Author promotes faith-based sexuality for teens
Published Sep 29, 2007
While the opening of a Planned Parenthood facility in Aurora is still under consideration in the legal system, pro-lifers continue to protest the medical facility that plans to offer abortions as one of its services. “I’m so glad so many Catholics and pro-lifers have joined together to fight that,” commented Coleen Kelly Mast, an author of chastity books and Catholic radio talk show host.
While sitting in the living room of her Frankfort home, the parishioner of St. Anthony Parish added, “The people that are performing the abortions and building the clinics are truly misguided into thinking they are helping people.”
Mast, who in 1996 served as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family, blamed a lack of understanding and proper education for many misconceptions about God’s plan and love. She said, “The Catholics are going to be the ones who teach the rest of the world about love—if we teach the Catholics well.”
Her mission in chastity awareness began in the mid-1980s while teaching at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee. She noticed a need for something that would present God’s love and practical assistance in navigating the path to sexual maturity. In 1985, Mast wrote “Sex Respect,” a sexual education program for teens. The program called upon her educational background—a master’s degree in health education and secondary teaching certificates in theology, health, physical education and science
In 2006, she released her latest book, “Love and Life: A Christian Morality Guide for Teens,” that details how to live and love within the context of the church’s teachings. “The concepts (the teens) are getting from the popular culture are so anti-Catholic that they need to be presented in a beautiful, positive way first. How to see the beauty of sexuality so they can see all this other stuff as a distortion,” said Mast, who assisted in the writing of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document on human sexuality education.
The book, penned while some of her five children were asking many questions as junior high students, had many updates from her previous curriculum. She said she doubled the parents’ guide to better help the parents by including church teachings and a practical guide. She added an emotional maturity section to the teen guide to address the popular culture’s attitude toward immediate gratification of emotions. She said, “Sometimes you need to embrace the suffering to get the joy later. There’s a crucifixion before the resurrection.”
Mast addresses how to overcome “hurdles of temptation” and how to deal with it when one falters. She said she encouraged readers to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation, a way to forgive and resolve feelings of guilt.
The text also discusses how God’s plan calls adults to serve the church in various ways: religious life, the priesthood and marriage. She hoped her readers “see marriage is not a default state of life but as a calling. Marriage is a vocation; it’s a calling. It’s your path to heaven.”
Before his retirement, Bishop Joseph L. Imesch gave the book an imprimatur—official approval to publish a book which touches on matters of Catholic faith or moral teaching.
The publication is on the list of approved texts the diocesan Religious Education Office maintains in its Family Life Curriculum. The office supports Mast’s book for usage in the eighth through 12th grades at Catholic schools and in religious education programs.
Joyce Donahue, the Joliet Diocesan Religious Education Office catechetical associate for child catechesis and curriculum, commented about the author, “She’s a good and dedicated person. She does great work around the diocese.”
Mast is scheduled to present “Raising Kids with Character: Avoiding the Fear Factor of Parenting” Oct. 18 at St. Anthony Parish in Frankfort.
