ABSTRACT
Below is some evidence to consider, comprising: (1) the expression of a fear, (2) a model of conduct, (3) the image of a stigmatized attitude, and (4) an example of abstinence.1
A fear A Jesuit priest/social scientist, Thomas Reese, reports having conducted an Internet search using the keywords ‘Catholic’, ‘Vatican’, ‘pope’, ‘bishop’ and ‘priest’. ‘After searching awhile, the program asked if I would like to add the word ‘‘sex’’, since this word came up so often in news stories about Catholics.’2 While Reese seems to want to attribute the identification of Catholicism and sex to media interest and claims that ‘the Catholic hierarchy talks more about social justice today than about sex’, the identification Catholic Sex is difficult to reject. Reese argues that the issue of sex has paralyzed the Catholic Church. Its clergy have been rendered silent because they can neither defend nor attack the teachings; they fear the Church has lost all credibility on the issue. Catholic intellectuals, especially clergy, according to Reese, fear specializing in sexual ethics. I disagree with Reese’s claim that media interest accounts for the Catholic Sex identification. It is in the realm of sex that official Catholic statements are most glaringly irrelevant. ‘The real story here,’ Reese himself announces, ‘is that in the Catholic Church the battle about sex is over. On questions of birth control, masturbation, premarital sex, divorce and remarriage, the hierarchy has lost most of the faithful.’3 My own fear and suspicion is that Church statements about social justice are similarly ignored.
