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160 BOOK REVIEWS The Vatican and Homosexuality: Reactions to the "Letter to the Bis· hops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons." Edited by JEANNINE GRA.MICK AND PAT FUREY. New York: Crossroad, 1988. Pp. xxi + 226. $14.95 (paper) . This book contains the full text of the letter named in its subtitle (from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [CDF], Oct. 1986), followed by twenty-five commentaries. Sixteen of the authors are professors of theology or other disciplines including biology, his· tory, and social sciences; the remainder are active in various forms of church ministry, social advocacy, or communications. With three ex· ceptions-San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn's article and William H. Shannon's reply, both first published in America, and Dan Grippo's critique, which first appeared in the National Catholic Reporter-all are original contributions. In the editors' introduction, which gives a helpful summary of theological developments during the preceding decade as well as an overview of the hook's contents, "the reader is urged to consider that [CDF] document carefully before proceeding to the other contrihu· tions which critique, analyze, and discuss the implications of the Vati· can letter" (p. xiii). These commentaries, the editors state, "are meant to be a contribution to the lively debate about homosexuality ... with full respect for persons and for the nature and mission of the Church and its ministry of teaching " (p. xx). The implied reference here, later made explicit by Shannon (p. 27), is to a remark by Paul VI in a letter to the German episcopate (Aug. 30, 1968) expressing hope that "the lively debate aroused by our encyclical [Humanae Vitae] will lead to a better knowledge of God's will." The present book should indeed help in guiding the whole Church toward "a better knowledge of God's will" in the matter of homo· sexuality. That positive assessment requires some qualification inas· much as " the lively debate " in this hook is heavily one-sided. Only one of the contributions (Benedict Ashley's) offers a strongly positive evaluation of the Vatican letter. Two others (Archbishop Quinn's and James Pollack's) are measured analyses, more intent on promoting amicable understanding than on taking sides. The concluding essay hy J. Giles Milhaven, while critical of the Vatican, is mainly a benign and non-judgmental challenge addressed to gay and lesbian persons, ask· ing them to enlighten the Church as to why sexual activity is important to them. The remaining articles express a more or less strongly nega· tive reaction to the CDF letter, and several of these manifest an attitude BOOK REVIEWS 161 toward the magisterium which falls considerably short of the " respect " called for in the introduction; a few even descend to unsavory ad hominem polemics against the Vatican hierarchy (described as insulated celibates who are power-obsessed, etc.). Nevertheless, many of the adversely critical articles-including some which are objectionable in the ways just noted, as well as others which scrupulously try to be fair to the magisterium-present some very legitimate challenges to the positions advanced in the CDF letter and offer substantial insights which should serve a constructive function in the effort to resolve this most vexing theological and pastoral issue. Some of the best chapters in this book are by women-a particularly noteworthy merit in view of the fact, underlined by Mary C. Segers, that "the Vatican letter succumbs to [the common] tendency to focus on homosexuality as a male phenomenon and to ignore completely the experience of lesbian women" (p. 85). Segers thinks it may be the special aptitude of lesbian feminists, with their " more subtle, rich appreciation of same-sex love," to teach Vatican authorities that " instead of issuing mean-spirited instructions to bishops which reinforce homophobia in the context of society's heightened fears about AIDS, the Church should be in the vanguard of the movement for social justice for all people" (p. 89). I regard Carolyn Osiek's "Rights, Responsibilities, and Homosexuality " (pp. 126-132) as the most penetrating essay in the collection. " The heart of the argument has to do not with Scripture or natural law," she observes, " but with the...

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