ABSTRACT
Many queer Catholics still recognize the importance of Church authority, which is why many papal and magisterial pronouncements are greeted with such enthusiasm or heartbreak. These same pronouncements, even when more “positive” from a queer perspective, are always devastating to queer lives. Buechel looks at how one might queer the response to Catholic authority – simultaneously affirming it as an authority while also contesting its death-dealing exercise. The key interlocutor for this is the medieval Beguine Mechthild of Magdeburg, who both recognized the authority of Church officials while also relativizing it when it failed to be life-giving, particularly by unpacking the implications of the queer understanding of Church statements.
