London, England, Nov 18, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The Catholic Church in Scotland has criticized the Scottish government’s new guidance on sex education, arguing that the latest proposals threaten the right of Catholic schools to protect their religious ethos.
Following the release of a draft government document called “Guidance on Relationships, Sexual Health, and Parenthood (RSHP) Education,” Scotland’s bishops issued a forthright statement on Nov. 8 in response, highlighting that previous religious protections had been scrubbed out.
“The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland is both disappointed and confused at the decision by the Scottish government to delete all reference to Catholic schools in its ‘Guidance on the Delivery of Relationships, Sexual Health, and Parenthood (RSHP) Education in Scottish Schools’ document,” the bishops said.
“We strongly request the reinsertion of the paragraphs relating to denominational education from the previous iteration of the guidance, which would reflect both the legal protection for schools with a religious character and the previously supportive position of the Scottish government for Catholic schools.”
Catholic schools in Scotland are part of what is known as the state system of education — the equivalent of public schools in the U.S.
However, up until now, Catholic schools in Scotland were guaranteed the right to control their own curriculum in order to ensure it remained consistent with the Church’s moral teachings.
The Scottish bishops are concerned that the latest guidance makes no reference to this arrangement, contrary to guidelines from previous years, which stated:
“The Scottish government supports the right of the Roman Catholic Church to give witness to its faith and to uphold the traditions of Catholic education.
“We value the contribution made by Catholic schools and have no intention of changing the current position where faith aspects of the curriculum in Catholic schools are determined by the Scottish Catholic Education Service acting on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.”
However, the latest proposals no longer include this caveat and instead read:
“Schools have a key role to play in providing an educational experience that is inclusive for all, regardless of the beliefs and values they hold. With inclusive RSHP education, children and young people, where religion and/or belief plays a role in their identities, should be able to feel included and accepted within their school and community.”
According to a report in the Herald Scotland, a spokesperson for the Scottish government claimed that it had consulted more than 30 stakeholders when formulating the guidance, including the Scottish Catholic Education Service. The report went on to say that the Church dismissed this account by the government as “disingenuous.”
Meanwhile, parents at one of the most prestigious Catholic schools in Scotland are mobilizing in order to try to reverse the government’s plans.
In a bulletin released by the parents council of St. Ninian’s High School in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire — shown exclusively to CNA — parents were urged to write to the government and make their concerns about the latest proposals known.
The November edition of the bulletin states: “For many years now, the content of sex education in Catholic state schools has been determined by the Catholic Church. That system has worked well for our children. It teaches sex education within a Catholic moral context. Our children are not thereby exposed to the ‘free-for-all,’ and more extreme and graphic content, that is available to children in nondenominational schools.
“Previously, the Scottish government’s written guidance has explicitly acknowledged — indeed, supported — the right of the Catholic Church to determine the content of the sex education curriculum in Catholic schools. That’s been the established position for over a century. This new draft guidance removes that right.
“The draft guidance also seeks to enforce the active promotion of an LGBT-inclusive education across the entire school curriculum (literacy, sciences, history, religious, and moral education, etc.) in order to determine the ‘ethos’ of the school.”
The government consultation period ends on Nov. 23, after which time feedback on the new guidance will no longer be received.
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Our world from Scotland and to the far reaches of our planet has been enlightened. The torch bearer is the Angel of Light, his daemonic eminence Lucifer.
A true mystery is God’s justice. Why would the divine majesty, who hurled Lucifer down to earth, down deeper to the bowels of an eternal inferno, provide for equanimity for purchase of souls? Why wasn’t he kept imprisoned? Instead he’s permitted to patrol the earth seeking victims, and to contend with God on the issue of justice for the poor mortal in question? How can that be if not for the incomprehensibleness of God?
Lucifer wins souls by sheer sensual persuasion, or when suitable with sophisticated intellectual argument. Of a much higher order of intellect he’s pretty good at forming persuasive arguments to do something as horrendous as to enter his kingdom. Freedom, liberty, the individual as sovereign in relation to all things, today the most perverse disorder of homosexuality in all its myriad forms, LGBT acquiring letter after letter after number to identify some new bizarre distortion of the satanically distorted human mind. Christ, the Son of God purchased us by his blood.
Lucifer seemed to ‘divine’ this, perhaps the reason why the great cults practiced human sacrifice, as did the Canaanites, as did the Aztecs, Mayans in the new world. He true to form, and as Our lord warned, induced the Israelites to immolate their own sons and daughters. God, scripture says recoiled in horror. For justice sake God inflicted a terrible punishment. Jews stricken with famine began to cannibalize their own children. Can we successfully contemplate the justice in this? Lucifer likely would, not because of his inveterate evil, rather because of his superior intellect. Lucifer would also conceive Jesus as the promised savior. If he were rejected and crucified that would be the end of it. A sacrificial offering is one thing, betrayal, abandonment by the Apostles and disciples is another. Although something entirely unexpected happened. He rose from the dead. Who could understand the depth of God’s justice?
“Inclusive”, “consultation”.
Why does my skeptical radar go through the roof when I read these words?