These two types of education have to be clearly distinguished. Of course, between the two, I strongly recommend chastity education. Sex education? The most charitable thing I can say about it is, be very suspicious of it!

There's no doubt that we, in general, feel the great need to educate everyone, especially the young ones, on the nature, meaning and purpose of our human sexuality.

Current developments in the world, driven by the wonders of information technology, infuse this need with urgency. These have not served to dull people's sexual appetites. Rather they tend to stimulate them, or at least to stir them.

As usual many feel they are at the mercy of their sexual urges, with hardly any effective means to dominate them. Their wills have been weakened and perverted, their passions constantly abused, their bodies debased.

And a corresponding culture of distorted sexuality is emerging worldwide. We cannot simply dismiss this sad phenomenon as an unavoidable part of development. That's a myth. It's a great responsibility to do something about this.

Things are so bad that the cover of decency is thinning rapidly. Aberrations in this area are now being flaunted even by our celebrities. Many young people enter adulthood with this aspect of their life already compromised.

In the face of all this, it's puzzling why sex education, touted to be "highly informative" but notoriously morally blind, is promoted. As a solution, it does not go deep enough.

On the contrary, it tends to aggravate things, as evidenced in many countries. In these places, safe sex techniques have not diminished but rather increased the cases of infidelity, promiscuity, pre- and extra-marital sex.

Sex education misses the crux of the matter. It's merely cosmetic, merely prophylactic.

It is keyed to the sensible aspect of our sexuality, and aimed at the practical, not moral, management of it. It treats men and women as objects, not as persons.

Without the spiritual and moral grounding, sex education tends to make our sexuality a very fertile breeding ground for other irregularities to develop, as deceit, hypocrisy, etc., thrive in it.

What is needed is an honest to goodness training in chastity!

Chastity education is more about virtues rather than about techniques. It focuses more on the maturation of the person himself rather than on data and info meant to help us derive the most practical benefits of our sexuality.

It goes beyond the merely physical, biological or hormonal. It goes much further than making psychological or sociological considerations. It enters the world of one's heart and soul, and purifies them.

Chastity education is more about love, about self-giving and making sacrifices, rather than just 'self-pleasuring.' In the language of Pope Benedict's 'Deus caritas est,' this type of education brings sex as 'eros' to its perfect form of 'agape.'

Chastity education links human sexuality to right reason, then to our faith. It integrates our sexuality to our true dignity not only as persons but also as children of God. It involves a certain spirituality, more than just a life style.

Chastity education is done more at homes rather than in schools, more between fathers and sons, or mothers and daughters, than between teachers and students. It's more a personalized conversation rather than indiscriminate classroom lecture.

We have to help everyone, especially the parents, to be properly equipped to handle this kind of education. Where the parents are wanting, then by the law of subsidiarity, higher institutions like schools, governments, Church, etc., have to help.

We certainly need to explode many myths related to chastity education. Like, some irregular sexual practices are allowable since they are part of growing up. Or that we can expose teeners to things like pornography, etc., so as to immunize them.

We have to be clear that chastity is a matter of love for God with the corresponding love for others. The objective content of this kind of love has to be known. But more important is the formation of solid attitudes, practices and virtues.

Chastity is a matter of how ardent one's love for God and others is.

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Fr. Roy Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. You can email him at:Email: roycimagala@boholchronicle.com