Luckily, for us in Denver, Archbishop Chaput is a Bishop who has made clear the Church's teaching on these things with great charity and pastoral care. Nevertheless, perhaps some priests don't hear or feel the challenge to tackle this pressing issue. It is significant that the homosexual community is moving further and further into the mainstream, and many catholics continue to come accept this "lifestyle" as a tenable one. It is true though that this only comes from the acceptance of cohabitation as well.
What it all boils down to is the desire of the flesh, which, it should be noted, is a wholesome and beautiful desire IF IT IS LIVED ACCORDING TO GOD'S DESIGN! I was listening to a radio talk show last night where the host was talking about a tribe in South America where the young men are taken into the jungle in nothing but a loincloth and stinging fire ants are set on them so that they will sting his entire body. This sting is so intense that one sting might send your average person to the hospital for the pain. During this "rite" the boy is not supposed to cry AT ALL - not even a whimper. In this manner, in that culture, he will become a man. Why? Because he was able to endure the pain that was necessary to go into the jungle and hunt for food, during which he may be stung by one or two ants. In going through this "rite" he has proven that he can endure the pains that will necessitate his silence when he or the tribe is on the hunt for a jaguar or other animal. He has demonstrated his ability to control his emotion, fear and pain. I found that very interesting, given that the host began to speak to the "partiers" listening. He berated them for their desire to seek comfort above many other things.
Think about it: in America, our right of passage, for many of our non-believing contemporaries, is to go to college and drink yourself into numerous stupors and engage in promiscuity. Yet, we are called as Catholics to call all mankind to understand that they are called to live in virtue with custody of their eyes and lust. Has the Church failed?! Hardly not! However, we sure as heck should get busy speaking in charity to the persons in our culture who continue to erode the boundries of decency. I heard it once said that this desire for sex and being drunk is a way for Satan to deceive people from receiving what their soul truly desires: namely, the body and blood of the Lord in the Holy Eucharist.
One wonders if the mainstream culture will continue to promote a hypersexualization of our culture, or whether a return to sanity in modesty will ever return? If it is to happen, it is clear that Christians must articulate and defend the joy and value of these things to the world. Perhaps, no greater witness can come than from Our Lady who is always shown in the most modest attire (not that everyone must dress like her), because she understood most fully that her body was meant to honor God. And so it did, by providing him with the flesh by which to come into the world. Thus, Christians, and more so Catholics, should feel the need to follow her example of modesty and of honoring God by means of our bodies.
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