[Some RLL readers in northeastern states may be interested in attending this event:]
Same-Sex Marriage and the Catholic Church: Voices from Law, Religion, and the Pews
This full day of presentations and discussions at the Yale Divinity School will reflect the existence of diverse Catholic points of view on same-sex marriage. To stimulate much needed and expanded consideration of this topic, we will draw upon the law, ethics, theology and the lived experience of ordinary Catholics. Participants will examine the intersection of individual rights, sexual ethics, pastoral needs in campus ministries and parish life, scripture, and the role of the laity in ‘living fraternally and cooperating with others’ as directed by Vatican II.
In describing the “Same-Sex Marriage and the Catholic Church“ event, Dianna M. Swancutt, Associate Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School, stated:
When the Connecticut Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the fall of 2008, the Connecticut Bishops responded first with a public statement offered on behalf of all the Catholic faithful in the state (without their deliberation or consent) condemning the decision and arguing that marriage was not a civil right to be exercised by gay and lesbian people. The Bishops then paid for an expensive television ad campaign seeking a Constitutional Convention, in an effort to define marriage constitutionally so as to exclude same-sex marriage. In neither their public statement nor their ads did the Bishops represent the voices of all the Catholic faithful. Other Catholic points of view—from expertise in ethics, theology, law and the special tasks of the laity in the world—can and must be heard for a more robust discussion. Same-Sex Marriage and the Catholic Church: Voices from Law, Religion and the Pews aims to provide that forum.”
Major Speakers
Michael John Perry, Emory Law School, author of Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives (1997);Toward a Theory of Human Rights: Religion, Law, Courts (2007); and Constitutional Rights, Moral Controversy, and the Supreme Court (2009); among many others.
Patricia Beattie Jung, St. Paul School of Theology, author of “Catholic Sexual Ethics in the Twenty-First Century” (2009); and editor of Sexual Diversity and Catholicism: Toward the Development of Moral Theology (2001); and God, Science, Sex and Gender: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Christian Sexual Ethics (2010).
Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College, author of Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics (1996); and Sexuality and the U.S. Catholic Church: Crisis and Renewal (The Church in the 21st Century) [with John Garvey and T. Frank Kennedy] (2006).
[This event is one of a series of four related events scheduled for the fall: one at Union Theological Seminary, NYC, on September 16; one at Fordham University, NYC, on October 1; one at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT., on October 22; and one at Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, on October 29. The title of the series: "More than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church". Information about each of the the four events is here.]
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