The CDC is calling for a "whole-of-nation" response to the syphilis phenomenon--a vague phrase, but one likely to be fleshed out with condoms and antibiotics rather than government funding for teaching about chastity and personal moral responsibility. For chastity and responsibility are concepts that assume a moral framework for sex, the very thing our culture has now spent many decades repudiating.

As recently as last Friday, Pope Francis apparently tried to rein in certain interpretations of the document. He insisted that what he is doing is authorising the Roman Catholic Church to make a pastoral gesture directed at the individuals involved and not their union. Rather than approving the blessing of same-sex unions, Francis says the document should be seen as approving the blessing of the people involved in a same-sex union.

Our political and ideological neighbours and, above all, our neighbours' children have been captured in the quicksand of a new relativism. It is a kind of self-generated madness that has disturbed and distorted their self-understanding, and the way it expresses sexuality.

The Case of Peter Vlaming