I first became aware of Carla van Raay through a feature story written by the religious affairs commentator. Gavin Simpson, published in The West Australian in 2003 which I have previously drawn attention to on Catholica HERE. About a month ago it was a priest friend who actually rang me and suggested I ought to interview Carla for Catholica. He suggested to me that this woman has a story to tell that we ought be listening to at a number of different levels. What surprised me was his suggestion that this woman ought be hired by the Church as a lecturer to seminarians. Though once a nun in the Order of The Faithful Companions of Jesus today she isn't even a Catholic. After you have digested what we have to offer today though I doubt that anyone will be left in any doubt that this lady is a spiritual seeker. In so many ways her exit from Catholicism is very understandable given what she went through.

Carla's latest book: "Desire: Awakening God's Woman"

The immediate trigger for the current interest in Carla van Raay is that she has recently released a follow-up book to her original best seller, "God's Callgirl". Her new book is entitled "Desire: Awakening God's Woman".

Personally I see value in introducing Carla to the pages of Catholica for two principal reasons…

At the first level I think she does help us "take the sexual blinkers off" in the ways Catholicism has become so screwed up over human sexuality. It's a popular theme at the moment. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson points to sex and power as two of the central issues institutional Catholicism has to deal with. Carla's story might be entitled a journey from Sexual Naivety to Sexual Carnality and onwards to Sexual Innocence. Her website today in fact is emblazoned with the title "Returning to Sexual Innocence". But Sexual Innocence is not to be confused with Sexual Naivety or Goody-Two-Shoes behaviours regarding sex. Neither is it the sort of "Catholic Sex" that seems to have characterised the Bethel Experience where it "runs off the rails" in another direction by trying to remain faithful to the screwed up understanding of human sexuality that is the enduring legacy of Cardinal Ottaviani and Humanae Vitae. The "innocence" Carla is speaking of today is an understanding of our sexuality in ways that is not overridden by all the guilt, prudery and falsity that went hand-in-hand with Catholicism, perhaps a lot of religion and even the attitudes in secular society, to sex, in a not-too-far-distant past.

UK and Australian edition covers of Carla's original book "God's Callgirl"

At the second level Carla's story, at its most fundamental, is the story of a spiritual search. It may not be my search, or yours, but the brutal honesty of this woman I think does force us to face uncomfortable questions. There are the historical questions of the sort of spirituality that characterised the outlooks of her mother and father and which contributed so much to forming Carla's own outlook. Her experience might have been "at the extreme" but I think many of us older Catholics will be able to identify with it. She speaks frankly of her experiences as a nun and within the Catholic environment. In her interview with me she alludes to her investigation of New Age alternatives and explains what she found wanting in that domain. There are also the personal questions that all of us face in our search for "innocence", redemption and reconciliation with our past and our search for meaning in the future. Carla's own spirituality today, seems to me to be very grounded in "The Now" in ways sympathetic to the outlook of Eckhart Tolle.

Also worth reading: Rachael Kohn's ABC interview with Carla…

I do have one regret with my own interview with Carla. I wish I had done a heck of a lot more research before I did it. Late yesterday I found the transcript of Rachael Kohn's interview with Carla conducted in January 2006 on the ABC website (See HERE). Unfortunately the audio isn't available but I wish I had read Rachael's interview before I had started recording mine. To some extent we cover similar territory but sections of Rachael's interview go into things in much greater detail than I was able to. Even during the interview a feeling was growing that I felt a woman might have been a better interviewer than myself simply because of the different ways in which women communicate to us blokes. In fact I suggested to Carla at the end of my interview that we might do a follow up interview in a few week's time and even then I was thinking that next time I'll get Amanda to conduct the conversation. I propose that we do in fact do that but, in the meantime, we would welcome any suggestions from readers of Catholica who would like to ask further questions and we'll endeavour to get Amanda to weave them into a follow-up interview.

You have a feast of material for reflection today between my own interview and the transcript of Carla's interview with Rachael Kohn which can be found HERE.

PUBLISHING INFORMATION AND LINKS:
Carla van Raay's book "Desire: Awakening God's Woman" is published by Harper Collins, ISBN 9780732285845 and is available widely in bookstores as is her original book "God's Callgirl".
Carla van Raay's website: www.carlavanraay.com/index.html
ABC Radio National Interview: The Spirit of Things website – www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/stories/s1534303.htm.

FOLLOW UP:
We have asked Vicki Murphy to review Carla's new book "Desire: Awakening God's Woman" and will publish the review in a couple of week's time. Vicki was a student at the same school in Melbourne which Carla was associated with both through her father and her time as a religious sister. Vicki was abused by a nun at the College and received a significant payout and apology from the religious order after a long struggle so I expect her perspectives might be valuable. I have also asked my co-publisher of Catholica, and wife, Amanda McKenna to do a follow-up interview as I suspect there is much more to be gained from Carla's story when it is examined from a female's perspective.

Brian Coyne is the editor and publisher of Catholica Australia.

We welcome your thoughts in response to this commentary in our forum.

Brian Coyne can be contacted at: Brian Coyne <editor@catholica.com.au>

©2008 Brian Coyne

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