Catholic bishops give schools health guidelines

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 5

Catholic bishops give schools health guidelines

PA Wellington The Catholic bishops have issued guidelines for teaching about sexuality

and personal relationships in schools, and warned Catholics against breaching them.

The bishops have instructed teachers in Catholic schools not to present any part of the new health syllabus in any way which does not reflect “the values and moral principles of the Catholic Church.”

The guidelines were reported in the Catholic publication, the “Tablet.” Five topics have been highlighted by the bishops for special care: caring for the body, hygiene, pubertal changes and associated body care, eating for health, and building self-esteem.

The guidelines, sent to all school committees, boards, principals, education administrators and parish priests, say on caring for the body and hygiene: “These are important from a health viewpoint, but they provide the opportunity to present the body as God’s creation, an earthly temple in which he is present.” This religious and spiritual reason for caring for the body should be emphasised, the bishops said.

The biological facts of pubertal changes should be presented in Catholic schools in the context of “personal growth in the knowledge and love of God,” the guidelines say. “A purely biological description of bodily changes is incomplete without an accompanying discussion of the nature and purpose of sexuality ... Christianity sees sexuality as the perfect pattern of how people communicate and transmit both love and life. This process cannot take place in fleeting, uncommitted relationships.” The “virtues of fasting and abstinence” were “not out of place” under the topic of eating for health.

Children should be

taught both “a delight in God’s gift of food, and the need to share with the hungry.” Failure by teachers in Catholic schools to present the syllabus in line with the bishops’ instructions would be “a serious breach” of obligations accepted by teachers on their appointment, the guidelines say. All six bishops signed the guidelines.