Don't worry: nothing that follows will be anti-Catholic, un-orthodox, or contrary to Church teaching.

In fact, I'm going to use only support from Pope's, Saints, or official Church documents to make my point. Promise. :)

The question is though - why should I have to include that disclaimer?

Because Catholics, for some reason, we're really afraid of feminism.

Really, it's going to be ok.To be fair - I understand why "Feminist" is a frightening word to most Catholics.

Because most of the time when we hear that particular "F-word" it's describing women who are advocating for things like abortion or contraception - which yes, the Church opposes.

Or the word "feminist" is describing an attitude of power-seeking female-domination (that's really just a twisted version of "The Patriarchy", right?).

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But that's not the whole story

Catholics have our own version of feminism - yes, feminism - that we are called to promote. The Pope said so.

See for yourself:

It depends on (women) to promote a “new feminism” which rejects the temptation of imitating models of “male domination,” in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society and overcome all discrimination, violence, and exploitation.

This is what Saint Pope John Paul II wrote back in 1995 in the Vatican document Evangelium Vitae, "On the Dignity of Life."

The Pope is acknowledging that women have and still do face discrimination, violence and exploitation.

And he acknowledges that many feminist efforts thus far have attempted to imitate "models of 'male domination.'"

So he's calling on us - yes US ladies - to rise up, in the name of (new) feminism.

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I recently talked to Claire on The Catholic Feminist Podcast all about this. You can listen to that episode online or on iTunes here.

Don't let modern secular feminists, or ill-advising Catholics prevent you from advocating for Catholic Feminism. The Pope is calling us to action - it's time to answer the call! And FemCatholic is here to help.

Not sure where to start?

Here's a post I wrote on 3 Good Reasons Catholics Should be Feminists.

‍All gifs via giphy.com.