VALUE-BASED SEXUAL EXPRESSION MANUAL 'FACTS OF LIFE'
The manual was written in order to provide resource for parents, guardians and teachers approaching the sensitive and godly task of teaching youth about the Facts of Life.
1. Facts of Life
It is parental responsibility to give life information to their children.
It is likewise the responsibility of a guardian or educator to ensure that the youth’s future not be jeopardized through ignorance of the facts of life. It should be borne in mind that the role of educator is not to replace that of parental responsibility.
The educator plays a supportive role.
Life education is an area where information alone - without reference to godly values and moral responsibility – may prove counter-productive. Life information is given effectively in a milieu of trust.
Values and attitudes are learned in the parental home from role models.
If parental role models or a stable, protective home are not the reality for a youth, guardians and educators play an invaluable role in the education of the youth – including life education.
2. Character Development
Education on the subject of the Facts of Life also involves the task of assisting youth to develop a godly character; one that will use the power of sexuality – which can be used either to great good or in a destructive manner – with responsibility and accountability.
Development of character in a non-repressive and non-anxious way is a sound basis for a happy and balanced sexuality.
3. Guidelines
Moral guidelines are invaluable in teaching value-based sexual expression.
Popes Pius XI and Pius XII formulated that sex education should be a matter of inculcating modesty, purity, chastity, and morality; a matter of teaching the sixth and ninth commandments. [1] Pope John Paul II gave biblical reflection on human morality and sexuality in his work ‘Theology of the Body’. [2]
Youth should be instructed about the dignity, duty, and expression of married love.
Trained in good moral values and self-mastery, they will be able at a suitable age to enter a marriage of their own after an honourable courtship. [3]
Sexuality has been part of God’s plan from the beginning and thus it is very good; sexuality is inextricably related to love and life and to lifelong selfgiving, whether in marriage or the single state. However, owing to sin, sexuality can be wilfully misused, and for this reason every person is called to purity and chastity - no matter what his or her state of life.
Value-based self-mastery leading to maturity of character requires the rejection of certain thoughts, words, and sinful actions.
Temptation is a reality. So is sexual anxiety. Parents and educators should encourage those they teach to face these concepts and begin to work through them from the very start of their sexual awareness so that they may reach full maturity in their actions or in their abstaining from actions without hang-ups, fears or secret feelings of shame and humiliation.
Education in values is best done privately, in the heart of the family. This should take into account the individual stage of development of each child thus being educated. [1]
Four working principles should always be operative whenever matters related to sexuality are taught;
1. Human sexuality is a sacred mystery and must be presented according to Scriptural and moral teachings, always bearing in mind the effects of original sin
2. Only information proportionate to each phase of their individual development should be presented to children and young people
3. No material of an erotic nature should be presented to children or youth
4. No one should ever be invited, let alone obliged, to act in any way that could objectively offend against modesty or that could subjectively offend against his or her own delicacy or sense of privacy [1]
Parents must find time to be with their children and take time to talk with them.
The practice of decency and modesty in speech, action and dress is very important for creating an atmosphere suitable for self-mastery and maturity of character
Each youth is a unique and unrepeatable person and must receive individualized formation.
Since parents know, understand, and love each of their children in their uniqueness, they are in the best position to decide the appropriate time for providing a variety of information, according to their children’s physical and spiritual growth.
No one can take this capacity for discernment away from conscientious parents.
Personal dialogue between parents and their children, that is, individual formation within the family circle, is the normal and fundamental method of education about the facts of life. [1] Love is a gift of God, nourished by, and expressed in, the encounter of man and woman.
Indeed, men and women as the image of God are created for love.
This truth was fully revealed to us in the New Testament, together with the mystery of the inner life of the Trinity; ‘God is love’ [1 John 4;8] and in Himself lives a mystery of personal loving communion.
By the creation of the human race in His own Image, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation - and thus the capacity and responsibility - of love and communion.
Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.’ [4]
Love is thus a positive force directed towards the growth in maturity as persons.
In the plan of life which represents each person’s vocation, love is also a precious source for the self-giving which all men and women are called to make for their own self-realization and happiness. Married love is open to life. The gift of love does not end with the couple, because it makes them capable of the greatest possible gift, the one by which they become co-operators with God for giving life to a new human person.
Children born to their parents’ love are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of their bond. [5]
Education of children for a life lived based on sound moral values requires the following;
A positive atmosphere of love, virtue and respect for the gifts of God, in particular the gift of life, in the family
To help youth to understand the value of sexuality and good moral values in stages, sustaining their growth through enlightening word, example and prayer.
Other educators can assist in this task, but they can only take the place of parents for serious reasons of incapacity. [6]
Christian marriage is a sacrament through which sexuality is integrated into a path to holiness. Marriage requires that the man and the woman commit themselves to faithfully loving the other for life, through all the difficulties and challenges that daily living may bring.
[1] Whitehead, Kenneth D. 1996. Sex Education: The Vatican’s Guidelines
http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/marriage-and-family/sexuality/sex-education-the-vatican-s-guidelines.html
[2] West, Christopher. 2009. Theology of the Body for Beginners. A Basic Introduction to Pope John Paul II’s Sexual Revolution. Ascension Press; USA
[3] Vatican II. 1975 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World; Gaudium et Spes; Chapter 1, No 52
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
[4] The Pontifical Council for the Family. 1995. The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, Guidelines for Education within the Family. Vatican City; Section I, No 8
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_08121995_human-sexuality_en.html
[5] The Pontifical Council for the Family. 1995. The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, Guidelines for Education within the Family. Vatican City; Section I, No 15
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_08121995_human-sexuality_en.html
[6] The Pontifical Council for the Family. 1995. The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, Guidelines for Education within the Family. Vatican City; Section I, No 23
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_08121995_human-sexuality_en.html
THE FULL BOOKLET IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING LINK
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JEo1vAsAPsdGJxUE1mdVRBdUk
Disclaimer: The information contained in the 'Facts of Life' blog posts is not meant to replace your Doctor or Health Professional Care.
Feel free to use booklet copyright free for any worthy purpose
With thanks to catholiceducation.org, vatican.va
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