re: #256 iceweasel

But even so, the real problem here is and has always been the Catholic Church’s attitude toward sexuality in general and female sexuality in particular. It’s a culture of shame. Women and sexual desire are treated as lesser and other, consequently some of the men steeped in that culture (like priests) act as they do.

Well I am afraid to say that what you understand as “Catholic sexual theology” is not in fact Catholic sexual theology. Might I suggest a catechism?

III. THE LOVE OF HUSBAND AND WIFE

2360 Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.

2361 “Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.”

2362 “The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude.” Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure:

2363 The spouses’ union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple’s spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.

Clearly what you suggest isn’t true. It also makes no sense to accuse the Catholic Church of being anti-women when

1. Mary the Mother of God is viewed as mankind’s singular solitary boast.
2. The Church is female.
3. The Church is described as the Bride of Christ and the Mother of all Believers.