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Thursday November 15, 2007
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US Bishops Offer Chastity Education Focusing on “Faith and Morals and Virtues”
Document says, “Education for chastity is more than a call to abstinence”
By Hilary White
WASHINGTON, November 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) has applauded the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for its new guidlines promoting chastity education in Catholic curricula and urging Catholic colleges to make chastity “the cornerstone of Catholic campus life.”
The USCCB announced at the end of their annual meeting in Baltimore this week the introduction of a new chastity education program for helping Catholic schools and other institutions develop curricula. The program, titled, “Catechetical Formation in Chaste Living: Guidelines for Curriculum and Publication Design,” will form the basis of curricula for high school teaching on chastity.
The USCCB says the guidelines address education in “morality and virtue” focusing on formation for young people in faith and morals and the virtues required for chaste living.
The document acknowledges “the primary role of parents in instructing children on matters of human sexuality”.
The 14-page document says, “Education for chastity is more than a call to abstinence.” Msgr. Daniel Kutys, deputy secretary for catechesis in the USCCB Department of Education, told Catholic News Service that the guidelines stress that catechetical instruction should deal with questions of “faith, virtue and moral life” and not issues of biology.
The document calls parents “the primary but not the exclusive educators of their children” and emphasizes that other educators “carry out their responsibilities in the name of the parents” and with the “consent and authorization of the parents.”
“It’s exciting and encouraging to see that the U.S. bishops are seeking to reinforce Catholic schools’ and parishes’ commitment to Catholic teaching on chastity,” said Dawn Eden, director of the Cardinal Newman Society’s Love and Responsibility programme.
“In my work with Catholic college students, I see the tragic consequences of students’ sexual activity outside of marriage,” Eden said.
“Too many Catholic colleges forgo their responsibility to reveal the truth of the Church’s teachings on chastity,” Eden said. “Only that truth will set students free to live out their vocations in Christ, whether in lifelong marriage or the religious life. Chastity ought to be the cornerstone of Catholic campus life.”
The Cardinal Newman Society has itself instituted an education programme, titled, “Love and Responsibility” that it says “seeks to help transform Catholic campuses to encourage chaste living.”
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