Roles of Church Teaching & Tradition in Sexual Ethics

Presented by

James T. Bretzke, S.J., S.T.D.

Boston College School of Theology & Ministry E-mail: [email protected]

Some Starting Principles

 God created the whole world, and saw that it was good.

 The nature of the good is to be done and fostered, and evil is to be avoided  Grace builds on nature and completes it  Always follow your formed and informed conscience  We come from God and we are in the process of returning to God….

4 Basic Modalities or Ways of Being Truly Human Cultural Transcendental Conscience Sexual

Each of these 4 Modalities Help to Constitute our Core Identity

Human Human Tradtion(s) of Experience Recall Our Moral Methodology:

Let Every Sector Have its Appropriate Voice Be Heard!

Source Content Questions

 What is

used

, and why?

 What is

ignored

, and why?

 What is

rejected

, and why?

 What is

reinterpreted

, and why?

 Which source(s) is (are)

decisive

is a conflict, and why?

when there  I.e., What is

OUR Key Norm

? [Or in other words, How does

GOD

look on this situation, these people, etc.?]

Contemporary Challenges to a Theology of Sexuality

Mixed Media Messages

Tensions in Sexual Teleology

 Teleological theory traditionally provided the primary mode of analysis for sexual ethics  However, the “nature” which grounded this teleological vision was often viewed very narrowly  With the result that much of the practical principles took on a deontological cast of strict moral “do’s and don’ts”

Just What Are We Selling Here?

How Far Can You Go?

HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

 Early Christian Community issues  Development of a theology of marriage  Augustinian legacy  Canon law contract paradigm for marriage 

Ratum et consummatum

completed") ("Confirmed and 

Debitum (marital “debt” of use of each person’s body owed to the other)

Augustine’s Three

Primary

Ends of Marriage



Bonum prolis

: “The procreative good” 

Bonum fidei

“Good of fidelity" (i.e., marital fidelity and stability) 

Bonum sacramenti

“Good of the sacrament" (i.e., the indissolubility of a valid sacramental marriage)

Secondary ends of marriage

 had to be related to and/or subordinated to these primary ends  E.g., "pleasure" by itself would not be a legitimate end of marriage,  Understanding instead of

remedium concupiscientiae

concupiscence}, {remedy for  related to the

debitum

,

Culture of Commitment?

UNDERSTANDING OF SIN IN THE SEXUAL ARENA

 Recall the general criteria or “requirements” for sin:  Serious matter  Full knowledge  Full consent  Sin in the sexual arena often had a number of axioms which related to these 3 criteria

What’s Our Picture of Sex and Sexuality?

And How Does Sin Fit Into This Picture?

Traditional Moral Concepts



Contra naturam



Ex toto genere suo



In re venerea



Parvitas materiae in Sexto



Deus impossibilia non iubet

Contra Naturam

 “Against nature”  Not against the “laws of nature”  But against the “nature” or purpose of a faculty of the human person  Thus, contraception was wrong since it frustrated the “nature” of sexual relations in blocking procreation.

Ex toto genere suo

 "From the totality of its nature“  For example certain mortal sins were considered,

ex toto genere suo

, i.e., in themselves so evil that there would no conceivable case in which the gravity of their evil could be diminished.

 Traditionally sins of a sexual nature were placed in this category

[In] re venerea

 “In venereal [sexual] matters”  Term used in traditional teachings on sexual ethics which referred to sexual pleasure obtained from a variety of actions, even relatively minor ones such as kissing.  A strict interpretation held that any venereal (sexual) pleasure obtained outside of marriage was gravely sinful.

Parvitas Materiae in Sexto

 “[No] Paucity of [moral] matter in the Sixth [Commandment]”  Traditional theological adage that any sexual sin always contained grave matter,  i.e., one of the three requisites necessary for mortal sin (along with sufficient knowledge and consent).

Deus impossibilia non iubet

  "God does not command of humans things which are impossible to do“ Thus, God’s grace was understood to always be present to enable people to do the morally correct thing.

 E.g., as used in 1930 in

Casti Connubii

by Pope Pius XI to condemn the practice of contraception.

 Yet, we must keep in mind that if something is

impossible

God.

then it

cannot

be commanded by

Deficiencies in this Tradition

 No positive theology of sexuality is being developed  No real distinction between sexual activity and sexual nature  Strong connection between sexuality and sexual activity and sin  Thus, need to pay special attention to the understandings of the theology of sin.

A Different Possible Picture?

Positive Theology of Sexuality

 What might be some

resources

?

 What might be some

challenges

?

 What might be some

obstacles

?

 What might be some

tensions

?

Contrasting Views…

 “O That you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth  Upon my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves  Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that feed among the lillies”  “Many fall because they do not avoid dangers  They associate too much with the opposite sex and try to excuse themselves by saying that they have no bad intentions.  Good intentions alone are not sufficient”

Which Has A “Sacred Claim”?

 “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me…  Make haste my beloved, and be like a gazelle…” 

Song of Songs

 “Human nature is very weak where purity is concerned,  and we must keep far away from all dangers, or sooner or later we shall fall.”  Bennet, Kelley, C.P.,

The New Baltimore Catechism (1962)

Male and Female Created

 Male and female God created them, and God blessed them and named them Human when they were created.



CCC

2335

Look Carefully at the Picture

 What is the image of God present?

 What is God’s intention in creating us as sexual beings?

 What is the nature of sexual desire?

 What should be our yearning?

 Let’s take a closer look…

Magisterial Documents



Arcanum Divinae,

Leo XIII, 1880 

Casti Connubii,

Pius XI, 1930 

Address to Midwives

, Pius XII, 1951 

Pontifical Commission on Births

, 1965 

Humanae Vitae

, Paul VI 1968 

Persona Humana,

CDF, 1976 

Familiaris Consortio,

John Paul II, 1981 

Donum Vitae

, CDF, 1987 

Catechism of the Catholic Church

, 1992 

Dignitas Personae

, CDF, 2008

Arcanum Divinae

of Leo XIII

  Asserted the proper role of the Church to govern marriage (rather than civil society); no mention of contraception in this Encyclical “ The husband is the chief of the family and the head of the wife. The woman, because she is flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, must be subject to her husband and obey him; not, indeed, as a servant, but as a companion, so that her obedience shall be wanting in neither honor nor dignity. Since the husband represents Christ, and since the wife represents the Church, let there always be, both in him who commands and in her who obeys, a heaven born love guiding both in their respective duties.

”

Casti Connubii

Pius XI, 1930 Role of Husband and Wife

 This order includes both the primacy of the husband with regard to the wife and children, the ready subjection of the wife and her willing obedience, which the Apostle commends in these words: "Let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ is the head of the Church.“ [#26]

Natural Law Role of Wife in

Casti Connubii

 #72: . We may now consider another class of errors concerning conjugal faith …[failure to accept] the due subjection of wife to husband …”  #74 [Error made]“to do away with the honorable and trusting obedience which the woman owes to the man” [likewise condemned is the view that] that the rights of husband and wife are equal”

Pius XII 1951 Midwives Address

 “With what delicacy and charm does the Sacred Scripture show the gracious crown of children united around the father's table! Children are the recompense of the just, as sterility is very often the punishment for the sinner.”

Gender & the Moral Order

  “One of the fundamental demands of the true moral order is that to the use of the marriage rights there corresponds the sincere internal acceptance of the function and duties of motherhood. With this condition the woman walks in the path traced out by the Creator towards the goal which He has assigned His creature; He makes her, by the exercise of this function, partaker of His goodness, wisdom and omnipotence, according to the Angel's message: ‘Concipies in utero et paries—you will conceive and bear forth a child’.” “If such then is the biological foundation of your professional activity, the urgent object of your apostolate will be: to maintain, reawake and stimulate the sense and love of the function of motherhood.”

Procreation the Only Primary End

 “Now, the truth is that matrimony, as an institution of nature, in virtue of the Creator's will, has not as a primary and intimate end the personal perfection of the married couple but the procreation and upbringing of a new life. The other ends, inasmuch as they are intended by nature, are not equally primary, much less superior to the primary end, but are essentially subordinated to it.”  Pius XII 1951 Address to Midwives

Change in Vatican II

  “Marriage to be sure is not instituted solely for procreation; rather, its very nature as an unbreakable compact between persons, and the welfare of the children, both demand that the mutual love of the spouses be embodied in a rightly ordered manner, that it grow and ripen. Therefore, marriage persists as a whole manner and communion of life, and maintains its value and indissolubility, even when despite the often intense desire of the couple, offspring are lacking.” Thus, equality of “unitive” & “procreative” ends 

Gaudium et spes

, #50

Abstinence Counseled by Pius XII

 "God does not oblige anyone to do what is impossible. But God obliges husband and wife to abstinence if their union cannot be completed according to the laws of nature. Therefore in this case abstinence is possible.”  Pius XII, 1951 Address to Midwives

Abstinence

Not

Always Good

 “This council realizes that certain modern conditions often keep couples from arranging their married lives harmoniously, and that they find themselves in circumstances where at least temporarily the size of their families should not be increased. As a result, the faithful exercise of love and the full intimacy of their lives is hard to maintain. But where the intimacy of married life is broken off, its faithfulness can sometimes be imperiled and its quality of fruitfulness ruined, for then the upbringing of the children and the courage to accept new ones are both endangered.” 

Gaudium et spes

, #51

Pontifical Birth Commission, 1965

 “To save, protect and promote the good of the offspring, and thus of the family community and of human society, the married couples take care to consider all values and to seek to realize them harmoniously in the best way they can, with proper reverence towards each other as persons and according to the concrete circumstances of their life. The will make a judgment in conscience before God about the number of children to have and educate according to the objective criteria indicated by Vatican Council II (G. S. II, c. 1 sec. 50 and c. 5, sec. 80, ).”

Humanae Vitae, 1968

 “To justify conjugal acts made intentionally infecund, one cannot invoke as valid reasons the lesser evil, or the fact that such acts would constitute a whole together with the fecund acts already performed or to follow later, and hence would share in one and the same moral goodness. … Consequently it is an error to think that a conjugal act which is deliberately made infecund and so is intrinsically dishonest [

intrinsece inhonestum

] could be made honest and right by the ensemble of a fecund conjugal life.”

The Physicalist Paradigm

 Moral obligation comes from following the physical or “natural” structure of the given “faculty”  Thus, for the “faculty” of speech one must always communicate the truth  To do otherwise would be to accept c

ontra naturam

the faculty [against the nature] of

Physicalist Paradigm View of Sexuality and Sexual Ethics

 Look at the nature of the sexual faculty  Ordered to procreation, in marriage context  Focus on the individual “act”  Therefore, each and every sexual act and expression should be open to the possibility of procreation; anything that obstructs this is intrinsically disordered (

contra naturam

)  Key value is following this “nature”

Personalist Paradigm

 Begins with the individual human person  In his or her concrete situation  Looking at his or her personal attributes, needs, goals, desires  Pays special attention to the relations with others (especially close relations)  All these to some extent will be unique

Personalist Paradigm View of Sexuality and Sexual Ethics

 Looks at the individual

and

whole, concrete situation the couple in their  Stresses the relational aspects, especially love and “responsible parenthood”  Evaluates single acts within this total context  Key values are personal and interpersonal flourishing

Principle of Totality



Pars Propter Totum: The Part may be “sacrificed” for the good of the whole



Originally viewed only in terms of the individual, physical body (e.g., amputation to save one’s life)



Later expanded to include a personalist dimension, including marriage and responsible parenthood

Tension Between Paradigms

 “…objective criteria must be used, drawn from the nature of the human person and human action, … which

respect the total meaning of mutual self giving

and human procreation in the context of true love…” 

Gaudium et Spes, #51

  “it is not licit, even for the gravest reasons, ... to make into the object of a positive act of the will something which is intrinsically disordered, ... even when the intention is to safeguard or promote individual, family or social well being.”

Humanae vitae, #14

Sexual Ethics in the Catechism

 Context of the Decalogue  Tradition of the Church  Vision of the Normatively Human  Integration of Human Experience

Sexuality as Human Modality

 2332 Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.  2333 Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.

The Vocation of Chastity

 2337 Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.  Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.

Personal Integrity of Sexuality

 2338 The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.

One Morality or ?

  

Gradualism

?

“ a dynamic process develops, one which advances gradually with the progressive integration of the gifts of God and the demands of His definitive and absolute love in the entire personal and social life of the human”

Familiaris Consortio

, #9  

Pluralism?

“in matters of action, truth or practical rectitude is not the same for all, as to matters of detail, but only as to the general principles   and where there is the same rectitude in matters of detail, it is not equally known to all.”

ST I-II, Q. 94, art. 4

A Difficult Issue for Sexual Ethics

Homosexuality in Catholic Moral Theology & Pastoral Practice

Catechism & Homosexuality

2357 “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexuality as a grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

Homosexuality Is

NOT

Chosen

 2358 “They do not choose their condition. For most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every form of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

Homosexuals Called to Chastity

 2359 “Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.”

Intrinsically Disordered

Contra Naturam Disordered” & “Intrinsically

    Against the “nature” or purpose of a faculty of the human person, such as the faculty of sex ordered to procreation Thus,

every

form of non-procreative sexual activity is considered “intrinsically disordered” since it frustrates the “nature” of sexual relations in blocking procreation.

Adultery, Bestiality, Fornication, Homogenital acts, Masturbation, Rape, etc. are all “disordered” acts Persons are

not

in themselves “disordered”

The Disease Model

 Thus, in the

Catechism of the Catholic Church

the model of understanding homosexuality is analogous to a disease like diabetes or alcoholism. The diabetic or alcoholic is not considered sinful because of the condition, but is called upon to live a healthy life (e.g., watch diet, or no alcohol consumption). But….

Some Ask Though: Is the Analogy

Completely

Accurate?

 Those who would dispute this line of reasoning and conclusion would argue along these lines:  If an alcoholic drinks the bad effects are clear  But if a gay person establishes a loving, committed, stable, and monogamous relationship, where exactly is the analogous harm?

The Counter-Argument

 Sexuality is a gift from God and the basic modality of human being; every person is to live authentically his or her sexual identity  Homosexuality is a basic orientation

not

freely chosen  If a gay person were to marry someone of the opposite sex, this would be

contra naturam

The Counter-Conclusion

 Therefore gay people are called to live authentically their sexual identity in ways that correspond to the human spiritual values of love and commitment  And that for them this would be best done in a stable, committed, loving monogamous relationship  And that this relationship would be a positive good

Truth Claims And

Counter-Claims

Neither the Answers Nor the Processes Are Simple….

 Need for genuine search for the truth  Need for openness to the Spirit

wherever

it moves  Need for prayer  Need for dialogue

Where Do Go From Here?

 What will be our guiding vision?

 What will be our operative paradigm?

 What will be our primary resources?

 What will be our modes of discourse?