A book by Sister Margaret Farley, the Irish American nun who is a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order and the emeritus professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, poses a 'grave' risk to other Catholics the Vatican announced this week.
On Monday Vatican authorities strongly criticized Sister Farley for her book on sexuality, claiming that it contradicted church teaching on issues like masturbation, homosexuality and marriage and that its author had a 'defective understanding' of Catholic theology.
The Vatican's slap down came after the publication of Farley's book, 'Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics.'
According to the Boston Herald Pope Benedict approved the decision last March and ordered the decision published. The Vatican said the book 'affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality.'
In her book Farley writes that masturbation doesn’t raise any moral problems and can actually help relationships rather than hinder them. However the Vatican denied this suggestion and said that according to church teaching 'masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.'
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office tasked with enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy, said that in Farley's book she either ignored church teaching on the core issues of human sexuality or treated it as simply one opinion among many.
But according to the Boston Herald Farley clarified on Monday that she never intended the book to reflect official Catholic teaching. Rather she wrote it to explore sexuality via various religious traditions, theological resources and human experience she said.
The sharp critique of Farley's book was signed by the American head of the congregation Cardinal William Levada, and it comes on the heels of the Vatican’s recent crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, accusing it of undermining church teaching and imposing certain 'radical feminist themes' that were incompatible with Catholicism.
In order to silence the nuns the church has now ordered a full-scale examination of the group and its aims and it has appointed three bishops to carry out the task.
But critics contend the Vatican's heavy handed treatment of Sister Farley, a highly regarded American theologian, will further fan the flames of resentment directed at Rome among American nuns groups.
The Vatican's examination of the book first began in 2010. To begin with church authorities sought Farley's responses to its concerns. However when her replies failed to satisfy the Congregation, they moved on to a full-fledged 'examination' that concluded on December 14, 2011.
Another passage that caused the church concern was when Farley wrote that homosexual people and their sex lives should be respected. Current church teaching holds that gays should be respected but that homosexual acts are 'intrinsically disordered.'
On gay marriage, Farley asserted that legal recognition of gay marriage can help transform the stigmatization of gays, a position that Cardinal Levada said would signal the approval of 'deviant behavior' and would obscure the value of traditional marriage between man and woman in society.
In her statement, Farley freely acknowledged that her views on some issues depart from traditional Catholic doctrine, but she said they were nonetheless coherent in theological and moral traditions.
"'The fact that Christians and others have achieved new knowledge and deeper understanding of human embodiment and sexuality seems to require that we at least examine the possibility of development in sexual ethics,' she wrote.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.eiriamach | Jun 08, 2012, 05:16 PM EDT
Perhaps you're thinking of a ménage à trois, BrianO? The égoisme setup could only turn nasty if you add a third.
BrianO | Jun 08, 2012, 12:49 PM EDT
eiriamach egoisme a deux? I thought a trois, need to review my French.
eiriamach | Jun 07, 2012, 02:05 PM EDT
The either-or fallacy of sex as "beautiful" or sex as "secular," valueless, deserves only satire. So here, from the NY Times, are some words from Maureen Dowd, who praises Sr. Farley's courage: "Taking on the Council of Trent and a church that has taken a stand against pleasure, Sister Farley asserts that procreation is not the only reason couples should have sex. Fruitfulness need not 'refer only to the conceiving of children,' she writes. 'It can refer to multiple forms of fruitfulness in love of others, care for others, making the world a better place for others' rather than just succumbing to 'an égoisme à deux.' The Vatican showed no mercy to the Sister of Mercy.... This latest ignoble fight with a noble nun adds to the picture of a Catholic Church in a permanent defensive crouch, steeped in Borgia-like corruption and sexual scandals, lashing out at anyone who notes the obvious: They have lost track of right and wrong." Not to mention the shoddy discourtesy in attacking a thoughtful writer at a time when the sun cannot set on sex abuse cases in the RCC! It's a time for RCC clerics to listen humbly to the wisdom of holy women and then to think again.
Gearoid4 | Jun 06, 2012, 05:08 PM EDT
Sex by it's nature is beautiful and this beauty was radically explored by the late, great, Blessed Pope John Paul 11, in a deeply Catholic framework in the series of talks which he gave during his pontificate. They are better known by the title "Theology Of The Body" and deal with the selfless union of the married couple in conjugal love-making. This is contrast to the secularized view of sex, which stresses a subjective, value-free ideology surrounding it. It looks like Sr Farley has bought into the latter, much to the detriment of the Christian view of it.
SingleDonald | Jun 06, 2012, 11:57 AM EDT
tempranillo, If I bought jewelry for cash, and wasn't picking it up for a week, I would be sure to get a receipt! I don't care about the merchant's ethnicity or religion! Unless I knew and trusted him/her, the receipt would be mandatory.
EphraimKibbey | Jun 06, 2012, 10:57 AM EDT
@tempranillo - Better you should ask: Could the vatican come BACK to this? There was that whole Inquisition thing awhile back. That was when an "examination" by the Grand Inquisitor meant a very slow, painful death. Hopefully the sister's examination was more enlightened.
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 10:33 PM EDT
"Seven inches of condemnations and one of praise: is that the way to talk to the modern world?" -—John XXIII, After taking a ruler to a page of one of the haughty and pompous schemata, drafts prepared by the curia for approval of the Council Fathers. From John XXIII: Pope of the Century by Peter Hebblethwaite (p. 213). I found this quotation and explanation on the Conciliaria web site-- I never got to know John XXIII, but I miss him never the less.
tempranillo | Jun 05, 2012, 09:30 PM EDT
I too would like to understand the church's teaching on banking 101, on how risk and return are somehow correlated, on competition, chaos and random events and so on. From my perspective, Jews have been wrongly vilified for being unscrupulous lenders.I am not a Jew, but when I found the some really fine pearl earrings for my wife, I paid for them in full & did not take a receipt--even though I would not pick them up for a week. PearlLady was amazed that I trusted a Jew -- yet what better security than having someone's word. My daughter, niece and wife have received many great items from the pearl lady. We will continue this discussion
AlunPalmer | Jun 05, 2012, 09:13 PM EDT
I think the Catholic church has passed it's sell by date.
SingleDonald | Jun 05, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT
Thanks again, tempranillo, for your last 2! Thanks as well, KatieMurphy! You could add the following: Money Lending! I understand that the Jews made out like bandits, in Martin Luther's time, as Catholics were not allowed to be bankers! Consider what the world would be like, if borrowing $ and banking were outlawed!! The idea is to regulate banking, which is done. This will guard against loan sharks, and other unscrupulous practices!
tempranillo | Jun 05, 2012, 08:20 PM EDT
Could the Vatican come to this? Kill People Who Don't Listen to Priests Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)Kill Homosexuals "If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13 NAB) Death for Cursing Parents 1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB) 2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)Death for Adultery If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)Death for Fornication A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9 NAB)Death to Followers of Other Religions Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)
tempranillo | Jun 05, 2012, 08:07 PM EDT
da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo…give me chastity and continence……hm, not just yet. Augustine and an unnamed woman had a relationship that is said to have lasted 13 years. Getting rid of her was quite permissible as the two were not married.
KatieMurphy | Jun 05, 2012, 07:43 PM EDT
Chruch teachings - getting nutter and nutter..................Now they say masturbation is evil and disordered. Maybe if they had encouraged their priests to do so, they would NOT be facing the well deserved near destruction of the church in Europe and its happening in America and latin America, due to the endless hidden molestation of their sex starved priests............And while Benedict is on a tear about the nuns / sisters doing what they are supposed to do -feed the poor, help the sick, and supporting life by eg a demonstation in support of medical care for all in the USA at DC last year, I'm now awaiting his adoption of the old Testament Leviticus nonsense, eg death for working on the sabbath, wearing clothes of differnt clots etc etc. Ancient nutter stuff that if implemented would wipe out the human race and leave the world to the Monkeys and lower animals.............Which might be good in that the primates wouldnt be saying hail Mary's to the vatican.
SingleDonald | Jun 05, 2012, 07:16 PM EDT
Thanks, tempranillo! I really should read up on St. Augustine, and learn about the woman who had his child. I was under the impression he was with many women, like an earlier "Don Juan"! I heard recently that, in his wild youth, he actually said, "Lord. grant me celibacy, but not just yet"!! Celibacy is not the answer, respect for the famale gender is! I do go to Sunday Mass, but can't accept Christ as the fundamentalists, or conservative Catholics do.
seanomelb | Jun 05, 2012, 07:11 PM EDT
drones like mairint with their narrow views are destroying Christianity.They may see themselves as "good"Christians,in essence they are failed human beings.
mairint | Jun 05, 2012, 06:33 PM EDT
Good, time to deal with those radical feminist 'nun' left over from the 60's. Thank God they are fading away along with their cracked ideas. It is amusing to read comments of readers who write about Church history in a matchbox.
tempranillo | Jun 05, 2012, 06:06 PM EDT
SD---thanks for the clarifying question. my bad. and now, to answer. I am not a believer in the requirements the catholic church imposes upon the faithful members. I do not believe Christ became flesh, suffered & rose from the dead so that the catholic church can threaten you with eternal damnation for, say missing sunday mass; or, for disobeying some other silly arbitrary rule. interesting you bring up Saint Augustine. Tell me, if you will, what happened to the woman he lived with; and, what happened to his child. Did they convert? And, were they welcomed by members of the Carthage community? Maybe George Carlin [graduate of Hayes in NYC] got it right when he does his rant on abortion--while your a fetus, your life is sacred. once your born, you are on your own buddy. Oh yeah. watch out if dad is a would be saint
SingleDonald | Jun 05, 2012, 05:20 PM EDT
Another point-St. Augustine. Now, I have not read his writings, but I was taught back in 1st Grade that he "hung out with the wrong crowd". His mom, St. Monica, prayed for him for 30 years. In the end, he regretted his old ways, and reformed himself. Consider that St. Augustine likely showed no respect for the women he was with, and only used them to satisfy his selfish needs. THEN, he was right to reform himself, but he went off the opposite deep end! He embraced celibacy, which the Church started imposing on priests, around the 11th or 12th Century. As Father James Maguire said, in his 1967 blockbuster critique, "A Modern Priest Looks at his Outdated Church" : "The ideal becomes the law"! That was a very profound, and accurate statemant! BTW, does anybody know where Jim Maguire (no longer father) is today? Does he still make public statements, on the Catholic Church? I heard, sadly, that he became an athiest, but that was some time ago. Hopefully, he has abandoned that ideology.
SingleDonald | Jun 05, 2012, 05:02 PM EDT
tempranillo, I'm not sure of your position! Does your last sentence, "No, I do not believe" mean that you are critical of the Church's positions on many things? I don't agree with all of Sr. Margaret's positions, but she hits the nail on the head on most matters of human sexuality. Does any sane person today REALLY believe that "impure thoughts", masturbation, or pre-marital sex, will "send one to hell"? The Catholic Church has dogma which inspires guilt. Does it really make sense to say, "I'm sorry Lord", for the above activities, when we all know we will likely do them again? Rather, if a man or woman honestly sees nothing wrong with these things, what is there to be sorry about? Respect for women is the path men should follow! I answer to the girl I am with, not Jesus! If she wants to remain virginal, I respect that. If she is sexually active, and accepts me, I should do all I can to see that her physical & emotional needs are met. THAT should please a kind & just Jesus! In the 1970's, a movie set in a Catholic High School showed teenagers at a dance. The silly brother reminded the dancers to "leave some room for Jesus". Well, if Jesus has to get between a dancing couple, HE needs to see an earthly shrink!! I would then advise him to "get an Existence", and stop being such an ego-maniac control freak! A kind & just Jesus would be satisfied if I respect the women I know & date.
CelticQueenUSA | Jun 05, 2012, 03:41 PM EDT
If anyone would ask me I think the Vatican and all those MEN of God are intrinsically flawed. Take a look in the record book or the mirror!!
EphraimKibbey | Jun 05, 2012, 03:04 PM EDT
Speaking of Natural Law: The wind is the wind and a force of nature that must be dealt with, not ignored. The oak can stand a strong wind up to a point and then is broken and destroyed. The willow tree shakes and bends in both a strong and a light breeze but when both are over still stands and continues growing. The question is not whether a very strong wind is blowing toward change in the RCC but how the RCC deals with it. The truth is a VERY strong wind!
Nicomax | Jun 05, 2012, 02:07 PM EDT
The church with its almost exclusive concentration on matters sexual to the exclusion of other core problems such as declining attendance and clergy, is a bit like a baseball team spending most of their practice time on improving throws to the cut-off player versus improving their pitching and hitting.
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 01:44 PM EDT
I agree, mayoman. It was a wrenching change when the Church had to reverse its teachings on slavery (slaves owe obedience to their masters), and it will be a wrenching change when the Church revises its teachings on human sexuality. No wonder the Vatican beats against the tide of what really is justice. When change comes, it will knock many off their feet. Good for those who get back up!
mayoman | Jun 05, 2012, 01:20 PM EDT
eiriamach: Many thanks for your thoughtful and insightful comments. Its really too bad that the Vatican feels it necessary to condemn and silence everyone in the Church they disagree with. Why not a discussion, a spirited intellectual debate? But no, instead the stubborn old boys in the Vatican simply insist that they're always right on every subject, and that's that. Clearly this offensive intolerance can't go on indefinetely. Indeed there are far too many educated and thoughtful people in the Church for this pernicious obstacle to progress to continue.
tempranillo | Jun 05, 2012, 01:06 PM EDT
If you wish to be roman catholic, you have the obligation to conform to the teaching of the church. you have no right of dissent. really, you have no rights in respect of moral teaching. indeed, the church holds that it enunciates no new teachings--all magisterial emissions are reflections of eternal truths. if i state the church's position properly, there can be no debate. while this story may be newsworthy to NYT editors, it is of no concern to roman catholics. sister farley is wrong. dissenters are wrong. roma locuta est. now, i infer that some dissent, and in matters of faith, how do you differ from protestants? you do not. sensum fideum? remember the church is not democratic. autocratic, you say? not your business. sex scandals & obstruction of justice? not possible if you believe in the priesthood as men set apart, only in need of good penance. and, yes, parents must be to blame for permitting children to be near occasions of sin. as eugenio pacelli, PP Pius XII said, 'the church is the perfect society.' no, i do not believe
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 11:00 AM EDT
Right, ChrisV. It's response these days is a media attack, complete with conspiracy-against-RCC theories. See PhlotiePhin's baseless attacks here. PP and anyone else who thinks that support for Sr Farley, like the Dolan news reports, is a conspiracy by the media or "church haters" or IC or "libs" or Obama or "radical feminists" or lesbians and gays (I've seen all of the above and more blamed in com boxes), please consider moving your conspiracy-theory hunt over to the Vatileaks scandal. According to yesterday's NY Times article "As Vatican Manages Crisis, Book Details Infighting," Alberto Melloni, the director of the liberal John XXIII Center in Bologna, believes that "traditionalist" and "powerful conservative Catholic groups like Opus Dei and Communion and Liberation" are using the leaks to discredit the pope, to control the Vatican, and preside over the next papal election. John L. Allen Jr. also published an article on the topic for NCR online: "Conservative Catholic Groups Gripped by Scandal": "it now seems Communion and Liberation’s turn to be the conservative Catholic group generating the ... greatest volume of conspiracy theories. That’s likely a special source of heartburn for Pope Benedict XVI, for whom Communion and Liberation has always been his personal favorite among the new movements in the Catholic church." 'Secularism,' Benedict XVI's favorite bogeyman, seems to be wreaking more havoc inside the Church than outside. Take on THAT alleged conspiracy, PP, and give up on Sr. Farley and the reporters following Cardinal Dolan!
ChrisVogel | Jun 05, 2012, 10:49 AM EDT
Let's face it, a factual treatment of just about any topic poses a "grave risk" to Roman theology, since it is all antique fairy-tale. The bottom line is that the Roman church has nothing of value, and certainly nothing truthful, to say about anything, that is not pretty much universal already. Still, better than the old days; modern secular governments do not permit the church its traditional responses to difference of opinion: torture and mass murder.
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 10:43 AM EDT
It's the Church, hermitTalker, that needs to study natural law. Its reading is sadly medieval. We've learned-- and Sr. Farley's book benefits from-- a great deal about nature since Galileo showed us that we are one 'heavenly body' twirling about the sun, and not vice versa. It is certainly time to review what we now know about human sexuality and to allow knowledge to re-shape moral teachings.
peggydf | Jun 05, 2012, 10:22 AM EDT
The learned Sister Farley's opinions--and that's what they are; not her interpretations of Church doctrine--seem far more Christ-like than the opinions of Levada and his minions.
hermitTalker | Jun 05, 2012, 10:19 AM EDT
Amazing a scholar who professes to be a religious scholar is backed by another of her ilk for writing material that is against what God wrote in His Big Library and His Son said on earth and his scholar-apostle Paul repeated and HIS Church has said for 2000 years. eiriamach and others, please: read, study and see the development of Natural Law, and its many proponents and defenders.
irishpjk | Jun 05, 2012, 09:58 AM EDT
Too many of our big college liberal professors think that they are bigger than the church and the laws of the land we live in. It is time that someone started taking them down a peg or two. She used her position as a nun to get her book printed and now says it was not intended to reflect the teachings of the church. I have a name for people like the twisted sister but you can’t print it.
PhlutiePhan | Jun 05, 2012, 09:57 AM EDT
To eiriamach: Rationalization is not the same as intelligentia. The Catholic Church and saints like St. Patrick who lived the life of a slave have the moral responsibility of protecting the family. These so-called socially conscious nuns are out to destroy the foundation of the family in their "lust" for personal fulfillment. Pride and seduction of the youth in the girl scouts is obvious. True sanctity is one of service and not of being a Pied Piper. The true fulfillment of women is not to creae a pseudo hierarchy of lesbian nuns who wish to share power with the bishops who have been largely infiltrated with a gay mentality. These gay bishops are gathering a storm to take on T. Dolan and to support "Newsweek's First Gay President". It is just no accident that the president surrounds himself with radical (read lesbian) Catholic white women such as Kathleen Sebelius who promulgate radical abortion policies. Sebelius was governor of Kansas and espoused "partial birth" abortion which is exceptionally a cruel and barbaric procedure. She counted Dr. George Tiller among her friends. Sister Carol Keehan of the CHA (salary:962K a year) was tricked into admitting that she supported abortion rights. It is the obligation of the Popes and St. Patrick to stand for the innocent and weak. These nuns are using the weak and innocent for their own political advantage. Semper Fi.
Mick10000 | Jun 05, 2012, 09:48 AM EDT
Good on ya eiriamach! But, their heads are not in the sand. Where their heads really are would require a glass bellybutton for them to see where they are going.
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 09:45 AM EDT
Catholic thinkers seem to be hanging out at Yale these days. Here's another statement from a colleague of Sr. Farley's: " The kind of inquisition of faithful Catholic scholars like Sr. Margaret Farley, scholars and religious of impeccable credentials and unquestionable moral character, is therefore an ugly stain on the Catholic church." --Diana M. Swancutt, Associate Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity School.
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 09:37 AM EDT
Another comment from Yale: "Socially conscious nuns, the girl scouts, and now Margaret Farley. Where will it end. The Catholic magisterium could not make a bigger mockery of the illustrious Catholic tradition of rational inquiry if it tried. It’s both a shame and shameful. Thomas Aquinas is rolling over in his grave.... The Catholic hierarchy needs to get its head out of the sand, its sexual ethic out of the 1950s and its mind out of the gutter."-- Kathryn Tanner '79 B.A., '85 Ph.D., Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology. In my youth, I heard talk of a "Catholic intelligentsia." Where'd that go?
eiriamach | Jun 05, 2012, 09:22 AM EDT
According to the NY Times article on her book, "The statement took Sister Farley to task for writing that same-sex marriage 'can also be important in transforming the hatred, rejection, and stigmatization of gays and lesbians.” Considering the number of suicides by LGBT youth, the peer bullying and parental rejection they endure, and LGBTs' ongoing struggle for civil rights, Sr. Farley's statement should have a healing effect and help us see justice more clearly. For the Vatican to "take her to task" for such a statement betrays an appalling lack of moral understanding! Yale Univ. profs and grads have posted several insightful statements about this attack on Sr. Farley's book. Among them are these words by Angela Batie Carlin, '07 M.Div., Former Campus Minister at St. Louis University: "Margaret Farley's suggestion to employ justice as an essential criterion in discernment of sexual relationships has been an invaluable contribution to people of faith in this important and often misunderstood part of the human experience."