Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Ten Commandments in Roman Catholicism/archive2
Answering Steve's question on the FAC page regarding Kreeft's actual quote on page 245 regarding marriage. Kreeft p. 245:
- 7. Marriage personalizes sexuality
- "Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the" (a) "complete and" (b) "life-long" (c) "mutual" (d) (free) "gift" (e) "of a man and a woman" (CCC 2337)—the five essential ingredients in a marriage. Marriage is complete "self-donation", of physical body and spiritual will. Lovers find their deepest thrill in the discovery of this intimacy: that they can actually give their very selves to each other, not just their time, possessions, work, goodwill, and pleasures.
- Sexual intercourse effects this self-donation in the most intimate and complete way. For this is an intercourse of whole persons, not merely of animal bodies. "'Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such' (FC ii)" (CCC 2361). This is why "'(t)he acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify' (GS 49 s 2)" (CCC 2362). Note the surprising similarity here to the Church's formula for a sacrament: "A sign that actually effects (or fosters) what it signifies".
- 8. The relationship between sex and marriage
- The Church's teaching on the relationship between sex and marriage is very simple and very clear. It is the same as that of orthodox Judaism and Islam and has never changed. "The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always consitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion" (CCC 2390) until repented of and forgiven in sacramental confession.
- - Catholic Christianity by Peter Kreeft, p. 245