But if every Catholic took one day to see sexuality the way it was truly meant to be seen — through the eyes of its Creator — the results would be nothing less than life-changing, says Bill Donaghy, a speaker for the Philadelphia-based Theology of the Body Institute, who will give a keynote address at the Archdiocese of Detroit’s Theology of the Body Conference on May 14.
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“Our desire for intimacy is actually connected to our desires for God,” says Donaghy. “Once that’s taken in, your relationships will start changing. You’ll start to see every human being not as some object to be used or manipulated — but every human being as a gift. Every human being can literally be the face of God, the face of Love.
“Practically speaking, it’s a life changer.”
Donaghy is among a roster of conference speakers who are well-versed in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, the late pontiff’s teachings based on 129 short talks that he gave in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The writings have been at the center of the Catholic Church’s attempts in recent decades to break through a culture that too often promotes making people into sexual objects.
Donaghy, who’s been studying and teaching about Theology of the Body for 10 years, says he’s seen how understanding God’s vision of sex has helped numerous people understand the value of an individual. It has, indeed, changed lives, he says.
“There’s a deep hunger,” he says. “It’s a totally transformative day … The only difficulty is getting the truth of God’s plan for sexuality out there. So many times people says, ‘I wish I’d heard this when I was 18 years old.’”
Donaghy’s talk — called “God, Sex and the Meaning of Life” — will attempt to introduce conference attendees to the fact that “every visible thing is a love letter from God, a sign pointing to Him who is Love.”
He hopes the concepts people learn at the conference will help them break out of what he sees as a mistaken concept of Christianity.
“There’s a false image of what real Christianity is,” he says. “I go to Mass on Sunday. I keep the commandments. I don’t kill anybody. I’m a good person. I pray. That’s all nice — but that’s really about us doing things for God … Many Catholics get stuck in that place.”
Instead, he says, Theology of the Body can help Catholics take the next step in learning not just about action for God, but union with God.
“It’s not so much about doing those things for God — it’s about being one with God,” he says. “Letting God come in and do actions on our hearts. He wants to completely fill us.”
The conference is called “Why the Fig Leaf?: God, Sex and Sensibility” and will take place at Madonna University, on Schoolcraft Road and Levan in Livonia, just alongside I-96. It opens with a 7:30 a.m. Mass at the Felician Motherhouse Chapel. Donaghy will speak at 9 a.m. Other talks will be given by Mary Healy, Ph.D, and Janet Smith, Ph.D, both professors at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. The event will include testimonies from married couples and young adults, as well.
Breakout sessions include topics such as “Sex and the Single Adult,” “Raising Your Children for Chastity,” and “Understanding Homosexuality.”
David Grobbel, a conference organizer from the archdiocese’s marriage, family and pro-life ministry, says the conference will have something for everyone — married, single, in religious life, or even teenagers.
