Pope Francis on Families and Their Gifts, John McNeill and Margaret Farley on Fruitfulness of Gay Relationships: Generativity Depends on Ecclesial and Social Support

What Catholic theologian John McNeill is pointing to in the quotation I shared with you yesterday is very much like what Catholic theologian Margaret Farley also pointed to in her recent comments at the Commonweal discussion of whether the church is a fortress or a field hospital. Margaret Farley offered her listeners several examples to illustrate what she means when she speaks of how the tradition of natural law in Catholic moral thinking requires us to attend carefully to concrete reality, to the experiences of others, and to learn from these.

The Francis Effect: Putting Rhetoric Together with Reality on Eve of Pope's Visit (1)

On the eve of Pope Francis's visit to the U.S., I've been collecting information that, to my way of thinking, provides something of a snapshot of the Catholic church in the U.S. at this point in time. This is not a systematic project, but rather an anecdotal one, one in which I am gleaning information simply by reading the news day by day, rather than searching for it intentionally.

Blog Readers and Teachable Moments for the Catholic Community: "This Diversity Is Completely Absent from What Passes for Discourse in the Catholic Media"

In her comments at the recent Commonweal panel discussion of the topic "Fortress or Field Hospital?" that I discussed yesterday, moral theologian (and Sister of Mercy) Margaret Farley points out that the venerable tradition of natural law thinking in Catholic moral theology requires church teachers to pay careful attention to concrete reality, and to listen carefully to the graced experiences of the faithful. On any given day, much of the conversation on this blog is, it seems to me, a valuable snapshot of contemporary Catholic thinking that could, if any Catholic pastoral leader chose to pay attention to it, be extraordinarly instructive to pastoral leaders. If they chose to listen and to learn . . . .

Commonweal's "Fortress or Field Hospital?" Discussion: Margaret Farley on Natural Law Theology and Church's Obligation to Learn from Married Same-Sex Couples

Yesterday, Commonweal sponsored a panel discussion of the topic "Fortress or Field Hospital?" Commonweal editor Mollie Wilson O'Reilly moderated the disucssion. Panelists were moral theologian Margaret Farley, journalist David Gibson, theologian and professor of law Cathleen Kaveny, and Barbara Dafoe, who directs the John Templeton Center for Thrift and Generosity. 

NCR Editorial: "Francis Needs to Re-Examine His Statements" about Contraception "If He Wants to Be the Pastor We Think He Can Be"

A National Catholic Reporter editorial addresses the pope's statements about contraception and family planning in the Philippines:

Another Reprise: Margaret Farley's Challenge to Make Love of Gay Persons Just in Christian Churches, and the Vatican Synod on the Family

Here's a reprise of another sort today: I published the excerpt below (from Margaret Farley's book Just Love) on November 2, 2012. Here's why I'm republishing it now:

Rebecca Solnit on Struggle to Name the Significance of Isla Vista Shootings as "Watershed Moment in the History of Feminism"

In yesterday's New York Times, Charles Blow continues the post-Isla Vista drumbeat of insistence that men, all men, need to face the fact that we're at the root of the problem of "female objectification and discrimination and violence against women." Contra those who want to minimize said problem, Blow writes flatly:

Catholic Sexual Ethics and the Category of Justice: A Reminder about Margaret Farley's Pioneering Work

Yesterday, as I looked at the statement made by German moral and pastoral theologians in response to Pope Francis's call for input about the issues of contraception, same-sex marriage, and family in preparation for the upcoming Synod on the Family, I wrote,

People Talking--About Religion, Gay Folks, Women, Pope Francis, Etc.

Some recent commentary on these issues well worth reading:

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: On Homosexuality

I've begun reading Matthew Fox's recent book Letters to Pope Francis, and thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted excerpts (and perhaps some commentary) from the book--as I have done previously for Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God and Margaret Farley's Just Love. 

A Reader Writes: Jesus's Death as a Scapegoat Abolishes Scapegoating in an Ultimate Way

On Monday, I wrote, 

The Vatican Hurls Down Answers, Catholic Women Keep Asking Questions: Give Me the Questions

The Vatican can tell powerful Catholic women theologians and spiritual thinkers (e.g., Margaret Farley and Elizabeth Johnson)* to shut up, listen, and obey. But you can't stop powerful Catholic women theologians and spiritual thinkers from asking important unsettling questions:

The Vatican Attacks, the Vatican Protects: Catholics in Lonely Exile Seek Advent Hope

This is what our Catholic church has chosen to become under its current leadership:

The Challenge Now Facing American Catholics: Paying Attention to What Bubbles Up from Catholic Sewers

Meanwhile (this is a postscript to what I just posted about the important, much-appreciated contribution of Catholics too numerous to mention to the victory for human decency and human rights in four U.S. states two days ago), things got really ugly at many of the National Catholic Reporter threads yesterday.  I'll be blunt and say that they got downright vile.  

Margaret Farley's Just Love: The Challenge to Make Love of Gay Persons Just in Christian Churches

A final set of excerpts from Margaret Farley's book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006): as you'll see, these all have in common the theme of homosexuality.  They're all reflections on how Christian communities need to frame discussions of that ethical topic, in order to be adequately ethical and adequately Christian as they approach it.

Margaret Farley's Just Love: Just Love Is About Real Persons and Their Concrete Reality

More excerpts from Margaret Farley's Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006): these strike me as very significant because they encapsulate the central theme of her book--that love must be just if it's authentic love, that authentic love never ignores the concrete embodied reality of the person who is loved:

Margaret Farley's Just Love: More on Theories of Gender Complementarity

More from Margaret Farley on the notion of gender complementarity that has come to play such a central role in the theologies of male-dominant religious traditions since the latter half of the 20th century: the following are two passages from Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006), that, to my mind, make very important points:

Talking about Sex: Hasidism, Catholicism, and Republican Politics

In Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006), Margaret Farley notes the widely divergent understandings of sexuality in the various religions and cultures of the world.  She notes that when we look carefully at what sexuality means and how it's handled across cultures and religions, the most important factor that may emerge from the cross-cultural perspective is not the amazing differences in how many cultures handle sexuality, or the striking cross-cultural similarities that can be found, but "the very plasticity of human sexuality, its susceptibility to different meanings and expressive forms."  

Margaret Farley's Just Love: Feminist Questions about Notions of Gender Complementarity

Another excerpt from Margaret Farley's Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006), which, to my mind, has great pertinence to the nexus of issues around gender, politics, and religion that I addressed in my previous posting:

Margaret Farley's Just Love: The Personal as Political (and Applications to U.S. Presidential Debate)

Several days ago, when I told readers I had begun reading Margaret Farley's book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (NY: Continuum, 2006), I noted that I find Farley's work a valuable corrective to a tendency among Catholic theologians of the center (and even among many liberation and political theologians) to dismiss issues of sexual ethics and the profound questions of justice these raise as less-than-serious diversionary questions that can be quarantined from the rest of theology.  I noted that many theologians of the solid center (and, I'd add, theologians in the liberationist and political theological movements as well) appear to think that the questions raised by sexual ethics can be safely quarantined from the discussion of issues of marginalization, oppression, and injustice we consider, say, when we talk about the abuse of the poor by the super-rich, or of the peoples of the developing nations by those of the developed nations.