1. Church Teaching & Tradition on Gender in Sexual Ethics
Presented by
James T. Bretzke, S.J., S.T.D.
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry

2. 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….

3. Cultural Transcendental Conscience
4 Basic Modalities or Ways of Being Truly Human
Cultural
Transcendental
Conscience
Sexual
Each of these 4 Modalities Help to Constitute our Core Identity

4. Recall Our Moral Methodology:
Sacred Texts
Sacred Texts
Sacred Texts
Normatively
Human
Human
Experience
Human
Experience
Human
Experience
Tradtion(s) of
the community
Tradtion(s) of
the community
Tradtion(s) of
the community
Recall Our Moral Methodology:
Let Every Sector Have its Appropriate Voice Be Heard!

5. 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 when there is a conflict, and why?
I.e., What is OUR Key Norm? [Or in other words, How does GOD look on this situation, these people, etc.?]

6. Contemporary Challenges to a Theology of Gender Sexual Ethics
Mixed Media Messages

8. 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”

12. HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
Early Christian Community issues
Development of a theology of marriage
Augustinian legacy
Canon law contract paradigm for marriage
Ratum et consummatum ("Confirmed and completed")
Debitum (marital “debt” of use of each person’s body owed to the other)

14. What’s Our Picture of Sex and Sexuality?
And How Does Sin Fit Into This Picture?

15. Traditional Moral Concepts
Contra naturam
Ex toto genere suo
In re venerea
Parvitas materiae in sexto
Deus impossibilia non iubet

16. 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.

17. 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 then it cannot be commanded by God.

18. 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.

19. A Different Possible Picture?

20. Positive Theology of Sexuality
What might be some resources?
What might be some challenges?
What might be some obstacles?
What might be some tensions?

21. Male and Female Created
Male and female God created them, and God blessed them and named them Human when they were created.
CCC 2335

22. 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…

25. 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
Amoris Laetitia, Francis, 2016

26. 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. ”

27. 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]

28. 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”

29. 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.”

30. 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.”

31. 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

32. 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

33. Sexual Ethics in the Catechism
Context of the Decalogue
Tradition of the Church
Vision of the Normatively Human
Integration of Human Experience

34. 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.

40. 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.

41. 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.

42. A Difficult Issue for Sexual Ethics
Homosexuality in Catholic Moral Theology & Pastoral Practice

43. 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.”

44. 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.”

45. 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.”

46. Intrinsically Disordered

47. Contra Naturam & “Intrinsically Disordered”
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”

48. 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….

49. 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?

50. 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

51. 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

53. Truth Claims
And Counter-Claims

54. 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

55. 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?