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The question of using condoms for non-contraceptive purposes is one that has not been ruled on definitively by the Church, and thus Catholics are at liberty to discuss and defend different points of view, as I understand it.

An analogy would be hysterectomy for the purpose of sterilization (morally wrong) vs hysterectomy for the purpose of eliminating uterine cancer (not morally wrong.) Purpose counts.

As for the off-the-cuff remark about Obama, it's jarring all right -- wince-making---- but it does not necessarily indicate a political, still less a doctrinal stance.

As for reading the Qur'an? I think everybody should. It does lead to more understanding. It lacks a thematic, moral or narrative arc, as far as I can see: it's inconsistent to the point of incoherence. That helps me understand a lot. Not in a good way.

Keep an eye on Turkson, but don't leap to far-reaching judgments. (Though of course the Leap to Judgment is a major olympic sports preference for all us'n's at Free Republic!) 8o/

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."