Although Pope Francis continuously works to highlight the significant role of women in the church, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture has taken a controversial decision to tackle a female's decision to undergo elective plastic surgery.
Titled "Women's Cultures: Equality and Difference," the newly released documents were prepared in advance of Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture to be held in Rome Feb. 4-7, according to Crux. It outlines the topics to be discussed, including gender identity and inequality, female poverty, violence against women, complementarity, generativity and the female body.
However, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, a Catholic religious body that explores and interacts with contemporary culture, chose to especially portray elective plastic surgery in a negative light, with one female consultant describing it as a "burqa made out of flesh."
Plastic surgery is "one of the many manipulations of the body that explore its limits with respect to the concept of identity" - one that is seen as a rejection of sorts of individuals' bodies, the authors wrote in the 12-page report.
"Plastic surgery that is not medico-therapeutic can be aggressive toward the feminine identity, showing a refusal of the body in as much as it is a refusal of the 'season' that is being lived out," the document reads. "If the body is the place of truth of the feminine self, in the indispensable mixture of culture and biology, it is also the place of the 'betrayal' of this truth."
The outline document, which explores the pressures and plights facing women today, also addresses the depiction of females in mass media, noting the use of "sexual allusion and debasement of its role" in advertising and communications, Breitbart reported.
"No political or social battle has been able to do without a mechanism so profoundly rooted as that of the exploitation of the female body for commercial benefit," the document states.
"The terrain, as we know, is plagued by prejudices and preconceptions from ancient positions," the text reads, "and is rendered more inflammable by the fire of tradition and an excess of male presence often afraid of any encounter."
But according to the report, it is "not a question of bringing about a revolution against tradition," or "tearing away the jobs and positions from men," according to TheBlaze.
"A realistic objective," the authors state, "could be that of opening the doors of the Church to women so that they can offer their contribution in terms of skills and also sensitivity, intuition, passion, dedication, in full collaboration and integration with the male component."
The entire document, which also takes aim at infanticide, rape, abortion, forced marriage and trafficking, among other subjects, can be read here.
