Those who cant, can teach Natural Family Planning.

TO PUT me off a teaching career, Mom would say: Those who cant, teach. The adage took on new meaning when Sister Gloria taught us sex education in high school.

I salute her for grace under fire. We greeted with mocking incredulity her lessons on the mysteries of reproduction. By then we had gained much knowledge of these mysteries through independent study, without guidance, encouragement, or permission from teachers or parents. Some of the research was participatory: before we graduated, three classmates had graduated into maternity.

Participatory or not, independent research was more fun than lectures on reproductive organs, delivered valiantly by a soft-spoken celibate who hadnt had to use them.

I have no quarrel with consecrated celibacy. The choice to stay single and chaste for the service of …