UNITED STATES
Glendale News-Press
An Italian Catholic priest is under fire for a Christmas message he made that apparently blames women for domestic violence. Perio Corsi’s text, titled “Women and femicide — healthy self-criticism. How often do they provoke?” contains the lines, “How often do we see girls and mature women going around scantily dressed and in provocative clothes? They provoke the worst instincts, which end in violence or sexual abuse. They should search their consciences and ask: Did we bring this on ourselves?”
Corsi, the leader of a church in San Terenzo in northern Italy, also described modern women as “arrogant” and accused them, among other things, of serving cold food and not cleaning their houses. After his text was published online he first apologized for it and then retracted his apology. He has also dismissed demands for his resignation.
More than 100 Italian women were killed in domestic violence incidents in 2012, a third more than the previous year.
Q: Do Corsi’s words reveal an entrenched cultural view of women and domestic violence?
I believe Perio Corsi’s sermon reflects a grossly uninformed and errant view of the issue of domestic violence. It also reflects a belittling view of womanhood that is held by some people in the modern world, and that may in fact be entrenched in some regions or people groups. But I also believe that slowly these negative estimations of women are changing. Whether or not the overall modern cultural view of women ends up in a good place depends on whether or not it understands and follows God’s biblically revealed will for the role of men and women.
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