getting it backwards

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 27, 2009

The current Tablet has an article on the Church and AIDS.

"We are seeing HIV heal the Church," said Gary Swart, who runs the Inspired Individuals programme. "The Church is having to face things it does not like to face such as how women are treated, marital infidelity and celibacy before marriage. HIV has taught Christians that we must bring these things out into the open and begin the healing process."

How very exotic. It's difficult to know where Mr. Swart gets his data from, but here on Planet Earth (if I may inject some local bias) conditions couldn't be different from those he describes. In my world, the Catholic Church is just about the only institution that faces up to the facts about premarital celibacy, marital fidelity, and their relation to the dignity of women -- and this in defiance of the elites who wish she would keep mum on the subject. In my world, moreover, the Church teaches that remaining chaste until marriage and staying faithful thereafter protects the integrity of the body, as well as the soul -- a teaching given grisly but incontrovertible confirmation by the millions of AIDS deaths of those who defy it. In my world, in short, HIV has proven the Church correct as a instructress and compassionate as a mother.

For the sake of those in harm's way, let's hope what Swart means by "the healing process" leaves the Church untouched.