Catechism, Talk 55

Although I have no doubt that the teachings of the scriptures and the Church on the subject of the right exercise of sexuality in a chaste way are correct it is not only a high ideal it is one that is rejected by many if not most people in our sex obsessed culture. The Irish novelist, Brian Moore has a line in one of his novels, I think it was in a short story entitled, “The dear departed,” which says, “In the beginning was the word and the word was no.” I suspect that many baptised Catholics have drifted away from the Church because they have adopted the permissive sexual ethics of the secular world and see the Church’s sexual ethics as life denying, whereas in reality they are life enhancing.

The split between Christian sexual ethics and contemporary thinking first became obvious in the 60s when St Paul VI published his encyclical Humanae Vitae which maintained that all forms of artificial contraception were against the will of God. For the first time millions of Catholics disagreed and ignored the Church’s teaching. During the following years, speaking about Ireland, The Irish Values & Attitudes Report said, “There is a shift across generations from stronger to weaker acceptance of orthodox beliefs and religious practice and of the authority of the Church.” Later in the book we read, “There are many Catholics who wish to remain within the Church . . . who question the Church’s authority over the private lives.” That was many years ago. The rift between Church and societal values has grown in the meantime as was evident in the support of citizens for legal divorce, abortion and same sex marriage. Nowadays most Catholics have lapsed, partly because of this split in values. I suspect that many people fail to respond to those who evangelise because they don’t want to adopt Catholic teaching on sex and chastity.

What the Catechism says about sexual morality and chastity is very objective. In days gone by many Catholics thought that any infringement of the Church’s sexual morality involved mortal sin. As a result, many people who were struggling with issues of sex either felt neurotic guilt and shame or who just threw in the towel and walked away from the demands involved in Christian sexual ethics. The fact is, such an understanding of Christian sexual ethics would be incorrect. It does take account of subjective factors such as emotional/psychological problems social pressures and the like. For example, when we looked briefly at the subject of masturbation in a previous session, we mentioned that the Church recognizes, that in can be influenced by such factors as adolescent immaturity, lack of emotional balance, and even ingrained habit which can influence a person’s behaviour and thus could lessen or even eliminate moral responsibility. I can remember a book that was written by a nun, who was a psychologist. She worked in The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and said that research indicated that around 80% of all inappropriate sexual thoughts, words and deeds are rooted not in lust but in unacknowledged and unresolved negative feelings such as lack of self-acceptance, frustration, hurt, loneliness etc.

That said, Christians know that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that people should resolve to act accordingly with the help of the Holy Spirit, which is as 2 Tim says, a “a spirit of self-control” As the CCC says one can be open to receiving such a grace as a result of prayer, reception of the sacraments and vigilance where temptation is concerned. I can recall an occasion when I attended a large gathering of young adults in the West of Ireland. I noticed that a member of Pure in Heart was scheduled to give a talk on chastity. I thought to myself that it would be an uphill climb to persuade young people to live out their sexuality in a Christian way. When the designated young speaker gave his talk, I was amazed not only by how persuasive he was but also by the positive nature of the response he elicited. One young woman of 20 said afterwards, “since hearing the Pure in Heart presentation and trying to put it into practice in my life, I have experienced great peace and freedom. The more that I pray and learn the more I see how amazing and beautiful God