Group finds consensus on sexual health difficult but not impossible

[Ave Maria]

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If you put representatives of 18 groups with widely different views on sexual health issues in the same room for a while, you might expect fisticuffs rather than a free exchange of ideas, angry rhetoric before reasoned discussion.

Participants in the eight meetings over two years spoke from diverse perspectives, from the Catholic viewpoint to that of groups supporting legal abortion, such as Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women.

But under the guidance of Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general and interim president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, participants in the National Consensus Process on Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior built relationships over the past two years and ultimately found much on which to agree.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603168.htm