Movies both reflect the current mores of society and also help to define their future shape. No example could be clearer than when we look at the whole area of sexuality in the movies.

For instance, the moral stance of a movie like “It’s a Wonderful Life” is one where the family is sacred and marriages are assumed to be stable and permanent. There is an atmosphere of decency and respect throughout the film. George Bailey would not dream of going to bed with his beloved till they were lawfully married. Now I am sure that at the time of the film’s premiere (1946) there were instances of infidelity in marriage. But the accepted understanding was that sex belonged in a life-long marriage commitment. Though the film never explicitly takes a stand on the issue, one can infer its attitude from any number of scenes. The social good was paramount. One’s proper use of sexuality contributed to the common good and enhanced one’s self respect.

But then the shift began. More and more one saw movies that made it seem that adultery was the norm, and fidelity, a sign of a suffocating relationship. In an era gone mad with personal rights, everything took a back seat to the perceived good of the individual and his or her right to self determination. All the barriers had to come down.

Language was first to fall. In Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” the profanities flew fast and furious. They were mild in comparison with what one hears today but it was a shock at the time.

What was visually acceptable came down next in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” where anonymous sex of a deviant nature was portrayed. I remember the critics talking about the courage and honesty of the film!

As sex became more and more visible in sordid detail, the excitement became less and less, forcing filmmakers to up the ante to even more bizarre couplings. Sex and violence became the second-rate screenwriter’s easy options. Dialogue, camera technique, thought and meaning took a second seat to the jolt that more and more people expected from the movies.

Even the critics, generally a morally jaded lot, have registered bewildered annoyance at the boredom elicited by all the sexual posturing of those “liberated” women in the recent movie “Sex and the City” where a new pair of shoes is right up there with all the bedroom antics.

To go against the trend, however, would be to declare yourself an enemy of individual expression. Gone is any sense of moral responsibility. And if you argue for traditional morality you are branded a dupe or worse. The Secular Inquisition then takes over as ‘journalists’ from the New York Times and NPR are unleashed for the attack. Just ask Mel Gibson who is still being ‘shunned’ for his daring portrayal of the passion of Christ.

What is remarkable is that the more sex is shown the more it is devalued. It becomes no more than a more athletic form of hand shake. How many times have you seen a sex scene between a husband and wife? That is no longer the movie norm.

This has all happened in the larger context of the rejection of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae with his warning against the contraceptive mentality. At the time that it was promulgated it was considered fashionable to be against it. His warnings seemed like the rant of an old man harkening back to better days. But as the West went more and more from ‘procreation’ to ‘reproduction,’ Europe began to lose its vitality and possibly its future. While Muslim families welcome children as gifts from God, we abort and keep our families small and privileged. It’s funny how all things fit together. And as George Bailey found out in his Angel Clarence’s vision of a world without him, small things that are missing leave very great vacuums in the future.

The sexual revolution that movies helped to propagate and support has saddled the world with teen pregnancies, multiple abortions, a 50% divorce rate, rampant promiscuity, and terrible sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS which have killed many young and vibrantly talented men and women.

Yet the fact of the matter is that the Church’s teaching on sexuality and marriage remains the most beautiful and respectful way of living a truly human life. What is amazing is that it is only within the chaste precincts of Catholic moral teaching that the true greatness of sex can be seen. Could it be that morality itself can be sexy? Why not? After all, they both come from God!

Msgr. Ferrarese, former Episcopal Vicar for Brooklyn East, is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish, Astoria.