News Brief

Canadian parents win sex ed battle

Catholic parents in Canada's Vancouver Archdiocese won a battle in March to keep sex education programs out of archdiocesan schools.

Archbishop Adam Exner of the Diocese of Vancouver announced that his diocese will follow the directives of the Holy See on the matter and leave parents in charge of educating their children on sexual matters.

Parents in more than nine parishes, with the support of their priests, rallied against the mandated use of the Fully Alive and Growing in Love programs.

Petitions were sent to priests and the archbishop objecting to the programs and quoting the text of the Vatican document, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality. Those involved with the struggle said that the document, from the Pontifical Council for the Family, was indispensable in making their case.

While the Office of Religious Education in the diocese had rebuffed parents' requests, Archbishop Exner ruled definitively on the matter March 20.

Archbishop Exner said that: The diocese recognizes the primary role of parents in education on matters of sexuality. No classroom teaching on sexuality is to be given at all in Catholic schools before grade 7; and in grade 7, if anything is to be used in the classroom, the only acceptable material would be the Love and Life program by Ignatius Press (a program favored by faithful Catholics). Every parish is to have training sessions to prepare parents to educate their own children on these matters and provide them with resources.

Catholic parents across Canada have long struggled with the issue of sex education programs in Catholic schools.

Two of the texts most commonly used in Canadian schools, Fully Alive and Growing in Love, have come under intense criticism by concerned Catholic parents for their controversial presentation of human sexuality even to very young children.

www.lifesite.net