Catholic Medical Quartery Vol 76 (1) February 2026
Editorial
Sexual Complementarity
Dr Pravin Thevathasan
In
an address at Blackfriars Hall in Oxford, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe
suggested that the Church needs to abandon its language of complementarity
and use instead the language of reciprocity (17 December, 2024, The
Tablet). But how would that work in sexual ethics?
According to the late moral theologian Professor William May, complementarity is key to understanding why the Church teaches what it does on sexual ethics. Commenting on the 1986 Vatican document " The Pastoral Care of the Homosexual Person"' May sums a part of it as follows: Marriage is intended as a life-giving loving union of one man and one woman. Only in the marital relationship is the use of the sexual faculty morally good. Same-sex sexual activity annuls the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual design. Homosexual activity can never be a complementary union potentially able to transmit human life.
The 1986 document states that it is an insult to people who are homosexual to say they do not have the freedom to choose whether or not to engage in homosexual activity. Leaders in the Church today claim that God loves homosexuals as they are. But they sometimes omit to remind us that God does not love homosexual activities. Sexual complementarity is key to understanding Catholic sexual ethics.
Reference
- "On the Impossibility of Same-Sex Marriage" by Professor William E. May(www.christendom-awake.org)