The Social Justice and Marriage Connection

The argument goes that the Catholic Church is riddled with sexism. Her teachings on sexuality and supposed “attitudes” toward women are sexist and patriarchal, right? But in fact, social data increasingly shows that diverging from Church teaching on matters of sexuality, marriage, pre-marital sex, abortion, contraception and divorce is harmful to women and children.

There has been this idea within the American Catholic Church for the last few decades, which is partly true and partly media generated, that there are “liberals” and “conservatives.” The “liberals” tend to support Church teaching on matters like war and peace, general opposition to the death penalty and preferential option for the poor, but they have a contempt for the sexual teachings. The “conservatives” favor the Church’s sexual teachings and actively support the pro-life movement, yet have a sort of disdain for Catholic social teachings as expressed by the American bishops in recent decades.

Erika Bachiochi, Catholic speaker, writer and lawyer, says that both “sides” are perpetuating a harmful false dichotomy. If we want to stand in solidarity with the poor, the victimized, the objectified, we need to do a better job of supporting and promoting the sexual teachings of the Church.

Bachiochi explores the emerging and historic social science on this topic with the team from CatholicTV’s The Future Depends on Love. Watch the segment here: Erika Bachiochi on the connection between Marriage and Social Justice.