{"id":7060,"date":"2004-11-04T09:47:37","date_gmt":"2004-11-04T16:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/11\/04\/every-sperm-is-sacred.html"},"modified":"2004-11-04T09:47:37","modified_gmt":"2004-11-04T16:47:37","slug":"every_sperm_is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/04\/every_sperm_is.html","title":{"rendered":"Every sperm is sacred …"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Catholic Church has issued — or at least formally sanctioned — some new guidelines on sex. And, unlike the common expectation (even among a number of Catholics), they don’t just say that Sex is Bad. Indeed, just the opposite.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

The controversial book, It’s A Sin Not To Do It,<\/em> written by two theologians, promises the reader answers to “everything you wanted to know about sex but the Church (almost) never dared to tell you”.<\/p>\n

\nIn their attempt to galvanise the faithful, Roberto Beretta and Elisabetta Broli, who write regularly for the Italian Bishops’ magazine, Avvenire, <\/em>have written one of the raciest works ever to deal with the Church and sex. Bullet points on the jacket cover underline the central message: “Sex? God invented it. Original sin? Sex has nothing to do with it. Without sex there is no real marriage.”<\/p>\n

\n[…] The pages of It’s A Sin Not To Do It,<\/em> however, feature a frank interview with Cardinal Ersilio Tonini in which he emphasises that “the Church is not an enemy of the flesh”. He argues that Vatican doctrine has always defended the “nobility of sexuality”, which is regarded by the Church as a “treasure” of humanity.<\/p>\n

\nAnother chapter likely to raise eyebrows unearths theological justification for post-coital masturbation for women who fail to achieve orgasm during intercourse.<\/p>\n

Still, despite some extensions of doctrine, the book doesn’t actually break any new ground, theologically. It is certainly a change in emphasis, though.<\/p>\n

Beretta told The Telegraph: “The Church is not against sex. Something needed to be done about the cliches and stereotypes. The Church is not only about forbidding the use of contraception and warning against the sins of the flesh.<\/p>\n

“In view of the trivialisation of sex and the rise of impotence and frigidity in consequence, as well as the increasing number of only children, it is better for the Church to promote sex in the right circumstances, instead of just focusing on prohibitions and perversions.”<\/p>\n

In other words, it’s emphasizing the place where the Church thinks sex is good, <\/em>not just the places where it thinks it’s bad.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even so, it’s refreshing, even if part of the shift in focus is in response to some worldly worries, especially for European Catholics.<\/p>\n

The Vatican has regularly expressed its concerns over Italy’s low birth rate, which stands at fewer than nine births per thousand inhabitants. Two years ago, in an address to the Italian parliament, Pope John Paul described the declining rate as “a serious threat that weighs on the future of the country”.<\/p>\n

And I suppose they’re more likely to get that birth rate back up if they emphasize that sex can be nifty and virtuous, and not just imply that folks should Lie Back and Think of St Peter’s …<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catholic Church has issued — or at least formally sanctioned — some new guidelines on sex. And, unlike the common expectation (even among a number of Catholics), they don’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-and-marriage","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32128,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/10\/mawwiage-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":7060,"position":0},"title":""Mawwiage!"","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Jan-13 10:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I was following along the news yesterday, as I could on the announcement from the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, about plans to perform same-sex marriages there. \u00a0This confused me a bit, because the Episcopal Church (to which the Cathedral belongs, and whose personnel were quoted in the news\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10983,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/03\/meanwhile_to_the_north.html","url_meta":{"origin":7060,"position":1},"title":"Meanwhile, to the North …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-May-07 10:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"More same-sex-marriage brouhaha from our neighbors in the Anglican Church of Canada.\u00a0 The Canadian\u00a0church has been a footnote in a lot of the\u00a0discussions to date on what's going on...","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episc-shield.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51662,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/03\/the-episcopal-church-votes-to-allow-same-sex-weddings.html","url_meta":{"origin":7060,"position":2},"title":"The Episcopal Church votes to allow same-sex weddings","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Jul-15 5:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"This comes as little surprise, as the church has been lurching forward toward marriage equality at around the same pace as the US as a whole. We okayed the \"blessing\" of \"same-sex unions\" at the last triennial convention, in 2012, which was about as close as we could get to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129489,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/14\/the-anglican-communion-finally-unifies-by-suspending-the-episcopal-church.html","url_meta":{"origin":7060,"position":3},"title":"The Anglican Communion finally unifies … by suspending the Episcopal Church","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Jan-16 4:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's been some concern that conservative Anglican archbishops from Africa would boycott the primates meeting in England; instead, they all showed up and drove through a resolution (though it's not clear under what authority) suspending the Episcopal Church for three years from voting within the Communion, representing Anglicans in ecumenical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13567,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/12\/to_heck_with_30_days_of_p.html","url_meta":{"origin":7060,"position":4},"title":"To heck with 30 Days of Purpose …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Nov-08 3:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... the religious challenge I'm after is the 7 Days of Nookie! Call to action: Pastor issuing 7-day sex challenge - Yahoo! News\u00a0 The pastor of a mega-church says he...","rel":"","context":"In "Love & Marriage"","block_context":{"text":"Love & Marriage","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/love-and-marriage"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23700,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/13\/sex-before-marriage.html","url_meta":{"origin":7060,"position":5},"title":"Sex Before Marriage","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Nov-11 11:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"In my opinion, our obsessive focus on virginity and sexual purity doesn\u2019t serve anyone. Losing one\u2019s virginity is not an event; it\u2019s a process. Similarly, weddings are events, and signing your marriage license is an event, but marriages are not events. They are processes.\"To my mind, the only key factor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}