Download PDF - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council
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Here I hope to show that the teaching <strong>of</strong> the Catholic Church<br />
on sexual ethics, far from enslaving persons, liberates them and<br />
enables them to become fully themselves. It helps them come into<br />
possession <strong>of</strong> their desires and not be possessed by them. It does so<br />
because it is rooted in a pr<strong>of</strong>ound reverence for human persons, male<br />
and female, as bodily, sexual beings, summoned from their depths<br />
to self-giving love. I will begin by considering (1) the dignity <strong>of</strong> the<br />
human person and (2) the existential, religious significance <strong>of</strong><br />
human acts as freely chosen. Then, after identifying (3) the true<br />
moral norms necessary if our freely chosen deeds are to be morally<br />
good, I will consider (4) major issues <strong>of</strong> sexual ethics.<br />
1. THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON<br />
According to Catholic teaching, human persons have a<br />
threefold dignity: (1) the first is intrinsic, natural, inalienable, and<br />
an endowment or gift; (2) the second is also intrinsic, but it is not<br />
an endowment but rather an achievement, made possible, given the<br />
reality <strong>of</strong> original sin and its effects, only by God’s never-failing<br />
grace; (3) the third, also intrinsic, is, like the first, a gift, not an<br />
achievement, but a gift far surpassing man’s nature and one that<br />
literally divinizes him.<br />
The first dignity proper to human persons is their dignity as<br />
living members <strong>of</strong> the human species, which God called into being<br />
when, in the beginning, he “created man in his own image and<br />
likeness…male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Every<br />
human being is a living image <strong>of</strong> the all-holy God and can be called<br />
a “created word” <strong>of</strong> God, the created word that his Uncreated Word<br />
became and is precisely to show us how much God loves us.<br />
When we come into existence we are, by reason <strong>of</strong> this<br />
intrinsic dignity, persons. In virtue <strong>of</strong> this dignity, every human<br />
being, <strong>of</strong> whatever age or sex or condition, is a being <strong>of</strong> moral worth,<br />
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