Human beings are created free. How we choose to think about and treat one another reflects how we think and feel about ourselves, about the meaning and purpose of life and about God (Bell, 2007). The Christian vision of the human person promotes and protects the dignity of the human person; interpersonal relationships characterized by integrity and justice; and physical, emotional, relational and spiritual health and safety. It does so because these protections are necessary if we are to realise the fullness of our freedom. The sexual ethics that arises from the Catholic perspective helps us to discern what is good and bad, and what is morally right and wrong, in the wider culture, so that we freely choose to direct our moral responsibility to human flourishing.

Issues of sexuality and intimacy are closely tied to issues of power and justice (Ferder & Heagle, 2007). When channelled in life-giving ways, sexuality contributes to human flourishing, joy and the sense of belonging for which each of us yearns. In this way, healthy sexual relations overcome distortions of power, seek equality and mutuality, and are visible signs of the Good News preached by Jesus. Good relationships set us free. However, the freedom such relationships give is not a freedom to do as we please, a freedom from all obstacles to our own desires. Rather, by restricting our freedom in a certain sense, we are liberated to take responsibility for our own and others flourishing. Good relationships help us to truly taste the goodness of life.

With freedom comes responsibility. We are responsible for our moral behaviour because we are made in God's image as rational beings, capable of knowing what the morally right and good thing to do is and as free beings, capable of choosing to do the morally right and good thing. These two capacities, to know and to choose, together form what is called conscience. Loosely translated, conscience means 'with knowledge'. In other words, when we make moral choices, we make them based on what we know about the goals we want to achieve, the ways or means to achieve them, the circumstances in which we need to achieve them and the consequences of both the means we choose and the outcomes we achieve. When we have weighed all these things, we make a judgment based on our knowledge of what the morally right thing to do is. We are then obliged to follow our conscience and do the morally right thing, taking responsibility for our decision.