Archbishop Sean O’Malley has sent a letter to pastors, principals, and religious education coordinators updating the status of the Talking about Touching child safety program. Basically, he says that the archdiocese is developing a specifically Catholic child safety education program, but meanwhile we’ll continue to use a modified version of Talking about Touching.
He claims that Talking about Touching has undergone a review by a committee of parents, principals, teachers, pastors, a theologian, and religious education leaders headed by Bishop Richard Malone, as well as the Office of Child Advocacy, which was the office that proposed the program in the first place. The archbishop says, “The program as modified is consistent with a Christian view of the dignity of the person and the means to upholding that dignity.” What he doesn’t do is address the problematic aspects of the program, that it was developed by a group founded by a pro-prostitution organization and a “Wiccan, Dianic” sex priestess or somesuch. As the saying goes, You can put a dress and makeup on a pig, and take it out to dinner, but it will still be a pig.”
Archbishop O’Malley also says that they’re establishing yet another committee, this one of pastors and religious education coordinators, to suggest further modification that might be needed.
We must be able to assure our parents that every program we use is developmentally appropriate, that options have been taken to minimize unnecessarily explicit details that might upset children and that the program respects the rights of parents and protects the innocence of children.
How about rather than just “minimizing” the exposure of children to unecessarily explicit details, we eliminate that exposure?
