QUOTE TO NOTE: Stop Church Teachings that Kill, Says Sr. Margaret Farley

Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley, the theological ethicist who wrote Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, said the church has “not gone far enough” on gender equality because “we still hear the cries of women, through the centuries and today.”

Margaret Farley2

Sister Margaret Farley

Farley’s comments are readily applicable to the movement for LGBT equality, too. After receiving the Catholic Theological Society of America’s (CTSA) Ann O’Hara Graff Memorial Award earlier this month, she told the gathered women theologians:

“Ideas oppress and repress. . .When the church’s secondary teachings cause sickness and death, there is something wrong with that teaching. . .Just as cultural practices may have been fine until they kill people, so the church’s teachings may have been fine, even harmless, until they kill people.”

Farley’s scholarship has greatly advanced efforts to expose and transform oppressive church teachings on sexuality and gender. For her efforts, Farley was censured by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2012.

I wrote on Bondings 2.0 in April that, even more than ten years after her book was first published, Just Love is still a radical text that challenges Catholics to reorient our church’s teachings and practices on sexuality towards justice. At CTSA’s 2017 meeting, Sr. Farley has once again spoke with precision and prophetic clarity about how Catholic theology can, should, and must serve better the people of God.

You can read a full report on Sr. Farley’s reception of the CTSA award at the National Catholic Reporter by clicking here.

Robert Shine, New Ways Ministry, June 20, 2017

 

 

 

4 replies
  1. amagjuka
    amagjuka says:

    I am going to re-read her book. It is time for systemic change. Past time. So many are suffering, and even dying. We must act or know that we are complicit.

    Reply
  2. Thomas Smith
    Thomas Smith says:

    Just as church teaching on homosexuality is “killing” the gay teenagers who take their own lives and force clergy into dark, lonely closets.

    Reply
  3. freecatholic808
    freecatholic808 says:

    Reblogged this on Dawn Morais and commented:
    The women religious continue to demonstrate more leadership, vision and honesty than the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Where are the bishops as the Senate plots in secret to deny healthcare to millions?

    Reply

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