Sexing the Church: Gender, Power, and Ethics in Contemporary Catholicism

1. ORDER AND SEXUAL ETHICS

1 ORDER AND SEXUAL ETHICS Sex is a contentious topic in Catholicism. Mark Jordan notes that in the contemporary American imagination, Christianity is often thought to be nothing more than a “code of sexual conduct” (Jordan 2002, 5). In other words, most Americans know little about the details of doctrines such as the trinity, the resurrection, or the incarnation, but they can recite lists of prohibitions against particular sexual acts. Jordan is clearly exaggerating for effect, yet he draws attention to an important point—that the regulation of human sexuality is central to most perceptions of Christianity.1 In the case of Roman Catholic Christianity , the association of religion and sexuality is even more pronounced —a perception reinforced by recent attention to sexual misconduct by Catholic clergy. The link between Christianity and sex is not limited to the public imagination. Indeed, an internal discussion among Catholic theologians is also suggestive of the central connection between modes and sources of moral reasoning in religious ethics and the regulation of human sexuality. For example, critics of Pope John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor proclaimed that “human sexuality governs this text” (Patrick 1993, 18). Supporters of the encyclical responded that “[f]aith, not sex, is the theme” of the document (Finnis 1994, 69). The apparent goal of the encyclical is to challenge theories of morality held by some Catholic theologians. More specifically, the pope attacks secular trends such as relativism and utilitarianism by explaining and defending more fully the basic principles of Catholic moral theology. He mentions sexuality only a few times, and that in passing. That many understand the real motivation to be uneasiness about sexuality strongly suggests that Catholic discourse about modes S E X I N G T H E C H U R C H 2 of moral reasoning is intricately connected to Catholic sexual teachings ; indeed, the responses to Veritatis Splendor indicate that the authority of the Church is at stake. The link between sexual morality and church authority is strong, and it is fortified by Catholic attitudes about order and gender. This book explores those attitudes through a careful study of recent official Catholic documents on sex, marriage, and reproduction. I chose the provocative title Sexing the Church because it captures the way Catholicism ’s attitudes about gender (what it means to be male or female) permeate its teachings about sexuality, reproduction, and church authority . “Sexing” the Catholic Church means revealing the profound interconnection between gender, power, and sexual ethics in the teaching documents of the Church. In recent decades, especially since the Second Vatican Council, sex, gender, and church authority have been among the most controversial issues in Catholicism. Disagreements about contraception, abortion, women in the priesthood, assisted reproductive technologies, and homosexuality all reveal the centrality of Catholicism’s understanding of the natural order and its view of authority and obedience. Can the Church change its teachings about morality? Can it abandon traditional ideas about gender roles and sex without severely compromising Catholic beliefs? Catholics believe that the Church’s role is to interpret and maintain the natural order of God’s creation, an order that relies on the correct interpretation of the meanings of human sexuality and gender. In what follows , I will utilize the concept of order as the organizing metaphor for clarifying Catholic sexual ethics.2 In brief, this book explores the notion of order through a significant body of religious writing on morality. The chapters are structured around three concerns: 1) order as reflected in the theology of marriage ; 2) the challenge to that order in the second half of the twentieth century through the debates on contraception and assisted reproduction ; and 3) the way attitudes about gender in Catholicism connect theological and moral order with ecclesiastical order. Catholic theology has long exhibited a concern with human sexuality and its relationship to theology and church authority. St. Augustine , for one, made sexuality central to his theology by linking original sin to concupiscence (immoderate desires). In his view, original sin, disobedience, sexual intercourse, and the need for authority O R D E R A N D S E X U A L E T H I C S 3 were all connected. Augustine claimed that Adam and Eve’s original sin was disobedience resulting from pride. They turned away from God, who is the telos of the human striving for the good. Augustine described the disobedience as “this...