WARNING: Though not crude, this post DOES discuss sexual subjects. If you do not want to read about sexual topics, please skip this post. Thank you.
As a part of The Catholic Company‘s product review program, they sent me a copy of What the Church Teaches about Sex: God’s Plan for Human Happiness. The purpose of this book is to restore our understanding of sex and return it to it’s holy and proper “use.” Fastiggi shares the Catholic church’s view on why sex within Marriage is so special and how various things can pervert and marginalize the sexual act to the detriment of not only the participants, but society in general.
I’ve actually read this book several times prior to writing this review. Robert L. Fastiggi does an excellent job of combining the WHAT and WHY of catholic teaching in regards to chastity and sex with the delicate subjects of pornography, masterbation, homosexuality, fornication, and martial chastity. He has great skill in doing it without being lewd, yet not so subtle that you miss the point entirely.
I thought this was an excellent, thought-provoking book. I have read Every Woman’s Marriage and Every Woman’s Battle and thought they provided some good guidelines but found them lacking. They just didn’t address Catholic Church teaching. I found the history of how the church came to the conclusions it came to interesting. I greatly enjoyed the marital chastity chapter as well. He did an excellent job of talking about pornography, oral sex, anal stimulation and mutual masterbation WITHIN marriage. Those are all gray areas that I now feel very confident about making good choices concerning reaching holiness through sexual relations with my spouse. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who is unfamiliar with the teaching of the church regarding sex or needs guidance on those gray areas.
Oh, what does Fastiggi say about pornography, oral sex, anal stimulation and mutual masterbation within marriage? Well, you’ll just have to get a copy and find out. They aren’t ALL no’s ;). To buy a copy, visit The Catholic Company.