December 06, 2005

Sex and the church

DENVER (CO)
Denver Post

By Keith Swain
Guest Commentary

Denver

As a therapist, there's no one I have more respect for than a client who understands a problem, deals with it and takes responsibility.

Sadly, it seems the Catholic Church doesn't have the same strength of character. In a weak attempt to address the problem of child sexual abuse by the clergy, the Vatican last week issued a dictum. Was it a call to action against sexual abuse of children?

No. The church has decided to blame someone else for its problem, namely gay men. The truth is the Catholic Church does not have a problem with gay men. It has a problem with sex - in particular, with pedophilia and chastity.

Sadly, sex has been a delicate subject in Catholicism, no matter that it is essential to mankind. Sex is love and excitement, soul- searching and soul-defining. It is love, literally embodied. If God is love, then sex is a conduit to the Supreme, a joining of two souls. It is as natural as breathing, as innate as a child seeking its mother's milk, and as essential to our well-being as food and water. God created sex, and saw that it was good.

Posted by kshaw at December 6, 2005 08:00 AM