Pope calls female genital mutilation a crime that must stop

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By NICOLE WINFIELD

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis called female genital mutilation a “crime” on Sunday and said the fight for women’s rights, equality and opportunity must continue for the good of society.

“How is it that today in the world we cannot stop the tragedy of infibulation of young girls?” he asked, referring to the ritual cutting of a girls’ external genitalia. “This is terrible that today there is a practice that humanity isn’t able to stop. It’s a crime. It’s a criminal act!”

Francis was responding to a question about women’s right en route home from Bahrain. He was asked whether he supported the protests in Iran sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police after allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

Francis didn’t directly respond, but gave a lengthy denunciation of how women in many cultures around the world are treated as second-class citizens or worse and said: “We have to continue to fight this because women are a gift.”



Pope Francis attends a prayer meeting and Angelus with bishops, priests, consecrated people, seminarians and pastoral workers, at the Sacred Heart Church in Manama, Bahrain, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022. Pope Francis is making the November 3-6 visit to participate in a government-sponsored conference on East-West dialogue and to minister to Bahrain's tiny Catholic community, part of his effort to pursue dialogue with the Muslim world. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-health-europe-middle-east-religion-1f28ca32afa75d192aeb2a930303ed95

---

[Freethinker65]

1. Agree about the mutilation being horrendous

But saying it is horrific because women are a "gift" (I assume from God to men?) is also quite troubling.

[NullTuples]

2. Honestly, did you expect anything less? That *is* Catholic theology; there's no avoiding it.

[pnwmom]

5. I assumed he meant "to the world" but that was just my interpretation. n/t

[oldsoftie]

11. The Church says all human life is a "gift" from God. nt

[Sky Jewels]

3. So the RCC is throwing a bone to the gender it has oppressed, shat upon & murdered for centuries?

Fuck the Vatican and all of its corrupt poohbahs (who are 100 percent male, by the way, just like the main magical characters in the stupid stories the Catholic Church pushes on people to keep them in fear and obedience). The RCC is nothing but an old and ridiculously powerful grifting 'n' pedo ring. Progressive who continues to financially support this overwhelmingly evil institution need to reexamine their values.

Most of the SCOTUS assholes who overturned Roe were Opus Dei freaks. So the Catholic Church's reign of terror continues marching forward in our own time and in our own country.

A pox on all patriarchal bullshit mythologies, including this one.

[sarisataka]

21. Is it safe to assume

You will not vote for Democratic candidates who are Catholic? Since one may assume they support the institution.

Progressive who continues to financially support this overwhelmingly evil institution need to reexamine their values.

[Sky Jewels]

23. I will vote for them because I've only got two choices, and the other side is worse.

I'm not thrilled that they support a patriarchal, misogynistic institution, but we have a lousy two-party system that doesn't give any realistic alternatives.

[NullTuples]

4. (deleted - my comment was a distraction from the main point of the article)

Last edited Sun Nov 6, 2022, 07:34 PM - Edit history (1)

My apologies.

[pnwmom]

6. The health benefits of circumcision exceed the risks, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists endorsed the AAP's statement.

Infibulation isn't done for health reasons, and it cannot be compared to removing the foreskin. It involves removing ALL of a woman's external genitals and sewing everything up, allowing only a tiny hole so that menstrual fluids can pass -- so that she has no more sexual feeling from a clitoris and can't have sex unless someone literally cuts her open again.

Removing the foreskin doesn't prevent any male from having or enjoying sex, and has at least some health benefits.

It's fascinating that anyone would compare the two procedures.

Male circumcision is a common procedure, generally performed during the newborn period in the United States. In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) formed a multidisciplinary task force of AAP members and other stakeholders to evaluate the recent evidence on male circumcision and update the Academy’s 1999 recommendations in this area. Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it. Specific benefits identified included prevention of urinary tract infections, penile cancer, and transmission of some sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has endorsed this statement.

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/130/3/585/30235/Circumcision-Policy-Statement?autologincheck=redirected?nfToken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

[Orrex]

9. We should get infants' consent before vaccinating them, too.

[oldsoftie]

12. Ouch!

[Hekate]

7. This one's a good man. In addition, he started life as a scientist.

[Hortensis]

24. Yes.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

8. But if you have to decide between saving the mother or the fetus - save the fetus!

[Mysterian]

10. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day

Religion is a bane of mankind.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Barbaric. Thank you Pope Francis.

[oldsoftie]

14. we've had people in the US try to call it a "Muslim religious ritual" that should be allowed.

Even had a court case on it.

[Warpy]

15. You know where they've stopped it? Women's villages in Kenya

Umoja was the original village and is entirely women occupied and run. Other sister villages have sprung up, some of which tolerate male residents as long as they respect the right of women to run the villages. Surprisingly, they do, and they say they like it that way.

Girls born in the villages or brought there at a young age are not mutilated at puberty.

Right now, the villages are attracting women who are fleeing violent men or men who divorced them in favor of younger tail. It will be interesting to see how they progress over the next 50 years or so. It will be interesting to see if their daughters marry or stay in the village unmarried, seeking out men outside the village if they want kids. In any case, those men will find out what women are like when they stay the way Allah made them.

[Lunabell]

16. All genital mutilation of babies should be outlawed.

Even for religious reasons. It's cruel and inhumane. Chose it as an adult if you want.

[Mike Niendorff]

19. THIS

Female. Male. All of it.

It's barbarism, and a violation of fundamental human rights.

Bodily autonomy is non-negotiable. Period.


MDN

[Martin68]

17. The pope is right about that, but what about forcing a 10-year-old to bear the child of a rapist?

[niyad]

18. That's nice, dear. Now tell us what the rcc is going to do to rectify its

treatment of women as lesser beings, including the less than complete health care they receive at catholic hospitals and practices.

[Sky Jewels]

25. ...

[The Jungle 1]

20. Circumcision is also a crime.

For the glans penis, circumcised men reported decreased sexual pleasure and lower orgasm intensity. They also stated more effort was required to achieve orgasm, and a higher percentage of them experienced unusual sensations (burning, prickling, itching, or tingling and numbness of the glans penis).

[Aristus]

22. Well, they didn't talk to this circumcised man.

And it really is a crime to compare male circumcision to female genital mutilation. The prepuce, or foreskin, has no erectile tissue, and so circumcising the foreskin has no effect on sexual function, sexual performance, or sexual enjoyment. Not to mention, hygiene is a lot easier with that useless piece of skin gone.

Female genital mutilation is entirely about eliminating a woman's capacity to enjoy sex. That's it. Bottom line.

[The Jungle 1]

26. Consider these points and smile

Circumcised men reported decreased sexual pleasure and lower orgasm intensity. They also stated more effort was required to achieve orgasm, and a higher percentage of them experienced unusual sensations (burning, prickling, itching, or tingling and numbness of the glans penis). They are talking about adult men who get circumcised.

Soap and water are easy enough to use. There is a joke about that.

Useless skin hummmmm. Apparently it is just a mistake? Ok, it was a busy seven days after all.
Except the foreskin does have many fans, who claim it still serves important protective, sensory and sexual functions. Every mammal has a foreskin! Now if every mammal has a foreskin how come we humans think it is useless and chop it off? What would Darwin say?
Wonder how all the other mammals keep theirs clean. There is a joke about that.

This is the procedure: The foreskin is removed just behind the head of the penis using a scalpel or surgical scissors. Any bleeding can be stopped using heat (cauterisation), and the remaining edges of skin will be stitched together using dissolvable stitches. Some physicians perform neonatal circumcisions without the use of anesthetics. Nothing cruel about that. Hold the new born infant down and chop the end of his dick off. No big deal! I bet if someone filmed the procedure this barbaric practice would end.

Here is the clincher. The hospitals sell the foreskins to biotech labs.
There is a joke about that also.

I might need a hobby.

[Aristus]

27. Yeah, what do I know about the sexual activity of circumcised men?

I'm only a sexually-active circumcised man.

[The Jungle 1]

28. Well if you have always been circumcised then you don't know.

You are missing a whole other level of pleasure.

I am multi orgasmic. Are you? I think ten is my record. It is real. It is called a multiple ridged band orgasm. If you were mutilated at birth you do not have a ridged band and you can't get it back.

A 2007 British Journal of Urology study* found that the five most sensitive parts of the penis are removed by circumcision. Foreskin is not “extra skin”—it is functional erogenous tissue containing almost half the skin and well over half the nerves of the penis. Cut it off and those nerves are gone forever, taking with them any chance of enjoying foreskin-based orgasms.

All children (male, female and intersex) have a human right to a whole and intact body—so no child’s sex organs should be amputated without an urgent medical reason. A boy’s foreskin doesn’t belong to God, the government, or his parents—it belongs to him. His body, his choice!
http://www.can-fap.net/fourreasons.shtml

Many doctors in Canada are refusing to preform this infant mutilation.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

31. Given the practice is ancient and has ties to organized religion(s)

I haven't really researched it much, full disclosure, but given these facts and what you just explained, I'd venture a guess that the real reason it started was as an attempt to get younger boys to play with themselves ... less.

[Hekate]

30. Sorry for your troubles, but the only thing comparable would be complete excision of the penis...

…leaving the testes intact. The male person would still be fertile, as sperm would be able to be extracted from his body. But sexual pleasure would be slight (if at all) and orgasm would be nil.

Probably would not have the lifelong pain of the female, though. In girls, the clitoris is removed along with the labia. I won’t describe the rest.

[The Jungle 1]

32. We should not be mutilating anybody!

Male or female. Arguing that one type of mutilation is worse than another is not the point.
Male and female genital mutilation is wrong.
It is odd that male genital mutilation is so well accepted while female genital mutilation is condemned.
Both my sons are intact.

A 2007 British Journal of Urology study* found that the five most sensitive parts of the penis are removed by circumcision. Foreskin is not “extra skin”—it is functional erogenous tissue containing almost half the skin and well over half the nerves of the penis. Cut it off and those nerves are gone forever, taking with them any chance of enjoying foreskin-based orgasms.

All children (male, female and intersex) have a human right to a whole and intact body—so no child’s sex organs should be amputated without an urgent medical reason. A boy’s foreskin doesn’t belong to God, the government, or his parents—it belongs to him. His body, his choice!
http://www.can-fap.net/fourreasons.shtml

[Hekate]

29. It is a historic event that the words even passed the lips of a Pope. Pope Francis is amazing.

Yes he is.