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Sex as recreation — 8 Comments

  1. Pingback:Sex as recreation | Foundation Life

  2. Dear Fr. Jay,

    I am saddened to read your misrepresentation of Sandra Fluke’s testimony. [See my update and you decide if I misrepresented Sandra Fluke!] I am even more disappointed to find that you accepted Rush Limbaugh’s version of the story rather than research the facts on your own.

    Sandra Fluke’s testimony may be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/statement-Congress-letterhead-2nd%20hearing.pdf. As you can see, she makes absolutely no reference to her own personal use of contraception. For Mr. Limbaugh to extrapolate from her testimony that she is having many sexual encounters and to call her a foul name because of it is deplorable.

    Mr. Limbaugh also seems to misunderstand how hormonal contraception works, and you have not corrected this misunderstanding. Hormonal birth control is taken in the form of one pill every day. Mr. Limbaugh seems to believe that the number of pills taken is related to the number of sexual encounters one has. This is factually inaccurate. Someone who has multiple partners, someone in a monogamous relationship, someone who is celibate and takes hormonal birth control for medical reasons – every one of them takes the same number of pills and incurs the same expense paying for those pills.

    The subject of medical reasons for taking hormonal contraceptive pills strikes very close to home for me, as it clearly does for Sandra Fluke. She spoke at some length about her friend who suffered the loss of an ovary due to her inability to afford hormonal contraceptives. Like the woman Ms. Fluke spoke of, I too have been awakened in the middle of the night by the excruciating pain of a ruptured ovarian cyst. This pain is orders of magnitude greater than any other pain I have ever experienced. These cysts threaten my future fertility and a large cyst that twists the ovary (a relatively common complication) is a life-threatening surgical emergency and nearly always results in loss of that ovary. Hormonal birth control effectively treats this condition by reversibly ceasing ovarian function. I am certainly considering this as a treatment option to preserve fertility and reduce my risk of emergency surgery. Every person deserves access to medical care, and Catholic teaching accepts this use of hormonal birth control through the principle of double effect.

    Fr. Jay, I agree completely that recreational sex is a huge societal problem. But Sandra Fluke’s testimony had absolutely nothing to do with recreational sex, at least not before Mr. Limbaugh decided that’s what it was about. I sincerely hope that in the future you will not allow Rush Limbaugh to be your arbiter of facts. Here your doing so has further dragged a young woman’s name through the mud. You may not agree with what she had to say in her testimony, but it is still incumbent upon you to not misrepresent what she had to say. It is even more of an ethical imperative that you not publish inferences about her lifestyle that are scandalous and may be completely false.

    Thank you for reading this.

    In Christ,
    Margo

  3. The idea that this whole debacle centers on the alleged fact that the Church is against women’s health is mired in sheer ignorance, and it’s difficult to take it seriously.

    However, the lack of the ability to take the issue seriously is the entrance point for the sort of arguments being made here in the comments.

    One can pretend that the Church lives in ignorance, and bandy about as they may. But the true sadness is, that as the Church uses intelligence and wisdom to gauge her positions, those who denigrate her most often use intelligence and motive.

    Somewhat sad, yet Christ looms large in our lives, and all is good.

  4. Padre, I gotta’ call your hand on this one. You wholly mischaracterize Miss Fluke’s testimony entirely. To describe such as gross would be kind. Bluntly, she absolutely did NOT say “that she has frequent sexual encounters.” The official record of her testimony is posted on Google Docs here: http://j.mp/GK9nqY

    The exclusive reference Miss Fluke made to herself was to identify herself as a law student. Further, her address was recitation of abuses by insurance firms and other non-qualified individuals (that is, those who do NOT have a professional healthcare license) when they questioned the accepted professional medical recommendation to women who would have benefited from the non-contraceptive use of female hormones, colloquially – and improperly – termed as “birth control.”

    Part of the abuses of such firms has been to second guess the medical intent of the licensed healthcare professional whom prescribed those medications to treat a genuine health problem. In essence, they are practicing medicine without a license. Fertility is NOT a health problem. Polycystic ovarian syndrome, however, is, and the recommended modality of treatment for that disease is with female hormones, the ones often and typically used as contraceptive.

    I am in full agreement with the Church’s teaching concerning use of artificial means of contraception not only as a faithful Catholic, but as a licensed healthcare professional, as well, for there are numerous highly-documented serious health risks associated with such contraceptive practice.

    Miss Fluke concluded her testimony with these words: “Many of the women whose stories I’ve shared are Catholic women, so ours is not a war against the church. It is a struggle for access to the healthcare we need. The President of the Association of Jesuit Colleges has shared that Jesuit colleges and universities appreciate the modification to the rule announced last week. Religious concerns are addressed and women get the healthcare they need. That is something we can all agree on.”

  5. Hello Father, with all due respect, I find it very disturbing that someone who is supposed to show professionalism like Mr. Limbaugh expresses himself in such low manner. I also regret your agreement with Mr. Limbaugh as well as your judgment against Miss Fluke. We all make mistakes, we all don’t agree with each other, but the fact is we need to respect everyone’s points of view. I don’t really have much to say about this topic, but all three of you will stay in my prayers for a common agreement that will please the Lord.

    • Father Finelli, one more thing! I think you are awesome and I enjoy your talks and opinions! I am a big fan!
      May God bless you abundantly!

    • Not that I agree with everything in Limbaugh’s opinion. My thought is that she is being used by Obama and his minions. Yet, at the same time, we are all free to do what is right and avoid what is wrong.

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