Catholic Sexual Morality

Many people today believe that the traditional Catholic view of sex is antiquated, unrealistic, and potentially harmful. In Catholic Sexual Morality, Dr. Robert Fastiggi asks whether the permissive sexual attitude of today’s culture is really contributing to deeper love, better relationships, and true happiness for men, women, children, and families. He begins with the example of St. Augustine who recognized he was a slave to lust and in need of true freedom. Fastiggi then examines the foundations for Catholic sexual morality in Scripture, reason, and human experience. The hope is that people will realize that the Catholic Church is not “against sex” but sees sexual intimacy as something so beautiful and life-giving that it requires the stability of marriage for its true and rightful expression. Catholic Sexual Morality is grounded in the belief that the church’s teachings on sex correspond to God’s plan for human happiness. These teachings are challenging, and the church understands how easy it is to fail in sexual matters. God’s mercy, however, is more powerful than human weakness and sin. This book explains the reasons why the Catholic Church teaches as she does on matters such as pornography, masturbation, fornication, adultery, contraception, divorce, and homosexual acts. It presents these teachings in a realistic way with full recognition of the reasons why people reject them. The ultimate desire is to help people understand that Catholic sexual morality is not a creation of church leaders but a response to what God has made known to us in Sacred Scripture and the natural law. In a world filled with infidelity, divorce, wounded children, and broken hearts, the wisdom of traditional Catholic sexual morality deserves a more sympathetic view—not just because it is Catholic but because it is true.

While retaining the basic structure of the original book, this new edition has been thoroughly updated in light of some official Catholic documents and other theological writings dealing with sexual morality that have appeared since 1986. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II's encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Evangelium vitae, and the 1986 and 1992statements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on pastoral care of homosexuals and the issue of discrimination against them are among the more recent magisterial publications considered in this text. This edition also contains several new sections: the misuses of sex (adultery, pornography, prostitution, sexual violence); four rationales for viewing a committed love relationship as the only appropriate context for sexual intercourse; marriage as a sacrament and marital sexuality and love as embodiments of commitment, intimacy, and passion; and public policy and the civil rights of homosexuals. This edition also includes an expanded discussion of topics such as sexism, sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS and the moral questions raised by new family-planning methods (Norplant, Depo-Provera), RU-486, postcoital hormonal interventions against pregnancy, the start of human life, and abortion. Vincent J. Genovesi, SJ, received his PhD in Christian ethics from Emory University. He is a professor at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. His articles have appeared in such journals as The Thomist, The Way, America, and Review for Religious.

Previous ed. entered under Lawler, Ronald David, 1926-.

Examines the sexual beliefs and practices of different religions, cultures, genders, and relationships to propose a modern-day framework on the topic that is more focused on love rather than sex.

The authoritative work on the Church's teaching on sexual morality has been thoroughly updated to address dimensions of this complex topic that have emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Since publication of the 2nd edition of Catholic Sexual Ethics, the philosophical landscape of human sexuality has dramatically changed. The rise of such concerns as moral relativism, the drive for same-sex unions, and a drastic redefinition of "marriage" and "family" have underscored the need for an unambiguous, up-to-date understanding of Catholic sexual teaching. Features: Summary of Catholic teaching on sexuality from biblical times to our own. Presentation of principal elements of the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI on marriage in the early years of his pontificate. Discussion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 2003 Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons. Integration of more recent materials that clarify issues into the existing framework of the book. Whether you are involved in ministry, education, or catechesis, you will benefit from having this essential resource near at hand.

This book provides a theological foundation for consideration of the moral dimensions of human sexuality from a Roman Catholic perspective.

Two principles capture the essence of the official Catholic position on the morality of sexuality: first, that any human genital act must occur within the framework of heterosexual marriage; second, each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life. In this comprehensive overview of Catholicism and sexuality, theologians Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler examine and challenge these principles. Remaining firmly within the Catholic tradition, they contend that the church is being inconsistent in its teaching by adopting a dynamic, historically conscious anthropology and worldview on social ethics and the interpretation of scripture while adopting a static, classicist anthropology and worldview on sexual ethics. While some documents from Vatican II, like Gaudium et spes ("the marital act promotes self-giving by which spouses enrich each other"), gave hope for a renewed understanding of sexuality, the church has not carried out the full implications of this approach. In short, say Salzman and Lawler: emphasize relationships, not acts, and recognize Christianity's historically and culturally conditioned understanding of human sexuality. The Sexual Person draws historically, methodologically, and anthropologically from the best of Catholic tradition and provides a context for current theological debates between traditionalists and revisionists regarding marriage, cohabitation, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, and what it means to be human. This daring and potentially revolutionary book will be sure to provoke constructive dialogue among theologians, and between theologians and the Magisterium.

Two principles capture the essence of the Catholic tradition on sexual ethics: that each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life, and that any human genital act must occur within the framework of marriage. In the Catholic tradition, moral sexual activity is institutionalized within the confines of marriage and procreation, and sexual morality is marital morality. But theologians Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler contend that there is a disconnect between many of the Church’s absolute sexual norms and other theological and intellectual developments explicitly recognized and endorsed in the Catholic tradition, especially since the Second Vatican Council. These developments include the shift from a primary static worldview to a historically conscious worldview, one that recognizes reality as dynamic, evolving, changing, and particular. By employing such a historically conscious worldview, alternative claims about the moral legitimacy of controversial topics such as contraception, artificial reproduction, and homosexual marriage can faithfully emerge within a Catholic context. Convinced of the central role that love, desire, and fertility play in a human life, and also in the life of Christian discipleship, the authors propose an understanding of sexuality that leads to the enhancement of human sexual relationships and flourishing. This comprehensive introduction to Catholic sexual ethics—complete with thought-provoking study questions at the end of each chapter—will be sure to stimulate dialogue about sexual morality between Catholic laity, theologians, and the hierarchy. Anyone seeking a credible and informed Catholic sexual ethic will welcome this potentially revolutionary book.