The Catholic church thinks sex is sinful, rather like the Jews that were “unclean” after sex and had to do ritual washings.
In the days of married priests they were forbidden to have sex the night before they said mass.
Because sex is dirty Mary could of course never do it .
Never mind it is a sin NOT to have sex with your husband if he desires it...
“The Catholic church thinks that sex is sinful, rather like the Jews....” and so on.
What a ridiculous statement. If I didn’t absolutely abhor that LOL thing I would type out LOL regarding this statement of yours.
It would take a 10,000 word doctrinal essay post to cover all the aspects of why you wrote is not true. It’s a good thing that I don’t have the time or inclination.
So I’ll condense it down to seven words “What you have written is not truth”.
No, I don't think that's right. The Catholic Church thinks fallen humans are sinful. Consequently, as I believe Calvin would say, there is a sinful aspect to anything we do that doesn't come entirely from grace. Consequently there are sinful aspects to sex among humans, even chaste or licit sex, as there are sinful aspects to eating, or almost any activity which involves the passions and the will.
(You wanna see sin? watch me doing my taxes. You got your passion and your will, right there!)
There still are married Catholic priests, albeit not many. I am unaware of any canon that forbids them to have sex with their wives before they celebrate Mass. Can you direct me to one?
Since the first sentence of your post is false, and the "in the days of married priests sentence" is also false in its suggestion that we are not currently "in the days of married priests, the argument proceeding from those statements is also false.
So even the great pleasure of sex is not sinful. An in case secundum rationem ordinatosounds like too great a stricture, Aquinas says that it can be reasonable to do something which inhibits reason, otherwise sleep would be a sin.
From Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae:“The sexual activity, in which husband and wife are intimately and chastely united with one another, through which human life is transmitted, is, as the recent Council [Vatican II] recalled, ‘noble and worthy.’”
No sin is "noble and worthy". Virtue is not sinful. But the conciliar statements of the Church, the most famous writing of her most famous theologian, and a Papal encyclical say that sex does not contradict virtue and is "noble and worthy". So the Catholic Church does not think sex is sinful.
The Catholic Church thinks that sex is very holy when it is sacramental. That is why there is a Sacrament of Matriomony.
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Perhaps you are not familiar with Pope John Paul II's book on the Theology of the Body. It speaks about the sacredness of the sexual act, the sacredness of the marital union, etc.
For your information:
Christopher West's Theology of the Body Webiste
Books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc.
From book by the same name by Pope John Paul II.