ASIA/INDIA - Educating the youth in purity of spirit and chastity

Kochi (Agenzia Fides) - Offering an alternative to the growing culture marked by the “marketing” and devaluation of sexuality, the Catholic Church of India, in Kerala (the Indian state with the most percentage of Catholics) is preparing a document soon to be published, in efforts to educate the youth in purity of spirit and chastity. The initiative is part of a wider awareness project geared towards the youth and is meant to foster greater attention, responsibility, and respect towards one’s own body and that of others. The heart of the campaign is: “Jesus Christ did not despise the body nor human nature; choosing to become man and unite Himself to humanity, He has sanctified the body which is temple of the Holy Spirit.” There is an urgent need, therefore, to spread the awareness of this message, especially in schools, among students, helping them to live their sexuality as an integral part of human life, focusing on the great value of purity, chastity, and abstinence, explained Fr. Jose Kottayil, Secretary of the Commission for the Family and the Laity, of the Bishops’ Council of Kerala.
The text will be available in June 2008 and will be distributed and studied among secondary schools, especially for the sake of the youth and adolescents. The Church seeks, in this way, to fight the sexual anarchy that has infiltrated society, the hedonistic perspective that abounds especially concerning the sexual activity of young people, and the tendency to take for granted the situation of promiscuity among young people that legitimizes “the physiological and psychological need to have sexual relations” and promotes the condom and contraceptives as the means to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
The text was compiled by a team of priests, psychologists, and sociologists and has sought to present human sexuality not only in its biological aspects, but with its moral and spiritual implications as well, offering an integral view of the person.
The material will be implemented in the Catholic schools of Kerala and will be used for study and concrete analysis by students, as well as in encounters organized by Churches, and Catholic associations and movements.
In Kerala, there are over 700 Catholic schools, attended by over 700,000 students. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/3/2008; righe 29, parole 364)