Sydney, Australia, Jan 17, 2007 / 08:04 am
Sexuality and marital love are the topics of this month’s issue of the World Youth Day 2008 online newsletter. The eight-page “E-pilgrimage” also includes a prayerful reading of the Song of Songs and a biography of the first married couple to be beatified together.
The newsletter is issued by the organizers of the international gathering, which will be held in Sydney, Australia, next year. The publication is intended to help young people spiritually prepare for the pilgrimage.
In this month’s issue, Bishop Anthony Fisher, Auxiliary of Sydney, addresses the way in which sex is perceived in society as a “recreational activity” and the body is treated like a commodity.
"There are many voices in the modern world that overestimate the importance of sex -- as if no one could be happy who had not had sex in the last few hours -- or trivialize or underestimate its power -- as if it were no more humanly significant than any other bodily function," the bishop writes.
"But deep down most people know the body, sexuality and fertility are precious and important things which can be used to express some of the noblest things about human relationships, or which can be used instead to hurt and exploit," he adds.