Love & Responsibility
The following are some comments by Dr. Edward Sri. He is a nationally known Catholic speaker who appears regularly on EWTN and is the author of several Catholic best selling books.
In his book Love and Responsibility, Karl Wojtyla-now know as[Saint] John Paul II-reflects not simply on why contraception is immoral, but even more, on how contraception actually can destroy the love between a husband and wife in marriage. Here, we will consider [one] point from his reflections on this topic.
'What can a celibate priest really teach us about love, sexuality, and relationships between men and women?' That's the question a Polish priest, Fr. Karol Wojtyla, addressed in the introduction to his revolutionary book, Love and Responsibility. Published in 1960, this book on sexual ethics was the fruit of Fr. Wojtyla's extensive pastoral work with young people and his philosophical reflections on this topic while serving as a priest and university professor in Krakow-long before the world would come to know him as Pope John Paul II.
In Love and Responsibility, Fr. Wojtyla argues that while a priest may lack direct experience in marriage and sexuality, he has something that gives him an even wider perspective on these matters: a broad "secondhand experience." As a spiritual advisor who worked closely with many young adults and married couples amidst their struggles in love and sexuality, Fr. Wojtyla was able to draw from the experiences of a wide range of personalities, relationships, and marriages in a way that the average layman could not. Love and Responsibility is the fruit of this rich pastoral experience as well as his own philosophical and theological reflection on love, sex, and marriage.
Janet Smith, one of the leading teachers in America on Catholic sexual ethics, argues that Love and Responsibility is not just an important book, but that it should be recognized as one of the greatest works of Western Civilization. Right up there with Homer's Iliad, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Augustine's Confessions, we should expect to find Pope John Paul II's Love and Responsibility on the list of the great books read around the world for centuries to come....
Indeed, Love and Responsibility provides insights on male-female relationships that are truly life-transforming-and desperately needed today. Growing up in the aftermath of the sexual revolution, the younger generation is hungering for any wise guidance they can get on how to navigate their relationships with the opposite sex. Single people, engaged couples, and married spouses alike will find in Love and Responsibility not only a very different perspective from what the world tends to offer, but a view that, once encountered, cannot help but have a positive impact on the way we relate to one another.
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