"The teacher will not attempt to build respect for the views of others on the false and fragile base of thinking that it does not much matter what one's view is, so long as it is sincere."
"The Catholic School, in the formulation of its policy (on RSE), should reflect Catholic moral teaching on sexual matters. Even more fundamentally, it needs to be specific in excluding approaches which are inconsistent with the very foundations of Catholic moral thought."
These are extracts from Relationships and Sexuality Education in Catholic Schools, a policy document of the Catholic Hierarchy that has been sent to all parents and teacher representatives on RSE committees in Catholic schools. By excluding non-Catholic approaches to the question of sexuality education, the Bishops have made a nonsense of the Department of Education's consultation process for RSE.
In the same way the position of non-Catholic parents who have been elected onto RSE committees has been made impossible. And the position of parents who dislike the denominational ethos of Church-run schools which their children attend, has been made even more difficult.
The Minister for Education, Micheal Martin, should not allow this to happen. Our primary schools are not purely private Church-owned institutions with which the Church authorities may do as they like. They are publicly funded national schools, governed by an established set of Rules; in most areas they hold a monopoly of school provision; and under the School Attendance Act all parents are legally obliged to avail of their service. RSE is a part of the secular curriculum and the manner by which it is taught may be inspected by Department of Education inspectors.
The Bishops are on weak ground in attempting to prescribe how a secular subject may be taught. But the ground becomes weaker again when that subject is sexuality. Not only did the Catholic Church impose a regime of sexual repression on Irish society for most of this century, from which we are only beginning to recover, but a number of the Church's leading exponents have been discovered to have lived in violation of their own code (eg Bishop Eamon Casey and Fr. Michael Cleary). Nor are the number of priests and brothers who have been found guilty of sexually abusing children a good advertisement for Catholic moral teaching on sexual matters. In short it is questionable whether the majority of parents would view the Church authorities as an appropriate body for overseeing the RSE programme.
In publishing this pamphlet we call on the Minister for Education to ensure:
that the RSE programme being provided in schools follows Department of Education guidelines
that
it is taught as a separate secular subject so as not to exclude minorities
and
that the rights of non-Catholic (or 'luke-warm') parents who have no choice but to send their children to Catholic schools are safeguarded in a set of clear guidelines.
Press Statement ends.
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