Assessment

Continuous Assessment/ tutorial 30% + Essay 20% + Exam 50%

Module Aims

The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of the Catholic sexual ethics, including knowledge of the magisterial teaching in this area. Learners will become familiar with key papal documents and gain some knowledge of the developments in Catholic sexual teaching, especially its teaching on marriage and the family. Foundational concepts and principles will also be provided, such as human dignity, justice, human agency, freedom, empowerment. The module will enable students to ethically understand global structural injustice as it relates to sexual morality, in particular the current global issue of human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls. The role of the Church in tackling human trafficking will also be explored in this Module.

Indicative Syllabus

• Key magisterial documents, Part 1
• Key magisterial documents, Part 2
• Key concepts: human dignity, human agency, justice, empowerment, human vulnerability.
• Key concepts: human dignity, human agency, justice, empowerment, human vulnerability.
• Challenges to the Catholic sexual undertsanding of the person: Human trafficking
• Challenges to the Catholic sexual undertsanding of the person: Human trafficking
• The Santa Marta Group and APT Ireland
• Guest speakers from NGOs in this area.
• HIV/AIDS, marriage and discordant couples
• HIV/AIDS and sexual violence
• Responses from Below: solidarity, accompaniment, subsidiarity
• Responses from above: politics, government, Church leadership

Learning Outcomes

• — LO1: Explain key concepts relevant to this module: for instance, human dignity, structural violence, human agency, gender inequality and freedom
• — LO2: Show how the Catholic sexual teaching can help address the injustices affecting human trafficking.
• — LO3: Identify the relationship between poverty, inequality and structural sin, and how these realities affect the sexual agency and sexual health of women and girls.
• — LO4 Identify and apply the magisterial teaching on marriage to the family.
• — LO5 Demonstrate the Christian tradition, in particular from Catholic sexual ethics, relevant perspectives by which to consider the issues of today in diaconate ministry.
• — LO6 Apply the resources of the Christian tradition in a coherent manner when addressing issues of sexual morality faced in pastoral ministry.

Bibliography

• — Pope Paul VI, Humanae vitae, (1968).
• — Pope John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, (1981).
• — Pope John Paul II, Mulieris dignitatem, (1988).
• — Pope Francis, Amoris laetitae, (2016).
• — Kochurani Abraham, “Resistance: A Liberative Key in Feminist Ethics”, in Linda Hogan, A.E Orobator SJ (eds.), Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church, (Orbis Books, 2014).
• — Margaret Farley, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, (Continuum, 2006).
• — Karen Peterson-Iyre, Reenvisioning Sexual Ethics: A Feminist Christian Account, (Georgetown University Press, 2022).
• — James F. Keenan SJ, “Virtue Ethics and Sexual Ethics”, in Charles E. Curran, Lisa Fullan (eds.), Virtue, (Paulist Press, 2011).
• — James F. Keenan SJ, “Receiving Amoris Laetitae”, Theological Studies, vol.78 (1), 193-212.
• — James F. Keenan SJ, “Linking Human Dignity, Vulnerability and Virtue Ethics”, Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, vol.6 (2020), 56-73.
• — Kevin Kelly, New Directions in Sexual Ethics: Moral Theology and the Challenge of AIDS, (Geoffrey Chapman, 1998).
• — Suzanne Mulligan, “Violence Against Women and the Virtue of Resistance”, The Furrow, vol.74 (1), January 2023, 3-10.
• — Anne Patrick, “Narrative and the Social Dynamics of Virtue”, in Charles E. Curran, Lisa Fullan (eds.), Virtue, (Paulist Press, 2011).
• — Linda Hogan, A.E. Orobator (eds.), Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church, (New York: Orbis, 2014).