Pope } Nun’s Book on Sex is 'Great Harm’ as Much as ‘Masturbation'
Pope Benedict receives an AC Milan football jersey from former captain Franco Baresi,
left, during a celebration with candidates for Confirmation at San Siro stadium in Milan on
Saturday. The pope has approved a decision that sharply criticizes a book on sexuality
written by Sister Margaret Farley.
When it deals with sex everything is bad unless is done quietly in the basement of any institution. The church,,,,and when I say the church I am not just picking at the catholic church. Yes it was the head of this church that made the criticism about Nuns in his own church, trying to control things that he can’t control, like sex, marriage and guess what? Masturbation…and Anyone that says is not done by the pope and the cardinals, does not understand human nature.
Even back in the dark ages of this church they have never been able to control everyone. You have Luther with his objections to 'harmful’ things that the church was doing, like selling salvation for money and selling pieces of wood saying that it was part of Jesus cross. Even this priest could not stomach that and so he protested and got kicked out, ex-comunicated. From there comes the Protestant church. So no matter what denomination that call themselves christians, it is an evolution if not an offspring and if not an offspring then a mutation. They use similar words, believes and rituals.
But enough of the Christian Church history, which is enough to write documentaries and miniseries for centuries to come. Call it the Borgias ( Showtime 2012) or Bonifacious(year 607) there is so much mystery and sex in the church as there is still gold in the vatican. On that introduction I will leave you with a report today in regards to the nuns not going along with what the holly father is instructing every catholic to do. Now don’t get me wrong here; even though Im using the word masturbation together with the pope’s tittle, he is the one that brought it up. In any case I prefer a catholic over any mutation from this church anytime. They don’t go around insulting people anymore telling them how they are going to burn when they die. A lot of them are people with their own minds and common sense which tells them like it told the nun we are writing about that certain things that come out of the pope’s mouth are just nutty.
News (Nicole Winfield):
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.”
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 behaviour” 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 supporter of U.S. sisters since the Vatican crackdown.
Farley has received 11 honorary degrees over her lifetime, is a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Catholic Theological Society of America, and won an award in 2008 for “Just Love.”
That said, Farley doesn’t identify herself as a member of the Sisters of Mercy on either her official Yale biography or on the book’s cover.
The Vatican criticism, while seemingly harsh, is rather tame. It’s not a formal censure of Farley herself, but just the book. And given that Farley doesn’t teach at a Catholic university, the Vatican couldn’t forbid her from teaching as it has done with other Catholic theologians who don’t toe the Vatican line.
But the Vatican did seem indirectly to hold Farley’s superiors to blame for having allowed her to voice such positions that are so contrary to church doctrine. The Vatican notification said it was saddened that a “member of an institute of consecrated life” would do such a thing.
Farley’s superior, Sister Pat McDermott, defended Farley and said she was deeply saddened that the Vatican had criticized “the significant pastoral and ethnical thinking that are represented in her book.”
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