VATICAN CITY
NPR
[with audio and video]
FEBRUARY 03, 2015
SYLVIA POGGIOLI
Even before it opens Wednesday, the Vatican’s outreach initiative toward women got off to a bad start.
A promotional video produced ahead of a conference on women’s issues has been widely ridiculed as a sexist stereotype of the modern Western woman.
The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture is sponsoring the conference on Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference.
In December, organizers released a promotional video that features Italian actress Nancy Brilli, tossing her hair, looking at the camera coquettishly and asking in a sultry voice for women to contribute 60-second clips of their lives to be broadcast at the conference.
“I am sure you have asked yourself many times,” the sexy blonde says, “who you are, what you do, what you think about your being a woman, your strength, your difficulties, your body and your spiritual life.”
The video drew intense criticism.
“What are they thinking at the Vatican?” asked Phyllis Zagano of Hofstra University, writing in the National Catholic Reporter.
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