Why is premarital sex wrong?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Le_Crouton
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Le_Crouton

Guest
Can someone explain to me why premarital sex is wrong between two people who are in love with each other and in a relationship
 
Don’t you already have a topic open on this same idea? If you really don’t understand start by reading Theology of the Body.
 
Are we dealing with generalities or specific people? Why aren’t they married? Are there any more details here or is this a hypothetical?

For background, see CCC2389-2390. Read footnotes and cited sources. Specificity might help too.
 
Last edited:
The other topic was about sexual compatibility, not necessarily the same thing but if you think this topic should be closed then I guess the mods can remove it. I’m sorry
 
I’ll add, I get the impression that you want to do what you want to do even though you know it’s not OK, and you want to justify it to yourself somehow. The teaching of the Church isn’t always (for some almost never - and I include myself in that group) easy to follow, but it’s not going to change, no matter how many times we question it.
 
Thanks for presuming. First of all, I’m not engaging in premarital sex. I’m just trying to understand why it’s a rule is all
 
Okay. I see what the catechism says about a free and total gift to one another. Hmm. Guess I have to work on that
 
I’m not expecting church teaching to change. I’m trying to understand church teaching
 
It is interesting. The CCC remember is an attempt to package and distill the faith. I’d recommend reading the cited sources as well.
 
Le_Crouton said:
Can someone explain to me why premarital sex is wrong between two people who are in love with each other and in a relationship
Click to expand...
If you haven’t read Humanae Vitae, it’s also worth a read. It ultimately comes down to a full understanding of the nature and purpose of sex and marriage. As with the other sensual gifts that God gave us, sex was created for a specific purpose in a specific context. Divorcing it from its purpose or its context makes it into something other than God intended it to be.
 
I’m not trying to be mean, but as was said on the other thread, premarital sex is a sin. It disrespects the dignity of the human person, it equates lust with love, it reduces the beauty of matrimony etc. All in all, it’s displeasing to God, who values chastity so much He chose a virgin to be His Mother.
 
All of Catholic sexual morality can be boiled down to this statement:

The marital act must be unitive and procreative.

That means that it must occur within the context of marriage, it must be for the union of the spouses, and it must be ordered toward (and thus not thwarted actively from being) the procreation of children. It is to be a life-giving expression of love that occurs within the context of the family. Children deserve a mother and a father in a committed relationship to one another, and so this life-giving expression of love must only take place within the context of that relationship.

Now, before anyone argues that not all couples are fertile, or that not all marriages are happy, I respond that infertile couples or unhappily married ones still act according to the ordering of the act, that is, what its nature is, what kind of act it is. We are not consequentialists. The morality of the act is not determined by its result, but by the object which is acted for, the intention for which it is chosen, and the circumstances of the act. So if an infertile couple, who experience infertility due to a chronic pathology, engage in the marital act as a unitive expression of love within their marriage, and they do not otherwise put anything in the way of the nature of the act being procreative, all else being equal, then they have acted morally.

In short, pre-marital sex is wrong because it changes the nature of the act in some way or another. If it is accompanied by contraceptive behavior, it ceases to be unitive or procreative, in addition to not being marital; if it is not, then it is still ordered toward procreation, and an injustice is committed toward the child who is then not born within the context of the marital union.

This is not to say that unwed parents don’t love their children or anything like that, so before anyone takes offense, realize I’m not making a judgment on the character of any person. I am merely speaking to the nature of an act, to what kind of act that it is.

-Fr ACEGC
 
Sex often produces offspring. Offspring are best raised as one who has both a mother and father. It’s possible for a single parent to be a good parent, but that’s not ideal. What’s ideal is both a mother and father who are committed under the sacred partnership of marriage. If your partner is not willing to make a covenant before God to love and cherish you all the days of his/her life, then he/she is not worth your time. They will tell you what they think you want to hear, but if they are willing to defile your body, that speaks volumes about how little they respect you (if they respect you, they will respect your body, as having a body is part and parcel of what makes you you).
 
Last edited:
Sex doesn’t always have to produce offspring. People can use condoms or birth control
 
That’s why I said that it often produces offspring. “Often” is not a sure thing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top