Life Is Unfair, But God Is Good

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education

EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN HUMAN LOVE

Some Particular Problems

IV. SOME PARTICULAR PROBLEMS

The teacher may find that in carrying out his or her mission, he or she may be confronted by several particular problems, which we treat here.

94. Sex education must lead the young to take cognizance of the different expressions and dynamisms of sexuality and of the human values which must be respected. True love is the capacity to open oneself to one's neighbor in generosity, and in devotion to the other for the other's good; it knows how to respect the personality and the freedom of the others, it is self-giving, not possessive. The sex instinct, on the other hand, if abandoned to itself, is reduced to the merely genital, and tends to take possession of the other, immediately seeking personal gratification.

95. Relationships of sexual intimacy are reserved to marriage, because only then is the inseparable connection secured--which God wants between the unitive and the procreative meaning of such matters, which are ordained to maintain, confirm and express a definitive communion of life--"one flesh"(54) mediating the realization of a love that is "human," "total," "faithful," "creative,"(55) which is marital love. Therefore, sexual relations outside the context of marriage constitute a grave disorder, because they are reserved to a reality which does not yet exist(56); they are a language which is not found in the objective reality of the life of the two persons, not yet constituted in definitive community with the necessary recognition and guarantee of civil and, for Catholic spouses, religious society.

96. It seems that there is an increase among adolescents and young adults of certain manifestations of a sexual kind which of themselves tend to complete encounter, though without reaching its realization: manifestations of the merely genital which are a moral disorder because they are outside the matrimonial context of authentic love.

97. Sex education will help adolescents to discover the profound values of love, and to understand the harm which such manifestations do to their affective maturation, inasmuch as they lead to an encounter which is not personal, but instinctive, often weakened by reservations and egoistic calculations, without therefore the character of true personal relationship and so much less definitive. An authentic education will lead the young towards maturity and self-control, the fruit of conscientious choice and personal effort.

98. It is the task of sex education to promote a continuous progress in the control of the impulses to effect an opening, in due course, to true and self-giving love. A particularly complex and delicate problem which can be present is that of masturbation and of its repercussions on the integral growth of the person. Masturbation, according to Catholic doctrine, constitutes a grave moral disorder,(57) principally because it is the use of the sexual faculty in a way which essentially contradicts its finality, not being at the service of love and life according to the design of God.(58)

99. A teacher and perspicacious counselor must endeavor to identify the causes of the deviation in order to help the adolescent to overcome the immaturity underlying this habit. From an educative point of view, it is necessary to consider masturbation and other forms of autoeroticism as symptoms of problems much more profound, which provoke sexual tension which the individual seeks to resolve by recourse to such behavior. Pedagogic action, therefore, should be directed more to the causes than to the direct repression of the phenomenon.(59)

While taking account of the objective gravity of masturbation, it is necessary to be cautious in evaluating the subjective responsibility of the person.(60)

100. In order that the adolescent be helped to feel accepted in a communion of charity and freed from self-enclosure, the teacher "should un-dramatize masturbation and not reduce his or her esteem and benevolence for the pupil."(61) The teacher will help the pupil towards social integration, to be open and interested in others, to be able to be free from this form of autoeroticism, advancing towards self-giving love, proper to mature affectivity; at the same time, the teacher will encourage the pupil to have recourse to the recommended means of Christian asceticism, such as prayer and the sacraments, and to be involved in works of justice and charity.

101. Homosexuality, which impedes the person's acquisition of sexual maturity, whether from the individual point of view, or the interpersonal, is a problem which must be faced in all objectivity by the pupil and the educator when the case presents itself.

"Pastorally, these homosexuals must be received with understanding and supported in the hope of overcoming their personal difficulties and their social mal-adaptation. Their culpability will be judged with prudence; but no pastoral method can be used which, holding that these acts conform to the condition of these persons, accord them a moral justification.

"According to the objective moral order, homosexual relations are acts deprived of their essential and indispensable rule."(62)

102. It will be the duty of the family and the teacher to seek first of all to identify the factors which drive towards homosexuality: to see if it is a question of physiological or psychological factors; if it be the result of a false education or of the lack of normal sexual evolution; if it comes from a contracted habit or from bad example(63); or from other factors. More particularly, in seeking the causes of this disorder, the family and the teacher will have to take account of the elements of judgment proposed by the ecclesiastical Magisterium, and be served by the contribution which various disciplines can offer. One must, in fact, investigate elements of diverse order: lack of affection, immaturity, obsessive impulses, seduction, social isolation and other types of frustration, depravity in dress, license in shows and publications. In greater profundity lies the innate frailty of man and woman, the consequence of original sin; it can run to the loss of the sense of God and of man and woman, and have its repercussions in the sphere of sexuality.(64)

103. The causes having been sought and understood, the family and the teacher will offer an efficacious help in the process of integral growth: welcoming with understanding, creating a climate of hope, encouraging the emancipation of the individual and his or her growth in self-control, promoting an authentic moral force towards conversion to the love of God and neighbor, suggesting--if necessary--medical-psychological assistance from persons attentive to and respectful of the teaching of the Church.

104. A permissive society which does not offer valid values on which to found one's life promotes alienating escapism, to which the young are subject in a particular way. Their idealism encounters the harshness of life, causing a tension which can provoke, because of the frailty of the will, a destructive escape in drugs.

This is one of the problems which is getting worse and which assumes dramatic tones for the teacher. Some psychotropic substances raise the sensibility for sexual pleasure and in general diminish the capacity for self-control and thereby for defense. The prolonged abuse of drugs leads to physical and psychological destruction. Drugs, mistaken autonomy and sexual disorders are often found together. The psychological situation and the human context of isolation being such, many people give up--addicts living in rebellion, creating conditions which easily lead into sexual abuses.

105. Remedial intervention, which calls for a profound transformation of the individual from within and without, is laborious and long, because it must help to reconstruct the personality and relationships with the world of people and values. Preventative action is more efficacious. It secures the avoidance of deep affective decline. It is love and care which educate towards value dignity, respect for life, for the body, for sex, for health. The civil and Christian community must know how to welcome on time the young who are abandoned, alone, insecure; helping them to be included in study and in work, to occupy their free time; offering them healthy places for meeting, happiness, activity; furnishing them with occasions for affective relationships and for solidarity.

In particular, sports, which are at the service of man and woman, possess a great educative value, not only as bodily discipline, but also as healthy relaxation in which young people are encouraged to renounce their egotism and to meet other people. Only a freedom which is authentic, educated, aided and promoted offers protection from the quest for the illusory liberty of drugs and sex.