Sir, - Maybe both Carmel Wynne (February 10th) and Angela MacNamara (February 3rd) are, as RSE teachers, both victims of how Catholic preachers now rely heavily on secular rather than hereafter motivation.
There was a time when motivation for us Catholics was a simple matter. Whether it was related to behaviour generally or to sex-related behaviour in particular, we were told that sinful misbehaviour might lead to painful hereafters. So well did preachers make that point that schoolteachers could rely on pupils being motivated to behave well once they were told how to do so. That day is gone. Not even Fr Sean Fagan (to whose writings Ms Wynne refers as authoritative) gives possible hereafter effects of behaviour to motivate us.
As a result, the efforts of both Ms MacNamara and Ms Wynne may be doomed to fail. Ms MacNamara favours telling youngsters what is morally acceptable, but does not detail hereafter possibilities of non-compliance. Ms Wynne does likewise, if in a more roundabout way (e.g. "challenging them to see for themselves the long-term results of behaviour that can hurt them physically, emotionally and spiritually and lead to pregnancy or fatal sexually transmitted diseases"), as her "long-term" vista stops short of our hereafter.
This is most frustrating for both RSE teachers and their pupils. Without acceptance that sinful misbehaviour may lead to painful hereafters, notion both may be struggling in the quagmire of secularism. - Yours, etc., Joe Foyle,
Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.