Parents, Children, and the Facts of Life , livre ebook

TAN Books - V. Sattler Rev. Fr. Henry

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244 pages

English

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Father Sattler has written Parents, Children and the Facts of Life to help parents fulfill the extremely important duty of training boys and girls to be pure and innocent, and eventually to enter marriage with a noble and holy purpose if God calls them to that state of life. According to the official Catholic teaching, sex education is the duty of the parents, yet many parents still struggle to convey the facts of life to their children in a natural and inspiring way. Applying traditional Catholic principles to very practical questions, Fr. Sattler explains what parents should tell their children, when and how they should tell it, what moral and psychological dangers they must avoid, and what questions they should anticipate. His conversational and down to earth style provides parents with the confidence and practical wisdom to fulfill their role as their children's primary teachers of the facts of life.

Sujets

Christian theology

Catholic Church

School

Christianity

École

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	01 juin 1993
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781618904492
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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I MPRIMI P OTEST: John Sephton, C.SS.R. Provincial Superior October 13, 1951 N IHIL O BSTAT: Bede Babo, O.S.B. Censor Librorum I MPRIMATUR: Thomas A. Boland Bishop of Paterson October 22, 1952
Copyright © 1952 by St. Anthony’s Guild.
Originally published by St. Anthony Guild Press, Paterson, N.J., in January 1953 and reprinted September 1953, February 1955 and again in 1961. Also published by Doubleday in the Image Book series in 1956 and reprinted by them numerous times. (Total copies printed prior to the TAN edition: approx. 750,000.)
Reprinted with permission of The Franciscans, St. Anthony’s Guild, Paterson, New Jersey 07509-2948.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 93-60170
ISBN 978-0-89555-489-5
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina 1993
To Saint Maria Goretti
Martyred for Her Love of Chastity and Modesty
ACCLAMATIONS OF THIS BOOK …
“… because of widespread appeal from parents asking for such a work I am happy to voice approval of this popular book by Father Sattler, Parents, Children and the Facts of Life .”
—Most Rev. Edwin V. O’Hara, Archbishop Chairman, Episcopal Committee Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
“This work is by far the best on the subject produced to date… clear, forceful, definitive…the last word in Christian Sex Education.”
—Dr. Alphonse Clemens, Director Marriage Counseling Center Catholic University
“This is, perhaps, the best, the most complete, and the most practical treatment of the whole question of sex education yet written by a Catholic.”
—Catholic Transcript
“For practicality, precision of detail, thoroughness of treatment combined with compactness of volume, we do not know the equal of this book in the sex education field.”
—The Register
“A providential answer to a problem which we who are concerned with education find more pressing month by month… I thank God for its existence.”
—Msgr. Sylvester J. Holbel Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Buffalo
“Seldom has a manual been written which fills so adequately the purpose for which it is intended.”
—The Magnificat
Publisher’s Preface
Parents, Children and the Facts of Life is undoubtedly the most successful Catholic book ever written on the duties of parents to instruct their children properly concerning sex and procreation. Among the four printings of the book published by St. Anthony Guild Press, starting in 1953, and the numerous printings done in the Doubleday Image edition, some 750,000 copies of this book have been sold, according to the author’s own reckoning.
Originally writing between 1947 and 1949, the author labored over every line to be certain that every word he wrote was in strict accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding parental duties concerning educating children in the facts of life. Fr. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., then Dean of the School of Sacred Theology at Catholic University of America, had been asked by the U.S. National Catholic Welfare Conference to write this book, but because he was too busy, he in turn commissioned Fr. Sattler to do it; nonetheless, Fr. Connell “guided it every step of the way,” to use Fr. Sattler’s own words.
The result is a book which is eminently helpful to parents, that they may know, not only their duties in this delicate and important matter, but also what techniques and methods to employ. A thorough reading of Parents, Children and the Facts of Life will give all parents the necessary tools to handle this important aspect of their role as the primary educators of their children.
One might think that the passage of forty years from the printing of the first edition of the book would have rendered it outmoded or grossly dated. But exactly the opposite is the case. Except for the dates in the footnotes and bibliography, the text reads as fresh as if it had been written today. Virtually every reference, for example, to the baneful influence of the secular world on the tender consciences of children today is as accurate and meaningful now as it was when written—except that today serious Catholic parents realize even more profoundly what a stark contrast exists between the “sex education” imparted in the public schools and by way of the media and entertainment business, on the one hand, and what should be imparted in a proper Catholic context and manner, on the other. In a letter of February 1, 1993 to the present Publisher, the author confessed, “I have often attempted to revise and update and re-edit the book, but it would never lend itself to revision, as though cast in iron which would not ‘mill.’” What the author has produced in this book is a classic, timeless, Catholic statement on the role of parents vis-à-vis the education of their children in the facts of life. It does not need to be changed.
As the reader gets into the book, it may appear overly long and needlessly protracted, but the fact is that parents should keep reading, right to the end, and make the contents of this book their own, so that when an occasion arises to make a point in the sexual education of one of their children, the instruction can be done immediately, simply, naturally, and just to the extent needed by that child at that time. For the intent of this book is to form the parent to become a confident, effective, proper teacher in this subject for his or her own children. If a parent will read the book through and digest its contents, it will produce the desired effect.
Finally, Fr. Henry V. Sattler’s Parents, Children and the Facts of Life will serve as an excellent and much-needed counterpoise to the Godless, public and grossly immodest “sex education” employed in the public schools—and, alas, in all too many Catholic schools. For it will give parents at once both the ammunition to show school authorities that the primary and essential obligation to instruct their own children in sexual matters belongs to THE PARENT and not the school, plus it will more than equip parents for their task.
It is a pleasure, then, to present to the reader this extremely important and germane little book.
The Publisher February 9, 1993
FOREWORD
The right and duty to educate children belongs in the first place to those who gave them life, their parents. Indeed, the education of the young is so intimately bound up with parenthood that the Catholic Church has always regarded it as pertaining to the primary end of matrimony. Parents may—and usually do—depute to professional teachers the task of instructing their boys and girls in the various branches of natural knowledge that make up the curriculum of schools and colleges. Catholic parents may delegate even a portion of the spiritual training of their children to the teachers in the parochial schools. But parents may not entirely consign to others the task of providing for the moral and religious formation of their sons and daughters. Almighty God, who has conferred on a married couple the privilege of bringing children into the world, has commanded that they actively and earnestly help those children to know, love and serve Him in this life, so that they will be happy with Him forever in the life beyond the grave.
One of the most important phases in this parental duty of promoting the spiritual welfare of the young is sex education. Unfortunately, to many parents this means nothing more than the imparting of biological facts concerning the process of procreation and the measures to be taken in order to avoid disease. To Catholics, sex education means much more than this. It signifies, primarily, the training of boys and girls to be pure and innocent, and eventually to enter marriage with a noble and holy purpose, if God calls them to that state of life.
However, as most parents would readily admit, the proper fulfillment of this task is by no means easy. The embarrassment that is likely to accompany the frank discussion of so delicate and personal a matter, the difficulty of choosing the right terms, and the fear that the child will ask questions which they may not be able to answer deter many parents from undertaking their duty, despite the unquestionable fact that in this age of blatant indecency and sexual license the proper sex education of adolescents is vitally necessary if their chastity is to be preserved.
The present volume is intended to help parents fulfill this particular duty in the training of their boys and girls. Father Sattler has treated the subject clearly and thoroughly. What parents should tell their children, when and how they should tell it, what psychological and moral dangers they must avoid in giving sex instruction, what questions they must expect—these and many other pertinent problems are discussed in detail and answered in a simple and sensible manner.
In propounding the method to be followed and the expressions to be employed for imparting sex information, Father Sattler has avoided two extremes which could easily spoil the instruction: on the one hand, vague and unsatisfying statements which are likely to arouse undue curiosity, and on the other hand, vivid and stimulating descriptions that may be a proximate occasion of sin to youthful hearers. Parents who follow the plan suggested in this book will do more than give their children all the knowledge they need at the appropriate time. They will also impart it in a calm and natural way that causes no emotional shock but rather instills into the minds of their boys and girls a spirit of respect and reverence for the sexual power whereby human beings can co-operate with God toward the propagation of citizens for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Father Sattler bases his teachings on the rules laid down by the Catholic Church for the sex training of the young, and particularly on the directions given by two of our recent Popes, Pius XI and Pius XII. He emphasizes the important fact that innocence (which is most desirable) is very different from ignorance (which may be a grave mena