Sexuality refers to a fundamental component of personality in and through which we, as sexual beings, experience our relatedness to self, others, the world and God. Sexuality involves the whole person. Education in sexuality is not to be limited to talking about sexual intercourse, to sexual attraction, or to 'the flesh'. Sexuality is a powerful force for emotional and spiritual union housed in the physical body. A wholistic understanding of human sexuality flows from the idea that human beings are created in the image of God, the Imago Dei, as unique individuals who are loved and called by God. Living wholeheartedly looks to the integration of the multiple dimensions of the human person, including one's sexuality, in a way that contributes to one's own flourishing and the flourishing of the community. There is a sense in which sexuality is identifiable with the principle of life itself. Here, sexuality is associated with our drive for love, communion, community, friendship, family, affection, wholeness, consummation, creativity, self-perpetuation, immortality, joy, delight, humour, and self-transcendence. It is about overcoming separateness by giving life and blessing it (Rolheiser, 1999 pp. 195, 198). Sexuality, when fully embraced as a gift, touches all aspects of the human person and manifests its deepest meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love (John Paul II, 1981).

Sexuality must be grounded in respect for the power of sexuality to either enrich or diminish life. While sexuality is good and central to the unity of body, mind and spirit, sexuality can also be distorted and misused. The human sexual condition includes sexual abuse, sexual torture and sexual exploitation of the vulnerable by the strong (Callahan, 2007 p. 79). The results of fractured sexual relationships are often experienced as terrible heartaches, family breakups, and violence (Rolheiser, 1994 p. 199). Sexuality in the context and conviction of the Christian vision is situated within loving and just relationships and the enhancement of the human vocation. On the basis of a positive vision of sexuality, we can approach the entire subject with a healthy realism. It is, after all, a fact that sex often becomes depersonalised and unhealthy; as a result, 'it becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and instincts'. In our own day, sexuality risks being poisoned by the mentality of 'use and discard'. The body of the other is often viewed as an object to be used as long as it offers satisfaction, and rejected once it is no longer appealing. Can we really ignore or overlook the continuing forms of domination, arrogance, abuse, sexual perversion and violence that are the product of a warped understanding of sexuality? Or the fact that the dignity of others and our human vocation to love thus end up being less important than an obscure need to 'find oneself'? (Pope Francis, 2016 Amoris Laetitia)

From a Catholic perspective, marriage is a permanent and exclusive commitment between a man and a woman, who freely give themselves to each other in love and in so doing commit themselves to love and care for any children that may arise from their mutual love. Commitment, intimacy and passion vitalize and nurture covenanted love (Genovesi, 1996). Sexual intimacy is a sign of fully committed love. Outside the context of marriage, genital intimacy, however well intended, is not an expression of total self-giving. Marriage is also a public commitment. The two partners freely choose to enter into this partnership, this covenant. They say 'yes' to each other, to being there for each other and to working together to make God's creative love present in the world. They do this through their active participation in the community as committed partners and through bringing about new life through sexual intercourse. The Catholic perspective on marriage is that it should be treated as something permanent and exclusive in which divorce and extra-marital affairs have no place. Public commitment to a permanent and exclusive partnership of mutual co-operation and self-giving love provides the institutional and community basis for the trust necessary for the married couple to truly open themselves to each other. They are able to give themselves wholly to each other in the knowledge that there is a community who will support them in their decision when times are hard and assist them in the raising of their children.

Marriage is also a Sacrament. In a unique way marriage makes Christ visible in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Second Vatican Council's 1965 Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, explains it like this: For as God of old made Himself present to His people through a covenant of love and fidelity, so now the Savior of men and the Spouse of the Church comes into the lives of married Christians through the sacrament of matrimony. He abides with them thereafter so that just as He loved the Church and handed Himself over on her behalf, the spouses may love each other with perpetual fidelity through mutual self-bestowal. Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a father or a mother. For this reason Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state. By virtue of this sacrament, as spouses fulfil their conjugal and family obligation, they are penetrated with the spirit of Christ, which suffuses their whole lives with faith, hope and charity. Thus they increasingly advance the perfection of their own personalities, as well as their mutual sanctification, and hence contribute jointly to the glory of God (Gaudium et Spes, para. 48).

Sexuality and spirituality are connected. Healthy sexuality is the experience of feeling whole and worthy as a sexual person. Healthy sexuality involves: being connected in all parts of one's sexuality to one's spiritual core; congruence of sexual behaviour with one's value system; meaningfulness in relationships; the position of love in one's life; the miracle of existence; and the development and affirmation of sexual grace (Maleny, 1995). Rolheiser (1999, p.198-202) offers four principles that anchor a healthy Christian spirituality of sexuality: 1. Sexuality is God's energy inside of us and leads persons to sanctity when its principles are respected. 2. Sexuality for the Christian needs the protection of reverence (chastity) and wisdom (prudence) 3. Sexual intimacy is sacred. It can never be simply a casual, unimportant, neutral thing. Its place is within a committed, loving, covenantal relationship as a privileged vehicle of grace. It brings God's physical touch to us and is a source of integration for the soul. 4. Sexual intimacy for the Christian must be linked to marriage, monogamy, and a covenantal commitment that is, by definition, all-embracing and permanent. Sex speaks of total giving, total trust and total commitment.