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Human Sexuality and the Catholic Church | Introduction to The
Conjugal Act as a Personal Act | Donald P. Asci
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A simple survey of the contemporary cultural landscape reveals a
great interest in the sexual relationship between man and woman, with many
books, articles, and programs dedicated to this subject. However, the energy
spent seeking new ways to "improve" modern man's sexual experience
betrays an almost equally great dissatisfaction. Though modern man's
discontentment with sexuality undoubtedly derives from multiple factors, one
cannot avoid suspecting that the contemporary approach to sexuality produces so
little satisfaction because it sees sexuality in the most superficial of terms.
Anytime we judge something profound by superficial standards we fail to grasp
not only its significance but also its value for our lives. [1]
In contrast to the popular view of human sexuality, the Catholic Church
promotes an understanding that not only includes unique considerations on the
ethical level but that also appreciates the most profound aspects of sexuality
without neglecting any genuinely human aspect of the sexual relationship. The
Catholic concept of sexuality and sexual intercourse articulates the ethical
norms by which these profound realities are preserved and promoted.
Consequently, the teachings of the Church open the path to a joy and
fulfillment that only the deepest aspects of sexuality can supply. Beyond the
moral norms of the Church's sexual ethics lies a theology of sexuality that
recalls what is at stake in the realm of sexual activity. Thus, the Church not
only affirms marriage as the only morally acceptable context for sexual
intercourse but also develops a specific concept of the conjugal act, recalling
all that sexual intercourse can and should be for husband and wife.
I have undertaken this study of the Catholic concept of the conjugal act in
order to investigate and present the deeper significance of the conjugal act,
that is, the profound and sacred significance that the Church's theology of
sexuality recognizes in sexual intercourse between husband and wife. In light of
the contemporary situation, I see a great many people whose minds and hearts
(and cultures) need to encounter these profound truths if they are ever to
appreciate and value sexuality to its full potential. Thus, the opportunity to
contribute to such an encounter in any small manner is worth taking. However, I
am further motivated to study the Catholic concept of the conjugal act by the
larger, more fundamental theological framework from which this concept of the
conjugal act emerges. Within this theological framework, the Church's teaching becomes
a true theology of the conjugal act, drawing upon fundamental theological
principles, especially those related to theological anthropology. Thus, a study
of the conjugal act provides a window or an opening to this greater theological
framework and enables us to see how the Church's anthropological vision finds
its way into the life of the person. In other words, the value of studying the
conjugal act derives from the opportunity it affords to consider the Church's
vision of man and the implications this anthropological vision has for our
lives.
Throughout my consideration of the conjugal act and its related fields of study
I seek to examine and present the "Catholic position" by focusing
principally, though not exclusively, on the Magisterium's official
pronouncements. In one sense, the Catholic position admits of various
interpretations, so identifying such a position in a definitive manner seems
nearly impossible. Yet, when we examine what is said by those who attack or
dissent from the Catholic position on the conjugal act as well as by those who
defend and promote it, several core, indispensable, and identifiable elements
emerge that possess certain presuppositions and implications, the further
details of which admit of various interpretations. Consequently, in the course
of my consideration I concentrate on identifying the core elements of the
Church's theology of the conjugal act while also forwarding the most reasonable
presuppositions and implications of the explicit teachings or pronouncements.
In accomplishing this task I rely on the official teachings of the Church and
the writings of those authors who explore and promote these teachings, [2]
while I mention only rarely those who take exception to these teachings. The
dissenting position deserves serious consideration, but in another context. [3]


An examination and summary of the Church's position proves challenging
precisely because it has been unfolding over a great number of years and in
vastly diverse circumstances or contexts. Because the Church's position
develops in this manner, certain elements in it receive greater or lesser emphasis
according to the purpose and context of a particular teaching. However, though
this manner of unfolding begins as a challenge, it ultimately becomes an
advantage precisely because it allows each core element of the Church's position
to receive an adequate prominence or emphasis. In other words, each core
element receives adequate treatment because it eventually comes to the center
of discussion by virtue of the vast circumstances in which the Church's
position has been reiterated or deepened. For that reason, emphasis on one core
element in one context should not be taken as a denial or dislodging of a core
element that has been affirmed in a different context. In order to navigate the
situation we cannot reduce the Catholic position to any one particular
teaching, otherwise core elements of the position that are emphasized elsewhere
will be lost. The Church diligently avoids a reductive approach in her theology
of marriage and her theology of the conjugal act by preserving a multi-faceted
unity across many years and differing circumstances. For this reason, I
approach the diverse teachings, each representing a particular context and
purpose, as a unified and coherent whole and prescind from speculation about
the competition that each teaching poses to the others. The resulting summary
provides a profound view of marriage and the conjugal act from diverse yet
harmonious perspectives.
As a consequence of the Church's multi-faceted approach to the conjugal life of
husband and wife, her theology of marriage considers this sacred relationship
from three principal perspectives: marriage as a natural institution, marriage as
an intimate friendship, and marriage as a sacrament. As a natural institution,
marriage possesses a specific content in terms of its structure, purposes,
blessings, and laws. The institution of marriage finds its origin in God, in
the very creation of man as male and female, ordering masculinity and femininity
to marriage. The institution of marriage bestows certain rights on husband and
wife while also imposing obligations on them toward each other and toward God
the Creator. The conjugal friendship "gives life" to the institution
of marriage, confirming it as a loving personal communion. As an intimate
friendship that embraces the good of the whole person, marriage demands the personal
energy and emotion of the spouses as well as their firm commitment and selfless
sacrifice. For its part, the institution of marriage protects and promotes
spousal love, directing husband and wife to the goods upon which their personal
communion is based. The sacramental dimension of marriage enables the
relationship of husband and wife to share in and signify the mystery of God's
love for humanity and Christ's love for the Church. Thus, marriage acquires a
sacred role or purpose in the world insofar as the relationship of husband and
wife should announce and manifest God's covenantal love. Moreover, because
spouses fulfill this sacred role only when the essence of marriage as an
institution and a loving communion remains intact, husband and wife discover in
the sacramental dimension of marriage a serious motivation for conforming their
daily life to God's plan for the conjugal life.
The Church's theology of the conjugal act emerges from this multi-faceted
theology of marriage and relates intimately to each dimension of marriage as an
institution, an intimate friendship, and a sacrament. These various dimensions
of marriage harmoniously converge in the conjugal act, just as they do in the
whole of conjugal life. Therefore, the conjugal act cannot be reduced to an
obligation of the institution or to an expression of love. Instead, the
conjugal act embraces each of these dimensions as the consummation of marital
consent and the embodiment of conjugal love, sharing the sacramental
signification of the conjugal covenant. It does so through a specific use of
human freedom that relies upon the potential of human sexuality. Consequently,
the Church's theology of the conjugal act advances along with greater insights
into Christian anthropology, insights that clarify the nature of human freedom
and the place of sexuality in the human body/soul composite. The Church's vision
of the human person provides the necessary theological framework for the
concept of an act that embraces the various dimensions of marriage and also
supports the Church's broader teachings on marriage itself.
On the foundations of the Church's teaching on marriage and within the
framework of Christian anthropology, a theology of the conjugal act emerges in
which sexual intercourse between husband and wife is a particular human act (issuing
from reason and will), a symbolic act (expressing love in the language of the
body), and a sacramental act (sharing in the sacramentality of the conjugal
covenant). Each of these various dimensions of the conjugal act confirms the conjugal
act as a personal act, an act that
depends upon the specifically personal characteristics of man and woman and that
allows them to fulfill their fundamental vocation to love and communion. Thus,
the Church's view of the conjugal act far surpasses the level of momentary
erotic pleasure or the satisfaction of an urge. The Church's theology of the conjugal
act affirms the wealth of significance and beauty inherent in the sexual
relationship of husband and wife. The Church's theology of the conjugal act
imbues the act with the dignity proper to husband and wife as persons and also exhorts
husband and wife to preserve the dignity and beauty of their love by
approaching the marital embrace precisely as a personal act.
The course of this study of the conjugal act proceeds along the thought that in
order to understand the conjugal act we must grasp what the Church means by conjugal and what she means by act. In turn, these terms are intelligible only in the light
of a vision of the person because only persons marry and only persons act. I
begin my study with a review of Catholic magisterial teaching on marriage from
1930 through 1968, in which marriage is presented as an institution of fruitful
love. The teachings from this period provide a foundation for understanding the
conjugal life and the goods to which it is ordered as an institution and as a
friendship. I next consider the manner in which the Church develops her theology
of the conjugal act in the framework of Christian anthropology by examining
magisterial teaching from 1968 to the present, focusing on the encyclical Humanae
vitae and the teachings of Pope John Paul
II. Because the Church's theology of the conjugal act centers on the doctrine
of an indissoluble connection between the procreative and unitive meanings of
the act, I dedicate the third chapter of the work to a consideration of
procreation and union and the manner in which they enter into the conjugal act.
In the fourth and final chapter of the work I consider the various dimensions of
the conjugal act, the anthropological vision that underlies this concept of the
conjugal act, and the manner in which the conjugal act is a personal act.
Throughout my study I focus on two overlapping and converging areas as they
arise in the teachings of the Church: the conjugal relationship and Christian
anthropology. Consequently, this consideration of the conjugal act bears a
threefold fruit insofar as it investigates the conjugal act itself, the nature
of the conjugal relationship, and the Church's vision of man.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Thus, for example, some people are bored at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
blaming the length of the homily or the quality of the music. In fact, the second
Person of the Trinity is becoming sacramentally present on the altar during
Mass, an event that could never fail to excite and to produce joy if properly
understood and appreciated.
[2] Regarding these secondary sources, I concentrate my attention on the writings
of those authors who demonstrate a clear effort to support or develop the official
teachings of the Magisterium or whose work possesses a clear correspondence to
the ideas articulated in the official teachings of the Magisterium. Though a
great many theologians and philosophers fulfill this criteria, I mention (in
alphabetical order) the following as authors who have done exemplary work in
this respect and who represent significant sources for the development of my
study: Carlo Caffarra, Ramón Garcia de Haro, Francisco Gil Hellín, Alain Mattheeuws,
William E. May, Martin Rhonheimer, Janet Smith, Dionigi Tettamanzi, and Karol
Wojtyla. Additionally, regarding certain concepts, I make substantial reference
to the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas as two
authorities explicitly incorporated into the teachings of the Magisterium (for
example, in Pius Xl's Casti connubii and
John Paul II's Veritatis splendor).
The specific books and articles from these authors (as well as other relevant
sources) that have been instrumental in the development of my ideas are cited
throughout the text and contained in the bibliography. For a more comprehensive
bibliography of the relevant work published in this area of study, consult
Janet Smith, "Humanae Vitae", a Generation Later (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America
Press, 1993), and Alain Mattheeuws, Union et procréation (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1989), both of which
contain extensive bibliographies.
[3] By "dissenting position" I mean the writings of those theologians
and philosophers who, though working in a Christian context, do not fully
accept the official teachings of the Church regarding the sexual relationship
of husband and wife. For a simplified but classic example of this line of
thought, see Anthony Kosnik et al., Human Sexuality, New Directions
in American Catholic Thought: A Study,
commissioned by the Catholic Theological Society of America (New York: Paulist
Press, 1977). Although this position is usually expressed with regard to
particular moral conclusions affirmed by the Magisterium, such as the Church's
condemnation of contraception, the dissenting position amounts to an
understanding of human sexuality and human action and, consequently, a concept
of the conjugal act that differ fundamentally from the Catholic understanding
of the same issues. The difference between the dissenting position and the
doctrine of the Magisterium, then, cannot be reduced to a simple disagreement
about certain sexual acts. Instead, those who dissent from the Church's
teaching on the conjugal act invariably espouse, in one form or another,
concepts of the human person and moral theories that are incompatible with the
teachings of the Church. In simple terms, those who reject the teaching of Humanae
vitae usually find themselves at odds with
the teaching of Veritatis splendor.
Prominent examples of this line of thought can be found in the writings of
Charles Curran, Josef Fuchs, Bernard Häring, Louis Janssens, and Richard
McCormick. The ideas and positions of these authors and others, often described
as "revisionists", have been given serious consideration. For an
analysis and critique of the dissenting position, including relevant bibliographical
information, consult William May, An Introduction to Moral Theology, rev. ed. (Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor,
1994), pp. 109-53; Martin Rhonheimer, "Intentional Acts and the Meaning of
Object: A Reply to Richard McCormick", Thomist, vol. 59, no. 2 (1995), pp. 279-311; and Smith, "Humanae
Vitae", pp. 161-229.
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Donald P. Asci received his Master of Sacred Theology from the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family,
and did his studies for a Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical University in Rome. Since 1998 he has
been Associate Professor of Theology in the Austrian Program of the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
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