The Church’s Teaching on Marriage
7-12 Grade Youth Ministry in February 2022
Addressing Important Issues in Today’s Culture
The Church’s teaching on marriage, homosexuality, divorce, contraception, and gender places Catholics in the center of important debates in our society. To help our youth better understand why the Church teaches what it teaches about marriage, and to share that teaching with peers and others who ask or challenge them about it, we are going to focus on these teachings during the month of February.
We realize these issues are sensitive for many reasons. That’s why below you’ll find a short summary of the topics for each youth ministry session in February. This is to inform parents of what we’re covering, encourage discussion at home, and to provide information in case parents do not want their kids to attend certain sessions.
February 2: What is Marriage?
We begin by discussing what the Church believes marriage is. Starting in Genesis, we’ll see how marriage, the complementarity of male and female, the unity of the couple, and the raising of a family are ways we live as the image and likeness of God.
Then we’ll turn to the Church’s understanding of marriage as a sacrament for the salvation of the spouses, but also a sacramental sign of Christ’s love for the Church.
An essential part of Catholic teaching about marriage discusses the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage, brought about through the marriage embrace. We will discuss how sex is the sign of everything marriage is—and this is why marriage, sex, and babies belong together and can’t be separated.
Finally, this understanding of marriage allows us to understand why the Church is opposed to contraception, divorce, homosexual acts, and sex outside of marriage.
February 9: Homosexuality and the Church
Although we’ll touch on homosexuality on February 2, in this session we will discuss the complex issues surrounding the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. This includes the Church’s opposition to homosexual acts, homosexual desire vs actions, and the unconditional love we must give to all people, regardless of sexual orientation.
February 16: Pornography, Media, and Spirituality
The way sex, marriage, relationships, and romance are portrayed in media today—television, radio, and print—are many times nowhere near the Church’s understanding of love. Unfortunately, they reflect popular notions of these things, and sometimes become the guides to young people navigating relationships and sexuality.
In this session, we will discuss some ways, both obvious and subtle, that the sanctity of marriage is being dissolved in the movies, shows, songs, and books we encounter.
We will also discuss the important issue of pornography. Viewing pornography seriously distorts a young person’s understanding of marriage, dating, and engaging the opposite gender. The pornography industry is targeting youth and children, while media is increasingly becoming more risque, suggestive, or openly sexual. We will discuss navigating these ever more turbulent waters, especially in an online society.
Finally, we will discuss the inherent goodness and beauty of the human body, love, sex, and marriage. These are all good things created by God, and we need to separate the truth of these things from its degeneration in the media.
February 23: Chastity, Dating, and Living Single
In this session we’ll transition from talk about marriage to what’s relevant in young peoples' lives today. We will discuss what chastity is and what it means, the purpose and place of dating within the vocation to marriage, and how to live a single life while discerning one’s vocation, whether it be to marriage, priesthood, religious life, or the single life.
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