AMERICA/PANAMA - Bishops call for a correct “sexual education towards love, in accord with our condition as rational beings and in an effort to strengthen the institution of the family”

Panama City (Agenzia Fides) - The Permanent Committee of the Panamanian Bishops’ Conference has recently published a statement manifesting their perspectives on the two draft bills that are trying to be introduced in the country. One is on “Sexual and Reproductive Health” and the other is on “Integral Protection for Childhood and Adolescence.”
The Bishops’ Statement opens with a reflection on the State’s role in providing integral health care for the population. The Bishops see the “need to promote an authentic sexual education whose end is not pleasure for the sake of pleasure, but an education towards love in accord with our condition as rational beings and in an effort to strengthen the institution of the family, with respect for the biological times of childhood and adolescence.” In this sense, the Catholic Church has participated in various meetings with Health, Education, and Development Ministers regarding the two draft bills, in efforts to collaborate in serving the common good and in order to offer “their perspective regarding all that which pertains to the life of the human being, marriage, and the family, the nucleus of society.”
The Bishops explain how some of the suggestions presented by Church representatives “have been incorporated into the mentioned draft bills.” However, they cannot cease to proclaim their lack of agreement in other articles “due to their ambiguity and because they would contradict doctrine that our Church has always proclaimed in defense of the dignity of sexuality, the human person, the gift of life, the family, and marriage as a stable union between a man and a woman.” They also recall the words stated by Servant of God John Paul II in his visit to Panama 25 years ago, last week (see Fides 4/3/2008): “the Christian should say yes to an indissoluble marriage; yes to a responsible life within a legitimate marriage; yes to the protection of life; yes to the stability of the family; yes to the legitimate coexistence that favors communion and a balanced education of children, under a paternal and maternal care that complement each other in the formation of new persons.”
The polemic regarding the law that seeks to promote education, information, and awareness about sexual and reproductive health, is above all in the imposition by the Education Department of textbooks and “Sexual Guides” that, according to the Catholic Church are lacking in religious and moral values and criteria. The Panama Alliance for Life and the Family made an analysis of the content of these texts and warned the public of the State’s intent to impose important cultural changes on sexual matters. Both the Bishops and numerous associations and groups at the service of life and the family have begun speaking out against the law (see Fides 10/10/2007). (RG) (Agenzia Fides; righe 35, parole 455)