SLS senior faculty member, Dr. Martha Miranda recently presented a research paper in the 10^th Matercare International Conference in Rome. The Conference was opened by Cardinal Pell, a recent appointee to a Papal Commission. With its theme, ‘New Evangelisation, the Practice of Obstetrics, and the Care of Mothers’ the Conference aimed to discuss a wide range of issues facing maternal health care,  the delaying of first pregnancy to the 30s and 40s, the increased demand for reproductive technologies due to the gay agenda, and violence against women.

 

 

The Conference not only coincided with the celebration of ‘Evangelium Vitae’ in the Year of Faith but also the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the 25th anniversary of ‘Mulieris Dignitatem’.

 

Among the many high profile speakers who graced this conference were Leonie Caldecott, founder of the Centre for Faith and Culture, UK; Dr Sylvie de Kermadec, and Fr. Richard Taylor, a Biblical scholar in many Roman Universities who all spoke about the huge respect of the Church for women. Fr. Conor Donnelly, the current chaplain of Kianda School for Girls, delivered a talk titled “The Call to Holiness and the Catholic Obstetrician”.

 

Discussions of the paper

 

In her paper titled, ‘ Gender Ideology- Proposals and Consequences’  Dr. Miranda discusses how the evolution of the notion of the term “gender” has grown in importance, both in intellectual debate and in the realm of praxis. She points out that, beginning in the second half of the 20^th century, this word has undergone a conceptual change due to its increasing use in other areas and, not infrequently, for having substituted the classical term “sex”, employed in order to designate the human sexual duality man-woman. This fact is verifiable in contemporary anthropological, social, political and legal discourse. Although the word gender by itself doesn’t have a positive or negative way to be understood, the problem is its interpretation. Today there are two leading interpretations: “gender perspective” and “gender ideology”.

 

Audience with Pope Francis

For the conference participants as well as members of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, it was another highlight to have an audience with Pope Francis, and the Holy Father took this opportunity to speak strongly against a “throwaway culture” that specially harm the unborn and the elderly.

           

Profile of Dr. Miranda

Dr. Martha Miranda is a Colombian citizen, where she studied Law, and graduated as a Lawyer in 2000 from the University of San Buenaventura.  She worked as an Attorney in Cali (Colombia) for five years.  In January 2006 she went to University of Navarra in Pamplona (Spain) where she obtained her PhD in Law in 2012 with a thesis titled “Gender discourse: Some influences on Spanish Legislation”. Currently she is a Lecturer and Research Director in Strathmore Law School.

 

On gender issues, Dr. Miranda has published:

– Ideología de género: Perspectivas antropológica-filosófica, social y jurídica, Promesa-Universidad de Navarra, Costa Rica (with Dolores López), 2011.

– “El igualitarismo de Simone de Beauvoir: Consecuencias prácticas” in Aparisi, Angela (ed.), Género y persona, Thomson Aranzadi, Pamplona, 2011.

– “Diferencia entre la perspectiva de género y la ideología de género” (Difference between gender perspective and gender ideology), Díkaion, vol. 21, 2 (2012).

– “La despenalización del aborto y la perspectiva de género” (Decriminalization of abortion and gender perspective), Auctoritas Prudentium, n. 9 (2013).