The Vatican
on June 4, 2012 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 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."
On gay marriage, Farley said
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.
