Catholic theologians defend one of their own against the Vatican
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The head of the Jesuit order in East Africa explained to other theologians gathered in St. Louis last week that a simple gesture had different meanings in different cultures.
Back home, said the Rev. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, a man beating his hand against his chest is an expression of penance. In the U.S., the same gesture would be perceived as an expression of defiance.
“Perhaps,” the Rev. William O’Neill said to his fellow theologians, “that’s exactly what we should be signifying.”
The audience, all members of the Catholic Theological Society of America, applauded O’Neill’s aside with appreciation.
Defiance was top of mind at the group’s annual convention downtown. One of their own had been targeted by the Vatican earlier in the week, and there was a sense in the Hyatt Regency ballroom that the Catholic bishops had finally gone too far.
Over the last 50 years, the practice of thinking theologically in the Roman Catholic Church has slowly shifted from a practical craft developed by clerics to train the next generation of clerics to a wider field of study that includes lay academics and employs perspectives from across the scholarly spectrum.
As Catholic theology has branched out, bishops — who have the ultimate teaching authority in the church — have struggled to curb theological thinking they consider a potential source of confusion for the lay faithful. As a result, in recent years the bishops have criticized the work of a number of prestigious American theologians. And in St. Louis last weekend, the theologians were girding for a fight.
They spoke in protest against the Vatican’s denunciation of Sister Margaret Farley’s 2006 book, “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Social Ethics” in which the bishops found “grave problems.”
We must “learn to say ‘stop’ to those who abuse authority only to preserve it,” O’Neill, of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, told the assembled scholars. [More]
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7 Comments
Unlike the old boys at the Vatican who wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if they had one, this common sense theologian has a healhty understanding of women’s needs. If a woman doesn’t understand the workings of her own body, how is she supposed to guide her husband when she marries as to what he should do to to please her sexually. Apparently, the geniuses in the Vatican believe that women should be kept ignorant, frigid and disinterested in sex, and then produce countless number of babies so they can be kept at home to cook and clean and service their husbands. I’m surprised they don’t encourage female circumcism like the butchers in some African cultures.
Recovering Catholic — how about this — if a virginal woman who never has explored her body explores it with her husband — that sounds much better. You’re so smart, Recovering — you’re just like Eve. You know better than God (as communicated to us through the Magisterium). My recommendation: go to Confession, stay in a state of grace, go to Mass daily, and three hours weekly of Adoration — do this for one year, and then make your next post on this site.
Sister Margaret is a theologian who is doing the job of a theolgon, trying to explain faith and morals using different lenses.
She offers other viewpoints for others studying theology to look at in ariving at truth.
Her approcah is helthy and benificial to those who seek a deeper understanding of morality.
The old boys in Rome just don’t seem to get it, too bad.
Yes, Tony, the lens of Satan. And, with regard to arriving at the Truth: the Magesterium arrived there two millenia ago — no need to reinvent the wheel. What heretic Farley and others of her ilk really need is some humility and obedience — they need to shut their mouths and open their ears and hearts to listen to the Truth as taught by my (no longer their) Church.
Jim, just as the Chruch fathers years ago used to think the earth was flat, but were later informed thgough human study that the earth is indeed round, so too the Church may need to change its understanding of areas of human sexuality as more and more information comes to light.
Tony — what could possibly be discovered about the sex drive that we don’t already know? Here’s all we need to know: (1) sex feels good; (2) if we pursue pleasure blindly, we’ll have sex whenever and with whomever we want — including with ourselves; (3) anyone with half a brain knows that pursuing pleasure blindly leads you in the wrong direction — even God the Father told St. Catherine that the ancient Greeks, prior to the birth of Jesus, knew that; (4) sexual purity is a challenge, given our biologic drives; (5) God’s grace is absolutely necessary to be sexually pure. What could any scientist possibly add to that except academic nonsense and confusion?
Tony — it is in the struggle for sexual purity that we develop virtue. All those in Heaven have developed enough virtue to be sexually pure. Sexual purity is necessary for admission to Heaven.