The Mercy Sisters taught me, many years ago, but looked nothing like this. They're a total train wreck, these days. The LCWR Inquisition can't come soon enough.
Posted on 06/04/2012 6:53:44 AM PDT by marshmallow
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith warned June 4 that Mercy Sister Margaret Farley's 2006 book, "Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics," contains "erroneous propositions" on homosexual acts, same-sex marriage, masturbation and remarriage after divorce that could cause confusion and "grave harm to the faithful."
In a notification signed by U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada and approved March 16 by Pope Benedict XVI, the congregation said the book "is not in conformity with the teaching of the church" and "cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching, either in counseling and formation, or in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue."
Sister Farley, who taught at Yale University Divinity School from 1971 to 2007 and now serves as Gilbert L. Stark professor emerita of Christian ethics, is a past president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Society of Christian Ethics.
The five-page Vatican notification says the congregation first wrote to Sister Farley about its concerns through her superior, the president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, more than two years ago. Urged to "correct the unacceptable theses contained in her book," Sister Farley sent responses in 2010 and 2011 that "did not adequately clarify the (book's) grave problems," the congregation said.
The congregation cited five specific problem areas in "Just Love," published by Continuum:
-- Masturbation: Sister Farley's view that masturbation "usually does not raise any moral questions at all" and "actually serves relationships rather than hindering them" does not "conform to Catholic teaching ... that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action," the notification said.
-- Homosexual acts: Sister Farley writes in the book that "same-sex relationships and activities can be justified according to the same sexual ethic as heterosexual relationships and activities." But the......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnews.com ...
The Mercy Sisters taught me, many years ago, but looked nothing like this. They're a total train wreck, these days. The LCWR Inquisition can't come soon enough.
Look for a BIG house cleaning to come to that order.
That’s a man, baby!
I can’t help it, this once. Is that Leo Sayer, or Robert Hegyes? ;)
That house deserves it. They know it and must not care.
What happened to that vow all sisters/nuns take: obedience?
Nice ‘fro, aint it?
Someone needs to tell Sis that she's gay and she's made a serious career mistake.
Bob Ross!
Perhaps she should consider a move to the Unitarian church.....
Why would anyone listen to a Catholic clergy member about anything that has to do with sex and relationships?
That depends on the answers to four questions:
Would you seek marital or sexual guidance/advice from someone that is celibate?
They seem to be well versed and experienced in sex and relationships...Just not the hetero kind...
Read post #11.
-—Sister Farley, who taught at Yale University Divinity School from 1971 to 2000-—
Guilty.
My answers to #11;
No
Both
No
No
Read post #12
Certainly. I'd recommend it.
Advice on moral issues is not like learning plumbing or car mechanics. It's not a question of knowing where the bolts and brackets go in order to make something function.
Morality is not like that. It's not necessary to engage in copulation with a member of your own or the opposite sex in order to understand the fundamental truths of human sexuality, morality and psychology. That's because those truths are not found in the male or female reproductive tract nor in the part of the brain which goes "oooh.....aaaah" when a pleasurable sensation is experienced.
Rather, those truths been revealed by God to men and their fundamental value has been verified to the nth degree over thousands of years due to the calamitous consequences which occur when men ignore them, as has occurred with monotonous regularity. A man or woman who is chaste is quite capable of viewing the human experience in historical terms and drawing conclusions from it.
Perhaps we should all take our advice on sexual morality from someone whose entire life has been one sexual encounter after another. That's where your logic goes. I suggest Hugh Hefner. He'll set you straight.
No, seriously.....
I think advice on moral issues should come from the individual and their relationship with God, not from someone else...especially someone that has taken a vow of celibacy. and has probably never been married.
What we have here is two extremes..advice from a celibate priest or Hugh Hefner...How about someone in the middle such as a married pastor or a licensed marriage counselor?
My answers to #11; No
If you do not believe in universal truth then you don't need to ask anyone for advice, or study Christian ethics, or even study the Bible. Just do what you feel like doing. How could go wrong if "wrong" is not universal?
What if the pastor or the counselor believes that adultery is not always wrong? Especially not if done with your pastor or marriage counselor?
Why would a moral relativist like you care?
Considering your oft demonstrated level of intelligence, you’d probably make the same stupid statement about Christ and St. Paul.
I don’t ask for moral advice from others, that’s why I was asking about other people.
You asked me some questions and I answered them.
Because it’s an interesting subject and it was posted for discussion. Why would you assume that all questions people ask, are only about themselves?
I got that. Since there are no universal truths, finding your own truth would be the way to go.
Just about everyone believes adultery is wrong..even the ones doing it deep down(for the most part).
That being said though on a Catholic thread do you believe people who remarry are committing adultery?
Yes. Marriage is not simply a civil agreement between two persons, it is also a sacrament and a vocation. A marriage creates a real spiritual institution that is separate from the parties involved. A Catholic marriage requires that both parties love that institution more than they love their spouse and certainly more than they love themselves. Unfortunately, to the detriment of the Church and those involves, that is not made clear often enough.
A Catholic marriage, once formed and instituted, survives as long as both of the spouses are alive. Unless nullified, meaning that the marriage never happened, any remarriage while either of the spouses is alive is adultery.
Peace be with you.
If a wife get's the shiiite beat out of her every week and she get's divorced and then nullified then it's ok with the Catholic faith to remarry?? I'm Catholic but not practicing.
I posited the proposition that one of the conditions for consulting with Catholic clergy for advice on sexual ethics within marriage is the belief in universal truths. If one arrives as his ethics apart from that belief, there would be no point in doing so.
*****************************************************
That being said though on a Catholic thread do you believe people who remarry are committing adultery?
According to Catholic teaching which claims to be informed by the universal truths taught by Jesus, a man who is married in the Church commits adultery with any union outside that marriage.
I believe the teaching of the Catholic Church. You may not, and the purpose of my post was not to engage in apologetics but rather to clarify the conditions under which consultation with Catholic clergy in these matters would be logical.
Nope, God’s truth instilled in me as an individual. Just as I believe He does with each of us.
Or maybe not. Remember, there are no universal truths so that can't be one either.
Then ask yourself why the Holy Spirit drew you here today.
The Church is not insensitive to the plight of battered and abused spouses and is not opposed to separations and civil divorce. Incompatible couples are free to live apart from one another, but not to live as husband or wife to anyone other than their original spouse as long as the initial marriage is considered to have been valid.
"What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." - Mark 10:9
Peace be with you.
Sister Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., Ph.D. is an ethicist and the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School (YDS).
Her focus is misplaced ... totally! Instead of concentrating on one's libido, she would do better to spend hours in quiet meditation before the Eucharist.
Why did you have to post that photo? Why?
THAT is a female?? No way!
“...she would do better to spend hours in quiet meditation before the Eucharist.”
I wonder what her belief is regarding the Eucharist. The fact that she has so obviously missed the truth and wisdom of the Teaching Magisterium of the Church with regard to sexual ethics causes me to wonder about the very foundations of her beliefs.
Lord Jesus, please have mercy on this sister. Please heal her and grant her understanding of her errors so that she may repent and be truly happy in her relationship with you.
You’re right. It’s just a belief, not knowledge.
Would you seek marital or sexual guidance/advice from someone that is celibate?
Would you then refuse medical care and advice for a disease if your doctor has never personally suffered from it? Should cancer patients only accept help from doctors with cancer? Is that really a qualifier?
The relevant question is not this, but whether the person you are seeking advice from is knowledgeable about the subject and able to convey that knowledge to you. If a priest successfully lives a celibate life, or whatever level of chastity is relevant to their life situation, they sound like a good place to go for advice on also being chaste. These are people who, theoretically at least, sacrifice worldly pleasure for Christ, and you wonder why a Christian would ask them for guidance in matters of morality?
You realise those aren’t really very good comparisons, don’t you?
A doctor has experience/knowledge in treating diseases. What kind of experience/knowledge has a celibate had with marriage or sexual difficulties?
you are confusing knowledge and experience.
As one of my counselers told a druggie who taunted her with the same thing: well, I counsel drug addicts and adulterers and gays and wife beaters and schizophenics and delusional people and the depressed.
If I had all those problems, I won’t be able to counsel anyone.
She is not writing about her experience, but about theology, how sexual expression and our sexual identity relates to God.
If she was experienced, she wouldn’t be pretending that there were no problems with premarital sex (40 percent of kids without fathers married to their mom), or the gay mirage (lesbians may be monogamous, but the promiscuity of gay men, especially those who are into the “gay lifestyle” is not just morally dangerous but sad and medically risky).
A doctor has experience/knowledge in treating diseases.
So you are arguing that only a doctor with cancer should treat cancer? Otherwise, they have exactly zero "experience" with that disease. However, they do have knowledge through study and that is very much applicable. And, regarding moral truths, clerics are in the same exact position. After all, for all you know your doctor who has just advised you to get more exercise and eat less fat is immediately going home to veg on the couch and eat gallons of ice cream.
Additionally, while they likely have little to no experience of sexual relationships (this varies as I know priests who are widowers), they do have experience of chastity which is very much relevant to people of all vocations. They also know what it is to sacrifice for love in a relationship, which is what they do everyday. For somebody seeking advice on living a moral Christian life within their marriage there is likely no more relevant or helpful place to turn than one who has both a knowledge base resulting from study, as does a doctor in terms of medicine, as well as a working knowledge of conforming their physical desires to the will of Christ and living chaste lives as clerics do.
Looks like Epstein from Welcome Back, Kotter.
If I felt I needed to do so, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask my priest for such guidance because I’m confident he would advise me based upon the Teachings of the Church not the teachings of man.
No I’m not. If I were, I would have said ...treating cancer, not diseases.
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