The Scottish Government today came under fire from a top churchman over the country's "catastrophic" sexual health record.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, accused ministers of supporting a failing strategy.
He repeated a call he made to the previous administration for "an infusion of morality" into future strategy.
The cardinal's attack followed the publication last week of the latest annual report on the government's sexual health strategy.
This showed rising rates of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy.
In a letter to public health minister Shona Robison, the cardinal voiced "deep disappointment" that the government was supporting a strategy which it did not devise and which had "demonstrably" failed.
"Scotland has as you know one of the worst records in Europe on sexual health yet we continue to pursue approaches which are patently flawed," said the cardinal.
"By far the most glaring omission in the current orthodoxy, is the intentional absence of any moral framework."
He declared: "Trumpeting the increased provision of sexual health clinics and services is a measure of failure not success."
This, he said, was like "permanently stationing an ambulance at every accident blackspot in the country rather than educating drivers to improve their driving".
This ignored the "catastrophic decline" in sexual health on measures like growing abortion rates, an increase in teenage conceptions, and a steady rise in sexually transmitted infections, said the cardinal.
But the minister said the Church was among the groups consulted when the strategy was developed.
She went on: "We are currently carrying out a stock-take review of the strategy to determine the impact it is having, the results of which will shape its future direction and focus.
"The Scottish Government believes it is important to continue the work of the strategy, which was developed as a long-term plan to improve Scotland's sexual health."
She said changing sexual behaviour would not happen overnight but insisted: "I am confident that the strategy is having and will continue to have a positive impact on sexual health."
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