Munich Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx has called for a debate on church sexual morality. In the past, a negative image of human sexuality was often drawn in theology, sermons and pastoral care: “It was armed with guilt and sin, which also led to repression and double standards,” said Marx on Saturday in Bavarian radio.
The fact that the Christian image of man also wants to open up positive perspectives for sexuality has been lost sight of. The processing of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has shown “that there is a fundamental problem in the relationship between the Church and sexuality,” said the Archbishop. “Passion, lust and sex against reason, love and morality? It sometimes sounds a little like there is either a sinful, instinctual and unreasonable life or the ideal of pure love.” But that has little to do with reality. The Freising Diocesan Museum will take up this topic from Saturday in a new exhibition entitled “Damned Lust – Church.Body.Art”.