Bishop rejects Fully Alive.

Fully Alive is the Family Life Education (FLE) program approved by the Ontario bishops in the eighties. Despite criticisms from groups of parents who had taken an interest in the pilot projects independently from consultors to the editorial team, the bishops put their stamp of approval on it. Since the eighties the following events occurred.

1. The Interim

In 1991 the pro-life monthly The Interim published a series of critical articles, culminating in a February 1992 eight-page insert in which the editor at the time, Fr. Alphonse de Valk, and associates summarized their conclusions after reading the entire 21 volumes of Grades 1-7 then available. While acknowledging positive aspects to Fully Alive, they saw three major faults:

* Its religious pedagogy is inadequate as a defence of the family today;

* its sexual explicitness undermines the rights and work of [conscientious] parents . . . while contributing little if anything of worth to children of parents who don't care, while quite possibly being psychologically and spiritually dangerous to the child;

* Fully Alive was intended to be a truly Catholic FLE program, but the execution of the project does not live up to the intention. While the Curriculum Guideline of 1983 projected a program based on Pope John Paul's teaching on sexuality and sex education in the light of faith, the light of faith was reduced to a minimum.

2. Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

In 1993 and 1994 the Religious Education office of the Archdiocese of Washington examined a number of FLE programs, including Ontario's Fully Alive. FA was rejected. Reasons given were:

* the program fails "to integrate the faith perspective in its presentation."

* it is "not Christ-centred."

3. Vatican guidelines

In December 1995 the Vatican published guidelines for sex education in Catholic schools entitled Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality. The Pontifical Council for the Family insists that parents have a say on what children are taught or not taught, that parents should not be blocked out of the decision making process, and that certain areas about the gift of human sexuality should be left to parents and not taught in school. Thereupon the Archdiocese of Washington reviewed its policy on sex education in schools with K-8 "family life" programs once more. Approved were Dr. Hanna Klaus' Teen Star program (but not her In God's Image), and the new special edition of the Benziger Family Life Program.

Not approved were programs such as William C. Brown's New Creation, and, once again, the Ontario Bishops' Fully Alive (Wanderer, July 18, 1996).

4. Saskatchewan bishop speaks out

At the beginning of 1996 Saskatchewan's then newly retired Ukrainian Byzantine rite Bishop Basil Filevich issued the following statement. (Emphasis is in the original)

Re: The family life education program Fully Alive

As recent Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon, I have had both the authority and the duty to oversee the education of the Ukrainian Catholic faithful in this Eparchy regarding matters of faith and morals. Together with the Ukrainian Catholic priests in Saskatoon, I have recently completed a review of the family life education program Fully Alive. Our unanimous consensus was that the program is seriously flawed. The following is a summary of my conclusions:

1. Jesus Christ is "the way the truth and the life." Family life education, which deals with important aspects of faith and life, must therefore be centered in Jesus Christ and the teaching of His Church. Fully Alive, however, is so weak in these areas that it is neither. The result is the undermining of the faith of the children.

2. Christ's teaching on chastity, as explained by the Church, is essential to family life. It is only by following this teaching that all people, but especially young people, can avoid the risk of such dangers as sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS; pregnancy outside of marriage, with the associated pressure to choose abortion; and, the risk of falling into a lifestyle which could result in the loss of eternal salvation.

Fully Alive does not present and promote the fullness of Church teaching on this subject. Instead Fully Alive uses a methodology for the teaching of human reproduction which is not designed to produce chastity. Rather, the methodology is designed with the false understanding that early sexual activity is natural, good, and will likely occur. This methodology will thus work against, rather than support Church teaching.

3. The Church continually seeks to uphold the rights of parents to be the primary educators of their children, especially in the area of sexuality. This wisdom is demonstrated by the fact that only the parents are well enough informed about their own child's development as to be able to discern when they are ready to receive this information. The home, not the school, is the preferred location for this teaching to take place. By teaching human reproduction in the classroom, Fully Alive violates the rights of parents to decide when and how the information on human reproduction is taught.

4. Fully Alive also violates and contravenes Church teaching in the areas of age appropriateness for the teaching of human reproduction; co-ed classrooms for the teaching of human reproduction; and Church teaching on morality not being clearly taught along with biology.

I issue this document with the best interests of the faithful in mind.

Faithfully Yours in Christ

Most Reverend Bishop Basil Filevich

Editor's note: Please be aware that parents do not have to accept Fully Alive family education classes for their children. Parental rights come ahead of school programs in these matters. As Toronto Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic wrote:

". . . there are some parents who do not wish their children to participate in a school based family life education. I wish to affirm their right to withdraw their children from these classes."

Catholic Register, Jan. 12, 1992