The head of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong has voiced disappointment at what he says is young people's wayward attitude towards sex.
Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung, 72, said young people were being taught to practise safe sex rather than abstain.
He told the annual meeting of the Hong Kong Catholic Marriage Advisory Council that the church was facing 'great challenges' in preaching against the modern climate of promiscuity.
'How, in such a climate, can we begin to persuade people not to live together before marriage or to indulge in casual sex? How do we re-educate consciences to realise that sex outside marriage is wrong?' he asked.
'How can we rescue the word 'love' from being in the minds of so many of our people synonymous with the word 'sex'? Recent studies have shown a trend for people to have their first sexual experience at a younger age, with the number of women becoming pregnant outside of marriage increasing.
Social workers have called for more counselling and sex education, and for contraceptives to be more easily available.
