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Voices Online Edition

Sex Education:
The Catholic Scene

by Margaret M. Whitehead

Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapters 2 & 3
Chapters 4 & 5

Appendix & Conclusion


Chapter 2 -- Sexuality and the Christian Life:

A Universal Calling to Wholeness and Healing


This chapter focuses on the "universal calling in every human heart to be personally whole and spiritually holy." It also contains some quotes from other Church documents that are excellent statements of the Catholic position, i.e., "Conversion, as Paul VI defined it so well, is 'a profound change of the whole person by which one begins to consider, judge, and arrange one's whole life according to the holiness and love of God'".

Unfortunately much of the text contradicts this pursuit of holiness. Vague formulations, weak statements of Church teaching and a questionable application of secular attitudes and sources continue to be a problem. Some sections, in fact, contain serious misrepresentations of truth. The section on "Autonomy and Relatedness" singles out Jesus Christ as "a model who blends the capacity for autonomy with a profound concern for the well-being of others.... Like Jesus, each of us is called to discern within his or her life the best balance of autonomy and loving relatedness" (pp. 18-19).

It is hard to imagine where in the Gospels the writer found Jesus seeking "autonomy" (over and over He announces that He has come to do the will of His Father: see Matthew 6:10; 26:39-42; Luke 11:27; John 5:19, 30, 43; 7:16; 8:28); and the authors do not make clear what they mean by "loving relatedness".

Furthermore, Jesus in not "a model". He is Lord and God. Jesus repeatedly tells us that we must obey His commandments and do the will of His Father if we wish to bear good fruit. When He says, for example, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5), Jesus makes it quite clear that seeking a "balanced autonomy" is not one of His goals for us.

 


Catholic Teaching and Decision-making
Throughout this document, Church teaching or objective moral teaching is shown to be just one of several equally valuable sources that people may draw on after consulting the "Spirit" in our heart:

Catholics must be open to the wisdom of God manifest in one's family, the Church, the Word of God, the sacraments, communal and private prayer, the stories of the saints. At the same time, data from the physical sciences, information from the social sciences, and the insights of human reason can all contribute to one's discovering moral truth. (pp. 22-23)

Whether through reasoned reflection or Spirit-inspired revelation, or both, humanity can discover, at least in general outline, the meaning of life, the image of God incarnate in the human heart and history. (p. 23)

Catholic teaching is constantly being qualified and weakened by the language used; for example, "the objective truth we believe is embodied in our tradition", "objective moral values and norms, as we discern them" (emphasis added).

There is a lengthy section on moral decision-making in this chapter, but its effectiveness is diminished by the weakness of the presentation, by not being clear enough about such definite guides to moral behavior as the Commandments (instead we get references to "a tiered or sequential approach to Christian ethics"), and by apparently assuming that subjective "sincerity", provided it is made "with no intentional malice or desire to do wrong" (p. 25), makes almost any choice acceptable. There is no mention of the obligation to form one's conscience in accordance with Church teaching. There is no urging of obedience to God's objective commandments as the only way to achieve a moral life, as is found, for example, in the first Epistle of John:

My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says "I know Him" but disobeys His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in Him: he who says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. (I John 2:1-6, emphasis added)

Motivating young people to do the will of God seems not to be a principal concern of the authors of the Guidelines. The Guidelines contain neither warning of impending spiritual disaster, nor urgency to do good and avoid evil; whereas Jesus repeatedly makes it clear that personal choices must be based on truth and that true freedom comes from following Him:

"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:31-33).

The Guidelines place much more emphasis on the value of subjective decision by the student than on the necessity to arrange "one's life according to the holiness and love of God", as stated at the beginning of the chapter.

There is an additional ambiguity in the way discernment and decision-making are discussed, because the writers put vocational choices and moral decisions in exactly the same category:

Whether one is facing specific moral decisions or broader vocational questions, the Catholic tradition speaks of discernment (p. 22).54

However, there is an important distinction between the way we should make moral decisions and the way we may choose vocations. Vocational choices are based on personal graces, and do not normally involve sin; but moral decisions are to be based on moral principles that are always true and binding, and that can be known through the teaching of the Catholic Church.

 

 

Chapter 3 -- The Divine Plan Inscribed in Human Sexuality:
A Catholic Perspective

Chapter three contains a more complete Catholic perspective on marriage as unitive, procreative and faithful. It also advocates a "sexuality education campaign aimed at fostering loving commitments and social responsibility" that, at least in theory, will prevent teen pregnancies and promote family and social stability. This education campaign is directed at both Catholic and public schools. As in chapter one, the first focus is on the relational aspect of the teaching of Genesis and the Church seeing Adam and Eve as "a model for human intimacy", which in the Judeo-Christian tradition is marriage, "the natural and divinely ordained context for living together and lovemaking".

But, as we so often find in this document, confusion is sown alongside true teaching by ambiguous expression. Loneliness, for example, is identified as a condition that seems to require the kind of intimacy found only in marriage for its antidote:

The desire not to be alone, to be loved and to love, to be united with another, physically as well as psychologically and spiritually, is a deep-seated and natural yearning. Seeing in Adam and Eve a model for human intimacy.... (p. 30).

Note the ambiguous way that love is connected with physical union here. The love and intimacy that comes with other human relationships -- between friends, parents and children, among siblings and relatives -- that do not include "physical union", are not dealt with in this chapter. Neither is there any consideration of the relationship of persons with God.

Other ambiguous formulations in this chapter further weaken the impact of Catholic teaching. Although the text does say that the "marital act ... finds its true meaning as an act of loving union and potentially an act of procreation" and that "God, who is love and the author of life, has inscribed in sexual intercourse two meanings that are inseparable: love and life", it is not clear what "procreation" means in this context. Evidently, it is not limited to children or "biological fecundity", to use Father Guindon's term. Two examples illustrate the very broad understanding of "procreation" found in the Guidelines:

The genitally expressed love of married couples can and ought to be fruitful or creative in a variety of ways even when the procreation of children is not possible or advisable at a given time (pp. 30-31).

The desire of married couples to procreate, to generate new life, both in terms of offspring and in terms of other mutually creative endeavors is a natural, divinely ordained instinct (p. 37, emphasis added).

The Guidelines give no explanation of what these other "fruitful" and "creative" results of "genitally expressed love" may be, although it is claimed that they are on the same level as the procreation of children and equally "natural, divinely ordained instinct[s]". These formulations are ambiguous, at best, and, at worst, are compatible with the erroneous views of Father Guindon in his book, The Sexual Creators: An Ethical Proposal for Concerned Christians, in which he separates fecundity from fertility and connects it with "sensuality and tenderness".

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found Father Guindon's ideas "in opposition to what sacred Scripture and tradition have constantly and consistently affirmed and taught".55 When dealing with such a basic, and yet contested, teaching of the Church, the Guidelines should leave no room for doubt.

In this same section we find an ambiguous presentation of the authoritative teaching role of the Church:

It is this inherent, natural, divinely ordained linkage of the unitive and procreative meanings of human sexual intercourse, as discerned in human nature, the Scriptures, and the Catholic tradition that has led us as a church community to the conclusion that only in marriage can genital sexual expression find their true meaning (p. 31, emphasis added).

This passage suggests that the authentic meaning of "genital sexual expressions" is determined by the "church community", evidently by employing the process of "discernment" previously recommended for individual decision-making, rather than by the authority of Catholic teaching and divine revelation.

Other vague statements that undermine the force of Catholic teaching occur throughout this Chapter, for example:

For Catholics, the Scripture, church tradition, teaching, the sacraments, the leaders, and all members of the Body of Christ serve continually as God-given sources of insight and grace (p. 36).

... outside of the context of covenant commitment (i.e., marriage), genital sexual intimacy, however well-intentioned, is not an expression of total self-giving. Objectively speaking, it is morally wrong, and subjectively, one may be guilty of serious sin. (p. 37)

The criticism of Father Guindon's book by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would apply to the Human Sexuality Guidelines as well:

... the author also uses the classical sources of moral theology (Scripture, tradition and Magisterium) in a way that is partial, reductive and inadequate.... Tradition and Magisterium, frequently presented in caricatured fashion ... are neither accorded their proper authority nor their normative value for theological reflection.56

The sex education programs in public and Catholic schools that are so actively promoted in this chapter (as well as in chapters one and five) are criticized if they promote "easy access to" contraception and condoms, but not for their harmful philosophy and methodologies. Formation in "loving commitments and social responsibility" are recommended for both public and Catholic schools. Specifically, the Guidelines here recommend programs "that offer clear and accurate factual information about sexual gender identity, puberty/adolescence, and human reproduction ... adapted to the age and maturity of the learner ... communicated within the context of formation, guided by the values and responsibilities of the whole person.... Judeo-Christian or societally endorsed positive values and corresponding cautions or prohibitions is essential" (p. 36, emphasis added).

This section of the Guidelines is, finally, an endorsement of sex education whose first goal is to teach "sexual gender identity" in a context, not of Catholic beliefs but of "Judeo-Christian or societally endorsed positive values". Considering that our society endorses divorce, contraception, homosexuality, and abortion and treats these things approvingly in many public school programs, it is difficult to understand the endorsement that is being given here. There are also differences between Jewish and Catholic beliefs about the meaning of human sexuality, and Catholic guidelines ought to be clear and consistent in affirming Catholic beliefs, not just a generic cultural tradition.

The emphasis upon teaching "sexual gender identity" throughout this document is strange, indeed. Most people do not have a problem in determining what their gender is, and do not need twelve years of sex education to figure it out. However, there are groups of political activists in our society (homosexuals, feminists) who advocate radical change in the understanding of gender roles. The Guidelines' emphasis seems to be adopted from their agenda, not from Catholic teaching.

NOTES:
54. Ibid., p. 22. This placing of moral and vocational decisions on the same level occurs also on pages 25 and 26 in the same chapter.
55. Op. cit., Origins, February 13, 1992, p. 577.
56. Ibid., p. 577.

 

Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapters 2 & 3
Chapters 4 & 5

Appendix & Conclusion


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