Mary Daly

Born: October 16, 1928

Died: January 3, 2010

The church and the history of the church’s attitude toward women has been a record of contradictions. On one hand, the church has put women on a pedestal; you see this in the scriptures, in the Fathers, the theologians, in the popes—particularly Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII. On the other hand, in point of fact, the church has actually humiliated and degraded women. When I say women have been put on a pedestal, I mean in the figure of one woman—Mary, the ideal, the model. This has served as a compensation process, because women in the concrete as individuals are not treated as human beings of equal stature with men in the church.

—Mary Daly