Margaret Farley: a Sister of the Order of Foucault

No one who ever heard of Margaret Farley and stumbled across her book, Just Love, in a bookstore would consider her a nun. Nor would anyone think she was a nun if he consulted her official Yale biography. That’s because she does not identify herself as a nun.

But Maureen Dowd calls Farley a nun, and, alas, she is right. More than that, Farley is a nun in the news for writing a book that contradicts Catholic teachings on sexuality. She was also in the news in 1984: she signed a statement paid for by the anti-Catholic organization, Catholics for a Free Choice, that said it was okay to be Catholic and pro-abortion.
 
In Just Love, Farley makes it clear that she thinks very highly of Michel Foucault [pronounced FOO-CO]. She likes the way he taught that sexuality was nothing but a social construct, having no roots in nature. Foucault also taught that AIDS was a social construct, not a disease. He died of this “social construct” in 1984 at the age of 57.
 
In my new book, Why Catholicism Matters, I recount his lifestyle as an example of what happens when the Catholic virtue of temperance is condemned. “The French Nietzsche,” as he was called, declared God, and man, to be “dead.” This drug-addicted philosopher had sex with males of all ages, cruised the San Francisco gay scene with abandon, indulged in sadomasochism, intentionally infected as many young boys as he could, and even justified rape. This is Sister Farley’s intellectual hero.
 
It would be instructive to know if Foucault is also Maureen’s hero.