Your understanding of original sin is correct. Keep in mind, though, that Catholics are not Biblical literalists. Every human, except Mary, is born with original sin according to Catholic teaching. That doesn't mean that Mary didn't sin personally — original sin is not personal sin. Original sin is more like an…

Oh, you don't have to explain it to me! I could no longer reconcile membership in the Church with being a feminist and that's why I am no longer a practicing Catholic.

I guess that would be more clear, except that the Church doesn't teach that sex between a married couple is inherently sinful. But I agree that language can be difficult!

Yes, I saw that one, too. She and a local priest seemed to indicate that the father was a friend from her youth. But both newspapers and nuns and priests can be less than truthful, so I don't know whether to believe any of these stories, honestly.

Catholic dogma is a blend of both Scripture and Tradition (with a capital T because it's more than just "we've always done it this way.") Anyhow, the idea of Mary as the Immaculate Conception is partly scriptural (she's termed "full of grace" in Luke's Gospel) and mostly Tradition. It was a belief held by Catholics…

My apologies for missing the sarcasm in your comment. I read too quickly and too cursorily.

No, but if you believed math was morally wrong I wouldn't expect you to teach it to my kids, either. Look, I don't even agree with the Church's position on birth control, but I don't see how you can't distinguish between teaching the biology of human reproduction and teaching how to use birth control. Catholic…

Rape and consensual sex are both possibilities. I'm not sure why it's news either except that it happened in Italy, the baby has the same name as media darling Pope Francis, and then there's the "I didn't know I was pregnant" aspect. I don't know if it happens frequently, but nuns — because they are women and not…

LaGiulla answered this one very nicely so I won't belabor the point, but I didn't want you to think I was just ignoring you!

No. Jesus was "conceived by the Holy Spirit" while Mary remained a virgin. Mary was conceived the regular way by Joachim and Anne. (I'm not saying this all makes sense, by the way. I'm just explaining.)

The original poster indicated that the nun in this article did not even know she was having intercourse. That's a comment about biology and not birth control. I've got no idea what kind of biological or sexual education girls in Catholic schools receive in El Salvador, but to write that "sex-education in nonexistent…

Sure! Mary was the Immaculate Conception. The idea is that if she was going to be the mother of God then she could not not have been born with original sin. Since God is 100% good then God can only come from someone who is 100% good. The Church declared her to be conceived "without sin" and so she herself is the…

Of course they don't cover birth control options. Look, I'm no apologist for the Church's teachings on birth control. But to complain that Catholic schools don't teach about birth control is sort of like complaining that the local Hebrew Day School doesn't serve ham on rye in the cafeteria.

Sex education is actually required in Catholic schools by almost every US Diocese. I can't speak for the rest of the world.

Where did you read that the nuns in her convent are leaving her on her own? I'm sure she'll have to leave because raising a baby isn't compatible with living a communal life as nuns and brothers do. I'm not saying I'd be shocked if they turfed her out without any help at all, but I just didn't read that anywhere.

As far as I can tell from reading other news sources, she may have gotten pregnant on a visit home to El Salvador. If I read one more joke about "the immaculate conception" from people who do not understand what that means I will scream.

Unfortunately, they're not so much concerned about the kids who are already here. Making life almost impossibly difficult for parents who violate the policy will make other people less likely to violate the policy themselves.

So true. You could add:

The kids hate it, but it continues to roll on and expand.

We just had this conversation this morning at a staff meeting! The College Board has pushed AP because they make a bucket of money off of it and now it's been enshrined in the minds of all the education reform gurus. However, those of who teach the courses are well aware that they fall short of the mark. Consider a…