The news that a Catholic high school in Prestwich is refusing to allow its girls to be vaccinated against cervical cancer is all over the mainstream media, so it is unlikely to be news to Freethinker readers.
No 'moral considerations' at St Monica's R.C. High School.
But the extraordinary thing about this case is not the fact that members of the governing board of Saint Monica’s Roman Catholic High School appear to be putting their own moral/sexual squeamishness above the health of the girls in their charge.
It is the fact that they are denying it.
Of course, it could be entirely irrelevant that one of the Governors, a Monsignor John Allen, said of the HPV vaccine,
Morally it seems to be a sticking-plaster response. Parents must consider the knock-on effect of encouraging sexual promiscuity. Instead of taking it for granted that teenagers will engage in sexual activity, we can offer a vision of a full life keeping yourself for a lifelong partnership in marriage.
And it might be true that, as it says on their website,
Moral considerations such as those reported in the Manchester Evening News for 24th September did not form any part of the Governors’ decision.
But it does seem to be a strange coincidence that the only school in the country denying its girls the opportunity to have this potentially life-saving jab administered on its premises - for vaguely stated reasons of parental choice and clinical hygiene - just happens to be run by an organisation notorious for its unhealthy obsession with sex in all its forms.
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The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 25th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Don’t you know the best way to keep children from drowning?
1. Put no fence around the pool.
2. Don’t teach the children to swim because that will only encourage them to go into the pool.
3. Don’t give the them life-vests or teach them how to use them because again, that will only encourage them to go in the pool.
4. Tell them “just stay away from the pool”.
Then sit back and assume they’ll do it because children always listen to what they’re told. When they inevitably fall in and drown blame “Liberal Society” and “Satan’s influence”.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Buffy, I’m sure Sarah Palin would agree with those wise, maternal words. And so of course would her cutely abstinent children - Bazoom, Boysenberry, SUV and little Trigonometry. (It’s funny how so much misinformation gets onto the interwebs, isn’t it?)
September 26th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Catholic schools in Calgary Canada have elected to do the same as well.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:23 am
From 1932 until about 20 years ago, the catholic church endorsed the “rhythm method”. Now they teach a more modern version called “natural family planning”.
Shame on them for encouraging promiscuity!!!!
September 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Let us also bear in mind that these are the kind of loons who believe that if a priest rapes a child the child is guilty for tempting the poor man, even if s/he is to young to know right from wrong in the eyes of the law.
In an extreme case in my neck of the woods the raping pastor was ’supported’ through his ‘trauma’ by the church, who banished the child and her family and basically drove them out of town.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Believe what you may, but why is a shot that helps prevent some types of HPV being administered in a school setting anyways? It’s not a disease that’s easily communicable. It’s not a disease that had a tendency to kill. Why are we allowing the manufacture of the shot to convince us that this is a health crisis? If you want one, go get it yourself. One would think that if you were opposed to religious intervention into your life, that gov’t intervention would be looked down upon as well.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I can only conclude from the schools logic that they expect these girls never to have sex. Even as faithful wives they are at risk from HPV because they have no idea of their husbands’ sexual history - I guess they think people never lie about this!