Is having sex for pleasure considered a sin in the Catholic church?

Almost an entire book in the Old Testament is dedicated to the subject of passion and sex for pleasure. Song of Solomon is so detailed in its intention of sexual pleasure in marriage that allegories were used to tone it down and Hebrew boys couldn't read it until they were 12, when they became men. God clearly intended sex in marriage to be pleasurable. First Corinthians 7:3-5 talks about not abstaining from sex in marriage: "But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband is to fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does, and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."

The feelings of sexual longings and pleasure during sex were created by God, and marriage was created to fulfill those longings. What Paul is saying is to direct those feelings to your spouse and no other and make sure that they are fulfilled within your marriage relationship, not outside of it. Notice that Paul says if one of the partners is not living up to his or her spouse’s expectations, whether it be pleasure or time, then both need to bring it before God so that one doesn't try to find fulfillment outside of that marriage relationship. Because of the existence of pornography and the perversion of sex over the years, many people (especially Christians) get the idea that pleasurable sex is wrong. We sometimes forget that God fashioned us for sex and created the emotions to go with it; pleasure was intended. We shouldn’t let Satan and his lies keep us from enjoying our spouses or fall into the counterfeit pleasure of sex that the world offers. God's pleasure is real and satisfying; Satan's is counterfeit and empty.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/sex-pleasure.html#ixzz...

Lets compare it to food since we can be more objective with food. Food is good for the body. The value of food is its nutrition for the body since it is needed to sustain the life of the body. A side benefit of eating is that it can be a pleasurable experience. However, that side benefit does not eclipse it's true value which is nutrition. If we were to throw away or disregard our body's need for nutrition and eat for pleasure alone what would be the result? Well in this age of mega pleasure foods that have very little nutrition the result would be the eventual death of the body due to malnutrition. Therefore, while its not wrong to take pleasure in the foods we eat, when we eat we always need to consider nutrition as the most important aspect of eating and its primary purpose.

The same applies to sex. While pleasure is a side benefit it does not eclipse the primary purpose which is procreation. If it does, if pleasure becomes the sole purpose of sex, then sex becomes meaningless and superficial, even selfish where one uses the other person for self gratification. Procreation is possibly the greatest thing we can do with our bodies in this life and is a gift from God. Thus sex should always be considered sacred.

This doesn't mean that every time a married couple has sex that it has to be in order to have more kids. We can recognize there is a unitive aspect and giving of ourselves to the beloved. It just means we need to recognize the purpose of sex and be open to that possibility of procreation as God wills it.

1. The Catholic Church teaches that sex has a dual purpose: giving unity/pleasure to one's spouse and cooperating in God's act of Creation through procreation. Anything that intentionally splits the dual purpose and attempt to engage in just one is wrong.

2. Your conclusion that "even if straight sex makes a baby" it would be wrong if "the motivation was personal pleasure" is wrong is surprisingly accurate because Catholics are never supposed to use sex to TAKE pleasure for themselves. We're supposed to be GIVING pleasure to our spouses. It can be difficult to develop the correct mindset because we are immersed in a culture that thinks that sex is all about what you get out of it instead of what you give to your partner. If everybody thought in terms of sex being pleasure-giving, self-giving and life-giving the way God intended it, people would be having GREAT sex and we'd all be a lot happier.

3. Because God made women cyclical, and because He put no limits on the amount of sex that a married couple can agree to have, your assumption that people could only have sex for the sole purpose of reproducing is completely wrong. To put it another way, married couples are free to have as much sex as they mutually agree to, but women can only get pregnant during a 48-hour window of each monthly cycle. This is God's design. Therefore, there is no need to limit a married couple to only having sex when they are willing to have a baby.

4. Contrary to your inexperienced assumption, there are many, many faithful Catholic couples who are perfectly happy to have sex unencumbered by artificial contraception, planning our families in cooperation with God. My husband and I are just one such couple, but we know lots of others. Sex without artificial contraception is better because it's more comfortable, more pleasurable, healthier (hormonal artificial contraception shortens women's lives), and better for the relationship (puts the couple one equal footing, unlike contraception that forces women to take all the health risks while the men risk nothing).

Sexual union of a married couple is a gift from God. It symbolizes the union of the Lord our God and his bride the Church. So, no, it is not a sin for a married couple to have sex for pleasure.

sex as pleasure! as a couple centered on God, no it is not.

but free sex, Gay sex is wrong and sinful.

J

Poor virgin Bobby...