Praise for sex talk

Sometimes I can be a little cynical.  So when I heard that the dreaded sex talk was coming to Gonzaga, I immediately thought, "Oh boy, out come the togas and GU takes one more step into hedonism."  I was pleasantly surprised, and slightly embarrassed, by my hard-hearted cynicism (I'm working on it, I promise!), to then read the Nov. 31 Bulletin article "Gonzaga Talks College Sex." 

I was unable to attend the meeting due to previously scheduled obligations, but from the article I must wholeheartedly applaud the organizers and participants because through this event they provided a reasonable and passionate interest in the cura personalis, the overall and holistic concern, for all the members of  our GU family!  Bravo, all of you!  You are an inspiration for me to do the same in my own life.

I would, however, like to point out some seeming inconsistencies in the article mentioned above.  Quinn writes that the "Catholic Church is not a rule book, but more of a recipe book."  I'd like to ask where this thought comes from? 

John Henry Cardinal Newman, an Anglican convert to Catholicism who received much criticism at the time of his conversion, wrote, "No one could say: ‘I will choose my religion for myself, I will believe this, I will not believe that; I will pledge myself to nothing; I will believe just as long as I please, and no longer; what I believe today I will reject tomorrow, if I choose. I will believe what the Apostles have as yet said, but I will not believe what they shall say in time to come.'

"No; either the Apostles were from God, or they were not; if they were, everything that they preached was to be believed by their hearers; if they were not, there was nothing for their hearers to believe. To believe a little, to believe more or less, was impossible; it contradicted the very notion of believing" as quoted in the Catholic Catechism, or compilation of the official teachings of the Church, for Adult American Catholics. 

The Catechism continues this line of thought when it states: "By faith we believe with conviction in all that is contained in the Word of God, written or handed down, which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed. Faith is necessary for salvation" (44).  In this light I would like to offer an improved analogy: that the rules of the Church are more like the street signs and guardrails that keep our journey on the road of life safe!  Philosophically this is a holistic outline for fulfillment of our natures.   Sure we are free to disregard them, but we'll be less fulfilled in the end.

Finally, let's talk about condoms and their use.  I'd like to call to attention what the Holy Father has said recently about condoms in Africa in which he stated that AIDS, as a health issue, "cannot be overcome by the distribution of prophylactics [condoms and other forms of birth control]. On the contrary, they increase it." A comment which Edward Green, the former director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Health (of all places!) and the United Nations AIDS awareness committee has defended and agreed with!

Not only this, but other religious leaders, such as the Imam of central mosque in Cameroon's capital stated, when interviewed by the National Catholic Reporter, that his "only regret is that the pope didn't wait to say it until he got here, so we could have said it together."  This seems to call into question those groups deemed "Catholic" handing  out condoms in Africa (of which I have had a hard time finding any in the first place).  Furthermore, I could not find any example where in the encyclical by Paul VI on "Human Life" where the pope stated that it is ok to use condoms for health reasons.  This is because condoms et al  are a sort of "band-aid" solution which only work to cover up, and not solve the problem at hand. 

Subsequently these groups have been distanced from the Church, such as Amnesty International, because of their decisions, whereas groups such as Catholic Relief Services, which as Sean Callahan, a representative of the organization, states "don't support the use of condoms and ... don't promote it ... operate more than 280 HIV and AIDS projects in the poorest and most vulnerable areas of the developing world," showing an overtly compassionate and faithful response to the needs of the poorest of the poor.

Other than these two issues, I greatly applaud this talk and article for their care for the whole of the human person and their inspirational example to the rest of the community for their concern for the entire Gonzaga family.