Catholic theology of sexuality
Catholic theology of sexuality, like Catholic theology in general, is drawn from "natural law", canonical scripture, divine revelation, and sacred tradition, as interpreted authoritatively by the magisterium of the Catholic Church. Sexual morality evaluates sexual behavior according to standards laid out by Catholic moral theology, and often provides general principles by which Catholics can evaluate whether specific actions meet these standards.
The Catholic Church teaches that sexual intercourse has a two-fold unitive and procreative purpose; According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "conjugal love... aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul", since the marriage bond is to be a sign of the love between God and humanity.
Because Catholics believe God found everything He created to be "very good", the Catholic Church teaches that the human body and sex must likewise be good. Every person is created in the image of God and therefore has great dignity including their sexuality. Sexuality is not something that exists with purely biological purpose defined by personal preference; rather, it is an intimate nucleus of the person that spiritually is designed by God to unite man and woman as one-flesh - not because man and woman preferred it this way, but because God designed and created woman to be equal but different from man. Genesis describes the man’s official companion being made from a bone of his bones and the flesh of his flesh.
In cases in which sexual expression is sought outside marriage, or in which the procreative function of sexual expression within marriage is "deliberately frustrated", the Catholic Church considers them a grave sin. According to the Catechism, among what are considered sins against chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices. Additionally, "adultery, divorce, polygamy, and free union are grave offenses against the dignity of marriage".
In the history of Catholic theology, there have been significant differing opinions on the nature of the severity of various sexual sins. In the present, there exists still wide opinions by theologians and much of the laity on official teaching on sexuality.
Natural law
refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature to deduce binding rules of moral behavior from God's creation of reality and mankind. "The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin." It is called "Natural", because the reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature. Its main precepts are found in the Ten Commandments.In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "...the rational creature is subject to Divine providence in the most excellent way, in so far as it partakes of a share of providence, by being provident both for itself and for others. Wherefore it has a share of the Eternal Reason, whereby it has a natural inclination to its proper act and end: and this participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law.
Scripture
The Old Testament described occurrences of polygamy, concubines, and divorce with remarriage. Many of the patriarchs, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and King Solomon, practiced polygamy and/or concubinage despite God establishing monogamy and later clarified in the New Testament. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus attested that from the beginning God made one man and one woman to cleave to each other. Further, divorce was permitted in the Mosaic law due to humankind’s hardened hearts therefore implying that a softened heart when turned to truly honor God, practices a holier nature as intentionally designed by God from the beginning. Scripture repeatedly suggests these practices to be problematic, and clear instruction from God is included in both Old Testament and New Testament.The Didache states that abortion is sinful. The earliest Christian texts on abortion condemn it with "no mention of any distinction in seriousness between the abortion of a formed fetus and that of an unformed embryo." However, prior to the 19th century, abortion was often distinguished between later-term abortions which were treated as murder, and early abortion which was associated with the sin of contraception.
In the New Testament, Christ and the Apostle Paul praised the greatness of single life for the kingdom of God.
Patristic theology
, considered a saint and church father by the Catholic Church, having lived a hedonistic lifestyle in his early youth, later followed the strictly dualistic religion of Manicheanism, which was deeply hostile to the material world, despising sexual activity. Eventually, under the influence of his Catholic Christian mother Monica, Augustine converted to Christianity, and later wrote of this conversion in his Confessions, including details of the sexually related aspects of said conversion. The following passage from his autobiography describes a critical turning point in his change of sexual morality:So quickly I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I put down the volume of the apostles, when I rose thence. I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." No further would I read, nor did I need...
Medieval theology
wrote the following regarding chastity in his Summa Theologiae:
The word "chastity" is employed in two ways. First, properly; and thus it is a special virtue having a special matter, namely the concupiscences relating to venereal pleasures. Secondly, the word "chastity" is employed metaphorically: for just as a mingling of bodies conduces to venereal pleasure which is the proper matter of chastity and of lust its contrary vice, so too the spiritual union of the mind with certain things conduces to a pleasure which is the matter of a spiritual chastity metaphorically speaking, as well as of a spiritual fornication likewise metaphorically so called. For if the human mind delight in the spiritual union with that to which it behooves it to be united, namely God, and refrains from delighting in union with other things against the requirements of the order established by God, this may be called a spiritual chastity, according to 2 Cor. 11:2, "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." If, on the other hand, the mind be united to any other things whatsoever, against the prescription of the Divine order, it will be called spiritual fornication, according to Jer. 3:1, "But thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers." Taking chastity in this sense, it is a general virtue, because every virtue withdraws the human mind from delighting in a union with unlawful things. Nevertheless, the essence of this chastity consists principally in charity and the other theological virtues, whereby the human mind is united to God.
In her Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Uta Ranke-Heinemann says that three discussions of marriage in the New Testament do not refer to generating children, which later became consistently emphasized in Catholic moral doctrine as the primary purpose of sexual relations. The view that marriage is primarily intended for the purpose of procreation dominated early Christianity and was held by many Church Fathers. During the Middle Ages, the question of when intercourse was allowed was very important. Intercourse was prohibited on all Sundays and on all the many feast days, as well as on the 20 days before Christmas, on the 40 days before Easter, for three or more days before receiving Communion, and often on the 20 days before Pentecost. These forbidden days altogether totaled about 40% of each year. Some church leaders warned believers that children conceived on holy days would be born leprous, epileptic, diabolically possessed, or crippled. Penalties of 20 to 40 days of strict fasting on bread and water were imposed on transgressors. Intercourse was forbidden during the menstrual period and after childbirth, since "physicians mistakenly believed that the blood of a menstruating woman or one who has just given birth was poisonous". It was also forbidden during pregnancy, with concern for protecting the fetus as the main reason. "Christian theologians", including Pope Gregory I, held that abstinence should continue until a baby was weaned.
Scholastic theologians from the 11th to 13th centuries shifted the time scheme to motives; the desire to procreate with "joy in a new servant of God" was considered the best motive for intercourse. Bertold of Regensburg considered a woman innocent if she was forced by her husband to engage in intercourse at a prohibited time. Because intercourse was only allowed for procreative reasons, various penitentials also forbade intercourse between sterile or older partners, although never assigning a penalty. Heinemann says that oral and anal intercourse were often punished by more years of penance than premeditated murder, as they prevented conception from occurring. Although practices varied, menstruating women were often forbidden to attend Mass or receive Communion; the Latin Church took a more moderate stance on this question than the Eastern Churches did. Since the blood from childbirth was believed more harmful than menstrual blood, the Synod of Trier ruled that women who had just given birth had to be "reconciled with the Church" before they were allowed to enter church. They often could not buried in the cemetery if they died in childbirth before having undergone a purifying ritual; this policy, however, was rejected by several synods. The Council of Trent, and several synods afterwards, did not impose abstinence from intercourse on certain times as an "obligation", but as an "admonition".