Have 'I Survived Catholic School' T-shirts now taken on another meaning?
I think the Bishop of Nottingham may need reminding about the truth concerning the Government's levels of success in teaching sex education to children. Here is a letter written by, or rather for, Bishop Malcolm MacMahon, in response to a Catholic's ever-increasing concerns over the Catholic Education Service's betrayal of Catholic parents, teachers and children. Highly dubious parts of the Bishop's (secretary's) response in bold, orange. Actually...on second thought, it's all rather dubious.
Dear Mrs [name removed on request]
Thank you for your email of 22 February 2010.
The Children Schools and Families Bill which is presently passing through Parliament has been amended in important ways by the patient and thorough work done by the CES. As a result, the policy for Sex and Relationships Education in a Catholic School will be determined by the governing body. This means that the religious character of the school will be reflected in the delivery of the subject to the pupils. Furthermore, parents will have the right to withdraw their children from SRE lessons up to the age of 15 years.
In the face of a Government with a very large parliamentary majority, the CES considers that it gets the best results for the Catholic community by negotiation. I believe that this is the responsible stance for the CES to take and has protected the rights of Catholic parents and families. To oppose the Bill outright would have put Catholic Schools in a position where they would have lost out on the concessions gained by the CES.
Yours sincerely,
Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon OP
Bishop of Nottingham
Message sent on behalf of Bishop McMahon
Catherine Campbell
Bishop's Secretary
What 'concessions' were those again?! Oh yes! Now I remember! The obligation to give Catholic pupils information about how to access abortion. I hear the recipient of that letter is none too pleased. Not surprised!
No comments:
Post a Comment