Santorum. Yawn.

The bizarre AP interview with Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum seems to have a lot of people puzzled. Just Another Republican Bigot Eruption? Signs of insanity? Nope.

Catholic doctrine.

Santorum is nothing more or less than a good, conscientious, practicing Catholic. Santorum's remarks, bizarre as they may seem, are simply a statement of the doctrine referenced above, which describes the duties of a Catholic politician. Very poorly phrased. Why do we elect people who give such bad interviews? I'd think that Getting Interviewed would be a basic skill for a politician.

Catholics in the US have a very relaxed version of what the Church really wants from them. For example, American Catholics use birth control at about the same rate as people of other religions of the same social class, despite the fact that, officially, anybody using birth control is excommunicate. There was a big stink a while back when a Nebraska bishop yanked the chain on this:

It should be obvious that Catholics who practice birth control and those who cooperate with them in their immoral actions may not receive Holy Communion without committing sacrilege.

The way the Church handles sex is exactly what you'd expect from a bunch of celibate, geriatric men in a strictly hierarchical, male-only organization:

Don't

Don't have sex. If you must, do it only with someone that a priest has approved of, formally. Limit partners as drastically as possible -- if your approved partner is alive, it's him/her or nobody. Don't play with it, it's not a toy -- use it only for what God designed it for. RTFM. Abstinence is desirable in any case (and the only option if you don't want babies), and easy -- if you can't control your sexual urges, you must be pretty weak morally. If you do anything at all sexual, or even think about anything sexual, be sure to tell the priest all about it.

Backed up, of course, with the usual dose of "We have a pipeline to God. We're smarter than you, and we've been studying things like this for a very long time. Therefore, we're right. If you disagree with us, you're wrong, and probably Evil to boot."

Oh, well, it's just another Middle Eastern fertility cult. Actually, worship of Yog-Sothoth. Don't get me started.