VATICAN CITY—In yet another example showing just how out of touch celibate prelates can be when it comes to the realities of modern sexuality, a conservative Catholic bishop in the United States has come up with what amounts to a handbook about how not to have sex.

New guidelines (PDF) issued by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia lay out the don’ts and don’ts, as it were, when it comes to the implementation of Pope Francis’s landmark Amoris Laetitia apostolic exhortation on love … at least as this conservative bishop sees it. 

His guidelines are aimed at divorced and remarried Catholics and people in same-sex relationships who wish to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist or holy communion. Essentially, confessing to having forbidden sex, which is any sex outside of the original singular heterosexual Catholic marriage, isn’t enough. Instead, they must give up sex altogether.

“With divorced and civilly-remarried persons, Church teaching requires them to refrain from sexual intimacy,” Chaput says. (emphasis added) “This applies even if they must (for the care of their children) continue to live under one roof. Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary for the […]