A nun in Spain who says she received death threats for suggesting that Mary probably had sex with her husband, Joseph, has apologised for any offence caused but accused her critics of deliberately misunderstanding her point.
Sister Lucia Caram, a well-known Dominican nun, appeared to contradict church teaching when she appeared on Spanish TV on Sunday to discuss sex and faith.
“I think Mary was in love with Joseph and that they were a normal couple — and having sex is a normal thing,” she said, adding: “It’s hard to believe and hard to take in. We’ve ended up with the rules we’ve invented without getting to the true message.”
Sister Caram, who was born in Argentina but lives in a Catalan convent, said sexuality was a God-given, basic part of every individual and a means of self-expression. However, she said it was something the church had long struggled with.
Her views were quickly disowned by the Bishop of Vic, who responded with a statement reminding people that Mary’s virginity had been an article of faith since the church’s inception.
On Wednesday, Sister Caram issued a statement in which she said she had received death threats after her TV appearance. “When asked about the Virgin Mary, I said that, as I see it, Mary obviously loved Joseph... I wanted to say that it wouldn’t shock me if she had had a normal couple’s relationship with Joseph, her husband.
“This shocked a lot of people... But I think that my fidelity to, and love for, the church, the gospel and Jesus’s project are clear — as it the certainty that sex is neither dirty nor something to be condemned, and that marriage and sex are a blessing.”
She added that while she apologised to anyone who felt offended, she was worried by the “fragmented, ideological and perverse” way in which her remarks had been interpreted. — The Guardian
