BATTLEFORD, Sask., Sept 28 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic parents in Saskatchewan are taking the North West Catholic School Division to court over its decision to commence using the “Fully Alive” sex education program in its schools this year. The program, developed in Ontario with the approval of the Ontario Bishops Conference, and used in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan has created controversy for many years among Catholic parents who argue that it is too graphic and explicit at too early an age. The program was rejected by the Archdiocese of Washington in 1995 for failing “to integrate the faith perspective in its presentation,” and “not (being) Christ-centered.”
The Saskatchewan parents have formed a group called the Concerned Parents and Ratepayers for Catholic Education and are being represented by Catholic lawyer Michael Hudec. Hudec told the National Post Saturday, “There is a latency period when it comes to matters of sexual interest, or even a need to impart any knowledge of sexuality to children. And that period shouldn’t be disturbed by teaching sex ed courses.” The group has collected more than 600 signatures on a petition to remove the program.
Geoff Cauchi, a St. Catherines lawyer who provided legal advice on the case, told LifeSite, “Roman Catholic communities have been around for almost 2,000 years. Until recently, they have been quite successful in teaching their members how to establish and maintain stable marriage and family life; and this was accomplished without classroom sex education.”
Cauchi pointed out that the 1995 encyclical from the Pontifical Council for the Family – “The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality”- indicates clearly that sex education is the parents’ prerogative and that schools’ assistance in this area of education must be “subordinate, that is, subject to the parents’ attentive guidance and control.”
With files from The National Post