Archbishop: parents should keep kids out of public school sex ed classes

by Matthew Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

November 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), the archbishop of San Jose, Costa Rica, has denied reports that the Costa Rican bishops have retreated on the issue of public school sex education, saying that he is still urging parents to keep their children out of the classes.

Parents should “learn and see the evil that’s [in the sex ed classes], because it is profoundly hedonist,” Msgr. Hugo Barrantes Ureña told LSN. “What they want is for children to explore their bodies, to learn that the body has the potential for pleasure, that it’s necessary to discover it. It’s hedonist. Pleasure, pleasure —it doesn’t speak of an integral vision of sexuality, integrated in the human person in a total vision of the human person. It’s incomplete.”

Barrantes’ comments contradict commentators in Costa Rica who have accused the bishops of backing down because they have instructed parents to make the decision themselves and to follow their consciences.

“We haven’t softened our position,” said Barrantes. “Some have wanted to say that we bishops are retreating, in the sense that parents don’t have to act. We have only used a different way of speaking.”

Asked if he would counsel parents not to permit their children to attend, Barrantes replied, “exactly.”

The Supreme Court has ruled that the sex-ed program will be optional in response to both Catholics and Evangelicals who have objected to it.

Archbishop Barrantes Ureña also told LSN that the sex-ed program is being pushed by international organizations that are waging “war against God.” The groups, he said, fund local groups seeking to disenfranchise the Catholic Church in Costa Rica, which under the constitution has recognition as the official state religion.

“They have allied themselves in Costa Rica with groups that speak of a ‘secular state,’ of a secularist state,” said Barrantes. “They have united with groups that want to expel God from our constitution. They have united with groups that say that the constitutional oath shouldn’t mention God. It appears that the war is against God.”