Course Description:

The class will study the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual ethics in light of St. John Paul II’s theology of the body.

Beginning with a very brief overview of the foundations of Catholic Morality, drawn from the Catechism and John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor, (discussing issues such as

freedom, virtue, conscience, and moral action), the course will turn to the Church’s vision of sexuality, rooted in the proper theological understanding of the human person. Consideration will be given to the importance of the body within Christian anthropology, along with an examination of the virtue of chastity, the vocation of marriage, and John Paul’s understanding of the ‘nuptial meaning of the body.’ We will study the Church’s teaching on contraception, procreative technologies, sterilization, abortion, homosexuality, fornication and cohabitation, masturbation, pornography and more.

Meet Your Instructor

Rev. Joseph Koopman, M.Div., M.A., S.T.D.

Rev. Joseph Koopman, M.Div., M.A., S.T.D., graduated from Franciscan University of
Steubenville in 1996, after which he entered St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Cleveland in 2001, and served as a newly ordained priest at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Parma. 

From 2005 to 2009, Fr. Koopman attended the Accademia Alfonsiana in Rome, Italy, where he received a license and doctorate in theology. Since 2009, he has been a professor of moral theology at St. Mary Seminary, along with serving as an advisor in moral theology and ethics for the Diocese of Cleveland and the Ohio Catholic Conference of Bishops.