Assignment: Individual/Group Paper: Domestic Violence (Option A; submission on or before February 2)

[1211_LCENWRD_A63D] - ENCOUNTERING THE WORD IN THE WORLD
2021-10-14T13:04:53Z

Due:

If group paper (choose your group members; max. of 3; 2 pages max.; submit only one copy for the group paper with list of members)

Use the Lasallian Reflection Framework (See-Discern/Judge-Act): Do you agree with the decision of the wife to separate from her husband? Be thorough in your analysis (Demonstrate that you have understood previous lectures specially on Domestic Violence, the document "When I Call for Help, and Hood's video on "Healthy/Unhealthy Relationships").

SEE

Describe briefly the experience of the wife. (Optional: Compare it with your personal encounter with domestic violence, if any).

DISCERN/JUDGE

Based on what we learned about domestic violence, what are the root causes of domestic violence? Do you see these reflected in the case study? Explain. Why was the woman hesitant to leave?

What church teachings/interpretation of Scripture texts reinforce domestic violence? How are these reflected in the case study? What church teachings/Scripture texts counter domestic violence?

ACT

Do you agree with the decision of the wife to separate from her husband? Why or why not?

What should the family/community/society/and especially the Church do to support women like her?

CASE STUDY: ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE [based on a true story] (2 pages; individual work)

I am 28 years old. I was still young when my father went to the USA and never came back. My mother, since then, seems always angry with the world.

Like my husband, I am a Catholic and I had a Catholic education from elementary to college. The early part of our marriage seems okay. He was a member of the marines and later became a bodyguard. I did not know that right at the start he was already a womanizer and a gambler. He started being violent when he learned to take drugs. I could no longer talk to him properly. He is jealous of all men – the telephone man, my boss, etc. He brought and fetched me from work and checked my underwear every day. He would invent and ask me a lot of things like why I smelled differently. From that time on, I was even scared to look at men because he got angry very easily.

I thought before that he was violent because he was under the influence of drugs. So, I thought he could still change. I really loved him, so I served him all the more hoping that he would change. But that was not effective. One time that he beat me, my aunt told me to report it to the barangay and secure a blotter. But I did not want a scandal. Furthermore, I still loved him.

When I could not stand anymore his jealousy toward my boss, I stopped working. He did not like this so he wooed me and became extra nice and sweet. I loved him and I thought he is going to change so I decided not to work anymore. That was the time he strangled me to a point that I thought I was going to die. He dragged me from the first to the second floor of our house. I vomited when we reached the second floor of our house.

I ran away and went to my mother who told me to go back to him. She likes my husband a lot in spite of everything that my husband did to me. I sought the Church’s help because my aunt is really religious. In my aunt’s parish though, the priest has the same old approach: to save the marriage. They do not advise getting out of the relationship, even if there is really no solution.

Looking back at what happened to me, I acted like a martyr. Before, I believed that the woman should be a martyr because she has the greater responsibility to preserve the marriage and the family. As much as possible, I did not want us to separate. I wanted to save the marriage because I do not want what happened to my parents to happen to me. Besides, I was thinking of my children. They will suffer greatly so I really tried hard to save our marriage. I did whatever he wanted me to do. I thought that this will make him change. But it was all in vain.

At that time, I felt like I did not have any right. I felt that I did not even have the right to assert myself. I thought I really have to endure everything. If only it was instilled in me in my younger years that we are equal. In my mind, since we are already married, he has a right over me. Even others would say, “he is your husband.” I eventually was able to separate from him with the help of the Women’s Crisis Center.

If group paper (choose your group members; max. of 3; 2 pages max.; submit only one copy for the group paper with list of members)

Use the Lasallian Reflection Framework (See-Discern/Judge-Act): Do you agree with the decision of the wife to separate from her husband? Be thorough in your analysis (Demonstrate that you have understood previous lectures specially on Domestic Violence, the document "When I Call for Help, and Hood's video on "Healthy/Unhealthy Relationships").

SEE

Describe briefly the experience of the wife. (Optional: Compare it with your personal encounter with domestic violence, if any).

DISCERN/JUDGE

Based on what we learned about domestic violence, what are the root causes of domestic violence? Do you see these reflected in the case study? Explain. Why was the woman hesitant to leave?

What church teachings/interpretation of Scripture texts reinforce domestic violence? How are these reflected in the case study? What church teachings/Scripture texts counter domestic violence?

ACT

Do you agree with the decision of the wife to separate from her husband? Why or why not?

What should the family/community/society/and especially the Church do to support women like her?

CASE STUDY: ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE [based on a true story] (2 pages; individual work)

I am 28 years old. I was still young when my father went to the USA and never came back. My mother, since then, seems always angry with the world.

Like my husband, I am a Catholic and I had a Catholic education from elementary to college. The early part of our marriage seems okay. He was a member of the marines and later became a bodyguard. I did not know that right at the start he was already a womanizer and a gambler. He started being violent when he learned to take drugs. I could no longer talk to him properly. He is jealous of all men – the telephone man, my boss, etc. He brought and fetched me from work and checked my underwear every day. He would invent and ask me a lot of things like why I smelled differently. From that time on, I was even scared to look at men because he got angry very easily.

I thought before that he was violent because he was under the influence of drugs. So, I thought he could still change. I really loved him, so I served him all the more hoping that he would change. But that was not effective. One time that he beat me, my aunt told me to report it to the barangay and secure a blotter. But I did not want a scandal. Furthermore, I still loved him.

When I could not stand anymore his jealousy toward my boss, I stopped working. He did not like this so he wooed me and became extra nice and sweet. I loved him and I thought he is going to change so I decided not to work anymore. That was the time he strangled me to a point that I thought I was going to die. He dragged me from the first to the second floor of our house. I vomited when we reached the second floor of our house.

I ran away and went to my mother who told me to go back to him. She likes my husband a lot in spite of everything that my husband did to me. I sought the Church’s help because my aunt is really religious. In my aunt’s parish though, the priest has the same old approach: to save the marriage. They do not advise getting out of the relationship, even if there is really no solution.

Looking back at what happened to me, I acted like a martyr. Before, I believed that the woman should be a martyr because she has the greater responsibility to preserve the marriage and the family. As much as possible, I did not want us to separate. I wanted to save the marriage because I do not want what happened to my parents to happen to me. Besides, I was thinking of my children. They will suffer greatly so I really tried hard to save our marriage. I did whatever he wanted me to do. I thought that this will make him change. But it was all in vain.

At that time, I felt like I did not have any right. I felt that I did not even have the right to assert myself. I thought I really have to endure everything. If only it was instilled in me in my younger years that we are equal. In my mind, since we are already married, he has a right over me. Even others would say, “he is your husband.” I eventually was able to separate from him with the help of the Women’s Crisis Center.