Saturday 8 January 2011

Outstanding Bishops' Letter on Sex Education

I hadn't come across the Lux Occulta blog before, but Laurence at That the bones... pointed it out. It carries a fantastic letter from the Bishops of England and Wales on the subject of Sex Education.

Inter alia, they write:

The remedy is to be found not so much in the imparting in public of fuller and more systematic knowledge of sex from the physiological or biological standpoint as by the removal of external temptations and by the general and determined inculcation of the practice of Christian virtue and our dependence on divine grace.

They also quote Pope Pius Xl:
‘...ignoring what is taught by facts, from which it is clear that, particularly in young people, evil practices are the effect not so much of ignorance of intellect as of weakness of a will exposed to dangerous occasions, and unsupported by the means of grace’.

Later, they assert:
Information alone will not produce a healthy and sound nation; much less will it be sufficient to prepare souls for their eternal destiny in the next life. It is not so much information as formation which is required — formation of character, the training of the mind, the heart, and the will with the necessary assistance of religion.

And they include this wonderful statement:
We regard our Catholic schools as sanctuaries wherein our children are mightily strengthened in the faith and its practice.

Why is it that I do not need to tell you that this is not from our current bishops, but from those of a previous generation? Can you imagine the current bishops expressing such sentiments? Especially in such terms?...

Go to Lux Occulta to read the whole thing: it is well worth it!

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