[mlizzy]

Thanks for clarifying where the Church stands on this, which is evidently not conclusive at the moment?, however, I do know that even if you do not have your reproductive organs, as Fr. Schendt explained to us, you are still standing in the way of God. Also there is the important issue that a condom is a "divider" between man and woman (much like taking a shower with a raincoat on; would you get clean?). So sex with a condom no longer is the gift from God it was meant to be joining man and woman. Would kissing be loving through Saran Wrap?

I don't know what to say about reading the Qur'an. I once thought it okay to go back to my old Lutheran Church as a way of understanding where I came from for so many years, yet I do not believe that is so anymore as it becomes a door open to me to allow the confusion (no Live Eucharist!) to enter back into my heart.

So, I'm not really judging the cardinal ... yet (this article WAS in the National Catholic Reporter, it could be wrongly worded) ... but it's not a big hop to imagine I'm hearing the cardinal with humor (almost infer) that Obama was elected president of the United States through "divine providence."

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks for your response.

I can see it from your point of view. I myself think a condom at least "connotes" a refusal of complete sexual union. Oddly, I remember reading about a highly political ("gender radical") lesbian who "occasionally" slept with men but insisted on a condom because she felt it somehow signified her "separatism." Hmm, I thought.

Any human being is capable of saying stupid things as well as making mistakes, and this includes highly-placed Cardinals and the Pope himself. We should pray for them. Hard.