Vatican issues warning on book by prominent American nun

June 04, 2012

The Vatican has issued a warning that a book by a prominent American nun puts forward positions that are “in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality.”

A June 3 statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) cautioned that Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, by Sister Margaret Farley, RSM, “contained erroneous propositions, the dissemination of which risks grave harm to the faithful."

The CDF said that the book by Sister Farley—a professor at Yale Divinity School and former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America—“is not in conformity with the teaching of the Church. Consequently it cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching, either in counselling and formation, or in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue."

"Among the many errors and ambiguities of this book are its positions on masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the indissolubility of marriage and the problem of divorce and remarriage,” the CDF announced. The Vatican “notification” disclosed that the CDF had contacted Sister Farley in 2010 to raise concerns about Just Love. After further study, a panel of experts sent the author a list of problematical statements that required corrections. Her response “did not adequately clarify the grave problems contained in her book,” and so the CDF proceeded to issue the warning about her work.

The CDF faulted Sister Farley for treating the teaching of the Church as one opinion among many to be considered, and said that her work betrayed “a defective understanding of the objective nature of the natural moral law.”

Among a number of problems with Sister Farley’s work, the CDF highlighted her views “that same-sex relationships and activities can be justified,” and that “a marriage commitment is subject to release.” In these and other points, the Vatican observed, her argument directly clashes with the established teaching of the Catholic Church.

In a statement issued in response to the Vatican “notification,” Sister Farley complained that the CDF, in its critique, “misrepresents misrepresents (perhaps unwittingly) the aims of my work.” She said that her book was not intended to present “current official Catholic teaching.” (The use of the adjective “current” seemed deliberately intended to suggest that the Church’s might could change.) She argued that although her positions “do depart from some traditional Christian responses, I have tried to show that they nonetheless reflect a deep coherence with the central aims and insights of these theological and moral traditions."

In her press release Sister Farley also claimed that the CDF document “fails to specifically address her positions on issues such as homosexuality, divorce, marriage, and masturbation.” But in fact the “notification” specifically addresses each one of those issues as it is treated in Sister Farley’s book.

The CDF warning is not the first public confrontation between Sister Farley and the Vatican. In 1984 she was one of the women religious who faced disciplinary action after signing an advertisement in the New York Times that said Catholics could legitimately support legal abortion. Sister Farley has said that she never retracted her position on that point.

 

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Further information:

• Notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (VIS)
• Response To Vatican's Notification Regarding Just Love: A Framework For Christian Sexual Ethics (PR Newswire)