Byzantine Catholic Family Matters

The Church and Our Sexuality I

Prophetic Voice or Irrelevant Dinosaur?

If we only pay attention to the mass media, the Church has no credibility whatever in matters of sexuality. From Humanae Vitae and its widely reported position on artificial contraception in the late 1960s to the sexual abuse scandals involving priests and minors that came to light in the last few years, the media have alternately rumbled that the Church is a dinosaur in matters of sexuality and that it is filled with hypocritical clergy.

What we really need is a reality check.

Who had the following to say about the sexual act?
As if she were gold receiving the purest of gold, the woman receives the man's seed with rich pleasure . . . Their intercourse effects the joining of their bodies, and they are made one, just as when perfume is mixed with ointment.
No, neither Madonna or Hugh Hefner. The correct answer is St. John Chrysostom.
In what song can you find the following words, and who was the inspiration behind these words?
On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves -
I sought him but I did not find him.
I will rise then and go about the city;
In the streets and crossings I will seek
Him whom my heart loves.
Are you stumped? It's from the Song of Songs in the Old Testament of the Bible. The inspiration behind the words - God.

These words from the Bible and from St. John Chrysostom speak of human sexuality in a beautiful light. Human sexuality is a great gift to be cherished. Yet, in our culture, sex is used in ways for which there are profound consequences. I recently spoke with a therapist who works with victims of sexual assault. She referred to our culture as a culture of rape. She went on to point out that one in three girls will have been sexually assaulted by the age of eighteen. For boys the number is one in six. Even more, about eighty-five per cent of the perpetrators are known to the victims. (Make no mistake; while the sexual abuse problem with clergy - Catholic and non-Catholic - is a great concern, it is but a small piece of the problem.) The vast majority of perpetrators are men.

In his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI warned that "the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman, and no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as this respected and beloved companion." (emphasis added)

Prophetic? You be the judge. In coming columns we will look at:

How the Church's teachings on human sexuality and marriage affirm the dignity of each and every individual;
How, as we strive to live in accord with the Church's teachings, we grow in psychological and spiritual well-being; and
How we can help our young people grow into a healthy sexuality.