She presents a comprehensive argument that hatred of pleasure pervades Catholicism, and that this poisons Catholic attitudes toward marriage, motherhood, and women.

Ranke-Heinemann fails to distinguish between degrees of authority that attach to the ecclesial pronouncements, and ignores the difference between doctrine and discipline, as in the case of priestly celibacy.

Recent Catholic morality is outlined in (24) Pope John Paul II and sex for pleasure starts with the concept of sensuality and eroticism proposed by the gynaecologist Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde and his Calendar-based contraceptive methods.

Bernhard Häring's sins of immodesty were listed as: In a review in The New York Times, Jason Berry noted, "Ms. Ranke-Heinemann's research is dazzling, but the anger level is so high that it overpowers her voice of reason."

He also wrote that "No other book on the Catholic moral heritage unearths as many spiteful statements about women – from early church fathers, saints and medieval moralists to recent popes", and "Ms. Ranke-Heinemann's focus is on the ways in which the cultural domination of women has been perpetuated by the celibate governing elite of the Catholic Church, which long considered the clerical state purer and superior to that of marriage.

Homosexuality is so pronounced that many religious orders and diocesan seminaries require men to pass an HIV test to prove that they do not have the AIDS virus.

"[10] Cardinal John O'Connor compared the book to "scrawling dirty words about the church on bathroom walls", while criticizing the publishing house.

[11] Philip Kennedy considers Ms. Ranke-Heinemann's work a comprehensive overview of historical Christian teaching on sexuality, but also states that it was her response to losing her position as theology chair at the University of Cologne.

The 1991 Penguin Edition included quotes from reviews on the cover, including: 'A savagely witty polemic against the anti-feminism of Catholicism and its sexual pessimism' – The Observer (London) 'A dense academic examination ... Ranke-Heinemann is passionate and easily understandable in explaining her view' – San Francisco Chronicle 'The book is trenchant, rigorously researched, and brilliant with irony and insight' – Glasgow Herald (Scotland)