The gospel of the body:
Hundreds flock to hear the good news about sex and marriage
By Sean Gallagher
What would you do on a cold Saturday in the middle of February?
Chores around the house? Attend your children’s or grandchildren’s sporting events? If you’re in college, take a break from studying?
On Feb. 18, more than 300 people—from teenagers to senior citizens—packed Tuohy Hall at Christ the King Parish in Indianapolis to hear noted Catholic author and speaker Christopher West lead a daylong seminar on the Church’s teachings on the nature of the human person, sexuality and marriage.
The day before, more than 200 people listened to West speak for four hours on related topics at Holy Name Parish in Beech Grove.
These teachings have come to be known as the “theology of the body,” a term coined by Pope John Paul II and the subject of 129 catechetical presentations that the late Holy Father gave at his Wednesday general audiences from 1979-84. It is also the title of the one-volume English translation of those presentations.
Commenting during a break on Feb. 18, Cliff Babbey, a member of Christ the King Parish, said that in his opinion the large turnout for the eight-hour seminar demonstrated what more and more people feel about the prevailing attitudes about sexuality in today’s culture.
“People, I think, have become overwhelmed by … the evil that society perpetuates about the human body,” Babbey said. “The message that is constantly being demonstrated to us by Madison Avenue advertising is that the human body … is something to be looked at with lust and not looked at as a portal to God.”
Presenting the banquet
Although West spoke about this understanding of the human body and sexuality held by many in society—often likening it to “eating out of the dumpster” —he emphasized the positive nature of the Church’s teachings on these topics, describing them as “the banquet.”
“You attract bees with honey,” West told his audience on Feb. 18. “You attract a world that’s eating out of the dumpster by presenting the banquet, not by condemning the dumpster.
“This is not a message of condemnation. This is a message of salvation. And when we present the banquet to people, they no longer want to eat from the dumpster if they really see the banquet.”
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West’s presentation of the Church’s teachings on sex and marriage was filled with contemporary cultural references. He quoted songs by the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and K. D. Lang. He referred to movies such as Titanic, The Truman Show and Napoleon Dynamite.
But despite his use of popular culture, West acknowledged that there was still a great challenge in helping people know that the Church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality lead to true happiness.
“The trick is to helping people believe that the banquet even exists,” he said. “We have been so conditioned by our culture to doubt that real love is even possible. We don’t even believe that the banquet exists, so we settle for the dumpster.”
The Church’s vision of sexuality
Many who heard West speak in Beech Grove and Indianapolis were formerly in that position, but now see the positive power of the Church’s vision of sexuality in their own lives.
Kellie Goebel, a member of Holy Name Parish, has been married to her husband, Steve, for 18 years. For most of that time, she knew what the Church taught about marriage and sexuality but not the reasons behind it.
She described the view she previously held on the topic to be both “prudish”—in that she didn’t want to talk openly about it—and “cavalier,” something she “didn’t take seriously.”
But a couple of years ago, she began to want to learn more about why the Church taught what it does on sexuality.
She did a random Internet search for books on the topic. The first one to come up was West’s Good News about Sex and Marriage. Goebel purchased a copy and was struck by its upbeat message.
She has since purchased several copies of the book and given it to friends. Goebel and her husband also plan to apply the principles of the theology of the body in their ministry as a sponsor couple for engaged men and women at Holy Name Parish. But she thinks many other people could benefit from learning about it.
“I feel if people understood it better, it could have applications through high school sexual education and through marriage and everything,” Goebel said. “I just see how it could touch a lot of different aspects of life.”
Father C. Ryan McCarthy knows this from experience in both his ministry at St. Joseph and St. Anne parishes, both
in Jennings County, where he serves as pastor, and at Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School in Madison, where he teaches and serves as chaplain.
“There have been a number of ‘Ah ha’ moments for couples and for individuals in marriage preparation classes,” he said, “[and for students] in the high school where I teach, when they suddenly start to realize, ‘Wait a second. That’s why I felt the way I did.’
“It’s always a nice thing to witness when someone starts to see the truth of a situation and realizes what the Church teaches does make sense, and that it
also makes sense in light of their own experience.”
Reflecting on the decade of his experience as a seminarian and a priest, Father McCarthy spoke of the pleasant surprise he felt as he noticed a growing interest in the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality.
“You would think, from a secular perspective, that wouldn’t have a chance, that the message would be drowned out,” he said. “The reality is, the truth seems to be coming through and seems to be growing in strength.”
Understanding a vocation
Seminarian Rick Nagel, a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Edinburgh, who
is in his fourth year of formation at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, participated in a weeklong intensive seminar on the topic led by West.
Although he has already had many opportunities to apply it in confirmation retreats and ministry to individuals or small groups, Nagel also sees its importance in helping him to understand more deeply the vocation to the priesthood.
In a telephone interview with The Criterion, Nagel emphasized how the theology of the body calls people to give of themselves totally to others in love for their good.
“In much of the theology of the body, people automatically take it to relationships with another, which is beautiful and that is certainly what we should do,” he said. “But in the sense of living a celibate life, I look at it as a total gift to all others, not just another, but to all others.”
Appealing to college students
Far from the spiritual atmosphere of a seminary, a college campus might be considered one of the places where the Church’s teaching on sexuality would have a hard time being heard. But even there, young men and women are finding it appealing.
Suzy Swygart, a sophomore at Butler University in Indianapolis and a native of Granger, Ind., participated in the Feb. 18 seminar at Christ the King Parish.
Describing herself as one who values the theology of the body and wants to share it with others, Swygart said that joining so many people of various ages at the seminar gave her support.
“It was absolutely beautiful because I think you gain a stronger sense of the family and the unity in the generations in this kind of environment,” she said. “It gives me hope.”
Kyle Bertoli, a graduate student at
the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., is an apprentice at Christ the King Parish, where he takes part in Notre Dame’s Echo Program that seeks to train future parish catechetical leaders.
He recalled how West came to the northern Indiana campus a few years ago to speak about the theology of the body.
“He packed one of our biggest lecture halls to capacity so that there were people all through the hallways out by the classroom wanting to hear him on Thursday and Friday night,” Bertoli said.
Asked why Notre Dame students responded so strongly to West’s visit, Bertoli said that the theology of the body is “such a fresh and positive way of looking at human sexuality, something on which the Church has a reputation of being kind of backward or stodgy about.”
A message in demand
But whether it is filling lecture halls on today’s college campuses or a parish hall on a cold Saturday in February, West is in demand.
He has delivered more than 1,000 lectures on the theology of the body on four continents, in nine countries and in more than 150 cities across the United States.
“It’s a very exciting time to be alive,” West said. “I have the greatest job in the world. I just feel like I’m spreading the cure for cancer. What a great job—to see a message spread that’s liberating men and women around the globe.” †
