Posted in category "Arts & Letters"
Last night I attended a private screening of “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” a documentary about Sister Dorothy Stang, S.N.D., an environmental activist who was murdered in Brazil in 2005. She began her ministry there in 1966. The movie was filmed by Daniel Junge and produced by Henry Ansbacher and Nigel Noble of Just Media of Denver, CO.
A citizen of Brazil and the United States, Sr. Dorothy worked with the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Catholic Church that fights for the rights of rural workers and peasants, and defends land reforms in Brazil. Her death came less than a week after meeting with the country’s human rights officials about threats to local farmers from loggers and landowners.
After receiving several death threats Sr. Dorothy commented, “I don’t want to flee, nor do I want to abandon the battle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest. They have the sacronsanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while protecting the environment.”
The film examines the following questions: who was this woman, and why was she killed? What will become of her murderers, and who else was involved? What are the implications of her murder and these trials in the future?
The film’s producers are outreaching to Catholic groups, environmentalists like the Rainforest Alliance, and other socially-minded people and organizations who want to support the poor in finding sustainable livelihoods.
I found the film very timely, with a growing interest by Catholics around the world in protecting the environment, and the way its abuses fall disproportionably hard on the poor and the marginalized.
Sr. Margaret A. Farley, an emeritus professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School has been awarded the 2008 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. The award, which carries a $200,000 honor, is given for new ideas. Farley’s belief is that justice is an indispensable part of sexual ethics. She defined the verb ”justice” in her book as, “to render to each her or his due.”
In her 2006 book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, Farley argues that justice is the quality that forms, guides, and protects loving relationships.
When she became an ethicist almost 40 years ago, it never occured to her that she might write a book about sexual ethics. But after looking at the pained faces of hundreds of lay people and students tussling with the complexities of love, she began to mull over their struggles.
Farley, a Sister of Mercy who lives in Guilford, CT, acknowledges she’s taken a progressive stance on issues like homosexuality, remarriage and masturbation. “Although homosexual genital actions are still judged to be intrinsically disordered, and hence, ‘objectively’ immoral, they can be ’subjectively’ moral depending on the state of mind and intentions of an individual person,” she writes.
“It is difficult to see how on the basis of sheer human rationality alone..an absolute prohibition of same-sex relationships or activities can be maintained…We have to witness that homosexuality can be a way of embodying responsible human love and sustaining human and Christian fellowship.”
Farley says that gay people have both a right, and a responsibility, to be fruitful through having and/or raising children an that a committed couple has the right to a satisfying sexual relationship.
Her views on divorce and remarriage, same-sex relationships and the ordination of women can be considered to differ with he official positions taken by the current Roman Catholic hierarchy, but Farley said that she proposes such challenges as an ethicist and moral theologian who is “trying to think through some of the troubling issues facing the church and society.”
“I do not just assert my positions,” Farley said, “I work my way to them, paying serious attention to the concrete situations in real lives where questions are raised, and working with significant resources in Scripture and Christian tradition. My conclusions may indeed sometimes differ from official positions, but my effort is to shed light both on new questions, new contexts, and potential new interpretations of the tradition.”
Susan Garrett, who directs the Grawemeyer award program, said Farley’s idea to chew over these issues, rather than believe what society or the church advocates, is essential.
“It’s an important message in light of all the confusion surrounding sexuality today,” Garrett said. “The religious right issues stark decrees while the entertainment industry tells us ‘Anything goes.’ People get confused about what’s right.”
The half-Catholic (father) , half-Jewish (mother) comedian Bill Maher has made a film mocking religion. It is scheduled for an Easter 2008 release. “Religulous” is a combination of religion and ridiculous. It appears Maher-the-merciless doesn’t spare anyone–the Vatican, Jews, Islam, Mormons–all get slammed. Bill Maher was raised Catholic, so he has plenty of experiences to draw on. Since he is pretty liberal, evangelical Christians and the Bush administration have been a great source of material, too. 
Listen to Bill Maher’s interview with Larry King on the movie here.
“We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it’s something drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at that age. And you really can’t be responsible when you are a kid for what adults put in your head.”
I am looking forward to this movie. I’m sure most of it will be funny with a few cheap shots. Perhaps Maher ought to thank the nuns and priests for helping him to become such a great comic and social commentator. The crucible of a Catholic education has produced an inordinate share of people passionately dedicated to change and foment–artists, writers, reformers–because it inspires the rebellion of creative thinkers.
Bill Maher is absolutely right on one point - we all need to doubt. The struggle between doubt and belief sparks faith.
God writes in straight ways through crooked lines…
Carol Curoe and her father, Robert, hope that their book about their personal struggle to reconcile her being a lesbian with his staunch Catholic faith will be a conduit for healing for other families. The book, “Are There Closets in Heaven? A Catholic Father and Lesbian Daughter Share Their Story” was published in fall 2007.
A November 2, 2007 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune described how the Curoes were “uninvited” to appear at St. Francis Cabrini Church to discuss the book. The event was moved to another location after a few conservative bloggers encouraged their readers to flood the Archdiocese of Minneapolis with complaints.
Carol sees the book as a tribute to her parents, especially her father. She knows how difficult it was for him to support her while adhering to the teachings of the church. His approach: Whenever an issue arose, he would step back and try to see it from his daughter’s perspective.
Carol and her partner have two sons who are being raised Catholic because “it feels right.” When she was growing up, “being Catholic was the reference point for our lives” she said. But she also acknowledges a philosophical difference from public statements of the hierarchy. “I have to acknowledge that the leaders at the top of my church don’t think it’s OK for our sons to have two moms. And I want my sons to know so that they’re not surprised when they run into people who feel that way.”
The Curoes have received a mountain of mail from people who have found strength and hope in the book. “Not just gays. And not just Catholics,” Carol said. “We’ve heard from Jews who married outside their religion and women who got pregnant before they were married. This is just my story, but it resonates with anyone who experienced a split between child and parent.”
The Curoes is a wonderful story how, despite differences, their relationship was the most important thing. “They focused on keeping the lines of communication open,” said Carol of her parents. “In the end it was all about keeping relationships strong.”
Contrast the attitude of the Curoes on family love and communication with the “Faithful Rebel”, one of the bloggers who urged them to be banned from speaking in a Catholic parish:
“This whole thing is a disgrace. Such an event has no business taking place in a Catholic Church. Ms. Curoe opposes Catholic teaching, and she admits openly that she attends a Catholic Church only because it accepts her degenerate lifestyle…”
“Ms. Curoe advocates that the Church actually accept her sin. She wants the Church to encourage her to violate its teachings and the teachings of Scripture. The issue, of course, is not about whether or not the Church should love homosexual persons. That is a given. The question is about whether or not the Church should accept her sin and allow her to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ while openly proclaiming her allegiance, not to the teachings of Jesus Christ, but to the fulfillment of her own disordered passions. That is what is not possible.”
After reading his rant I thought - if I were a young Catholic woman, which one of these men would I want as a father? The man who would sit down and talk with me and listen, even if he didn’t agree or condone my life or actions–like Mr. Curoe. Or a man like Faithful Rebel, who would deliver a pious lecture for his benefit, and then kick me out on the street.
Which one has the better family values?
All across the political spectrum censorship among Catholics is alive and well.
In January, students and faculty at Rome’s La Sapienza University caused Pope Benedict to cancel an academic address he was scheduled to deliver. The protesters claimed that Benedict was an enemy of science and reason, citing a 1990 (!) speech he gave in which he quoted a controversial historian of science who argued that “the church’s verdict against Galileo was rational and just.”
Conservative Catholics were quick to point out the irony of censorship by those who think of themselves as guardians of rationality and open debate.
Certainly another irony is the sting Pope Benedict must have felt when he was barred from an opportunity to air his views-something he has done to numerous scholars over the years in his position as the Perfect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In February, Commonweal published a column describing how Edward K. Braxton, Bishop of Belleville, Kentucky, denied Luke Timothy Johnson of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University the opportunity to speak at the Newman Center of Southern Illinois University. Dr. Johnson is one of Commonweal’s most popular speakers, and one of the most highly regarded scripture scholars in the nation.
”The reason is quite simple,” said Bishop Braxton. “I do not wish Catholic institutions or organizations to invite speakers into the diocese who have written articles or given lectures that oppose, deny, reject, undermine, or call into question the authentic teachings of the magisterium of the Catholic Church.”
I suspect Dr. Johnson’s position that the church should reconsider its teaching on homosexuality had a lot to do with the bishop’s decision.
In light of these two incidents we are left with this question: Is the best way to strength the boundaries of Catholic identity by marginalizing or prohibiting anyone from speaking who questions magisterial teaching? Or, is a degree of pluralism a sign of spiritual vitality and genuine faith in an intellectually confident church?
A theological seminar for Roman Catholic bishops that had been scheduled for the University of Notre Dame will be moved off campus because of a planned performance of the play “The Vagina Monologues.”
The Catholic bishops made the decision because they disagree with the university administration’s decision to allow a student performance of the controversial play.
The Eve Ensler play, based on discussions with 200 girls and women about their feelings for their anatomy, includes sections about homosexuality, orgasms and rape.
The play, usually performed around Valentine’s Day, is being put on by students from about 20 Catholic schools this year, including DePaul and Georgetown Universities and Boston College. But several schools–including Providence College– have banned it saying it sends the wrong message.
“A Catholic university that sponsors a production of The Vagina Monologues would be running at odds with its Catholic mission by promoting and providing time, space and money…to a production that is so deeply anti-thetical to the way Catholics think about sex,” said the Rev. Brian Shanley, Providence College’s president.Regina Bannan, an assistant professor of womens studies at Temple University who has researched Catholic women, said the play helps spark important dialogue about women’s sexuality. “It takes a woman from an object position to a subject position, where the woman is actually expressing her own ideas about sexual experiences, ” she said.
“If the church hasn’t learned anything the last three years about stifling discussion about sexuality, that’s a shame,” she added, referring to the priestly sex abuse crisis.
One of the students who had seen the play did not believe it threatened the university’s need to maintain its Catholic character.
“I feel like part of a university atmosphere is openness about topics without feeling like there’s a boundary between expressing your Catholicism and talking about sexuality and the human body.”
