U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday adopted their first comprehensive guidelines on human sexuality, portraying it in exalting terms and calling for it to be taught in Catholic schools. Against some opposition and attempts at delay, the document was approved by a strong voice vote by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. It says sexual education should be taught in schools and parishes as well as in families, a provision strongly opposed by several bishops who said many parents want such education kept in the home. One said families might remove their children from Catholic schools if sex education is required. Describing sexuality as a ``wonderful gift,'' the bishops say they approach the subject with a ``deep and abiding sense of appreciation, wonder and respect.'' They add: ``We are dealing with a divine gift, a primal dimension of each person, a mysterious blend of spirit and body, which shares in God's own creative love and life. ... ``Sexuality is a dimension of one's restless heart, which continually yearns for interpersonal communion, glimpsed and experienced to varying degrees in this life, ultimately finding full oneness only in God, here, and hereafter.'' The 185-page document, called ``Human Sexuality: A Catholic Perspective for Education and Lifelong Learning,'' was developed by a special task force, including experts in various fields. Auxiliary Bishop William Newman of Baltimore, said the effort was to present the subject in ``positive terms and with flow.'' Much of it has a lilting sweep in phrasing. ``We are created not as angels or pure spirits, but as human beings, embodied and sexual,'' the document says. ``The gift of sexuality involves the whole person because it permeates all facets of the human personality: the physical, the psycho-emotional, the intellectual, the spiritual and ethical and the social,'' the bishops say. ``Sexuality prompts each of us from within, calling us to personal as well as spiritual growth and drawing us out from self to interpersonal bonds and commitments with others, both women and men.'' The document affirms the church's traditional teaching that condones intercourse only in marriage. ``Like all our human powers and freedoms, sexuality can be channeled for good or ill ... can be abused, sometimes intentionally, sometimes through immaturity or ignorance... ``Given how important sexuality is ... such errors in judgment frequently have a profound impact for ill on ne's psyche, human commitments and relationship with God,'' it says. Bishop Kenneth E. Untener of Saginaw, Mich. noted the document mentions that some dissent from the church ban against contraception and urges they pray and reconsider. He said they might respond, ``We will if you will.'' Refering to widespread disagreement with the contraception ban among Catholics, he urged listening to them. ``If we don't, it will cause great damage to the church at large,'' he told fellow bishops, saying the church's credibility depended on it. Some bishops complained that many parents wanted sexual education kept in the home, and not taught in school. Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughan of New York, protested that the document had been shaped without wide parental consultation. He sought unsuccessfully to get it tabled. He said if sexual education is required, many parents ``will pull their children out of Catholic schools.'' Considerable debate came on a section dealing with homosexuality, and a move was made to insert a 1986 Vatican declaration that homosexuality is an ``objective disorder'' involving a tendency to moral evil. However, Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco, said that the Vatican's philosophical analysis had been misinterpreted to mean ``the person was intrinsically disordered and intrinsically bad.'' The matter was put in a footnote, along with an explanation of the distinction between the technical and personal implications. ``Homosexual orientation, because it is not freely chosen, is not sinful,'' an added line said. The portion on teaching about sexuality focuses on the different stages of life, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The bishops, on the third day of their four-day annual meeting, also approved a major aid program to long-suppressed churches of Eastern Europe. A national collection was to be made for three, and perhaps five years, to fund the operation. Asked how much was expected from such fund drives, Archbishop John L. May of St. Louis told a news conference,``Millions.'' He said other special drives have yielded more than $10 million annually.
