National Catholic Reporter
June 8, 2012
ST. LOUIS -- The board of the largest membership organization of U.S. theologians issued a statement of support Thursday afternoon (June 7) for Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley, a member in their ranks who was the subject of harsh criticism from the Vatican just days ago.
Writing that it considers Farley’s work “reflective, measured, and wise,” the leadership of the some 1,500 member Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) says in the statement it is “especially concerned” that the Vatican’s criticism presents a limiting understanding of the role of Catholic theology.
In a formal notification released June 4, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith criticized Farley’s 2006 book on sexual ethics, titled Just Love.
Farely’s positions on masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the indissolubility of marriage and the problem of divorce and remarriage "contradicts" or "is opposed to" or "does not conform to" church teaching, the Vatican notification said.
The congregation said the book "cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching, either in counseling and formation, or in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue."
John Thiel, CTSA president, told NCR that the society’s leadership decided to issue the statement Thursday because it wanted to both acknowledge Farley as a “distinguished theologian” and state that it is “concerned that the CDF notification had a rather constrained understanding of the task of theology.”
“[The notification] seemed to understand that the role of authentic Catholic theologians was to simply repeat what the magisterium teaches,” said Thiel, a theologian at Fairfield University.
“And even though that is a part of the role of the theologian, the board also considered it important to say that theologians are always in the business of considering all questions … that are important to consider.”
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Full article at The National Catholic Reporter
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