A couple of weeks ago, I posted this comment about how a good man can find a good woman. Thanks to this Washington Post article, we now know that a man of lower character is looking for casual sex he just has to find the average Catholic girl.
Catholic gals are FOUR TIMES more likely to “hook up”.
Why have we allowed our daughters to loose their dignity in so many ways that they feel this is okay?
Full story here, bits below.
Catholic girls gone wild?
By Patrick J. Reilly
president and founder, The Cardinal Newman Society
It was not so long ago, when singer Billy Joel’s chiding plea to “Come Out, Virginia” resonated with thousands of young people born into the Sexual Revolution, many of them reveling in American society’s defiance of the Catholic Church and traditional sexual mores.
According to a new study, Virginia may not be so reluctant anymore.
Researchers from Mississippi State University considered a survey of 1,000 college students nationwide and were surprised to find that “women attending colleges and universities affiliated with the Catholic Church are almost four times as likely to have participated in ‘hooking up’ compared to women at secular schools.”
A “hook up” is defined as a casual physical encounter with a male student, without the expectation of an ongoing relationship. Not many years ago, such encounters were taboo among Catholics as clear violations of women’s dignity and the sanctity of marriage–the only place where sexual activity is healthy and positive, according to Catholic teaching.
A report last month out of Georgetown University found significant declines in Catholic practice and fidelity among students at 34 Catholic colleges in the United States. While 16 percent of Catholics at these institutions increase support for the pro-life position on abortion, 31 percent become more “pro-choice” over four years. Similar results on same-sex marriage: 16 percent embrace Catholic teaching on marriage, but 39 percent move further away from it. Alarmingly, 12 percent of Catholic students leave the faith altogether–most of them declaring no religion at all.
Although these declines in faith are similar for Catholic students regardless of where they attend college, the fact is hardly comforting to Catholic families who scrape and save to put their sons and daughters through Catholic education, expecting an environment that fosters Catholic spiritual and moral development.
Moreover, the Georgetown researchers’ assumption that Catholic colleges cannot be reasonably expected to counter cultural trends among young people seems highly pessimistic and dismissive of religion (and any Catholic educator should strongly argue the point). Another new study–published alongside the Mississippi State findings in the September 2009 issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion–finds a marked difference in attendance at religious services at conservative Protestant colleges, where convictions are shared and embraced by strong “moral communities.”
The rest of the article may be found here.
While this is alarming, and probably true, I would like to provide a small glimmer of hope to the situation. The organization I work for, the Love and Fidelity Network, mentors college students and provides the arguments and resources they need to defend marriage, the family, and sexual integrity on college campuses. In just 9 months since starting our Members Program, we are affiliated with 19 schools, and more students contact us regularly. We have student groups and student leaders on campuses such as Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and most recently, UVA, Franciscan University of Steubenville, and William and Mary. Since Georgetown was mentioned throughout this article, I did want to draw attention to a group we’ve been in touch with there, “Love, Fidelity, and Family.” If you would like more information on this group or others, please let me know. Thanks.
Blessings,
Ashley