Sex and the Unity of the Catholic Church

Faced with a German Church that may be, at this point, a schismatic ecclesial body, Pope Leo XIV made remarks on April 22nd that stirred controversy and debate.

On April 20th, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany, implemented a document issued on April 4th, entitled “Blessing Gives Strength to Love,” instructing priests under his authority to bless “same-sex couples”, as well as couples that have remarried outside the Church. Furthermore, compromising the consciences of faithful priests, the document states that, “Priests who do not want to carry out such blessing celebrations for homosexual marriages or remarried divorced people must refer the couples to the dean or other staff.”

Undoubtedly, Marx was emboldened by Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s highly troubling and controversial December 2023 declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings. Fiducia states:

“Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage …”.

Of course, the troubling language is the actual use of the word “couples, indicating that couples who are themselves engaged in immoral sexual behavior may be blessed. To his credit, Pope Francis tried to scale back the damage. In his December 29, 2024, interview on 60 Minutes, Francis provided this clarification regarding Fiducia Supplicans:

What I allowed was not to bless the union. That cannot be done because that is not a sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person, yes. The blessing is for everyone. For everyone. To bless a homosexual-type union, however, goes against the law; the natural law, the law of the Church. But to bless each person, why not?

Needless to say, Cardinal Marx is in defiance of Francis’ clarification and in defiance of the Holy See’s own stated disapproval given two years ago of the German Church’s formal blessing of those in “irregular unions.”

On the Holy Father’s plane trip from Africa back to Rome, several journalists were on hand, and one of them put to him the following question:

I would like to know how you assess the decision of Cardinal Reinhardt Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, that he gave permission to the blessing of same-sex couples in his diocese, and in light of different cultural and theological perspectives, especially in Africa, how do you intend to preserve the unity of the global Church on that particular matter?

It is interesting that the reporter did not ask Leo what he thought of Marx’s decision, but zoomed in on how the German cardinal’s “pastoral practice” would affect the unity of the Church. Here is Leo’s answer:

First of all, I think it’s very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters. We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion,that would all take priority before that particular issue. The Holy See has already spoken to the German bishops.

The Holy See has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case, homosexual couples, as you asked, or couples in irregular situations, beyond what was specifically, if you will, allowed for by Pope Francis in saying all people receive blessings.

When a priest gives a blessing at the end of Mass, when the Pope gives a blessing at the end of a large celebration like the one we had today, they are blessings for all people. Francis’ well-known expression ‘Tutti, tutti, tutti’ is an expression of the Church’s belief that all are welcome; all are invited; all are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to look for conversion in their lives.

To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity, and that we should look for ways to build our unity upon Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches. So that’s how I would respond to that question.

The Pope should be lauded for qualifying Francis’ “Tutti, tutti, tutti” when he says it means “all are welcome…to follow Jesus, and all are invited to look for conversion in their lives.” Thus. Leo taught that “Tutti, tutti, tutti” doesn’t mean that “all are welcome” within the Body of Christ, irrespective of what a person believes. He emphasized what a person does and his attitude towards Christ and the Church. Leo, then, gave a refreshing clarification on what it means for the Church to hold the door open for all.

Also, Leo explained that blessings are often given in “large celebrations” and thus “they are blessings for all people”—meaning even people who are committing sexual sins. The blessing would also fall on them. Whether they are spiritually disposed to receive its benefits is perhaps another matter. And the pontiff added: “To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity.” It is possible that Leo was referring to the Church in Germany—that, in fact, its “formal” blessings of those in irregular unions is a cause of disunity.

However, Leo’s first comment can be misunderstood or misrepresented as meaning that sexual morality is not important or even essential. And some have certainly interpreted it that way. In doing so, they join ranks with many German bishops and others who embrace the “Synodaler Weg”, which publicly proclaims teachings absolutely contrary to the Faith of the Church regarding sexual morality, not to mention the ordination of women to the priesthood.

But assent to Catholic sexual ethics is essential to the unity of what it means for the Church to be Catholic. Sexual ethics has to do with protecting the institution of marriage—the primary unit of society—as it is marriage—between one man and one woman, open to the good of children, and the founding of the family—that provides the God-given foundation and order of the world.

Furthermore, marriage constitutes the very order of the covenant of redemption in which marriages in the Church sacramentally participate. Sex is not simply a matter of morality. Ultimately, what men and women do with their bodies is first connected to the sacramental meaning of the body. The meaning of human sexuality is essential to the covenant. Human sexuality is not “simply” a matter of ethics, as human sexuality is connected to ecclesiology—the nature of the Church in union with Christ.

This is explicitly taught in St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians:

Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church. He gave himself up for her to make her holy, purifying her in the bath of water by the power of the word to present to himself a glorious church, holy and immaculate, without stain or wrinkle or anything of that sort. Husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Observe that no one ever hates his own flesh; no, he nourishes it and takes care of it as Christ cares for the church—for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall be made into one.” This is a great foreshadowing; I mean that it refers to Christ and the Church (Eph. 5: 22-32).

The Pauline passage clearly teaches that the covenant of redemption exists as a marriage between Christ the Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church. Furthermore, Paul goes all the way back to Gen. 2:24 and pronounces the ultimate exegesis that the one-flesh unity of the first couple is designed by God to be from the beginning a transcendent-sacramental sign that speaks and makes present the nuptial unity of Christ and the Church, as the “one flesh” is the great “foreshadowing” of this reality.

This is why, if a particular local Church departs from Catholic teaching on sexual morality, unity with the Church is broken.

St. Augustine poignantly articulated the marital relation between Christ and his Church. The fifth-century Church doctor’s exegesis on Psalm 127 states that salvation is centered on a pair: Christ and His Church. This is a nuptial pair as Christ and His Church are prefigured in the first couple.

Consider this very beautiful quotation:

But where did he sleep? On the Cross. When He slept on the Cross, He bore a sign … He fulfilled what had been signified in Adam: For when Adam was asleep, a rib was drawn from him, and Eve was created; so also while the Lord slept on the Cross, His side was transfixed with a spear, and the sacraments flowed forth, whence the Church was born. For the Church, the Lord’s bride was created from His side, as Eve was created from the side of Adam. But as she was made from His side no otherwise than while sleeping, so the Church was created from His side no otherwise while dying.

Not only do Catholic sexual ethics have an ecclesial dimension, but Catholic sexual morality also has an Eucharistic dimension.

The nuptial covenant between Christ and his Church is made present in the sacrifice of the Mass as the male priest standing in persona Christi and the feminine Church, signed by every baptized woman, speak and make historically present the marital meaning of the Covenant of Redemption. Here, masculinity and femininity-human sexuality realizes its beauty, its value, and its truth because it knows its differentiated responsibility in effecting the New Covenant. The society of the Christus totus is a “one flesh” union, and the Eucharistic sacrifice is its expression.

This nuptial union will be ultimately fulfilled in the end times, as the Book of Revelation teaches. The covenantal love between Christ and his people, present sacramentally, will be eschatologically made real in Christ’s second coming, as poetically expressed in Scripture’s last book:

Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb[a] has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;  it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure. (Rev. 19:6-8)

Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and the former earth had passed away ….I saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband. (Rev. 21:2)

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” (Rev. 22:17)

Rather ironically, the German Handbook on blessings for those in “irregular unions, issued April 23, 2025, refers to the Church with feminine pronouns. For example:

The Church wishes to proclaim the God-given dignity of every person in word and deed … She therefore recognizes and offers support to couples united in love, who treat each other with full respect and dignity, and are willing to live out their sexuality in care for themselves and each other with long-term social responsibility.

Unfortunately, that part of the Church in Germany advocating blessings for those who are not living according to Catholic sexual moral teachings fails to see the connection between those moral teachings and the sacramental meaning of the body that signs the Church as “she.”

If sexual ethics are inherently connected to the Church and the Eucharist through the God-given sacramental nature of the body, then might it not actually be the case that no other moral teachings of the Church, however essential to living the life of Christ, have priority? The point is that, according to natural law, Catholic morality, and the revealed law of God, the Church achieves her unity through the way her members uphold and put into practice Catholic sexual morality.

And, yes, it may certainly be said that all the other moral teachings of the Church also have an ecclesial dimension, as putting those teachings into practice makes the Faith real in the public square, as believers bring Christ to the world. Yet, the marital order of the Covenant depends on the sacramental sexual integrity of the Body in a way that other lived Catholic morality does not.

So, let us celebrate Christ and the Church’s nuptial covenant of love—and ask God for the graces to live it.

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