While your article ("Let's talk about sex," Feb. 10), seemed well-meaning, albeit a little preachy, after reading it I felt compelled to respond to your conclusion that couples using contraceptive means are inherently objectifying the act of sex as well as each other. Now I'm only a lowly Computer Science major but I feel five years of Catholic theological education at a Jesuit high school might give me a bit of credibility. At any rate, from what I remember, for the act of sexual intercourse to be legitimate in the Church's eyes it must follow two general guidelines: that it be a mutual act of love between a man and a woman (though others might disagree) and that it must be open to the possibility of conception. Here's where I get to the point; while the use of contraception in effect can make the act of sexual intercourse, illegitimate or even (gasp) sinful, that does not mean that there was not an air of mutual love between the two partners. I don't think a couple that truly loves each other but doesn't have the moral gumption to wait a few years or risk the uncertainty or confusion of "Natural Family Planning" should be as easily decried as objectifying each other as those at a random dorm party or on spring break. As for everything else, this is neither the time nor space to tread the other more tested battlegrounds of Catholic moral theology espoused in your response. Time to remove my cap moral debate and get back to coding and video games.
Thomas Falcon
sophomore
Sorin Hall
Feb. 10
