Abstract
The argument presented in this paper is that women's sexual experi ences have been excluded from the formative traditions of the Catholic Church. Official church teachings are in fact predicated upon this exclu sion and have thus prevented a vital aspect of human experience from being reflected within the authoritative understandings of the faith.
There is no common experience of sexual desire and imagery and symbolism generated by men who critique the Catholic tradition may not resonate with the understandings of women. Precisely because sexual experience is pluriform and particular it is important to give attention to the concrete specificity of lesbian women's lives. As their perspectives are articulated an alternative 'language of desire' is created which stands in tension to the monolithic, unchanging view of sexuality presented by the hierarchy of the church.
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