Centered on the personal testimony of same-sex spouses, The Sacrament of Same-Sex Marriage sings with celebration, love and joy. It gets at the heart of "sacramentality": the embodiment of divine love. This book will encourage the LGBTQ faithful, their families and their allies. It will make engaging and enlightening reading for classrooms and study groups.
— Lisa Cahill, J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology, Boston College
Using the voices and experiences of LGBTQ married couples who have connections to Catholicism, Bridget Burke Ravizza makes a strong case for the sacramentality of same-sex marriage. She argues that sacramentality is made concrete in the lifelong, covenanted, and life-giving relationships that make up the core of this volume. There is often pain in these stories as couples encounter hate and rejection from family and church, but there is also redemption in the ways these couples and those who love them model community and fidelity. This gem of a book reminds us that moral reflection is always enriched by attention to the many small details of everyday experience.
— Aline Kalbian, Associate Dean, Florida State University
Pope Francis urges Catholics to be a listening Church. Bridget Burke Ravizza shows us how it's done with this significant book marrying theological rigor with the insights of social science. Her book's greatest gift are the testimonies of daughters and sons of the Church in same-sex marriages. Their witness of love and faithfulness moved me deeply, calling me to be a better spouse and a better Catholic. Listen!
— Kate Ward, author of Wealth, Virtue, and Moral Luck: Christian Ethics in an Age of Inequality
Bridget Burke Ravizza holds the stories of same sex married couples with such reverence for the grace they are to one another, to their families and communities, and to the whole Church. She invites us to witness the "the space between people where God shows up." How can our sacramental imagination not be ignited?
— Mary Doyle Roche, Boston College
A landmark study! Centering the lived experiences of same-sex couples, The Sacrament of Same-Sex Marriage provides rich testimony for both the graces of married life and the disorienting harm of magisterial teachings. An essential reading for Catholic educators, Dr. Ravizza’s book will transform Catholic conversations about marriage.
— Emily Reimer-Barry, author of Reproductive Justice and the Catholic Church: Advancing Pragmatic Solidarity with Pregnant Women
This ground-breaking book masterfully weaves together compelling personal narrative and rich theological reflection. It is prophetic, tender, and filled with wisdom. Ravizza provides a fuller picture of the grace in same-sex marriages and how the church can be a sanctuary for LGBTQ persons, couples, and their loved ones. A significant contribution to a Catholic theology of marriage.
— Marcus Mescher, Xavier University
This book redefines the sacramental nature of marriage by providing ample testimony of the manifestations of Grace in the union of gay and lesbian couples through the public commitment of marriage. Despite the ongoing tensions between the institutional Church, magisterial teaching, and the People of God, Ravizza proposes a renewed hermeneutical lens that allows the witness of queer marriages to mediate the essence of God incarnated and imbued in the sacramental and quotidian realities of everyday life, challenging the institutionalization of sin that aims to control where, how, when, and through whom the essence of God is made manifest.
— Elsie M. Miranda, Association of Theological Schools
In this inspiring study of 22 same-sex married couples, Bridget Burke Ravizza has undertaken what Pope Francis calls ‘listening with the ear of the heart’ to give voice to the loving and fruitful sacramental character of their relationships. Her message for those who would erect ecclesial fences around the sacraments: love knows no borders and grace has no limits.
— Julie Clague, University of Glasgow
The Sacrament of Same-Sex Marriage by Bridget Burke Ravizza offers an intimate and theologically-rich portrait of the joys, struggles, and hopes of same-sex couples (the author’s term) as they faithfully strive to incarnate God’s love in their lives….The Sacrament of Same-Sex Marriage gives much-needed crucial attention to the loving grace many queer couples already experience, as well as to the hope that this grace will be affirmed.
— New Ways Ministry
In The Sacrament of Same-Sex Marriage: An Inclusive Vision for the Catholic Church, Bridget Burke Ravizza effectively pleads with readers to listen compassionately to the stories of 22 same-sex married couples who have “meaningful connections to the Catholic tradition.” …Ravizza argues for a reinterpretation of complementarity by reexamining relevant Biblical passages and suggests further readings in extensive notes and bibliography. The book is more academic as a result, but it serves as a resource for groups desiring to delve more deeply into the issues.
— U.S. Catholic
Burke Ravizza employs sound social-scientific method, but also masterfully weaves theology into every discussion. Her incorporation of themes such as synodality, sacramentality and sanctuary make the book thoroughly Catholic, and it could serve as a well-resourced introduction to evolving Christian understandings of church, marriage and sexuality. But Burke Ravizza's theology also depends on careful listening, dialogue and relationship-building, skills that the rest of the church would benefit from. Her goal is to amplify and reflect on the stories of same-sex couples, not to challenge or deny them.
— National Catholic Reporter