The Dispatch: More from CWR...

Marianists in Spain under fire for lack of transparency regarding sex ed program

Nicolás de Cárdenas By Nicolás de Cárdenas for CNA

(Credit: Shutterstock)

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 26, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Parents of students at a Marianist school in Spain expressed their “stark distrust” in the Marianists and in their sex ed program “Crea2 para amar” (Created to Love) after a tense meeting in which they were denied access to the materials being taught to their children.

The event took place March 16 in the auditorium of Our Lady of the Pillar School in Madrid and was attended by a large representation of parents of elementary school students.

Representing the school were the principal, Brother Valeriano Sarto, SM; the head of pedagogical department of the Network of Marianist Schools, Belén Blanco; and the director of elementary education, Covadonga García.

The meeting began with a speech by the principal in which he acknowledged that the informational meeting should have been held at the beginning of the school year, months ago.

Next, Blanco explained the “fundamentals” of the “Created to Love” program for about an hour. The elementary school director concluded by describing the content that was offered to the students of those courses.

When the time came for parents to speak, they expressed their doubts and asked to know in advance the content being taught to their children in the same way that mathematics, language, or history classes are done through an online platform.

The images surrounding the controversy

The origin of the controversy stems from the fact that more than 5,000 parents have already signed an online petition by Educators against Indoctrination placed on the Hazteoir.org (CitizenGo) portal, which denounces alleged inappropriate content of the “Created to Love” program.

The signature campaign is based on images that the Marianists deny are part of the program. However, Blanco, in response to questions from those present, admitted that “these images were part of an internal platform for a while” during the time the program was being created.

The petition gives a number of examples of objectionable content such as “Why can’t I dress like a girl if I feel like a girl?” “I’m not a girl or a boy because I have a penis or a vulva. I’m a girl or a boy because I know what I am. And only I decide.”

However, “the images weren’t approved” by the board of the Marianist Schools of Spain, despite the fact they were posted on the internet.

Blanco said that there was “an internal communication failure” involved in the dissemination of the images, which was publicly acknowledged last June at the Valencia school, again on Feb. 17 in Ciudad Real, and through a general statement issued March 10.

Before concluding, Blanco promised that “more complete information will be given next year” and defended the sex education program that is taught in Marianist schools in Spain: “We only have reasons to be satisfied with the effect that it’s having in the schools.”

‘There’s no language of the Church’

After the meeting, a father of several students consulted by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, said that “they haven’t given clear messages. People don’t know what they’re going to give in class.”

In addition, he lamented that, in the general scheme of content that was presented on a screen, “there’s no language of the Church, but of gender ideology. I don’t see any word that references the social doctrine of the Church.”

Gender ideology considers biological sex to not be determinative for the person but that a person can define his or her orientation and sexual identity according to the person’s preferences and even contrary to his or her nature, which different governments try to impose through the education of children and young people.

Specifically, the father wondered why in the section referring to the ethical-religious dimension, the content is listed as: “Gender violence,” “Sexual abuse of minors,” and “Discrimination against women. Sexism.”

A mother of a large family confirmed to ACI Prensa that the requests for specific information were repeated without success and that school officials have refused to withdraw the program, not even as a precautionary measure.

“The principal ended the meeting without responding or letting many of us parents speak who had asked to speak. They’ve shown themselves for who they are,” she said.

Another parent of several students at the school admitted that the fundamentals presented by Blanco “were well done,” but speaking with ACI Prensa, he corroborated that “there were many protests” and that the feeling of “helplessness” reigns among the parents.

In addition, he lamented that, at the end of the meeting, “the entire audience was left thinking: Why don’t they give us an explanation [of the specific content]?”

All this creates “stark mistrust,” he concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Catholic News Agency 10092 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

11 Comments

  1. The evil one isn’t content with the millions of children who are murdered each year around the world even before they are born. (Did you know that abortion is the number one cause of death in the world? Think of that the next time you vote for a Democrat.)

    satan has directed its minions on the left to ravage the lives of those children who manage to survive their birth by subjecting them to graphic sexualization at a very young age. In the very places where they used to be safe — their schools.

    Schools like this are exposing these very young children to the kind of materials that people used to go to prison for providing to children.

    Are these “Catholic” schools? In no way.

    The Holy Spirit is not the one that’s behind this deadly depravity. These are schools of the unholy.

    • The Society of Mary. Founded by Blessed Father William Joseph Chaminade during the French Revolution. (Not exactly a great time to start a religious order.) They operated a number of high schools in US, but declining numbers of vocations have left few religious at those schools. The University of Dayton is a Marianist college. Frankly, I am not sure how many Marianists are still there.

  2. How is this even a remotely possible discussion to have to have with ANY Catholic educational group? And why is the curriculum NOT available NOW for parents to see and comment on? We are ever more in a dark world of opaque secrecy, where the Dark one hides.

  3. I am sorry to see the Marianists in this sort of position. In my experience, an institution refuses to provide documentation when they have something to hide. Why else would they refuse to release the sex ed materials to the parents?? More than a few Catholic school have been in the news because they were corrupted by secular thinking and actions. The parents should be given the right to have their kids sit out the sex-ed class if the school is going to refuse to give them the requested materials.

  4. Director of elementary education Garcia, either given the name or chosen name Cavadonga, that associates with Spain’s first victory over the Muslims at Cavadonga in Asturias. If the battle won by the king of Asturias was a first Christian victory Cavadonga Garcia’s ed program is a proposal for victory in Madrid of the morally deranged, a derangement like poisonous purulence that has seeped into Roman Catholicism, and preached as Godlike freedom of choice of gender. As if the Creator would contradict the very order of his creation,
    Thus, the morally disordered Marianists, Marianists, Society of Mary was founded by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, a priest in the Diocese of Bordeaux during the French Revolution when Christianity was threatened and the Catholic Church was left in ruins. Religious orders begun by the saintly now the haven of the reprobate, as the Jesuits have largely become.
    France’s history changing revolution is now surpassed by an immoral revolution within the Church. A revolution designed to leave our Church in ashes. Where are the bishops, or best said where is its supreme protector? Story goes Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

    • Actually it’s Covadonga in Asturias. Added to the above travesty [the real reason for my correction] of a reversal of the natural law, and the inextricable natural bond between man and woman is the collapse of key principles of human behavior evident in natural law for aeons, and affirmed by the Church incontrovertibly by Christ.
      With that collapse of features inherent in man is the looming spectre of the collapse of civilization. If we reach back in time this has never occurred on so wide a scale quickly becoming the universal norm. Perhaps the age of Noah is when Mankind degenerated to such extent. That brought on the Great Flood. And unique in this instance is rejected along with the natural law are the saving moral principles revealed by Christ, and his gifts of grace. If the Great Flood was warranted in Noah’s day what might we expect now? Must not our bishops realize this?

  5. The University of Dayton is a Marianist college.

    A few years ago, one of the UD Marianists was caught using Grindr from his campus residence.

  6. The Marianists are now a completely post-Christian, “LGBTQ-promoting” cult, headquartered in Dayton, OH.

    They post LGBT-rainbow flags in their chapels and Church sanctuaries. Ww left the parish they were running where we live, because their “pastor” posted a rainbow poster above the altar, before he left “for personal reasons,” and then they pulled out of the parish, because they have ZERO vocations, and couldn’t afford to provide another aging 1970s dissident priest.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Marianists in Spain under fire for lack of transparency regarding sex ed program – Via Nova

Leave a Reply to Rich Leonardi Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*