[1] 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.
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.
Yale Divinity School presented a conference in her honor called Just Love: Feminism, Theology and Ethics in a Global Context in 2005.
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.
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 It's hard for them to have all that education and to know they can't be ordained.
[15] Farley and fellow Mercy Sister Eileen P. Hogan founded the All-Africa Conference, a project intended to bring together African women religious to develop strategies for responding to the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
[19] 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."
[21] With this Notification, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expresses profound regret that a member of an Institute of Consecrated Life, Sr. Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality.
[23][24] Farley commented that the book offers "contemporary interpretations" of justice and fairness in human sexual relations, moving away from a "taboo morality" and drawing on "present-day scientific, philosophical, theological, and biblical resources.
"[25] The dean of Yale Divinity School, Harold W. Attridge, a Catholic layman, alongside 15 other scholars, issued a statement in support of Farley.
[1][26] The Holy See's "formal censure" of Farley's work and its statements related to her book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,[1][19] brought Farley's work wider public attention than she had ever received, "causing it", according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, "to shoot from obscurity to the top tier of Amazon.com's best-seller list".
"[19] 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:[28] The issue is, finally, in our tradition, is it a contradiction to have power settle questions of truth?