Polish church calls on parents not to send children to “corrupting” new health education classes

The Catholic church in Poland has appealed to parents not to permit their children to attend an optional new subject, health education, that is being introduced by the government at the start of the new school year next week.

The bishops claim that the lessons, which include elements of sex education, are “anti-family”, “gender destabilising” and will “morally corrupt children”. A deputy education minister, however, says that the church is spreading “fake news”.

Starting on 1 September, health education will be taught from the fourth grade of primary school upwards. It will replace so-called education for family life (WDŻ) classes, which were also optional, as part of a new school curriculum introduced by the education ministry.

Initially, it had been planned to make the classes mandatory. But the plans prompted criticism and protests from conservative groups as well as the right-wing political opposition, and it was eventually decided to make them optional.

Parents who do not wish their children to take the subject, which defines “health as a value that should be cared for in its physical, mental, sexual, social and environmental dimensions”, can submit a declaration to their school by 25 September.

The Polish Episcopal Conference (KEP), the central organ of the Catholic Church in Poland, has now issued a renewed appeal to parents asking them not to allow their children to attend.

“You must not consent to the systematic moral corruption of your children, which is to be carried out under the pretext of so-called health education,” wrote the KEP in a letter originally published in May but now posted again on social media as a reminder to parents preparing for the new school year.

“Out of concern for their upbringing and salvation, we urge you not to allow your children to participate,” they added, stressing that, while “some media outlets” present the new subject as being focused on “the health of students”, its actual aim “is to completely change the perception of family and love”.

The church criticised the way that “sexual activity has been separated from marriage and is presented as liberation from all barriers, including age limits and responsibility for its consequences” and dependent only on “the criterion of informed consent”.

It also claimed that the new classes will “encourage children and young people to reject their femininity or masculinity” and for “girls to identify as boys and boys to identify as girls”

“Polish law unequivocally recognises the existence of two genders: male and female,” wrote the church. “So-called health education being introduced in schools violates all such legal provisions and, in the long run, aims to transform Polish law into one that is anti-family and gender destabilising.”

However, a deputy education minister, Katarzyna Lubnauer, told broadcaster TOK FM that the bishops’ claims are “a typical example of fake news” and that in fact health education “is exactly the opposite of what is described in their letter”.

She read excerpts from the curriculum, highlighting that children will be taught about “the value of the family in a person’s personal life” and “ways of caring for family bonds”.

Tomasz Terlikowski, a prominent Catholic journalist and commentator, also accused the KEP of spreading “obvious lies”, including the claim that the new curriculum encourages children to reject their traditional gender identity.

In an opinion piece for news website Wirtualna Polska, Terlikowski encouraged parents to send their children to the health education classes.

The education minister, Barbara Nowacka, has also previously dismissed conservative criticism, saying in February this year that the new subject is “much needed, especially for young people”, in order to “equip them with the knowledge to take care of their health”.

Nowacka has also faced criticism – and legal challenges – from the church over changes she has made to the teaching of Catholic catechism in schools, including cutting the number of hours and removing it from end-of-year grade averages.

Main image credit: Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl