GREENSBORO — On March 8 and 9, Our Lady of Grace Parish hosted a conference by Family Honor Inc. This organization, founded in 1998 and based in Columbia, S.C., “recognizes the primary and irreplaceable role of parents, thus providing tools for parents and children to connect on important life issues, with a special focus on chastity and God’s gift of sexuality.” The program can be summed up as a Theology of the Body-based course for parents to explain chastity and sexuality to their children.
Presenters were Bill Pratt and Joe and Rose Czejkowski, all part of an eight-person presenter team from Raleigh.
The Czejkowskis, a married couple from Raleigh, found the Family Honor program online at www.familyhonor.org. They then met the facilitators in person at the Ignited by Truth Conference in Raleigh. They “wanted to raise their own kids with a healthy understanding of chastity, and eventually they began to volunteer” and became full-fledged presenters, traveling to various parishes for like conferences.
Pratt recounted a story of traveling to an economics-themed conference in which each participant was required to introduce themselves and their line of work. He decided to speak openly and told everyone that he was a “full-time chastity educator,” and in reaction he got some raised eyebrows from the secular crowd. Later, several people came up to him and recounted their own missionary work or efforts in evangelization. He later noted that he was required to study Planned Parenthood’s website as part of his Family Honor training, and found it an eye-opening and somewhat disturbing experience.
Participants at the Greensboro conference were parents of toddlers to teenagers, with each parental group divided by tables according to their child’s age. They watched videos of typical Catholic parents and a priest about how to raise integrated and healthy children in an age of sexual excess and confusion. This was followed by presentations from the Raleigh team, then discussions by each parental group and question-and-answer session. As a result, each group learned from others’ experiences in parenting.
Notable among the day’s challenges to virtue was the repeated quote from St. John Paul II: “The future of humanity passes by way of the family” (“Familiaris Consortio”), as well as frequent comparisons between the secular world view on sexuality and the Church’s view.
Participants had the chance to take a survey afterwards. One noted, “I wish I had found this program earlier, my oldest is now 17.” Another parent said, “(The presenters) all had personable relatable styles and really were strong facilitators who kept things moving along. They provided helpful insights without launching into monologues.”
Family Honor offers three basic courses for parents, from which much of the conference info was pulled: Leading and Loving, for parents of children up to 12 years old; Changes and Challenges for sixth-graders, which teaches virtues and values; and Real Life/Real Love, for eighth-graders and older.
The program also offers an interactive online training course called “The Truth and meaning of Sexuality, Love and Family.” This course helps “prepare parents, catechists, and others to be a positive, hopeful voice in an effort to help heal our wounded culture.” Topics include the history and trends of sexual thought and expression, social and physical consequences of the sexual revolution and modern sex education movement, St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and Pope Benedict XVI’s explanation of human sexual love in “Deus Caritas Est,” and the gift of fertility, male/female complementarity, total personal sexuality, and marriage and the family.
Family Honor also offers the book “Our Power to Love,” described as a new approach to sexuality education for adolescents and parents. It gives more information about how the human reproductive system functions and it promotes fertility appreciation within the larger context of the vocation of chastity.
Their literature emphasizes: “We face a culture confused about the purpose of the family, the dignity of life, and the meaning of true love and sexuality…Our young people are most affected by this moral confusion, as they grow up in a culture that continues to aggressively promote a twisted understanding of sexuality…
“Only by restoring the nature and dignity of the human person and the true meaning of sexuality will our society find true freedom to love; and discover the ultimate joy that God desires for each of us.”
— Glenn M. Lanham, Special to the Catholic News Herald. Glenn M. Lanham is a member of Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.