ABSTRACT
The New Testament is likewise eloquent in its testimony to marriage and family as the embodiment of the divine purpose for human sexuality and its proper use in light of the already and not-yet present kingdom of God proclaimed in and by Jesus the Christ. The Roman Catholic community has a lengthy, rather complex tradition of thought in regard to sexual morality. Freedom has always been understood to be an important, even central value in Roman Catholic life, but it has almost always been closely tied to the good of truth and to the rule of law, and construed in a positive sense as the freedom to be able to do what one ought to do; in effect, as Spirit-empowered holiness. For a number of reasons the historical development of Roman Catholic moral thought has largely been in terms of obligations and sins; its more positive emphasis has been on the cultivation of the virtues.
