Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Church to come out with books on sexuality

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Catholic Church is all set to come out with a textbook series on sex education for high schools students in the State.

The proposed programme, aimed at promoting values such as abstinence, sexual purity and spirituality, will be introduced in schools from the coming academic year. The 150-book, which deals with various aspects of growing up and sexuality, will be devoid of the ‘controversial sections’ of the Centrally-initiated Adolescent Education Programme that generated much heat in the State last year.

“Our objective is to view sexuality as an integral part of human life by highlighting the significance of chastity and abstinence. There is no healthy discussion about sexuality in the State,” Jose Kottayil, secretary, family commission, a wing of the Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Council, said.

Fr. Kottayil heads an expert panel, comprising theologians, doctors, lawyers, teachers, psychologists and social activists, that will prepare the books for high school students studying in classes VIII to X. The books, however, are not intended as a response to the Central programme. “We are not planning to go for any confrontation with the government by launching the books,” Fr. Kottayil said.

The books are based on the realisation that children today are exposed to a lot of sexual immorality through the media. By emphasising the message of love as the most important human value within Catholic teaching, we will talk about the moral dimensions of sexuality and its connection to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, he said.

“The church is not against sexual education but we are against advocating the usage of contraceptives such as condoms for promoting safe sex.”

The proposed module will be introduced in the form of seminars or study circles with the assistance of the Kerala Catholic Students League, the students’ wing of the church, he said. Training will be provided to teachers to teach the programme at the school-level. “We may also come up with a separate module for teachers,” he said.

Fr. Kottayil said the Church planned to introduce the module as a part of Catechism, religious education imparted to students, in Sunday Schools. Catechism is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present. The 31 Catholic dioceses in the State manage over 700 educational institutions. It is estimated that the schools enrol nearly 7,00,000 students.

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