Exploring sexuality at the Made for Each Other Summer School

By Josh Low

Young people came together to learn more about human sexuality, relationships and authentic masculinity and femininity at the Made for Each Other Summer School on 28 January in Hobart.

At the one-day conference presentations were given by Archbishop Julian, Simon Carrington from Fire Up Ministries, Monique Hall, Alex Sidhu, former Director of the Office of Youth Evangelisation, Tomasz Juszczak, and local married couple Kate and Callum Woods.

Director for the Office of Life, Marriage and Family, Dr Rachel Bradley, said the day received positive feedback.

“The speakers went down really well. People found the talks engaging and entertaining,” Dr Bradley said.

Topics covered included the Theology of the Body, dating and relationships, pornography, and the complementarity of the sexes.

“Our hope was that participants had a bit of an introduction to the Theology of the Body and came away from it realising that the Church isn’t about giving you a list of rules about how you can and cannot behave sexually but in fact, offers a far richer teaching that really goes to the heart of what it means to be human,” Dr Bradley explained.

In his talk, Archbishop Julian said Western civilisation had moved away from the traditional understanding of the human person in relation to the existence of God who made human beings in His image and likeness, calling them to relationship and eternal union with Him in heaven.

“Once God is removed from the equation, then each person is left to fashion their own self-understanding, often making their own self the centre of things,” Archbishop Julian said.

“The loss of worship of God inevitably leads to a worship of self.

“For many today there is a need to satisfy their feelings, and they need to be affirmed in their choices; moral codes are seen as oppressive.

“Ethical thinking now has no foundation because there is no consensus on the proper ends to human existence.”

Archbishop Julian added that it was important Catholics understand clearly what they believe about the nature of the human person and the purpose of human life.

“We believe that ultimately the truth will surface, as it has always done. Truth can be supressed but never eliminated. At some time, light will break through the darkness.

“Let us hold fast to Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life,” he concluded.

Nineteen-year-old Max from the Huon Valley Parish said the presentations helped connect various concepts of human sexuality to the Catholic faith.

“I’ve always thought about that aspect of my being and it was really good to hear some well-reasoned, clear ideas.

He added that God’s creation of man is not something that most people in society base their sexuality on.

“That’s a massive difference and it changes a lot – because of that, there’s an idea that there’s an external source of right and wrong, and I think most people don’t think there’s an objectively correct way to live out your sexuality.

“I also found it really interesting hearing the personal testimonies of the presenters as it made things more tangible,” he said.