The Vatican Denounces U.S. Nun Over Sexual Ethics Book

An American nun has been denounced by the Vatican in light of her book that contradicts the teachings of sexuality in the Catholic Church.

Sister Margaret Farley is a highly regarded theologian at Yale University and is being targeted by the Vatican for a book that she released where she discusses gay marriage and masturbation among other things.

Disagreeing with her point of view, the Catholic Church has chosen to denounce the nun and demand that no catholic educators are to use Sister Farley’s book in any teaching, adding that “”Sister Farley manifests a defective understanding of the objective nature of the natural moral law. This approach is not consistent with authentic Catholic theology.”

However, professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College, Dr Richard Gaillardetz states that Farley’s book Just Love “is in many ways the fruit of a life of scholarship” adding that many catholics are “struggling to make a connection between the official teachings and their concrete experiences as spouses, as lovers, as parents. And I think Farley believes that theology has to help make that connection. ”

Dr. Gaillardetz also feels that this is the beginning of an attempt by the Vatican to handle the recent chatter of women activists within the Catholic Church, specifically here in the United States.

“There are a couple of things going on. Firstly in the last year and a half, Sister Farley is the second internationally acclaimed Catholic theologian to be censured by Church authorities for their theological positions.”

Saying, “The fact that they’re both feminist theologians who are nuns here in the United States, when you accompany that with the fact that the Vatican has just completed a visitation, which is sort of a euphemism for an investigation of American Catholic religious women, and the fact that they’ve just offered a statement criticising the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a leading organisation of the leaders of about 85 per cent of the women’s religious communities here in the United States.”

“When you lump all of that together, it gives the certainly gives the impression that there’s a major program underway to sort of rein in women’s religious communities who church leadership feel are kind of wandering too far away from traditional Catholic teachings.”

Responding to the Vatican’s decision, Sister Farley stated that “I have tried to show that they nonetheless reflect a deep coherence with the central aims and insights of these theological and moral traditions.”

Do you feel that Sister Margaret Foley deserved to be denounced by the Vatican because of her book Just Love?