I take the liberty of quoting the entire article by Edward Pentin from the on-line edition of National Catholic Register,September <\/em>14, 2019. It is evidence that Pope Francis either endorses what I have called \u201cThe moral neutrality of sexuality\u201d or is willing to have inconsistent sexual moral theologies taught as authentically Catholic. However, the moral neutrality of sexuality would be the sexual morality taught at the important the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences. <\/p>\n I have pointed out that accepting the moral neutrality of sexuality undercuts traditional Catholic sexual morality<\/a>. Note that accepting the moral neutrality of sexuality is tantamount to accepting that no sexual acts are intrinsically morally disordered.<\/p>\n Let us pray that the Holy Father knows how to preserve Catholic Christianity as a serious religion if it in principle accepts that under certain conditions, with certain intentions and high probability of beneficial consequences any sexual act is morally permissible. The moral neutrality of sexuality undercuts the religious outlook of Catholic Christianity which views human beings as fallen, needing redemption for our sins, and divine help to avoid sin.<\/p>\n There is nothing like the struggle to be chaste, eg., struggling against temptations to masturbation, to convince us that we are strongly tempted to sin, we cannot avoid sin by our own efforts and we need forgiveness for our sins. Performance of the corporeal works of mercy is necessary for salvation. But they are far easier to perform than, say, practicing natural family planning. At least that has been my personal experience <\/p>\n The Catholic Register<\/em> article follows. <\/p>\n Father Maurizio Chiodi and Father Pier Davide Guenzi currently teach moral theology at the University of Northern Italy in Milan, and both are well known for their questioning of moral absolutes. <\/p>\n VATICAN CITY \u2014 The latest development in what is becoming increasingly viewed as both a purge and a revolution of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute is the hiring of two moral theologians whose views on homosexuality and contraception contradict the magisterium. End of Register article<\/p>\n I authored a book Confronting Sexual Nihilism: Traditional Sexual Morality as an Antidote to Nihilism <\/strong> Oklahoma City March 11, 2014. Sexual Nihilism is equivalent to the moral neutrality of sexuality. I argue that sexual nihilism leads to total moral nihilism which is frequently labeled moral relativism. See Book Web Page<\/a> for more information about the book. Free copies can be obtained here by credit card by paying $3.75 for shipping and handling. <\/p>\nNew JPII Institute Professors Question Church Orthodoxy on Homosexuality, Contraception<\/h5>\n
\nThe new professors, Father Maurizio Chiodi and Father Pier Davide Guenzi, both moral theologians at the University of Northern Italy in Milan, will begin teaching at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences as part of its 2019-2020 curriculum announced this week.
\nFather Chiodi, whom Archbishop Paglia appointed as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2017, is to teach \u201cTheological Ethics of Life\u201d at the institute.
\nFather Guenzi is to lecture on the \u201cAnthropology and Ethics of Birth.\u201d Both professors, whose appointments follow highly contentious removals of long-serving lecturers in July, are well known for their questioning of moral absolutes.
\nIn 2017, Father Chiodi gave a controversial Rome lecture on Humanae Vitae<\/em> in which he used Chapter 8 of Pope Francis\u2019 apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, <\/em>to justify contraceptive use in some cases.
\nMore recently, he gave an interview to the Italian bishops\u2019 newspaper Avvenire in which he asserted that, while each homosexual person is called to chastity, \u201cunder certain conditions\u201d and depending on circumstances, homosexual relationships can be \u201cthe most fruitful way\u201d for same-sex attracted persons \u201cto enjoy good relations.\u201d
\nThe interview appeared to suggest that Father Chiodi was open to considering homosexual acts as \u201cobjectively good,\u201d according to bioethicist Tommaso Scandroglio, writing in the Italian Catholic daily La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana.
\nFather Guenzi expressed similar views to Father Chiodi in another recent interview with Avvenire. On the subject of whether homosexual acts could ever be licit, Father Guenzi equivocated, saying it depended on the \u201crelationship, between the intention of the individual and the sense of their actions.\u201d In this regard, he added, \u201cthey may be deemed \u2018imperfect\u2019 as other sexual behaviors are, even within the life of a stable heterosexual couple.\u201d
\nWith respect to homosexual relations generally, he drew on Amoris Laetitia,<\/em> Chapter 8, to assert that every situation has to be discerned differently. In recent years \u201cwe have learned that the natural law must be continually rethought,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are deep dynamics inherent to each human person which ask to be respected as inherent to the structure of anthropology.\u201d
\nFathers Chiodi and Guenzi are two of eight new lecturers to be hired by the institute this forthcoming academic year, all of them Italian, while other incumbent professors including Polish philosophy Prof. Stanislaw Grygiel, a close friend of Pope St. John Paul II, have been sidelined or given their marching orders.
\nGrygiel has said he believes the institute is being \u201cdestroyed\u201d and that John Paul II\u2019s anthropological teaching replaced by \u201csociological and psychological meanderings.\u201d
\nBoth Professors Chiodi and Guenzi are understood to be close associates of the institute\u2019s grand chancellor, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, and effectively replace Msgr. Livio Melina, a former president of the institute who held the institute\u2019s now-obsolete chair of fundamental moral theology, and moral theologian, Father Jos\u00e9 Noriega.
\nThe removals in July of Msgr. Melina and Father Noriega, and the way they were dismissed, led to over 200 scholars worldwide, including well-known U.S. academics such as professor Robert George and professor. Scott Hahn, signing an open letter to Archbishop Paglia, and the institute\u2019s president, Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, asking they be reinstated.
\nThe personnel changes come two years after Pope Francis issued a decree refounding the institute and giving it a new name.
\nThe Register<\/em> asked Archbishop Paglia whether he could give reasons for employing Fathers Chiodi and Guenzi to teach at the institute in light of their views on homosexuality and contraception. He has yet to reply.<\/p>\n