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shops, <strong>and</strong> on our iPhones where thous<strong>and</strong>s of Chinese in Shenzhen assemble them<br />
working 11-hour days for 83 cents an hour under brutal conditions. The wages are<br />
even lower in Vietnam, Cambodia <strong>and</strong> elsewhere.<br />
Certainly, the popes <strong>and</strong> the Vatican are not without fault. They have squ<strong>and</strong>ered<br />
much of their moral authority by binging on issues where they have no privileged<br />
expertise, i.e. sexual <strong>and</strong> reproductive issues for which a life of real or<br />
purported celibacy is not the best preparation.<br />
They have had their say there. Now is the time to declare a solemn moratorium on<br />
papal sex talk. Leave masturbation to the masturbators. Leave pregnancy<br />
decisions to pregnant women, women have a better track record on life issues.<br />
And leave those whom God has made gay free to bond in love. (They also have<br />
a lot more penance to do regarding the pedophilia sc<strong>and</strong>al.)<br />
But this Vatican document is a gem of moral reasoning. It is hard-nosed justice<br />
theory applied to real life.<br />
A final suggestion: along with the moratorium on sex talk, the Vatican should<br />
consider closing its bank, which has some issues of its own.<br />
Daniel C. Maguire is a Professor of Moral Theology at Marquette University, a<br />
Catholic, Jesuit institution in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is author of A Moral<br />
Creed for All Christians. He can be reached at daniel.maguire@marquette.edu
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