Stimulus Package For Sex Research

The Obama Stimulus package has dedicated funding to research the sexual behavior in humans and some animals as it can be pertained to humans. This research comes with a price tag of nearly $700,000; and is definitely not going to be used to promote morality or monogamy. Some of the National Institutes of Health are studies that include:

* Examine "barriers to correct condom use" at Indiana University, at a cost of $221,000.

* Study "hookups" among adolescents at Syracuse University. Study's cost: $219,000.

* Evaluate "drug use as a sex enhancer" in an analysis of "high-risk community sex networks" at the University of Illinois, Chicago. That study will cost $123,000.

* Study how methamphetamine, thought to produce an "insatiable need" for sex among users, "enhances the motivation for female rat sexual behavior." Some $28,000 has been awarded for the University of Maryland at Baltimore study. NY Post

Catholic Femina Speaks: Well, we have theology of the body instituted by former Pope John Paul II and it appears President Obama is looking to introduce other purposes for human sexuality. Pro-creation of children and spousal love were not on the research funded by the stimulus package. Rather, “teen hook-ups, condoms, and drugs” are the basis for this study. Our country is truly loosing its morality, because we are not working to stop these perversions of human sexuality. Obama is giving money to research them, ultimately leading to a spread in this behavior. People constantly say that they do not want the Catholic Church in their bedroom… what about the government? Is ‘Big Brother’ running a porn industry? These studies are degrading to the human person and it is atrocious that our tax money will be funding it!

What It Means To Be A "Catholic Femina"

I have been asked by blogger Salvation Is An Adventure to write the following:

Catholic Femina Speaks: The Women’s role in the Catholic Church… this has been a question that I have been answering regularly for the past seven years. In college I studied Theology, I felt God calling me to learn more about the faith. I loved what I studied and I grew spiritually as a result. Even now I am asked: “you are Catholic, why did you (a woman) study theology?” Then very quickly most people follow with the question, “Do you want to be a priest?” The mass down playing of the woman’s role in the Catholic Church is magnified by the feminist movement. Men and women are equal in the Catholic Church regardless of whether or not a woman can become a priest. Men should be priests because that is God’s plan. It was not a mistake or an over sight, Jesus chose twelve men. This was not a cultural or historical difference that needs correction, because pagan churches of Jesus’ time had priestesses. Christ created the complimentary natures of male and female; He understood the best roles in the Church for each. Men are to be priests and the Church is their bride: the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Women cannot have an ordered relationship as a priest with the Holy Mother Church. Men are to take the Church and protect her as Christ asked St. John to protect Mary while He hung from the cross. The proper role for women in the church is as an image of Mary, she stood at the foot of the cross faithfully. Swords pierced her heart as she shared in the pain that Christ endured; this true spiritual sharing with Christ is a woman’s role in the Church. Women in the gospels fearlessly pursued the truth and Christ. This is not a lesser role to men and despite feminists desire to undermine women’s role in the Catholic Church; woman are integral to the faith. The female nature has a heart open to loving unconditionally and giving selflessly. This sharing of self is unparalleled in the Blessed Mother and should be the goal of all women. Female religious can be truly espoused to Christ and give themselves freely as is ordered in the female nature. Men cannot experience this same espousal to Christ; priests represent Christ in the sacraments, but they cannot have this relationship with Him. In marriage a man and woman co-create with God a child, but it is the woman’s role to carry that child to term and feel the Creator’s hand on her as a new life begins. It is not a man’s nature and it should not be a concern that they cannot do this, because their role is vital as well. This is the same with the Catholic Church, women have an important place and this cannot be ignored or lessened by the male role. Men and Women are complimentary. Their proper ordered roles in the Catholic Church must reflect this and Jesus was not in error when He formed the Church. As a woman when I sit in Mass I feel proud of the heritage of noble Catholic women who through humility espoused themselves to Christ and took their place as His bride. I feel that the role of married and single women in the Church is just as important as they share in union with the priest through their humble ardent desire to fearlessly love and give. Women do not need to be ordained priests or claim titles in their parish because Christ gave them a position. The female role in the Church is honorable and should never be looked down on. It is not ordination that makes saints, following the Gospel plan left by Christ is the clear path. I hope that understanding the importance of women in the Body of Christ will encourage them to courageously give of their talents in ministry, as the women of scriptures, and nobly embrace their place in the Church.

Sex Bus To Educate UK Teens Without Parents

A team of youth is staffing a bus to help educate younger youth about sex and test for Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The bus is supposed to be for youth over thirteen, but no proof of age is required to get on the “Sex Bus.” The U.K. bus running under the ‘Summer of Love’ plan and boasts the slogan: “R U Sure Ur Really Ready.” The bus will be parked outside an amusement arcade on Bournemouth promenade every Friday evening during the summer holidays. Tim Fewell, head of youth service at Bournemouth council, said: “This is very much focused on the idea of encouraging young people to delay sexual activity until they are ready.” Many parents are disturbed by the buss and think distributing condoms and giving them an STD screening is not the most effective method to promote good decisions. Telegraph UK

Catholic Femina Speaks: So now a thirteen year old can climb on a bus without his or her parents’ consent and be checked for STDs? There is no proof of age required so younger kids can go on the bus to receive the informative sex information from ‘peers’ and receive a free condom. The idea is to encourage kids to wait until they are ready? This is the broadest statement that can be put on kids. They are kids and they don’t know when they are ‘ready’ but regardless of the supposed attempt to delay sexual activity the bus arms to youngsters with contraceptives. I know that this is far from a Chastity scheme and it sounds more like a means to help teens hide their sexual activity from their parents. This bus normalizes casual sex for teens and gives them a false representation of the proper place for intimacy. As a parent I would not want my children to see the ‘Sex Bus and I would be furious about a group that believes it is their duty to educate teens and children about sex without the knowledge of their parents. I know that this plan will not lower teen pregnancy. Educating a younger generation on contraceptives has been a failed plan in other nations and it is sad to see the U.K. take this road.

Christopher West leads Faithful to God?

A well known moral theologian Fr. Maurizio Faggioni, OFM, a professor at the top pontifical institute for moral theology, the Pontifical Academy “Alphonsianum,” sheds a new light on the Theology of the Body debated started by the Christopher West interview on Dateline. In his interview West speaks of attempting to start a Catholic Sexual revolution saying we must fight fire with fire… but is this true? Many theologians and philosophers have been divided on this point. Alice Von Hildebrand holds that West’s view takes the sacredness out of the marital act. Janet Smith rather likes West’s style and believes that he is on the right track with regard to helping Catholics become more content in their own marriages. Fr. Faggioni has a different take on the subject. He expresses concern with some of the lengths and practices of West.

Fr. Faggioni explained that some of the issues discussed publicly by West, such as the appropriateness of anal sex or other forms of sexual “foreplay” in married relationships, have to be dealt with using great care, since “the risk is of displacing the attention from marital love and the anthropologic meaning of lovely gestures to merely the genital aspects.” Furthermore regarding the practice of blessing the genitals before a sexual relationship, Fr. Faggioni expressed “real perplexity”… “Without doubt, all the body in each one of its parts is God’s creation and deserves honor. We precisely respect our private parts by surrounding them with greater respect and modesty.” He continued, “Nothing forbids thanking God for the sexual body of oneself or the spouse, but from the perspective of Christian anthropology, it is not right to emphasize the genitals as if our sexuality could be reduced to them. Love is made with all the body, with the entire person’s humanity, not only with the genitals.” CNA

Fr. Faggioni is looking deeper into the West approach of Theology of the Body. Fr. Faggioni spoke of the ardent desire of the late Pope John Paul II’s desire to keep from trivializing sex or treating it puritanically. Still Christopher West’s work continues to grow and hundreds of Catholics are finding happiness in his understanding. This work of West is not infallible and is not exactly the work of JPII. So when one looks into West’s studies you must take this into consideration and know that there is a risk of loosing the beauty of the marital embrace to over emphasizing the genital aspects.