Buyer Beware

On Monday, July 16, St. Bernard’s School of Theology will present “The Summer Preaching Event”. One of the speakers will be Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP. Sister Hilkert is the past president and a current member of the Catholic Theological Society of America(CTSA).

The CTSA has generated much controversy in the past because of its critical statements against the Church’s teachings. One particularly notorious statement was the 1977 report titled “Human Sexuality”. Msgr. John McCarthy of The Theological Forum had this to say about that report:

“The CTSA report proclaimed to Catholic educators a long series of morally irresponsible, shocking, and pastorally devastating “conclusions,” such as the following: a) that Sacred Scripture does not necessarily forbid any form of genital behavior whatsoever (p. 31); b) that adultery can be morally acceptable (p. 15); c) that contraception can be wholesome and moral (p. 122); d) that premarital intercourse can be a morally good experience (pp. 155-158); e) that evaluations of premarital intercourse that are “sin-centered” should be avoided (pp. 173-174); f) that obscene words are now part of the common vocabulary and may be used in polite conversation (p. 235); g) that pornographic material is not immoral (p. 236); h) that masturbation is not sinful (p. 220); i) that homosexual intercourse is not wrong in itself (p. 198); j) that deviant sexual practices are not evil (p. 77); k) that prostitution is not sinful in itself (pp. 16, 30-31, 96); l) that, until Church and State change their laws to accommodate to the conclusions of this report, people should just “proceed discreetly with their own sexual project” (p. 56); m) that sex-education in keeping with the views expressed in this report should be made to permeate all areas of educational development (p. 237).” (From Living Tradition, 1996)

More recently Avery Cardinal Dulles criticized the society in a Commonweal article titled “How Catholic is the CTSA?”. A further sampling of CTSA evaluations can be found at the following links: Catholic Culture, Catholic World News, CNS, and Catholic. net.

Anyone who is planning on attending Sister Hilkert’s lecture should be forewarned about her affiliation with CTSA. This is not meant as an indictment of her theology but only as a word of caution to those who may be unfamiliar with the magisterial teaching of the Church.