25th November.   16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE.  This campaign every year from 25 November to 10th December is an opportunity to create awareness, to dialogue and share, for many organisations but also for men and women, at home, school and work.  The issue is not equality but a loss, the physical, emotional and psychological abuse and especially treating women and children as objects, rather than human beings with value and dignity.  We are all created in the image of God but not all treated with the same respect.  The right attitude should be taught and modelled at home, so just take a look around at your own relationships.  How are we doing? 

Reflect, share, Scripture.  King Antiochus became sick with grief.  “To what distress I have come.  I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of silver and gold and sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good reason.  I know that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me.    1 Mac. 6.   The human person is the clearest reflection of God’s presence in the word; all of the Church’s work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person.  Pope Francis: Extreme poverty and other situations of family breakdown sometimes even led families to sell their children for prostitution or for organ trafficking. AL 46.  Modesty is a natural means whereby we defend our personal privacy and prevent ourselves from being turned into objects to be used.  Without a sense of modesty, affection and sexuality can be reduced to an obsession with genitality and unhealthy behaviours that distort our capacity for love and with forms of sexual violence that lead to inhuman treatment or cause hurt to others.   AL 282. Action and prayer:  Remember in prayer the needs of those we have loved and lost, especially to abuse and femicide.