Mags GarganPure in Heart rejects claim it made students ‘uncomfortable’
A Catholic youth group that promotes the virtue of chastity has rejected an accusation of making students “uncomfortable” during a school presentation as “inaccurate and a complete misrepresentation” of their work.
An article inThe Journal.ie reported a Dublin student as saying that Pure in Heart Ireland spent two hours talking about how abstinence was “God’s way” and that although “God loves sex” the student said “it was implied that is only after marriage”.
Role play
The article described a role play game involving taping students together as making the majority of them feel “uncomfortable”, and that one speaker casually equated serial killers with watching pornography and dismissed or glossed over any challenging questions from the students.
A spokesperson from Pure in Heart said that these suggestions were “quite alarming and without basis”.
“To allude to the notion that students are being invited to participate in painful, inappropriate demonstrations is very disturbing, and has the clear intention of creating sensational headlines,” he said.
“Even the title of the article ‘Students taped together by wrists…’ suggests strange practices," the spokesperson said.
Positive
“Pure in Heart has a positive understanding of human sexuality and it is misleading to suggest that we advocate ‘abstinence’ simply as God’s way. Pure in Heart merely propose that sex is more than a physical act. It encompasses the entire human person.”
The spokesperson said that all information contained within the school presentations and workshops is based upon medical evidence, up to date statistics and facts, which is “presented in a gentle, non-judgemental way”.
“The context of each school talk is tailored in advance to meet the requirements and ethos of each individual school. The presence of at least one in-house school teacher whilst presentations and workshops are being undertaken is always recommended to each school as are consent forms. There are opportunities for questions and answers, both in a group forum and on a personal basis. No one person is over-looked or any question unanswered,” he said.