Michael G. Lawler

Controversy over the Pontifical Academy for Life's book that challenges church teaching on contraception shows why conservative Catholics are so concerned about this issue, say ethicists Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler.

Commentary: A new "Policy on Human Sexuality" ignores the synodal message of welcome and supports discrimination against students, parents, employees and volunteers at Catholic schools in Omaha, Nebraska.

Commentary: Transgender and intersex persons are not sinners, but they are lost sheep in the wilderness of the church, which continues to affirm only the female-male binary to which it attaches unchangeable gender.

Commentary: The U.S. bishops' conference continues to assert the fundamental human dignity of all human beings while maintaining that there can be not "unjust discrimination" against LGBT persons. Catholic social teaching is clear: discrimination on the basis of sex or gender is always unjust and immoral.

Humanae Vitae: On July 29, 1968, Pope Paul VI published his encyclical on the regulation of birth, introducing what we call here the Humanae Vitae affair. Now approaching its golden jubilee, the encyclical was published at a time of twofold crisis, one theological, the other cultural. 

Regarding Catholic funeral rites for a deceased person in a same-sex marriage, public scandal is more likely to be caused by bishops' restrictive behavior than by permitting a funeral for a gay spouse.