Feminists Protest Vatican’s inclusion in SICA

The Nicaragua Dispatch ^ | 1/23/13 | Tim Rogers

[marshmallow]

Feminists say Central America is fertile ground for the Roman Catholic Church’s efforts to influence public policy in foreign countries

Central American feminists and human rights advocates are protesting what they call the “abnormal” and “suspicious” inclusion of the Vatican as an extra-regional state observer to the Central American Integration System (SICA).

Rights groups claim the inclusion of the Holy See in Central America’s integration process is—to paraphrase the Bible—like letting in a wolf in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15).

“The Vatican has an expansionist plan to influence public policy in other nations,” says Marta Maria Blandón, director of Ipas Central America, an international public-health organization for women. “For the Vatican, Central America is paradise because these countries have a weak culture of secularism and there is already a lot of confusion between the roles of government and church.”

The inclusion of the Vatican as a SICA observer, which happened quickly and quietly during a private ceremony in San Salvador on Monday afternoon, was done in a manner that was “arbitrary, clandestine and undemocratic,” Blandón charges. Feminist groups throughout Central America are preparing to push back against SICA’s decision by protesting before their respective foreign ministries in an attempt to revoke the Vatican’s observer status, she said.

“The majority of Central American nations establish the separation of Church and State in their constitutions, so the integration of the Vatican as a representative of the Church in this regional body violates the secular nature of our governing institutions by making them subject to observation by a religious organization,” reads a protest statement from a coalition of feminist and human rights organizations in El Salvador.

The coalition argues that the Vatican is theocracy, not a democracy, so it doesn’t have much to contribute to SICA’s stated mission of consolidating democracy in Central America.

Furthermore.....

[MichaelCorleone]

Funny, I never hear ‘feminists’ get bent out of shape at the very real atrocities that islam is known for.

Truth be told, it’s Christ that they hate.

[Petrosius]

The feminists should protest by boycotting all activities of the SICA.