Amidst all the Benedict triumphalism, with the presidential candidates tripping over each other proclaiming their undying respect for the Pontiff, Donna Freitas at the Washington Post's On Faith forum reminds us of the Vatican's position on sexual politics:
I wish for an encyclical on young adult Catholics. After interviewing dozens of Catholics at colleges around the United States for "Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance & Religion on America's Catholic Campuses," it comes as no surprise that the numbers of adult Catholics in America are steady only because of the influx of immigrant Catholics to the U.S. If the Catholic Church continues to ignore the way that adolescence in the west has changed with lightning speed because of technology, the sexual revolution, and the women's movement (among other issues), then the Catholic Church will soon have to face an even greater drop in membership as this generation's Catholics (and that of the next and the next) continue to feel overlooked, unimportant, alienated, as if Catholicism has nothing to say of relevance to their lives. Some young adult Catholics are angry, some are apathetic, some just laugh at the idea that Catholicism could be meaningful to youth today. The “Don't call us, we'll call you” attitude from the Vatican about the real needs and changes in young adult life in the west stopped working with my generation. Youth need attention. Without it, they'll just go elsewhere to find it.
I wish that the Catholic hierarchy would stop treating Catholic women who speak out on women's issues like pariahs. We're not that scary or dangerous. We just want to find our way like everyone else. Enough said.
Of course, the Church's reactionary principles on sex have contributed heavily to its decline in relevance in the United States and Western Europe. But in the developing world, Catholic doctrine can be a matter of life and death. Under Pope Benedict, the Church continues its official ban on condom usage -- a stance that is tatamount to a death sentence for women living in highly patriarchal cultures, where husbands are likely to have frequented prostitutes.
You would hope American politicians would hold the Pope accountable for these policies. But you'd be disappointed.
--Dana Goldstein
