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{"id":1155,"date":"2000-11-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-11-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2000\/11\/01\/sex-drugs-catholic-education\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T15:26:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:26:19","slug":"sex-drugs-catholic-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2000\/11\/sex-drugs-catholic-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex, drugs & Catholic education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s hard to talk about college life without covering sex, drugs and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n\n

But face it, America\u2019s Catholic bishops had other problems in the 1990s. They had to find a way to embrace the pope\u2019s \u201cEx corde Ecclesia (From the Heart of the Church),\u201d a manifesto on Catholic education, while trying not to fan fires of dissent in faculty lounges.<\/p>\n\n

The last thing they wanted to discuss was Friday-night dorm life. So bishops didn\u2019t ask and campus leaders didn\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe know that where most students are losing their faith is not so much in the classroom as in the social atmosphere that dominates their campuses,\u201d said Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, a pro-Vatican think tank on education. Curriculum and faculty issues matter, but the \u201cparts of Catholic education that have changed the most have all been related to campus life. \u2026 The culture of students sleeping around and getting drunk is just as big a problem at many Catholic universities as it is at state schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

There have been some public fights, with headlines about administrators removing crucifixes from classrooms or asking lawyers to finesse questions about campus funds supporting groups that promote anti-Catholic stands on abortion and gay rights.<\/p>\n\n

Other issues loom in the background. Like their secular counterparts, most of America\u2019s 235 Catholic colleges and universities now bombard students with information and questions about safe sex, drug abuse, date rape, eating disorders and sexual harassment. These subjects are no longer controversial.<\/p>\n\n

But Catholicism itself is controversial. What would happen if colleges merely taught the church\u2019s moral doctrines and asked \u2014 using an honor code \u2014 Catholic students to obey them? What about promoting confession and fasting? Could colleges even try?<\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s what the Cardinal Newman Society (www.newmansociety.org<\/a>) will ask Nov. 10-12, during a conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. One session will focus on a \u201cworking draft\u201d of principles to guide Catholic campus life. One passage soberly notes: \u201cIt is not enough that colleges and universities bearing the name Catholic should cease to serve the culture of death, although merely attaining that goal may prove to be the lifework of Catholic educators of this generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

An earlier draft even included an \u201cattire\u201d clause opposing \u201cdress that is sexually suggestive or otherwise disrespectful of other students\u2019 efforts to live chastely.\u201d Another passage said constant \u201celectronically-offered sensory stimulation is a distraction to the mind and, hence, must be subject to regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That kind of language had to go, because it\u2019s important to remain realistic, said Reilly. After all, many campus leaders will fight to keep traditionalists from taking any of these \u201cminimalist rules\u201d to Rome.<\/p>\n\n

The document\u2019s bottom line: \u201cCatholics abide by rules and standards defined by the Church.\u201d Other principles in the 6,000-word draft include:<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cThe virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco or medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cThe university \u2026 should help students identify alternatives to \u2018partying\u2019 \u201d and find \u201calternatives to contemporary styles of dating and courtship.\u201d Co-ed dorms don\u2019t help.<\/p>\n\n

* While allowing lively political discussions, schools \u201cshould be careful not to diminish known truth by encouraging debate on settled issues (such as the morality of abortion).\u201d<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cIn no case should the university health service, or any campus personnel, encourage or facilitate abortion or the use of artificial contraceptives, nor should students be referred to non-campus\u201d facilities that do.<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cFor unmarried students, the state of life should be virginity, primary or secondary.\u201d While it\u2019s hard to enforce such laws, universities should \u201cforbid extramarital sexual activity by students on and off-campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Reilly knows that many Catholic educators will \u201caccuse us wanting to go back to a \u2018nanny culture.\u2019 \u201d Many were \u201cfurious that the Vatican thought it had the right to define what a Catholic college is, or is not, in the first place. Now they\u2019re going to say we want the bishops to police what goes on in dorm rooms as well as classrooms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAll we are saying is that our colleges and universities should help students live Catholic lives, or at least stop attacking students that try to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"