Theologian’s “Queer God de Amor” Book Is Canceled by Catholic Publisher

Today I received an e-mail notification from the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, Inc. (Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers) stating that it has determined that it will not approve the publication of my latest work. The notification served to terminate my Publication Agreement with Orbis Books dated July 10, 2020. No reasons were provided for this decision nor was any process identified for coming to this determination.

Queer God de Amor, the third volume in the Disruptive Cartographers: Doing Theology Latinamente Series, was scheduled to be released in June 2022. It appears in the Orbis Spring 2022 Catalog and it was in production having been sent to the printer in mid- February 2022.

Queer God de Amor offers, as I see it, a contribution to trinitarian theology by retrieving texts and metaphors of the Spanish mystic San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross) through a Latinx hermeneutic that takes seriously daily lived experiences and relationships of LGBTQ+ people. As I wrote in the book:

“Affirming the possibility for God’s self-communicating love to express itself through ordinary and embodied experiences cannot be overstated. If, as Juan may be taken to affirm, God is self-communicating love, then we must take seriously the ways in which human self-expressions, especially those associated with the articulation of love, including sexual love, mirror, participate in, and exteriorize God’s triune love. For us to read human sexual experience a lo divino, as inspired by reflection on “Living Flame of Love,” Juan’s commentary, and the Romances, opens possibilities of understanding his appeal to human sexuality and the sexual subject not only as metaphors that describe divine love, but in a Catholic analogical sense, as expressions of the love of the triune God.”

The book avoids the so-called culture wars and seeks instead to offer a reimagining of new ways of being that sustain the flourishing of human beings in community. Consistent with Pope Francis’ call to encounter and dialogue in a synodal fashion, Queer God de Amor recognizes the conditions in church and society that can push individuals and communities to the peripheries and affirms the agency of LGBTQ+ people as missionary disciples.

Miguel H. Diaz, Ph.D.

John Courtney Murray, S.J., University Chair in Public Service Loyola University Chicago

U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, retired