AIDS Education Can Be a Form of Sex Education

To the extent that AIDS education is sex education, it is forbidden by the Magisterium. Dr. Damien Fedoryka, former President of Christendom College, explains that AIDS education is a method by which explicit sex education and initiation in sexual perversions enters the classroom.

DR. FEDORYKA WARNS ABOUT AIDS EDUCATION, SEX EDUCATION

The Wanderer, July 14, 1988

In a brilliant address, Fedoryka pointed out that AIDS (as well as syphilis and gonorrhea) is a legitimate concern of the state. He conceded that the state must “do something” about AIDS but noted it is an entirely different question to ask what must be done. “I would say that the state and the schools do have a legitimate right to indicate the harmful consequences of activities which are immoral (even if the state or school does not describe them as immoral). “But they have no right or obligation to describe the procedures for rendering such intrinsically immoral activities “safe” from their harmful consequences.

This means, of course, that the only legitimate recourse of the state and schools, if they wish to avoid the issue of morality, is to teach that certain kinds of behavior must be avoided if the harm is to be avoided. But here, the objectively immoral behavior should not be described in detail.” Continuing, Fedoryka stated, “Under no conditions may the Catholic school use the neutral approach in talking about the harmful consequences of intrinsically immoral behavior. A fortiori it may not teach how to render such behavior “safe.”

Stating that sexually explicit AIDS education is another form of improper sex education, Fedoryka concluded, “I cannot finish without some reflections on morality and sex education. What I have in mind is a position accepted by many Catholics and Christians who hold that sex education in schools is acceptable as long as it includes morality. As long as such a sex education includes making sexuality explicitly thematic and public, I disagree. My position is that the very nature of human sexuality demands that it be excluded from a public classroom treatment…To the extent that sex education includes sexual morality, it must respect the privacy of that sphere, it should be private…

Remember that the objectively immoral behavior which leads to AIDS must never be described in detail in classroom. Catholic children, however, must be taught as part of the teaching about the Commandments that it is morally evil to engage in the kinds of behavior which could cause one to become infected with AIDS.

Obviously, Understanding AIDS – a Message from the Surgeon General should not be handed out to any child.

Carefully check who is going to teach each proposed course in the diocese. Be certain to obtain a meeting with the principal and the AIDS teacher and determine the opinion of both in regard to: Humane Vitae; abortion, homosexuality.

In addition, insist on knowing the qualifications of the teacher.

It is tremendously important to bring all of the above-mentioned facts to the attention of the school authorities. Let them know it is one thing to stress that objectively immoral behavior can lead to AIDS but quite another to have a separate course exclusively devoted to AIDS education and the explanation of the clinical details of the behavior that leads to AIDS.

The National Catholic Education Association’s AIDS curriculum, at the Religious Education Office, is one such AIDS course exclusively devoted to AIDS education and the explanation in clinical detail of the behavior that leads to AIDS. This, too, should therefore be removed from the Archdiocese.

Of course, great care should be taken to warn parents to remove their children from AIDS/sex education courses in the public schools. The supposed compromise programs, which includes abstinence education in the public forum, is really a win/win situation for Planned Parenthood. Every sexual vice will be presented to children in an open and public format, including the most disastrous of slogans, “Abstinence is always a choice for those who believe that they should postpone sex until they are ready.”