Sex is “a gift from God” – Pope Francis

Pope Francis said that God gave us the gift of sexual pleasure, and we should use it carefully and with patience.

He also said that watching pornography can lead to addiction because it gives pleasure without a real relationship.

The Pope was talking to a lot of people in the Vatican on Wednesday.

The sermon was about the Pope talking about the bad things caused by wanting too much pleasure.

The pope said that desire for sex ruins relationships between people and he also said that the news every day shows this.

“He asked how many good relationships have turned bad over time. ”

The Pope said this a few days after his new chief of teaching, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, was criticized for a book he wrote and published in the late 1990s called Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality.

The book is no longer available to buy. It talked about sex and gave a lot of details about how men and women feel during orgasms. Cardinal Fernández talked to a Catholic website called Crux and said he wrote the book when he was younger, and he definitely wouldn’t write it now.

Some people who have traditional views have criticized the book and said it was unsuitable for Cardinal Fernández to be in charge of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis and Cardinal Fernández have upset conservative Catholic people before.

In December, Cardinal Fernández made a new rule that allows priests to bless same-sex couples. Pope Francis also agreed with this rule.

Even though Cardinal Fernández said the position doesn’t make same-sex couples okay in the Catholic Church, many conservatives still think it’s a problem.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who was in charge of the Church’s teachings under Pope Benedict XVI, strongly criticized the Vatican’s document. Cardinal Müller said online that a priest blessing a gay union would be a very disrespectful and offensive thing to do.

“Cardinal Müller said that according to the rules for this kind of blessings, people could even give blessings to places like abortion clinics or groups like the mafia. ”

Leaders from all over the world spoke out against the decision. This includes conservative Americans who have always been against the Pope’s plans to change the Catholic Church.

Tensions got really bad when the Pope kicked a US Cardinal, Raymond Burke, out of his apartment at the Vatican and stopped paying him.