How Catholics became obsessed with sex (and rules)

Jesuitical

America Media

News, News Commentary, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on the “Jesuitical” podcast, Ashley McKinless and Zac Davis speak to theologian and legal scholar Cathleen Kaveny about why Catholics seem obsessed with questions of sexual morality. They were prompted to dig into the historical development of Catholic sexual ethics after Pope Leo said in a press conference, “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…” 00:00 Leo's comments on sexual morality 4:08 What Scripture says 6:05 How Catholic teaching developed 9:30 What is "natural law"? 16:37 How Catholics became obsessed with sex 20:26 JPII's "theology of the body" 24:41 Sex and justice 28:50 Sex, confession and salvation 36:35 A healthy approach to sex Links: Pope Leo speaks on same-sex blessings, migration and more on plane back to Rome Heaven and hell in post-Vatican II Catholicism: How to move from fear to love You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical. Support Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America magazine at americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At American Jesuits International, we know that our work is best understood through the stories of the people impacted by your generosity.
0:07.0	Stories of real-life challenges and situations of injustice, and at the same time, stories of hope, perseverance, and transformation.
0:14.0	Read those stories at American JesuitsInternational.org, backslash stories.
0:35.8	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from America Media for saints and sinners.
0:38.7	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church and our world today.
0:41.7	Sometimes over drinks.
0:43.1	I'm Ashley McKinless.
0:44.8	Back in April, Pope Leo made headlines when he said in response to questions from reporters
0:50.4	that there are issues of greater and more importance than sexual morality when it
0:56.0	comes to the Catholic Church's moral teaching. So his comments imply that to a lot of Catholics,
1:02.7	and I think to outside observers, the Catholic Church does spend a lot of time talking about
1:08.4	issues related to sexual morality. So this week, Zach and I are talking
1:13.3	to Kathleen Kavini. She's a professor of law and theology at Boston College, and we talked to her
1:20.6	about why and how sexual morality came to dominate the conversation of Catholic ethics, at least in the Western world,
1:29.5	and what a more balanced conversation might look like.
1:33.0	So stick around for our conversation with Kathy.
1:41.0	Joining us from Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts is Kathleen Kaveney.
1:45.7	Kathy is a professor in the law school and the theology department at Boston College.
1:50.2	Welcome to Jesuitical, Kathy.
1:52.1	Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be here.
1:54.8	It's great to have you.
1:56.0	And before we get into our conversation, I thought it would be good to just sort of ground ourselves in the comments that Pope Leo recently made that sort of made us go, we should really reach
	...

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