CSDC 147

Woman is the complement of man, as man is the complement of woman: man and woman complete each other mutually, not only from a physical and psychological point of view, but also ontologically. It is only because of the duality of “male” and “female” that the “human” being becomes a full reality. It is the “unity of the two”²⁸⁸ John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, 11: AAS 80AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 80 (1988) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1988), 1678., or in other words a relational “uni-duality”, that allows each person to experience the interpersonal and reciprocal relationship as a gift that at the same time is a mission: “to this ‘unity of the two' God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself”²⁸⁹ John Paul II, Letter to Women, 8: AAS 87AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 87 (1995) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1995), 808.. “The woman is ‘a helper' for the man, just as the man is ‘a helper' for the woman!”²⁹⁰ John Paul II, Sunday Angelus (9 July 1995): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 12 July 1995, p. 1; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11/18 August 2004, pp. 5-8.: in the encounter of man and woman a unitary conception of the human person is brought about, based not on the logic of self-centredness and self-affirmation, but on that of love and solidarity.