Sunday, August 20, 2023

The Embarrassment of JPII's TOB

JP II's TOB was - according to JP II himself - definitely incomplete. Putatively about sex, it managed to go through ALL of the TOB general audiences without once addressing either the place of children or the place of suffering in the "theology" of the body. Indeed, even when JP II points out the incompleteness in his last audience, he still omits mention of children or family:
These reflections do not envisage a good number of problems which, because of their object, belong to the theology of the body ( as, for example, the problem of suffering and death, so important in the biblical message.
How in the name of Sweet Fanny Adams do you discuss a "theology" of the body, a theology of human sexuality, without addressing the ultimate biological goal of human sexuality (children) or the ultimate biological conformance of the body to Christ (suffering)???
So, in that sense, TOB was not only incomplete, but also repetitive and mostly puerile. As far as the Church is concerned, TOB was deprecated the moment it was launched. It is nearly impossible to find any Church document which references (i.e., footnoted) any of the "TOB" general audiences. Even JP II himself refuses to refer back to them. The entire sequence of audiences just fell off the boards and disappeared right after it was delivered.
As for Church teaching, celibacy continues to hold pride of place.
Sex continues to be primarily a remedy for concupiscence.
Marriage continues to hold a sad and distant second place to the height of human sexual expression, that is, celibacy and religious orders.
Lay people went crazy for it, but the Church, in her official teachings, ignores it. It appears to be an embarrassing interlude in JP II's pontificate.

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