally don't like being women.
They resent having been born awoman and again, I'm not talking

(09:56):
about anything trans or theyfeel like they want to
transition or anything.
They just resent that they haveto give birth, that women are
the ones who have to nurturesmall children.
They don't want that and maybethey do actually want it, but
they've pressed that downbecause society has told them
you're not going to go to yourfull potential if you have
children, or if you have toomany children, or if you stay

(10:16):
home with your kids.
And so there's just so manylies.
Women have been sold a pack oflies through Radical Feminism.
And you know the women'smovement was not the same thing
as women's lib.
There's a wonderful book calledSubverted how I Helped the
Sexual Revolution Hijack theWomen's Movement.
The women's movement was aboutequal pay, equal opportunities,

(10:40):
some things like that.
It was not about these womendid not want to go fight in war,
they did not want to be drafted, they did not want to be in
combat, they just wanted.
They wanted sexual harassmentlaws in place, you know, in the
workplace and things like that.
They just wanted to be treatedfairly and justly.
But this women's lib crazy stuff.

(11:03):
I can have sex like a man,which means promiscuity.
Did God intend for men to havesex that way?
No, and it's crazy.
It's like no, you can't,because you're probably going to
get pregnant at some point,even if you're on your birth
control or whatever, and, ofcourse, abortion is a horror of
taking the life of your child.
So they're really lies.

(11:24):
I can have sex like a man no,that's a lie.
I can be as good as a man no,you can't.
You're not a man.
And why would you want to be?
That is a false admission ofinferiority to say I can be as
good as a man.
Why are you looking towards menand what men are doing?
Do your own thing.
Women have their own power,authority, gifts, influence and

(11:48):
mission.
Now, I think getting out ofRadical Feminism can help if
you're a believer.
I think it can still be done,if you believe in nature, if you
truly believe in science andbiology, and if you get some
good sociology that can show youwhat's really for human
flourishing and what's reallygood for women and not good for

(12:09):
women, but if you know that thisis all coming from a loving
creator, the way he made you.
And, yes, gender roles we havegender roles.
Men have roles.
Women have roles.
We have our place in society,too, right.
So like, oh, what's women'splace?
Is it barefoot and pregnant andstaying at home?

(12:29):
No, not necessarily there.
But everyone has their place increation, in the divine order.
Rocks have their place, treeshave their place, giraffes have
their place, women have theirplace, men have their place,
children have their place.
Giraffes have their place.
Women have their place, menhave their place, children have
their place.
Old people have their place.
Right, we all take on and theseare not fake roles, they're

(12:51):
rather what we're good at.
They're rather what we'redesigned for and what we do best
, just naturally, as women,because of the gifts that we
have, gifts of body and soul.
I just want to say that how canwe know if there are certain
cultural norms or culturalexpectations for men and for

(13:11):
women?
How do we know if they'rehealthy?
Well, theology of the bodywhich, by the way, if I didn't
say this, this is what got meout of radical feminism was
theology of the body.
Bit by bit, piece by piece.
It took me decades.
It was like a building blocks.
I'd get one little piece of thepuzzle the theology of the body
.
Bit by bit, piece by piece.
It took me decades.
It was like a building blocks.
I'd get one little piece of thepuzzle the theology of the body
puzzle, another piece of theTheology of the Body puzzle.
So if a gender role is based onthe design of the body and the

(13:36):
soul because they go together,souls are gendered of a man,
then that's a healthy genderrole for him.
If it's based on the way thedesign of the body is which
reflects the soul, then that's ahealthy gender role for a woman
.
We serve many roles, right, Idon't mean just professions.
But if you're an artist, that'sa role that you don't just do

(13:57):
nine to five.
You are an artist, you have thesoul of an artist, right,
that's beautiful and you don'tmind having that role because
you love art and you're good atartist.
Right, that's beautiful and youdon't mind having that role
because you love art and you'regood at it, right, well, we
should love being a woman andwhat all that encompasses, right
.
And again, we'll talk a littlelater about like, we're not
talking stereotypes, we do nottalk class ceilings, stereotypes

(14:18):
.
Those are very harmful, nothelpful.

So, sister Helena , I've been watching some of
your talks online and in one ofthem you had mentioned, I think,
a few times you had mentionedthat you had come to Radical
Feminism in eighth grade.
Can you tell me this backgroundin radical feminism?
How did you get into it and howdid you get out of it?

Well, it was actually earlier than eighth
grade, I'll tell you, you getout of it.
Well, it was actually earlierthan eighth grade, I'll tell you
.
Well, I think what I said isthat I was pretty much formed,
like all my opinions and myprinciples and my plans for the
future, by eighth grade.
I was set, you know, but itstarted much younger than that.
I went to public schools andthings weren't as crazy as they

(15:03):
are today, but I read a lot.
We were taught how to readbefore we went to kindergarten
and we were little geeks, mybrother and I, and we loved to
read and I would just devouranything and I wanted to
understand the beautiful, modernworld, I was living in, you
know, and it made sense, though.
There was an internal cohesionto what the Radical Feminists

(15:24):
were saying and I believed.
All women were oppressed.
Yes, we've been oppressed allthese years and every man is
basically out to oppress women.
They don't really value andhonor women.
They want to find a way to keepus down so that we can't go
ahead and they don't reallyvalue us.
They laugh at us in the lockerrooms and make fun of us and

(15:44):
they only want us for our bodies.
And now, some of that is true,but this is not every man all
day long.
You know what I'm saying.
It almost negated the fact thatthere are good men.
And one thing I couldn'tunderstand I was also watching
my friend's mothers.
My mother never went that route, but I was watching my friend's
mothers telling their husbandsoff and refusing to make supper,

(16:06):
even though they werestay-at-home moms, and they were
like putting their like.
It was just, it was.
It was crazy and some of it waskind of ugly too.
And I remember thinking, well,I don't want that, cause I was
more of like a hippie.
I was very bohemian and likelove and peace.
I couldn't hate men becausethat would negate my love and
peace principles, you know.
But I was almost there.

(16:28):
I was almost a man hater.
And one thing I rememberthinking like all these women
are married who are tellingtheir husbands off and saying
that men are terrible, and theyreally had those consciousness
raising groups where women weretold you're oppressed.
They were told you should allhave careers, you should not be
staying at home, even if youwant to, with your kids.

(16:50):
They don't need you.
You need to be.
You know, focus on you, you,you, me, me, me.
And these women started to feelinferior because of that right.
They were at peace.
In a sense.
It's almost like the devil gotin and made these women so
unhappy and told them no, youhave to have a degree to be
happy.
No, you have to have twodegrees to be happy.

(17:12):
No, you have to have a career,not just a career, but a high
paying career where you'resocial, climbing and gaining
notoriety.
And there's never enough of thatright.
And now there's social media.
So that can just really wreakhavoc on a woman, even a young
girl or a single woman, becausewe like to communicate, right,

(17:32):
ladies, like to communicate andsay what you will, but women are
still all about theirappearance most women and
they're going on Instagram allthe time and looking for
perfection and Photoshopping.
And this is a false world.
It's just so fake, right?
And what happens is we emptyout our souls when we do this,
when we're focused on externalsand competition and keeping up

(17:56):
with everyone and with the worldthe new hairstyles and the new
it's okay to look, okay, it'sokay to follow that a little bit
, but is that going to be thecore content of your life?
And I understand you can makefollow that a little bit, but is
that going to be the corecontent?
of your life and I understandyou can make money through these
things too.
But you've got to be grounded,You've got to be based in all of
these things.
So that's how I got intoradical feminism reading news,

(18:17):
magazines, reading newspapers Istarted reading a newspaper at
12 years old, like from a dailynewspaper and just watching the
women around me watching the TVshows that were always putting
men down.
They started the 70s to put mendown.
Men were the buffoon and it'sstill nothing has changed.
The father of the family is anidiot.

(18:37):
He's a buffoon.
He's so stupid he can't doanything.
The wife can do anything andeverything and she just
tolerates his presence becausethey like him.
And this is a terrible messagealso being sent to our boys and
our young men that men arebasically idiots.
And I think a lot of young menreject this.
But what can they do?
Go protest Hollywood.
It's nasty, it's not right.

(18:59):
Nobody should be treated thatway.
It's almost like a reversepsychology.
If any of this was happening towomen now.
It's like open season on men toturn around and put men down
that way.

(19:26):
So my Radical Feminism was mydeepest held belief and my
mother used to call me herlittle banner waver.
It's like I always had to havea cause.
I was always fighting for acause.
I did environmentalism,Greenpeace, Save the Whales.
They used to bring all thelittle birds that got hurt and
the little animals in myneighborhood.
I was going to work withanimals my whole life.
Everybody knew that about me.
So I always had to have a causeand my cause was animals and
also then women.
It became a woman thing like Iam never going to have anybody
make fun of me or put me down orkeep me down.
I'm going to be who I want tobe and I can be anything which

(19:48):
you know yes and no, Like if youdon't have the talent to do
something, you can't do it right, you can't do it well, you
can't make that your profession,make your living from it.
So I think there's like a fineline between building women up
and having a healthy self-esteemand not low self-esteem.
But there's also this pride andthis sort of like way over

(20:10):
estimating one's gifts andtalents and looks and everything
.
It's like no, we need to behumble, we need to be modest,
All of those good qualitiesChristian qualities right that
are in the Bible, and I reallydidn't have much input from my
Catholic faith going to publicschools.
The media, such as it was backin my day, wasn't terribly

(20:32):
developed no internet.
It was enough, though, to sendme all these messages that I was
set upon by men and by thesociety that men created, and
that also included religion.
Like I saw religion as aman-made men.
It was men who wrote the Bible,and they did it to keep women

(20:53):
down and control women.
I bought into every last bit ofit, and so what that does to a
woman is it makes her very angryinside.
Now she may not be angry on theoutside.
I wasn't angry on the outside.
I had my friends, I had a greatlife, I did a lot of hobbies
and extracurricular activitiesafter school and sports and
everything.
But down deep inside there'sthis simmering anger because

(21:16):
you're rejecting you don'trealize it but you're rejecting
also what a woman actually isand saying that's unfair.
It's unfair that God made usthis way If you believe in a
creator or the universe theylike to say the universe today
right, the universe did this tome, or whatever, and so that's
kind of sad.
You know you're angry.
You're not resolving yourissues because you can't.

(21:37):
You can't resolve a lie unlessyou realize it's a lie.
Now, men have not been sold thispack of lies and that's why men
, even today, are reporting verycomfortable levels of
contentment and happiness.
Women's levels of depressionand feeling unfulfilled are like

(21:58):
plummeting year after year.
They're going down, down, down,down, down, down down.
And these are the same womenreporting this who have
everything.
They quote unquote, have it all, but they're exhausted.
Right, there's the Helen Reddysong I am woman.
There's a t-shirt says I amwoman, I am strong, I can do
anything, I am tired.
So that's another story too,like this we're not going to get

(22:18):
into, but the superwoman that'sbeing held up to women, that
they can be it all and do it alland have it all.
No one can have it all.
Men don't have it all.
Fathers of families don't haveit all.
They might hate their job, butthey do it because the money's
good, right.
They may want to take apromotion and move somewhere
else, but they're not going toresettle the family.

(22:39):
The kids like the school, andthe wife has got her stuff going
on.
So you can't wake up.
Till you wake up, you don'tknow you're being lied to, until
you hear the truth.
And it contrasts so much.
And again I was given a falsetruth, a red herring, that the
Church, again the Church wantsyou, barefoot and pregnant, to
sit down and shut up.

(22:59):
The Church doesn't value women,doesn't want to hear from women
.
The Bible is old hat.
It's like it needs to berewritten.
Women are oppressed in theBible.
Just look at all these Biblepassages and that's not it at
all.
The Bible is the word of God.
It was written by the HolySpirit through the male authors,
yes, but if you look at thewomen in the Bible, oh my gosh,

(23:20):
they are so amazing, every lastone of them.
And there was bad women.
We got our Jezebels right.
And these horrible women of theBible.
And there's horrible men in theBible.
The Bible is so honest.
That's what I love about theBible.
The Apostles did not makethemselves look good.
I'll tell you that.
They look very cowardly, youknow, and all of that.
So that's a whole nother topic.
I do a little retreat on womenof the Bible and how to read the

(23:44):
Bible, not as a radicalfeminist, because all of us read
it through this radicalfeminist lens.
And then you don't want to havea biblical worldview, and if
you don't have a biblicalworldview, you don't understand
your creator, you don'tunderstand what's good for you.
You don't understand reality andtruth.
So the ancient philosophers andI have a background in

(24:06):
philosophy which I loved, but itcouldn't help me with theology
of the body.
But the ancient philosophersused to say happiness is living
in accord with your nature.
Happiness is living in accordwith your nature.
And radical feminists arefighting their very nature, even

(24:27):
though they don't realize it.
So when I found theology of thebody, I found peace.
I started to find peace andthis joy, this very deep joy,
not just acceptance of being awoman, but joy in being a woman.
And my full story is on my blog.

(24:47):
There's a video testimony there.
It's the first thing.
On my blog, hellburnscom justlike it sounds,
h-e-l-l-b-u-r-n-scom I have arather lengthy blog post that
says how to Read your Way Out ofRadical Feminism.
And the very first thing is myvideo testimony, a long
interview with Father Walter Hsu, of how this all fit together.

(25:10):
And how did I become a nun inthe midst of all this in a
traditional community?
You know, like how does thatmake sense?
Well, I'll tell you, I hid myradical feminism because when I
met Jesus in the BlessedSacrament that's a whole other
story I realized this is hischurch and I was so distraught.
I didn't want to have to beCatholic, but he was talking to

(25:32):
me from the Blessed Sacramentand I promised him that I would
stop fighting the CatholicChurch on all these women's
issues and try to understand thechurch's teaching.
And I thought it was going tobe easy, especially after I
entered the convent understandthe church's teaching.
And I thought it was going tobe easy, especially after I
entered the convent.
I thought, oh, I'm going totake scripture and theology and
good anthropology and whatnotand I'm going to understand what

(25:52):
it means to be a woman.
I'm going to understand thechurch's teaching on women, et
cetera, et cetera in the Bible.
And I did not.
Nothing I found was helpful.
In a sense it was even worse,it was like very unhelpful,
helpful.
In a sense it was even worse,it was like very unhelpful, and
so it wasn't for many.
So again, I hid my radicalfeminism, but it was all I had
to go on.
It was my inner framework, it'sall I knew, and so I'll talk a

(26:21):
little bit more about that.
When we talk about how do youget out of radical feminism, one
of the first things you have todo is replay those lies that
you heard in your head, thoseassumptions, those slogans that
you clung onto because youthought they were true and they
gave you something to hang on toand something to sort of prop
yourself up, and it was a way tothink about yourself.
But was it accurate?

Sister Helena, you mentioned about how the
world has given women.
I myself bought into theRadical Feminist worldview.
It's given us Radical Feminism.
Now the church gives us thefeminine genius.
What is the feminine genius?

Great question.
So the term "feminine geniuswas coined by none other than
John Paul II the Great when hewrote his encyclical rather
lengthy encyclical MularisDignitatem, on the dignity and
vocation of women.
And ladies got really excitedWoo, feminine genius.
And we had all these t-shirtsand everyone's like, ah, what is

(27:21):
it so, the word genius?
We tend to think of it as beinglike super smart and having a
high IQ.
But if you look up what theword genius really means, it's
having a quality of being reallygood at something.
It may have nothing to do withthe intellect, but you're just

(27:42):
like almost a savant aboutsomething, and so a genius could
be anything really.
And so what John Paul II istalking, the feminine genius, is
factory set right, and I thinkall women intuited that too.
Like, when he says the femininegenius, he means we're all
feminine geniuses just by virtueof being feminine.

(28:05):
Right, being a woman.
And that's what feminine means.
It just means being a woman.
It doesn't mean being morefrou-frou than another woman and
wearing high heels as opposedto not wearing high heels.
That's not what feminine andfemininity means.
It just means what pertains toa woman, what pertains to all
women.
So I think it's important tounderstand that.
So that's what the femininegenius is, and he outlines it in

(28:30):
.
You have to read the wholeencyclical to really get the
full picture.
But I'm going to go over a fewof the attributes or
characteristics of the femininegenius, which is something we
might say is also women's gifts.
But first, before we do that, Iwant to just talk about
masculinity and femininity ingeneral, because we cannot talk

(28:54):
about women in a vacuum.
This was the problem with theradical feminists as well, and
really all the waves of feminism.
They just act like women areour own species.
The waves of feminism, theyjust act like women are our own
species.
And we're doing this notvis-a-vis men, who complete the
species, but we're going tofigure this all out by ourselves
.
And again, even if you'remarried like I'm going to do my

(29:15):
own thing and then I'm going totell my spouse about it, I'm
going to tell my husband whatI'm going to be doing it's like
that's not a partnership, that'snot a marriage, you know.
So there's a beautiful quotethat I just really have to quote
from Mulieris Dignitatem.
This is Chapter Seven on thedignity and vocation of woman by
John Paul II.
He said man cannot exist aloneand he he uses he because he, in

(29:39):
English, can mean the totalityof men and women.
Man cannot exist alone, meanthe totality of men and women.
Man cannot exist alone.
He, male and female can existonly as the unity of the two and
therefore in relationship withanother human person.
Does this mean everyone has tobe married?
No, but when I'm in society,when I'm in my family, I'm

(30:00):
relating differently to the menin my family than I am to the
women.
So we're always in relationshipwith other human persons.
And there's two different typesof human persons.
There's two different ways tobe a body.
We don't have bodies, we arebodies.
There's two different ways tobe a body male and female, two
different ways to be in theimage of God.

(30:22):
And we're going to talk aboutthat too, because it's so easy
to understand men in the imageof God, and we're going to talk
about that too, because it's soeasy to understand men in the
image of God.
But what about women?
How do women image God?
Is it the same way?
No, it's different.
John Paul II says it is aquestion here of a mutual
relationship man to woman, womanto man.
Being a person in the image andlikeness of God thus also

(30:43):
involves existing inrelationship in relation to the
other.
Now, in philosophy we know JohnPaul II is a big philosopher the
other is very important.
The other is the one who is notlike me, the other who is not
me and is not like me.

(31:03):
And we have to reach out ofourselves to the other, always
right.
So, for example, even parentsto their children.
Your children are others,they're not just an extension of
you, they are their owndistinct little persons and
personalities, and I'm sure youall have figured that out by now
.
So we never want to treatanyone our spouse, our friends

(31:24):
or anyone as extensions ormirrors of ourselves.
Everyone is the other, andmales to females are even more
other because we don'tunderstand them.
They are not quite like us, themen you know Now we have.
I have to make this clear thereis one human nature.
This is what makes us equal,one human nature.
This is what makes us equal andthis is why a male savior,

(31:47):
Jesus Christ, true God and trueman, could die for both sexes.
Right, the radical feminist?
There's a whole theologicalradical feminism too that says
crazy things like well, we needa female savior then, because if
it's so important that Jesus ismale, then he only died for men
.
No, we have one human nature.
That's what makes us equal indignity.

(32:09):
Is this one human nature thathe assumed, that God assumed in
Jesus Christ?
Okay, now I'm really going intoteaching mode here, but that's
okay.
So men and women are equal, butdifferent, and we are called to
help each other, support eachother, appreciate each other,
supply for what the other doesnot have or cannot do, to put

(32:31):
our strengths and weaknessestogether, to work together.
And there's a wonderful.
If you don't like John Paul II'swriting some people don't.
They find it very intense andcircular and meandering, and he
uses a lot of big wordssometimes and they prefer to
read Ratzinger, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, get this

(32:52):
encyclical online theCollaboration of Men and Women
in Church and in Society, and itis so beautiful.
It's like it's as thoughRatzinger is now doing theology
of the body.
It's as though Ratzinger is nowdoing theology of the body.
So does masculinity mean beingrugged, tough and macho?
No, it means everything thatgoes with being a man or a male,
which naturally occurs in thebody or soul of a man.

(33:15):
It's going to look different ondifferent men, because every
man is unique in body and soul,but he's still male.
He's still a man.
He still possesses masculinity.
Does femininity mean beingsweet and delicate and frou-frou
?

What does femininity mean?
We're going to find out afterthis short break.
It's the halfway mark here, soif you'd like to pause and
return, please do, or keep going.
Here's my son with a message toour listeners.
Thank you for listening andsupporting our podcast,
apostolate.
God bless.

Co-host (33:55):
If you like our podcast , please like, share and
subscribe.
You can also leave us a commentand a review, please.
We'd love to hear from you.

Now let's get back to the conversation with
Sister Helena Burns.

Does femininity mean being sweet and
delicate and frou-frou?
No, now, some women are, andsome women want to be.
Knock yourself out.
Some men are rugged, tough andmacho.
Does that make that's fine?
Maybe it's the way they're born, the way they're built.
Maybe it's what they've aspiredto be and they've made
themselves that that's fine.
That's fine.
It doesn't make them moremasculine and frou-frou ladies.

(34:38):
More feminine, becausefemininity and masculinity is
not something we have to proveor acquire or attain.
It is a given, it's God's giftto you.
At the moment of your conception, you were either male or female
.
We were gendered at the momentof conception.
That's science, that's biology,and so different women are

(35:00):
going to look different.
There's never going to beanother you as a woman.
There's never going to beanother you as a woman.
There's never going to beanother you as a man.
So just be yourself, embraceyour incarnation of being a man
or being a woman, and it's not aspectrum.
Sexuality is not a spectrum.
It's a binary male and female,and there's no ideal masculine

(35:22):
or ideal feminine beyond Jesusand Mary that we are looking to
for exemplars.
We have to be ourselves.
Yeah, there's a wonderfulphilosophical tenet.
It is what it is.
Now we say that casually insociety.
It is what it is meaning.
But it means kind of the samething in philosophy too.

(35:43):
You can't change it.
It is what it is, and but itmeans kind of the same thing in
philosophy too.
You can't change it.
It is what it is and you needto just deal with it.
Deal with it as it is.
It is what it is.
A rock can't suddenly become atree.
A tree can't suddenly become acar.
It is what it is.
A chair isn't a table.
It's not designed to be a table.
You could use it as a table.
It's not designed to be a table.

(36:03):
You could use it as a table.
It's not going to be a verygood table because it's not
designed for that.
So you are a unique man, aunique woman.
There's not just one way to bea man or a woman.
Everything you will do in lifewill be as the man you are.
Now we're back to philosophyagain, as what we do.

(36:26):
We do as the thing, thecreature, the person we are.
We're so far away from the bodywe have moved so far away from
concrete, physical reality,which is science and biology and
creation.
It's all of a piece and we livein our heads, we fantasize and
we think we are a furry, I thinkI'm a dog, I think I'm a cat, I

(36:48):
think I'm a non-neither.
I'm a neither.
I'm not a man nor a woman.
I'm an alien.
I'm a ghost.
People are identifying as ghosts.
Now I don't mean just LARPing,you know, like just play acting.
I mean they really say that'smy identity, this is who I am.
Or they're making up their ownfantastical creatures or beings.

(37:09):
And what Ratzinger's also said,you know?
He said we're living in a timeof rebellion against the creator
.
People are saying I don't likethe way you made me, I'm going
to make myself, I'm going toremake myself, I'm going to
create myself from the bottom up.
And it's like no, that's so sad, Like that's you're not going
to do it.
Well, first of all, and that'ssuch a slap across the face of

(37:31):
our loving creator.
You know he envisioned us fromall eternity.
We were in the mind of God asthe person that we are.
So it's only going to bringsorrow at the end of this path.
Maybe it's going to give yousome instant gratification or
something, but it's only goingto lead to sorrow.
Because, again, what ishappiness?

(37:52):
It is living in accord with ournature, and that includes our
personality, the personality Godgave you.
Now we want to acquire virtuetoo.
So it's not like every wart andbump in our personality is good
.
We have to be acquiring virtue.
We have to be becoming holy andsanctified through the grace of

(38:12):
God and the sacraments.
But let's remember this I lovewhat the French say vive la
différence, long live thedifference between men and women
.
Stereotypes, especially today,can be very, very harmful.
To say a man has to be likethis, a woman has to be like
that, and some of our youngpeople are thinking that they
have to transition, which can'tbe done male to female, female

(38:33):
to male or even adults.
Because I'm not a good man, Idon't measure up, I'm not the
way they use feminine.
You know like I'm not like theother girls, I don't like to
have long hair, I don't wearperfume, I don't wear makeup.
That's fine.
Who cares?
That doesn't make you a woman.
So yeah, so masculinity andfemininity will look different

(38:54):
according to each individual,but there are certain
characteristics and traits thatare of a male person or a female
person, again, kind of factoryset.
I'm going to talk about theFeminine Genius, what that looks
like according to John Paul II.

(39:15):
And you might say to yourselfwell, I'm a woman and I don't
have all of these things, that'sokay.
You might have them and notknow it, they might be dormant,
they might be underdeveloped.
I'm not saying you have tonecessarily work on them, but
they're there and you might havesome others more strongly.

(39:36):
That I'm going to mention.
And here's the thing You'restill a woman.
You will do all these things asthe woman that you are.
So he said that women expressthe feminine genius through
interpersonal communication.
And I'm going to stop here, tooand say that again, science

(39:57):
backs all this stuff up.
You say, well, I'm an introvert, I'm a woman, I'm an introvert,
I don't talk that much, that'sokay.
Introversion has nothing to dowith being a man or a woman.
That's a personality trait.
But we know that women ingeneral use 13,000 more words a
day than men.
Also, in the womb, with thistestosterone wash I was talking

(40:19):
about, you know what it does?
It goes to the communicationcenter of the baby boy's brain
and it kills half of that.
So this is why men are usuallynot big talkers or they're not
like fast talkers ormultitasking talkers.
Some men are, but that's notbiologically who they are.

(40:40):
Do you know what I'm saying?
So, yes, we're speaking ingeneralities about these
characteristics, but there'sscience to back this up Biology
and sociology.
Women are receptive.
Women are receptive.
Now, that again is factory set.
Our bodies are receptive to men, to new life and hey, our

(41:03):
cycles go by the moon.
We are very in tune with nature, very, very fine tuned, very
receptive to nature around us.
Empathy part of the femininegenius is empathy.
Now, we don't want to eitherfeminize things like empathy and
say, well, men don't haveempathy, oh, they most certainly
do.
You know like a woman wouldnurture a child?

(41:25):
But that man might protect thechild right, or he might say
good job, son.
Or you can come on, honey, youcan get up back on that bike
again.
You'll be, you'll be fine,you'll be okay.

(41:45):
There's different ways toexpress them and we don't want
to.
Some people say, some feministssay, why are you dwelling on the
differences and why don't wejust focus on what's the same?
Well, we can do both, let's doboth.
But you keep saying that thereis no difference between men and
women.
And so that's why we want topoint out there are some
differences Tenderness,attention to detail.

(42:08):
We even I'm going to keepinterrupting with the science.
So women have what are called.
We both have C cells and Pcells in our eyes, and women
have more of the C cell which wecan track things in our
vicinity, our close proximity,our close vicinity, much better
than men have, because we havemore of the C cells.

(42:29):
Men have a lot more of the Pcells which tracks things at a
distance with their eyes.
So even our eyes.
You say well, eyes are eyes areeyes.
Eyeballs are eyeballs.
No, they're not.
Women's eyes are different thanmen's eyes.
Men's eyes are wired directlyto their brain so that they get
sexually stimulated more bytheir eyes than women do.
These are facts.

(42:50):
These are not and they're notexcuses.
These are just biological factsand because we have to practice
virtue, we have to control ourbiology and form our biology and
keep it in check, et cetera.
We don't just go with the flow,men.
Why could possibly men have allof these P cells in their eyes
to track things at a distance?
Predators, right.

(43:11):
Men protect.
Hunting Men were alwaystraditionally the hunters, right
.
Women were the gatherers andfarmers Danger, always
traditionally the hunters right.
Women were the gatherers andfarmers Danger.
And hockey pucks, right.
Okay, so we're still working onthese characteristics of the
feminine genius CaregivingIntuition.
That's a fact.
Women have intuition.
It's real.
Women's intuition is real.

(43:32):
Men have insight into howthings work and women have
intuition into people, howpeople work, humanizing and
personalizing problems andsituations.
They've done so many studies onhow women problem solve as to
how men problem solve, womenalways personalize.
How is this decision going toaffect people?

(43:53):
That's kind of important, huh.
How is it going to affect thevulnerable?
How is it going to affectpeople?
That's kind of important, huh.
How is it going to affect thevulnerable?
How is it going to affectfamilies?
Men might just be focusing onthe bottom line when they
problem solve, or what'spractical or utilitarian.
We need women's gifts of problemsolving, multitasking.
Women's brains are againscience.
Both sides of our brain fireconstantly back and forth, just

(44:17):
rapidly back and forth.
That makes us good atmultitasking.
And women the roles that womenhave to play because of our
biology, that we need to play,that we do play and most women
want to play involvemultitasking, lots of
multi-tasking.
We are doing 10 things at onceat all moments.
Right, we can follow severalconversations going on at the

(44:38):
same time.
We can't even go to bed atnight because our mind is just
firing constantly.
It's hard to fall asleep.
Right, men's brains they use oneside of the brain and then they
shut it off and use the otherside of the brain.
They do not do the switchingvery quickly.
Does that make them dumb andstupid?
No, it means that they have tobe monomaniacally focused on the

(45:00):
tasks that they are cut out for.
That they are designed for,that they play and do in society
and usually like to do and play, naturally, in society, because
if they don't focus on just onething at a time, they're going
to get hurt.
People are going to get hurt,okay.
So you might say I don't possessany of these gifts.

(45:22):
Well, I have a hard timebelieving that.
You don't have any empathy oryou don't have any attention to
detail or whatever it is, andmaybe, like me, you suffocated
those voices.
I pushed down.
I would feel my own femininereactions bubbling up to
situations and all those voicesin my head that came,

(45:43):
unfortunately, yes, from men,but also from radical feminists.
It was like they were just likeparroting what the men said.
They would say, oh, oh, that'semotional.
You know, you're just beingemotional, as though emotions
are bad, right.
They would say, oh, that's weak, that's you have to be.
Think rationally and logically.

(46:07):
Now, I tend to do that anyway.
I think that's really a part ofme and that's fine.
It's just who I am.
Doesn't make me less a woman,less feminine, because that's a
factory set.
I do my logical, philosophicalthinking, objective thinking,
thinking in generalities and notparticulars.
As a woman, I do it as a woman,but I have a lot of these other
gifts of women, a lot of theother feminine genius.
It's okay, it's all right.
You are a woman.
You're not more a woman or lessa woman.

(46:29):
And I have some other fun thingsthat I usually talk about, some
of the female stuff that I dohave and some of the things that
I don't have.
And it's kind of funny, right.
So how many sitcoms are basedon the male-female difference?
The good ones don't put mendown, the truly funny and good
ones don't put men down.
But so many plays and shows andmovies are based on these

(46:52):
differences that we know exist.
And I think married couples,they get it right away oh boy,
are we different, okay, so, ingeneral, men civilize the world
to make it habitable foreveryone.
Women civilize people to makethem habitable for everyone.
There's an old saying the handthat rocks the cradle rules the

(47:13):
world.
See, and the feminists wouldcome back and say, oh, that's
just because you want us to stayat home.
No, think about it.
That's really true.
Whoever raises a child fromtheir youngest years, if you
have a child in your care forthree to five years, you have
formed their most basicexperiences of the world right.
And if you're talking to thiskid and forming their

(47:35):
personality, I mean letting thembe who they are, but got with
guidance, right and help, andthey're going to ask you
questions and you're going tohelp them think about things.
You're going to give themcritical thinking skills.
This is a really beautifulphrase that I just heard more
recently the glory of woman isto form the minds of men.
How about that?

(47:56):
So we forget?
It's not just about soccer andthe orthodontist and doing this,
that Chinese lessons and violinlessons.
It's about forming theircharacter, helping them form
their own character, teachingthem right from wrong, teaching
them to care about other people,having them really develop, say

(48:17):
, one hobby that they're reallygood at.
It's not just about what'sgoing to make them a lot of
money in the future, but what dothey love to do?
What has God put in your childand in your child's personality
that is so unique that you canfoster?
So I'm going to just go backover one aspect of how, or the

(48:38):
main aspect of how, men imageGod and how women image God, and
I think this is key and thiswas one of my big pieces of the
puzzle, one of my big steppingstones to getting out of radical
feminism and into theology ofthe body.
We can tell what something isand what it does based on its
design.

(48:59):
If you look at a man's body,it's more angular, even if he's
short and he's a slight build.
His bones are different, hismuscles are different.
This is why it's unfair to havebiological males competing
against women.
They take all the prizes right.
They take first, second andthird place.
They take the scholarshipsbecause they're faster, they can

(49:21):
endure more, they can lift moreAll of that stuff.
Their bodies are madedifferently in every aspect.
Almost every cell in our bodiesis also gendered.
We used to think that, oh, menand women have hearts, like I
was talking about the eyeballs.
Oh, they both have hearts.
So they did all the studies onmen's hearts and then they found
out oops, women have heartattacks different from men.

(49:43):
Their hearts are different.
Women recover from strokesdifferent from men.
Women recover from concussionsdifferently from men.
We are so different even in thebody parts that are similar.
Why do these forensic shows?
They go find a tibia or a femurout in the woods.
They can tell you exactly ifthat is a male or female bone

(50:03):
and how old it was andeverything Okay.
So women's bodies are softerand more rounded, which tells
you what she is designed for.
I don't want to go to the wholebackground of where I discovered
this, but when this happened itwas at a conference and so many
light bulbs went on in my headand I was saying wait a minute.

(50:25):
I who love nature, I who loveanimals, I accept that there's
male and female in the animalworld.
Why am I not accepting male andfemale differences in the human
world?
Why am I putting myself outsideof nature, outside of even
science?
Why am I doing that?
That doesn't make sense.
And it was actually a priestwho was an artist, a Byzantine

(50:49):
priest, a Father.
Thomas Loya, who was one of mytheology, turned out to be one
of my theology, the body mentors.
After that, he was showing ushow the bodies are designed
differently and he wasn'treferring even to fertility at
this point.
And I so appreciated thatbecause again, here's a radical
feminist complaint.
All they do is talk aboutwomen's fertility.
They never talk about men andfertility at the same time, in

(51:12):
the same breath.
It's almost like men'sfertility is floating out there
and we don't look at a man andsay, oh, he could be a father
someday.
It's like they get to be freeand we're not free.
We're tied down becauseeverybody looks at us and looks
at our bodies and thinksfertility, babies.
Now, it is true, women have thelion's share of fertility.
We do.

(51:32):
We have the monthly cycles, wehave the pain and peril of
childbirth, we are pregnant fornine months, we nurse all of
that.
That's the lion's share ofsexuality.
Is that a burden and a curse,or it is a privilege?
Or is it a privilege?
Okay, so what we call the designof men, we call the design of

(51:54):
men, body and soul, istranscendence.
This is how men image God.
Women image God throughimminence I-M-M-A-N-E-N-C-E
imminence.
What are these two things?
What do they mean?

(52:19):
And you know it's a no brainer,the way that men image God, why
?
Well, god is the masculineprinciple.
He revealed himself as themasculine principle.
God is beyond gender.
Gender is a human thing, not ahuman construct.
It's a real thing.
Sex and gender are the samething, they're not different.
So sex God is beyond sex, buthe revealed himself as father,
right With male terminology.
And Jesus is truly male.

(52:42):
He became a real male in everyway, shape and form and his
resurrected body is still malefor all eternity in heaven.
So that's kind of a no-brainerright.
We got the father.
We have the son.
Jesus came as a male Evenbefore the incarnation.
He was Son.
Second person of the Trinity isthe Son of the Father.

(53:03):
So how do women image God?
That was a big question for me,like why do we speak about God
in male terminology?
Well, he self-revealed that wayand again.
I could go on for hours aboutthis and I would love to, but
you can check it out in theCatechism of the Catholic Church
, number 239 and 2779.

(53:23):
It talks more about this.
239 and 2779, imminence andtranscendence.
So what is transcendence?
Transcendence is going out ofoneself, going beyond oneself.
Transcendence is going out ofone's self, going beyond oneself
, encountering and bettering theworld by going out and working
on it.
Now you could say, well, womendo that too to a degree.

(53:45):
But who really?
Come on?
Come on, let's be honest.
Who are the constructionworkers who build the cities,
who do that physical work,laying water pipes down?
Dirty jobs.
You know Mike Rowe and his showDirty Jobs.
You see women emptying septictanks.
I don't why?
Because they're beingdiscriminated against and

(54:07):
they're not allowed.
No, most women don't even wantto, and not just because they're
dirty jobs.
I don't want to confuse theissue here.
Women are not.
They don't have the strength intheir bodies to lift some of
the things that constructionworkers have to lift.
Right, they're not interestedin this stuff.
It just doesn't appeal to them.
They're not maybe good at it,whatever.
But there are women architects,there are women engineers, but

(54:30):
some of the physical work womenjust don't have the capability
to do that.
Right, if she can go for it, ifyou can do the job but we are
not going to change thestandards of the job just so you
can live your dream, honey,okay, go for it.

(55:00):
But if you can't and most womencan't you should not be putting
that heavy stuff on and tryingto do that fireman's job, that
firefighter's job, all right,it's okay, it's all right to let
the men do what they're good atand women do what they're good
at.
I'll tell you when I lived inChicago, we lived downtown and
we had a 42-story building goingup directly behind us and it
was surrounded by buildings.
So they had to do this.
They had to tear down, implodethe building that was there

(55:22):
without hurting anything else.
And they had to rise up thatbuilding right, just straight up
in the air, out of the ground,and there were no men, excuse me
, no women that we could see.
Maybe behind the scenes therewere plenty of women, but the
men that were out there, it wasall men constructing that
building, but there was onewoman.
You know what she did?
She was the crane operator andthat doesn't require a lot of

(55:45):
physical strength, but boy, isthat an important job, right?
She was lifting up those steelgirders and stuff Fascinating,
fascinating.
So trying to push women intoSTEM?
You know science, technology,math.
Well, yeah, there might be somegood jobs there and everything.

(56:05):
But why are you saying therehas to be 50% women in a certain
field?
It doesn't make sense.
Let the women who want to gothere and are good at it go
there.
Make sure they haveopportunities, make sure women
and girls understand that thisis a great field to get into if
they have the aptitude.
But this idea, everything hasto be 50-50.
It's okay to have a division oflabor.
It's okay to let women do whatthey're good at and men do what

(56:27):
they're good at, okay.
So back to transcendence.
What does transcendence mean?
Like I said, going out ofoneself, going beyond oneself,
encountering and bettering theworld by working on it.
Men's sexuality is external totheir bodies.
That's part of transcendence.
This means something, becausethe body has meaning.

(56:50):
The body already has meaning.
We don't assign the bodymeaning.
The body already has meaning.
What are some ways that menexpress transcendence?
Sports, throwing things.
Everything is a projectile withguys.
Have you ever noticed that?
Spitting disgusting, we couldspit.
Women can spit.
We never do.
It's disgusting and gross.
But men are always spittingConstruction, building, going

(57:11):
out into nature, things likecamping, fishing, hunting, video
games to a degree, althoughit's just virtual, always
wanting to fix the problem, gether done, being singularly
focused on tasks, zoning out inman caves that is a part of
transcendence.
What if the man doesn't?
He's not interested in theseparticular activities?
It's okay, he has them in somedegree.

(57:32):
He's still a man.
He will do everything as hedoes as a man.
He will express histranscendence as a man in his
study, home life, family life,work, business, arts, media,
technology, travel, hobbies,friendships, et cetera.
Now, women image God's imminencemeans here and now, in the

(57:54):
moment, totally present, not outthere.
You know, men are the explorers.
And you know all this going out, out, out, women make the world
a better place by drawing it tothemselves and working on it.
That way, we women, we candominate in our own way.

(58:15):
I ask men, my audiences, I'llsay guys, have you ever been
dominated by a woman?
Do you find you know womendominating?
Oh yeah, we have our own waysby pervading all things.
I always say we're like thesunshine, we're like the air and
the water.
Women are so resilient andresourceful, we kind of permeate

(58:36):
everything.
The way I like to think of itis men are the brick and we are
the mortar.
You know, we keep everythingtogether.
We connect everyone andeverything.
Men are the stalwart bricksthat support everything and do
their job, and bricks just pileon top of each other, are going
to fall down and mortar byitself is just a big heaping

(58:58):
mass of cement.
Right, we need each other.
Another aspect of imminence isagain designed based on the
design of a woman's body.
Our sexuality is internal toour bodies and that means
something, because the bodymeans something.
The body already has a meaningof its own.

(59:18):
We don't have to assign it anew meaning or try to take away
the meaning that it has.
We're a mystery even toourselves, because we can't see
inside our bodies even right.
The Bible talks about.
You formed me, o Lord, you know, in the darkness and the
mystery of my mother's womb.
I don't know how you did it.
The mother of the Maccabees,the seven Maccabee sons, she
said I don't know how you wereformed in my womb.

(59:40):
Please don't apostatize againstour faith, because God is the
one who made you.
I didn't even make you.
I don't know how you were made.
Women are not physicallystronger than men.
We are stronger in our abilityto endure pain and we are
emotionally stronger than menbecause we process our emotions

(01:00:01):
better.
We talk about it, we get it out, we go to our friends.
Now, part of that is culturaltoo.
Men are told not to cry, tokeep it bottled up, and some of
the other things that I alsomentioned about women in those
characteristics, with thescience to back it up, about
what is the feminine genius.
Does this make women superiorto men?
No, are men superior to women?

(01:00:22):
No, we're just different.
We are the way God made us tobe.
I would highly recommend thatyou go online and check out a
woman named Vicki Thorne,V-i-c-k-i Thorne without an E.
She founded Project Rachel,which is for post-abortion
healing.

(01:00:42):
She died rather young.
She was a good friend of mine.
She had a stroke and died butshe moved on from like cause.
The post-abortion healing reallytook off and in the US the
bishops really supported thisproject and got it into the
parishes and the dioceses and itreally took off post-abortion
healing for both women and men.
And she moved on to do thebiology of the theology of the

(01:01:06):
body.
So some of the science facts Igot from her.
That's all she does and shegoes into.
She used to go onto secularcampuses and just they would beg
to have her come because peopledon't know this stuff.
We should know about our bodies, how amazing they are, and I
think that would make us loveour bodies more, both as men and
women, if we started tounderstand how amazing we are

(01:01:28):
and how different we are, thebeauty in that difference.
So check out Vicki Thorne, herbiology of the theology of the
body.
She has some YouTube videos onthat.

Sheila Nonato (01:01:40):
Thank you to Sister Helena for this
masterclass on the theology ofthe body and sharing her story
about leaving Radical Feminismafter learning about her
feminine identity in Christ.
Join us for part two, where wepick up the conversation, where
she guides us on how to read ourway out of radical feminism,
which is the false belief thatwomen are oppressed in the home

(01:02:02):
and their vocation as a wife andmother.
How do we achieve true freedom?
Sister Helena will chat with usnext time.
Please join us.
Thank you and God bless.
Thank you for listening to theVeil and Armour podcast.

Co-host (01:02:15):
I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom
today.
Please subscribe to our podcastand YouTube channel and please
spread the word.
Let's be brave, let's be boldand be blessed together.

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