Margaret Farley

On June 8, 2012, Farley addressed a session devoted to the Vatican's assessment of her book at the annual meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA). She said it reflected conflicting understandings of the theologian's role and concluded:

On March 29, 2010, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote to Farley, detailing doctrinal problems that it found in Just Love. Farley replied on October 28, 2010. The Congregation considered her response unsatisfactory and, because of the errors it discerned in a book had been "a cause of confusion among the faithful", commissioned the book to be reviewed by experts. On the basis of the experts' evaluation it decided on June 8, 2011, that the book did contain erroneous propositions and requested that she correct those propositions. It received a further response from Farley together with the opinions of her current religious superior and of the superior's predecessor. Considering this further response inadequate, it decided on December 14, 2011, to publish a Notification about what it considered to be problems. The Notification was issued on June 4, 2012, and mentioned specifically her views on "masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the indissolubility of marriage and the problem of divorce and remarriage". The Notification concludes:.

In 2008 Farley received the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. A festschrift in her honor was published that same year.

Farley's controversial book, Just Love (2006), brought criticism and censure from the Holy See, specifically the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, for moral views which oppose the teachings of the Catholic Church. However, it has received both support and endorsement from the groups Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Catholic Theological Society of America.

Farley published Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics in 2006. The critical reception was "widespread praise", leading to its use as a textbook in college courses on sexual ethics. A reviewer in Commonweal noted that Farley "at times ... has become a point of polarization", called the book "an important resource and spur for further collaboration among Christians and others on the knotty issues of sexual ethics", but faulted it for "pay[ing] little attention to the ecclesial character of sexual ethics" and asked for "a more robust engagement with both the problems and possibilities offered by biblical witness." He hoped the book would "escape the sort of polarized responses that the temper of the times seems to elicit."

In 2001, when the Jesuit theologian Avery Dulles was named a cardinal and explained that the theologian's role was "to show why the church is teaching what she is", Farley contributed to a discussion of the changing role of the academic theologian. She said the theologian could play "an exploratory role" and added: "If you're going to ask questions, you may come up with some wrong answers, but you may come up with new insights. The best kind of theologian is one who is anchored in the tradition" but understands that it needs to address future generations.

Asked in 1997 to comment on the decline of female enrollment in divinity schools in the United States, following their increased presence in the 1970s, Farley said that

Farley received the John Courtney Murray Award from the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) in 1992. She has served as president of both the CTSA and the Society of Christian Ethics. Yale Divinity School presented a conference in her honor called Just Love: Feminism, Theology and Ethics in a Global Context in 2005.

In 1987, discussing a Vatican document on procreation, Farley criticized its authors for not consulting women and especially "parents who are struggling with these issues". She said its exclusion of all means but sexual intercourse between husband and wife "were not justified in terms of the complexity of the questions involved" and predicted that "People making decisions will not take it seriously. It doesn't offer them the answers they need. The church, by acting in an authoritarian way loses the kind of moral power regarding these issues."

In 1986, Farley published Personal Commitments: Making, Keeping Breaking, which a reviewer in the Journal of Religion wrote "charts out what to watch for, when as a counselor, you are helping someone think through commitments" and focuses on "long-term commitments involving sexual intimacy". He added: "She does not display her erudition but hides it in footnotes. She expresses herself almost always in words available to the nonspecialist. She is courageous, breaking new ground." He singled out "the way she succinctly links the long heritage of Jewish and Christian thinking about 'covenant' with her earlier exploration of human relationships." A reviewer in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion called it "a valuable contribution to the literature of Christian ethics, and in particular to the discussion of the value of Christian love and special relationships. Farley has combined psychological subtlety and moral seriousness in such a way as to produce that rarity, a book that will be of great interest to the scholar, and yet would be useful in a parish or a counselor's office as well."

In 1984 Farley was one of 97 theologians and religious persons who signed "A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion", calling for pluralism and discussion within the Catholic Church regarding the church's position on abortion.

Farley received Bachelor's and Masters of Arts degrees from the University of Detroit, followed by a degree in philosophy and a doctoral degree from Yale University She began her teaching career at the Yale Divinity School in 1971 and earned her doctorate there two years later. She appeared on the cover of the Yale Alumni Magazine in 1986 in connection with a feature article on teachers of note.

Margaret A. Farley RSM (born April 15, 1935) is an American religious sister and a member of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. She was Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics at Yale University Divinity School, where she taught Christian ethics from 1971 to 2007. Farley is the first woman appointed to serve full-time on the Yale School board, along with Henri Nouwen as its first Catholic faculty members. She is a past president of Catholic Theological Society of America.