Sex and gender roles in the Catholic Church

Sex and gender roles in the Roman Catholic Church have been the subject of both intrigue and controversy throughout the Church's history. The cultural influence of the Catholic Church has been vast, particularly upon Western society.Orlandis, preface Christian concepts, introduced into evangelized societies worldwide by the Church, had a significant impact on established cultural views of sex and gender roles. Human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide and polygamy practiced by cultures such as those of the Roman Empire, Europe, Latin America and parts of AfricaBokenkotter, p. 56.Noble, p. 445.Stearns, p. 65-66.Hastings, p. 309. came to an end through Church evangelization efforts. Historians note that Catholic missionaries, popes and religious were among the leaders in campaigns against slavery, an institution that has existed in almost every cultureChadwick, Owen p. 242.Noll, p. 137–140.Duffy, p. 221 and often included sexual slavery of women. Christianity affected the status of women in evangelized cultures like the Roman Empire by condemning infanticide (female infanticide was more common), divorce, incest, polygamy and marital infidelity of both men and women.Noble, p. 230.Stark, p. 104. Some critics say the Church and teachings by St. Paul, the Church Fathers, and scholastic theologians perpetuated a notion that female inferiority was divinely ordained,Bokenkotter, p. 465 while current Church teachingKreeft, p. 61. considers women and men to be equal, different, and complementary.

Sexual practices of these cultures were affected by the Christian concept of male, female equality. The sexual act, according to the Church, is sacred within the context of the marital relationship that reflects a complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.Kreeft, p. 245 One that precludes the polygamy and concubinage common to cultures before the arrival of Christianity. The equality of men and women is reflected in the Church teaching that the sexes are meant by divine design to be different and complementary, each having equal dignity and made in the image of God.Kreeft, p. 244

Historical overview

Roman Empire Social structures at the dawn of Christianity in the Roman Empire held that women were inferior to men intellectually and physically and were "naturally dependent". Athenian women were legally classified as children regardless of age and were the "legal property of some man at all stages in her life." Women in the Roman Empire had limited legal rights and could not enter professions. Female infanticide and abortion were practiced by all classes. In family life, men, not women, could have "lovers, prostitutes and concubines" and it was not rare for pagan women to be married before the age of puberty and then forced to consummate the marriage with her often much older husband. Husbands, not wives, could divorce at any time simply by telling the wife to leave. The spread of Christianity changed women's lives in many ways by requiring a man to have only one wife and keep her for life, condemning the infidelity of men as well as women and doing away with marriage of prepubescent girls. Because Christianity outlawed infanticide and because women were more likely than men to convert, there were soon more Christian women than men whereas the opposite was true among pagans.

Europe

Middle Ages

The church defined sin as a violation of any law of God, the Bible, or the church.Brundage 2001 p. 295 Common sexual sins were premarital sex, adultery, masturbation, homosexuality, and bestiality. Many influential members of the church saw sex and other pleasurable experiences as evil and a source of sin when in the wrong context, unless meant for procreation.Brundage 1987 p. 182 Also, any non-vaginal sex (oral, manual, anal) is sinful. The church considered masturbation a sin against nature because the guilty party was extracting sexual pleasure outside of the context of proper use. Also, law required clerics to avoid any sort of sexually tinged entertainment.Brundage 1998 p. 247 However, canon law did allow sex in a marriage, as long as it intended to procreate and not just provide pleasure, even though some saw sex, even in marriage, as sinful and impure.Brundage 1987 p. 154 Jeffrey Richards describes a European "medieval masculinity which was essentially Christian and chivalric".

Sexual regulation by the church accounted for a great amount of literature and time. The church saw regulation as necessary to maintain the welfare of society.Brundage 1987 p. 152 Canon law banned premarital sex, lust, masturbation, adultery, bestiality, homosexuality, and any sort of sex outside of marriage. Adultery was broken up into various categories by the Statutes of Angers: prostitution and simple fornication, adultery, defloration of virgins, intercourse with nuns, incest, homosexuality, and incidental matters relating to sex such as looks, desires, touches, embraces, and kisses.Payer p. 131 Adultery was typically grounds for divorce for a man if his wife fornicated with another, but adultery was not seen as a crime, just as a sin.Brundage 1987 p.147 Prostitution, although within the category of fornication, was less concrete in the law. Because the medieval canon law originated as an "offshoot of moral theology" but also drew from Roman law, it contributed both legal and moral concepts to canonistic writing.Brundage 1976 p. 826 This split influence caused the treatment of prostitution to be more complex. Prostitution, although sinful, was tolerated. Without the availability of a prostitute, men could be led to defloration of a virgin. It was better to tolerate prostitution with all of its associated evils, than to risk the perils which would follow the successful elimination of the harlot from society.Brundage 1976 p. 830 The church recognized disordered sexual desire as a natural inclination related to original sin, so sexual desires could not be ignored as a reality. Although the law attempted to strictly regulate prostitution, whorehouses abounded disguised as bathhouses or operated in secret within hotels and private residences. "Outside the official public brothels, prostitution in the public bathhouses, the inns and the taverns was common knowledge and was tolerated.Rossiaud p. 60 Much of the church's efforts were put toward controlling what was going on sexually in a marriage, especially regarding when a married couple could have sex. Sex was not allowed during pregnancy or menstruation, right after a child birth, on Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday during each of the three Lents, on feast days, quarterly ember days, or before communion.Brundage 1987 p.156-159 The church also denounced "unnatural" sexual relations between those of the same sex and also married couples.Brundage 1987 p. 149 Also, upon marrying, a couple could not enter a church for thirty days.Hunter p. 589

Although the church developed very strict regulations on sexual activity that needed to be carried out to sustain the institutional and psychological structure of the Middle Ages, it had a hard time properly enforcing these regulations. Most violations occurred in the privacy of the bedroom, so the only witnesses to the sin were the guilty parties themselves, and they did not usually confess to such crimes. Also, the problem was widespread. Not only did the common people deviate from the rules, but the clerics themselves did not follow their own laws.Brundage 2001 p. 299 In order to convict, accusation was required, and people did not usually have enough proof to back up an accusation, as law basically required a confession, and there was always a chance that if there was not enough proof, the accuser would be charged with false accusations. Even though the system was not foolproof, the church did produce a large number of institutions to inform the public of the law of sexual practice, and also had an extensive system of courts to deal with sexual misbehavior.Brundage 2001 p. 305

Sexual offenses were punished in a variety of ways during the Middle Ages.Kelly p. 342 There were numerous prosecutions for adultery, fornication, and other sexual offenses,Brundage 1996a p. 31 but fornication was the most frequently prosecuted.Brundage 2001 Fornication was seen as a serious sin and a canonical crimeBrundage 1996b p. 41 and those convicted were required to "pay fines and court costs",Brundage 1996a p. 33 and they were often subject to public humiliation. Public humiliation ranged from public confessions and requesting the forgiveness of the community (often by kneeling at the entrance of a church and begging those who entered for mercy), to public whippings in the churchyard or marketplace,Kelly p. 374 to being paraded around the church "bare-chested and bearing a lighted candle before Sunday Mass".Brundage 1996a Some offenders were made to wear special clothes while others were flogged. Numerous offenders had to fast or abstain from meat, wine, and sex for a set period of time.Brundage nd p. 152 Other "punishments [ranged] from the cutting off of hair and pillory to prison and expulsion."Kelly p. 375 Those convicted of more serious sexual offenses were subject to removal from office, confinement in a monastery, or a forced pilgrimage.

Not all punishments were equal; punishments for sexual crimes differed between genders and social classes. When convicted of adultery, it was more likely that males would be fined in church courts rather than publicly flogged like the convicted females.Kelly p. 374-5 However, when the males began to be more strictly punished, the punishment for females also became more severe. While males were now publicly whipped, females had their heads shavedBrundage 2001 p. 296 and were subject to expulsion from their homes, separation from their children, and the confiscation of their dowry. The wounds of the male would heal over time, but the woman was reduced to "penury".Brundage 1996b p. 42 She would often be forced to live in poverty for the remainder of her life. In one case, a woman was accused of sleeping around and was ordered to rid herself of guilt in front of seven witnesses. Her male counterpart, however, was subject to no punishment whatsoever. When a woman of a higher social status was convicted of the same crime, she was not required to purge herself of her guilt in front of any witnesses. The woman of a higher social class was allowed to repent in private. Common prostitutes of the time period were banned from churches, but there was little to no prosecution of their "male clientele".Kelly p. 376 However, the priests of the higher classes were punished most severely for sexual crimes. They were stripped of their rank, position, and income.Brundage 1996a p. 29 The wife and children of the priest were thrown out of their house,Brundage 1996b p. 36 and the priests could be thrown in a monastery for the remainder of their lives and their wife and children enslaved.

Latin America