Since 1993, thousands of brutal murders and disappearances of women and young girls have occurred in Ciudad Juarez, a border city in Mexico. Nancy Pineda-Madrid, Ph.D., a professor at Boston College, visited La Salle University this week to share some of her research on the topic of feminicide and the theological connections to it. Feminicide is the systematic assassination of women simply because they are women. This word is not to be confused with femicide, which calls to mind the word homicide. Pineda-Madrid argues that the word feminicide is preferred among activists and scholars, as it calls to mind genocide. Not only are women and girls being systematically raped, beaten, sexually mutilated, and killed, but these atrocious murders are accompanied by the impunity of the perpetrators. Pineda-Madrid’s central argument is that feminicide is an example of contemporary crucifixion and serves as an example of the broken body of Christ. The atrocities committed in Ciudad Juarez and across the world force us to reimagine the mystical body of Christ, and in doing so, we are able to experience hope in the Resurrection.

Pineda-Madrid said during her lecture that there are many possible political and sociological explanations as to why these murders occur in such astounding numbers, but a simple explanation is that the perpetrators are simply not held accountable. The police and government leaders are largely to blame since there have been an inexcusable amount of murders in the past decade, and women continue to systematically disappear and be killed. The level of inaction by police and government officials to end this genocide is astounding. Simply put, this brutality is the result of a patriarchal society that considers women to be expendable commodities. One explanation that Pineda-Madrid offered during her lecture was a gross distortion of the Catholicism that is extremely prevalent in Mexico. Some people argue that because Jesus was incarnated as a man, women are therefore not as holy as men and will never be able to become fully "Christ-like."

Pope Francis will be visiting this crime-plagued city during his trip to Mexico this week; he will be visiting a prison and celebrating Mass. Mexico, the site of the appearances ranging from Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, is mainly Roman Catholic, a religion that venerates the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of Christ. This devotion toward a woman is incredibly ironic in a country that largely objectifies and marginalizes women. Pope Francis recently tweeted, “Mary is a woman who says yes, a yes of surrender to God, a yes of surrender to her brothers and sisters. May we follow her example.” In the past, the Holy Father has referred to Mary as “the path that God Himself has prepared to come into the world.” Mary is a perfect representation of the suffering women of Ciudad Juarez, and victims of feminicide around the world. The mothers of victims of these horrible killings are generally the faces of protests. They introduced the practice of using pink crosses to commemorate the victims of feminicide. If these victims are the embodiment of the broken Body of Christ, if Mary is Our Mother, then Mary’s heart breaks with these mothers. She mourns as she mourns the crucifixion of her Son.

This conversation is especially fitting as we enter the liturgical season of Lent, as we are called to solidarity with the suffering of Christ and the suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world. Pope Francis said during World Youth Day in 2013 that, “There is no cross, big or small, which the Lord does not share with us… What has the Cross left in each one of us? It gives us a treasure that no one else can give: the certainty of a faithful love which God has for us. A love so great that it enters into our sin and forgives it, enters into our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it. It is a love which enters into death to conquer it and to save us. The Cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love.” We must realize that we will never rid the world of evil and suffering, but, through our communion with Christ’s suffering, we also enter into communion with Christ’s Resurrection. We realize that the Resurrection and sharing in the glory of God’s Kingdom is God’s ultimate intention for all of humanity in the fullness of time, but in order to reach this goal, we must carry our cross. Our suffering, and the suffering of the victims of feminicide, is in vain if we do not relate it to the suffering of Christ. This is the only way we will be able to achieve true hope. However, this does not mean that we do not resist sin and evil. We must continue to strive for justice for these women in Ciudad Juarez and around the world. We must work for justice for all of God’s people, our brothers and sisters. When we work for a just society, the union of all humanity, the Body of Christ will be more apparent.