Per Christum

A little reading music: “When I Grow Up” by Garbage…

A newly released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that at least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study indicates that more than 3 million teen girls aged 14- to 19-years-old have an STD — the Human Papilloma Virus being the most common infection. The study found the highest prevalence rate was among black girls – nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD, compared with 20 percent of white and Mexican-American teens. Among sexually active teens, the rate was 40 percent.

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America(CWA), says bad public policy is to blame for the STD epidemic. “The funding of graphic sex-ed that encourages kids to be sexually active is a serious problem,” She maintains. “We also have the FDA’s decision to allow the morning after pill to be available without a prescription.”

Wright says that decision is keeping many women from getting regular screening for STDs. “…women are not going to their doctor’s to get screened for sexually transmitted diseases,” she clarifies. “Instead they’re able to go to a local pharmacy and pick up a drug that is actually not that effective – even at preventing pregnancy.”

The CWA spokeswoman says the CDC study shows there is also a need to reach out to the African-American community “with good public health policies to insure that they are being given full information as to the risks of indiscriminate sexual activity, and the help that is available incase they find themselves with the consequences that come from indiscriminate sexual activity.”

Wright says the government should stop funding sex-ed programs that encourage teen sexual activity and the FDA ought to require that the morning-after pill only be obtained after a medical exam “for the woman’s own good.”

The results of the STD study were released at a CDC conference in Chicago that – according to pro-family groups – promotes a negative view of abstinence-only education.

Folks this just ain’t good. And for as long as we have been told that the Catholic Church is foolish and unhealthy in its theology of sexuality and that more education and more condoms will make us all happy well-balanced libertines… This simply is not proving to be the case.

What do the alternatives continue to demonstrate? All the condoms in all the world…

 Saint Joseph, most chaste spouse of the Virgin, pray for us.

Hello my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ!I would like to share this youtube video with you.

St. Ann instructing Mother Mary in the ways of the LORD.

Of course it is worth remembering, one can always turn around and go UP the steps too.

H/T: Hallowed Ground

US Catholic University Approves Gay Straight Partnership Club

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

PORTLAND, Oregon, February 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The University of Portland, a Catholic university run by the Holy Cross Fathers, has officially recognized the university’s first-ever sexuality club, the Gay Straight Partnership (GSP).

The GSP’s mission, according to the club’s constitution, is “to build a community that is open and welcoming to all students” and “to help all students grow in friendship, knowledge, faith and service.”

Although the university administration had turned down previous requests to form a homosexual student’s club (in 1994 and 1999), the school was listed in 2004 as a ‘gay friendly’ institution by homosexual activist website Catholiclesbians.org (see LifeSiteNews.com report: U.S. Homosexual Activist Website Provides List of ‘Gay Friendly’ Catholic Parishes).

The club’s initial advisers, social work professor Anissa Rogers and Kristina Houck, the Health Center’s substance abuse prevention coordinator, were replaced by Holy Cross Fr. John Donato and Stacey Noem, a campus minister.

Donato said that he was chosen to be the club’s new adviser not only because he can act as a liaison between the administration and the students, but also for his ability to “vocalize and facilitate the mission of the university.”

“The fact that I am a Holy Cross priest and the associate vice president for student life is a good way to make sure that this group stays focused for what we hope all student groups are involved in, but also this particular one which deals with the sacred area of human sexuality,” Donato said.

(READ ALL…)

There are really no two ways around it… Designating something as “gay” puts it in the sphere of association of a sex act. In the same fashion the University of Portland would likely not approve the “Playboy Swingers Club” or the “Porn Club” or the “Future Strippers of America” chapter… Well this one seems a no brainer. Any number of clubs that cater to interests students have beyond their sexual proclivites (within the confines of morality! The U of P “Reefer Club” doesn’t cut it!) are or can be available.

I would go one step further and suggest Portland probably has some gay bars and night clubs, so persons committed to being part of this community are probably not without recourse to social activities there. Quick Googling of “Portland OR Gay” confirms that.

Really though, the culture of the Catholic University should be one that is about promoting a vision of sexuality and family life that contravenes today’s social standards. This needn’t even be turned on its side and be made a “gay issue”… Frankly, given the “hook-up culture” that permeates the culture of 20somethings, there is no way to speak about it and re-affirm it enough.

Certainly setting up clubs based on orientations and preference for behaviors that go directly against it is not the way to promote how the Church deals with the “sacred area of human sexuality”.

Being Catholic, and being a Role-play and board gamer, a recent thread on the Days of Wonder board struck me as needing a “Catholic Answer”… the question of whether or not it is moral to play an “evil” character….

One of the issues with gaming in general is the need for someone to play the side of evil in most forms of game. A woman was complaining about having to advance evil in a board game, one where the players are cooperating while playing the knights of Camelot.

Now, I hearken back to the sentiments of a Dominican Friar, Rev. Fr. Kent Burtner, OP, on the matter… back in 1985, I wanted to start a board game group at Holy Family Cathedral. Fr. Kent was also a specialist in cults, and deprogramming; he was also the pastor, and a fan of good fiction.

Fr. Kent laid out a few ground rules for Role-play:

1. Players should never play inherently evil characters. Morally flawed, yes, but inherently evil, no.
2. Evil opponents are at the heart of heroic fiction, and role-play gaming is a form of heroic fiction, so the GM is allowed to portray them, but not to revel in them.
3. Evil characters should be beatable by the players, but not of need directly. But it also should not be automatic, either.

In board games, as well, the opportunity to play and understand evil is not itself evidence of being intrinsically evil. Fr. Kent himself chose to play the Klingons the night we were teaching Star Fleet Battles… nor should evil automatically lose. Games can teach the important moral lesson: Goodness is not, in itself, sufficient for the Good Guys to win over evil; defeating evil is always a struggle. CS Lewis portrays a wonderful bit of apologia in his Narnia series. Christian Allegory at its finest; his friend, JRR Tolkien, is a good example as well. Gaming, in many ways, allows us to find hope that evil may be defeated, and yet reminds us that that is not inherent. And so, Fr. Kent’s advice on board games was simpler still:

1. It is acceptable to play the evil side, provided one does not revel in the evilness portrayed.

By this standard, it’s acceptable to play orcs or necromancers, or even the Axis powers, provided one does so because they are a good opponent, or since someone needs to for the game.

Now, for those who do not know what role-play gaming is, it is essentially a form of story telling, kind of an improvisational radio play, where one person portrays everyone and everything except the characters controlled by the players. Sometimes it’s third person, sometimes first person. Those who control a character or two are players, and the person presenting the supporting cast, the setting, and the plot hooks is referred to as the Game Master, Storyguide, or Referee. It arose from the blending of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and miniatures wargaming, and the heroic myth. The game part comes from the use of rules, and usually also dice, to determine the success or failure of character actions.

Roleplaying and Wargaming are both inherently social and mental activities, which allow the players to develop self esteem, problem solving, and often math skills. Roleplaying, being a verbal medium, is a strong reinforcer of effective communication practices. Both board games and war games involve the ability to see a situation from different views, to learn how others will react.

So much in life is adversarial. It is an important life lesson that being the adversary in one situation may not make one inherently evil. It is also important that two equally morally acting sides may come to conflict.

It is also important to realize that adversity is the natural position of Catholics in the anti-religious world: We are the heroes, striving against the evils of abortion, euthanasia, racism, secularism, and relativism. We may not pick up the sword, but how we live, vote, teach, and work is part of the fight against evil. Our deeds are the sword, our faith our shield.

It is a battle we can’t afford to ignore. It is a battle we must win.

What say you, my fellow soldiers of Christ?