The Archdiocesan Human Life Committee
ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES
Natural Family Planning
Theology of the Body
Raising Happy Families
Good Touch – Bad Touch
Abortion, IVF and the Church’s Teaching
Sex and Value Education
Sexuality, Relationship and Personal Hygiene
Pornography: A Pandemic
Violence among Teenagers
Violence among Teenagers
The programme is an interactive session which includes the signs and symptoms of teen violence, causes and outcomes. Participants are taught to recognize the symptoms and are taught skills to handle threatening situations and acts of violence.
Several sessions have been conducted for high school students of Auxillium High School, Wadala, Canossa High School, Mahim, St. Joseph’s High School, Bandra and St. Michael’s High School, Mahim. The resource person at these sessions was Diana Godinho
Pornography: A Pandemic
This programme covers how addiction to pornography starts in young children and develops into an addiction. Participants are taught to recognize the signs, to be alert, how to avoid falling into the pornography trap and steps to take to overcome the addiction. The programme also teaches participants the power of forgiveness to overcome the guilt and the need to lift up in prayer those involved in this malice.
A programme was organized by DHLC in conjunction with the Catholic Sabha at OLPS, Chembur. Shane Gomes, a youth animator conducted this session
Sexuality, Relationship and Personal Hygiene
AHLC conducts programmes for high school children on “The Gift of Human Sexuality” and appreciating one’s body and the bodies of others. The session covers managing relationships in the family and with the opposite gender and maintaining personal hygiene.
A special session was held at St. Joseph’s Convent for the tribal girls. This was done in conjunction with the Family Commission. Besides this programme, several programmes were conducted for parents for the Ryan Group of Schools. The Resource person for these sessions was Dr. Jeanette Pinto. Two sessions were also conducted for class nine students of Don Bosco High School, Matunga by Dr. Jeanette Pinto and Dr. Enid Prabhu.
Sex and Value Education
AHLC conducts programmes on understanding the changes in our bodies and sex education for high school students. The session covers anatomy, values related to sexuality and chastity in teens.
Sessions were conducted for class ten students of Auxillium Convent, Wadala and class eight students of Holy Cross School, Kurla. The resource person was Dr. Enid Prabhu. Ongoing sessions are also conducted for confirmation students of St. Michael’s Church, Mahim and other parishes.
Abortion, IVF and the Church’s Teaching
This programme conducted by the AHLC covers social aspects and the Church’s teachings on the topics. The highlight of the programme is answering queries and addressing moral and ethical concerns of the audience.
A session was conducted for the Family Cell at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Parish, Chembur.
Good Touch – Bad Touch
The target group for this programme are children of the age group 4 to 7. They are creatively taught how to recognize good and bad touch and what they must do to report the crime to a trusted circle of people including parents and teachers.
AHLC conducted two session each in the following schools, St. Joseph’s Convent, Bandra, for parents of pre primary and one session each for Mary Immaculate, Borivali for parents of the pre primary school children and at St. Michael’s, Mahim, for parents of students of class one to four. These programmes were done in conjunction with the Family Commission. The resource person was Diana Godinho.
Theology of the Body
Given the current trend of moral relativism, the floundering sanctity of marriage and the deteriorating perception of the value of human life, the AHLC aims at creating in teens and children the wonder of creation and human life and God’s plan for each one to flourish in their state of life.
Last year, sessions on “Theology of the Body” were conducted for catechists in collaboration with the Diocesan Catechetical Centre. These sessions were attended by the catechists of various parishes in large numbers.
The Archdiocesan Human Life Committee also collaborated with the Catechetical Centre and recommended the theme of ‘Theology of the Body’ for the year and undertook to prepare the Faith Celebration projects for class seventh and eighth. The Archdiocesan Human Life Committee provided the concept and content for the TOB based theme, ‘Human Love in the Divine Plan’. The seven lesson plans were adapted from the book, ‘Life is Beautiful’, a handbook for remote marriage preparation published by the CCBI Family Commission. Moderators were trained on TOB and provided with material to attend the Faith Celebration Day and observe the outcome of the projects that were conducted by the children and give them an overview of the theme, covering all seven projects. These projects reached all the deaneries and were executed by almost all the parishes in the Archdiocese of Mumbai.
Two recollections for the First Holy Communion and Confirmation Catechists from the Archdiocese of Bombay were conducted based on the Theology of the Body in July and December 2017. The resource person for both sessions was Alwyn and Trudy Dantis
Raising Happy Families
AHLC also collaborates with schools to organize parenting programmes. These sessions encourage parents and teach them how to accept, appreciate and affirm their children and connect with their children on a daily basis.
This programme was organized by AHLC for parents of pre-primary and primary children was held at Joseph Primary School, Bandra. The resource person, Dr. Yolande Pereira, dealt expertly with the subject and answered many questions from the parents.
Natural Family Planning
The objective of the programme is to inspire, educate and support couples in family planning that is natural, effective, healthy and consistent with God’s plan for life, love and marriage. This programme includes fertility awareness, which is simply knowledge of a couple’s fertility cycle each month. It is a means of reading the body’s signs of fertility and infertility; applying this knowledge through the Sympto-Thermal Method (STM). The application of this method can also be used to achieve pregnancy.
A day long programme was held in April 2018 and open to couples from across the Archdiocese of Bombay. A number of couples attended the session, including pre-bap catechists, who took information and material to teach couples who attend pre-bap programmes. The resource couple for this programme was Vally and Anna Coelho.