As we mourn the death of Pope Francis and reflect on his gifts to the church during his papacy, this is a great moment to recall his (surprisingly traditional!) teachings on sex in marriage from Amoris Laetitia, The Joy of Love. 

In this post-synodol apostolic exhortation from 2015 that capped the Synod on the Family, Pope Francis makes four main points about married sex:

1. The church teaches that sex is meant to be a good! It is a gift from God enriching joy in marriage, not just a "necessary evil" to be tolerated because it is the means of procreation. 

2. But sex is often distorted and misused. (This ties into porn culture.)

3. Obligation sex is not church teaching.  (This relates to a mistaken idea of "marital debt.")

4.  Let's not be squeamish and disdainful of the body and sexuality. (This relates to purity culture.)

Read Amoris Laetitia for free on the Vatican website here.

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