Human Sexuality: 'Wonderful Gift' and 'Awesome Responsibility'

The Church's view that sexuality is an "awesome responsibility" is something I am familiar with. The Church has changed its outdated negative views on sexuality, and I was already aware of its emphasis on the responsibility and gift of sexuality. I was also aware that the Church places an emphasis on what it believes to be the primary purposes of sexual intercourse: the unitive and procreative powers. In addition, I was already quite familiar with the Church's view that "marital commitment and stability" is the only grounds for the act of intercourse and that intercourse out of this community is considered "objectively morally wrong." I was surprised about a few things in the article. First, I was surprised by the bishops' statement that just because one is single does not mean they should be called to "perpetual celibacy." I was confused at this because the bishops reminded the readers that engaging in extramarital sex is not living up to the value of chastity, yet they said that single persons are not necessarily confined to lifelong celibacy. Second, I was surprised that the bishops said that people of the LGBT community were entitled to "have a right to respect, friendship and justice" and that they should be active in the Christian community. I was surprised at this because it is mostly represented in the media via fanatics that all homosexual people are sinful. So even though the Church considers "homosexual [genital] activity" morally wrong, they believe that Christians ought to be respectful and accepting of LGBT people. I found it surprising that the bishops said that "Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs," because I have very rarely seen such reprimand of discrimination from official Catholic leaders. I think one of the things the article could add, when talking about consequences of sexual acts, is the possibility of STIs, which is all to often avoided in the media today. The article also could have been updated a little, because life as a teen in the 1990s is very different from teenage life today in 2012. Also, the article could have talked more about the importance of communicating with one's parents about sexuality and feeling open and comfortable talking about it. That way, one will have access to more reliable information and will be able to come to their own choices regarding their sexuality.