SEX AND RELIGION

THE MISCELLANY of Sex
Подпись: Death of a Catholic cliche November 2004: the Vatican publishes It's A Sin Not To Do It, a booklet redrawing the boundaries of permissible sex for Catholics, largely in response to the falling birthrate among Roman Catholics in Italy. The intention was to show that sex and the Church is not all warnings and taboos and that it was time to focus on the positive. Forty years earlier, the previous Vatican treatise on sexual behaviour taught that even French kissing between unmarried couples was sinful.

‘Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.’ Mae West

‘I trained to be a priest — started to. I went to seminary school when
I was 11.1 wanted to be a priest, but when they told me 1 could
never have sex, not even on my birthday, I changed my mind.’
Johnny Vegas, comedian

Подпись: ftPope John XII (955-964) turned Laterno's Basilica di San Giovanni into a brothel. ft A woman called Joan, who had disguised herself as a monk, is said to have become Pope around 1100. In time, she fell pregnant, but gave birth to her child during an Easter parade in Rome and was stoned to death by the crowd. Thereafter, popes had to face the public gaze Подпись: in a special chair - with a hole in the base through which a cardinal could check they had testicles, ft Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) participated in an orgy, organized by his son Don Cesare Borgia, attended by 50 courtesans and prostitutes who danced naked before picking up chestnuts from the floor as everyone watched. Prizes were then given to the men

CATHOLIC TASTES

Religion

SEX AND RELIGION

with the highest number of sexual conquests. ftPilgrims visiting the Sanctuary of Fatima in Portugal were given free maps of the shrine, featuring the image of the Virgin Mary, but when they turned them over, they were shocked to find sex toys and aphrodisiacs advertised on the other side.

ft A popular Californian Christian radio station surprised its listeners in 2006 when, instead of spiritual voices and songs of praise, they heard carnal moans and groans and sexually explicit songs. Apparently the station’s new owner was just giving them a wake-up call on his arrival, ft In 2006, a German church group in Nuremburg produced a calendar with a [1]
modern take on Bible scenes, including Adam and Eve and the dance of Salome. The difference was the models were naked. Despite controversy, further copies have been printed to meet demand.

ft Dr Heba Kotb, a Cairo-bom sex therapist broadcaster and writer across the Muslim world, tells her audience to have and enjoy sex as much as they can, all in accordance with the writings of the Koran. ftThe reverend John McQueen scandalized Edinburgh in the 1600s when he became so obsessed with the gorgeous Mrs Euphame Scott that he stole her undergarments from the washing line and had them made up into a waistcoat and trousers.

Updated: 09.11.2015 — 20:39