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The Splendor of the Human Person:
A Catholic Vision of the Person and Sexuality
The Church has received a mandate from Jesus to teach in his name and to
serve all people through the grace he has given to the community he founded.
The truths of creation and God's revelation do not change, although the Church
must address new situations that arise. It is an act of charity to teach the truth
concerning human sexuality, marriage, and the nature of the human body. The
Church's ministry depends upon communicating the truth in love, so as to be
able to serve those who come to our parishes and schools. There cannot be com-
promise on the truth, but there is much that can be done to serve and accompa-
ny those struggling with the truth.
Because modern culture has very quickly changed its views of sexuality, the
Church appears, in the eyes of many, to be backward or even oppressive in its
teaching. This brief document seeks to point to the light and splendor of God's
truth, which alone can lead us to true happiness. St. John Paul II summarizes
powerfully the goodness of God's plan for creating human beings as male and
female:
[We read in Holy Scripture that] from the very beginning, man has been
created "male and female" (Gen 1:27). Scripture itself provides the inter-
pretation of this fact: even though man is surrounded by the innumerable
creatures of the created world, he realizes that he is alone (cf. Gen 2:20).
God intervenes in order to help him escape from this situation of soli-
tude: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper
fit for him" (Gen 2:18). The creation of woman is thus marked from the
outset by the principle of help: a help which is not one-sided but mutu-
al. Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and
women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the "human" as much
as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way. When the
Book of Genesis speaks of "help," it is not referring merely to acting, but
also to being. Womanhood and manhood are complementary not only from
the physical and psychological points of view, but also from the ontolog-
Conclusion
