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During my years of teaching at Catholic School I was asked what should another teacher who was unmarried and just became pregnant do. I responded that "life is always a gift!" Happily the Sisters who ran the school saw things the same way and did not dismiss the teacher. Everyone helped her welcome her child. And the students learned the lesson of how grave the consequences of premarital sex can be putting mother and child in danger. The learned the correct way to respond to a pregnancy and the pitfalls of irresponsible sex. This article is an excellent analysis.

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This is such an excellent analysis of the issue of "causing scandal" in the Church and of the Pharisaical hypocrisy often carried out in the institution. When I was a full time youth minister, I used to have recurring nightmares that I was pregnant, had no idea how, but that I was fearing I'd lose my job (despite the fact that in my waking life I was abstaining). That's how deeply it ran for me. Even though I was in no danger of becoming pregnant "illegitimately" , at least not consensually, I still felt an awareness of my potential to become pregnant as something that had the power to affect my career, and moreover my vocation as a youth minister. I don't know any people who have the potential to impregnate who have held the same fears.

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