U.S.: Vatican criticises nun’s controversial book on divorce and sexuality and Vatican slams nun’s book on sexuality, ‘Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics’

TENSIONS CONTINUE BETWEEN AMERICAN NUNS AND THE VATICAN

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has condemned a book published by sister Farley which goes against the Catholic doctrine on divorce and same-sex unions and sexuality

ALESSANDRO SPECIALE( taken from Vatican Insider)
VATICAN CITY

New tensions between U.S. nuns and the Vatican are looming. Yesterday, the “commissioner” in charge of reforming the biggest organisation of women religious in the U.S., the Archbishop of Seattle, Mgr. Peter Sartain, tried to adopt a conciliatory tone, promising the Leadership Conference of Women Religious dialogue “in a spirit of openness, honesty, integrity and faithfulness to Church doctrine.”

But today the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed new criticisms against Margaret A. Farley’s book “Just Love. A Framework for Christian Sexual Etichs”. Sister Farley is a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order. The Congregation claimed the book “affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality “ and deals with controversial subjects such as “masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the indissolubility of marriage and the problem of divorce and remarriage.” According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Sister Farley “either ignores the constant teaching of the Magisterium or, where it is occasionally mentioned, treats it as one opinion among others.”

The nun, for example, claims masturbation is more beneficial than detrimental to relationships while the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith insists “is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action,” because The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.

According to Sister Farley, homosexual acts “can be justified according to the same sexual ethic as heterosexual relationships and activities.” “This opinion is not acceptable,” the Congregation said, because  homosexual acts “are intrinsically disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.” While, in her book, the nun states she favours the recognition of same-sex unions, the Vatican retorts: “the respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions,” as these would be on a par with marriage.

In her book, Sister Farley expresses her doubts on the limits of the indissolubility of marriage and stated she was in favour of remarriage. But the Church, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recalled, says that Love seeks to be definitive; t cannot be an arrangement ‘until further notice’. So remarried divorcees “find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God’s law.”

In a statement published by Yale University, where she teaches, Sister Farley thanked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for “the efforts to evaluate positions articulated in” her book, and said she does “not dispute the judgment that some of the positions contained within it are not in accord with current official Catholic teaching.” However, the nun stressed that “the book was not intended to be an expression of current official Catholic teaching, nor was it aimed specifically against this teaching.” Ultimately, she said, the book intends to propose “a framework for sexual ethics that uses criteria of justice in evaluating true and faithful sexual relationships and activities.”

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Vatican slams nun’s book on sexuality, ‘Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics’

Sister Margaret Farley’s book poses ‘grave harm’ to faithful, church says

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Monday, June 4, 2012, 10:22 AM

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/vatican-slams-nun-book-sexuality-love-a-framework-christian-sexual-ethics-article-1.1089495

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Monday sharply criticized a book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun, saying 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 orthodoxy office said the book, “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics” by Sister Margaret Farley, a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order and emeritus professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School,posed “grave harm” to the faithful.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that in the 2006 book, Farley either ignored church teaching on core issues of human sexuality or treated it as merely one opinion among many.

Farley said Monday she never intended the book to reflect current official Catholic teaching. Rather, she said, she wrote it to explore sexuality via various religious traditions, theological resources and human experience.

The Farley critique, signed by the American head of the congregation, Cardinal William Levada, comes amid the Vatican’s recent crackdown on the largest umbrella group of American sisters. 

The Vatican last month essentially imposed martial law on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, accusing it of undermining church teaching and imposing certain “radical feminist themes” that were incompatible with Catholicism.

It ordered a full-scale overhaul of the group and appointed three bishops to carry it out.

The crackdown on Farley, a top American theologian, will likely fuel greater resentment at Rome among more liberal-minded American sisters. The Vatican examination of the book began in 2010 and involved seeking Farley’s responses to its concerns. After her replies failed to satisfy the Congregation, it moved to a full-fledged “examination in cases of urgency” that concluded Dec. 14.

Pope Benedict XVI approved the decision last March and ordered the decision published.

In its statement, the Vatican singled out specific problems in Farley’s book which it said “affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality.”

Farley, for example, writes that masturbation doesn’t raise any moral problems and can actually help relationships rather than hinder them. The Vatican asserted that according to church teaching “masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.”

Farley wrote that homosexual people as well as their activities should be respected. Church teaching holds that gays should be respected but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

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On gay marriage, Farley asserted that legal recognition of gay marriage can help transform the stigmatization of gays.Levada wrote back that approving gay marriage would not only signal approval of “deviant behavior” but would obscure the value of traditional marriage between man and woman in society.

“The principles of respect and non-discrimination cannot be invoked to support legal recognition of homosexual unions,” he wrote.

In her statement, Farley said she had aimed to propose a framework for sexual ethics that “uses a criteria of justice” in evaluating sexual relations.

She acknowledged that her responses to certain issues do depart from traditional doctrine, but said they nonetheless were 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.

She said she appreciated the Vatican’s work but lamented that her positions weren’t reflected in the Congregation’s final document.

The Rev. James Martin, a liberal-leaning Jesuit author, said the notification will sadden many Catholic theologians who consider Farley a mentor.

“It will also, inevitably, raise strong emotions among those who already feel buffeted by the Vatican’s Apostolic Visitation of Catholic sisters in the U.S., and its intervention into the LCWR,” said Martin, who has been a vocal critic of the Vatican’s crackdown on U.S. sisters.