Sexuality and Vocation Flashcards
Using a good English translation, state the exact wording of the Church’s moral principle prohibiting contraception, as found at the end of paragraph 11 of Humanae Vitae.
“It is necessary that each marital act remain oriented in itself (per se destinatus) to the procreation of human life.” (HV 11)
• False Interpretation = Be continually “open” to the idea of having children, at least to some degree.
• Correct Interpretation = Don’t obstruct the generative process by contracepting.
According to Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, what are the two meanings/significances of the conjugal act? How are these meanings violated?
- Unitive and Procreative
- These meanings are violated when one “uses this divine gift but deprives [the conjugal act], event partly, of its meaning and purpose.” (HV 13) Paul VI makes an appeal to the Principle of Integrity: One cannot intentionally separate what intrinsically belongs together. In this case, the unitive and procreative meanings cannot be separated.
Can a married woman take an anti-ovulant pill for therapeutic reasons, according to Paul VI? Why or why not?
- Yes, a married woman can take an anti-ovulant pill for therapeutic reasons.
- This is due to the fact that the impediment to procreation is foreseen but not directly intended.
What is “responsible parenthood,” according to Pope Paul VI. (See HV 10)
- Spouses act “responsibly” in one of two ways:
- 1) Electing “to accept many children…guided by prudent consideration and generosity” (HV 10)
- 2) Deciding “not to have another child for either a definite or an indefinite amount of time” on account of “serious reasons” (seriis causis) / “well-grounded reasons” (iustae causae) (HV 16)
- =» Spouses should maintain correct priorities. Recognize duties toward God, themselves, family and human society. Cites physical, psychological, social, and economic reasons to use NFP. (HV 10, 16)
What are some examples of good vs. bad reasons for not conceiving at a particular time?º
- Good: Financial limitations / job security; physical health / psychological readiness; the need to space out children; strengthen/stability of the couple’s relationship.
- Bad: To indulge a materialistic lifestyle; to maintain cultural expectations of beauty (i.e., remain thin, no stretch marks); to maintain an independent lifestyle (with which children would interfere).
What are some examples of good vs. bad means for not conceiving at a particular time?
- Good: Natural Family Planning
* Bad: Contraception (pill, condom, etc.), morning after pill, coitus interruptus, vasectomy, tubular ligation.
Name three benefits of NFP
1) 98-99% effective when practiced correctly (similar to birth control pill)
2) Avoids negative side effects of hormonal contraception
3) Greater intimacy than with condoms
4) Gift of self is more complete (fertility not withheld)
5) Equal regard between men and women (both must abstain vs. birth control pill is wife’s burden only)
6) Husbands treat wives with greater respect
7) Helps spouses develop chastity
8) Helps keep sex more vibrant and exciting
9) More frequent discussions about parental readiness
10) Lower divorce rate (5% among NFP couples vs. 50% general population)
Name three disadvantages of contraception
- General decay of moral standards in society
- Rise in infidelity
- Loss of respect for woman, treating them as objects/instruments in service of men’s self-centered desire
The Virtue of Chastity (species of temperance)
The ability to moderate one’s sexual appetite
Name two reasons why masturbation is a problem.
Masturbation = “The deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure.” (CCC)
1) The person devalues himself, by treating himself as an object.
2) A habit of masturbation makes one physiologically and physically unable to give oneself to one’s spouse in normal sexual intercourse.
• Consequently, even mutual masturbation between spouses can become problematic.
• Mutual masturbation (including oral sex) should serve only as foreplay to the conjugal act. Such acts should never replace the conjugal act.
• An act that begins with conjugal intercourse and culminates in an act of masturbation is particularly disordered.
Name two reasons why the use of pornography mal-forms persons.
Pornography = “Removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties.” (CCC)
• 1) Instead of forming persons as virtuous (free to act out of genuine love), it forms persons as vicious (inherently self-centered; imprisoned within their own base needs and desires; incapable of responding to the needs of others).
• 2) It habituates men to see women and (themselves) reductively, as objects rather than as whole persons.
• 3) It gravely distorts one’s understanding of sexuality: not only the inherent purposes of sex (unity and procreation in the context of marriage), but also what is truly pleasurable.
• 4) It renders a person incapable of total self-gift: unable to give themselves entirely (mind, body, spirit) to their spouse, and unable to accept their spouse’s total gift of self in return
• How does pornography corrupt a person’s psychological and physical capacities for self-gift in the conjugal act?
- Physically: Their bodies become so accustomed to excessive masturbation that they can no longer achieve physical orgasm through normal sexual intercourse.
- Psychologically: Normal sexual intercourse with normal women is no longer very pleasurable.
- Average women are no longer sexually appealing (because men have been habituated to porn stars)
- Because masturbation to pornography provides sexual release without the typical real-life requirements of love and affection, men learn to cut themselves off from their emotions during sex.
- This makes them incapable of relating to their wives as whole persons whom they love during the conjugal act.
Name four victims of pornography
1) The individuals who use it
2) The sexual partners to those who view porn
3) The women and men who prostitute themselves by engaging in videotaped sex for money
4) Children
What does the Church mean by its claim that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered”? Cite and explain two reasons for this claim
- Homosexual Acts = Sexual acts between men; or sexual acts between women.
- These 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 a genuine affective and sexual complementarity
- They cannot attain their finality
- In the Bible, homosexual acts are presented as acts of great depravity
- Genesis 19:1-29, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, Romans 1:24-27, 1 Timothy 1:9-10
Name two ways in which adultery is an injustice.
- Adultery is committed when two persons have sexual relations, but at least one of them is married to someone else.
- Adultery is an injustice:
- 1) The adulterer transgresses the rights of the other spouse
- 2) He injures the sign of the marital covenant
- 3) He undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on which it is based
- 4) He compromised the good of human generations and welfare of children who need their parents’ stable union
How does the Old Testament present adultery?
- The sixth commandment forbids adultery absolutely
- Exodus 20:14: “You shall not commit adultery.”
- Leviticus 20:10: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.”
- Deuteronomy 22:22: “If a man found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.”
- The OT prophets also denounce adultery. It is an image of the sin of idolatry.
In what ways is the New Testament’s conception of adultery similar to, yet different from, that of the Old Testament.
- The New Testament also forbids adultery absolutely.
- Mt. 5:32: “But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
- Mt. 19:6: “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
- 1 Cor. 6:9-10: “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor adulterers…will inherit the kingdom of God.”
- Jesus condemns even the adultery of mere desire.
- Mt. 5:27-30: “You have heard it said, ‘you shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
