A sex education programme produced by the Roman Catholic Church has been fiercely condemned by conservative Catholics who say it risks leading young people into immorality.

The course entitled The Meeting Point was launched at the World Youth Day gathering in Krakow, Poland last month. It was published by the Vatican Council for the Family with the backing of its president, Archbishop Vincent Paglia.

The Meeting Point, subtitled 'An Adventure of Love', is a web-based tool available in five languages. It draws on Pope Francis' encyclical Amoris Laetitia as well as teaching from Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II. Introducing it, Paglia wrote that young people today "have no criteria for discerning the truth of good human sexuality from the emotivism introduced in many of today's channels of information and formation".

However, the course's frankness and openness to young people's experiences has drawn a sharp response from conservatives who want it to be far more directive.

The Cardinal Newman Society said in a statement yesterday that the programme was "not ready for Catholic schools". It said: "We find that The Meeting Point makes frequent use of sexually explicit and morally objectionable images, fails to clearly identify and explain Catholic doctrine from elemental sources including the Ten Commandments and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and compromises the innocence and integrity of young people under the rightful care of their parents."

Furthermore, it said the programme "represents a significant break from the traditional approach to Catholic instruction and learning about human sexuality". It alleges that the programme has little to say about sexual sins and says it "often leaves the student uncertain about moral expectations".

The US-based American Life League has mounted a petition calling on the Vatican to withdraw the programme which has so far attracted more than 2,700 signatures. It accuses it of failing to mention hell, handing the sexual education of children to educators instead of parents and failing to name and condemn sexual behaviours such as masturbation and contracepted-sex as "objectively sinful actions that destroy charity in the heart and turn one away from God".

The petition quotes Dr Thomas Ward, founder and president of the National Association of Catholic Families, as saying: "I find it monstrous that an official arm of the Church would not only create a sexual education program for teens but one that bypasses parents as the primary educator of their children."