Yesterday, I came across this piece by Jo McGowan when reading the President’s favorite blogger, Andrew Sullivan, and I think it hits the nail squarely on the head: that the views of certain vocal Catholic priests, and to a large extent all socially conservative Republicans who criticized the President during the Contraception debate earlier this year, are adolescent. In the quoted pieces below, McGowan was addressing the comments of Father Roger Landry, who thought the use of contraception amounted to the rejection of the “paternal and maternal leaning” that, for him, defines, or is the point of, sex:
He is wrong, though, to assume that using contraception automatically makes “pleasure the point of the act.” This is how adolescents think. Teenagers dream of constantly available sex, uninhibited by any possibility of pregnancy. That priests would talk the same way about sex between a husband and wife who have chosen to use contraception reflects inexperience and adolescent projection.
Adults understand that good sex, with or without contraception, goes deeper than pleasure. It is complex and demanding. And pleasure isn’t necessarily a part of it. Any human encounter requiring honesty and surrender has the potential for both revelation and pain. The communication, healing, and strengthening that good sex ensures is foundational to a marriage. Pure pleasure the point of the act? What is Fr. Landry talking about?
Here is Sullivan’s take:
The word “adolescent” is the key one here. That is where most priests’ sexual understanding began and ended. It may be why some find themselves attracted to adolescents. Until we have female and married priests, Catholic sexual teaching will remain as abstract as it is immature.
Indeed. I have long thought that some Catholic priests lacked a necessary background and experience to counsel and guide their respective flocks on matters of love, sex and marriage, since they cannot marry or have children. All they can do is quote scripture, which comes off as dry and unfeeling and non-understanding as one might think.