The Catholic Church is steadfast in its opposition to same sex unions but in the fourth of our series looking ahead to next month’s Synod on the Family, a theologian claims there is no good reason to confine marriage to heterosexual couples In the many centuries of the development of Catholic sexual ethics, certain concerns have been central. The primary moral rule has been: “No sex outside of marriage.” Sex is good, as early Christian writers insisted, since it is part of Creation, but, they added, it is also disordered as a result of original sin. Hence, sex as an inordinate and powerful drive must be constrained and channelled. Moreover, it needs to be justified by an intention to procreate, and essential to this is gender complementarity between men and women. For s