The Ontario Association of Catholic Families issued a letter in December 1991 addressed to fellow Catholics asking to oppose sex ed in school.

School is not the automatic social context for sex ed, the letter says, despite what people are saying.

The association was founded several years ago and has some 100 member families.  Its current president is Brian Taylor, a father of seven.

The letter discusses the respective roles of state, church and parents:
“The end of the State is the temporal welfare of the community, not procreation.  The end of the Church is the sanctification and salvation of souls in the truth, not procreation.  The responsibilities of both the Family and of the Church derive from the title of parenthood (one in the natural order, the other in the supernatural), whereas the responsibilities of the State derive from its authority for promoting the temporal welfare of the community.”

“The precise end of the Family, however, is the procreation and education of children.  This is the main reason why education regarding procreating belongs properly to the family, for each society is to educate according to its end.”

The letter notes that “the very first resolution in the education section of the Ontario NDP 1991 Convention Resolutions Book is…BE IT RESOLVED that in co-operation with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education shall develop and implement mandatory courses of study on Human Sexuality (including Family Studies) at both the elementary and secondary levels of education.”

“This resolution was on the priority list, but was not debated for lack of time.  If we accept that the school is the automatic place for handling the subjects dealt with in Fully Alive, then the family has no defense against mandatory sex education, nor, indeed, does the family have any primacy with regard to the State.”

The Association observes that Planned Parenthood in Ontario is now demanding compulsory classroom sex education.  This is unacceptable.

The letter also issues a warning about Catholic schools’ use of Fully Alive.

“We must also look ahead to 1995.  Current provincial law in Ontario prohibits, as of 1995, Roman Catholic school boards from hiring only Catholic teachers.  We have no guarantee that court challenges will result in this legislation actually being withdrawn.  The Fully Alive teacher’s manuals contain charts and suggestions for activities across the curriculum.  At present, as of 1995, non-Catholic teachers will be teaching or supplementing the Fully Alive programme.”

TAKE ACTION

Parents need to inform themselves and find out from school principals, and school boards if this programme will be introduced.

Our, parental rights in matters of morality are already protected by several legal documents, among others the Charter of Rights of Quebec, (Article 41), and the Universal Charter of the Rights of Man.

The government should not impose a sex education program which goes against the religious and moral convictions of families.  As responsible parents (and grandparents0 we must protect your children against Education in Sexuality, which is not based on Christian moral values, and which invites children to adopt values diametrically opposed to family life.

There is still time.  Act now!