By Kathleen Gilbert
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, April 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An event dubbed “Sex & Candy” Monday invited young women at the Catholic St. Mary’s College to discuss premarital sex, which was discussed as a “learning and growing process,” reported the Notre Dame Observer Tuesday.
The dorm-wide panel discussion at Holy Cross Hall invited women to eat chocolate candy and chocolate-covered strawberries as they were encouraged to receive STD screening and build relationships with their sexual partners.
The talk was hosted by Health Center staffer Cindy Horton-Cavanaugh and Women’s Health director Cathe DeCleene.
“Being sexually active is a learning and growing process,” Horton-Cavanaugh told the Observer. “A good age to have sex is when you are emotionally ready.”
The Tribune also reports the panel encouraged women to be “empowered” in their sex lives, and to consider forming a friendship with someone before beginning a sexual relationship.
Though the talk attempted to dispel myths about sex perpetuated by explicit television shows, the talk ended with a showing of the CW television show “Gossip Girls.” The show boasts in an advertisement that the Parents Television Council considers the series “mind-blowingly inappropriate” for sexual content.
Both the Health Center and St. Mary’s College president, Dr. Carol Mooney, did not respond to LifeSiteNews.com’s requests for comment.
To express concerns:
Carol Ann Mooney, J.D.
Office of the President
St. Mary’s College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
phone: 574-284-4602
email: [email protected]