Canadian publisher withdraws Catholic textbooks after LGBT criticism | National Catholic Register

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Pearson Canada will continue to publish a different series for Catholic schools in Canada. The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario and the Vatican’s Catholic education organization have addressed issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Textbook publisher Pearson Canada has removed Ontario’s Catholic education program Fully Alive from its offerings after LGBT advocates claimed Catholic content was homophobic.

The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario sponsors Fully Alive, calling it a family life education program. It makes up about 20% of the religious education curriculum in Ontario Catholic schools and is taught about once a week, according to the Bishops of Toronto website. The series was first published between 1988 and 1992, with updates in 2006 and 2012.

Family life and sex education, as represented in Fully Alive, aims to convey a distinctively Catholic view of human life, sexuality, marriage and family. Its goal is to complement the efforts of families and support what parents are doing at home.

Pearson had been the publisher of the Fully Alive curriculum, which includes grades 1-8 textbooks and teacher resources.

A Pearson spokesperson told CNA on Jan. 12 that it was ending its support for Fully Alive. It stopped printing in December and will stop supporting the digital version by March.

Critics of the decision included the Institute for Catholic Education, a Toronto-based Catholic education body, which had helped choose the Fully Alive curriculum for bishops. The institute told CBC Toronto that parents rightly expect the presentation of a family life curriculum to reflect a Catholic view of human life, sexuality, marriage and family.

Pearson Canada will continue to publish a different series for Catholic schools in Canada, Growing in Faith.

Ontario is one of three Canadian provinces that fully fund Catholic school systems with tax dollars. Catholic dioceses do not own these schools. Although the bishops of Ontario establish catechism programs in Catholic schools, they have no control over Catholic school boards in Ontario. Instead, Catholic school boards are elected by Catholics in municipal elections.

Kyle Iannuzzi, a former school trustee for the Toronto Catholic District School Board who is now a member of its LGBT+ advisory committee, filed a complaint about the books with Pearson Canada in June 2022. Six months later, the company told him said she would stop printing the books. This month, Ianuzzi found that the digital versions were still available.

He told CBC Toronto that the Fully Alive program excludes those who do not identify as heterosexual or who have gender identity issues. He argued that the program provides sexualized notions of the self that adhere to the Catholic faith but are at odds with the reality of science and nature.

It really fosters an experience of loneliness, Iannuzzi said, saying it contributes to self-harm in gay children, especially in Catholic settings.

Paolo de Buono, a teacher with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, runs a website called Stop the Catholic Harm that criticizes the Fully Alive curriculum. Among the content he found objectionable was the title of a Fully Alive theme for year three, Created Sexual: Male and Female. He considered this title to be deliberately homophobic.

[W]What is taught in Fully Alive Catholic schools would easily be considered homophobia or transphobia or both in a public education context, the Buonos website charged.

In his summary, he objected to teaching students that sexual love should only occur in a male-female marriage (in which children should only be born or adopted) and that people should identify by sex with the gender (male or female) assigned to them. at birth.

De Buono stopped using Fully Alive in lesson plans. He told CBC Toronto: No Catholic teacher should be teaching this type of content to students.

Pearson Canada conducts diversity, equity and inclusion reviews of its K-12 content, including religious content, according to a statement on its website. The statement noted that its website has a page for reporting potential biases.

If anyone feels a resource or service lacks diversity, perpetuates stereotypes, or harbors bias against a group, they can report their concerns through the portal or contact their local representative, the statement said.

The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario and the Vatican’s Catholic education organization have addressed issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

In a 2016 document titled The Human Person, Love and Sexuality, the Catholic Bishops of Ontario encouraged Catholic teachers to present the Catholic Christian version of human life and love, including the meaning of sexuality, chastity and marriage.

The bishops’ paper discussed the Catholic approach to sexuality and identity and the concepts of sexual sin and morality. He further emphasized the importance of pastoral care for students who experience feelings of same-sex attraction or who question their sexual or gender identity. The document both emphasized the importance of not asserting culpable sexual acts and clearly rejected harassment or intimidation.

In the June 2019 document Man and Woman he created, the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education took a critical stance against gender ideology and affirmed the legitimate aspirations of Catholic schools to maintain their own view of human sexuality.

He warned against educational programs based on gender ideology that promote ideas of personal identity and intimacy that radically break with the actual biological difference between male and female.

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