Adriano Oliva's Amours: L'Église, les divorcés remariés, les couples homosexuels — Response from a Reader re: Aquinas' Theology of Marriage

One of my Facebook friends, Jean-François Garneau in Montréal, has responded to my recent posting about how Adriano Oliva's book Amours: L'Église, les divorcés remariés, les couples homosexuels — deals with the topic of procreation in Thomas Aquinas' theology of marriage. As my posting noted,

Notes on Adriano Oliva's Amours: L'Église, les divorcés remariés, les couples homosexuels — On Sexual Relations Between Women as Less Sinful Than Sodomy

As a footnote to what I posted yesterday regarding Adriano Oliva's book Amours: L'Église, les divorcés remariés, les couples homosexuels (Paris: Cerf, 2015) and its discussion of Aquinas' views regarding the sacrament of marriage, I'd like to offer  you the passage above as a reminder of some aspects of Aquinas' worldview that affect his understanding of sexuality, gender, and marriage. I offer this passage from pp. 78-9 of Adriano's book both as a footnote to the discussion of his theology of marriage, and as a prelude to his discussion of homosexuality, on which I'll focus in my next posting (or two) about his book.

Notes on Adriano Oliva's Amours: L'Église, les divorcés remariés, les couples homosexuels — Procreation in Aquinas' Theology of Marriage

Back in January 2016, I shared with you some notes about Adriano Oliva's book Amours: L'Église, les divorcés remariés, les couples homosexuels (Paris: Cerf, 2015). As I shared my comments about Oliva's book, which was written as theological reflection on issues central to the synod on the family in 2015, I told you that my comments were more a set of notes than a review of the book per se.

National Catholic Reporter Calls for Dialogue on Sexual Ethics: My Response

My new denomination hosted the counter protest in C'ville; my old one is still complaining about women getting to use birth control.

— Michael Boyle (@mboyle78) August 12, 2017

Meanwhile, in the strange, hermetically sealed, intensely self-gazing and obdurately parochial world of white Catholicism in the U.S., folks are still talking about what the magisterium has to say about human sexuality — as if this is a live issue a full half-century after the papacy commissioned a study of birth control because it knew even then that a large percentage of married Catholic couples were contracepting. And then the papacy chose to ignore the sound, theologically well-grounded recommendations of that commission and reasserted its teachings about birth control knowing full well that those teachings flew in the face of the sensus fidelium.

Wijngaards Declaration: Catholic Scholars Respond to Humanae Vitae on Use of Contraception — Implications for Gay Catholics

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Catholic encyclical Humanae Vitae, which reiterated the Catholic magisterium's ban on the use of artificial contraception, approaches, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research has released a statement of a group of Catholic theologians calling on the pastoral leaders of the Catholic church to reassess this teaching, which has not been received* by lay Catholics. Regarding the natural law argument that Humanae Vitae makes as its primary reason for ruling that the use of artificial contraceptives is gravely wrong, the statement notes:

William Saletan on Amoris Laetitia As Closeted Argument for Gay Marriage: Growing Cracks in Foundation of Catholic Approach to Same-Sex Couples

Another interesting piece of (non-insider) commentary on Amoris Laetitia to which I want to point you today: William Saletan at Slate. Saletan argues that the double standard between how the Catholic magisterium treats heterosexual couples incapable of procreation and how it treats homosexual couples — using the same moral norm in both cases — is growing insupportable, and that Amoris Laetitia may open the door to a change down the road in the official Catholic approach to same-sex marriage, as more and more people recognize just how insupportable (and invidious) this double standard is.

Pope Francis on Families and Their Gifts, John McNeill and Margaret Farley on Fruitfulness of Gay Relationships: Generativity Depends on Ecclesial and Social Support

What Catholic theologian John McNeill is pointing to in the quotation I shared with you yesterday is very much like what Catholic theologian Margaret Farley also pointed to in her recent comments at the Commonweal discussion of whether the church is a fortress or a field hospital. Margaret Farley offered her listeners several examples to illustrate what she means when she speaks of how the tradition of natural law in Catholic moral thinking requires us to attend carefully to concrete reality, to the experiences of others, and to learn from these.

Things I'm Reading at Week's End: Marriage, Bible, Catholics, Women's Rights, Recovering from Religious Trauma, Pope Francis and Women

Things I'm reading as this week ends — these items all connected in that they talk about issues of religion in the public square:

Rusty Reno on Benefits for Spouses of Same-Sex Couples in Catholic Institutions as Concordat with Hitler: On Catholic Centrist Lionization of Douthat and Reno

A few days back, I noted my bemusement that the movers and shakers of the American Catholic public conversation (in the media and the academy) can't do enough to praise Ross Douthat and Rusty Reno, while they continue to find it impossible to admit openly gay Catholics into the conversation they control, or to listen respectfully to us.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Let the Gays Marry, and Elderly Men Will Create Babies with Different Mothers

Gay people should not be allowed the right of civil marriage because — get ready for it! — if the gays are allowed to marry, elderly men will create babies with different mothers:

A Reader Writes: "Married People Contribute Many Goods to Society in Addition to Procreating . . . and the Provision of These Goods Is Not Gender-Dependent"

Yesterday, I blogged about the story of Father James Melnick, who was removed from ministry in my home state of Arkansas this past weekend, after our local Catholic bishop, Anthony Taylor, informed the public that he had received credible allegations of "multiple acts of sexual misconduct [by Melnick] with multiple adult victims during the period of less than a year." As I also noted, Melnick is a champion of the "new evangelization" ideology of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and a graduate of the Pontifical North American College and has studied at the John Paul II Institute.

More Head Scratchers about Gay Marriage from Catholic Right: "God Rejoices in Everything That a Married Man and Woman Do." But the Gays? Hateful and Violent

In a previous posting today, I asked how right-wing Catholics justify exorcism ceremonies aimed at those who are gay on the ground that homosexual acts are gravely sinful because they are non-procreative, when a large percentage of heterosexual Catholic married couples use contraceptives. Which are designed to prevent procreation.

In Defense of Paprocki's Exorcism Show: A Consideration of the Argument that Gay Marriage Multiplies Gravely Sinful Acts

This horse is dead, but I might as well beat it one more time: at the Commonweal blog's discussion of the Paprocki exorcism show, Deacon Jim Pauwels sums up his theological basis for defending Paprocki--and, no, I'm not making this up--as follows:

Friday Religion News: Men, Women, Gays, Bishops (and Money, Limousines, and Cigars)

As the work week ends, here's a selection of religion-focused commentary that has caught my eye during the week--teasers leading to substantive articles I hope you'll find of interest:

Now Delaware, Followed by Minnesota? Commentary by Minnesota Catholic Law Professor on His Changed Mind

As Delaware permits marriage equality on the heels of Rhode Island and Minnesota prepares to vote, I'm struck by Charles J. Reid's testimony about how his mind has changed on this subject. Reid is a Catholic professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Mark Regnerus's New Study of "Gay" Parenting and Ross Douthat on Gay Marriage and Severing Marriage from Procreation

As he comments on Mark Regnerus's badly conceived and badly executed recent study of "gay" parenting, which isn't actually about gay parents at all and which was bought and paid for by two well-heeled right-wing foundations, one of them closely associated with the National Organization for Marriage, Ross Douthat writes,

And the near-universal liberal optimism on the subject notwithstanding, we don’t really know how straight culture will be influenced on the long run by the final, formal severing of marriage from procreation.

Every Sperm Sacred, Every Ovum Holy: A Primer on "Catholic" Sexual Ethics for Non-Catholic Readers

A brief postcript to what I just wrote about the Catholic bishops, the Republicans, and making Martha jump: as I just said, 

New Scientific Findings Confirm Catholic Magisterial Teachings about Sex? Semen as "Better Gift Than Chocolate" for Women

This is one of the crazy corners of American scientific research about which I'll freely admit I know next to nothing.  I first became aware that this field of research--re: the male-female union-cementing properties of semen--existed, when a proponent of the theology of the body logged onto a Commonweal thread some months ago to argue that new research shows that women crave semen (as it were), since a good dose of semen in their vagina gives them an upper-type experience unparalleled anywhere else in nature.

Pope Announces that Gay Marriage "Penalizes" Traditional Marriage

And the attack on same-sex marriage (and on gay and lesbian human beings) continues, with top members of the Catholic hierarchy: a Catholic News Service article picked up by National Catholic Reporter today states that Pope Benedict announced yesterday that same-sex unions "penalize" traditional marriage.

My Real Rights Trump Your Alleged Rights: Catholic Officials Keep Appealing to Religious Freedom While Urging Discrimination

In several postings as the new year began, I predicted that we'd see much more of what I regard as a subject-changing rhetorical ploy of Catholic officials today: when the subject needs to be, as Nicole Sotelo argues, an honest and effective engagement of the longstanding cover-up of cases of clerical abuse by members of the Catholic hierarchy, the issue that the top Catholic leaders want to press today is the issue of religious freedom, instead.  With the attendant claim that the Catholic church is under attack by those who do not want to respect its right to religious liberty, and who do not recognize that religious freedom is the fundamental right on which all other human rights depend.