Only for procreation

Vatican keeps sexual bans

From Wire Reports

VATICAN CITY The Roman Catholic Church, in a formal document issued yesterday, condemned premarital sex, homosexuality and masturbation.

In castigating society's "unbridled exaltation" of sex, the Vatican declaration stated, "Every genital act must be within the framework of marriage."

The document issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, entitled "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics," was personally ordered and approved by Pope Paul VI.

The Vatican emphasized that the church was not against the pleasurable elements of sex as long as they were within the context of marriage and for the aim of human procreation.

Many scientists and sociologists are taking a more permissive attitude toward sexual license, the Vatican noted. But it said:

"The church cannot remain indifferent to this confusion of aims and relaxation of morals. It is a question in fact of a matter which is of the most importance, both for the personal lives of Christians and for the social life of our time."

The document nowhere refers to any particular study or expert. But any

number of recent developments in the United States would illustrate endorse ments or acceptance of what the Church considers sinful sexual activity.

For example, masturbation is widely advised by sex counselors as a technique that can help a person to become aware of his or her own physical reactions.

Two years ago, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders and urged repeal of discriminatory legislation singling out homosexual acts by consenting adults in private.

Thirteen states, most of them in the last three years, have removed penalties against such behavior among consenting adults. Theologians, including the Rev. John McNeill, a Jesuit, have challenged traditional teaching that homosexual acts are sinful.

And studies by Alfred Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, and, most recently Morton Hunt have appeared to document widespread sexual permissiveness. In "Sexual Behavior in the 1970s," Hunt reports that 80% of young women lose their virginity before marriage.

Today, the Vatican said, many people claim the right to sexual union before marriage, particularly when the parties intend to get married.

"This is especially the case when the celebration of the marriage is impeded by circumstances or when this intimate relationship seems necessary in order for love to be preserved.

"However," warned the document, "the church holds that the use of the sexual function has its true meaning and moral rectitude only in true marriage." And this marriage, said the Vatican, must be one that is sanctioned and guaranteed by society.

As for homosexuality, the declaration distinguishes between those whose tendencies were the result merely of "bad habits," and those resulting from "inate instincts or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable."

In regard to the latter, the Vatican said: "These homosexuals must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their difficulties," said the declaration.

But, the Vatican said, no moral justification or approval could be given to homosexuality, whatever the cause.

"Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of," stated the declaration.

Masturbation, too, is "intrinsically disordered," said the Vatican, and therefore to be condemned.