Chaste Living: Parents Come First

Chastity education, and its place in Catholic schools and religious education programs, is a hot-button issue that affects parents, students, and administration. In his monthly "Connection to Education" column, Mark Salisbury, the Diocese of Green Bay Superintendent of Schools, recounted a recent meeting he attended with a representatives from one elementary school in the diocese.

"I had the pleasure of meeting recently with some parents, teachers and the school principal of one of our diocesan Catholic schools on the topic of the future implementation of new educational guidelines for catechesis in chaste living.

It was very fitting that parents, teachers and school administration came together for this discussion because it underlines a key principle that will be addressed in the guidelines, namely that as parents, we are the ones primarily responsible for the formation of our children in virtue, and in this case the particular virtue of chastity. Parish catechetical leaders and Catholic school staff assist parents with this responsibility. During our discussion together, it was obvious that everyone at the table understood from their personal experience the primary role (we could even say duty) of parents to educate their children in faith and morals.

The opportunity to assist parents in this area of their children's formation is an exciting and challenging one for Catholic schools. The parents at our meeting mentioned above clearly stated it is because of the way the Catholic school supports the values they are imparting to their children at home that they choose to send their children to a Catholic school. This unity of purpose between what our parents’ values and goals are and the goals and values of Catholic school education is an important basis upon which we will build our chaste living guidelines and programs.
In partnership with parents, our Catholic schools will join with parish catechetical leaders and the diocesan task force charged with developing this new program to implement various creative and quality programs over the next several years designed to assist parents with the moral formation of their children.

When parents, teachers, and administration collaboratively plan programming for chastity education in their Catholic school, in concert with the teachings of our Catholic Church and coordinated with parish religious education initiatives, great programming can result. The diocesan Department of Education is committed to assisting parishes and local school communities to engage in this meaningful planning work. In the months and years ahead we will make personal school site visits to help facilitate this collaborative planning process."