| A SHORT COURSE ON SEXUALITY I. “Deadly Dangers behind Closed Doors” Josh Homme, Queens of the Stone Age: “Homme believes live music is a great escape and one that everyone should be a part of. ‘Escape is a devalued commodity,’ he declares. ‘It’s my firm belief that people do what they want to do in the dark, so we’re going to come and bring the darkness.’” (Herald Sun, Thursday, January 1, 2004) OFFENSES AGAINST CHASTITY Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes. Weapons of Mass Destruction: 1. Pornography 2. Masturbation 3. Fornication 4. Prostitution 5. Rape Pornography. “What’s the problem? I’m not hurting anyone.” On the contrary, you’re hurting yourself. “Everybody’s doing it” – Centrelink sacking/demotions. It consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. (Clare “Magdalene”, King St. Stripper) It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. Porn can’t fulfil the human heart: “It’s like hungry people standing outside the window of a restaurant,” one porn user said, “thinking that they’re going to get fed.” Ted Bundy, serial killer (executed in 1989), regarding his “addiction” to pornography: “It reaches that jumping-off point where you begin to wonder if, maybe, actually doing it will give you that which is beyond just reading about it or looking at it.” State’s Maximum Security Prison – pornography & rape/child molestation/murder. Firm link between sexual predators and Internet porn. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials (internet). Former Democrats’ leader Don Chipp at the launch of the Melbourne Sexpo (Nov. 2003): censorship of pornography leads to totalitarianism. Breaking Free: 12 Steps to Sexual Purity for Men by Stephen Wood. By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. “Masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.” “The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.” What happens to mutual self-giving & true love? To form a just judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account 1) the affective immaturity, 2) force of acquired habit, 3) conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability (e.g., nocturnal semi-sleep masturbation). Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young. Total gift of self (high school e.g.). Don’t write a cheque with your body that you can’t cash with your life. So how far can you go? Affection & passion. How far would you like someone to go with your spouse? Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents. While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offence can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure. San Paolo Mission, Brazil, with the prostitutes: The gift of a rose and an assurance of God’s love. Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them. Anne’s testimony: the “forgiveness process…over a time span of 30 years”. ___________________________________________________ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2351-56. THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (2351-56) |
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