David Quinn
It’s time the bishops commissioned a Catholic version of the sex education programme, writes David Quinn
Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) has been part of primary and secondary school education for many years now. As is the case with other parts of the school curriculum, there seems to be wide variation between schools in terms of how much time is devoted to RSE and what exactly gets taught to pupils. A large amount depends on the individual teacher and the individual school.
Catholic schools are supposed to teach RSE within a Catholic ethos. There are guidelines to this effect. We can only really speculate about the extent to which this happens.
Anecdotal evidence suggests it is patchy at best. Again, much depends on the individual school and teacher. Some schools and some teachers will be determined to do their best to teach RSE according to a Catholic ethos. Other schools and other teachers will do the opposite.
There is also another question to consider; what do people mean by Catholic ethos? I have heard plenty of direct evidence that some Catholic schools think they are entirely in keeping with a Catholic ethos by teaching the moral licitness of contraceptive use.
It should be clear that Catholic schools ought to be provided with official, Catholic-designed RSE material. It’s true that elements of RSE are incorporated into religion class but it doesn’t go far enough.
This is probably what is behind reports that the hierarchy are finally considering devising an official RSE programme for use in Catholic schools.
Lobby groups
Bishop Kevin Doran sees a clear need for such a thing. He told The Irish Catholic last week: “Materials devised by various educational bodies and lobby groups have been introduced into our schools and, in many cases, are not at all in keeping with the Catholic ethos.
“I am very anxious that this vacuum would be filled without delay, through the publication of good quality RSE resource materials which are consistent with our Catholic ethos.”
In a similar vein, Archbishop Eamon Martin said: “You can’t just accept any resources in a school. They should be interrogated in the light of the ethos of the school and its morals and values framework and after that you have got to be merciful.”
What both prelates are referring to is the fact that a lot of groups have prepared material for use by schools in RSE class and some of this material is contrary to Catholic teachings in respect of the family and sexuality. Much of the available material teaches a very relativistic approach to both. (No particular type of family is the ideal, no one type of sexual behaviour is morally normative.)
But in the absence of official Catholic Church material, the Catholic schools are acting in a vacuum. Even those teachers who are willing and eager to teach RSE from a Catholic perspective are often all at sea.
It should be stressed that much of what is in the RSE curriculum is completely uncontroversial. Pupils are taught about friendship, how to have healthy relationships with other pupils and with their families, about changes to their body as they get older and so on.
Referendum
But how is a Catholic school meant to handle discussions about something like marriage, especially now that same-sex marriage is legal?
Even before last year’s referendum, marriage and the family was a sensitive area. The Catholic Church believes that couples ought to marry before they have children. The Catholic Church is also opposed to divorce. But in countless classrooms around the country, there are children who are from single parent families. The mothers may never have married or they might be divorced. How do you teach what the Church has to say about marriage and the family without causing unnecessary offence? The answer is, with difficultly.
On the other hand, it is simply a fact that all things being equal, it’s best if a child’s mother and father, assuming they are fit parents, raise their children together.
It’s best for the children and it’s best for the couple because it is easier to cope with the challenges of raising children together than alone. It makes sense therefore to promote marriage and to start doing so at a fairly early age, and who else is going to do this apart from the Church? Not the State, certainly, despite being constitutionally sworn to guard marriage with special care.
Primary and secondary schools are currently being hit with material that teaches pupils as young as four about transgenderism, and tells them without any qualification that some boys are really girls and vice versa. But as Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed, this is entirely contrary to Catholic teaching.
How should the topic of contraception be broached? Should a Catholic school teach about the various forms of birth control but make a good case for Natural Family Planning (NFP)? There is a huge amount of misinformation out there about NFP. Contrary to popular belief, used properly, NFP is about as effective as the condom as a form of birth control.
What about sex outside marriage? Most people now laugh at the notion that you should wait until you are married before you have sex. But again, a Catholic school has to at least make the case for waiting and hope that at a minimum pupils might at least be persuaded of the wisdom of having sex within a committed, loving relationship only.
Perhaps the reason the bishops have taken so long to think about a Catholic RSE programme is inertia. Or perhaps it is regarded as too hot a potato.
At the end of the day, however, neither of these reasons is acceptable and that is why it is good to see bishops like Eamon Martin and Kevin Doran addressing the issue.
Presumably bishops in other parts of the world have come up with RSE-type material of their own. A review of this material could be easily done and then the best of it adapted for Irish use. This would mean that the Irish hierarchy could have something available for schools here sooner rather than later.
A wait of almost 20 years is quite long enough. The sooner they have something available for Catholic schools, the better. The trick then will be to persuade schools to use it.