Oh no, the nuns are expressing their own opinion again! Quick, call the inquisition to shut ’em up and throw ’em back in their convents where they belong!
http://news.yahoo.com/nuns-book-masturbation-slammed-vatican-194458722.html
The Catholic Church hierarchy has yet again turned what sounds like a badly recreated Monty Python sketch into cringe-inducing reality. As stated in the article above, the Vatican did indeed call on the former Office of the Inquisition (now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) to silence a nun (Sister Margaret Farley, who just happens to be an accomplished theologian in her own right) who dared to write a book questioning their official doctrine.
What leaves me particularly flabbergasted is that there seems to be a relatively obvious solution to this that would not require the dissolution of the Vatican. Assuming the Catholic church hierarchy wants to treat women as equals, then why doesn’t it allow women the same options for religious dedication as men and let them be ordained as clergy? It’s not like there’s no precedent, as the Episcopal Church has been doing it for decades. It would be fair to say that women there have since done rather well for themselves in securing a voice within their Church, as this picture of the highest ranking Episcopal Church official in the United States would indicate.
What exactly are they afraid of?
UPDATE: Here is Sister Margaret Farley’s response to the Vatican.
http://notesfromthequad.yale.edu/statement-margaret-farley
Truly the voice of an unhinged hysterical witch-heretic if there ever was one. It’s crazy bitches like her that must be why the Vatican seems so keen on keeping their women quiet and docile.
"Growing out of my work as a professor of Christian Ethics at Yale University Divinity School, this book was designed to help people, especially Christians but also others, to think through their questions about human sexuality. It suggests the importance of moving from what frequently functions as a taboo morality to a morality and sexual ethics based on the discernment of what counts as wise, truthful, and recognizably just loves." – Margaret Farley
WHAT CAN SHE DO, ANYWAY? Her words may come as a breath of fresh air for some Catholics, but the Vatican only sees her as a dissenting nun and they will be more than happy to silence her by any means, because an individual who thinks contrary to Catholic dogma is considered a subversive, just like modern day rebels who speak or act against the state. Farley would make a better psychologist. I can't wait for her to hand her resignation letter to the Vatican Inc.
I imagine Ratzinger giving her book the middle finger.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy (from the lowly parish priest, straight up to Ratzy) has always been a misogynist organization. History would tell us that thousands of women have been burned at the stake, accused as witches and as the devil's accomplice.