# Catholics and Anal Sex **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 20, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750 "2003-04-20T01:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/41 "2003-04-20T21:37:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spectrum \* > \*\*Since the point of marital sex is procreation, and the potential for procreation must be allowed in all sex acts, I do not believe that anal sex amongst married Catholics would be licit. > > Sex of any kind for unmarried persons is considered sinful under Catholic doctrine. \*\* That is really the very official line of the Vatican Roman Catholic Church. Any libidinous touch outside of marriage and with someone not your legitimately and religiously married spouse – for Catholics, in the Catholic Church, at that – is a sin, a mortal one. A digression, a mortal sin will land you in hell if you die without repenting; there you will scream and gnash your teeth for the sheer agony of burning from fire; now for those without teeth, God will provide. If you are a postgraduate Catholic couple, and both of you are curious and find it practical and effective on the one hand getting some pleasure from sex and on the other preventing an uninvited pregnancy, then you should consider very seriously and solemnly in favor of anal sex. Of course, give special careful details to hygiene, sanitation, and aesthetics, though. That is what I mean by being postgraduate Catholics, I mean that responsibility and liberty, not the anal sex, of course. But you make the decision, not someone for you. I just tell you about being postgraduate Catholicism. What about God, will He be mad for your anal sex? The pope maybe, but not God; He’s transcendental, beyong all that. Just don’t hurt your partner and yourself in your sex sports. God bless you, and remember: "Primum non nocere, Ultimum non nocere, Et interim numquam nocere." Susma Rio Sep ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/42 "2003-04-20T21:50:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*Whaddaya mean anal sex can’t result in procreation? Where the hell do you think little baby lawyers come from? \*\* If anal sex costs $60,000 and last for 3 years, then maybe I’ll agree. Law school finals _are_ alot like being…well you know. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/43 "2003-04-20T21:54:16Z")
I most certainly do not! ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/44 "2003-04-20T22:22:24Z")
And yet another thread is polluted by an advertisement for this nonsense “post-graduate Catholic” stuff. Get a life. Stop deriding the beliefs of faithful Catholics. ---
**Author:** ![Davebear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Davebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Davebear)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/45 "2003-04-20T23:13:22Z")
Thanks for the clarification, **istara** , and I totally agree, now that I understand what you meant. ---
**Author:** ![Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/46 "2003-04-20T23:55:16Z")
Well, Spectrum, thanks for your notice. * * * ## And yet another thread is polluted by an advertisement for this nonsense “post-graduate Catholic” stuff. Get a life. Stop deriding the beliefs of faithful Catholics. Let’s hear from you a very personal and self-conceived advocacy in one hundred words or less. No derision intended in advocating postgraduate Catholicism; there is such a thing as post-Vatican II Catholicism and post-paederasty Catholicism. Susma Rio Sep ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/47 "2003-04-21T00:30:27Z")
A “self-conceived advocacy in one hundred words or less”? What the hell is that? What do you want me to advocate? Why should I? ---
**Author:** ![jehan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jehan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jehan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/48 "2003-04-21T04:48:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\*Well, I don’t think that’s true…or at least it didn’t used to be. In fact, there are two Dominican nuns who are “blessed” (the step before sainthood) who were widows. \*\* You are right- it was VERY common in medieval times and afterwards for widows to ‘take the veil’ after their husbands died and become nuns. It was a pretty good life, all things consiered, for the times. And yes, there are also examples of married couples where both husband and wife entered the religious life after several years of marriage. In modern times, although the number of nuns is obviously declining, many women (and men) decide to enter the religious life in middle age and later- some of whom are widowed. ( I would imagine you can’t be divorced, although annulled marriages in the past would be okay). There has NEVER been a requirement for virginity among nuns (before they take their vows), unless a few very specific obscure orders have such a requirement. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/49 "2003-04-21T05:14:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spectrum \* > \*\*Heh. You ever see _Escape From New York_? > > “Hey… Snake… Man, I heard you were dead…” > “Snake Plisken? Aren’t you dead?” \*\* And then there was the John Wayne repost from _Big Jake_: “Not hardly.” ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/50 "2003-04-21T08:11:57Z")
CONCLUSION (?) This may sound silly, but there are two ways to look at anal sex: the AGNOSTIC way and the RELIGIOUS way. The agnostic way tells us that nothing is a sin, because there can’t be any supernatural mandatory punishing us for comitting any kind of body practices. The religious way, obviously, any kind of sex other than for reproduction purposes is a sin. This can’t be other way in the Catholic beliefs. My conclusion, for the matter of this thread, is: OF COURSE anal sex is a sin, either married or unmarried. (and personally, I don’t mind about beliefs) ---
**Author:** ![Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/51 "2003-04-21T12:27:53Z")
Spectrum says: * * * ## A “self-conceived advocacy in one hundred words or less”? What the hell is that? What do you want me to advocate? Why should I? I wonder now if TJ555 is a Catholic himself or is just curious about the official teaching of the Catholic Church on anal sex. In both cases if he really wants the official teaching, he should call up any pastor in any Catholic church and ask the Reverend there. Now, I must commend Spectrum for giving the genuinely authentic position of the Catholic Church, and the rationale for it. However, I as a postgraduate Catholic, thinking that TJ555 to be a Catholic with a moral doubt in regard to anal sex, whether it be sinful or not, suggest to him to adopt instead the mind and heart of a postgraduate Catholic like myself. Then he would be free to do a lot of sex experiments with his lawfully and religiously wedded spouse. If he being a Catholic and cannot adopt a very liberated ideology on his commitment to Catholic doctrines and observance of Catholic sexual discipline, like for example by being a postgraduate Catholic, then there is no other choice but to abstain from anal sex, and all kinds of sexual acts where the natural process of procreation is stymied. What I would like to hear from you, good friend Spectrum, is whether you might have a very personal and self-conceived advocacy. For I see that you are relaying the official teaching of the Catholic Church, which of course you learned from Catholic sources, for being yourself a Catholic or having acquaintance with Catholic religionists. It’s like Jesus asking his disciples, “You yourself what do you think of me?” (Or something like that, I am not so precise about the exact quotation.) So, Spectrum, I am curious whether you do have any position about anal sex that is the fruit of your own thinking; unless of course you appropriate that of the Catholic Church and have no other perspectives. Thanks for your notice of my posts. Susma Rio Sep ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/52 "2003-04-22T04:15:01Z")
This thread isn’t about what _I_ think, it was a question about the Church. My beliefs and thoughts on the subject are not germane, and I will not muddy the waters by bringing them in. Suffice it to say that though I agree with Catholicism doctrinally almost entirely down the line, I find myself outside the Church as I attempt to find a way to rationalize my doctrinal acceptance with stark disagreements regarding issues of morality. Beyond that, it is none of your business. ---
**Author:** ![TJ555\_The\_Golfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@TJ555\_The\_Golfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJ555_The_Golfer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/53 "2003-04-22T04:18:19Z")
I am not a Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/54 "2003-04-22T04:44:45Z")
Onan got in a heap of trouble for just giving his sister in law (? it’s been a while…) a money shot. I could just imagine what a little back door action would have landed him. ---
**Author:** ![Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/56 "2003-04-30T15:41:11Z")
Sexy\_Animal asks what is anal sex? Are you serious? Here is a clinical description of anal sex (correct me anyone here, if I am wrong): “Anal sex is performed with one party inserting his erect penis into the anal opening of the other, and thrusting his penis along the anal-rectal canal of the other party to orgasmic ejaculation, and most probably to the erotic pleasure of the other.” TJ555 asks the original question whether Catholics do anal sex and whether it is a sin for them. He says however that he’s not Catholic. Therefore he was just curious? He should have asked instead a Roman Catholic priest, as to the sinfulness of anal sex. The answer is yes, the priest will tell TJ555. Do Catholics do anal sex? If the priest is honest, he will say yes, also; though not all of them, at least not all the time. For Catholics are also human, whatever the moral injunctions of their church; they do everything non-Catholics do. “For all are sinners, not one is possessed of righteousness” (or something like that). When people here can ask from the official source persons of a church in regard to their religious doctrines and their moral observances, but choose to address their question in these boards here, I am inclined to suspect that they want some different answers from the official ones of the church concerned. So, I gave the suggestion to TJ555, thinking that he was Catholic, that he would be better off if he would adopt a very liberal attitude toward his Catholic beliefs and observances. Then he would not feel so guilty about anal sex. Which is an effective way of experiencing libidinous pleasure on the one hand, and preventing an unwanted pregnancy on the other. But TJ555 tells us he’s not Catholic. So, he was just merely curious. For the best satisfaction of one’s curiosity, then, always go to the official source persons of the church and church members concerned. Susma Rio Sep ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/57 "2003-04-30T21:19:13Z")
I thought I saw something on 60 Minutes about priests in South America and possibly Africa who are married and actively having kids and are still Catholics. The church tends to look the other way because no one complains about it. I’m pretty sure that’s where I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/58 "2003-04-30T21:28:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krokodil \* > \*\*As a point of information, does _any_ religion endorse anal sex? \*\* I wouldn’t use the word “endorse,” but anal sex is explicitly permitted in Judaism (within marriage, of course). Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/59 "2003-04-30T21:54:16Z")
This whole thread just cracks me up. As a catholic, I’d have to agree with the posters saying that, officially, it would be a big NO from the church on this subject. From recent (and maybe not so recent) events, I’d have to say that maybe the priests know more about this subject than you would think… 😃 From zev\_steinhardt “I wouldn’t use the word “endorse,” but anal sex is explicitly permitted in Judaism (within marriage, of course).” What I want to know is…Really?? They EXPLICITLY permit this? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/60 "2003-05-01T02:38:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > \*\*AFAICT, the rule is that , the sex act must not preclude the possibility of procreation, IF you were capable of reproduction. The rule forbids acts that are non-procreative _by design of the act_ as opposed to due to a condition of one of the spouses. The usual reading of this is that any “unnatural” sex is out of the question. > > However I am not clear on what the position is on, say, oral contact as _foreplay_ leading to consummation of “proper” natural intercourse. \*\* A Catholic asking this) I’ve never understood why artificial contraception is evil, but “Natural Family Planning” is OK. **Both** are intended for the same purpose, **No Kids**.😕 Oh, and a question for anyone to answer. If the wife shouldn’t become pregnant because it would be dangerous to her health, would that be an exception to allow artificial contraception? ---
**Author:** ![Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750/61 "2003-05-01T03:49:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\*I wouldn’t use the word “endorse,” but anal sex is explicitly permitted in Judaism (within marriage, of course). > > Zev Steinhardt \*\* Ask any true believing servant of Jehovah or Jaweh, and he will tell you it’s an abomination. I am not an expert in sexual taboos of Biblical Jews, but I have read the Old Testament here and there. And the picture I get is that there’s a lot of abominations about ‘unnatural’ sex acts to be absolutely avoided by the Jews; one of them is anal sex. Susma Rio Sep [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-and-anal-sex/169750.md?page=4)