A laughable canard that gets bandied about major media, liberal commentary, and popular culture is that Catholic priests spend their time lecturing their congregations against using condoms, against having sex before marriage, and against tolerating homosexuality.

In 18 years since college, I have attended about 1,000 Masses in about 15 dioceses (though mostly in Washington) and I have heard approximately zero homilies laying out church teaching on sexuality. The first time I ever heard a priest mention contraception from the pulpit was when the Obama administration was trying to force Church institutions to pay for it. The first homily I heard that covered homosexuality was a lecture that we Capitol Hill Catholics weren’t doing enough to stop violence against gays.