Handouts #1-Issues affecting Human Dignity

Differentially-abled and Prostitution

On morning as I knelt and pray, I gazed at the statue of Christ in clay. And lo! To my
dismay, he’s got no arms and hands that sway.
I searched around from roof to ground and even beyond, His wounded hands cannot be
found. So I turned to Him and asked the Lord it it’s dream; why in His glorious seat He
seems to be incomplete?
He said : “YOU ARE MY HANDS”
- heal the wounds of the afflicted
- care for the poor
- reach out to the weary
- clothe the naked
By doing this my child…you will restore my HANDS!

 People with disabilities according to PCP II #399 are powerless and voiceless,
dependent and insecure. They have less job opportunities, high level of
unemployment and dependence, low level of self-esteem and self-worth and
generally low levels of access to basic services such as health, education, welfare
and employment.
 PCP II#400- The Church assists government and non-government agencies in the
care of the disable. They are some of the poorest of the poor, pitied but often
neglected. The Church sees the face of Christ in them. And this recognition has to
be translated into programs; programs that will facilitate and accommodate
disabled person and bring them into the streams of society as we recognize their
uniqueness, talents and capacity of becoming.

 SOME BIBLICAL PASSAGES ON DIFFERENTIALLY-ABLED PEOPLE

Matthew 9:1-8 Matthew 8: 1-4
Matthew 9:32-33 Mark 7:31-37
Mark 8:22- 26 Mark 10:46-52

PROSTITUTION
- the use of a woman or man’s sexual labor for free occurring within a
system, where women or men’s bodies are commodified and used for
profit by other people.
- Prostituted men and women don’t live glamorous lives, as some
people would think. They get as little as 5% to 10% of the client’s fee.
They have no vacation and they are not safe from sadistic clients who
also hurt them. Their clients, pimps, bar owners and even policemen
exploit them.

Various forms of violence that may lead to Prostitution

1. Sexual Harassment
- any unwanted sexual attention that a woman experiences. It includes
actions such as leering, unnecessary touching or patting, subtle
suggestions of sexual nature, pressure for dates or compromising
invitations, demands for sexual favors, using sexual suggestive or
offensive objects and pictures and sexual assault.

2. Domestic Violence
- physical battering, verbal, mental/psychological abuse
- The most common from of domestic violence is wife/husband-
battering. It ranges from a push or a slap to punching and actual
murder. In many cases of wife-beating, the husbands are found to be
immature, irresponsible, and insecure.
 - The violence usually comes in a cycle. After actually beating up, the
spouse can be very contrite and promise all sorts of things. Thus the
spouse is lulled into the false hope that their partners will change, but
not long after, anything can trigger the violence again and the story
repeats itself.
3. Deprivation [ Physical or emotional ]
- controlling a woman through emotional blackmail and physical
deprivation [ not being allowed to go out of the home, withholding of
food or being controlled physically through other means] as forms of
punishment by an authority figure usually towards conformity to
certain wishes/standards set by the latter.
4. Incest –physical/sexual relationship between an adult and/or non-consenting child
or minor framed in the context of an unequal power dynamics. It usually happens
in the family between daughters and father or brothers, uncle or other blood
relations.
5. Rape
- In and out of marriage. Any sexual activity done to a woman without
her consent or against her will. It does not necessarily have to involve
penile penetration as framed in the law.
6. Sex Trafficking
- involves the selling of women’s bodies from one point to another; can
be local or international.
7. Pornography
- The use and abuse of women’s bodies for visual [ e.g.”girlie”
magazines,”sex trip” [ ST movies ] and nudial [ e.g. dial-a-porn ]
titillation and for profit. Pornography in the internet depicts men and
women as sex objects.

Any form of violence is violence against the dignity of the person. It violates life.
Jesus threw the men in confusion when he asked those without sin to cast the first
stone at the adulterous woman [ Jn 8:4-7 ]. He allowed a sinful woman to wash his
feet with her tears and dry it with her hair [ Lk 7:36-50 ]. He acted against patriarchal
tradition when he created women as persons, daughters of God, and made in the
image of God. The Church while wavering on its views on women, stand adamant
that people cannot remain indifferent and resigned before the long and degrading
history of violence on women. “ The time has come to condemn vigorously the types
of sexual violence which frequently have women for their object and to pass laws
which effectively defend them from such violence. Nor can we fail, in the name of
respect due to human persons, to condemn the widespread hedonistic and
commercial culture which encourages the systematic exploitation of sexually and
corrupts even very young girls into letting their bodies be used for profit” [ JP II ]

God has both the feminine and masculine attributes:

Numbers 11:12 Wisdom 7:22-30; 9:17-18

Deut 32:11-12:18 Exodus 19:4
Isaiah 49:15-18

Women are co-partners of men in struggle for freedom. [ Book of Judith and Esther ]