Fr Danil Radmilovich – Orthodox priest from Germany speaks on the issue of sexual education

Prepared for OCP Media Network
20/11/14

The senior priest of the church of St. Sabbas the Serbian Danil Radmilovich gave an interview to the Belarusian Orthodox Christian portal Sobor.by on the issue of sexual education in German schools. Both sexual and religious education is compulsory in Germany.

Father Danil, what do you think about the introducing of sexual education in German schools?

It is the evil spirit of our time. I am father, I have three children of school age and we had to face this problem as other families. This is not good. I visited the school to clarify the issue and to state firmly my position. I met the teacher and it even turned out that she was a bit shocked by the topics she was to teach the pupils as a part of the curriculum. This should not be in school. A good alternative is the studying of a religious creed, not only Orthodox but also both Roman Catholic and Protestant. The creed triggers children to do the right things, teaches them both the story of Adam and Eve and the biblical history which has nothing in common with sexuality and in particular with pornography which is provided nowadays everywhere and in any case. One should not be connected with the other in any way. Children must stay children.

How can a person express his opinion in Germany and what should be done?

Our power is in our truth. For a long time there had been an opinion shared, I think, by all the Orthodox Christians, that “we are Orthodox, we are right and we are not interested in the world around us”. For a very long time we had placed ourselves in a kind of a ghetto. We created our enclaves, we created our communities and we thought that for us this is enough. I believe that our time waits from us, from the Orthodox Christians, the actual realization of the words from the Scripture that we are the salt of the Earth. And salt is not put to a cupboard, it is placed on a table as well as a lamp or a candle so that these items could provide benefit and light to all the people in the room. It is the task for the Orthodox Christians not only here in Germany but in the entire world. We have no right to hide – instead, we must accomplish a great missionary work, we must be everywhere and spread our faith. If today people in Cologne or somewhere else have to tolerate Christopher Street Day or Love Parade and we are supposed also to tolerate homosexuality or some other things, then the society must also tolerate Orthodox Christians. We have that what we can offer to other people, we should not hide, we are the icons of God and it is necessary that everybody could see it and saw it.

Let’s talk on the religious education at school. In Germany it is organized in a rather interesting manner so that different Orthodox Christian traditions are taught within one school subject. And if there are at least 12 Orthodox pupils in a school, then a fully trained religion teacher is asked to teach them, even if the pupils belong to the different church jurisdictions. In Belarus religious education is not the part of the curriculum.

Unfortunately I understand very well what you are talking about. Such problem exists not only in Belarus but also in the other countries which for a long time were afflicted with the communism. Indeed some time has to pass until the idea of this education will come alive and the lessons of religion in post-Soviet countries will be compulsory again. Thank God, here in Germany since the 1970s the studying of the Orthodox Christian creed is compulsory in schools. This means that not only the Roman Catholic or the Protestant creed, as well as any other religious creed, but also the Orthodox Christian creed is a compulsory subject. It is an advantage for us.

How does it work in your country?

Of course, this is not easy, we are still on the stage of ground breakers, on the initial stage. Though for decades the Orthodox theology has been a compulsory subject, up to date only the Greek Orthodox creed was taught in schools, and it was presented in a Greek language. Currently the majority of the pupils in the schools of the state North Rhine-Westfalia are studying this subject in German. We have children from different cultures, different jurisdictions. Thank God, a lot of children, for example, Greek children, don’t know what the anarchic time of communism is. But we also have a lot of kids who know what it is, and today it is hard to teach them the law of God. We have to improvise a lot.

During the lessons we have to address in a special way to the children of Russian or Greek origin and to speak on some issues in their native language, in Serbian, Russian or Romanian. It is not easy but it brings joy because this work leads to the progress and to a good result. This work brings pleasure, it offers hope that from year to year more and more pupils would take part in it and more and more schools in the state North Rhine-Westfalia would offer to children the opportunity of such an education.

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