[L]ast month, Ms. Lennox and the other students involved in the effort received a letter from the administration, pressing them to stop. “The distribution of condoms is not congruent with our values and traditions,” read the letter, which was signed by Paul J. Chebator, the dean of students, and George Arey, the director of residential life.

“As a Jesuit, Catholic university, there are certain Catholic commitments that we are called to uphold, including the commitment not to publicly distribute condoms on our campus,” Jack Dunn, a spokesman for the college, said in an e-mail.

A student group at Boston College has, for years, distributed free condoms to students. Unfortunately that's now come into conflict with the Catholic institution's new obsession with fighting unauthorized sexytimes Those values and traditions being the blanket presumption that college students do not have sex, I think, or perhaps just that such sex needs to be appropriately punished with herpes or pregnancy or the like.When I was in my very Catholic high school looking at which colleges I would apply to, I have a dim memory of thumbing through a pamphlet for Boston College in the career counselor's office. The Catholic counselor steered me off with a dismissive gesture. "Oh, that's a Catholic college," she said. "You're better than that."

Just throwing that out there, Mr. Dunn.



Both the “Sexually Transmitted Infections” and the “H.I.V./AIDS” sections of the college’s Web site say abstinence is the best way to prevent disease and do not mention forms of birth control.

The group’s actions have for years stirred opposition from the college’s more conservative students, some of whom have written letters to campus publications and, in 2011, held a demonstration in which they handed out packages of dental floss while the group distributed condoms.

“To sort of be treated like either we’re not adults enough to provide for ourselves, or in some instance we’re animals that can’t control our passions, I think it’s degrading to the student body,” said Nathaniel Sanders, a Boston College senior.

The student's health section of the website also suggests that antibiotics are tools of the devil, and offers complimentary leeches for any students who properly feel that all good science ended when belief in bilious humours fell out of fashion.Wow. Wow, I'm not touching that one. I knew that the Catholic idea of "abstinence" often required a breath mint afterwards, but … wow.Well fine, then, sport, glad to hear you've got your animal passions and/or health care needs under control. Good for you. But if you think even offering the option "degrades" other students, damn, you've got a fine career ahead of you as the archbishop of other people's bedrooms. Just make sure you stock up on dental floss.

I don't think there's any particular surprise in knowing that the new top-down obsession over sex extends even down to the college kids that have (willingly, mind you) subjected themselves to the New Catholic Sex Authority League, but a battle seemingly premised mainly around whether or not to even officially acknowledge that college students will be having safe-or-not-safe sex? Now that's a throwback.

