Many in the media have accused the Catholic Church of being obsessed with sex, but the media frenzy surrounding the Spitzer scandal makes one wonder who is really obsessed.

Catholic moral theology distinguishes between personal and social morality. Personal morality deals with actions by a person alone or with a consenting adult. Social morality applies to actions that have consequences on others.

Normally we keep law out of personal morality. Some have even argued that prostitution should be legal because it is between consenting adults. Most Americans (excerpt in Nevada) disagree because usually prostitutes are not really free in their choices. They are exploited.

Spitzer broke the law when he paid prostitutes for sex. Is this the worst crime a person can commit? I think some of the people he prosecuted on Wall Street committed bigger crimes and bigger sins. Certainly the people behind the current credit crisis committed bigger sins and crimes.

But we expect our government officials to observe the law, whether it applies to the taxes of domestic workers, the hiring of undocumented workers, drinking while driving, cheating on taxes, visiting a prostitute, etc.

Spitzer committed a crime, but it was not a political crime like accepting a bribe or torturing a prisoner. Is it a crime for which he should be forced out of the office to which he was democratically elected? Whatever the case, he made the judgment that he no longer had the credibility or support to govern and resigned. But what would have been the media’s response if the crime had been of similar legal weight but not sexual?