Chapter 3, Catholic Girls Summary

As an adolescent in a Catholic high school, Eddie is introduced to the proper degree of affiliation with "public," or non-Catholics. If Catholic boys associate with public boys, they are expected to set a good example for them. They are never, however, to associate with "public" girls, because to do so will be to court the disaster of a mixed marriage. This is not the only "don't," and Eddie begins to view the Catholic Church as a religion of "don'ts" and tedious rules to follow, so that, eventually, one dies and goes to Heaven. Looming large in the realm of "don'ts" is sex before marriage. Once married, moreover, the primary purpose of sex is procreation, not enjoyment.

The Church is also sexist at this time, probably because it has never forgiven Eve. Women cannot be priests and so can...