Extra, extra: Sex toys incompatible with Catholicism

There's a new addition to the list of things employees and volunteers at Catholic churches simply cannot do: sell sex toys. No, really.

According to the AP story, Linette Servais, 50, played the organ and sang with the choir for 35 years in her parish of St. Joseph's in New Franken, Wisconsin, but was recently dismissed because she worked for Pure Romance (you'll have to find the link yourself), which sells "spa products and sex toys" at parties attended mostly by women. (Think Tupperware, only for another room of the house. I wonder if the spa products sell as well as the, um, other stuff.) Servais said that she began working with Pure Romance after suffering sexual dysfunction, the result of a bout with cancer.

"After I got over the initial shock, I prayed over this a long time," she said. "I feel that Pure Romance is my ministry." Well, canon law says people have a right to their ministry...

The pastor's reasoning was a little sketchier. "Linette is a consultant for a firm which sells products of a sexual nature that are not consistent with Church teachings," Father Dean Dombroski wrote in a letter to parishioners. (This week in "Pastor's pondering..." Well, it might make for good bulletin reading during homily time.)

Now where is that in the Catechism again? I mean, they used to call these sorts of things "marital aids," and I think the magisterium has no real objection to their use by married people--though most bishops would probably prefer they not be discussed. And the woman did have cancer. This man had better hope he doesn't have any sexual skeletons in his closet--not even a dirty magazine or a stray click of the mouse.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to add this to the overzealous prudery category. And to simple silliness. And to general lack of concern about the sexual well-being of women. And probably to a lack of awareness about issues of sexuality in general. Or the effects of cancer and treatments for it on libido and sexual function. I should stop...

Besides, it's not like she was selling the stuff in the parish basement.