Theology of the Body: ‘The Good News That the Church Has for the Modern World’

TOB Congress Shows How St. John Paul II’s Teaching Applies to Everyone

Father Michael Gaitley addresses the 2014 Theology of the Body Congress.
Father Michael Gaitley addresses the 2014 Theology of the Body Congress. (photo: Theology of the Body Institute)

Focused on Pope St. John Paul II’s far-reaching catechesis best known for its teaching on sexuality and marriage, the Theology of the Body Congress, held last week in Philadelphia, brought to the forefront issues likely to be discussed at two upcoming Church meetings on the family: the Synod of Bishops in October and the Eighth World Meeting of Families in 2015.

While teaching on the male-female relationship within marriage continues to hold importance, the congress attendees and presenters also shared how they are applying the theology of the body (TOB) teaching of St. John Paul II in many other areas of life and how the catechesis provides an accessible gateway to the Gospel and Church teaching.

John Paul delivered a series of catechesis that he entitled “Human Love in the Divine Plan,” popularly known as his theology of the body, during papal audiences from 1979 to 1984.

More than 700 lay, clergy and religious, representing 60 ministries and organizations in 12 countries, attended the July 9-11 congress seeking greater understanding of the teaching and ideas for better implementing it in 50 dioceses.

Lay involvement in this apostolic work is spreading around the world, and people from their teens to their 60s came for consolation, connection and fellowship, said Damon Owens, executive director of the Downingtown, Pa.-based Theology of the Body Institute, which organized the event.

“Theology of the body seems to be a rallying point,” he told the Register. “It seems to be a convergence of people, and it’s a teaching that has so many applications that it has an effect on people.”
Congress presenters and attendees interviewed at the congress discussed TOB’s implications and practical ways of sharing the teaching.                                                                                                                               

“Is TOB a flash in the 2,000-year-old pan of Catholicism or the 16,000-year-old Judeo-Christian Tradition? Or is this really a new movement akin to St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine or Trent? Owens asked. “For those of us who have been transformed by the teaching, we know it is.”

 

Self-Giving Love

More than a teaching about sex and marriage, TOB is about being a human person and living in self-giving love, Father Michael Gaitley of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception in Stockbridge, Mass., told the Register.

“TOB is the good news that the Church has for the modern world, answering the great question that humanity’s asking: What does it mean to be a human person? The Church has the greatest answer for that, which is Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ fully reveals man to himself, which is that life finds its meaning when it’s given as a gift, and everything flows from that.”

Pope John Paul II introduced TOB as a commentary on Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (The Regulation of Birth) in all likelihood to help the faithful understand the Church’s prohibition on contraception, Peter Colosi, associate professor of moral theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., told the Register.  

The teaching is relevant today because the culture is more confused about love and relationships, Emily Stimpson, a freelance Catholic writer in Steubenville, Ohio, and author of These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body, told the Register.

“We don’t know who we are anymore” as a society, she said. “We don’t know what it means to be a man. We don’t know what it means to be a woman. We don’t know what it means to love. We don’t know how we are called to see the world.” 

To understand TOB’s teaching on being human, it’s necessary to learn what it teaches about why we’re created male and female, Christopher West, a well-known TOB lecturer and author based in Quarryville, Pa., told the Register. “What TOB provides for us is a vision of who we are, why we’re here, how we are to live and what our ultimate destiny is when we get there.”

 

TOB’s Different Applications

The teaching unfolds as Catholics realize its principles and truths can be applied in different areas and activities of life, Janet Smith, a professor and author who teaches at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, told the Register. Smith spoke about TOB in the context of caring for her mother, who suffers from dementia.

“John Paul II is very clear that we’re here to love and be loved,” she said. “Taking care of Mother satisfies something” in my need to love and be loved, she added.

The Holy Father knew about vulnerability, Smith said. “His allowing himself to be so very public in his suffering of Parkinson’s, I think, was an incredibly valuable model of acceptance of human frailty.”

A key to evangelizing with TOB is dialoguing and listening to people and to their hearts, said Jake Samour, director of marriage and family life in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., to the Register. Being a witness means trying to identify with people’s hopes and aspirations — and emphasizes that life is precious.

A new person is “unique,” he said, and our body-and-soul connection is part of God’s plan for us.

During the interview and in his congress presentation, he also addressed outreach to the Hispanic community specifically.

Bringing TOB to the Hispanic community is complicated by the fact that many second- and third-generation Hispanics no longer practice the faith, Samour said. Also, an emphasis on social justice has meant less instruction on the basics of the faith, including marriage and family, within the community.

“We took a great step in this congress to begin talking and addressing it, in how we reach our Hispanic brothers and sisters,” Samour told the Register. “The hope is that this will continue to grow, and we’ll find more ways to reach more folks to form them in this great teaching.”


Purposeful Perspective

Teens listen when you speak to their desires through TOB, Brian Butler, executive director and co-founder of Dumb-Ox Ministries in New Orleans, told the Register: “‘You’re made for more than that’ speaks to young persons’ hearts.” 

TOB speaks to people’s longings whatever their age, Stimpson explained. “TOB gives us a language to which people can relate,” she said, “when you talk to people about not wanting to be used or not wanting to use another person.” We must treat people like subjects, not objects, she said, “finding meaning in your life, living rich with joy and purpose and giving yourself away in love.”

At a discussion he attended but did not present on the single life, congress attendee Father Justin Braun advised attendees to live TOB by loving others as Christ would. Later, in an interview with the Register, he added, “Don’t let our horizons of specific vocations limit our experience of the nuptial love of God.” 

Father Braun, who directs vocations, youth and marriage and family life for the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, attended the congress to find ideas for youth apostolates, marriage-preparation material and wedding homilies.

Jackie O’Connor, another congress attendee, shared about technology and faith challenges related to her four children at a discussion about TOB and technology. “I didn’t expect it to be so personal,” she later told the Register. 

O’Connor, director of evangelization at Lighthouse Catholic Media in Newtown Square, Pa., said she learned about emphasizing direct interpersonal relationships, a TOB teaching, which is not possible with impersonal communication via technology.

In addition, the congress emphasized that one’s relationship with God should be front and center and shape one’s perspective in all things.

West pointed out that all of creation is within the scope of the Holy Father’s TOB audiences: “All of creation is telling us a story of God’s love. When you put on these TOB glasses, you can never see a tree in the same way again. You can never hear the song of a bird the same way again. All of creation is proclaiming the glory and mystery of God.”

Susan Klemond attended the
Theology of the Body Congress in Philadelphia.
She writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.