Rome is on a roll: the Vatican today blasted the writings an American nun, Margaret Farley, a renowned theologian who writes about sexual ethics. What Farley says about masturbation, homosexuality, divorce – always dicey territory – is “not in conformity with the teaching of the Church.”
No kidding, responds Farley, an emerita prof at Yale’s Divinity School. “In the end, I can only clarify that the book was not intended to be an expression of current official Catholic teaching, nor was it aimed specifically against this teaching,” she says. “It is of a different genre altogether.”
National Catholic Reporter has some other early reaction.
The American nuns facing an earlier Vatican crackdown indicate that they aren’t going to be pushovers for the prelates.
Pope Benedict XVI may get an idea of how much, or whether, American Catholics care about these arguments: he plans to visit Philadelphia in 2015. He will be 88 then, so it would be a short trip, if it comes off. The visit would mark the World Meeting of Families, designed to promote traditional values.
The Vatican continues to leak, or perhaps “pour” should be the operative verb.
Santa Maria Goretti (in photo), symbol of sexual purity for resisting her attacker and dying for it, visited Toronto – 110 years after she was killed.
Mourning and remembrance are a heckuva lot different in today’s digital age. Is that a good thing?
Lisa Miller says technology is good for religion.
Need proof? Religious leaders, namely evangelicals and prosperity preachers, are tops on Twitter, and their posts do about 30 times better than most celebs with bigger followings. Isn’t this how Christianity began?
Jesus, by the way, was a locavore. That's why some churches think his followers, and their members, can shrink the Bible Belt’s waistline. Treat food like tobacco, maybe?
Southern Baptist big shot Richard Land still has his influential policy position after an SBC panel reprimanded him over charges of making racially explosive comments that weren’t even his own. Reaction is mixed.
Obama is not exploiting faith for political ends as well as many had hoped.
Maybe they didn’t know about the wedding of Vice-President Biden’s daughter Saturday evening? Ashley Blazer Biden wed Howard David Krein, at the Church of St. Joseph on the Brandywine. A priest officiated, a rabbi assisted. That’s outreach for you.
Man bites dog: Mormons march in Salt Lake City gay pride parade.
The Gospel of Stephen King? Horrors! But true…
The Mets got the first no-hitter in their 50-year history. I actually watched, in semi-delerium, lucky that this was one of the rare games I tuned in to as I slowly reconcile with the team whose awful ownership has left me disappointed for so long. Many other Mets fans have not come around as quickly, and now wonder why bad things happen to good people like us:
“I go out for a good time and this is how God punishes me. It just isn’t fair,” one of them told the New York Times.
That’s baseball, my friend.
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David Gibson
Photo credit: The National Post
