Canada January 31, 2023
Bishops to continue Fully Alive program dropped by publisher after complaints
By Michael Swan
A Canadian textbook publisher has stopped publishing the Fully Alive family life textbook used in Catholic schools across Canada, including the Archdiocese of Vancouver, following accusations it fosters an atmosphere and tone harmful to gay, lesbian, and transgender students and their families.
Publisher Pearson Canada Ltd. stopped printing the textbook in December and has said it will abandon online support for the program in March. The company has not given a reason for its withdrawal, but critics have said by emphasizing heterosexual marriage as the only sacramentally approved context for sexual relationships, the books imply that homosexuality is an aberration that can only lead to sinful behaviour.
Meanwhile Ontario’s bishops and the Institute for Catholic Education intend to take over online support for the series of books for students and teachers on subjects that range from health and hygiene to sexuality and family life.
In Vancouver, where Fully Alive is used in some Catholic schools, education consultant Patrick Gillespie challenged the idea that Catholic schools either condone or teach the marginalization of sexual minorities.
“We always must be prudent in how we teach and draw people to the truth, always in charity,” he said. “The reality is that we want to offer the truth to people, in freedom, for their good, their freedom, and for abundant life.”
Gillespie pointed out that textbooks in general are of declining significance as teachers rely increasingly on online sources and classroom discussion. “In Vancouver we are referring back to Scripture and the Catechism for discussion and learning,” Gillespie said.
The Catholic Independent Schools Vancouver Archdiocese uses additional resources like The Body Matters, based on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, his series of audiences that presented a Christian anthropology of the human person and human sexuality, what it means to be human and made in God’s likeness, and how that reality is made visible in the human body.
Gillespie said contemporary ideas about sexuality portray the Catholic faith as inconsistent with science and nature when in fact Catholic teaching offers an authentic understanding of the dignity of the human person by presenting a deeper understanding of the human body. “Contemporary science is still learning about these issues and remains open to new insight,” he said.
“These are principles that are understood by people of other faiths and of no faith,” Gillespie said, “and reflect the reality of the supernatural.”
He noted that Pearson also publishes other Catholic texts that haven’t come under fire such as Growing in Faith: Growing in Christ, which the publisher says, “allows schools to present the fundamental teaching of the Church by embracing diversity and fostering a welcoming classroom community.” Eastern Catholic Churches have welcomed the program for its introduction of elements of Eastern theology and spirituality.
Peterborough Bishop Daniel Miehm, who heads up the Association of Catholic Bishops of Ontario’s education commission, said the bishops and ICE are looking at online options for Fully Alive resources “so that they will remain available to Catholic school boards.”
“The ACBO will collaborate with ICE to ensure the provision of materials so that an effective family life program will continue to be offered in our Catholic schools,” said Miehm.
In choosing to send their students to a Catholic school, parents rightly expect that the presentation of a family life curriculum will reflect a Catholic view of human life, sexuality, marriage and family,” ICE executive director Anne Jamieson said in an emailed statement. “Our core teaching remains the same — every individual is a child of God, to be treated with love, respect, compassion and sensitivity.”
What the program says
• Students experiencing same-sex attraction should be treated with sensitivity and compassion
• Teachers, counsellors and chaplains should be aware of the particular challenges facing students experiencing same-sex attraction and should reach out to them with pastoral care
• We want to speak of the family, of the ideal family; that is, the family in the fullest sense of the term; but as confronted by the actual conditions that characterize life in today’s world
• The family is called to be a communion of three precious gifts: life, love and grace
Canadian Catholic News with B.C. Catholic files