BOSTON, Dec. 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Catholic Medical Association has formed a Task Force in response to concerns expressed by parents, educators, physicians, priests and Bishops about the appropriateness and effectiveness of child abuse programs. This panel of experts specializing in varying fields of medicine will apply medical science to study the programs for children. This review will be grounded in the developmental, emotional, and moral needs of children, and research on the content and effectiveness of sexual abuse education programs. The Task Force goal is to offer recommendations to the Church, families and educators to aid in the protection of the children and adolescents.
The focus of the study is the impact of such programs on the attitudes, behaviors and development of children. It is the intention to consider the impact these programs have on the self concept of children (particularly during the latency period of development), their attitude toward sexual values, their relationship with parents and other trusted authority figures and their personal sense of 'safety'.
The CMA acknowledges that the intention of those producing, providing, utilizing and participating in these programs are undoubtedly good. It is hoped to provide a service to all those good intentioned persons by pointing out strengths and weaknesses of such programs so that children can truly be kept safe and so that parents who choose to send or allow their children to participate in these programs can do so with a greater appreciation of the moral, spiritual and developmental factors involved.
When Pope John Paul II met with the Cardinals and Bishops in 2002 to discuss the crisis he stated, "The abuse of the young is a grave symptom of a crisis . . . It is a deeply seated crisis of sexual morality, even of human relationships." In response to this crisis of sexual morality and sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic Church has developed programs for clergy, laity and children. A variety of programs currently used in Catholic Diocese of the U.S. will be considered without necessarily specifying either the Diocese or the Program. The material, content, presentation as well as recommended or required resources and bibliographies will be reviewed and evaluated in light of current and accepted Catholic psychiatric understandings as well as in light of the Holy See's excellent document: Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality.
The Catholic Medical Association has enlisted a panel of experts representative of various medical specialties and engaged them in a thorough examination and evaluation of the concept and practice of providing various "Safe Child" Programs to grade school, middle school and high school aged children.
The Catholic Medical Association, established in 1931, is a non-profit organization dedicated to upholding the principles of the Catholic faith in the science and practice of medicine. It is a national organization with members in the United States and Canada and is a member of FIAMC, Federation Internationale des Associations Medicales Catholiques. The Catholic Medical Association is based in Boston, Massachusetts.