Teach the children

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 22, 2007

The Portland Maine school committee voted 7 to 2 last week to authorize the distribution of contraceptives to young teenagers without acquiring parental consent. The response from Bishop Richard Malone was swift… "I join the number of parents who have expressed their outrage and disbelief at the decision which affects young girls aged 11 to 14 years old," …but not entirely to the point.

Bishop Richard Malone said the decision will inevitably lead to more sexual experimentation among younger children. It also sends a message that the government should replace parents in certain parts of a child's life, even without the parents' knowledge, he said. Malone said. "When contradictory messages are given to children from important authority figures such as parents and school officials, it can create more confusion and difficulty for children themselves in making this important life decision."

All of which is true, and worth repeating, over and over again.

However, missing in the bishop’s statement--and in the sermons of ninety-nine percent of Catholic clergy over the last thirty-nine years--is the hub truth about which the enumerated consequences revolve. Contraception is inherently evil, and those who use it, or are directly complicit in its use, risk immortal retirement in very sorrowful place.  The assertion is predictably absent in polite discourse but is not exactly your “oh, by the way” truth. 

Outrage, perhaps. However, the good bishop cannot realistically express “disbelief at the decision” when Catholics in the United States over four decades can count on one hand the number of times they have heard the words contraception, evil, and hell all in the same sermon.

Remember boys and girls, adults as well as the children learn through repetition.