by Tom Gallagher
Fordham University sociology professor Jeanne Flavin has thrown aside the risk of eternal damnation (or at least damnation by some U.S. bishops and their Republican staff at the bishops' conference) in an essay on the issue of contraception over at the Huffington Post.
These paragraphs capture Professor Flavin's view:
The principle of cura personalis (or "care for the whole person"), central to the mission of Catholic schools, does not come with a qualifier that says "unless you are sexually active" or "except if you are a woman." While Catholic social teachings communicate powerful and uplifting messages about the dignity of the human person, the contraceptive coverage ban (not to mention the Vatican's recent rebuke of the American Catholic nuns for not promoting the "Church's biblical view of family life and human sexuality") shouts volumes about women's second-class status in the Catholic Church. This disrespect for the women who are here -- in our midst, on our campuses -- being shown by a powerful minority of conservative Catholics in favor of purported concern for the unborn must be called out for what it is: profoundly unchristian.
