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The Splendor of the Human Person:
A Catholic Vision of the Person and Sexuality
"Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty
shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal
risk facing love."
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate
J
esus Christ has established the Church to communicate his revealed truth
and to heal and elevate humanity through his grace. This mission necessarily
includes communicating the truth of God's creation, especially the nature of
the human person, and helping all people of good will to embrace and live in
this truth. God has created the person to share in the splendor of his love, as
Archbishop Aquila relates in his pastoral letter, The Splendor of Love: "The
splendor of God's love shining in our hearts enables us to embrace the truth
about sexuality and marriage and leads us to imitate the generous, sacrificial
love found at the heart of the Trinity. It gives us the grace to live like Christ, to
embrace our sufferings by uniting them to his cross, and to find true happiness
in giving ourselves away in love."
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1 Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila, The Splendor of Love (Feb. 2, 2018), https://archden.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/02/splendor-of-love_web.pdf. See also Pope St. Paul VI, Humanae
Vitae (1968).
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State of the Issue
